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  “It’s all right,” she answered, feeling his embarrassment. “I know how it feels to be alone.”

  “Yes, I think that’s part of my attraction to you. Darci,” he said softly, “I’ve known you but hours, yet I feel a kinship with you. If you were to stay here—”

  Reaching up, she put her fingertips over his lips. “I know. I’ve always known. You and I could…we could come to mean something to each other. But no, I can’t stay. You’re not my Adam and your daughters aren’t my children. I’m sure I could come to love all of you, but there’s…” She hesitated.

  “Yes, I understand. We would be substitutes for other people,” Adam said after a moment, then he stepped away from her. “But if you find that you can’t return, you’ll always have a home with us, and it will be on any terms you want.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered. In the next instant the door to the icehouse flew open and the moment was broken.

  “Ready?” Jack asked. “I think we should go before Nokes shows up. From what his workmen said about him, he sounds like someone I don’t want to meet. What?!” he said when Darci and Adam started laughing.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I HAD A WONDERFUL TIME TONIGHT,” LAVENDER said, closing her eyes for a moment in memory. “The miners sang songs and I danced to the music.” She was back in her tight clothes again, her waist corseted, her legs hidden under pounds of fabric. If it had been left to her and Jack, she would have stayed in her costume, but Adam was so uncomfortable with her near nudity that she’d given in and put her clothes back on.

  As for Darci, she’d refused to remove her trousers and put that dreadful corset back on. Between the comfortable clothes and their success in the tunnels, she was feeling wonderful. With each passing moment, she seemed to be becoming clearer about who she was and who this man sitting near her was. He was not her husband. For a while there, under the bed, she’d wavered, but someone somewhere had helped her. That she wasn’t alone had given her new confidence and new energy.

  “I wish I could have seen you dance,” she said to Lavender, smiling, but her smile hid what she was thinking. Now what happens? she wondered. What happens to Lavender? Had tonight’s adventure been the real reason that Lavender’s spirit had followed Jack’s into the twentieth century?

  Darci had a thought that made her draw in her breath sharply. What if it was Jack’s leaving that made Lavender jump off the roof? What if she’d spent an exciting evening with Jack, then after he left to go back to his own time, Lavender was faced with a lifetime of living with John Marshall, a man she had been intending to break away from?

  “Did someone walk over your grave?” Lavender asked when Darci shuddered.

  “No, just thinking. Tell me what you didn’t like about John before yesterday.”

  “Dull,” Lavender said, looking at Jack with adoring eyes. “He was so dull. Nothing in the least adventurous about him. So very proper at all times.” She was sipping black tea while the rest of them had glasses of champagne. That Adam had refused to allow Lavender more booze was another thing that made Darci realize that this man wasn’t her Adam. Her Adam had a wicked sense of humor. And he knew when to relax and have fun. And he would never have taken away a person’s happiness in achievement as this Adam was doing to Lavender.

  You’re welcome to him, Diana, Darci said to herself an hour after they returned.

  “How could any man be dull around you?” Jack asked, his eyes glittering for a moment, then he gave a fake yawn. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I think I need to get some rest. It’ll be dawn in a few hours.”

  Darci knew that if the house were quiet, Jack and Lavender would be in the same bed within seconds. After all, they thought this was to be their wedding day, so why not spend the night together?

  She searched her mind for a reason why they should all stay awake. “But we can’t go to bed now. Jack, did you forget that this is not only Lavender’s wedding day but it’s also her birthday? We must celebrate.”

  When Jack looked blank, she glared at him, willing him to remember that when Lavender was in Chrissy’s body, she’d said she was being married on her birthday.

  “Oh, right,” Jack said. “I forgot completely. And I don’t have a present for you.”

  Lavender looked from Darci to Jack, then to Adam. “Tell me, Mr. Drayton, what do you think of a husband and a sister-in-law-to-be who can’t remember your birthday?”

  “I’d say that you should be able to choose your own gift. I have some lovely horses that would be very nice for a young lady. Shall I charge him double for them?”

  All four of them were smiling. “Perhaps a trip,” Lavender said. “To somewhere divinely exotic. New Zealand, maybe.”

  “Yes, that sounds nice,” Jack said. “What about you, little sister? Like to go to New Zealand?”

  Part of Darci wanted to play the game, but another part wanted to remind Jack that they had to return to their own time. Giving enjoyment won out. “New Zealand sounds heavenly. A Victorian world that hasn’t been explored. No fast food. No WMDs that no one can find.”

  “Just head hunters,” Jack said. “And diseases we haven’t known for centuries.”

  “Actually,” Adam said, “I’d like to talk to you two about some things. Perhaps you could tell me of this assembly machine.”

  “Assembly line,” Jack said. “It’s a simple process, really. It just means that—”

  Lavender sat up straighter in her seat and said loudly, “I’d like to talk about the fact that today is not my birthday.” There was some petulance in her tone. It was obvious that she wasn’t going to give up her time with Jack to let him talk about an “assembly machine.”

  “Not—?” Darci began.

  “Not—?” Jack began.

  “Is this significant?” Adam asked.

  Darci and Jack looked at each other with wide eyes.

  “Whose birthday is today?” Darci asked, looking intently at Lavender. Her voice rose. “Who has a birthday on the twelfth of June?”

  “I have no idea,” Lavender answered. “No one I know. I wouldn’t have scheduled my wedding on the birthday of anyone close to me. In fact, we wanted to be married last week, but my cousin’s birthday was that week so we changed the date. As for my birthday, it’s in April. Jack, don’t you remember what you gave me this year?” Her eyes were teasing. “You haven’t mixed me up with one of your other girls, have you?”

  Both Jack and Darci blinked at her, unable to understand what they were hearing. They had a great deal to say to each other, but they knew they could say nothing in front of Lavender.

  Adam looked from one to the other and seemed to understand their dilemma. “If Miss Shay and I are no longer needed, I think we should be off to bed. Besides, a bride shouldn’t see so much of the groom on her wedding day. You’ll be tired of each other before the honeymoon begins.”

  “I could never get tired of Jack,” Lavender said as she suppressed a yawn. “But I must admit that I’m exhausted. Drinking for the first time in my life, then dancing while standing on top of a buckboard…truly an incredible day. By the way, Jack, my dearest, how much money did we collect?”

  “Nearly two hundred dollars and half a shoebox full of garnets.”

  “How wonderful,” Lavender said, her eyes sleepy. “Good night, Mr. Drayton. Good night, my dear sister. Good night, my beloved Jack, my almost husband.”

  There were murmurs of undying love from Jack, and courteous responses from Adam as Lavender went up the stairs.

  “Yes, good night,” Darci said distractedly. She was still thinking about what she’d heard. She’d never missed her powers as much as she did now. If she had her abilities she could have figured out what was going on a long time ago.

  “Mrs. Montgomery,” Adam said formally, “may I see you for a moment?”

  “Don’t you leave,” Darci said under her breath to Jack. “Don’t move an inch and do not slip upstairs and get in bed with Lavender.” Louder,