Chapter 7
ZARA BEGGED OFF from more of the tour at about three. “I’m tired. Winter Syndrome wears a body out, I’ll tell you that. I’ll come over to visit when your young man wakes up.” She paused. “Though I guess, he’s older than any of us, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, far older. I’ll drop you off at the inn.” I drove her, both reluctant and relieved. But even though my emotional odometer was swinging like a pendulum, I realized that I needed some time to breathe and process everything I had learned. I thought about going home, but Aegis wouldn’t be getting up till after nine, and frankly, Kelson was better equipped to handle the guests than I was right now.
The only place I could think of to go was Sandy’s. While I had other friends, none would understand what I was facing more than she would. I pulled up outside her house and headed for the front door. Almost immediately, a man in a black suit and sunglasses stepped out from behind the trellis arch that spanned the sidewalk. He was carrying a very nasty-looking baton, and I saw a gun strapped to his belt.
“Excuse me, but may I see your identification?”
I stared at him for a moment, wondering what the fuck was going on, before it clicked.
“Rocco’s man, right?” I opened my purse and slowly reached inside, figuring that he was probably packing other heavy-duty weapons that I couldn’t see. After I showed him my identification, he nodded.
“Thank you, Ms. Gallowglass. We were told to let you right in if you came by.” He escorted me up to the door and knocked. A moment later, Alex answered.
I gave the security guard the thumbs-up before stepping inside. As soon as Alex closed the door, I let out a breath of relief.
“I’m glad Sandy’s being protected, but damn, that dude carries some hard-core energy with him. What is he? Weretiger?”
“Yeah, and you should see his buddy. Bigger and scarier than him.” Alex shook his head. “This is all too crazy. Who the heck could be targeting Sandy? Come on, I’ll take you to her. She’s in the office.”
He led me through the spacious mansion. Jenna was sitting on a bar stool at the kitchen counter, eating ice cream and reading on her tablet. I waved at her and she wiggled her fingers at me.
“Give me a moment,” I said to Alex.
“I’ll just let Sandy know you’re here. You can find your way to the office, can’t you? I’ve got some errands I need to run.”
“Of course. Go on.” I waved him off as I crossed the smooth polished tile to the counter. “Hey Jenna, what’s shaking?”
“Hi, Maddy.” She paused, spoon hovering over the pint of Berry Farms raspberry ice cream with streaks of white chocolate. I licked my lips, staring at it.
“That looks good.”
“It is. You want a taste?”
I nodded and she jumped down from the stool and got me a spoon out of the drawer. She handed it to me and I accepted a heaping spoonful of the ice cream. It melted on my tongue, an explosion of flavor.
“That’s so good. So how are you?”
She offered me the pint and I took another spoonful.
“I’m okay. I’m keeping up with my schoolwork, though I miss being there. But Aunt Sandy thinks it’s too dangerous right now.” She frowned, her lips twisting in that slightly bewildered way teenagers have of thinking things through. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Sure, though I don’t promise to answer.”
“Who do you think is targeting Aunt Sandy? And am I really in danger because of it?”
I frowned, worrying over the answer. Finally, I said, “As to the first part, I don’t know. I’m in the dark just as much as Sandy is. And regarding the second part…well…there’s just no good way to answer that. But because we don’t know, it’s safer to keep you here than let you attend school. If somebody wanted to hurt Sandy—really hurt her—they would target her friends, and you. Since whoever tried to run her down didn’t finish the job, they may go that route.”
I stopped, realizing that I wasn’t helping matters any. “But you shouldn’t be frightened. Max and his friends will keep you and Sandy safe until we figure this out.”
She laughed. “I’m not afraid. Well…not much. Not for myself. But I am afraid for her.” She paused. “I really like Aunt Sandy. Like I said, I wish she was my mom.”
That cut me in the heart. I had said those words so many times as a child about Auntie Berma, and a few other women I had known. Now I understood better, but when I was young? I wasn’t sure if I could have, even if Zara had explained everything to me.
“You know, mothers have a way of driving their children crazy sometimes. Don’t blame your mom too much. It’s not easy raising another person.” I stopped as a cloud crossed her face. “But it’s good that you and Sandy get along. I’m glad you have her to talk to.”
“Can I come talk to you if I need to?” The plea in her voice told me the teen was lonely.
I wondered if she had many friends at school, but decided to leave well enough alone for now. “Sure. My door’s always open. I’m going to go talk to Sandy now, all right? Thanks for the ice cream. It’s really good.”
