Free Faithfully Yours (The Forever Time Travel Romance Series, Book 1) by Carol A. Spradling Page B

top so much faster than her?
    Faith regained her balance and peered out from under her damp bangs.  The area in front of her spread out like a lush meadow.  Standing straight, she wiped her hair away from her forehead and looked from one side of the property to the other.  There were no fences or boundaries to section off the land as private property.  When she had come to this home yesterday, she had taken a much easier path. 
    A chicken squawked at the front of the house.  The bird flapped its wings and flew to the porch railing.  Although Faith empathized with the animal's peril, she had wrung a few necks in her life.  It was possible that dinner preparations were under way.  Faith walked warily from the side of the clearing, hoping the biddy had been frightened by something other than an axe wielding, crazy woman. 
    A hawk screeched overhead, swooped low, and then soared away from the house.  Faith wondered if the woman had transformed herself into the predator, and had left her to draw her own conclusions.  Faith shielded her hand over her eyes and looked to see if a gray mane trailed behind the bird.
    "Did you come all the way up here to look at the wildlife?" a voice asked from the front porch.
    Faith shifted her gaze downward and lowered her hand.  "No.  I came up here to talk with you.  Did you not hear me when I called to you in the cabin?"
    The woman pulled a dishcloth from off of her shoulder and swatted the seat of a chair.  She wasn't even winded.  Dry leaves and dust swirled to the floorboards.  She sat down and then stretched the towel across her skirt.  Lifting a mixing bowl, she positioned it on her lap, tipped the chair backward, and rested her shoulders against the wall.  With everything well balanced, she pulled a fistful of green beans from the dish and snapped off the ends. 
    "What do you and I have to discuss, Mrs. Valentine?" she asked and laid the broken stems in her lap.
    Faith narrowed her eyes and tried to determine the woman's ploy.  Apparently, her isolated existence had lent itself to an obsessive imagination.  Faith stepped closer, searching the area on the porch.  No weapons appeared to be within an easy reach. 
    "How do you know about Aidan?" Faith asked. 
    She barely raised her knees high enough to climb the stairs to the porch.  The balls of her feet scraped the wood steps, but she pushed onward.  Making it to the top of the last rise, she stood to the side of the woman, turned, and looked behind her.  The porch swing no longer hung where it had yesterday.  It was possible that it had been removed, but the woman didn't seem to be the type of person who would employ menial help, nor did she seem inclined to change her surroundings on a whim.
    "Wasn't there a swing here yesterday?" Faith asked, pointing to the empty space.
    The woman's brows rose and she scoffed.  "Yesterday."  She nodded her head as though confirming a suspicion.  "Is that the question you want answered?"
    "I have several, and I won't be limited," Faith snapped.
    The woman's hands curled around a fresh batch of beans and snapped them in half.  A few green seeds shot upward, arced, and then bounced to the floor.  "For someone who needs answers, you might consider using a more pleasing tone of voice."  She opened her hands and the broken bits plummeted into the bowl.
    Faith stared over at her and tried to surmise her adversary.  The woman's gray hair looked as though it had been dark in her younger years, and her eyes looked as though they may have been a shade of blue before turning gray and cloudy.  Faith rubbed a spot high on her cheekbone.  Just below, and to the left of her eye was a small mole, a trait all members of her family shared, all except for her sister Grace. 
    The woman in front of her sat in profile.  The left side of her face was clearly in view.  Faith squinted and focused on the area near the woman's eye.  Although not a mole, a similarly shaped blemish marked her