“Yes, although Leo made it much more difficult by spending all his time chasing the tinsel that I’d strung on that small tree in the corner than he did anything else. Ted was able to stack the boxes in a way that most of them won’t come down on my head,” I said with a smile, not needing to remind Heidi of my accident-prone tendencies. It also delayed the inevitable decision I’d have to make on whether or not to share the details with her regarding Mazie’s visit. “These last two days have been rather slow, but that’s only because everyone stocked up before the Christmas holiday. I’m hoping to see a pick up by the end of the month. Then, of course, I have my holistic home remedy business that never slows down.”
I couldn’t help but glance at the clock behind me. Leo really should have been back by now. If Rye had gone to help someone with a downed tree or something along those lines, wouldn’t Leo have left the man to do his business?
“How is everything along that sideline?”
Heidi’s vague question told me that she was no longer alone, but she wouldn’t disconnect our call until I’d told her that everything was running smoothly on the witchcraft side of things.
It was now or never.
“Good,” I answered, choosing not to tell Heidi about my latest side job that entailed finding a familiar in a place I didn’t know the location of and a warlock I wasn’t even sure existed. Really, what was there to tell? Saying that altogether in my mind made me realize I might not be of any help to Mazie. “Everything’s fine.”
Being the terrible liar I was, it wasn’t a surprise when Heidi suspected I was holding something back. Fortunately for me, I was saved from spilling my guts when someone on her end at the office called her name. She all but promised she’d call me later, but thankfully that wouldn’t be until sometime after eight or nine o’clock tonight due to the hours she’d been putting in to keep up with the rush. The reprieve would give me some extra time to decide what, if anything, I could tell her without having her hop a midnight train to Paramour Bay.
The small ding from the laptop told me I’d received an incoming email. You know those sites where you can put a name into a search box, along with any other information you had on an individual? Well, I’d tried that as a last resort. I honestly didn’t think I’d get an email back, considering I’d thoroughly searched every nook and cranny of the internet for the last five hours.
I was afraid to click on the message for fear it would tell me that there was no such person by the name of Merrick Bronach.
I need a nap.
My fingers had been hovering over the mousepad embedded in my laptop, but I pulled them away when Leo made his sudden reappearance.
That was exhausting. That man went to the inn, the bakery, Newt’s garage, and that was all before he drove into one of those neighborhoods past the courthouse. He’s now fixing Wilma’s garage door, while both Elsie and Wilma are offering to make him lunch to order.
“So, you’re saying that Rye is just a handyman and not some secret axe murderer,” I concluded for him, actually pleased to know that Rye was harmless. “Good work, Leo.”
I shouldn’t be praising Leo for snooping into other people’s business, but this tidbit of news was most refreshing. Even my mother had eyed Rye warily when she’d first met him, though that wasn’t a surprise. She was usually suspicious of most people on an everyday basis.
Wake me in a few hours when it’s time to go home.
Leo plopped his overweight cargo of fur onto the pillow in front of the display window, extending his front legs as he began to get comfortable. I’d put a heating pad underneath the small padded bed so that the cold seeping through the glass pane didn’t have Leo catching a cold or worse. His audible sigh of happiness told me he appreciated the kind gesture, even if he didn’t say so.
Wait.
Leo’s left eyelid popped open, giving me a stare down.
What are you doing on that laptop?
“Mom finally relented and gave me a name of someone in the coven who might be able to help us locate Strifle.” I sat back down on the stool and gestured toward the small screen in front of me. “I put the name into a search site earlier, and the company just emailed me back. I had to pay fifty dollars, too.”
It wasn’t like I was a real private investigator who charged her clients a flat fee and whatever expenses came from the investigation. No, I had to be an amateur witch whose clients were ghosts without means.
“I thought about casting a locator spell, but you weren’t here. I didn’t—”
I stopped talking when Leo rolled onto his side and pretended he was having a heart attack.
“That’s not nice, Leo. I am perfectly capable of casting a simple locator spell, but I didn’t have the right ingredients here at the shop.” I rolled my eyes when Leo let his tongue hang out from the corner of his mouth. “I’m serious, Leo. Stop. I’m not that bad at casting simple divination spells.”
Leo peeked at me, but he could easily see my frustration.
You aren’t that bad, but we can discuss that at another time. It’s like matching up the local high school football team against the Steelers. You’d have a hard time saying they’re playing the same game, now wouldn’t you?
Leo managed to shift back onto his somewhat distended stomach and stand on his undersized legs, blinking rapidly as if he were trying to keep himself awake. I figured I only had about three minutes before he collapsed in exhaustion, so I quickly pressed the mousepad.
Well? What did fifty bucks buy you besides repeated solicitations from that website for your next five lifetimes?
“Merrick Bronach does in fact exist,” I whispered, leaning an elbow on the counter as I delved into the typed information that was apparently worth fifty dollars. “This says that Mr. Bronach is seventy-eight years old and lives in Windsor, Connecticut.”
Windsor?
