James removed his wide brimmed hat and cloak, stepping closer to the fire where Olivia sat.
‘Storm’s getting worse, I’d say we’re going to have a few days of this. Doesn’t look as if it’s going to blow over anytime soon.’ He held his hands out to the flames, shivering as the warmth began to slowly seep into his fingers.
Olivia happened to glance over at Theo as James mentioned the storm. She saw his face pale and his jaw tighten.
‘I think I’ll heat up some of the apple cider, I can feel the damp all the way down to my bones,’ James murmured as he disappeared into the keeping room to retrieve one of the broached casks.
Olivia moved from her seat by the fire, wandering over to where Theo sat.
‘What is it?’ she asked quietly.
‘It’s nothing,’ he scowled.
‘Theo.’
‘The storm,’ he sighed.
‘What about it? Storms have never bothered you before,’ she frowned in confusion.
‘It’s this storm in particular,’ he told her pointedly. ‘I remember it…I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing the first time I experienced it.’
She watched him, patiently waiting for him to explain.
‘I was at the market with my brother but we were delayed returning home because of the storm. I left Temperance home with Mary.’
Olivia closed her eyes and her chest tightened wretchedly. She remembered Theo telling her about this. While he was gone Temperance died from a fever. She’d known the child was sick when she’d seen her the day before but she had no idea that they’d run out of time.’
‘I don’t know if I can do it Livy,’ he breathed painfully. ‘I know we’re not supposed to interfere but I don’t know if I can lose my sister all over again.’
Olivia opened her mouth to speak but abruptly shut it again as James entered the room. They could not discuss this in front of him, after all Temperance was his child too. The last thing the man needed to know was that his daughter was about to die and that they had no choice but to stand by painfully and let it happen, because they could not afford to compromise the time line.
Olivia looked up as James swept back into the room, pouring some of his apple cider into a pot and setting it to warm over the fire. She didn’t know what to do, how to help Theo. It must be killing him knowing that only a few miles from where they were now, his sister’s condition was deteriorating and that it would ultimately lead to her death. There was nothing they could do. Even if they could interfere with the time line and somehow not cause catastrophic consequences, they had no way to help the girl. Olivia was not a healer, not the way her great aunt had been, she had rudimentary skills at best. If only they had access to modern medicine they may have stood a chance but it was impossible. It was Temperance Beckett’s fate to die of fever in Salem in 1685 and as much as she would give anything for it not to be so, there was nothing they could do. She felt so helpless and absolutely sick to her stomach when she thought about that sweet and beautiful little dark haired child. If only her Sam, the older version who knew how to jump through time was there, maybe he could’ve helped her.
Theo couldn’t sit still. He paced the floor stopping in front of the window, watching as the water pounded against the glass. He knew what Olivia was thinking, he could read it as plain as day on her face. He could easily see the play of emotions upon her features, helplessness, hurt, and desperation. He knew she was trying to come up with some solution. She didn’t want Tempy to die any more than he did but she was right, some things cannot be changed no matter how much he might wish differently. He knew he shouldn’t interfere, he knew he should stay hidden away safely in James’ house but the thought of Tempy dying alone and in pain, with no one to watch over her but his mad wife, was tearing him apart.
A thought had occurred to him and try as he might he could not dissuade himself from it. Tempy was sick, there was no denying that, there was no way to cure her but that didn’t mean she had to die alone. If he couldn’t save her then he was going to make damn sure she died in his arms, knowing she was loved and safe. He swallowed past the knot of grief burning at the back of his throat and took a deep breath, forcing back the wave of pain and focusing on the details.
He knew that the past version of himself was not at the Beckett farm, nor was his brother Logan. They were both miles away holed up at a cheap inn waiting out the storm. Mary was at the house, but by now she would be at the height of her madness. There was little chance she would notice that he looked ten years older than the Theo who’d just left for market with his brother. There was only one problem.
Matthias Beckett.
