We’d had little alone time, Colin and I, and it was becoming frustrating. Making out on the chesterfield was nice but making love was impossible with Juniper just down the hall. We both had this unspoken fear she’d toddle to the living room one night and catch us. Colin thought she was still too young for the birds and the bees talk. Even if she hadn’t been, it would still be unbelievably awkward if she caught us.
As I passed the Fireside Inn on my way home, I had an idea. Juniper was at the daycare Monday to Wednesday. Why couldn’t Colin and I get a motel room when he took his lunch break? It sounded kind of sleazy, but I couldn’t come up with anything better. Asking someone to take care of Juniper for a weekend, let alone a night, was too embarrassing.
For the first time since Daddy’s death, I felt happy, thinking about Colin and me completely expressing our love. So it was a pleasant surprise to find his pickup in the yard, almost as if I’d summoned him with my thoughts. He must have been looking out the window because I’d barely parked the car when he came out of the house.
“Colin,” I cried. “I was just thinking of you, sweetheart.” The smile died on my lips when I saw his face. He looked wretched. His mouth was turned down and a tear trickled down his cheek. My heart jumped painfully. “Colin, what’s wrong? Has something happened to Junie?”
“No, Junie’s fine,” he said slowly. “It’s—I don’t know what to say except please forgive me, Ranalt. It was one weak moment and we were both upset after Joe and I had too much to drink. But that’s no excuse. I am so, so sorry.”
“What are you talking about?” I tried to put my arms around him but he moved out of reach. I stared at him, hurt and puzzled.
“You know I love you, Ranalt, but... but I have to do the right thing here,” he said miserably. He mumbled something I didn’t catch about his late wife, Megan. Gently putting me aside, Colin got into his pickup and drove off.
I bolted to the house. Momma stood by the stove with her arms folded and Lacey sat at the table, her head in her hands. Neither of them looked at me.
“Your sister is pregnant with Colin’s child,” my mother said baldly.
My heart shattered. “No,” I whispered. “No, I don’t believe you. That can’t be true!”
“It’s true,” Lacey murmured. “I told Colin and he’s proposed. I accepted. We’ll be married on Saturday.”
Why did Colin have to be so stupidly noble again? “You manipulative slut!” I hissed at my sister. “Momma, if she really is pregnant, it’s Rory Phelan’s baby, not Colin’s!”
My mother looked like I just hit her with a two-by-four. “Rory Phelan’s?”
“Shut up!” Lacey shrieked.
“She’s been sneaking around with him for weeks,” I continued, “Even before Daddy passed. She—”
“You bitch!” my sister raged and launched herself at me. “You stupid little bitch! I’ll kill you!”
She got in a few blows before Momma snapped out of her shock and managed to drag her away. Lacey retreated to the other side of the room and stared balefully at me.
“What’s wrong with you, Lacey?” my mother demanded. “You’re like a wild animal, attacking your sister like that.”
I wiped at my arm and stared at the blood on my fingers. My shins ached from where she’d kicked me, my face smarted from a hard slap. “Ask her, Momma. Ask her who the father really is.”
My mother licked her lips and looked from Lacey to me and back again. “Who is your baby’s father?” she croaked. “Colin or Rory Phelan?”
Lacey swallowed. For a moment I thought she would tell the truth. “Colin Sweeney,” she said defiantly then burst into tears and ran upstairs.
I slept in the spare room. I couldn’t stand the thought of being near my sister. I wanted to cry in peace. In the morning, after Lacey had gone to work, I moved my stuff into the spare room too. For the next few days I avoided her as much as it was humanly possible to avoid someone when you lived in the same house.
Colin and Lacey were married in a quiet ceremony at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, the same place we’d attended for years, the same place as my daddy’s funeral. I refused to go. Juniper was supposed to be the ring bearer but she balked at the last minute, digging in her white patent leather Mary Janes right at the church door. It was Momma who called me—not Lacey or even Colin—to come get her. I could hear Juniper wailing in the background, “I don’t want you to marry Lacey, Papa. I want Ranalt to be my mommy. I don’t want Lacey!”
