The Witch of Roan Mountain

by Blaire Edens

  Her shiny Volvo was parked right by the bathrooms.

  A Volvo. A lawyer’s car. A reminder that she wasn’t the girl he’d fallen in love with years ago. Now she was a woman with whom he had nothing in common and never would. They were night and day, sun and moon.

  After radioing the dispatcher, he locked up the car and started walking.

  The sun was so bright it nearly blinded him. He put on his Oakley sunglasses and wound down the hill toward the overlook patio. Fall was coming early this year. He felt the cool, like a hidden blanket, beneath the September air. It wouldn’t be long before the first frost and the quick slide into the winter.

  Maeve was sitting on a bench, her back to him.

  Campbell took a deep breath. He was going to control himself. No flirting, no wishing. He was coming to tell her about Granny. Nothing more.

  Maeve didn’t turn when she heard his footsteps coming down the pathway. Strange. She’d spent a lot of time in the woods and she’d learned to be hyper-aware. He’d been on enough hikes and camping trips with her to know how she should react to the sound of footsteps. Her eyes were fixed on a Balsam tree ten or fifteen feet away. Her head wasn’t moving. It was if she was hypnotized.

  “Maeve,” he said.

  She didn’t seem to hear him.

  “Maeve,” he repeated.

  Still nothing.

  He walked faster until he was standing right behind her. He didn’t want to scare her but he didn’t know what to do other than to touch her on the shoulder. “Maeve?”

  She jumped from her seat, an ear-piercing scream shattering the silence.

  Campbell kept his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”

  She was more beautiful than when she’d left. It wasn’t the time to notice but he couldn’t help himself. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her blue eyes were piercing.

  Her eyes went wide and the terror in her eyes receded enough for her to recognize him. “Campbell,” she whispered. “Campbell?” She clutched on to his forearm like it was a lifeline.

  Before he realized what he was doing, he pulled her into his arms. She smelled delicious, like apple blossoms and vanilla. He’d forgotten how perfectly she fit against his body. Maeve shook with fear and he hugged her tighter, tried to comfort her. He inhaled the scent of her hair and felt the old attraction claw to the surface.

  He leaned back and looked down into her wide eyes. “You okay?”

  She sank down on the bench like all the air had gone out of her at once. “I’m not sure.”

  “You taking anything?” He sat beside her. Her eyes were wild, her pupils dilated. “Medicine?”

  Maeve rubbed her hands across her face as if she was trying to wake herself. “No. I just saw, well, I thought, I mean I saw...”

  “A bear?” He rose and put his hand on his weapon in an automatic response.

  She shook her head. “Delphine.”

  A shiver ran up his spine. He wasn’t a superstitious man but that was a name that had frightened him since childhood. “You’re tired. You’ve had a tough week.”

  “It was Delphine. I’m sure of it.”

  No way. That legend was as old as the hills. Maeve had probably just imagined it. “You’ve been fired from your job. You’ve come home after a long time away. It’s just the stress.”

  Maeve swiveled so that she was looking directly into his eyes. He’d forgotten how her blue eyes flamed with cold fire when she was irritated or angry. “They fired me because I was honest, Campbell. Not because I was crazy.”

  “That’s just an old story. She’s not real.”

  “I used to think that, too, but now I know better.”

  “We’re going to have to talk about her later.” He refused to let the witch’s name cross his lips. “Granny fell this morning. She’s okay but she’s at the hospital. She broke her leg.”

  “What?” Maeve bit her lower lip and widened her eyes in alarm.

  “She slipped this morning after you left. I caught the call from dispatch.”

  Maeve put her head in her hands. “I told her I’d stay and help this morning. I should’ve stayed.”

  “She’s going to be just fine.”

  “I just needed some fresh air, some quiet. I needed to reconnect.”

  It was telling that Maeve had chosen this spot. This had been their spot. Campbell pushed the memories back and said, “I can drive you there.”

  Maeve stood. “No, I’ll take my car.”

  “You’re a little shaken to drive.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she called over her shoulder as she jogged to her car.

  Campbell watched her walk away, the way her hips swayed from side to side. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been barely more than a girl. Now she was all woman. The faded jeans fit her like a second skin. Her ass was perfect. Perfectly symmetrical. Firm as a peach. The kind of ass that begged to be pinched.

  Damn.

  He wasn’t going to be attracted to her. Never again.

  He might not want anything to do with Maeve McMahan but at least he could enjoy the view.

  *****

  On the way to the hospital, Maeve willed her hands to stop shaking. She knew what she’d seen. The woman she’d seen was as real as the moss on the trees. Not only had Delphine materialized right in front of her, she’d talked to her. Tried to anyway.

  It was like something out of a horror film. Only it didn’t scare her, not until Campbell touched her and Delphine disappeared into nothing more than a blur.

  Delphine was small and thin. Her bluish-purple dress was long and full with a high neck that buttoned nearly to her chin.. Maeve was no historian but it looked old, like something from the Civil War. The woman wasn’t solid. She was like a film, a layer, a shadow of another time.