“Is that a problem?” I cast a glance Leo’s way, but he’d already moved off of his bed and was making his way toward me. The swish of his tail wasn’t so graceful, but more of a tic to show his displeasure. Why? “The town is only an hour from here. Leo, isn’t Windsor near Nan’s hometown? What was it called? Wethersfield, wasn’t it? That rings a bell from earlier.”
Jacob Blackleach was from Wethersfield. Get your body count right, Raven.
Ignore Leo. He was just being facetious about how our little side investigative business got started. The first day I’d ever stepped into Paramour Bay was the day I moved my entire life here…only to discover a dead body behind those ivory-colored fairy beads that hid the back room of the tea shop from view.
“They held witch trials in Wethersfield in 1647,” I shared from memory, having researched the past of some of my ancestors. I still had a lot of boxes to go through that Nan had left behind, but there was only so much time in the day. “It was the first of that kind of trial in the Colonies. You hear all those stories about Salem and the women they tried there, but they weren’t really the first, were they? Come to think of it, all of those witch trials I read about were from around the same, small area near Hartford, just south of Windsor and north of Wethersfield. There must be a link between the coven, our family, and the witch trials.”
A spark of excitement ignited within me at the thought of finding out more about my grandmother and our family. There was so much I still didn’t know, even after having gone through a few of the boxes that Nan had left behind. Actually, speaking with someone who’d personally known the older generation of Marigolds would be thrilling!
Leo sat back on his haunches, but he refused to jump up on the counter. His green eyes were rather unfocused as he stared off into space, but it was easy to see the tic of his upper whiskers.
It was then I remembered the promise to my mother about only reaching out to Merrick Bronach by phone. Thinking back on our phone conversation, I realized that I hadn’t truly made any such promise.
“Look, it’s not that I’m being naïve when it comes to the coven. I understand that th
ey’re probably not going to welcome me with open arms, but shouldn’t the council be aware that I’ve come into my powers?” It was a practical question. “Think about it. If those in the afterlife know that we’ve been using witchcraft to help solve a few mysteries, then it’s a reasonable assumption to believe the coven does, too.”
It’s not the coven I’m worried about. There’s a reason your grandmother left Windsor.
“We’ve already established that you don’t like mischievous fairies, but Strifle’s abilities are obviously being misappropriated for nefarious reasons. She’s being prevented from crossing over to be with Mazie as a consequence.” I noticed that Leo didn’t seem afraid so much as he was troubled. “If Nan was from Windsor or a small town nearby—and I can’t believe I’ve never known the Marigolds were from that area—then that means Aunt Rowena is probably still living in that town!”
Aunt Rowena’s possible presence so close to where I needed to investigate told me everything I needed to know.
“No wonder Mom didn’t want us to go see Mr. Bronach in person. Leo, you’ve had to have known this all along. How did you think we were going to save Strifle without running into Aunt Rowena?”
Magic, Raven. Magic always has a way.
Chapter Eight
“Leo, fix what you did to my Corolla right this minute,” I harshly demanded so that he didn’t misinterpret my anger. “This is not how you resolve a conflict. You can’t just use your abilities to deny me the use of my vehicle because you don’t like my decision. Besides, someone is going to see me sitting inside this frozen car and decide to come to my rescue. I will then be forced to retaliate by doing something distasteful to you, and I don’t want to be that kind of person.”
Rescue? Oh, you’re thinking of someone like Liam. As you know, he’s currently out of town.
I crossed my arms and stomped my feet on the floorboard in hopes to maintain some body heat. I was failing miserably.
“This is so unfair, Leo. Didn’t you say we shouldn’t use magic for self-gain?”
There were various spells Leo could have used to ensure the engine of my vehicle wouldn’t start, so it was pointless for me to try and counteract his incantation. I didn’t have enough experience, and I’d only memorized a few by heart over the last couple of weeks. If I was being honest, those spells were only for when we found ourselves in quite a bit of danger. Should I find myself out here for much longer, this situation would definitely qualify as dangerous.
The good thing about those specific incantations that I’d spent time learning could be used without material components. Instead, I could utilize the energy I was able to pull from my surroundings.
Fairies are exactly the type who could put us smack dab in the middle of trouble. Now, shall we try things my way?
“This is extortion.”
This is me being as reasonable as I can manage. You’re a witch, Raven. We have the ability to locate that winged urchin without putting our physical bodies in harm’s way. You know how much I’ve grown to love this GQ material bod I’m currently rocking, so give me your word that you’ll drive straight home, and I’ll let you start the engine.
“We could have been halfway to Windsor by now,” I complained as I surveyed the glistening main thoroughfare through town. River Bay was lit on either side by those vintage gas lamp street lights I loved so much, but most of the storeowners had closed their shops at this point. With the dip in temperature, there wasn’t a lot of people milling about on the sidewalk without a destination in mind. “Fine. We’ll go straight home…for this evening only.”
It wouldn’t surprise me if we were blessed with another visit from Mazie and Lucille.
Don’t jinx us. We don’t want to be seen as inviting their company.