The man Theo had thought was his father, the man who made their lives a living hell. He had hoped he would never have to see him again but if he was very careful he might not have to. By the time Temperance had died and Mary had been hung his father, or so called father he shook his head to remind himself, was already coming to the end of his life. By this point he was a fat bloated mess, never sober and barely able to function. His eyes were yellowed, his nose a nasty bright red protuberance upon a face that was covered in thin spidery looking broken veins. The chances are he would barely be conscious and even if he was, like Mary, he probably wouldn’t be cognitive enough to realize Theo was different. He could do it, he mused. He would do it. His fists clenched involuntarily and his jaw set in determination. Tempy was not going to die alone.
‘Come sit,’ James called to Theo.
Olivia was already sitting at the table as James poured the warm spicy scented drink into a cup and handed it to her. ‘It will ward off the chill in the air.’
Theo slid onto the bench next to her and James poured him a cup too.
‘I have something for you Theo,’ James told him quietly. ‘I think it may help you to come to terms with everything, at least I hope it will.’
Theo looked up, silently watching as James placed a cloth covered bundle on the table in front of him.
‘It belonged to your mother, she gave it to me shortly before Temperance was born,’ James’ eyes darkened with grief. ‘I think she knew what was coming. She gave me this and told me to keep it safe and to give it to you when you were old enough.’
Theo looked down at the tattered rough cloth which was tied in a loose knot. The bundle itself looked vaguely rectangular and quite flat. Reaching out with shaking hands he fumbled with the knot twice, before he was finally able to separate the fraying strands. Pressing his lips together thinly he unfolded the edges of the material and breathed out slowly. In front of him was a thin tattered looking journal.
James smiled sadly as he cast his gaze upon it.
‘I gave that to her when we were younger,’ he looked up and met Theo’s gaze. In that one moment he could feel the depth of James’ love for his mother and the deep endless anguish her death had caused him. For a second he could see how raw the other man’s pain was and he had to turn away from it, unable to look into the face of such loss and not bleed for him.
‘When I was a boy my father, your grandfather, would take me travelling with him all over the colonies. He was always looking for rare or new seedlings to plant in our orchard. He was bound to the earth the same as I am and he wanted nothing more than to create and grow the best fruit in New England. One time we went to Boston and I brought back that journal for Emmaline. It was one of her most treasured possessions.’
Theo reached out with trembling fingers and opened the worn cover. His chest clenched painfully as he read the first few lines.
‘Dearest Theo, if you are reading this then I am long since gone and you have now learned the truth from your father James…’
Theo slammed the book shut, his hand resting on the cover, his eyes squeezed tightly shut. His breath caught and his heart knocked painfully against his ribs.
‘She knew’ he whispered, opening his eyes and staring up at James.
‘Yes,’ he replied sympathetically, �
��she knew everything. She knew she was going to die. She knew you would meet Olivia. She knew you would find your way to me. It is all there in that book.’
‘You read it?’ the words came out on a rush of grief that made them sound harsher than he’d meant to.
‘Not all of it,’ James shook his head. ‘Once I realized what it was I hid it, until the day I knew you would need it.’
‘What do you mean once you realized what it was?’ Theo frowned.
‘Theo,’ James sank tiredly into the seat opposite him, ‘when your mother realized what was going to happen to her, she sat down and began to write that journal…for you. She knew she wouldn’t be here to guide you, to teach you how to use your gift, so she wrote it all down in there. All her memories, her love, her guidance, her most private thoughts all laid bare…for you.’
Theo felt the tears burning at the back of his eyes and a hot ball of misery sat like lead at the back of his throat, threatening to choke him. She hadn’t abandoned him after all. She’d left him everything he needed. She’d left him the most precious parts of herself.
‘In this journal,’ Theo began shakily as he looked back to James, ‘she wrote everything? She wrote that you are my father not Matthias?’
James nodded.
‘She wrote about the magic, the visions, all of it?’
James nodded again.
