Footprints At Dawn (Book 2)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"My god, Nicholas, you pulled me out of there so fast I nearly forgot about Teddy," I said, exiting Thomas' cottage for a second time, Teddy tucked under my arm. "The look on his face when he had thought we left without him."

Nicholas chuckled. "Sorry. But I have never seen you so uncomfortable as I did in there, Matilda," Nicholas said, as we walked to Ace, who was tied up under the shade of a tree. "I heard you two talking about trying to have children?"

"Oh. Yeah. Rose told me she and her husband had been trying to have children for three years without any success. Then she asked me how long you and I had been trying."

"I can see that would have been uncomfortable for you."

"It's just... the lying," I sighed. "Rose and I are becoming good friends, and I hate lying to her."

Ace whinnied as we approached him, and Nicholas untied him from the tree. "I understand this is difficult for you, and I'm so glad you've made a friend here. But... I don't mean for this to sound horrible, but once we leave here, we will never see her again. Especially you, because you'll be in another century. When she tells you personal things about herself, you can be a friend, offer advice, console her. But when she asks you personal questions, just have fun with it. Pretend you're a character in one of your books. When you're with her, you're not Matilda Fletcher lying to your friend, but rather you're Matilda Lacy telling your friend the truth."

Nicholas gently tugged on Ace's rein, and we walked a small distance to the parked buggy.

"I'll still feel guilty about it, but I suppose I don't have much of a choice if I am to protect your father and myself."

"I'm sorry it has to be this way, Matilda. I know you miss your friend Anna."

I shook my head. "I have you. I'm glad I can be honest with you."

He smiled at me before positioning Ace in front of the buggy. "So tell me about this strange morning you had."

"It had to do mostly with eighty-two-year-old Mrs. Bradshaw in the first cottage."

"Go on."

"Well, she mentioned Rose had a son, which I thought was strange, because Rose just confirmed with me that she doesn't. But then Mrs. Bradshaw mentioned she had a son, so I thought she must've just been confusing Rose with herself."

He nodded in understanding. "Sure."

"But then she pointed out that I wasn't wearing my wedding ring."

"Maybe Rose told her you were married?"

"That's what I thought. So I made up some story about leaving it safe back at home. But she wouldn't accept that. She was getting quite worked up about me never taking it off - it's old and I have to take good care of it."

Nicholas thought for a second. "All right, I admit that is a little strange. But then again, she could just be getting you confused with someone else."

"Yes, true. But that's not all. Just as I was leaving the cottage, she called out to me, watch out for the bad man! He knows where you are!"

Nicholas forgot all about the buckle he was doing up to look at me, eyes wide.

"Bloody hell, Matilda, I just got chills."

"Exactly my response. We shouldn't take the ramblings of an old lady seriously, should we?"

"I don't know. I mean, you hear of these people who have the gift of foresight. Maybe she's one of those?"

"Like a clairvoyant? You believe in that stuff?"