Ribbing and Runes

by Nancy Warren

  “Peanut butter cups? Hershey’s Bars. And are those gummy worms?”

  “You bet. All the things we used to love as kids. I’ve even got licorice.”

  “This is so awesome,” I said, even sounding like I was back in the nineties.

  She went to the small kitchen and poured two big mugs of hot chocolate from a saucepan she’d had heating on the stove. “I could have done this by magic, but it was more fun to do it the old-fashioned way.” She popped marshmallows on top of the hot chocolate and came over.

  We both put our feet up on the coffee table and grabbed a bowl of popcorn and a tea towel.

  “Are you ready for my surprise?”

  “There’s more?”

  She laughed, turned on the TV, and there was an episode of Friends playing. “I had to do a compilation for you. I was going to just play the episodes where they go to London for Ross’s wedding, but he never actually marries that girl. It seemed like bad luck.”

  I couldn’t believe how much effort she’d gone to. “This is going to be so much fun.” And so, for one evening, I didn’t think about alchemy or witches or even wedding planning. I turned my phone off, settled back with my best friend in the world, and chomped popcorn and traveled back in time. At the end of two hours, we were both sniffling a little bit as the cast of Friends said goodbye to their apartment.

  She said, “I can’t believe how quickly time is passing. Lucy, we’re going to be thirty.”

  “I know. I thought I’d know who I was by now.”

  “Well, we know a lot more than we did when we watched this show.”

  This was true. Though life had been much simpler life back then, when marrying Chandler had been the sum total of my hopes and dreams in life. Jennifer had always been more Team Joey, so we didn’t even have conflict in that department. In fact, it was scary how compatible we were. Of course, now it made more sense. We’d probably been unconsciously using our magic all the time. I bet when there’d been a movie I’d wanted to see and she hadn’t and then suddenly she’d changed her mind, I’d unconsciously manipulated her. And when she wanted Ugg boots and I claimed they were too expensive, we suddenly found ourselves at the store buying matching pairs of Ugg boots in slightly different colors. She’d probably cast a spell on me. Ha.

  “Don’t forget we’re shopping for bridesmaid dresses tomorrow,” I reminded her.

  She groaned and grabbed her stomach. “I forgot. You never should have let me eat all that junk food. We’ll have to get up early and jog.” And both swearing we’d jog tomorrow, which we’d also used to say when we were thirteen and very rarely did, we both went upstairs to bed.

  Chapter 17

  Saturday morning Jen and I both forgot about the jogging. Scarlett and Polly arrived in plenty of time to take over Cardinal Woolsey’s. I’d made an appointment at a local bridal shop where the woman who owned it promised she had enough dresses in stock that she could have any alterations done in plenty of time. “Though you have left it a bit late,” she chided. I knew a week wasn’t a long time in the world of wedding planning, but I’d wanted to wait until the bridesmaids could go shopping together.

  We met at the bridal boutique, and all of us were in a happy mood, even Violet.

  Tara, who ran the shop, was about my age, and within five minutes of arriving, I knew we’d come to the right place. She was dressed stylishly, and her gowns were beautiful.

  She asked about the venue, and Jen, brilliant friend that she was, pulled out her phone and showed Tara photos of the garden and veranda of Rafe’s house.

  “What a stunning location,” Tara said in a posh girl accent. “I do love a garden wedding.”

  I showed her a photograph of my dress, and she praised the handiwork and said the style was perfect on me. Which was nice, seeing that she was in the business. “Right,” she said, “I’m going to pull out a few things that I think will suit all of you and look lovely with Lucy’s dress.”

  She and an assistant brought three gowns into the front showroom: a patterned floral dress with a sweetheart neckline, a long dress in lavender with short sleeves, and a pale green sleeveless column, also floor-length.

  I knew immediately which one I liked, but looked at the others, waiting for their opinions.

  “I like the green one,” Vi said.

  “Me too,” Jen agreed.

