by Olivia Swift
He smiled and dropped an arm over her shoulders.
“Sweetheart? That puts Irina right out of my mind.”
“Figure of speech,” she said but settled against him. “I wonder what the café is like now everyone has gone. Is the kitchen working?”
“Come on, then.” He pulled her to her feet. “Come and see your fabulous workplace.” They grabbed jackets, locked the cats in the room, and drove to the main street. The men had put up a temporary door at the end of the alley because there was now a lot of valuable equipment inside. Sam opened the padlock, and they stepped into the courtyard.
“This will be like a desert floor?” she asked and he nodded and told her that it would look like sand but would be very hard.
“Easy for wheelchair access, and the potted plants will look good.” He opened the double doors and scratched one of them with his key. “I think this wood might well be a light, almost sandy shade as well.” She looked at the scratch mark and agreed. Then he switched on the lights, and she gasped with genuine amazement at the gleaming kitchen that was all hers.
She skipped around the room and he watched with a smile on his face. He was pleased with the result and told her the floor was still to be polished.
“Oh, Sam. Thank you. It is everything I dreamed about.” She came and put her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss his lips. For once, he was not giving it his complete attention, and his eyes were looking behind her head.
17
Magda turned to see the faintest shadow of a dark-colored dress fade away into nothing.
“Great-Grandaunt Irina, is that you?” Magda asked. There was no reply and no shadow appeared.
“Aunt Irina, I love you. This is Sam Barnes and not Samuel Carter. We hope you know that.”
There was a faint breeze that blew past both of their faces, and the door closed gently of its own accord. The slightest hint of a lavender perfume floated on the air and then disappeared.
“I think she knows that.” She turned to Sam. “This is an experiment. Take part, please.” She wound her arms around his neck and pressed her body against him.
“Yes, Boss,” Sam whispered and took her lips with that gentleness that took away her breath and her senses. The kiss was several seconds long, and when she knew she had to come up for air, she pulled back and they both looked around.
“No Irina; no cat. It worked,” Magda said. They stood in the middle of the gleaming kitchen and waited to see if there was anything else, but all was calm.
“Thank goodness,” Sam said with feeling. “I don’t want to be fancied by your great-grandaunt.”
She laughed and ran her hands over the serving counter with the new glass-covered display cabinets for the truffles and turned to see the shelves for storing the boxes of goodies. She turned taps on and off, opened the refrigerated case doors and went to view the new restrooms installed by the plumber at the rear of the new extension.
“This really will be Chocolate Magic,” Magda declared. “I can’t wait to start using it.”
Back in the car, she called Melissa and then Branston to tell them what happened. Merle came on the line and asked if she could visit again at some point, and they arranged to meet up in two days after Sam had been away and come back.
The cats were behaving themselves, and the Birmans had allowed the newcomers beside them on the sofa.
“Five cats take up a surprising amount of room,” Magda remarked and asked him what time he was leaving in the morning. “Hardly worth going home,” she added and said she would set the alarm for three.”
“Oh Lord,” he moaned. “Do I really want to get up this early?”
“I’ll get up and have a coffee with you,” she offered and then added that she would then go back to bed. He struggled out of bed and went off reluctantly to collect his overnight bag from home. The cats seemed to have accepted each other quite happily, and Magda snuggled back into bed. She reached across to where he had been and sighed.
“You have to accept that you miss him when he goes away, Magda,” she told herself. “Things are never going to be the same again.” Her thoughts turned to Great-Grandaunt Irina, and she felt sad that the woman seemed to have not been allowed to be with the man she loved. She let herself fleetingly accept the love word and smiled thinking about him. “Keep a watch over him, Aunt Irina, and bring him safely back to me.”
The cats found the slightly open door and settled down beside her. Pushkin joined the two Birmans and they seemed happy together. She remembered that Katie was working at home and gave herself and the cats another half an hour in the bed. Then she got up to make truffle centers to build up the stock for the café.
By coffee time, she had a text from Sam to say he had arrived at the client’s office. Katie sent her a copy of what she had designed so far, and she called Rula to see if she could pick up a takeout lunch and come over.
The chatter with Rula and her mom was a lovely, cheerful time, and she told Rula about what was needed in the café and how they would organize the grand opening.
“I need to see the place now that it is more or less finished,” Rula said, and Magda answered that the following evening should be fine, but she would check that the ground was hard enough for the wheelchair.
Magda worked hard all through the afternoon and had built up a large number of truffle varieties ready for their coating. She was about to give herself a break when the phone rang and it was Declan.
“I’m finished the doors and things, Magda, and giving myself a couple of days off. I can take the cat and settle her in if you like.”
“That would be great,” she replied, “because I have them all here. I’ll bring her over. She took a note of his address and tidied herself up. “Come on, Marianne. Let’s start your new life.” The little, black-and-white cat gave her a solemn look and slid into the carrier.
Declan lived out of town in a wooden house he had built himself. She sat in the car and took in the details. It looked a work of art. He came to the door and waved to let her know she was at the right place, and she took the cat inside.
