Free A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones by Claire Robyns Page A

his head forward and went completely still.
    Over his shoulder, her gaze froze on the problem. The ostrich lady had
just emerged from the tree-line across the lake. She’d exchanged her burgundy
dress for muslin white, her plume of feathers for a shallow box hat, but there
was no mistaking the woman.
    A rush of dread and pure fear kicked behind her knees. Lily clutched
tighter to Lord Adair.
    This was not the time to dither between reality and visions.
    Everything she felt, every moment she was instantly reliving in her
mind, was absolutely terrifying and ended with her dead. She hadn’t realised
how badly she was shaking until Lord Adair’s hand closed over hers to still her
trembling fingers.
    Some comfort came from the warmth, but the woman’s strides brought her
closer and closer and why wasn’t he doing something? Jumping into action as he
had yesterday, issuing orders and shoving her out of harm’s way behind the pump
house or something?
    Then suddenly something was happening.
    The world around her blurred: the trees, sky, field, lake…even the
ostrich lady, all smeared on a grainy canvas and then even that dissolved in a
furling cloud of grey. Lord Adair’s substance crumbled and she was left
clutching air.

 
     
    Chapter Six
     
     
    T he
cloud evaporated and the world grew solid in the blink of an eye. Lily dug in
her heels on the dirt path lined with Elms. Lord Adair stood a few feet ahead,
holding aside a low branch.
    The branch sprang into place as he turned to her.
    Her mouth slackened and the blood drained from her head. She’d been
here. This place. This moment. She’d dipped beneath his arm and stepped out onto
the open field of sweet grass and wildflowers. She stretched her arms before
her, staring at the spotless gloves that were neither ruined nor tucked away in
Lord Adair’s pocket. Had she descended into utter madness or…? Her scalp
prickled at the unknown.
    “Lily,” Lord Adair said urgently, “what’s the last thing you
remember?”
    “We were by the lake and that ostrich lady…” She faltered as she
glanced up and saw the dark, grim look on his face.
    “You came back with me again. It must happen when we’re touching. No
one ever has before.”
    “What must happen?” She folded her arms and set her chin on high. She
was done with sugarcoating herself in ignorance. “You know what’s going on here
and I’m ready to listen.”
    She was ready, even if it meant hearing she had some awful
degenerative illness and her mind was in rapid decline.
    He cast a long look through the branches as he spoke. “You have
visions—spells? Whatever you call it, you’re able to see things others can’t.”
His gaze returned to her. “Lady Ostrich mentioned you and I are alike, and that
may not be far from the truth. I, too, can do what others can’t, Lily. I have
the ability to focus on a moment in the recent past and will myself to step
back in time to that point.”
    Lily stared at him blankly.
    “Until I figure out how Lady Ostrich wields that control, until I know
how to fight her, I have no option but to run.” He took another look through
the trees. “I’ve never had to explain this before. No one has ever stepped back
with me or been aware of me doing it.”
    “You stepped back in time?” Her voice pitched to a shrill.
    “ B y thirty minutes or
so,” he confirmed.
    “You stepped back in time?” she repeated, stuck on the implications
slowly dawning. He’d brought them backward, reversed a part of her life,
brought her along with him to a place and time she’d been in thirty minutes
ago.
    “I suppose you’re convinced by now that I’m a raving lunatic.”
    After a considered pause, she shocked herself by admitting, “Quite the
opposite.”
    He spun around, his brows drawn in a cautious scowl as he stood there,
watching and waiting.
    For her to come to her senses and start screaming foul?
    But the more she thought on it, the less crazy the idea of rewinding
time