All of the gossips in Westmeath must’ve relished spreading that news around.
I took Juniper to the Ice King. We sat in a corner booth by the mascot with his crooked gold crown and impossibly fat belly, sharing a banana split with lots of whipped cream and two cherries on top. She managed to get chocolate syrup on the pretty violet dress Lacey bought her. I was spitefully pleased. A stain like that would never come out.
My phone vibrated in my purse but I refused to answer it. I knew it was my mother calling to say they were at the house waiting for us. Colin and Lacey would want to say goodbye before they left on their honeymoon to Niagara Falls. They could damn well wait while we finished the sundae, I thought. I knew Lacey would be impatient, trying not to tap her high-heeled foot, wanting to get away as soon as possible. Would it even occur to her that she’d soon be stuck in a car and later a hotel room, alone with a man she didn’t love but I did?
I didn’t care about her. I told myself I didn’t care about Colin. Besides, Juniper was more important right now. I tried to explain to her that although her papa had picked my sister to be her mommy, I loved her very much and would always be her friend.
“Always and forever, Ranalt?” she asked.
“Always and forever, Junie.” I dabbed at her tears with the end of a serviette. “Wild horses couldn’t drag me away from you.”
When we returned to the house, she clung to me, refusing to go to Lacey or even her father for a kiss and a hug goodbye. The pain on Colin’s face cut me to the core. Lacey looked so hurt, I even felt a little sorry for her. Then I hardened. She’d made her bed and so did he—the fool—so they could sleep in it together.
Momma made my favourites—fried chicken, home fries, coleslaw—for supper and chocolate fudge cake with sliced strawberries on top for dessert. For Juniper’s sake I tried to enjoy the food. Then I took Juniper to the cupboard where we kept the handmade soap and let her pick a bar for her bath. Afterwards, I tucked her into the bed in the spare room. She smelled like honey and Bourbon vanilla. We didn’t have any children’s books so I made up a story about a handsome prince imprisoned in a castle, and a lady with a magic sword who slew the dragon guarding him. Then I rubbed her back until her eyes fluttered shut.
“Is she asleep?” my mother asked when I came downstairs to the living room.
She had a book in her hand, one of those historical romances with a passionate couple embracing on the cover. Only romances and fairy tales have happily ever afters, I thought with bitterness.
I nodded, picking up my own book—definitely not a romance—from the coffee table and settling into the rocking chair where she used to sit until recently. It was an heirloom, hand-built out of good oak by my grandfather Lacey as a wedding present for my parents, and Momma rubbed it every week with lemon oil. When Lacey and I were little girls, we would fight to rock our dollies in it just like Momma rocked us as babies. After Daddy died, she began sitting in his old blue armchair. I guess she felt closer to him there.
My mother had that I-want-to-talk-to-you look on her face but I didn’t want to hear what she had to say. After giving me a few moments in which I pretended to read recipes for merlot soap and green tea salve, she told me to put the book down. She used her no-nonsense voice. So I reluctantly obeyed.
“You’ve spent the past week avoiding your sister and me as much as you can. But now that she’s gone on her honeymoon”—I tried not to flinch at that—“I have a few things I have to tell you.”
I put a ribbon i
n the book to mark my page. “Yes, Momma,” I said in a neutral voice.
“First of all, I’ve sold the farm—minus the acre this house stands on—to Colin. I know there...may have been others who would pay more but he and Junie are family now. And your daddy would have wanted that. I’ve gone to the lawyer and the money will be split equally among your sister, you, and me. Secondly, when Lacey and Colin return from Niagara Falls, I’m leaving. I’m taking a long visit to your Aunt Maureen’s in Victoria.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Until she gets tired of me and kicks me out the door. I can’t stand it here anymore without your daddy. I want you to come with me, Ranalt. I’ve already discussed it with Maureen and she thinks it’s a good idea too. Remember the trip we took out there when you were eleven? You loved Vancouver Island so much we almost had to drag you to the airport.”
“No,” I said adamantly. “I can’t leave—” I bit off my words.