  “It’s my favorite, too, but what about the tummy?” Alice asked, then explained in a shy but very proud voice that she was expecting.

  “Let’s try them on and see,” the very practical Tara suggested. “Why don’t you all try the green one on and we’ll go from there.”

  “I’m a size six,” Jen announced.

  “Not in the UK, you’re not,” Tara informed her, handing her a dress.

  She eyeballed both the other women and handed them dresses, too. Oh, she was good.

  I sat in a plush chair surrounded by mirrors and waited as the three bridesmaids went into the changing rooms.

  When they came out in the green dresses, they all looked amazing. There was a slight sideways sweep of fabric across the waist that hid Alice’s barely-there pregnancy and was flattering to the other two. They preened and looked critically at their back views, and then the three of them stood together. “What do you think?”

  “I think you all look beautiful.” They did, too. The color flattered all of them and the dresses were simple and classic.

  They tried on the other two dresses simply to confirm that the first choice had been the right one, but we all agreed that the green was the winner. There were a few alterations to be done, but they were all slight, and Tara promised the dresses would be ready by Wednesday. That left days to spare before my wedding.

  That done, we headed in search of shoes and ended up with silver sandals that Alice picked out and all of us loved.

  After that, naturally we went out for lunch. It was nice for Jen to get better acquainted with Alice and Violet, and I was happy to see that Violet was in good form. I suspected she’d needed to feel more a part of the wedding.

  We lingered over coffee, and then Alice said she had to get back. Violet had some other shopping to do, so that left Jen and me. “Do you want to go somewhere?” I asked, thinking I could take her sightseeing.

  “What I’d really like to do is head to Rafe’s house. Now that we have the bridesmaid dresses picked out, Olivia and I need to choose ribbons and make certain all the flowers and plants still work.”

  I loved how seriously Jen was taking her duties, plus I was happy to spend the afternoon at Crosyer Manor. It was a beautiful afternoon, and I was certain William would have questions for me.

  I called to let Rafe know we were on our way, and by three, we were pulling into the drive. “Every time I come here, I feel like I’m about to step into a British costume drama,” Jen said, already reaching for Henri’s treat.

  We spent a busy afternoon planning things like lighting for the wedding reception when the sun went down, and while William ran over a million details with me, Jen and Olivia worked on décor.

  Rafe came in and out, looking distracted. Lochlan came in at one point carrying his briefcase. Rafe had put him in the guest wing, as he was doing business in Oxford and London while he was here.

  I finally followed Rafe into his study to find him puzzling over the spellbound alchemy book. “No luck?” I asked. “Maybe the spell has to come off first.”

  “But the book’s perfectly legible. My guess is the book works on two levels.”

  “Like alchemy?” I asked him. “As above, so below.”

  “Exactly.” He pushed the book away. “And this witch’s death is bothering me, too. The police have precious few leads in the case.”

  I had an idea. “Rafe, what if we call a special meeting of the vampire knitting club? Not a regular knitting meeting but one where we got a bunch of different brains working on the puzzle of Karmen’s death.”

  “That’s not a bad idea. I’m certainly out of ideas. Lochlan
’s got a good head for that sort of thing, too.”

  I didn’t want to hold it in the back room of my shop as usual, because Mom had a habit of arriving at my place whenever she felt like it. What if she came to call on me upstairs? And I was in the back room with a bunch of vampires, including her own mother? I didn’t think that would go over well. We were getting on so well doing all this wedding planning, I didn’t want to ruin a good thing.

  “We’ll have it here,” Rafe said. He looked quite pleased by the idea. “Tonight?”

  I put up my hands. “I don’t have any other plans. And Jen will get to meet the other vampires.”

  Lochlan and Jen both said they were in, so Rafe organized it with the other vampires. This wasn’t the first time we’d met at his place, and it was easily accomplished. As many as could pile into the Bentley did, and Carlos, the Cardinal College student who had become friendly with Hester, also brought some of the vamps in his car.

