Ribbing and Runes

by Nancy Warren

“I don’t know. You practically accused me of killing the witch, and I hadn’t, so I didn’t tell you I’d been at her cottage.”

  “How did she seem? Was she ill? Was anyone else there? You may have been the last people to see her before I found her on the floor dying.”

  She shook her head. “We weren’t the last. That man was.”

  Chapter 15

  I could cheerfully have slapped my cousin. “What man?”

  “How should I know? A man. He was coming toward her cottage as we were leaving.”

  “What did he look like?”

  “A man. Middle-aged. Not remarkable in any way.”

  “Tall? Short? Dark hair? Light?”

  “Tall, I think. And I couldn’t see his hair. He wore a cap.” She tapped her foot. “And to answer your question, Karmen said she’d offer us tea but she wasn’t feeling well. She was going to lie down.”

  “So you took your face cream and left.”

  “Yeah.”

  Before I could ask anything else, she said, “We can’t leave your mother in the shop alone.” And ran down the stairs.

  While I was in my flat anyway, I fussed with my appearance. Okay, it was super vain of me, but I changed my top for a prettier one and did the best I could with my hair and brushed my teeth and refreshed my makeup. I was a bride-to-be about to spend time with her fiancé. I was allowed to fuss a little. No doubt the day would come when Rafe would find me slopping around in my old sweats, my hair unkempt and my socks unmatching. But that day had yet to dawn.

  This also gave me a few minutes to calm down and sift what Violet had shared. Naturally, it would have been very helpful if she’d shared this information earlier. She’d passed a possible murderer. Had Tilda seen this person? Did the police know about his visit?

  When I got back to the shop, Vi and my mother were giggling over something.

  Even though I was annoyed with my cousin, I still thought it was cute that these two had bonded over my hen party. They were relatives, but, because of the falling out between Gran and my great aunt Lavinia, the two families had never spent much time together. I’d never even known I had a cousin. Violet avoided all conversation about witchcraft with my mother. I wasn’t entirely sure what they found to talk about, but they seemed to chat away like old friends. And they certainly enjoyed ganging up to tease me.

  Violet clearly wanted to make nice, as she told me she’d finish packing the mail orders for me and would even take them to the post office and mail them.

  “And don’t worry about leaving the shop, Lucy,” Mom said. “I’ll spend the afternoon here. I can help if any customers come in.”

  This was so different from the mother I used to know. She’d suddenly become quite supportive of Cardinal Woolsey’s. It probably wouldn’t last, but it was a relief not to field her constant suggestions for better career choices. I said goodbye to them both when Rafe’s car pulled up in front and ran out to join him.

  On the way to Wallingford, he told me about how William was driving him mad turning the manor house and gardens into a wedding venue. “He seems to have forgotten that it’s also my home.”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing out loud. Rafe had wanted to get married there as much as I had. I suspected pre-wedding jitters and was charmed.

  And then I told him about Violet and Margaret Twigg visiting Karmen the day she’d died. He wasn’t as concerned as I was that the police didn’t know about this mysterious tall man in a cap who’d come to call, but then he’d seen a lot more of the world—and death—than I had.

  Soon we were pulling up into the drive that led to the old pub and Karmen’s cottage. A cold shiver ran down my spine as we pulled up and the memory of her awful death came back to me, as sharp and clear as when I’d seen her transformed into an old woman, dying in front of me.

  “And the police have no leads?” I asked him. He always knew. He had contacts everywhere.

  He hesitated, looking worried. “She died of arsenic poisoning. I wasn’t going to tell you until after our wedding.”

  “Arsenic poisoning,” I repeated, thinking back to the rune box and the “present” it contained. I didn’t want to think someone was out to kill Karmen and me. “Could she have made a bad batch of her elixir?”

  “I don’t think so. There was too much arsenic to have been an error.”

  Great. “Well, maybe if you look around today, you’ll see something the police have missed.”

  He didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. “Perhaps.”

