The Secret of Sentinel Rock Read Online Free

arms over her chest in silent refusal as her mother disappeared into the porch. The more she thought about it though, the more she realized how difficult it would be for her mother to understand what had just happened. Her mother didn’t believe in anything she considered “fanciful,” and going into the past certainly qualified in that ­regard.
    In fact, Emily was having trouble herself coming to terms with what she’d just gone through. Now that she was safely back it didn’t seem quite real somehow. Maybe her mind had been playing tricks on her. She hadn’t slept well the last few nights and she was overtired. Could she have imagined the whole ­thing?
    Slowly she uncrossed her arms and walked into the house, opening the back door that led into the kitchen. All was quiet, except for a floor creaking and the faint muffle of voices somewhere overhead. She hadn’t realized she’d stood outside so ­long.
    “Mom? Mom, where are you?” Emily crossed the kitchen and yelled from the foot of the stairs. “Aunt Liz?”
    Her mother poked her head out of a second floor doorway. “We’ll be right down, Emily. We just have to find something. You can start supper.”
    Emily didn’t need to be told a second time. She was hungry. Yanking open the fridge, she grabbed a casserole that one of the neighbours had brought soon after her grandmother died. She felt a pang in her chest at the reminder of her Grandmother Renfrew’s death. She popped the macaroni and hamburger casserole into the oven and then plopped a wooden trivet on the oak table top. How she wished she could discuss today’s strange occurrence with her Granny ­Renfrew.
    A while later Kate and Liz appeared, dishevelled and dusty. They’d been digging in a back closet, looking for a box of special papers. As Aunt Liz sank with a sigh into a kitchen chair, she suddenly seemed old to Emily. But then she was over sixty, and she was undoubtedly exhausted after the ordeal of the last few days. As she sagged into the chair, she closed her eyes and laid her head ­back.
    Emily’s mother, too, looked tired around the eyes, but being ten years younger than Aunt Liz and the “unexpected baby” of the family, she still seemed to have plenty of energy. As Kate entered the room, she scanned the scene and deftly retrieved the casserole from the oven, plunking it into the middle of the table, while Emily finished placing the napkins by the ­plates.
    As the three of them sat down to supper, Emily discovered that her dad had gone to drive her oldest aunt home and wouldn’t return until later in the evening, and that Aunt Liz would be going to stay with some friends for the ­night.
    Vaguely aware of the conversation going on around her, Emily forked food into her mouth and shuddered. How horrible if she’d been stuck in the past right now, instead of eating a nice hot meal with her mom and aunt. She glanced out the low kitchen window and saw the sun was just now dipping into rosy hues at the horizon. If her adventure this afternoon had been real, there must be some kind of time warp in Emma’s time – like something she’d seen on Star Trek . Would Emma’s family be eating now too? They probably didn’t have many kinds of ­foods.
    “Slow down, Emily,” laughed her mother. “You’d think you hadn’t eaten in days.”
    “Sorry, Mom. I didn’t realize how hungry I was.” Emily popped the last bite into her mouth and laid her fork beside her empty plate. She eyed the dessert platter across the table filled with cakes, squares, and tarts, all leftovers from the funeral. Her stomach had been too knotted up to eat much over those first few days, but she could certainly appreciate the baking ­now.
    Aunt Liz saw her inspecting the plate of sweets and passed them to her. Emily selected a couple of ­brownies.
    “Thanks, Aunt Liz. These are delicious.”
    “Agnes Barkley made them,” said Kate. “She always was one of the best bakers around.”
    Aunt Liz wrinkled