Secrets of the Chocolate House by Paula Brackston

Author:Paula Brackston
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

12

This time Xanthe fought against what was happening to her. She tried to resist the transition, tried to turn back. She even tried to let go of the locket she had risked so much to retrieve. She shut thoughts of home and of Flora from her mind and thought only of Samuel.

“No, no, no, I have to stay!” she shouted into the void. It was all pointless. It seemed however much she liked to think she had gained some control over when and where she spun time, once a journey was triggered she was unable to stop it. She arrived breathless and bewildered, slamming hard against the gritty floor of the blind house. She tried to marshal her thoughts, to see if she couldn’t simply leap back again. In the darkness of the little stone building she felt around for the locket, found it, and put it on, tucking it beneath her blouse. Then she searched further, feeling around in a wider circle, seeking the chocolate pot. She needed it to make the jump back again. It had to be there somewhere. Like any other object, it could not return to the time when it originally existed, so as she stepped back, even though she would have been holding it, it would have fallen to the floor. Xanthe crept further across the uneven ground, the dirt damp beneath her hands as she frantically searched. It wasn’t there! How could that be? It couldn’t have journeyed with her, so that meant someone must have come into the jail and taken it. Without thinking, she clambered to her feet and pushed the door open, stumbling out into the dazzling light of a bright November morning.

And there, standing in the middle of the untidy lawn, leaning on her sticks, was Flora.

“Xanthe! Good grief, where on earth did you spring from?” Without waiting for an answer she hurried across the damp grass and gave her daughter a hug. “I didn’t hear you come home.”

Xanthe did her best to hide her own surprise and to come up with a convincing explanation for her sudden appearance. It was hard to know the right thing to say without being entirely sure of the time, or even of what day it was. Her mind was still in turmoil, everything telling her that she should go back to Samuel. How could she leave him to face Fairfax alone? Who could say what such a man would do if he believed he had been tricked out of having what he wanted? She had to go back, but at that moment her main concern was making sense to her mother. Which meant thinking up yet more lies. And, above everything because so much depended on it, finding out what had happened to the chocolate pot.

“Oh, I didn’t want to disturb you when I came in,” she said vaguely, playing for time, hoping for clues.

Flora laughed lightly. “I know I get engrossed in my restoration projects, but I’ve always got time to say hello to my only daughter, silly.

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