“It’s my favorite flavor.” Jenna went back to playing with her tablet and I vanished into the office, thinking that today was just smack full of relationship issues for everybody.
SANDY HEARD ME out and then, shaking her head, said, “Oh man. You must be in a whirlwind right now. I can’t imagine finding out all of that in one afternoon.”
I gave her a helpless shrug. My emotions were in a whirlwind and I was afraid that by the time I sorted them out, it would be too late. “I don’t know what to think. It’s as though my mother showed up and said, ‘Guess what, my entire life has been a lie. Here’s the truth.’ And in that moment, I realized that she spent her life letting me resent her in order to prevent me from being angry at my father and grandmother. No matter how this falls out, there is no winner. Zara lost so much. We all lost in this one.”
“You have to be grateful she told you all of this. At least you have a chance to see her in a new light.” She paused. “I’m not saying she didn’t deserve your animosity. She wasn’t much of a mother to you. But now, before she…” Sandy broke off.
“You can say it. Before she dies. Because unless these last two treatments work, that’s what’s going to happen. I just wish I had known sooner.” It wasn’t fair. I wanted to rail at the universe. I never had the chance to know a mother I could love, and now that I found out the truth, I still probably wouldn’t have much time. I realized I was pinning a lot of hope on those two treatments.
“Are you going to contact Gregory?”
I let out a long breath. “I promised I would. But first, I’ll do a little research on him. Best to go in forearmed so I know what kind of a reception I might get.” I cradled the brandy Sandy had offered me, staring at the warm amber liquid. “Enough about me. How are you feeling?”
“I’ve felt better. I talked to my lawyer this morning about the Oyster Bar. Definitely arson, Joel Purdy said, so insurance should come through. Delia analyzed the note but no fingerprints, so even if they left the gas cans near the remains of my new restaurant, they were somewhat careful.” She grimaced. “I can’t believe someone hates me enough to want me dead.”
“Yeah, it’s a sobering thought. We haven’t been down this road in a very, very long time.”
“I hate keeping Jenna out of school. I know she’s itching to go back there, but I can’t risk her life. I hope she understands and isn’t too mad at me.”
I grinned, the first glimmer of a smile I had felt since Zara dropped the bomb about her condition. Leaning against the arm of the sofa that sat kitty-corner to Sandy’s desk, I said, “I think you can rest assured. Your young ward told me she wished you were her mother.”
Sandy was sitting in her wheelchair behind the behemoth glass and chrome monster she called a desk. She rolled her eyes. “I’m not surprised, to be honest. Derry loves her daughter but she loves her social life and her freedom more. Let’s talk about something different. I’m tired of trying to figure out who’s trying to kill me.”
“Oh!” I remembered the book I had picked up at Nandi’s. “Hold on, I have something to show you that may be just the thing.” I set down my snifter and ran out to my car. When I returned, I set the book in front of her. “Look what came in at the bookshop today.”
Sandy’s eyes lit up. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Yes—it’s in German, that’s the best I could manage. I’ll have to polish my language skills, but I was pretty sure you still remembered yours.”
“Yeah, I do.” She was rapt, slowly opening the pages and smoothing her way through them, running her hands over the handwritten text. “How many copies are there of this in the world?”
I frowned. “Probably two hundred. Since they have to be hand copied, and the binding is handmade, it’s a rare piece. I’m going to have to lock it up in the safe.”
“I didn’t know you had a safe,” Sandy murmured, still transfixed on the book.
“Not many people do. That’s the point. Franny does, of course, but I swore her to secrecy. And Bubba knows. What do you think, though? It occurred to me that there might be something in there about reversing curses, or at least identifying them. I promised Franny I would try to break the hex binding her in the house. I haven’t a clue where to start, primarily since I have no idea of how she was trapped there in the first place.”
“Look, you have a lot going on right now. I’m stuck here at home for a few days. Leave the book with me and I’ll start looking through it to see what I can find.”
“That’s perfect. I think you remember your German a lot better than I remember mine.” I hadn’t planned on this, but it would help both Sandy and me. “Just don’t let that out of your hands, all right? It cost me a pretty penny.”
“Not a problem. I have one of the best security systems on my house that I can buy, not to mention all my own wards.”
