“Where’s Uncle Colin?” Keira asked, looking around.
“In the workshop,” her mother told her.
Uncle Carl sucked in a surprised breath. “Oh! Oh! We can look in the box now!”
He opened the door, but couldn’t move because Maggie lay partially in his lap.
“Up, child,” he said. “Up. Up.”
Maggie winced as Eric helped her sit up.
In a flash, Uncle Carl was out of the car and around the back. He hit the trunk twice. “Open it. Come on, come on. Open it.”
“Relax, Carl,” Mother Trouble said as she got out of the car. “Whatever it is you’ve got back there, there’s no reason to get so excited.”
“No reason to get so excited? No reason to get so excited? Do you know what we found, Deirdre?”
“Obviously not.”
He paused, smiling. “A Maker’s box!”
“Carl, just take a moment and…Wait. A Maker’s box? You can’t be serious.”
“Deadly serious.”
“For Heaven’s sake, Ronan,” Mother Trouble said as she moved quickly to join her brother. “Open the trunk!”
The trunk popped open, then Mr. Trouble, Keira, and Fiona got out of the car, leaving Eric in the center of the back seat with Maggie still on his lap.
“Oh, um, here,” he said, helping her move onto the seat.
She immediately closed her eyes tight and rubbed her head again.
“Still have the headache?” he asked.
She opened one eye just enough so that he knew she was looking at him. “What do you think?”
He scooted toward the door. “I’ll see if they have some aspirin. You can lie down if you want.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, though it was clear she wasn’t.
They both got out on separate sides, then Maggie sagged wearily against the front fender. Keira stepped over and leaned in to check on how she was.
On Eric’s side, Fiona and her brother were standing several feet away, talking quietly.
“You did everything right,” Fiona was saying as Eric walked up. “I should have never questioned you.”
“I should have prepared everyone for something like this,” Mr. Trouble said. “It’s my job to consider all the possibilities.”
“But this was so much different than—” She stopped as she realized Eric was standing next to her.
“Maggie’s headache’s still pretty bad,” Eric said. “Do you guys have something she can take?”
Fiona looked at her brother, then back at Eric.
“Of course,” Fiona said. “I’ll go get something.” She reached out, gave her brother’s arm a squeeze, then headed for the plane.
From behind the car, Uncle Carl said, “I can carry it myself.”
Eric and Mr. Trouble turned just in time to see Uncle Carl lift the jacket-covered Maker’s box out of the trunk with Mother Trouble trying very hard to help him.
“All right, just be careful,” she said, stepping back.
Uncle Carl huffed. “Of course I’ll be careful.”
Without another word, he began walking quickly toward the workshop. Mother Trouble followed just a few feet behind him.
When she noticed Eric and her son looking at her, a giant smile grew on her face. “This is so exciting, isn’t it?”
Not waiting for a response, she continued after her brother.
“So, what do we do now?” Eric asked. “Do we just wait around until morning and…and…” He couldn’t think of a way to finish the sentence so he just let it hang, hoping Mr. Trouble would have the answer.
“I have a feeling by the time the sun comes up, your problems will be over, one way or another,” Mr. Trouble said.
That wasn’t exactly the response Eric had been hoping for.
Mr. Trouble must have sensed Eric’s unease because he smiled and added, “Preferably our way.”
“Why do you think it’ll be over by morning?”
Mr. Trouble looked out into the dark, empty land. “Because if I didn’t, I’d be underestimating them again. And if I were them, I wouldn’t wait until the morning.”
“Have you seen this happen in the past?”
Mr. Trouble was silent for a moment before turning to Eric. “We have records on every case from 1801 until now. As far as I’m aware, and as far as Uncle Carl can remember, there’s nothing mentioned in any of those that even comes close to this. Things are happening much faster than they ever have, and with more intensity.”
“Do you know why?” Eric asked.
Mr. Trouble looked out into the night again. “We really haven’t had much time to try to figure it out. Once our job here is finished and we go home, we’ll have to sit down and attempt to do just that. I know this doesn’t really help your situation, but I’m hoping it’s just a one-time thing. Because if it’s an indication that things are changing….” He took a deep breath, then put a smile on his face and looked at Eric again. “But you don’t need to worry about all that. For you, we just need to concentrate on the here and now.” He clapped a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “You want to see what’s in the Maker’s box?”
“Can I?” Eric asked, his fears momentarily overridden by curiosity.
“I think you’ve earned that right.” He looked over at Maggie and Keira. “We’re going to the workshop. You ladies want to join us?”
Keira said something to Maggie, then answered, “We’ll be there in a bit.”
“Okay,” Mr. Trouble said. He caught Eric’s eye and nodded toward the plane. “Let’s go see if there’s anything in those drawers.”
24
Unlike Eric’s last visit to the workshop, this time every single monitor was pulled down to eye level and turned on. Each had a grainy green image on it, but no two were the same. Most were showing shots of landscapes, while a couple were of buildings, and one looked very much like the Lady Candice.
After a closer look, he realized it was the Lady Candice, and the buildings were the barn and the farmhouse they’d passed as they’d driven in. So the landscape shots must have been of the surrounding area.
No one seemed to be paying attention to the monitors, though. The two uncles and Mother Trouble were huddled in front of the Maker’s box, which they had put on the workbench.
One of them had attached a clamping device to the top of the box to keep it from moving.
“Find anything?” Mr. Trouble asked.
The two uncles whirled around, surprised, but Mother Trouble didn’t even flinch.
“Not yet, sweetheart,” she said, still looking at the box. “I believe we were just about to open the first drawer. Isn’t that right, Colin?”
Uncle Colin touched the odd-looking goggles that sat on top of his head as if he were making sure they were still there. “Uh, yes. Exactly right. Exactly right. But…” He looked at his nephew.
“Yes?” Mr. Trouble asked.
“Um…do you think…” Uncle Colin tilted his head twice to his left toward Eric, “…should be here? It would be highly irregular.”
Mr. Trouble almost laughed. “Isn’t everything we do highly irregular?”
“He has a point, Colin,” Mother Trouble said.
Uncle Colin hesitated a moment, then smiled. “Well, you are the one calling the shots. If you think he should stay, then…he should stay.”
“Now that that’s settled, can we get back to work, boys?” Mother Trouble said.
“Of course,” Uncle Colin said as he turned back to the box.
Mr. Trouble and Eric moved in behind them, but the wall of adults was too tall for Eric to see anything. He craned his neck and leaned side to side, but at best he could see only a sliver of what was going on.
“Hang on,” Mr. Trouble said. He pulled a large plastic bin out of one of the storage cabinets and set it on the floor. “Stand on that. If it’s not high enough, I can get another.”