AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Bryant?”
“It’s not my concern,” he finally answered. “Nor is it yours. Stay out of it, Callista. There are things you can’t know.”
“That’s a bunch of B.S.,” I said to him. “It’s just an excuse to stand by and do nothing.”
Some altruistic hero, the big coward.
“I don’t know what meaning you have behind the initials, nor do I wish to, but I’m telling you, Callista, this is one area where you have no knowledge on the workings of others from another place and time.”
“And you do.”
“In this case, yes.” He growled in his throat adding, “I was intending to have you come to town with me tomorrow, but now I don’t think I can’t chance it. Not with this latest bee in your bonnet about Ruby West.”
I looked down at the red and white beaded bracelet in my hand that Dove-caller had given me to give to her sister.
Perhaps Bryant was right and that I didn’t know the full story, or the culture and judicial system of both the indigenous and the Europeans of the day. Still, there was basic right and wrong that transcended both time and place.
“What if I stayed inside the general store?” I posed.
Bryant threw me a hooded look of disbelief. “I’ll believe that when leprechauns toss gold coins into my pocket.”
“What if Isolemnlypromiseto stay inside the store and not step one boot outside the front door? And back door,” I added at his narrowed eyes, knowing I would somehow find a loophole to use. “And I cook dinner tonight.”
He faced forward, waited a full minute, then sniffed.
“Venison stew. And I get all the corn and potatoes Dove gave you today.”
* * *
Keeping my promise proved more difficult than first imagined. Being closed up in the general store the entire morning was driving me stir crazy.
To pass the time, I helped Henry manage the customers and rearrange stock, then assisted Alice in the kitchen with baking and cooking. By mid-afternoon with no customers for more than an hour, even Henry was bored and restless.
“Why don’t you show me your latest photographs,” I suggested for something to do.
Eagerly, the boy darted to the storeroom, rushing back with a few photos he had taken of the town buildings. I properly admired them, making him brim with delight. Actually, he was greatly improving his techniques and had a very good eye.
“Mr. Eastman wrote Uncle that he’s working on a new camera,” he said. “It’s much smaller, no bigger that this size,” he explained measuring with his hands about eight inches on all sides. “But best of all, you can take a hundred photos simply by turning a key and pushing a button. I don’t know how he’ll do it, but he promises to send us a prototype when he’s finished.”
“That’s amazing, Henry. You’re going to be able to really improve your craft now.”
“Indeed, I will,” he said, setting his photos aside. “Along that line, I do have a question to ask you, Callista.”
“What’s up?”
He winced, checked around, then asked, “Would you pose for a photograph sometime? If it’s not too brazen of me to ask.”
I chewed my lip at the thought of it. Not that I feared that his mysterious wooden box would suck up my spirit into limbo. My main concern was that if the photo itself was somehow preserved through the decades and a random historian spotted and recognized me once I returned to my own time...
...Because you are unique in a way that others will find dangerous and no telling what they might do to stamp out that threat to their power...
No, it was likely to happen. I was no one famous that anyone would take note or care.
“Sure, why not?” I remarked. “We certainly have the time.”
“Excellent! Let me set everything up.”
I spent the next half hour as a photography model, sitting frozen with my hands primly folded in my lap. After Henry snapped a few to his satisfaction, I posed something else.
