Crossroads (47 page)

She climbed to her feet, watching as Theo heaved Sam off the ground and slung him over his shoulder.

Luck appeared to be favoring them for the time being and they managed to cut back through the orchard towards the barn without anyone seeing them. The barn itself was pretty far from the farmhouse so they snuck in, dropping Sam down on the hay strewn ground and tucking him into the corner near two huge barrels of apples.

‘Now what?’ Olivia asked.

‘Now we wait for it to get dark. I’ll slip out and see if I can sneak up to the main house and steal some clothes for us. Once we can roam around a little more freely we can make a plan.’

‘God’ she frowned, ‘this is a nightmare. Sam’s pretty much out for the count, we’ve got to try and avoid not only the past you but anyone who knows you and as if that weren’t bad enough, there are two Nathaniels.’

‘I know,’ he replied in frustration. ‘If the one with your mother wasn’t bad enough, the Nathaniel from my time is in his true form and much more powerful. He’ll know we’re out of time with everything else the second he sees us.’

‘We’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t see us then.’

‘That’s easier said than done’ he shook his head, ‘he’s looking for Hester too remember?’

Olivia sighed and closed her eyes, rubbing her temples tiredly.

‘Are you alright?’

‘It’s just a lot to take in,’ she breathed, ‘and I’m tired.’ Her stomach growled loudly, ‘and hungry apparently.’

‘Here,’ he reached into one of the barrels and grabbed a couple of apples, ‘eat these. I’ll see if I can find some clean water.’

There was a sudden scuffling noise and the sound of the barn door opening.

Olivia pulled her legs in and slid behind one of the large barrels of apples, holding onto Sam carefully, while Theo hid behind another.

‘Hello?’ a small timid voice called out, ‘hello?’

Olivia frowned, it sounded like a child’s voice.

‘Theo?’ the child's voice called out.

Olivia glanced across at Theo and saw his eyes widen as he instinctively turned in the direction of the voice.

‘Theo I know you’re here, so you might as well come out.’

Unable to help himself Theo unfolded himself from his hiding place, stepping out into the light that streaked in from an opening higher up in the building. His heart stopped as his gaze landed on the small dark haired child.

‘I’ve been waiting for you,’ she smiled.

‘Tempy?’ he whispered.

She smiled widely and held her arms out for him.

He dropped down slowly in front of her and she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. He folded his arms around her tiny body and crushed her to him, not wanting to let go, afraid that it wasn’t real. His eyes burned with tears and he found he couldn’t swallow past the hard knot of emotion burning at the back of his throat.

Temperance pulled back and grinned.

‘I brought you some clothes.’ She looked down at him, in his jeans and boots, ‘your clothes are very strange. Where are your friends? I brought some for them too.’

‘What?’ he replied in confusion.

‘The lady with the gold eyes, she’s here too isn’t she? And the boy with black hair?’ she turned and retrieved the sack she’d dropped by the door, ‘you’d better hurry up and change. Mr Wilkin is at market today but he’ll be back soon.’

‘Tempy,’ he whispered, ‘how do you know about the others? How did you know to find me here?’

‘I saw you silly,’ she shook her head.

‘You saw me?’

‘In a dream’ she smiled, ‘there was another lady there that time. She wore a green dress and had a bow and arrow. She told me you needed me to help you.’

She pulled out some clothes and handed them to him as he sat staring at her in disbelief.

‘I got one of Mary’s dresses for your lady friend’ Temperance frowned. ‘I hope Mary doesn’t notice, she gets awful mad lately.’

‘Mary?’ his eyes widened as the pieces began to fall into place, ‘Tempy is Mary back at the house?’

‘Of course she is,’ she replied as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. ‘She’s back at the farm with the other you.’

‘Tempy, is Mary sick?’ he asked carefully.

‘You know she is,’ she answered seriously, ‘the sickness is in her mind and she’s getting real bad.’

Theo closed his eyes and drew in a shaky breath. If Temperance was still alive and Mary was at the height of her madness it could only mean one thing. The year was 1685. He wasn’t sure what that strange green fire was which had interfered back at the Crossroad, but something had obviously gone terribly wrong. They’d been thrown back ten years too early.

Wendy Saunders lives in Hampshire, England with her husband and three children. After initially training as a hairdresser, she has spent the last twelve years caring for her grandmother but when her grandmother passed away she decided the time was right to pursue her own dream of writing. Mercy is her debut novel and the first of a five book series.

Book 1 Mercy (Available from Amazon)

Book 2 The Ferryman (Available from Amazon)

Book 3 Crossroads (Available from Amazon)

Book 4 Witchfinder (Coming Fall 2016)

Book 5 Infernum (Coming Soon)

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