his arm. “I’m sorry you’ve had to endure our primitive conditions, Mr. Nash. Please try not to worry. We said we’d send you back and we will, but you must let us look for the book.” He slipped out of my grasp and settled his hands on my shoulders, turning me in the direction of the door. “Why don’t you take a tour of the museum or go for a walk? Oh, and do give Derry back his coat. It doesn’t suit you.”
Ezra delivered me into Derry’s hands with the whispered admonition to keep me out of trouble. If I hadn’t needed Ezra in one piece to get me home, he would have been in several pieces. So maybe he had a point that he and Henry knew their way around and could get into the nooks and crannies of this place. And maybe there were places I couldn’t access without getting Henry and Ezra into trouble. Fine. I’d just have to find a way to hunt around without attracting any attention. “Ezra said something about a tour?”
Derry made a face. “The tour guide takes you through rather swiftly. You won’t have the opportunity to see everything, let alone linger long enough to really see anything. But if you’d like, it would please me to take you through, myself.”
Sounded good to me. And if I happened upon any storage areas stuffed with books, I felt confident I could persuade my personal tour guide to help search through them.
By four-thirty, we were back on the museum steps, soaking in some desultory sunlight as clouds gathered in. I felt restless and tired both, not the most pleasant state, and a certain amount of homesickness creeping back in made it worse. I handled homesickness well enough when Faulkner sent me overseas, but I’d never felt as far from home as now. And my chances of getting back seemed to be dwindling.
Derry rubbed my shoulder sympathetically. “Don’t be downhearted. If we’ve no luck today, we’ll have twice the luck Monday. You won’t mind a day or two more with us? We aren’t so bad.”
“ You aren’t,” I agreed. I couldn’t say the same for the two missing members of the party. “This whole thing, it still seems unreal.”
“Going forward into the future, there’s a notion to unsettle the soul,” Derry mused. “You’re safe enough here, lad. No surprises lie in wait if you know your history.”
I felt sure Derry, Ezra, and Henry could go back through time and their knowledge of any era they landed in would make mine pale in comparison. Apart from basic history lessons I hadn’t paid much attention to, I was ill-equipped to deal with this world on a daily basis. Christ, I couldn’t even get dressed without help.
At five sharp, Henry showed up. Empty-handed, he moved briskly down the steps and informed us that they were no closer to finding the book and he was beginning to wonder if someone hadn’t just walked away with it. Derry questioned him and Henry acknowledged that Whitby had likely put it down somewhere they just hadn’t searched yet. “Or perhaps he’s taken it to have something to read at the seaside.”
I sucked in a breath and fixed Henry with a stare known to make the average drug smuggler whimper for his mother. Henry retreated discreetly to Derry’s side while Derry looked at me, a warm twinkle in his eyes. “You’ve a commendable restraint, Morgan Nash. Henry, where’s Ezra?”
Henry shrugged. “I haven’t seen him in three hours. They’re closing. He should be along.”
It was another fifteen minutes before Ezra was along. He looked tired and glum, eyes bloodshot behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses sitting on his nose. He plucked them off and rubbed his eyes. “No luck yet. I’m sorry, Mr. Nash.” The apology was sincere. I couldn’t fault him there. He’d obviously tried. But the fact remained: I wasn’t going home today.
What the hell. I’d just have to think of it as a vacation of the sort I never took. No sand, no surfing, no handsome lifeguards with sun-kissed
Ezra delivered me into Derry’s hands with the whispered admonition to keep me out of trouble. If I hadn’t needed Ezra in one piece to get me home, he would have been in several pieces. So maybe he had a point that he and Henry knew their way around and could get into the nooks and crannies of this place. And maybe there were places I couldn’t access without getting Henry and Ezra into trouble. Fine. I’d just have to find a way to hunt around without attracting any attention. “Ezra said something about a tour?”
Derry made a face. “The tour guide takes you through rather swiftly. You won’t have the opportunity to see everything, let alone linger long enough to really see anything. But if you’d like, it would please me to take you through, myself.”
Sounded good to me. And if I happened upon any storage areas stuffed with books, I felt confident I could persuade my personal tour guide to help search through them.
By four-thirty, we were back on the museum steps, soaking in some desultory sunlight as clouds gathered in. I felt restless and tired both, not the most pleasant state, and a certain amount of homesickness creeping back in made it worse. I handled homesickness well enough when Faulkner sent me overseas, but I’d never felt as far from home as now. And my chances of getting back seemed to be dwindling.
Derry rubbed my shoulder sympathetically. “Don’t be downhearted. If we’ve no luck today, we’ll have twice the luck Monday. You won’t mind a day or two more with us? We aren’t so bad.”
“ You aren’t,” I agreed. I couldn’t say the same for the two missing members of the party. “This whole thing, it still seems unreal.”
“Going forward into the future, there’s a notion to unsettle the soul,” Derry mused. “You’re safe enough here, lad. No surprises lie in wait if you know your history.”
I felt sure Derry, Ezra, and Henry could go back through time and their knowledge of any era they landed in would make mine pale in comparison. Apart from basic history lessons I hadn’t paid much attention to, I was ill-equipped to deal with this world on a daily basis. Christ, I couldn’t even get dressed without help.
At five sharp, Henry showed up. Empty-handed, he moved briskly down the steps and informed us that they were no closer to finding the book and he was beginning to wonder if someone hadn’t just walked away with it. Derry questioned him and Henry acknowledged that Whitby had likely put it down somewhere they just hadn’t searched yet. “Or perhaps he’s taken it to have something to read at the seaside.”
I sucked in a breath and fixed Henry with a stare known to make the average drug smuggler whimper for his mother. Henry retreated discreetly to Derry’s side while Derry looked at me, a warm twinkle in his eyes. “You’ve a commendable restraint, Morgan Nash. Henry, where’s Ezra?”
Henry shrugged. “I haven’t seen him in three hours. They’re closing. He should be along.”
It was another fifteen minutes before Ezra was along. He looked tired and glum, eyes bloodshot behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses sitting on his nose. He plucked them off and rubbed his eyes. “No luck yet. I’m sorry, Mr. Nash.” The apology was sincere. I couldn’t fault him there. He’d obviously tried. But the fact remained: I wasn’t going home today.
What the hell. I’d just have to think of it as a vacation of the sort I never took. No sand, no surfing, no handsome lifeguards with sun-kissed
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