“Where are you? You disappeared after….”
“Where I am doesn’t matter, nor do the events in Boston. I need your help.” Grace held her breath as she waited for him to answer. He’d always told her she was one of his best students. Archie had also said he considered her a friend.
Would he help?
“What can I do?”
“I need all the published scholarship you can find on reincarnation.”
“Reincarnation? Grace, you can’t possibly be taken in by all that spiritualist nonsense that’s getting so much press right now?”
She almost laughed. Archie would never believe in Luc or his curse. However, her mentor had always been a good teacher, and good teachers encouraged students to question everything.
“I haven’t read a newspaper in months, Archie.”
“Really? Have you fallen off the edge of the world? What’s going on, Grace?”
She could see him smiling and shaking his head behind the behemoth of a desk as he had so many times when she followed an erroneous logic thread during one of their tutorials.
“I need to…” She took a breath. How to explain? “I need to debunk some rumors, so authoritative scholarship on the subject is important. Can you send it?”
“Of course. I’ll have my secretary make up a list. From that, I’ll tell her what to find and send. What’s the address?”
Grace told him of the Post Office in Duval Point.
“You’re in Louisiana? Such a long way for escape. Why there?”
“Like I said, that’s not important. Send the parcel Cash on Delivery.”
“If you insist.”
He wouldn’t. He was always generous with students. He thought all students impecunious whether they were or not. She hadn’t received that sort of kindness in a long time.
“I do. Have your secretary call me with the cost,” she said.
“It will be expensive, Grace.”
“You know I can handle any cost, Archie.”
He chuckled. “Your family always was well off.”
“Aunt Sarah marrying an Alden didn’t hurt the coffers any.”
“True.”
“When will you come back, Grace?” He asked, his voice higher. “We could use someone with your background. The new director’s attention is divided. He’s looking for able assistants.”
“I doubt he’d care for someone with my reputation.” She kept her voice even, banishing the pain of truth from her statement. Much as she’d love to get back to her work, Grace would never be able to do so again. Not in Boston, nor elsewhere. Her work had been her life.
Been.
As in, her past.
What was her future?
“You were acquitted,” Archie reminded her.
“Thank you for the vote of confidence, my friend, but I’ve no desire to return to Boston. I have commitments here.”
