Free A Gift of Time (Tassamara) by Sarah Wynde

pushing the pad closer to the edge of the counter. “And I’ll buy you that doll. I’ll even pay for overnight shipping so you get it tomorrow.”
    Kenzi looked torn. Her fingers tightened on the pen in her hand. But she didn’t make any move to write.
    “Tough bargainer, eh?” Grace said. “All right, I’ll also buy you a new dress. Pink. With ruffles. And lace. And glitter.” She left a pause between each new addition to the dress’s description.
    “What next, wings?” Natalya murmured.
    Both Grace and Kenzi glanced toward her, Kenzi’s eyes wide.
    “And wings,” Grace said promptly, before adding with what sounded like regret, “although not ones that would let you fly, that’s a bit beyond me. But I’m sure I could find ones that sparkle.”
    Kenzi lifted the pen and set its tip on the paper, but she didn’t write.
    “Come on, sweetie.” Grace’s voice was gentle. “We need to know your name to help you get home.”
    The little girl’s chin went up. Natalya’s eyes narrowed. And then the girl pulled the pad closer to her and with short, sharp, strokes, wrote a few quick letters.
    “Ha,” said Grace, watching her write. “Very funny.”
    The little girl’s mouth twitched as if she were trying not to smile. Or was it trying not to cry?
    Grace’s expression was unreadable, before she looked back at the girl. “That’s what you want to say?”
    The girl nodded.
    “Nothing else?”
    The girl shook her head.
    “All right.” Grace looked down at the paper and her shoulders lifted, part shrug, part chuckle. “I’ll buy you the doll anyway.”
    “What did she write?” Natalya asked. She’d already guessed it wasn’t a name, but was it something horrifying? Words an abusive parent might have called a stubborn child? Or something milder but resistant, like ‘none of your business’? Only in fewer letters, because she couldn’t have written a whole sentence.
    Grace didn’t answer for a moment as she tapped on her phone. Finished, she reached out and placed a gentle hand on the girl’s blonde hair, before saying calmly, “Welcome to the family.”
    “Wait, what?” Natalya stood. “That’s not—she’s not—she’s only here for the night, Grace. I have to bring her to the sheriff’s office this morning.”
    Grace laughed. Picking up the pad, she turned and tossed it in Natalya’s direction. As it fluttered down to the kitchen table, Grace said, “You obviously can’t come shopping with me because of your little friend here, but I assume you’ll be needing some girl’s clothes? I’d guess a size six, maybe seven? I can take care of that for you.”
    “Hang on, what are you—” Natalya reached for the pad as she started to protest. What was Grace talking about? And then she saw what the girl had written on the pad.
    KENZI.

Chapter Five
    Colin dropped into his office chair, exhaling with relief. Ten minutes alone, that was all he needed. He pulled open his desk drawer and grabbed a candy bar. He should eat a real meal, not sugar, but he didn’t have time. Nat and the girl would be arriving for a handover to the DCF caseworker any minute and he needed a chance to organize his thoughts.
    He’d rousted two deputies and a bloodhound out of bed before dawn to trace the girl’s path through the woods. The dog had quickly made it clear that Colin was an idiot. He knew exactly where the girl’s trail ended: at the road where she’d been found. What Colin needed wasn’t a search-and-rescue dog, but the kind of fabled Native American tracker who could follow a broken path through the woods, spotting every indentation or broken leaf. Unfortunately, he didn’t have one.
    He and the deputies tramped around for several hours, looking for any evidence of the girl’s passage through the forest, following paths until they disappeared, and then circling around to try again. He’d thought at one point they’d managed to get lost in the pine scrub themselves and wouldn’t that have