The three resident felines came and walked suspiciously around the cat carrier. Magda bent to stroke them.
“Alli, Sally, and Molly.” Declan grinned.
“And Marianne. Maybe she’ll be Annie.” She opened the crate, and they waited to see what would happen. Marianne stepped out. Looked around like she owned the place and decided the sofa would do nicely.
“Well, she seems happy enough,” Magda said. She looked around. “Your place is great.”
“Well, it’s the job so it should be,” Declan replied. “Made all the furniture as well.”
“You didn’t?” she answered and ran her hand over the coffee table. “It is beautiful.”
You might like to see what I did for the cats,” he said and moved to the glass doors. When they were opened she saw that the deck outside was completely enclosed in a cage made of pretty timber beams and almost invisible wire mesh. “They can come outside but stay safe,” he added.
“That is just wonderful. I wonder if I have room for the same sort of thing.” The cats followed them out, and one of them ran up the wire to the top and then lay on the branch of a potted tree. “Lucky girls.” Her phone rang and it was Sam.
“Hiya, gorgeous,” he said when she answered.
“Hiz yourself,” she answered and told him she was standing at Declan’s.
“What? I go away for one day, and you are off flirting with somebody else.”
“I can hear you,” Declan called out. “She’s trapped in a big cage on the deck.” Sam laughed out loud.
“You haven’t shown her that? Now she’ll want one the same.”
“Already thought about it,” she replied.
“Has Declan finished the doors?” She handed over the phone and looked at the cat area while the two men ran over the work.
“So, the doors are sandblasted?” she asked when the phone came back.
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�And the new outside doors are in place.” Sam repeated what Declan had said.
“Marianne is at her new home. I might look at the doors on the way back. Declan says he’s having a couple of days off,” she told him. Sam said he was starting back after he had something to eat.
“Should be back around one in the morning.” They hung up.
Declan gave her the keys. “You’ll need these for the new doors. Hope you like them.”
She looked at him and asked if he had made them. The man nodded and started for the door.
“I did see your great-grandaunt today,” he mentioned and she stopped in her tracks. “There was no cat, and she looked kinda sad and then faded away.”
“I’ll see if she appears when I go in. We think she lost the man she loved because of her brother. Incidentally the boyfriend was a carpenter. Maybe she feels a connection. It is sad to think she was bullied by my great grandfather.”
She drove back to the main street and found parking. Walking, she then turned down the alley at the hiking shop. As she turned into the courtyard area, she was brought to a standstill by the new double doors in a light-colored wood with colored-glass insets near the top. The colored glass matched the tables and chairs.
“Good job, Declan,” she said out loud and opened them up to be struck again by the old doors sandblasted to their original and beautiful shade. She stepped inside the new extension, saw the tables and chairs set roughly in place. She opened up the original doors to reveal the gleaming counter. The floor had been polished in the kitchen, and the extension and the whole place was a sheer delight.
Magda sat on a chair to take it all in and then she felt, rather than saw, her great-grandaunt come in the room as well.
“Hello Great-Grandaunt,” she said. “Do you like what we’ve done with the old stable?” A warm breath of air crossed her face, and she felt something like a cobweb on her forehead. “I guess that means you do. Thank goodness.”
She sat for a short while and then told her aunt that the opening would be the next week. Caraganic truffles will be set out in the glass cases. This time the breath of air was not so gentle, and she asked if Irina didn’t like truffles. The gentle wind came back, and she thought that it wasn’t the truffle that had made her aunt react.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said out loud. “Maybe Merle can find out for me. We’ll come back and try tomorrow night. Love ya, Great-Grandaunt Irina.” The cobweb touched her forehead again and then she knew the spirit had moved away. She took a last look around and worked out where the picture and other gifts would go and then she locked up and drove home.
She told herself to stop wondering when Sam would be back and get some work done. The cats seemed to have settled together without any arguments, and she started on making chocolate to cover the truffles from the morning. The refrigerated display case was satisfyingly full and she cleared up, made a hot chocolate and settled to watch some news.
She was sound asleep with the empty chocolate mug still in her hand when Sam let himself in and smiled. The plum-colored hair was flopped over her face, and he went to the bedroom, found some covers and slid alongside her on the sofa. She murmured in her sleep, and he held her in his arms and knew it was where he wanted to be for the rest of his life. Sam Barnes knew her so well and wondered if he would ever tell her how he really felt or if she would be frightened away for good.
“Not worth the risk,” he told himself, enjoyed the feeling of having her close and slept almost immediately. She woke in the early morning to find herself held fast, smiled, said thanks that he was safely back and let herself have the luxury of closing her eyes and having an extra snooze.
Over breakfast, he told her that the client had asked him to take on the job because he liked the plans. The trip had gone well and then he asked about her visit with Declan. She resisted the urge to make a joke about jealousy.
“The visit was fine, and Marianne seemed to like the other cats, but I stopped to see the new doors on the way back and met with Great-Grandaunt Irina.
