CarnalHealing

by Virginia Reede

  Then, he smiled. Malevolence seemed to engulf Leonore like a cloud, leaving her breathless. Then the man turned and slipped through the doorway, and the sensation of ill will was gone as suddenly as it had appeared.

  Chapter Six

  “I’m sorry you had to wait. One of the girls came in an hour late, and we’ve been trying to get back on schedule all day.” Ludmilla settled herself in the chair opposite where Leonore sat with her hands soaking in a bowl of warm, fragrant water. Unlike less elegant spas, Millie’s customers were served in private rooms with curtained doors. She lifted the fluffy towel she had been carrying and held it in front of her, an indication that Leonore should withdraw her hands from the moisturizing solution and dry them. The towel was soft and warm, and Leonore tried to relax as Millie gently massaged through the fabric.

  “What’s with the worried expression? After our phone call, I was expecting you to be a picture of post-coital bliss.”

  Leonore shivered. “Something strange happened after we spoke. It was…weird.”

  Millie withdrew the towel and wheeled her chair back to deposit it in a wicker hamper. “Weird, how?” She sorted through her manicurist tools, nodding as if completing a satisfactory inventory.

  Leonore had been thinking about what she would tell her sister about the incident. “Remember when you told me about the strange customer you had? The one you thought was directing some bad feeling toward you?”

  Now it was Millie’s turn to shiver. “Yes. I-I’ve been dreaming about it.”

  “Have you really?” Leonore felt her concern heighten. “Well, I think I met someone like that. But with this guy, there’s no doubt about it. He hates me, Millie. He wishes me harm.”

  “Did he say that? Where was this?” Alarm was plain on Millie’s face, and she was sitting very still.

  Leonore shook her head. “No, he didn’t say anything. He just…just looked at me, and I could feel it. He knew I could feel it too, and I got the impression he was doing it on purpose. He wanted me to know…something.” She was frustrated that she couldn’t make herself clearer. “I was at the children’s hospital,” she went on, ignoring Ludmilla’s rising eyebrows. “Healing a child. Or, re-healing a child, I should say.“

  Leonore described the incident in as great a detail as she could manage, explaining about how she had become worried about Lucy, and having seen the man once before. Millie listened without comment but with great concentration. When Leonore was done, she was silent for a moment.

  “I wonder if it was the same man?” she said. “The description fits—dark-haired, handsome, not too tall.”

  “That’s a pretty general description,” Leonore said. “If Lily was here, she could draw him, but I couldn’t produce much more than a stick figure.”

  “Me, either.” Ludmilla sighed deeply. “Do you think they could be…you know.”

  “Members of the Draíodóir?” Leonore shook her head. “Of course, I considered it. It’s way too coincidental, with the equinox coming up. And our plans for the power-building ritual, although I can’t imagine any way they’d have found out about that.”

  “If they even exist,” Millie said, but she didn’t sound as skeptical as Letisha had the other day.

  “Well, the man I saw existed, whether he was Draíodóir or not. The Druid language must have been a tongue twister.” Ludmilla seemed to shake herself a little. “We need to talk to all of the circle members about this, to make sure they’re on their guard. And, as long as you’re here, we may as well do your manicure. And you can finally tell me about your new lover.”

  “Do you have time? I took a long time with my story.”

  “I’m fine. My three o’clock cancelled.” Millie froze in the act of reaching for Leonore’s hands. “Do you think that little girl—Lucy, I think you called her—is in danger?”

  “Maybe. I’m positive that she was completely healed before the…the stranger showed up. I’ll figure out a way to stop by and check on her again.”

  “Good idea. And, you’d better make sure you keep having regular sex, in case you have to heal her again.” She held her hands open, and Leonore place one of hers into them.

  Ludmilla gasped, and her mouth formed an “o”.

  “What?” Lenore tried to pull her hand back, but Millie tightened her grip.

  “Leonore. You didn’t tell me!”

  “Tell you what?” Leonore was mystified at Millie’s reaction, but she could see that her friend was beaming, all traces of her earlier concern having vanished.

  “Give me you other hand.” Without relinquishing the hand she already held, Ludmilla gestured emphatically for the other.

  “Millie, tell me what’s wrong,” Leonore said, but put her left hand into Ludmilla’s right, and felt light pressure as both were squeezed. Millie closed her eyes, and her smile became positively beatific. She signed ecstatically.

  “Will you tell me what is going on?” Leonore was starting to get annoyed.

  Ludmilla opened her eyes and grinned like the Cheshire cat. “You’ve been with him.”

  “You mean Jeff? I told you I spent the night with a lover.”

  “His name is Jeff? Oooh, better and better.“

  “Tell. Me. What. You. Are. Talking. About.”

  “Oh, all right. I was just savoring the moment.” She squeezed both hands again. “You’ve found him, Leonore. You’ve found your one true love.”

  This time Leonore managed to pull her hands away. “You’re out of your mind!”

  Ludmilla raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “Oh, no, I’m not. You, Leonore, have met your one true love and have had sex with him. I can’t believe you didn’t figure it out yourself. Your magic is practically singing it from the rooftops.”

  “My magic isn’t…” Leonore trailed off. She had been about to say that her magic wasn’t doing anything in the least bit unusual, but that wasn’t true. Ever since she had met Jeff, her power had become increasingly unpredictable and difficult to control. But she wasn’t ready to concede so easily.