“And let’s not forget you have two big-assed goons outside your house. Seriously, if anybody decides to mess with them, they’re nuts.” I glanced at the clock. “I have to get moving. I need to welcome Delia’s cousins, even though Kelson took care of them when they arrived. And I should take care of a few other errands. You’ll be all right?”
Sandy nodded. “Just peachy. Although I wish we’d get a kick-ass healer in town with a ‘mend-bones’ specialty. While I’m healing fast, it’s not the same as someone who can just stir a few herbs into a pot, say a few words and boom! Everything’s good.”
Laughing, I blew her a kiss and headed out. Sandy always could make me laugh. And in lieu of laughter, she always had a stiff drink waiting, and a shoulder to cry on.
BY THE TIME I got home, Delia’s cousins were in the dining room, eating a snack. Kelson had brought out a lemon pie that Aegis must have made after I went to sleep, when he made the muffins, and it looked so good that I asked her to bring me a slice.
I sat down at the table with them. “Welcome to the Bewitching Bedlam. I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you arrived, but we’ve had a lot of unexpected fires arise that I had to put out. I’m Maudlin Gallowglass and I take it that you are Carolyn Wulfner, Delia’s cousin?”
The woman looked wiry and tough, though slight, nodded and took my hand. “Thank you, we’re glad to be here. Yes, I’m Carolyn, and this is Jake, and our twins, Amy and Ria.”
The girls were adorable. They couldn’t have been more than seven—or whatever the werewolf equivalent to that might be—and they had strawberry blond pigtails, and one was missing her center tooth. They promptly stood as their mother introduced them, dipping into a quick curtsey.
“Hello, ma’am,” they said in unison.
As they sat down again, diving into their pie, I couldn’t help but smile.
“Well, I hope you enjoy your stay in Bedlam. Kelson said you were from Bellingham?”
“Yes, we like it over there, but we were thinking of possibly moving to Bedlam. We want to spend some time around the island before we make up our minds.” Jake was a man’s man—hefty, with broad shoulders, and a five-o’clock shadow that looked rough enough to sand wood with.
I started to ask if they were thinking of enrolling the girls at Neverfall, then stopped myself. Neverfall was for magical students, mostly. And werewolves usually didn’t care to involve themselves in magical affairs.
“Well, I hope you enjoy your stay. If you need anything, please feel free to ask Kelson or me. My boyfriend, Aegis, is a vampire—he’s the chief cook and baker here. And you may see Franny around. She’s our permanent house ghost.” I finished my pie, which was as delicious as it looked, and stood. “Is there anything else I can get for you?”
Carolyn shook her head. “Thank you but no. We won’t be in for dinner. We’re eating in town and then going to stroll around the downtown area.”
“I recommend the Blue Jinn. It’s an excellent restaurant.” Taking my leave, I headed back to the kitchen, my plates and theirs in hand.
Kelson took the plates from me. “Anything else you need me to do?”
“Just the usual,” I said, feeling restless. “I’m going to sit out back for a while. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do. My mother will be back around nine o’clock.” Leaving her to clean up, I headed out into the yard, wanting to be alone for a while.
MY YARD WAS coming together. Three acres, it stretched out mostly to the back of the house. About two acres were wooded, thick with cedar and fir, birch and holly. I decided to take a walk through the trail that the landscapers had fashioned. Rough cut, it needed work still, but it was navigable. I had warned them to remove as few trees as possible, and they had managed to create picnic areas throughout the woods without clearing many of the towering trees. What I wanted, eventually, was to establish a campground where guests could reserve a private camping site. I was planning on installing a small restroom/shower facility at the back eventually. There was a small stream farther toward the end of the lot, and it cut through the entire plot of land. I had asked the landscapers to build a footbridge over it.
As I entered the woods, the smell of green hit me. Some people didn’t understand the concept, but to me, certain smells identified as a color. The ocean waves and the scent of saltwater brine was always a certain shade of blue to me—the color of twilight, where blue met gray and turned into a silvery sheen across the horizon. The smell of evergreen trees that were still moist from a light summer rain identified as teal in my mind—between blue and green, rich and deep.
I stopped by a thick stand of blackberries. They’d be ready to pick in about two or three weeks. I had ordered a bench built here—there were several scattered along the walk—and now I sat down, watching the fat, fluffy bumblebees search for the blossoms that hadn’t bloomed yet. I pulled my feet onto the bench, wrapping my arms around my knees and resting my chin on top of them.
As I was sitting there, trying to relax, I heard a noise. I glanced up. There, I saw Bubba bouncing along the path. He wasn’t alone. Beside him was a gorgeous cat.