‘And you kept it, all of these years, for me?’
James stared at Theo not trusting his voice.
‘You kept it for me’ Theo continued, finally realizing the depth of James’ love for him. ‘You kept it knowing that if it was discovered in your possession, if it fell into the wrong hands, you would be tried for witchcraft?’
‘Yes,’ James croaked finally. ‘I knew you would need it, not just so that you could learn to control your gift but because you deserved the chance to know your mother, even if it was only through her words on a page.’
‘You risked too much’ Theo shook his head, ‘do you have any idea what would have happened if this book had fallen into the wrong hands.’
‘I don’t care,’ James replied, ‘you are my son Theo. I would risk everything for you.’
Theo couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow past the knot of pure emotion choking him. A tear spilled over and meandered slowly down his cheek as he beheld the man in front of him. All his life he had felt displaced, unimportant, unloved. Abandoned, first by the death of his mother, then the emotional abandonment and abuse he had endured at the hands of the man he had thought was his father. He’d feared Matthias Beckett, he’d hated him and all his life he had lived in fear that the anger and pain that consumed him would manifest itself as the very worst qualities of Matthias Beckett. For the first time in his life Theo acknowledged the stark fear he’d always carried deep within his heart, that somehow, someday he would turn out just like his father, that he would hurt Olivia whether by design or otherwise. But now he knew he bore no part of that man. He was James Wilkins’ son by blood and all of the best parts of himself he now knew came from the man in front of him. James was loving and honest and loyal. He was truly the best man Theo had ever known and for the first time in his life Theo experienced what it was like to feel truly loved by his father.
‘Thank you,’ Theo mouthed the words rather than spoke as no sound would come out.
James nodded in response, his own eyes glassy and not trusting his voice either. In that moment a kind of understanding and acceptance passed between them.
‘What did I miss this time?’ Sam startled them as he dropped down onto the bench next to Olivia.
‘Your timing is impeccable as always Sam,’ Olivia replied dryly as she poured him a cup of warm cider, distracting Sam and giving James and Theo time to collect themselves.
‘That’s a hell of a storm blowing out there,’ Sam drained the cup in one go. ‘It woke me up.’
‘I’d thought nothing short of an apocalypse would wake you up,’ Olivia smiled.
Sam chuckled, ‘I think I’ve slept enough to last me a couple of lifetimes. Now I’m so hungry I could devour an entire herd of cattle. What’s for supper?’
‘There is some stew left’ James chuckled, as he climbed to his feet. ‘I’ll settle it to warming for you.’
‘Thank you James,’ Sam grinned.
‘You’re looking so much better,’ Olivia’s eyes narrowed as she scrutinized him carefully. ‘How are you feeling?’
‘Not quite my old self,’ he replied ‘but definitely better.’
‘Glad to hear it’ James interjected. ‘Olivia love, why don’t you cut Sam a couple of slices of bread to be getting on with while the stew warms.’
Nodding in agreement she rose gracefully from the bench. She retrieved the loaf of thick dark brown bread from the sideboard and brought it back to the table. Fetching a plate and knife and some thick milky looking butter she set it down in front of him.
‘Theo,’ she stroked his face gently as he sat staring numbly at his mother’s journal. ‘Why don’t you take a few moments in the other room with the book?’
She knew he was churned up inside, with a dozen turbulent emotions he didn’t want to let loose in front of James and Sam.
Nodding slowly, he stood but as he swept the journal from the table several loose pieces of parchment scattered to the floor.
‘What are these?’ he frowned as both he and James stooped to pick them up.
Theo began to stack the ones he’d picked up, glancing at them in interest. They were sketches.
James smiled softly in remembrance as his fingers trailed the pages lightly.
‘My drawings,’ he replied, ‘I would draw these for Emmy. She kept them all.’
‘You drew these?’ Theo’s brows lifted in surprise. They were so similar to his own that he now realized where he had got his gift for art from.