  Naturally, even though we were here for sleuthing, everybody still had their knitting. Including Jennifer. I had a partially completed winter scarf that I’d left at Rafe’s, so I unenthusiastically pulled that out.

  I introduced her to everyone, and she sat next to Gran. They seemed delighted with each other and chatted away until the meeting began.

  Lochlan didn’t knit, so he manned the whiteboard. He seemed very accustomed to doing that. I supposed a guy who ran a high-tech firm was pretty used to scribbling stuff on whiteboards—though hopefully, not very often clues to a murder.

  He started out by putting the dead witch’s name on the top. Karmen Herrick. “What do you know about her?” he asked aloud, and as we called out ideas, he wrote down in bullet points:

  Alchemist, looked much younger than her actual age.

  Called the Wicked Witch of Wallingford. (Gran couldn’t help herself.)

  Died of arsenic poisoning.

  Last words “The book.”

  Ran Wallingford Botanicals.

  I had printed off the pictures that I’d taken of those stenciled slogans in her kitchen, and we passed them around.

  When they got to Jennifer, she looked very closely before saying, “Rafe, do you have any alchemy books? What do the rest of the symbols look like?”

  Naturally, Rafe had loads of books on alchemy, probably every one ever printed. He brought her out a selection, including the one he’d mysteriously acquired, and while the meeting went on, I watched Jennifer flip through one after another. I suspected she had something in mind and she’d speak up when she had something to say.

  She came at last to that strange new/old spellbound book, and when there was a pause, Jennifer said, “I think I might have found something.”

  Naturally, we all turned to her. She looked at Lochlan. “Do you mind?” And then she rose and came forward. He happily passed her the pen for the dry-erase board, and she drew the arsenic symbol.

  Then she drew a second one. I wasn’t sure where she was going with this.

  It was Theodore who said, “They aren’t the same.” Trust an artist to have that kind of eye to detail.

  “They aren’t?” I asked. I couldn’t see the difference.

  She nodded her head and nodded to him as though he were a prize pupil in her class. “Exactly. Look at this.” And she circled a squiggle at the bottom of the arsenic symbol that had been stenciled on the wall of Karmen’s workshop kitchen. And then she opened the mysterious alchemy book, and there was the same squiggle. “But in regular alchemy books, the symbol for arsenic doesn’t have that extra codicil.”

  “That’s very clever of you, dear,” Gran said, as proud as though Jen was another granddaughter.

  She nodded, looking pleased with herself. I passed the book around, my chest swelling with pride. Jennifer was my best friend for a reason. And the vampires who’d definitely been a little uncomfortable having yet another mortal amongst them immediately warmed up to her. I could see that by the end of the evening, she’d be an honorary member of the club too. I mean, unlike me, she could actually knit.

  Rafe said, “Well done, Jennifer.” He was always generous with praise when somebody got something right.

  “But what does it mean?” Hester asked, looking aggrieved by the whole process. I thought she was just annoyed that she hadn’t figured out the connection.

  “I think it means,” Jennifer said, “that the Wicked Witch of Wallingford owned this book. And I’m going to take a huge step forward here and suggest that she’s the one that put the spell on it.” She tapped the word “book” on the whiteboard. “And this is what she was referring to when she cried ‘the book,’ the last words she spoke before she died.” Jen turned to Rafe. “Did she know it was in your possession?”

  “I’m beginning to think she was the one who sent it to me,” Rafe said.

  “If we can break the spell of this book, we may figure out who murdered her.”

  There was silence in the room as we all took this in.

  “But how are you going to break that spell?” Gran asked. “It looked very tightly locked to me.”

  I had an idea. “We were able to turn back a hex that Karmen witch put on Violet. It was the combined power of me, Violet, my great-aunt Lavinia and”—here I felt my voice hitch—“and Margaret Twigg, the head of our coven.”

  Jennifer nodded as though it was a good idea. “So the combined power of the right energy might just be enough to break the spell.”

  “I think so. Maybe.”