  We got out and headed to the pub. I knocked on the door and Tilda opened it. She looked as though she’d been recently crying. “I would have brought your things to you. You must have such a lot on your plate, getting married.”

  But she held the door wide, and we both walked in. Her eyes widened slightly when she saw Rafe. She must have been remembering the last time she’d seen him, that awful day when her employer died. All I said was, “You remember Rafe? He’s my fiancé. He drove me here.”

  Oh, Lucy, how many more times can you fit the word “fiancé” in during one day?

  She said, “Congratulations,” to him. Then to me, she said, “I have your bridesmaid gifts over here. I thought you might like to look at them before we package them up. Just to make sure everything’s perfect.”

  “That’s a great idea,” I gushed, not because I thought she’d made any mistakes but so Rafe could wander around for a few minutes undisturbed. I doubted there was too much here in the pub where Wallingford Botanicals’ business was run. No doubt we’d have to come back under cover of darkness and have a good snoop around her house. There was no sign of police activity, so presumably they’d finished their forensic investigation.

  In spite of her grief, Tilda had done a perfect job. The cloth bags were beautifully sewn, and the names embroidered on the front. I doubted I’d be giving my bridesmaids these gifts now, though. What if they were “accidentally” laced with arsenic too? I couldn’t take the chance. I wanted to keep Tilda talking for a few minutes while Rafe snooped around, so I asked her whether she’d be staying on.

  “I think so. I hope so, but that depends on her husband. He inherits everything.”

  “Her husband?” This was news. There’d been no trace of a man in Karmen’s home. “I had no idea she was married.”

  “They haven’t been together for years. Patrick Herrick runs a crystal shop in town. I’ve asked him to think about keeping the business going. I could run it myself if I hired a helper. He said he’d think on it.”

  I tried to keep my expression neutral, but Patrick Herrick could easily fit Violet’s description of the man who’d visited Karmen as they were leaving on the day she died. Perhaps, while we were here, we might pay Herrick’s Crystal a visit.

  There was no sign of Rafe in the main room. He was in the kitchen studying one of the stenciled sayings. “These are interesting,” he said as we came into the kitchen. “Were they here in the old days at the pub?”

  There was no way those stencils were that old, and if I knew it, he definitely knew it. He must have been trying to get some information out of Tilda. Obligingly, she walked closer to him.

  “I don’t think so. I’ve always assumed that Karmen put them there. They’re in Latin, aren’t they? I don’t know what they mean. Never thought to ask Karmen.”

  “Interesting,” he said again. And then looked at me. “Ready to go?”

  I nodded, and we left.

  I waited until we were driving away to ask, “Well? Did you find anything?”

  “Only that saying stenciled on the wall.”

  “My Latin’s a little rusty. What did it say?”

  “Essentially, from the cygnet comes the swan.”

  “Hardly a revelation. A cygnet’s a baby swan, right? And it grows into a swan?”

  “It’s also associated with alchemy.”

  Now that was interesting. “Really?”

  “Yes. And that symbol that was beside the stenciled saying bu
t down below a little bit. That’s the symbol for arsenic.” I remembered the symbol. It was a triangle with the sharp point facing down and a shape like the letter A without its crosspiece over top, and a tiny squiggle trailing off the right side of the open A. Who decorated their walls with symbols denoting a deadly poison?

  Now I felt as though I’d dipped my feet into ice water. “Arsenic killed Karmen.”

  “And arsenic almost killed you, if you’d taken that substance that was in the box with the runes.”

  He didn’t need to remind me. “And the message on the box, ‘As above, so below,’ also refers to alchemy, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “But I don’t understand. Why would she have the alchemical symbol for arsenic on her wall?”

  “Arsenic is a powerful symbol of alchemy itself. Arsenic in its raw state is a dull white color, but when heated, it changes color.”

  “But still, it’s a strange thing to put on her wall.”

  “There were a lot of strange things on her wall. I had a few minutes to study the various sayings while you two were busy. They all relate to alchemy in some way, but there are snippets of various ideas and concepts. She had quotes stretching from Isaac Newton to Carl Jung.”