Momma looked stern. “Colin and Lacey might have a chance at making their marriage work if you weren’t around, Ranalt.”
I scoffed.
“He didn’t have to marry her, not in this day and age—” my mother began.
“She didn’t have to say yes,” I interrupted.
“And for your own sake, you must learn to forgive your sister or it will eat you up inside.”
“Junie—”
“Junie will adjust. Ranalt, you’re only nineteen years old and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you. If you don’t want to come with me to Victoria, go somewhere else. Go see the world. Go to college. Do something! Don’t waste your time pining after a man you can’t have.”
I knew she was right but I shook my head anyway. “No,” I said. “I will do something but not yet.”
“I’m worried for you,” my mother said. She twisted her hands together. “Lacey’s got Colin to protect her but you have no one.”
“I can protect myself,” I said impatiently. “But it would help if I knew what was going on and there has been something going on ever since Daddy chased Patrick Phelan off our land. Something wrong. Something... dark. What do you and Don Perkins and Charlie Slater know? What did Patrick Phelan say to Daddy that day that made him threaten the most powerful family in the county?” I tossed aside the book and left the rocking chair. I put my hands on her shoulders as gently as I could when what I really wanted to do was shake the truth out of her. “What’s going on, Momma? Tell me. Please.”
She turned her face away. “Just come with me, Ranalt. This place is no good for you.”
“Tell me, Momma!”
“No. I promised your father I’d take it to my grave.”
I sighed and picked the book up off the floor. The ribbon fell out and I fingered the piece of green velvet, trying to relax.
“I’ve done my best,” my mother said, more to herself than to me. She fished a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. “Take it. One of the Phelan boys has been calling for the past two days looking for you.”
I didn’t ask who. There was only one Phelan who’d be trying to contact me. I smoothed down the paper. On it, in my mother’s neat printing, was a cell phone number.
“Maybe you have a protector after all, Ranalt,” she said, watching me closely. Her gaze dropped to my waistline. “Or are you carrying a Phelan pup too, like you say your sister does?” Her voice was tinged with suspicion.
“I am not pregnant,” I told her with as much dignity as I could muster.
She began to say something but a long mournful howl interrupted her.
“A wolf?” I said. Twist’s poor mutilated body came to mind. The gorge rose in my throat. “This close to the house?”
The wolf howled again. If an animal’s heart could break, then this one’s was in pieces.
“Ranalt, did you not close the front door when you came in?” my mother asked.
“Of course I did.”
She paled and the blood drained out of my face too.
“Junie,” I breathed and ran to the verandah, praying she hadn’t gone far.
She stood on the top step, her back to me. The moonbeams bleached her cornsilk hair and aquamarine nightshirt, giving her a ghostly look.
“Junie, it’s me,” I called softly, not wanting to scare her. Then I saw what held her attention and my heart nearly stopped. It was a big black wolf, sitting on its haunches. In the moonlight the animal looked like a sculpture of antiqued silver.
Juniper glanced over her shoulder at me. “Hi Ranalt. I saw him from the window. That’s the doggie who came to my house last night. Isn’t he beautiful? Do you think he’s hungry?”
“No, I don’t, Junie,” I said quietly, keeping my eyes on the beast. It looked well-fed. The ears flickered at the sound of my voice. “Move back now, let me have a good look at your doggie.” I carefully slipped in front of her. “Sweetie, I want you to go into the house now. Momma, are you there?”
“I’m here. Come on inside, Junie, I have some milk and cookies for you.” Her voice was surprisingly steady, considering.
“Chocolate chip cookies?” Juniper asked hopefully.
“Uh-huh.”
“What if I don’t want chocolate chip cookies?”
“I’ve got sugar cookies. And ice cream with big chunks of brownie in it. There’s still some of that fudge cake left too. And strawberries. Whatever you want.” My mother’s voice quivered as the wolf stood up. “Just come into the house, honey.”
“Ok.” I heard the floorboards creak slightly and the screen door closed with a small squeak.
“Get out of here,” I told the wolf as I slowly moved backwards. “Go on, shoo!”
