McCann's Manor (45 page)

"Aye, you make it sound easy enough, but it will not be easy, lass,” he said.

"But you will try, won't you?"

"Aye, I will try, but how do you propose to enlist Tarrh's help?” he queried.

"You can control the portal,” she said.

"What does that have to do with it?"

"We go to him
before
he married Moira, convince him to go with us on a journey through the portal into the future to show him what happened
after
their marriage and appeal to his logic to help us end the suffering this whole thing has brought to everyone. Simple,” Liz said with a smile.

"Only a woman would call such a plot simple. What makes you think he will listen to us?” Benjamin asked.

"Do you have a better idea? I assumed you had come into the present because you
wanted
to help us with this project. Was I wrong?"

"Nay, you were not wrong, nor do I have a better idea. I will do whatever I can to help you and Kimberly. If you truly believe we can get Tarrh to listen to and heed our story, then it is where we will start,” he said resolutely.

"Thank you, Ben. I appreciate your offer of help. I suppose we should start as soon as possible. Let's go see if Kim's ready to set out on this excursion into the past."

He looked at her, a soft smile on his face. “Lass, have you no fear of the task you have set for yourself?"

She returned his smile, met his gaze only a moment before she looked away. Why did she feel like such a schoolgirl when she looked into his eyes? “Of course, I'm afraid. But after what just happened—or
nearly
did, I have to put fear aside and be brave. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can sleep at night. Let's go find Kim."

Kim listened with interest as Liz and Benjamin recounted their conversation and Liz's experience with the impostor. “So, does that mean we're ready to head into the past?” she asked.

"We're
almost
ready, yes. I thought we should maybe call Joel as a standby for the animals, in case we don't time it quite as well as we thought. We can leave food down for them that will last until tomorrow night, but if we aren't back by then, someone will need to come see about them,” Liz said.

Kim shook her head. “Liz, you know if we tell him where we're going, he'll just try to talk us out of it,” she complained.

Liz laughed, nodded. “You're probably right. But we could tell him we were going to visit some old friends and—"

"Are you suggesting lying to the
priest
?” Benjamin asked in surprise.

Kim shot Liz a quick glance before the two women smiled at Benjamin. “No, not at all, Ben,” Liz said frankly. “I'm simply suggesting not telling him the
whole
truth. If we tell him an old friend—that's you—is stopping by to get us, and we're going to visit some other old friends with you, that's
true
, in a manner of speaking. I have
met
them all, even though I can't say Moira and Sean are on my list of favorite people. And if we say we plan on being back by tomorrow night but that we might wind up staying over, that's also the truth, sort of. Everyone knows how plans are sometimes changed on the spur of the moment."

"Ah, yes ... how could I have forgotten? Women have such an
interesting
brand of logic,” Benjamin said.

"I think that was a
cut
—was that a cut, Ben?” Liz asked jokingly.

"A cut? Nay, lass, merely an observation,” Benjamin clarified.

"What's with the lass thing?” Kim asked.

"
Lass thing
?” Benjamin echoed, puzzled.

"Well, yes, Liz and I are both past the age when I would expect to be called
lass
. Aren't we actually older than you?"

Benjamin smiled wryly, turned his head to the side. “That all depends now, does it not? I am a couple hundred years your elder, even though in age I might be a year or two younger, chronologically speaking. Of course, I suppose you will say that is a technicality. Age has never meant much to me. I refer to you as
lasses
because you are females and not
nearly
old or ugly enough to be referred to as crones."

"Well, then by all means, please do call me lass,” Kim said. “I certainly prefer it to crone!"

"Aye, and I prefer the term over crone, especially for two such lovely, lively ladies as yourselves,” Benjamin replied with a warm smile.

"Listen to you!” Liz observed. “If I didn't know better, I'd think you were flirting with us, Ben."

Benjamin gave her a provocative look from under his raised brows that stunned her. “Aye? Well, perhaps I am, a bit. I
am
a man, after all,” he assured her.

