“No, they didn’t. I had no idea that anything was changing until you walked in. I asked what was happening, and if they’d let me go. But then they gagged me and stopped talking to me.”
“I guess it didn’t make sense for them to tell you,” I murmured.
He nodded. For a few moments we sat facing each other. Neither of us spoke for a while, but the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. My throat felt like it didn’t work, but at least I knew why. I was afraid of what I had to ask next.
“Did you ever suspect what I was?” I finally plucked up the courage to ask.
He scoffed. “Not really. I mean, sometimes I thought the stuff you three got up to was bizarre. ‘Witch’ was rarely my solution to any difficulties, although I’ve come across a few unpleasant people over the years whom I described with a word rather close to that one. Can’t say I’m proud of that, either, now that I know more. The only trouble was, I could never decide if it was actually nefarious, or I was just being a guy not understanding women.”
“That’s always part of the explanation,” Charlie yelled from the kitchen.
“Keep your eye on the food!” I yelled back. Charlie grumbled, but I couldn’t hear she said over the renewed banging of pots and pans.
Hansen smiled a little. “No, I didn’t know you were a witch. If I had suspected, I might have asked you about it. I probably should have asked you anyway to see what you’d say. I asked Charlie a couple of times at random if she knew any witches, and she told me that people from Caedmon were idiots.”
“Meaning she didn’t answer the question.” I smiled faintly. That was very like Charlie.
Hansen nodded and laughed a little as well. “Exactly. I’m sorry for all the trouble I’ve caused. But I don’t suppose I can say that tomorrow night at the coven gathering and they’ll let me live.”
“It isn’t going to be that simple. You aren’t going to die, though,” said Charlie. She had appeared at the kitchen door and was gritting her teeth.
Just then there was a knock at the front door. We had been so preoccupied with our chat that I hadn’t heard the hum of Jasper’s truck.
I opened the door to see him standing there with chocolates in his hand. Jasper had dark hair and mint green eyes that were faded in the evening light. He had clean-cut, well-chiseled features. In short, he was gorgeous.
“Evening,” he said.
When I raised my eyebrows at the candy he said, “I can’t come for food empty-handed.”
Without thinking, I leaned forward and whispered, “You might be able to when Charlie has cooked the meal.”
The corners of his eyes crinkled and he pressed his lips together to keep from laughing outright. I found myself smiling at him as well, warmth racing through me.
I let him in, feeling hostile, probably because what I actually wanted to do was kiss him. Jasper took in Hansen sitting by the fire, then the bedding on the couch.
“Hey, Hansen,” he said, pausing and looking slightly less certain.
Hansen stood up, appearing to relish stretching his legs. “Hey.” They had talked on the phone, so Jasper wasn’t surprised that he was at the farmhouse, even if he still didn’t know why.
“Don’t you have a guest room?” he asked, quirking one dark eyebrow upward. “Also, Hansen, don’t you have a house?”
The only answer he got was the question I asked as we headed for the kitchen. “Yeah, Charlie. Why didn’t you put Hansen in the guest room?” I asked.
Charlie tossed her head and pouted. “Because I didn’t want him in there.”
Hansen leaned over to me and whispered, “I’m pretty sure she’s mad at me. Don’t tell her I know.”
He said it loud enough for all of us to hear, and we smiled. Charlie went over to the stove and brought one large pot to the table in the nook, and the three of us sat down.
Charlie set the heavy pot in the middle of the table with so much force that the plates rattled. Then she busied herself removing her much-stained apron. Then, with elaborate calm, she sat down. When no one else moved, she looked at the three of us and raised her eyebrows. “Well?”
Slowly all three of us leaned in. No one wanted to be the first one there.
“What is it?” I asked. The overall color was brown, with lumps. I could tell that there were vegetables in there, and maybe soggy lumps of bread that she had boiled?
“Stew,” she said proudly, grabbing a ladle and filling her bowl. We all followed suit.
