Page 104 of The Long Road Back to Yesterday

“You believed those stories?” Georgiana asked.

“We laughed at them. Sam stopped laughing after his father lost the farm.”

Jim settled back in his chair.

“His family had purchased barley seed that spring. His mother kept the receipt. It was dated April sixth, 1748, and Sam remembered the day because he had gone with his father to purchase the seed. The farm was still theirs then.”

Elizabeth glanced at Mr. Darcy.

“Sam wondered whether a thing connected to a particular day might help him reach that day. He had no proof. He had an old tale and a receipt, and that was enough for a desperate boy.”

Elizabeth understood the desperation.

“Every story we knew about Arbor Low named the eve of the winter solstice, so Sam chose December twenty-first. He meant to go to the stones at sunrise and remain until midnight if he had to.”

Jim shook his head.

“I told him he had lost his senses. He said there was no harm in trying. If nothing happened, he would come home cold and disappointed. If something did happen, he wanted someone there who knew what he had attempted.”

“So, you went with him,” Elizabeth said.

“I did.”

Jim rested his hands upon his knees.

“We prepared for the possibility that he might disappear and never return. Sam had already told his family he had considered going to London. If he vanished, I was to tell them he had gone there to seek his fortune. I hated the lie, but it seemed kinder than telling his mother that her son had vanished from a ring of stones because he believed an old fairy tale.”

Jim looked at Elizabeth.

“Sam prepared something else as well. A letter.”

She searched his face, waiting.

“Sam said that if he succeeded, no one would believe what had happened. He made me write that his father had lost the farm at a gambling table and that he intended to go to Arbor Low in the hope of returning to a time before the loss. I wrote that I had accompanied him there to witness the attempt. We both signed it and dated it December twenty-first, 1748.”

“And he took it with him,” Mr. Darcy said.

“The letter and the receipt.”

Jim continued.

“We reached Arbor Low that morning. Sam sat upon the broad stone at the center of the circle, with the receipt and letter in his pocket. I remained near the edge where I could see him. We each brought a basket with food and spent most of the day waiting.”

His face changed.

“Then the sun went down.”

All remained silent, watching his face.

“Sam was sitting where he had been all day. I blinked. When I opened my eyes, the stone was empty.”

Georgiana drew nearer to Elizabeth.

“I called his name and ran through the ditch and onto the henge. By then, the sun had set. At first, I thought he had hidden behind one of the stones to frighten me, though it would not have been like him. I searched everywhere, but he was gone.”

Jim looked down at his hands.

“By full darkness, I had searched the henge and the ground around it. I followed the old track in both directions and called until my throat hurt. There was no blood, no clothing, nothing to tell me where he had gone.”