  “Do you think she just stenciled things that interested her? Maybe the arsenic symbol appealed to her visually.”

  “It’s possible, but I don’t think so. Like all alchemists, I suspect Karmen was very secretive. Everything was in code.”

  “And so you think if we could crack the code, we might figure out who killed her?”

  “If we could crack the code, we might find her recipes.”

  “Do you really need a recipe to turn lead into gold?” I asked it a bit sarcastically. That man did not need any more wealth.

  He looked at me in surprise. “No. I want to stop that recipe from falling into the wrong hands.”

  I shuddered at the idea of the wrong person pretty much having an endless supply of gold. They could seriously screw up international markets, build armies. I could think of a lot of things somebody with evil intent and a lot of money could do. I understood why he wanted to make sure we got there first. Except that I didn’t think she’d been turning out gold. “Rafe, I think she’d found the elixir of youth, not a way to make gold.”

  He turned to look at me. “Yes. Exactly. Imagine such a formula in the possession of someone with evil intent.”

  Like, for instance, her murderer.

  “Maybe whoever killed Karmen already has what they were looking for.”

  “It’s possible, but I don’t think so.”

  “Why?”

  He shook his head. “Instinct. Some things I can’t explain, I just sense.”

  I nodded. It was something I understood well and was only beginning to really listen to in my own life. I’d ignored that little voice of wisdom too many times, and now I was trying to treat it with the respect it deserved. And what was that little voice trying to tell me now? I closed my eyes and went back to that scene in the pub.

  “Do you think Tilda knows anything?”

  “Not to be rude, but one glimpse of Tilda’s aging complexion and I would say no.”

  “Can we make a stop in town? I want to visit the crystal shop.” Then I told him what Tilda had shared, about Karmen being married to Patrick Herrick, who owned the shop. I couldn’t tell Rafe about the moonstone buttons with the tiny suns and moons carved into them, but they were symbols of alchemy too. Alchemy was suddenly everywhere.

  “I think that could be the guy Violet saw when she and Margaret Twigg were leaving Karmen’s house that day.”

  “Her description was so vague, it would fit any number of middle-aged men.”

  “True, but how many of them were married to Karmen?” I shifted in my seat. “Besides, I can’t give my bridesmaids these creams now. What if they’re laced with arsenic? But there were some very pretty bracelets in Herrick’s Crystal.”

  “Fine.” Rafe found a place to park, and we walked up to the crystal shop.

  Fortunately, Patrick Herrick was alone in his shop with a newspaper spread out on the top of his display counter. If he recognized me, he gave no sign. I was so happy he didn’t say, ‘So, did those moonstone buttons work out for your wedding dress?’ as I wanted every piece of my dress to be a surprise to Rafe. “Afternoon. Looking for anything special?”

  “Yes.” I went to a lovely sterling silver bracelet with an aquamarine set into it. “I want to buy four of these but each with a different stone. Could I have them within a week?”

  “If I’ve got the stones, I don’t see a problem.”

  “Wonderful. I had planned to give my bridesmaids gifts from Wallingford Botanicals, but now that Karmen’s dead…” I petered out, watching him carefully. His gray eyes sharpened, but he only said, “Very sad business.”

  “You were married to her, I understand.”

  “Not for years.” He picked the bracelet out of the display case. “What stones were you thinking of?”

  “Serpentine for a woman who loves to garden. It’s a stone that connects to nature.” Even though Olivia wasn’t a bridesmaid, I wanted to get her one of the bracelets.

  He nodded, found me some, and I chose a piece that was the color of moss with streaks of yellow through it.

  “For my friend who’s expecting her first child, I thought red jasper.”

  He nodded. “The nurturer. Excellent choice.”

  Then, with great casualness, while I perused the stones, I said, “I really like the Wallingford Botanicals creams. Will you keep the company going?”

  “Don’t know yet.”

  For Violet, I thought jet, good for scrying and intuition, and it was grounding. Plus, she wore a lot of black.