Liz felt her cheeks burning under his torrid gaze. She hadn't taken Ben for a womanizer; she had assumed since he had loved and lost Constance he had never looked at any other women. Of course, that was a foolish supposition, wasn't it? How many men would never look at another woman just because they had lost the love of their lives? For that matter, how many women would?

She found herself wondering anew what she was doing; here she had been thinking she was falling in love with John and now she was acting like a schoolgirl over a man who was long dead.
God, woman, where is your brain
, she wondered. Was it possible her celibate lifestyle was making her overly sensitive to the attentions of just any man—
every
man? Next thing she knew, she'd be entertaining lustful thoughts over Mark, or Joel—no!
Not
Joel! He was too young, and he was a
priest
, for heaven sakes!

"Well,” she said, clearing her throat, “if you will take care of the animals, Kim, I'll go call Joel and see if he's willing to come see about them if we don't make it back by tomorrow night."

Kim eyed Liz a moment before answering. “Sure thing,” she said. “I hope the water has gone down enough that he can get here. He may think it strange that we're going to visit friends if the roads are still impassable."

"Oh, I hadn't thought about
that
.” Liz admitted. “Guess I'll call the highway department and see about the roads
first
. We may have to postpone our little visit to the past a day or two; either that, or tell Joel the whole story and hope he won't try to talk us out of it."

"Postponing it is not a good idea, Elizabeth,” Benjamin said. “Do you want me to talk to the Father? I am sure I can make him understand the importance of what we are attempting to do."

"No, that's all right, Ben. I think I can handle it. He would probably pass out if you told him he was talking to Benjamin McCann on the phone,” Liz joked.

"Do you
think
so?” Benjamin quipped in return.

"Aye, Mister McCann, that I do!” she answered in her best
Texan Scots
/Irish accent.

"Well, then I will leave the good priest to you and I will help Kimberly with the animals. You don't think
they
will have any problems with me, do you?"

Liz laughed out loud. “You never know what those two will accept and what they won't. I know they didn't have any trouble when you were a ghost. Now you're just as physical as you are spiritual, there's no telling what Spooky might do. He thinks he's still feral when strangers are around."

"You wound me, lass. I am no stranger than anyone else!"

"All right, enough, you two,” Kim interjected. “Ben, I welcome the help; Liz, tell Joel the truth. You may want to ask him not to tell anyone else what we're up to, though. I wouldn't want people showing up out here to see if they could unravel any loose ends while we're gone."

"Right. I'm off to call Joel then. I left my cell phone upstairs,” Liz said.

"Well, here. We've got a dial tone. Why don't you try this one?” Kim suggested as she handed the receiver to Liz.

Liz made a face at Kim for always being so practical, and dialed the phone. “Hi, Joel. Fine, thanks. You?"

She listened while Joel recounted a dozen problems brought to him during the night by his parishioners who had suffered from the unexpected flood.

"Wow, sounds like you have your hands full. Is everyone going to be all right?” she asked.

"Yes, I think they will. The waters are receding rapidly and most of the roads are back in working order. A few houses suffered some major flood damage, but we have members of the Church who open their homes when others are flooded out. They'll take the unfortunate ones in and share their abundance with them until the repairs are complete. Happens this way every couple of years, you know,” he explained.

"
That
often?” Liz gasped. “No, I really had no idea. The poor dears."

"Yes, well, the
poor dears
refuse to move farther away from the river in spite of the fact funds have been made available to them to buy other properties. It's as though they don't believe it will happen again. So they take the money and fix their homes, minimally, squander the rest and go back to their old places until the next time,” Joel said flatly.

"You surprise me. I have never heard you sound so without compassion,” Liz observed.

"I know, but it's hard to have much compassion for stupidity, and that is what it amounts to, especially when they've kept me awake all night crying over their drowned houses,
again
. Honestly, they know help will be there for them and that all they have to do is come crying for another handout."

