Free The Time Keeper (The Guardians of Time Book 1) by Kate Harre

there.’
    ‘Clever,’ Seb approved.
    ‘We’re also going to need an invitation to get in.’  She waggled her fingers at him.  ‘Are you able to take care of that?’
    Seb rolled his eyes at her finger waggle.  ‘I think I can manage that.  If you find me a picture of a particular invitation, I can reproduce it.  Same with the clothes and anything else we might require.’
    ‘I was wondering about the clothes.’  She brightened as she had another thought.  ‘Can you do things like change hair colour?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said warily.  ‘Why?’
    ‘I would love to be a redhead, like Emma Stone used to be,’ she said excitedly.
    ‘I like your hair the way it is,’ he said awkwardly.  He frowned, like he couldn’t quite believe he’d admitted that.  ‘So I don’t think I’ll be changing it.’
    ‘Not even for the ball?’ she asked, disappointed.
    His eyes slewed away from hers.  ‘Maybe.  I’ll think about it.’
    Satisfied he hadn’t completely closed the door on it, her mind darted off in another direction.  ‘Do you use magic to get inside our house all the time?’
    ‘No!’ he exclaimed in outrage.  ‘David gave me a key about a year ago so I could use his study whenever I need to.’
    ‘Oh.’  She glanced at him from beneath her lashes.  His jaw was taut and his lips pulled into a thin, unhappy line.  ‘Sorry if I offended you – I don’t mind you being in the house, I was just curious about how you get in.’
    His face softened.  ‘I guess I never thought about how you’d feel coming home to a stranger in your house.’
    ‘You’re not a stranger,’ she said quietly.  ‘And you can come and go whenever you like.’
    ‘Thanks,’ he said gruffly.
    She shrugged.  ‘You’re about the closest thing I’ve got to an older brother, so it’s only fair you get to hang around the house.’
    Seb looked startled and a bit perturbed.  ‘Uh, so is there anything else I need to know at the moment?’
    ‘I don’t think so.  I’ve still got quite a few things to work on, so I guess I’ll continue to research,’ she responded glumly.  But in truth she was quite enjoying learning more about another era, especially knowing in a few days she was actually going to experience it for real.
    Seb chuckled at her despondent expression.  ‘When we start going on missions I’ll be helping you with the research, but since you’re torturing me with my worst nightmare, you’re on your own in this one.’
    ‘Fair enough.’
    He rose.  ‘How about we meet again on Wednesday afternoon?’
    Emilia walked him to the door and couldn’t help but notice how gracefully he moved, despite his big body.  ‘That’s fine.’
    He turned in the doorway.  ‘By then I’ll need to know what you want us to be wearing and all the details will need to be covered off.’
    ‘No problem.’
    ‘I’ll text you,’ he called over his shoulder, as he descended the porch steps.
     
    *
     
    By Wednesday morning, Emilia felt she had a handle on all the details of their trip to Regency England.  She had exhausted every relevant book in David’s study and spent hours pouring over the many resources available online.  The previous night she’d gone over the majority of her findings with David to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.  He’d been encouraging and had also pointed her in the direction of another couple of important areas of research, like the name of a ship from the Americas that docked at their time of arrival in London – a vital detail which might have tripped them up if she’d forgotten it.
    After forty-eight hours of being cooped up inside, she was going stir-crazy.  So when Seb messaged to say he’d be around in the early afternoon, she text him back to suggest they meet at a café in town.  She needed to get out of the house.
    When Justin rang at lunchtime wanting to see her, she agreed to meet him at the same café at four o’clock.  There was nothing like a good bit