  My eye kept going back to the aquamarine bracelet. I’d been undecided about what to get Jennifer amid a huge life transition. Jade for good luck? Opal for magic and visions? But really aquamarine was a go-with-the-flow kind of stone. Good for clarity, which would be perfect for someone going through a transition. And it was so pretty. I could see the aquamarine bracelet on Jen’s wrist.

  Having made my choices, I took out my card to pay. “When will Karmen’s funeral be held? I’d like to attend. I didn’t know her well, but we were friendly.”

  As he rang up my purchase, he said, “Police haven’t released her body yet. I’ll warn you now, she specified a woodland burial. Never mind that she’s got a ruddy great mausoleum in her back garden.” The irritable way he discussed her final arrangements very much sounded like an ex-husband.

  A woodland burial was a popular choice for a witch, easing her earthly body back into nature. As above, so below.

  He said he’d let me know when he had a date for the ceremony, though I rather thought I’d find out through the coven. I was to come back in four days, and he’d have the bracelets ready.

  Once we were back in the car, I asked Rafe, “Do you think he killed his ex-wife?”

  “Not ex, apparently. It sounds like they never bothered to get divorced.”

  “That old pub and the cottage and land it’s on must be worth quite a bit,” I said.

  “Enough to murder a former wife over?”

  And wasn’t that the question?

  Chapter 16

  As we drove back to Oxford, I said, “If Patrick Herrick killed Karmen, he didn’t do it for her youth formula, based on how old he looks.”

  “I agree. If the killer’s got hold of the elixir of youth, I imagine they’re using it.”

  “So we’re looking for somebody with unnatural, youthful good looks and very nice skin tone.” I glanced at him. “Who doesn’t happen to be a vampire.”

  “I would say so.”

  “Where are we going to find them? People who are actually, genuinely young are going to look like that.”

  “Nobody said it would be easy. And Karmen, like many an alchemist before her, did everything she could to obscure her path.”

  “You don’t think sh
e obscured it completely?”

  “It would be unusual. She had to be able to recreate her recipe. Possibly pass it on. No, I expect it’s well hidden. No doubt she has a workshop, too, also well hidden.” After a while he said, “We need to search her house and property.”

  I’d known we would get here, but still I shied away. “Rafe, what if we get caught? We’re getting married in a week. I don’t want to postpone the wedding because one or both of us is in jail.”

  “It won’t come to that,” he said with confidence.

  I wasn’t so sure. Besides, I actually wanted to plan my wedding, not spend the next week digging around for musty old alchemy secrets. I had Jennifer to entertain and our shared discovery that we were both witches to explore further.

  I’d have gone back home with Rafe, but of course I had a house guest. So I got him to drop me off at my flat. “Try not to worry,” he said, kissing me goodnight.

  I’d try, but I doubted I’d succeed. I went upstairs feeling tired and unsettled, but at least I had the bridesmaids’ gifts sorted out.

  As I walked into my flat, my nose picked up a mingling of scents that immediately transported me back to my childhood. The nose can be as good as a wand at casting a spell and sending you back into the past.

  Immediately, my mood lightened. Yes, Karmen was still dead. And yes, something very strange was going on and I might even be in danger. But Jennifer was here, and I smelled popcorn and hot chocolate. I ran the rest of the way up the stairs and found her in the living room.

  She said, “Oh good. I was afraid I’d started the popcorn too early.” She gave me a searching look. “Are you okay?”

  I flopped down on the couch beside her. “Better now.”

  “I’m sure you have a million things to do, but just for tonight, we’re going back in time.”

  I liked this idea already. “Let me change into my sweats. I’ll be right back.”

  I ran upstairs and washed my hands and face thoroughly, just in case anything had attached to me from an alchemist’s workshop where she kept the symbol of arsenic prominently on the wall. I came back down, and I swear my tread was lighter, as though I were thirteen again. On the table in front of the couch were two huge bowls of popcorn, laden with butter exactly the way we both liked it. Beside that was a bowl of mixed American candies that made me laugh out loud.