I blinked, straightening up. Bubba wasn’t allowed outside after around five. He knew the curfew and followed it. And he wasn’t supposed to leave the yard except when I was around. I frowned.
“Hey, Bubs…if you leave the yard again without asking me, I’ll have to reinstitute the ‘indoor-only’ rule.” I stopped as he scowled.
“Mroof!” The meow was clear enough. He turned to the calico. She was a gorgeous blended calico with rich shades of black and red running through her fur. Her belly, under chin, and boots were all white. She blinked, looking at Bubba, who nudged against her, and then up at me.
“Well, hello.” I paused, glancing at Bubba, who once again headbutted her. He blinked at her, and she blinked back, then reached out and gave him a lick on the head, to which he purred and leaped up on the bench beside me. She followed suit, nosing at me curiously.
“Could it be…are you a cjinn, too?” I reached out slowly and she let me pet her head. I closed my eyes but felt no magic emanating off her, other than the natural magic that all cats possessed. Bubba, though, looked proud as punch.
“I think I see what’s going on. You’ve found yourself a girlfriend, haven’t you?” I tilted my head, smiling. And then, a thought hit me. If she wasn’t spayed, that meant trouble. For one thing, Bubba wasn’t fixed. If he had been a regular housecat, I would have made sure he was properly neutered. But because he was a cjinn, there was no way in hell I could do that without his permission. I stared at the pair, wondering how to proceed.
“Um, Bubs, you do know she’s not a cjinn?”
He gave me a disgusted look. “Mrrf?”
“Yeah, I know. I know. You’d be the first to figure that out.” I paused.
The calico was wearing a purple collar, and I gently turned the tag around where her name was marked. “Well, hello, Luna.” I looked for an address, but couldn’t find any. Nor a phone number. And no license. So, she was Luna, but where she lived remained a mystery. “Do you have a home, pretty girl?”
Bubba bumped my hand at that, staring up at me soberly. He gently took the side of my hand in his mouth and pulled, just slightly.
“You want something? Want me to follow you?” I stood up and he jumped down, giving Luna a long look. She joined him. Then, with another glance at me, he turned and began to trot back along the trail, toward the house. I waited for a moment, and he paused, looking back over his shoulder at me.
“Mroof.”
Again, the odd meow. I began to follow him, and he and Luna led me back to the kitchen door. As I opened it, they darted inside and I followed.
I HAD FINISHED looking over the lost and found column on the Bedlam Crier website. No mention of a lost cat. At least, not one that matched Luna’s description. I called the animal shelter and they ran a check. Two Lunas were listed in their files, but one was listed as a black male cat, and one was a German shepherd, obviously neither the Luna standing in my kitchen.
Bubba had led her over to the food dish and I told Kelson to go ahead and feed both of them. Luna ate like she was starved. She didn’t look all that thin, but then again, I didn’t know what her normal weight might be.
It was seven-thirty and time for dinner. The lasagna was smelling so good, my mouth watered. Henry Mosswood had made his way to the table, but the newlyweds were out, as were Delia’s cousins. I didn’t feel like eating alone, so I carried a plate into the dining room.
“Feel like company?” I asked.
Henry beamed. “I’d be honored, Miss Maudlin.” He jumped up to pull out the chair for me.
Feeling touched, I sat down. “How’s the book coming?”
“Oh, it’s going… I’ve got more research than I know what to do with, but I still don’t feel like I’ve pinpointed a few of the time frames I’m looking to touch on. This is going to be a monster of a book, you know.” He was smiling like a starstruck teenager. I had the feeling that nobody ever really asked Henry about his work. In fact, I had a feeling that Henry seldom ever talked to anybody.
“How is it that you came to decide on Bedlam as a subject for your research?” I forked up a bite of the lasagna, closing my eyes as the rich blend of cheese, noodles, and meat sauce melted in my mouth. Aegis was one hell of a cook, all right.
Henry started with the broccoli on the side, I noticed. He tapped his napkin to his mouth after swallowing. “Well, I suppose it’s all right to tell you. I don’t talk about my past much, Miss Maudlin. It’s not exactly something I’m fond of revisiting.”
“Oh?” I hadn’t even dreamed that Mr. Henry Mosswood might have deep dark secrets. That would teach me to stereotype.
With a soft shrug, he nodded. “Yes, actually. I’m human, as I’m sure you have figured out, but I was born in 1840, on August the third.”