‘Yes I did,’ he handed them back to Theo as they both stood. ‘They’re yours now.’
‘Hang on, you missed one.’ Olivia bent and scooped up the last piece of paper but as she held it out she glanced down at what was drawn on it and her mouth fell open on a startled gasp.
Theo leaned over to see what Olivia was looking at and his heart clenched. It was a portrait of his mother. Even though he hadn’t gazed upon her face in years her features were still burned upon his heart.
‘That’s my mother,’ Theo whispered.
‘This?’ Olivia held up the paper. ‘This is your mother?’
Theo nodded, frowning slightly at the shock registered on her face.
‘What is it Livy?’
‘I’ve seen this woman before.’
‘What?’ Theo shook his head in confusion. ‘Where?’
‘This is Tammy Burnett,’ she told him pointedly, ‘the mayor of Mercy.’
‘That’s not possible,’ Theo shook his head. ‘My mother is dead.’
‘But Temperance isn’t,’ she whispered to herself as the pieces slowly started to slide into place, like movement on a giant chessboard.
‘What did you say?’
‘She always looked so familiar and I couldn’t put my finger on why,’ Olivia shook her head in self-admonishment. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t see it.’
‘See what?’
‘She looked familiar because she looked like you.’
‘I don’t understand, what are you saying exactly?’ Theo frowned.
Suddenly it all snapped into place. That strange elusive memory of Theo she’d been trying to recall for days now blazed into life in her mind and she could hear Theo’s voice so clearly.
‘Mary was completely mad by then, ranting about a man appearing and disappearing before her eyes.’
‘He did it,’ she muttered as her gaze fell on Sam, ‘he figured out how to jump through time.’
‘Olivia, you’re not making any sense.’
‘Theo,’ she grasped his arms a smile breaking out on her face, ‘don’t you see? Temperance i
s alive and she’s living in present day Mercy as Tammy Burnett.’
‘How is that possible?’
‘Sam,’ she glanced across at him. ‘Theo, don’t you remember, when you were telling me what happened to Mary you said she was completely mad, that when you found her she was raving about a man who…’
‘Appeared and disappeared in front of her eyes’ he finished for her, his own gaze tracking across to Sam.
‘You said Mary burned the body, but you never recovered Temperance’s remains did you?’
Theo shook his head.
‘That’s because we covered it up, it was us all along don’t you see,’ she shook her head, her words falling out in a tumble as she tried to explain herself. ‘That’s probably where Sam got the idea to pull you from the burning barn later on. Fire covers all our tracks and closes the time line. History recorded that Temperance Beckett died on the 28th September 1685 of Juvenile Fever but no body was ever discovered.’
‘What do you mean Temperance is going to die?’ James interrupted hotly.
‘She won’t if I can help it,’ Olivia told him then she turned back to Theo. ‘Don’t you get it? We were here the first time around; we were always here. Sam pulls Temperance out before she dies and we cover it up by making everyone think that Mary burned her body.’
Theo stared at Olivia his mind working furiously now, trying to find some flaw in her logic as desperate hope burst to life in his chest.
‘Theo,’ her voice was breathy as her face broke into a wide smile, ‘we can save your sister.’
Chapter 10.
‘What in God’s name is going on?’ James demanded impatiently. ‘What do you mean you can save his sister? What is going to happen to Temperance?’
Theo glanced down to Olivia who’d moved closer to him. A look passed between them, a look which was filled with questions.
‘It’s your choice how much you want to tell him,’ Olivia whispered to Theo.
‘The timeline?’ Theo shook his head.
‘Doesn’t matter much at this point when it comes to James,’ Olivia replied softly. ‘He knows enough about us to realize that we have come from another time and he probably suspects more. I don’t know how much your mother saw or how much she shared with him, but I think he’s proved he can be trusted to keep whatever we tell him to himself.’
The Guardians Complete Series 1 Box Set: Contains Mercy, The Ferryman, Crossroads, Witchfinder, Infernum Page 132