Once we were all eating, Hansen turned to Jasper and said, “I have a problem that Lemmi is being nice enough to help me out with. While it’s getting sorted out I’ll be staying here, I guess.”
We had only discussed having Hansen stay for one night, and I for one was hoping he’d be able to return to his own house the next day. But I didn’t say that out loud.
I watched Jasper take in this news carefully. We all knew that Hansen had a big crush on Charlie, who was finally beginning to realize that she had a crush on Hansen back. What Charlie Silver would do with those bits of information was anyone’s guess. My theory was that she would try to stomp on them as best she could. Competitors didn’t fraternize.
“Nice of Lemmi,” said Jasper.
The rest of the dinner passed quietly. No one mentioned the fact that I was a witch. Mrs. Goodkeep only trailed across the back lawn once, and only three of us saw her through the kitchen window. Once dinner was finished I said to Jasper, “Can I talk to you for a minute?”
“Of course,” he said, and pushed his chair back.
Jasper showed me into the living room, leaving Charlie and Hansen alone together. I thought that if Hansen could survive angry witches, he would almost surely be able to survive Charlie.
“What’s up?” Jasper asked when we were alone in the living room.
Even there, though, I didn’t feel like there was enough privacy, so I seized Jasper’s hand and dragged him upstairs. Surprise registered on his face, but he didn’t resist.
I hadn’t expected to have company in my room, and when I saw how I had left it I was instantly red-faced. I quickly tried to clear off the pile of clothing I kept on my one chair, simultaneously kicking several pairs of extra shoes under the bed. When I glanced at Jasper to see how he was taking it, he appeared to be fascinated by the calendar I’d hung next to the door.
Smart man.
“You might think I asked you up here as a ploy,” I started rambling.
He raised his eyebrows.
“We just need to speak in private,” I informed him.
“I have no problem with that. In fact, I’ve been wanting to talk to you as well,” he said.
I waved him off as if that wasn’t important. “I’m afraid that is going to have to wait.”
He nodded as if he understood, then continued to wait for me to say something. He also made no move to sit down. It was only when I stepped away from him and sat on the edge of my bed that he moved to take the chair.
“Hansen is staying here’s because he was writing articles about witches, and a couple of witches decided to stop him. They’ve called a coven gathering tomorrow night to decide what to do about him.”
Whatever Jasper Wolf had expected me to say, it wasn’t that. His face clouded and he expelled a breath, then sat back in his chair and thought for a minute. Eventually he said, “So, somebody else knows your secret.”
“You could say that. He knows who two other witches are as well. They kidnapped him. That’s why he was missing,” I said.
That really seemed to surprise Jasper. “I thought he was just chasing down a story,” he said. He even looked a bit guilty at not having been more concerned about where his friend had gone.
I shook my head. “They held him against his will. It would seem that coven law says that witches are allowed to do almost anything to protect their secret. Hansen was exposing them in the paper. In the witch world, there would be no consequences if something happened to Hansen.”
Jasper went several shade
s paler. “It can’t happen. He wasn’t doing anything wrong. He doesn’t want to expose who the witches are, does he?” he asked.
Jasper now asked for the full story, and I filled him in. I talked for a long time, feeling the need to implicate Hansen himself as much as I could. Maybe I wasn’t exactly defending Josephine’s position, but I was coming close. Still, the bottom line was: Hansen was in danger. He couldn’t possibly be allowed to reveal what he knew. What made it even worse was that he was in danger from one of my own.
Jasper listened to all of this quietly, asking only the occasional quick question. I couldn’t remember the last time he and I had talked for so long, but it was vitally important to me that he understand. Since he knew my secret as well, he needed to know what Hansen had done, and what we were facing now. If nothing else, going forward we wouldn’t have to dance around the subject of how annoying Paws was. When we saw the ghost animal, we could all simply acknowledge the situation and move on.
When I finished, Jasper rubbed his chin. I noticed that he was growing a bit of stubble.