  Why had Delphine chosen her? A person who believed in cold, hard logic.

  Lawyers didn’t make the best ghost hunters.

  Maeve didn’t even believe in ghosts. Hadn’t until today.

  She ran her fingers through her hair. Maybe Campbell was right. Maybe she was losing it. It had been one hell of a month.

  She parked the Volvo near the entrance of the hospital. It was a small, brick building with only a few cars in the lot. Maeve breathed a sigh of relief. She was certain that if the break had been serious, they would’ve send Granny to Johnson City or to Asheville.

  She decided to keep Delphine to herself for the time being. Granny loved nothing more than a good ghost story, and Maeve needed to sort out how she felt about it before she shared it with her grandmother.

  Granny looked tiny in the hospital bed. Her long, white hair was spread out across the pillow and it was nearly the same color as the linens. She was pale and for the first time, Maeve realized how old she was getting.

  “What in the world happened, Granny?” Maeve walked to the side of the bed and took the older woman’s hand in hers.

  “I spilled some jelly on the floor and before I could clean it up, I slipped. My feet just flew out from under me.” She shook her head. “Embarrassing as all get-out.”

  Maeve smiled. “It could happen to anyone.”

  “Not me. I’m as sure-footed as a goat.”

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help.”

  “You needed sun and mountain air, child. I told you to go.”

  Maeve sat in a chair. “How long do you have to stay?”

  Granny shrugged. “A day or two maybe. They want to make sure I’m okay.”

  “That’s not so bad.”

  Granny huffed. “Jelly won’t put itself in jars.”

  “I can help when you’re feeling a little better.”

  “You ain’t much in the kitchen. I love you, Maeve, but that’s not your strong suit.”

  Maeve laughed. “That’s true but I’m good at following directions.”

  “Said who?”

  She’d missed the back and forth banter. Granny was as sharp as a tack and it did Maeve’s he
art good to see that the old woman was a long way from cashing in her ticket. “I saw Campbell.”

  That perked the old woman right up. She raised up in the bed. “You did?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me. You sent him to find me.”

  “I can’t control who’s on duty. You think I broke my leg just to get you a date?”

  Maeve leaned closer to the bed. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

  “I could get you a date with Campbell Hyatt without injuring myself. I’m certain of that.”

  By the time Maeve got back to the cabin, it was nearly dark. She poured herself a glass of wine and went out onto the front porch to watch the last fingers of the sun fall behind the mountains. If Granny knew she was drinking wine, she’d skin her alive, but after the day Maeve had, she needed something to take the edge off.

  She tried to clear her mind but it was impossible.

  Delphine. Campbell. Granny. The three of them banged around in her head, colliding against each other over and over again.

  Delphine. The Witch of Roan Mountain.

  It was an old legend, one she’d heard since childhood. She hadn’t thought about the story in years. She tried to remember the details, but it had been so long. The only thing she remembered was that the woman always wore a bluish-purple dress and that she sometimes carried a silver candelabra.

  She should’ve asked Campbell what he remembered but she’d been too busy processing everything. It was too much at once. Way too much.

  If Delphine wasn’t enough, there was Campbell to think about.

  She had to admit that he looked good, damn good, in his uniform.

  He’d filled out in the years she’d been gone. He’d transformed from a lanky boy into broad-shouldered man. When he’d pulled her into his chest, she felt the hardness of him. He still smelled the same. Crisp, clean. Like Balsam trees after a soaking rain.

  Campbell. That ship had sailed when she’d left for Clemson.

  She wasn’t going to solve anything tonight. It was full dark now. Maeve placed her wine glass on the porch rail and walked out into the yard. She loved the cool crush of the grass under her feet. Up above, the stars were incredibly bright. Living in Atlanta, she’d never given the stars a single thought. Maeve had forgotten just how beautiful the night sky could be.

  She’d forgotten a lot of things.

  A lot of important things.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The best thing about being dead is that no doors are closed to you and you can come and go as you please.

  Two freedoms denied to me when I was alive.

  My first husband, Hoke, was a sorry drunk. My daddy made me marry him. Said I’d be an old maid soon if I didn’t. Forced my hand. I never forgave Daddy for that.

  I also never forgave him for telling me a woman with a claw for a hand like mine ought to just take what she could get.

  Don’t expect I ever will, even if I’m fated to wander these mountains, somewhere between the living and the dead, for another hundred and fifty years.

  I didn’t want to marry Hoke. I wanted to wait for Jenks. He’d gone to The War and I was the only one who believed he was coming back alive. Even if he was dead, in some unmarked grave somewhere in the cold ground of the North, I’d have rather waited for all eternity than to have to sleep beside Hoke every night of my life.

  Hoke never went to The War. He said he was too old but I knew otherwise. He was too much of a lazy coward. He spent the last bit of money we’d saved to pay for another man to go in his place.

  The best stroke of luck I ever had was the night he drank too much and fell asleep in the snow. I found him the next morning frozen as solid a log. I know that sounds mean. I tried to care about Hoke but he didn’t care for nothing but himself and a drink of whiskey.

