"Who the hell put you all there?" I asked the jewelry box with some frustration. "Why only three? Where's the fourth?" And who was the fifth woman?
Would I be able to spot her if we crossed paths, or had she gone native? Determined to find out who wanted me dead before I ended up at the bottom of the well, I left my room.
I wandered the house. I went first to John's room and stood outside it. He wasn't there, but it still felt like he was. The enhanced memories drifted to me the way those from the well did, in splintered patches of randomness that were difficult to follow, except when it came to the images of his wife and daughter.
"He loved them so much," I whispered, heart heavy. My eyelids drifted closed, and I watched the joyous memories of the old man that lingered with his energy in the place he passed away. Carrying real-Josie around on his hip, visiting the town square for a parade with his wife, stopping by the market at the edge of town …
I sucked in a breath, touched by the emotion that remained after John was dead. It was beautiful, pure, in a world that seemed to grow darker around me. I made another mental note to ask Carter what exactly he put in my head and how it worked when we met next.
For another ten minutes, I stood outside John's door, the rhythmic tick-tock of his grandfather clock the only sound. I watched the happy memories. Not yet convinced I did the right thing by hiding the truth, I suspected John might've known, since he knew Carter.
I released my breath and left his room.
I could hear the dead. It was a good thing when I sought a missing person. I moved slowly through the house with its multiple parlors and sitting rooms, listening for any whispers or trickles of memories that brushed by me.
Tracking down every servant I could, I greeted them all and watched how they reacted. If time travelers had a tell, I wasn't seeing it.
Hours later, I returned to my hallway and walked down it as well, realizing I had been avoiding the obvious: the source of my nightmares, the room at the very end. A whisper tickled the back of my neck, and I paused at the door.
Something terrible had happened there. The images were blurry, of blood and darkness. Two people … a fight … could that be what happened to the missing time traveler?
"Miss Josie!" Nell's call made me jump.
I faced her.
"Why are you not resting?"