“What do you think the coven is going to demand?” he asked.
“I’ve been trying to figure that out. The scary answer is that I just don’t know.”
Jasper appeared lost in thought for a few moments. I tried to give him time to digest what I had told him, but I was too impatient to wait for long. “We should get back. If Hansen is alone with Charlie for too long, who knows what she could do,” I said.
“She might even have to admit to liking him,” mused Jasper.
“No, I don’t think anything that crazy,” I said, returning his smile.
He noticed me grinning and stopped. A light entered his mint eyes.
“What was it you wanted to tell me?” I asked as we left my bedroom. I was suddenly feeling breathless.
He gave me a long and considering look, then smiled and shook his head. “It isn’t anywhere near as important as this. We can discuss it another time. You need to be focused on saving Hansen tomorrow night. I don’t want to intrude. Like I said, the guy is good at softball.”
“And Charlie has a terrible crush on him,” I muttered.
Jasper chuckled and the sound made me smile. “Yeah. Right.”
Chapter Four
Jasper didn’t stay long after that. He said he had to get home because he had an early start at work the next morning. I was exhausted and Charlie was too. She hadn’t slept while Hansen was missing, and she had dark circles under her eyes.
“Are you sure you’re going to be all right on the couch?” I asked Hansen after Jasper had gone.
“I’ll be fine. As for finding me one of Deacon’s hoodies, I hope he doesn’t mind,” said Hansen.
We had telephoned Greer at the bar to explain our problem. Over the blaring music in the background, she’d said that Deacon kept some clothes at the farmhouse, and Hansen was welcome to choose something to sleep in. Relieved, Hansen now had sweatpants and a warm shirt for the night.
“We do have a guest room,” I reiterated. Charlie had already disappeared into her own room beyond the kitchen, so I felt safe in offering him better quarters.
“I have a feeling that if I tried to sleep there Charlie would be upset,” said Hansen.
“I mean, that’s true,” I said. “But she’d get over it.”
Hansen just got onto the couch, pulled the blanket over himself, and started reading a book. I could see Paws watching the proceedings like a hawk.
I trudged up the stairs. It was all I could do to brush my teeth before I fell into bed.
Sometimes I have been known to get up early. Other times I like to sleep in. When I’ve had a particularly rough night or day and I don’t have anything to do the next morning, sometimes I stay in bed for hours. Even if the sun has already risen into the sky, my curtains are thick enough to block it out and I can just go on sleeping. I love those mornings.
With the stress of another coven gathering looming over me, I was hoping that the next morning would be one of those.
Which was why, when I was awakened by a distant hammering at what felt like the crack of dawn, I was utterly furious. I threw off my covers, grabbed a sweatshirt, charged out of bed, and started to stomp down the stairs.
Then I remembered Hansen.
I crept the rest of the way as quietly as I could, but when I got within sight of the living room, Hansen wasn’t there. The couch was rumpled as if someone had slept on it, but there was no sign of the reporter. My heart squeezed.
Then I heard the sounds of someone competently moving around the kitchen. Since it couldn’t possibly be Charlie or Greer, because the latter was sleeping and Charlie wasn’t competent in the kitchen, I knew it must be Hansen. For a moment I had been worried that he had run off, either to tell his story or because he couldn’t face the impending meeting. I was relieved to know that he had done neither of those things, and that my faith in him was justified.
The sweet smell of coffee met my nostrils and I stumbled toward it. Hansen was indeed in the kitchen. He had put on an apron, but a different one from the one that Charlie had used the night before.
“Morning,” he said. “What’s the hammering?”
“I don’t know,” I grumbled. “I’m going to find out, though. What a terrible hour to be outside hitting nails!”
“I made coffee if you want some,” he offered. “Charlie still hasn’t come out. Well, at least not while I was in here. She yelled at me to go back into the living room, made a dash for something, and yelled that I could come back when she was safely back in her own room with the door closed.”