“Wait…what?” I blinked. “That would make you almost…”
“Yes, I’m almost 177 years old. And yes, I am human. I was twenty-five when I met a woman named Althea. She was beautiful, charming, and witty, but she was also meaner than a snake, and she was a daughter of the Confederacy. She was incredibly angry about the fact that her side lost the war, and she was forced to free her slaves. I was a colonel in the Union Army. The war had been horrendous. You can’t imagine the carnage…or perhaps, you can? I don’t know if you witnessed it. I tried to keep my men alive, but nobody was safe.”
I shook my head. “No, actually, I wasn’t near the action,” I murmured. “I was in the States by then, but I was heading west.”
“Well, trust me when I say it was bloody. I lost a lot of friends in the war. Anyway, I was stationed in Maryland. We were a border state. My regiment actually fought at the Battle of Antietam. Anyway, after the war, I resigned from the army and stayed in Annapolis. That’s where I met Althea. We were dining together at Governor Cresswell’s house, at a dinner party he threw to ease the tensions between those who resented the outcome of the war and those who had played an instrumental part in it. I don’t know why, but Althea decided to pursue me.”
I was entranced by the story. Henry had his secrets, all right, and they ran far deeper than what I had envisioned. “Did you like her?”
“No, and that was the problem. As I said, she was meaner than a snake, and that became quickly apparent. I called on her a couple of times till I realized what she was like beneath the wit and the charm. But what I didn’t know was that she was a witch. She was a Dirt Witch, and she fell in love with me. I didn’t return the feelings.”
He paused, as if to say You do the math. Which I did, adding up to a big, fat, uh-oh.
“She hexed you?”
“Oh, did she hex me. She told me she had decided not to kill me, but to make me feel as rejected as she did. She cursed me with long, long life…but with an inability to ever fall in love with anyone.” His voice held a wistful note.
I hung my head. It sucked when one of my kind chose to pull a crap stunt like this. It wasn’t like he had led her on, or at least I didn’t think so.
“You never told her you cared about her?”
“No. In fact, after the first outing I tried to beg off, to politely tell her that I thought we’d best go our separate paths. She begged me for one more chance, and because I was a gentleman who really didn’t want to disappoint a lady, I took her to a dance. Neither time did I ever kiss her, or express any interest in a romance. But she decided that if she couldn’t have me, nobody would.” He cut into his lasagna, and we ate in silence for a moment.
Finally, because I wasn’t sure what else to say, I said, “I’m sorry. Do you know how long the curse will last? Could she still lift it, if you found her? And would you want it lifted?”
If somebody were to break Althea’s curse, it could very well lead to Henry’s immediate demise. He might age so quickly he’d be dust on the floor before a minute had passed.
“Honestly? I don’t know if she’s around still. I have no idea how old she was, though she looked to be about twenty. But I know that’s no guarantee of her actual age. And truth be told, I’m not unhappy. Would I have liked to have gotten married and had children? Yes, I think so. At first, I dated a lot, but there was never any woman who wanted to go out with me more than once.
“Finally, I settled into a life of books and ideas. I moved away, became a schoolteacher, and then moved on from institution to institution as the years wore by. I did age, to a degree, but not fast enough to keep up the ruse. I was caught between worlds, Miss Maudlin. Between the human world and your world, belonging to neither.”
He finished—the most I had ever heard him speak—and sat back, holding my gaze. “I’ve never told anybody my story before.”
“I’m honored that you trust me.” I paused, thinking through what to say. “I know someone who might be able to break your curse, if you should ever want it. Meanwhile, I’ll keep your secret, and you can rent a room from us as long as you like.”
“Thank you,” he said, standing as I stood. “And thank you for listening. I think…it was long overdue that I talked about this. I quite feel the better for it.” And with that, he took his dessert and headed up to his room.
I cleared the table for Kelson, pausing as Bubba and Luna bounced through the kitchen. “Dude, does she have a home? Do you know? Her owners will be frantic about her, if she does.”
He gave me a long stare, then grumbled something under his breath, and turned to her. A moment later, she walked over to the slider and I let her out. She bounced across the yard, as Bubba pressed his nose against the glass.
I knelt beside him. “Little dude, we can’t keep her if she’s got a home. I’m sorry. I know you like her.”
He gave me a long, soulful look, and then padded away. I let out a sigh. It seemed that unfinished love stories were the soup de jour of my evening.