“They’re probably wondering what’s taking us so long to locate Strifle.” My words were followed by condensation blowing from lips. I’m not happy I caved, but at least there was warmth in my immediate future. Not wasting another second longer, I leaned forward and turned the key in the ignition. Sure enough, the engine started up beautifully. “I was thinking about Strifle this afternoon. What if she couldn’t cross through the veil because of a misunderstanding between her and Mazie? You mentioned that fairies are mischievous. What if she’s doing this as some sort of trick on Mazie? Maybe she wasn’t ready to go.”
I did not use the word mischievous. There are many adjectives I could use to describe those little imps, but mischievous isn’t one of them. I’d say malicious…now that would fit the bill.
“You got tricked by that fairy more than once, didn’t you?” I asked with a growing smile, wondering just what Leo had endured by the tiny elf and the fairy dust she could leave behind in her wake as she disappeared. Merrick Bronach wasn’t the only individual I’d researched today. Fairies were definitely coveted by some. There was a lot of information about magical fairies on the internet—some of it probably true—which was rather surprising given that humans believed they were mystical creatures. “Oh, come on, Leo. Tell me the truth.”
He didn’t respond, even after I called his name numerous times.
“Fine,” I muttered, turning on my headlights and shifting the gear into drive. Leo would most certainly be lying on his small bed in the front window of home when I pulled up to the wrought iron fence. “Be that way.”
Something caught my eye as I started to pull away from the curb. It was Larry, opening the door to Mindy’s shop and waiting for her to join him outside. They were both bundled up for the cold weather, and she was locking up her boutique for the evening. It was sweet the way he was watching over her, and I was glad that Mindy had found someone she could enjoy spending time with. She deserved to be happy.
My one and only date with Liam had been the New Year’s Eve gala at the wax museum. That story would take too long to tell you due to the mystery involved, but let’s just say the evening had ended with a heart fluttering moment—a passionate kiss that I would love to repeat sometime soon. I know you already heard about that part of our date, but it bore repeating.
Anyway, I was really looking forward to this Friday’s dinner with Liam. We’d have a chance to finally be alone. Unfortunately, that meant locating Strifle in the next three days and somehow helping her cross to the other side in order to be with Mazie without anyone being the wiser.
Mindy and Larry were waving hello as I drove past, getting ready to make a left on Oceanview Avenue to double back around. I don’t know why I didn’t park facing the other direction of town where my cottage was located, but either way I was still left with having to do a U-turn. I smiled and waved to the couple who was most likely heading over to the diner for dinner.
My stomach rumbled.
If Leo were still around, I may have been tempted to join Mindy and Larry for dinner. Seeing as my makeshift mentor was waiting for me at home to cast spells I’d never attempted before, it was best I get home before he booby-trapped my car again.
My cell phone rang right as I was pulling up to the cottage. It was most likely my mother checking in on me to make sure I hadn’t done anything foolish, like what I’d planned earlier. Honestly, how could I do anything even mildly inappropriate with Leo underfoot twenty-four seven?
I shifted the car into park and left the engine running as I fished my phone out of my purse. Tingles of excitement shot through my gloves as if the vibrations from the cell were plugged into the pads of my fingers. It took me longer than I would have wanted to free up my hand so that I could answer the call.
“Liam, what a nice surprise!”
Was that a too-over-eager response?
“Hello, Raven,” Liam responded with a smile to his rich voice. I tilted my head just a bit so that the phone was snugger against my ear. “How is your week going?”
“Pretty slow,” I replied, wincing at the fact that I couldn’t find anything better to say. He most likely already knew how the town operated after the second week after Christmas. “No one seems to need
tea since the holiday. I’m hoping it picks up soon. I put a sign in the window saying I was looking for someone to fill in as part-time help.”
Speaking of windows, I glanced toward where Leo usually camped out in the house. He was nowhere to be seen. That alone made me quite anxious, but I wasn’t ready to end this phone call just yet.
“I was actually calling to talk about how you are doing,” Liam corrected me, causing a flush to fill my cheeks. I wasn’t the type of woman to get tongue-tied over a man, but this particular male was something special. “Not that I don’t want to hear about the shop, but I was calling to check on you.”
“Eileen called you about Leo, didn’t she?” I asked wryly once I figured out what had truly taken place. It wasn’t like I could tell Liam that we’d been visited by a ghost, so I stuck to the story I’d spun for Eileen. “You know that Leo has an overabundance of fur. I mean, he has a very hard time taming those orange and black strands. Anyway, he’s been coughing up a lot of…hairballs lately. I was waiting for him to clear his airway when Eileen saw me comforting him.”
My story made total sense, right?
I smothered a groan of regret at using another white lie.
This was exactly what a man and woman shouldn’t talk about before their second date—hairballs and such. I rested my left cheek against my gloved hand, wondering if anything in my life would ever be normal again.
“I can speak from experience that Dr. Jameson is an excellent vet should Leo need anything,” Liam advised, most likely following that piece of sound counsel from Eileen herself. “If you’re worried, you could always take Leo in for a checkup or a booster shot.”
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