I left the photos arranged across the chaise, went to the desk, saw the call was Battle, so I took it right away.
“Hey, honey,” I said, rounding the desk and sitting in the chair.
“How’s your day been?” he asked.
“Do you want the good news, or the bad news?”
“Shit,” he muttered.
“Okay, let me rephrase. None of it is really bad news, as such.”
“Let’s start with that, then.”
“This morning, I called the local paper and asked if they were publishing in 1946. They were. I then asked if they would be all right with me perusing their stacks. When I told them who I was and what I was working on, they said they’d pull all the digital files for the dates I was looking for. So I went into town after lunch and had a good gander at everything two weeks before the date Marie recorded in her journal, and two months after.”
“Let me guess. Nothing,” he deduced.
“There was a national preoccupation with some viscount from Northumberland going missing. But considering Northumberland isn’t super close to Devon, and he was last seen in his club in Newcastle the day before Marie’s entry, no. Nada.”
“I’m sorry, darling.”
“You want the good news?”
“Absolutely.”
“I asked Prue to come with to help look, and she did. I also asked Chassie, and without that first hesitation, she agreed to go too.”
I could hear the happy in his voice when he said, “Excellent.”
“Not even a little hesitation, honey,” I reiterated.
“I think you’re having a positive effect on her.”
I was stunned.
“Me?”
“You have been key in urging her out of her shell.”
“I appreciate you wanting to hand me so much credit, but I just gave her the opportunities, as have Prue and Tempie, because another stroke of good news is that we’re all going to meet Ravenna on Wednesday. Even Tempie.”
“And even more excellent.”
“But none of us should forget it’s Chassie who’s doing the heavy lifting. None of us are forcing her into cars or trains. She’s taking those steps herself. These are her victories.”
For a second, he said nothing.
And then he said, “You know how very fond of you I am.”
Fond wouldn’t be the word I’d use.
But the way he used it, I was totally down with it.
“I know.”
“I hope so, because I am very fond of you, Vivienne.”
My heart skipped a beat.