I shook my head. Hansen staying the night had definitely sent my friend into hysterics. We would have to have a little chat about him when he left.
After grabbing some coffee, I wandered outside to get the paper. The sound of hammering was much louder from the front porch, and it was also clear where it was coming from.
The Manor Portrait House!
It sounded like the dilapidated house across the street was under construction! I hurried across the street as fast as my nearly full cup of coffee would allow.
Sure enough, there were at least twenty carpenters, surveyors, general contractors, and whoever all else over there, some standing around and some hard at work. There were eight big trucks, too, many of them packed to the brim with supplies.
I marched right up to the nearest guy. I was almost there when I realized that what he was wearing was so familiar that I almost hadn’t recognized it. Since I found it hard to think straight without coffee, I took a big enough sip so that my eyes would work better.
I saw the same thing with caffeine as without. On the guy’s shirt was the Wolf Corporation logo.
In other words, the logo of Jasper’s family’s business.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
The guy turned around and I found myself looking at a grizzled sort of fellow in his forties. He said, “Morning, miss. Sorry to bother you. We’re fixing up the house, obviously.”
“If by bother you mean wake me up at the crack of dawn, then yes, it’s a bother, but never mind that.”
I had just started to ask something else when a familiar voice said, “Lemmi, great to see you,” and the one and only Tyler Spin strolled over. I had to clamp my lips together to keep from making a face at him.
Always helping Jasper, Tyler was usually with his boss. I had never liked him, even though I could never put my finger on a specific reason for my unease.
“Hi, Tyler,” I said, immediately wishing a number of things, including that I wasn’t there, that he wasn’t there, and that I’d worn a different shirt.
“Did you hear the hammers?” he said.
“Yes, it’s early,” I told him.
“We only ever start work in the morning after the time when the town’s ordinance gives us permission. It’s actually pretty late in the morning. Seven in the morning,” he elaborated, as I continued to look at him in what I hoped was a threat
ening manner.
Yeah, I didn’t like him.
I took a sip of coffee, slowly.
“What is this project?” I asked. I tried to sound pleasant but my throat just croaked.
“We’re fixing the place up,” he said brightly.
“Hey, Tyler! I need your help with something,” one of the foremen yelled. Tyler glanced over his shoulder and then back at me.
“Duty calls. Great to see you, Lemmi,” he said with a big grin. Then he turned on his heel and walked away. If there hadn’t been twenty or so men standing around, I might have stuck my tongue out at him.
To make myself feel better as I walked back across the street, I had a fake conversation with Tyler where I made rude faces and said everything that was on my mind. Feeling better, I headed inside for breakfast.
Charlie was up by then, and the three of us ate breakfast together without much conversation. I was halfway through the delicious sunny side up eggs Hansen had made when I heard the soft hum of a car driving up.
“Now what?” Charlie demanded, clearly on edge.
“I’ll go see,” I said. “Maybe it’s that terrible Tyler Spin coming over to apologize for blowing off my question. To make up for it, he’s going to promise to leave town and never come back.”
“Enjoy your fantasy,” Charlie called after me. I heard Hansen chuckle.
Out the front window I could see a car coming up the driveway that looked vaguely familiar and very expensive. For a few moments after it stopped, I couldn’t see who was inside. Then the door opened and out stepped a familiar blonde head.
“Oh, no,” I muttered under my breath.
“Who is it?” Charlie yelled.
“You don’t want to know,” I called back.
“Pretty sure I do! That’s why I asked the question,” she said.
I shook my head and stepped outside to see Gracie Coswell tottering toward me over the uneven gravel of my driveway. Sunglasses covered most of her face, and her sky-high red heels made her look like she was going to a photoshoot. Personally, I wished she was just going, and soon.
Gracie lived on the rich side of town. She had once gone missing for a few days, and my friends and I had tracked her down. We had also had the misfortune to run into her several other times over the last few months. As Greer would say, “Poor thing thinks she knows us.”
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