  By the time he died, he’d beaten me so many times I didn’t feel anything for him but white-hot hatred.

  I still loved Jenks. Through and through. From the day I’d met him, when we were five or six, I was never able to figure out where I stopped and he began. We were like two branches on the same tree.

  But by the time he’d come home, nothing but skin and bones, I was married. There was nothing for him to do but marry Bessie.

  I had no idea then that anything could hurt me more than knowing he was lying beside her every night.

  I was wrong.

  *****

  The next morning, after a night filled with strange, mist-filled dreams, Maeve dressed and headed toward town. She was going to check on Granny and then she was heading to the library. Surely they’d have something about Delphine.

  Granny was eating bacon, eggs, and biscuits slathered in gravy when Maeve arrived.

  “Hungry?” she asked with one eyebrow raised.

  Granny slugged back a glass of milk and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “The gravy was a little lumpy but overall those ladies in the cafeteria do a pretty good job.”

  She spent a few minutes with her grandmother, heard all about the night nurses and the ridiculous waste of supplies. Granny didn’t believe in wasting anything. She washed bread bags instead of buying Ziplocs. The idea that hospitals used everything only once and then tossed it really irked the old woman.

  “Anything you need me to bring you?” Maeve asked, rising from the recliner in the corner of the room.

  “I’d give a pretty penny for my knitting.”

  “Right beside your chair like always?”

  Granny nodded. “I told Homer, the man who drives the ambulance, to go back into the house and get it but he wouldn’t.” Granny shook her head at the injustice. “How long could that have possibly taken him?”

  “He probably didn’t want it to be tossed around on the drive here.”

  “Bring the whole basket. I might need some stitch markers or something.”

  “Need anything else?” Maeve walked closer to the bed and looked down at Granny. Her color was better and her cheeks were rosy.

  “That should do it.”

  Maeve bent over the bed and kissed Granny on the forehead. Her gray hair was as fine as corn silk. “Love you.”

  “Love you, too.” Granny grinned.

  Behind her, Maeve heard the door to the room open. She turned on one heel expecting to see the nurse.

  Campbell Hyatt.

  Talk about shitty timing.

  “Hey,” he said. In one hand he held a cup of coffee. In the other was Granny’s knitting basket. “Thought you might get bored and want this, Granny.”

  When the hell did he start calling her grandmother “Granny”?

  Granny’s smile took years off her age. “Aren’t you just the sweetest man in all of Avery County?” She shot a sidelong look at Maeve. “So thoughtful.” She was pouring it on thicker than cane syrup.

  Maeve glared at her and moved past him. “I’ll see y’all later,” she said, walking toward the door.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” Campbell asked.

  Maeve let out a sigh. “Yeah. I guess.”

  Granny was still smiling when they stepped out into the hall.

  Campbell closed the door and gestured to the sitting area across from the nurse’s station. “She’s going to need some help for a while,” he said. “I was just wondering if you planned on sticking around.”

  “I can take care of Granny.”

  He took a sip of his coffee and looked into her eyes. “You’ve been gone a long time, Maeve. I look out for her. I need your word that you’ll stay until she’s okay on her own again. You can’t run out on her like you did last time.”

  “Where the hell do you get off? Run out on her? I went to college, Campbell. I graduated from law school. It wasn’t like I was on some joy ride.”

  “It’s been hard on her.”

  Maeve shook her head. “I don’t see how. You’re around all the damn time. What could she possibly need me for when she’s got the most thoughtful man in the county looking after her?”

  “She needs someone.�
�� Every eye at the nurse’s station was trained on Campbell and Maeve. He lowered his voice and leaned toward her. “She’s not as young as she used to be.”

  How dare Campbell treat her like she was some irresponsible teenager? She’d been off earning a living, sending money to Granny every month. Maybe she hadn’t visited often enough but with her crazy schedule and the drive, it had been too much for a weekend.

  “I know exactly how old she is,” Maeve said through clenched teeth. “I don’t need you to tell me anything about my own grandmother.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. I’ve been here. You haven’t.”

  Maeve felt her blood beginning to boil. “What was I supposed to do, Campbell? Stay here and get a job working at the Depot Café? Have a few kids and feel fulfilled?” She rose from the bench. “Don’t be mad at me for making something of myself.”

  He stood. They were standing so close Maeve could see the rhythm of the pulse in his neck. “That’s not the point.”

  “Then what is the point?” Maeve raised her voice.

  “The point,” Campbell said, leaning over so that his nose was only an inch or two from hers. “The point is that you’re the only family she’s got. She thinks you hung the damn moon. The least you could do is be part of her life.”

  The criticism stung. It wasn’t that she hadn’t wanted to spend more time in the mountains with Granny. It was just that her life went in another direction. She’d always planned to take more vacation time, visit more often, but she hadn’t.

  “I am part of her life. I always have been.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Family is all we have in this world, Maeve.” He placed his hand on her upper arm. “I don’t want you to have regrets.”

  “Why would I have regrets?”

  His green eyes blazed. “I forgot who I was talking to,” he said, pivoting on his heel and walking down the hall.