"Aw, poor Joel,” she comforted. “I guess it
would
test your patience if this is the same thing that happens every time."

"Yes, it does. I suppose that's one of the little tests of my profession, though, isn't it? How did you fare last night?’ he asked.

"We were fine. Electricity and lights were off until this morning. John and his daughter left to go to Florida, even though they had to be airlifted out, I suspect,” she said.

"John
left
?"

"Ah, so he didn't tell you, either. He'll be gone a couple of weeks,” she confirmed.

"Wasn't that rather sudden?"

Liz chuckled. “Yes, it was. He and Mark went into the kitchen and he came back and announced he had called Sam to come fly them and the caterers out. Then he told me he was going with Sondra to Florida today."

"What do you suppose prompted that?” Joel asked.

"Well, he said he needed some time to think,” Liz said.

"Think? Think about what?"

Liz didn't answer but sighed and looked at the ceiling. Had she said too much? Now she would have to explain, she supposed.

"Oh!” Joel said abruptly, as though someone had turned on a bright light in his eyes. “I see."

"You do?"

"Yes, I do, Liz. I understand."

Liz shrugged, looked at the phone. “Has he
talked
to you about it?"

"Yes, a little,” Joel confided.

"Heavens! Has he talked to
everyone but me
about it?"

"No! Liz, I don't think he has talked to
everyone but you
,” he said. “I don't think he talked to
anyone else
about you—er—it—no, I don't think so."

Liz rubbed her forehead. Why was she so embarrassed that John had talked to Joel about her? “It wasn't a confession about impure thoughts or something, was it?"

"No, no! Not at all. We were merely talking. It wasn't in a confessional. I wouldn't be able to tell you about anything he told me in a confessional, Liz. Those things are sanctified and private, I wouldn't be sharing them with you,” he stammered. “No, John was only talking as one would to a friend. We are
friends
, you know."

She couldn't help but laugh. “Oh, well I understand, Joel. I was just wondering. Don't worry about it. I'm not
angry
with you for letting John talk about me and needing to sort through his feelings. I was merely surprised that he had."

"Well, good! So if everything is all right at your place, why were you calling?” he asked.

Now she had to tell him. She had drawn out the conversation as long as possible without telling him her reason for calling. The time had come for her to
confess
. She took a deep breath.

"Yes? Liz?"

"Kim and I have been talking about going into the past through the portal and seeing if we can resolve the conflict by finding out what happened to cause it,” she began.

"I'm certainly
against that
, Liz. There are so many things that could go wrong,” he protested.

"I was aware you would feel that way, Joel, but I wasn't really calling to get your advice on it. I was calling to tell you we
are
going—and to ask if you would come take care of the animals if we don't make it back by tomorrow night,” she spat without waiting for him to throw in another negative.

"I see. Well, of course, if you have already made up your mind, I wouldn't presume to try to sway you. Naturally, I am happy to look in on Spooky and Ghost. I hope you know what you are doing, though,” he said.

"So do I, Joel. So do I,” she agreed. “I'll leave a key under the rock by the back door and instructions on how and what to feed on the kitchen counter with the food. If you haven't heard from me by five o'clock tomorrow evening, please come feed them for us. I'm hoping to be back
before
then, but you never know."

"Truer words were never spoken, Liz. Are you sure about this?” he asked.

"No, not at all sure. But there are some things you don't know that happened this morning; things I can't handle, and I have to try to put an end to it before anything else happens. Benjamin will be with us and no one knows any more about all this than he,” she said.

"Benjamin!"

"Yes. I'll explain it all when we get back. All right?"

Joel sighed, shook his head. “All right. I am not at all certain this will be good for you, but I will wait for your explanation—and you had better call me the second you get back, whether you're successful or not."

"Understood. And thanks. Oh, and one more thing..."

"What is it?"

"I need you to promise you won't tell Mark, or John, if he should call—or anybody else. This needs to be our secret. Please?” she asked.

"You have my word, Liz. Only be careful. I will pray for you."