People slowly trickled out of Maldon, unsure of the sudden freedom they had been granted. Many ran back into town at the sight of the oncoming army of friends and relatives, but others hurried forward to be hugged and kissed and to exclaim over how much time had truly passed.
Danny guarded his mother from elbows and hands as she weaved through the crowd. She reached an empty clearing and looked around.
“I don’t see him,” she panted. “Do you?”
“No,” Danny said, “but he’s probably still in the clock tower. Let’s just wait.”
The crowd thinned. People were either entering the town or whisking away loved ones to continue their reunion in the field. Leila worried her lip so much that Danny feared it would start bleeding.
He was about to suggest going inside when an arm fell heavily across his shoulders.
“Hello, and who might this tall lad be?”
“Dad!”
“Christopher!”
They both turned and winded him with their embrace. Christopher Hart laughed and held them as tightly as he could manage.
“What’re the tears for? It’s only been a day.”
“A day!” Leila repeated in a near-shriek. “You buffoon, it’s been three bloody years!”
“Zounds. No wonder you look older.”
When Danny stepped back, he had to wipe his eyes on his sleeve. Leila cried freely and tried to halfheartedly smack her husband. With her free hand she pulled him down for a rough kiss.
Danny quickly became fascinated with the grass at his feet.
Done for the moment with their reunion, Christopher pecked his wife on the forehead. She wrapped her arms around his waist.
Danny’s father looked him over with a sharp, wide smile. His green eyes, like Danny’s own, shone with joyful tears.
“The spirit told me what you did, Danny. Look at you!” He put a proud hand on his son’s shoulder and shook it. “Saving towns left and right. Where did you learn to do that?”
“From you,” Danny said.
With Christmas around the corner, and her husband safely home, Leila decided to give Danny his present a few days early. He woke one morning to find a new auto sitting at the curb.
“Mum!” he yelled as he ran around in his robe, hair sticking up in all directions. A girl riding by on a brass-plated bicycle giggled at him. “Mum, this is for me?”
“All yours,” she said as his father inspected it. He had bemoaned the loss of his own auto, but now his face lit up like a boy’s. “Had to put in a little extra time at work, but I thought it was time for a change.”
Danny looked at her. All the late nights she was gone, Danny had been convinced it was because she couldn’t stand to be in the same house as him, when all the while …
“Mum,” he began, but he couldn’t find the words. She gave him a tremulous smile. There were still broken pieces at their feet, but in this moment he felt one slide back into place. It was only a matter of time before they replaced the rest.
After Danny and his father played around with the settings and took the auto on its maiden drive—it ran beautifully—Cassie came over to share in their delight. She immediately asked to take apart the engine, to which Danny gave a firm and non-negotiable no.
“It’s one of the newer steam models,” she said, stroking the bonnet. “Much more dependable.”
“It’s really a marvel. You were right, I should have gotten one sooner.”
“See? And yet you never listen to me.” She peered at the driver’s seat. “Will you let me install a new holster?”
“Of course.” He had seen Cassie since the freeing of Enfield, had tripped over his words in his haste to thank her, and to say that she had saved his life. He hadn’t quite expected her to burst into tears and hug him so hard his ribs creaked. It wasn’t the way she’d cried when William died; this time it was with relief.
Cassie leaned against the auto and folded her arms. “So what’re your parents going to do now? Your mum still thinking of taking the new job?”
Danny leaned against the fence across from her. “I don’t think so. Not now that Dad’s back. Honestly, I don’t think she cares where she lives so long as he’s there.”
Cassie nodded, then ran her fingers over the auto’s black finish, unable to help herself. “Well, she did a fine job, picking this beauty out.”
“I think I’m in love,” Danny said.
Cassie looked at him from under her eyelashes. “Speaking of which, what exactly is going to happen now?”
“What d’you mean?”
“You know. You and the ‘blond bloke.’”
Danny looked up at the sky, which was churning with snow clouds that would unleash their burden sometime soon. He reached into his pocket to touch the small cog there, feeling along its edge with a fingertip.
“Did they suspect anything?” Cassie asked, worried by his silence. “Will you be able to see him again? Don’t tell me they sacked you!” When Danny remained quiet, she shoved him. “Tell me, then!”
Danny breathed in deeply. He could smell the snow on the way. “Well …”