18
“If the ground is not soft, maybe we can go over tonight and ask Merle to see if she can figure it out.”
“The ground is being done tomorrow. Tonight will be fine,” he told her. “I’ll go over and make sure everything works this morning, and if you don’t mind, I’ll crash for an hour this afternoon.”
“Katie and I will box up some of the new stock and make some new ones. I’ll call the others.”
She remembered that Declan had seen the spirit as well and thought she looked sad.
“I wonder if he would like to be there as well. He seems to have no problem with seeing a spirit.”
“I’ll give him a call and spoil his day off.” Sam grinned and went off to check the site, and Katie arrived with a box full of leaflets.
“Give me a bill for this. They are just right. Thanks,” Magda told her. They proceeded to throw themselves into truffle production.
Branston called in, scrounged a couple of chocolates and said they would be there about eight if that was okay.
The girls stopped for a sandwich. Sam came back, had a drink, and went to sleep on the sofa with all four cats on top of him.
“I’ll take some leaflets to the restaurant and the potter and drop in at the press office to see if they would like to give us some opening publicity,” Magda said and left her assistant busy in the kitchen. She put on smart and businesslike clothes and set off to start her publicity campaign. Just to have a quick look at the café, she stopped on her way home and was horrified to find that somebody had spray painted all along the alley on both sides. The men had fitted a temporary door across the end of the alleyway to stop people coming in to steal anything, and thankfully, the spray paint stopped at that point.
She still had the keys and went inside to check all was well. Inside was as pristine as it had been the night before, and she locked up and took photos of the paint. Twice it said "bitch," and it crossed her mind to wonder if Loretta Dean was getting her back.
“We need gates at the point of entry from the street,” she thought as she drove back. Sam was sitting at the table watching Katie work and she showed them the pictures.
“Nasty,” Katie said.
“It will clean off after we fasten off the entry,” Sam added.
“Wrought-iron gates with the name on would be quite nice,” Magda decided and knew he would have a contact to get the ones she wanted. “The newspaper people are quite keen to come and do an interview when the place is finished.”
They cleared up the kitchen, and she told Katie to be at the café at eight ‘clock if she wanted to come along again. Then, when her new assistant was gone, she kicked the side of the table hard and swore.
“Oh, I bet it was that Loretta being spiteful. I should have thrown her out on her backside.” She kicked the table again.
“That’s my girl,” he said and stood up to hold out his arms. “Have a good shout and kick the furniture again and you’ll feel better.” She fell into the offered arms and the tears started to fall. “Come and sit down for a few minutes, and I’ll get you a drink of something.”
“Everything is so beautiful, and some nasty person has to come and spoil the place. I could strangle them.”
“It has been a busy time as well, and you have been working really hard.” He paused. “We are almost there. The place will clean up. We need security gates anyway, and before the opening, I think you need to take a couple of days off.”
“You are right. Thanks for just being there, Sam. I keep thinking I am strong and businesslike, but it’s good to have a shoulder to cry on sometimes.”
“Always there if needed,” he answered. He fished out his phone as they sat and called someone in the trade who would blast off the paint. “We had better tell Mikey and the bank that the walls are getting a wash.”
She took a glass of wine that he brought in from the kitchen and smiled.
“Back to normal, thanks.” She
hesitated. “But if I find out who did it—"
“I did notice a whole batch of pecan and marzipan.” He grinned, and she told him to go and help himself.
“We need a product tester anyway.” Four truffles later they were feeling relaxed and started to think about the plan for the evening. “It was strange but not frightening knowing that she was there with me. I hope Merle can shed some light on the matter.”
Merle, Branston, Declan, Katie, Melissa, and Rula made quite a large party along with Sam and Magda, and of course, they had to view the finished café before starting to figure out the spirit.
Melissa had the tablet in her hand and was still scrolling through countless records and facts from the time Magda’s granddad was born.
“Irina and her sister-in-law went back to Hungary for a visit that year. In fact, I think the granddad was probably born there. I’ll just keep looking while you try and make contact.”
“I wonder why they went,” Magda said. “Maybe he was harsh on his wife as well. I don’t like Great Granddad Tomas very much.”
“Tell me,” Merle said when they had viewed all the new work, “exactly what happened.” Magda went over the feeling that her aunt was there but hadn’t seen her, the slight breezes and the touches like cobwebs on her face.
“Classic spirit activity,” Merle told her. Let’s see if we can find out a bit more.”
“We can have seats,” Sam said, and he and Branston carried in chairs for everyone.
“Make a circle.” Merle said. “We might as well try and do it properly.” They switched off the lights and sat still. Melissa closed down the tablet, and Merle called out to ask if Irina was there. When there was no response, she asked Magda to call out.
“Great-Grandaunt Irina, come and talk to us. We really need to know what troubles you. Please come and see us.”
“Try again,” Merle said quietly. “I think she is listening.” Magda called again, and Katie said that she could smell lavender. Merle nodded.