  “I still don’t understand why that witch tried to kill Lucy with a poisoned elixir of life sent to her in a box decorated with runes,” Gran said.

  Jennifer wrote on the board, As above, so below. “That was the basic message of the runes, correct?”

  Rafe agreed that it was.

  She tapped the pen against the saying. “That’s one of the most important slogans in alchemy, and it was the message on the rune box.”

  We all looked at her, waiting for the next part, but she seemed like she’d run out of steam.

  Rafe continued, “And the swan is often used as a symbol for arsenic in alchemy.”

  I felt a jolt of excitement. “From the cygnet, comes the swan. Another stenciled saying on her wall. Are they clues? Like a treasure hunt?”

  Sylvia had been watching all of this with cynicism, I thought. Meanwhile, she was busily knitting. But suddenly she put her knitting down and said, “I don’t give a flying fig who killed that woman. But I paid an extremely high price to buy Lucy enough of the elixir of life to keep her young and beautiful for centuries. That’s all I care about. So where’s this woman’s recipe book? Where’s the elixir she took for however long she’s been alive? That’s what I want to know.”

  Lochlan nodded. “We should probably get hold of her alchemist’s laboratory. If she successfully managed to make the elixir of life, then you’re right. It shouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.”

  “As above, so below. Did she have swans?” Gran asked.

  Sylvia suddenly put her knitting away and stood up. “I don’t know about you, but I feel that there’s no time like the present. We’ll need shovels and some good strong backs. Somewhere in that witch’s house or on her property, we will find that elixir. Who’s with me?”

  Jennifer turned and stared at me with a startled gaze. I shrugged. I was too accustomed to Sylvia to be surprised. Besides, what seemed like time to go to bed for us was when the vampires were at their most energetic.

  “Sounds like an excellent idea,” Carlos said. “I have a strong back. I don’t mind doing some digging.”

  Once the young, sexy Spaniard had spoken, all the vampires agreed that they also had strong backs and could think of nothing they’d rather do than dig up a witch’s garden in Wallingford in the middle of the night.

  Rafe looked at me inquiringly, and I nodded. I didn’t think I’d get any sleep tonight anyway. We might as well take a field trip.

  He said, “Olivia will have gone to bed now, but there are shovels and eve
ry gardening tool you could imagine in the outbuildings. Help yourselves.”

  Carlos led everyone out. Only my gran and Sylvia stayed behind. I hadn’t thought that Sylvia would be the one to get her hands dirty. She was more management than labor.

  “Do you think she really did have the elixir of life?” Jennifer asked.

  Sylvia nodded.

  “Wow. That would be cool,” Jennifer said.

  I nodded.

  “And possibly dangerous,” Jennifer reminded us. “I was looking through those alchemy books. A lot of their recipes contained arsenic in small quantities.” She put up her hands. “And I think most of them didn’t work.”

  “If Karmen’s elixir kept her alive well past her natural span, a little arsenic can’t have done her much harm,” Sylvia said, finishing a row.

  Lochlan said, “It’s all about balance.”

  “You don’t have to come with us,” I said to Jennifer. “You must be so tired.”

  She looked at me. “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss it.”

  So we decided that everyone would go in the same car as they arrived at Rafe’s in, except that Jennifer and I would go with Rafe in his Land Rover and Lochlan would ride along with us. Unfortunately, the noise and commotion of several vampires helping themselves to the tools out of her gardening shed woke Olivia, who stumbled out, looking understandably annoyed.

  When she heard what was going on, she first of all wanted to come along with us, but Rafe said there were too many people coming already.

  When Alfred and Theodore and Hester arrived with various digging implements, some of them with earth clinging to them, Sylvia freaked out. “I’m not having all that dirt in the Bentley.”

  Olivia, sleepy as she was, managed a chuckle. “Why don’t you borrow my truck?”

  That turned out to be a fabulous idea, and after noisily loading all the shovels and picks into the truck, we set out.