The animal regarded me with intelligent eyes. It took a step forward. Then a second and a third. Like it was teasing me. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glint of something on the swing seat. I’d nailed a loose shutter back into place yesterday and forgot to put Daddy’s old ironhead hammer away.
I grabbed the tool. There wasn’t time to take careful aim; I just threw. The hammer struck a glancing blow on its shoulder but the wolf yowled like it was mortally wounded.
The lupine shape blurred and shimmered. For a moment I thought I glimpsed a naked man on all fours. I didn’t stop to analyze; I whirled around and dashed inside the house, slamming the inside door and bolting it.
My heart pounded and my body trembled. The full moon was bright but it wasn’t that bright and soft dim light can play tricks, make you see things that aren’t there. Like a naked man on his hands and knees. I forced a smile on my lips and went into the kitchen.
“So there you are,” my mother said, trying to sound normal and failing. A half-empty glass and a plate piled with two kinds of cookies sat in front of Junie. Good grief, I thought incongruously, if she eats all of them she’ll get a big stomach ache.
“I thought you’d like some milk too,” my mother said, indicating a full glass near her elbow.
Milk and cookies. A hysterical laugh bubbled up and I choked it down. What I needed was a good stiff drink. Then another and another one after that.
“Is my doggie still out there?” Juniper asked. She had crumbs on her upper lip and I brushed them away.
“No, sweetie, he ran off. I don’t think he’ll be back. But I’ll tell you what,” I said brightly, “Maybe we can get you a puppy for Christmas.”
Juniper liked that idea.
For a long time I sat at the window in my room, watching. But I must have nodded off at some point. You’d wonder how I could fall asleep after what I saw. But I did, somehow and I dreamed.
There was just me and the glimmering moon and the wolf, who gazed at me with those intelligent eyes. The dream-me threw the hammer like before and the wolf shimmered into a man but this time he didn’t change back to animal form. He stayed where he was, on his hands and knees, his head down and his body gleaming like pearl in the moonlight.
You know how dreams are, one minute you’re on a verandah and the next you’re lying in bed wear
ing a filmy nightgown like some gothic heroine. Moonlight streamed through the Venetian blinds, lighting up my bedroom. I whistled and called for Twist. His nails clicked on the wooden floor and he jumped up on the bed. When I reached out to pet him, instead of fur I felt a smooth cheek, a warm neck, a hard shoulder. I turned to find Rory Phelan smiling at me. He cupped one of my breasts and squeezed it lightly. “If I’d known there was such a pretty Irish flower here, I would have come sooner,” he whispered. His hand slid upwards and his strong fingers circled my throat.
I woke up gasping and clutching my neck, my heart racing. In that instant I realized it hadn’t been a trick of the moonlight; I did see a man’s shape in the haze. The hammer just grazed it but the wolf howled in pain because supernatural things hate iron. That’s what Liam meant with his advice about lots of barbed wire around the fences. And the secret my parents and Don Perkins and Charlie Slater were keeping—the Phelans were werewolves.
****
It was a few days before Liam could sneak away to see me. I met him in the North Star truck stop on the edge of town. We sat in a back booth with cups of coffee and slices of butterscotch apple pie in front of us. My piece was barely touched. Liam’s was half eaten.
“Another cup of java, anyone?” trilled the waitress.
I shook my head though she wasn’t looking at me. She was eyeballing hunky Liam, who obligingly held out his mug. Of course, she had to bend over a little to pour, giving him a generous look at her oversized breasts in the brown and peach uniform.
“Thanks,” he said, smirking a little.
“You’re so welcome, honey,” she simpered. “I’m Zoe. Anything you want, anything at all, you just call me.”
“Yeah, we’ll do that,” I snapped, annoyed with her blatant come-ons. “By the way, Zoe, the guys over at that table look thirsty.”
She gave me a dirty look and flounced off, coffee pot in hand.
Liam grinned. “Jealous, Ranalt?”
“Oh, please. I just want to talk to you before one of your muscle-bound beastie brothers walk in and drag you away.”
Hauntings in the Garden, Volume One Page 13