A Discovery of Witches(225)

His diversionary tactics were working. I was too busy listening to his story to pay much attention to my arm.

“But Jefferson praised Jenner because his inoculation relegated smallpox to a disease that would be known only to historians. He’d saved the human race from one of its most deadly enemies.” Matthew dumped the empty vial and the inoculator into a sealed biohazard container. “All done.”

“Did you know Jefferson?” I was already fantasizing about timewalking to eighteenth-century Virginia.

“I knew Washington better. He was a soldier—a man who let his actions speak for him. Jefferson was full of words. But it wasn’t easy to reach the man behind the intellect. I’d never drop by his house unannounced with a bluestocking like you in tow.”

I reached for my turtleneck, but Matthew stilled my arm and carefully covered the inoculation site with a waterproof bandage. “This is a live virus, so you have to keep it covered. Sophie and Nathaniel can’t come into contact with it, or with anything that touches it.” He moved to the sink and vigorously washed his hands in steaming-hot water.

“For how long?”

“It will form a blister, and then the blister will scab over. No one should touch the site until the blister heals.”

I pulled the old, stretched-out turtleneck over my head, taking care not to dislodge the bandage.

“Now that that’s done, we need to figure out how Diana is going to carry you—and herself—to some distant time by Halloween. She may have been timewalking since she was an infant, but it’s still not easy,” Sarah worried, her face twisted in a frown.

Em appeared around the door. We made room for her at the table.

“I’ve been timewalking recently, too,” I confessed.

“When?” Matthew paused for a moment in his work of clearing up what remained from the inoculations.

“First on the driveway when you were talking to Ysabeau. Then again the day Sarah was trying to make me light a candle, when I went from the stillroom to the orchard. Both times I picked up my foot, wished myself somewhere else, and put my foot down where I wanted to be.”

“That sounds like timewalking,” Sarah said slowly. “Of course, you didn’t travel far—and you weren’t carrying anything.” She sized up Matthew, her expression turning doubtful.

There was a knock at the door. “Can I come in?” Sophie’s call was muffled.

“Can she, Matthew?” Em asked.

“As long as she doesn’t touch Diana.”

When Em opened the door, Sophie was moving soothing hands around her belly. “Everything’s going to be all right,” she said serenely from the threshold. “As long as Matthew has a connection to the place they’re going, he’ll help Diana, not weigh her down.”

Miriam appeared behind Sophie. “Is something interesting happening?”

“We’re talking about timewalking,” I said.

“How will you practice?” Miriam stepped around Sophie and pushed her firmly back toward the door when she tried to follow.

“Diana will go back in time a few hours, then a few more. We’ll increase the time involved, then the distance. Then we’ll add Matthew and see what happens.” Sarah looked at Em. “Can you help her?”

“A bit,” Em replied cautiously. “Stephen told me how he did it. He never used spells to go back in time—his power was strong enough without them. Given Diana’s early experiences with timewalking and her difficulties with witchcraft, we might want to follow his example.”

“Why don’t you and Diana go to the barn and try?” Sarah suggested gently. “She can come straight back to the stillroom.”

When Matthew started after us, Sarah put a hand out and stopped him. “Stay here.”

Matthew’s face had gone gray again. He didn’t like me in a different room, never mind a different time.

The hop barn still held the sweet aroma of long-ago harvests. Em stood opposite and quietly issued instructions. “Stand as still as possible,” she said, “and empty your mind.”

“You sound like my yoga teacher,” I said, arranging my limbs in the familiar lines of mountain pose.

Em smiled. “I’ve always thought yoga and magic had a lot in common. Now, close your eyes. Think about the stillroom you just left. You have to want to be there more than here.”

Re-creating the stillroom in my mind, I furnished it with objects, scents, people. I frowned. “Where will you be?”

“It depends on when you arrive. If it’s before we left, I’ll be there. If not, I’ll be here.”

“The physics of this don’t make sense.” My head filled with concerns about how the universe would handle multiple Dianas and Ems—not to mention Miriams and Sarahs.

“Stop thinking about physics. What did your dad write in his note? ‘Whoever can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead.’”

“Close enough,” I admitted reluctantly.

“It’s time for you to take a big step into the mysterious, Diana. The magic and wonder that was always your birthright is waiting for you. Now, think about where you want to be.”

When my mind was brimming over with images of it, I picked up my foot.

When I put it down again, there I was in the hop barn with Em.