  “Look, Leonore, Jeff Carson is just an ordinary man. I don’t think you can be sure—”

  Ludmilla cut her off. “Jeff Carson? Jeff is short for Jeffrey, no doubt. Oh, come on, Leonore. You’re named after the Ancestor, and her lover was Geoffrey Carnaethan. And you finally meet a man you like well enough to see a second time—”

  “Third,” interjected Leonore, before she could stop herself.

  “A third time, and spend the entire night with him, and your magic has undergone the Transformation, and—”

  “We’ve never confirmed that the Transformation is a real phenomenon and not just a myth,” argued Leonore, feeling a little panicky. Jeff can’t be my one true love. He just can’t.

  “Well, of course we haven’t. You’re the first one of us to find her one true love. Come on, let me feel it one more time.” Again, Millie took Leonore’s hands into her own and squeezed them, closing her eyes. “Oh, it’s wonderful. Now I can’t wait for it to happen to me.” She opened her eyes. “Tell me you haven’t been feeling extra terrific.”

  “Well, I was, until I ran into Mr. Evil.”

  Ludmilla sobered slightly. “Yes, that seems like an odd coincidence. Meeting your one true love—” She made a motion as if to cut off Leonore’s protest “And coming across someone who wishes you harm within twenty-four hours. We definitely need to talk to the circle about this.”

  “Now,” she went on, “I’m going to enjoy the sensation and give you your manicure, and you’re going to tell me every single, solitary detail about Mr. Jeffrey Carson while I do it.”

  “Actually,” said Leonore, bowing to the inevitable, “It’s Doctor Jeffrey Carson.”

  “A doctor? Be still my heart!” replied Ludmilla, and the shadow of the morning’s unsettling incident was banished, at least temporarily.

  * * * * *

  “You have to tell Jeff.” Letisha said for the third time. Leonore restrained an urge to get up from the
sofa, cross the room, put her hands around Tish’s cocoa-colored throat and strangle her.

  “Tell him what?” she said, trying to keep her tone reasonable. “That he’s my one true love? That I’m a witch? That it was magic, and not his treatment, that saved Lucy? Or that some unnamed evil man who may or may not be my mortal enemy might sneak into the hospital to magically bring the cancer back?” She shook her head. “He won’t even have to call an ambulance to take me to the psychiatric ward—it’s in an adjoining building. He can have me hauled over there on a stretcher. In restraints.”

  “He may believe you,” argued Lupita. It was the first time she’d seen her sisters since her return from Mexico, and she’d driven up from Connecticut for the emergency session at Leonore’s apartment. Two of the other members of the circle lived farther away, but were anxious to hear what they’d discussed. Lavinia, the seventh sister, had not returned Ludmilla’s call, but this wasn’t unusual.

  “Why would he believe me? It would sound crazy to anyone who wasn’t a Leonorean.”

  “You said he could feel it when you shared magic during sex,” said Lupita, her tone reasonable. “And he already tried to get you to explain it. You could start with that.”

  “Petey, it’s a long way from, ‘I have this little special ability that makes your cock tingle’ to ‘You need to put a guard on Lucy’s room to keep the evil cancer monster out’,” Lenore insisted, stubbornly.

  “Well, he’s got to find out he’s your one true love eventually,” said Millie. “Otherwise, he might never propose marriage.” She ducked, and the sofa cushion Leonore threw at her sailed over her head.

  “How the hell did you get from protecting Lucy to a marriage proposal?” Leonore seethed.

  “When a Leonorean will fynde her one true love, and laye with him, she will soon quicken with child, even if she be barren,” recited Millie. Leonore looked at her suspiciously—Ludmilla was the least disciplined of the circle when it came to Leonorean teachings. She had to have looked the passage up and memorized it this afternoon.

  Letisha laughed gleefully. She hadn’t bought as completely into Ludmilla’s theory as had Petey, but she was enjoying Leonore’s discomfort. “Hell, you may be pregnant already.”

  Leonore flushed, but Millie shook her head. “No, I would have felt it. But if you accept that Jeff is her one true love—”

  “Which I don’t,” interjected Leonore.

  “Then it follows that she’ll be pregnant before long. I just assumed she’d like to get married before she starts having children.”

  “What I don’t get is why you’re fighting it so hard,” Petey said. “If I found my one true love, I’d be thrilled.” She sighed dreamily.

  “Yeah,” said Tish. “What’s the deal, baby? Why are you so sure Millie’s wrong?”

  “Because—” Lenore started, then stopped. Why was she so opposed to the idea? If the Leonorean legends they had discovered so far were to be believed, finding her true love was not only inevitable, it was the only way she could reach her full potential as a witch.

  “Because I’m not ready,” she finished, the excuse sounding lame even to her own ears. “I thought I’d have more time to explore the group magic first. It’s been barely a year since we found Lavinia, and had the seven to complete the circle. And there’s so much we don’t know.”

  “Leonore, honey,” Millie said, the teasing tone was gone from her voice, “You don’t get to choose when it happens. Fate decides.”

  “But I thought I’d get some kind of warning. Leonore—the Ancestor, I mean—had a premonition before she met Geoffrey Carnaethen. Nothing like that happened to me. I need some time to think about what it might mean, before I go blurting everything out to him.”

  “Look,” said Letisha, “you don’t have to tell Jeff the truth, whatever that is. But someone has got to watch over that child. And since he’s her doctor, he seems like the person to start with.”

  “No.” Leonore didn’t care what the rest of the circle said, she would not tell Jeff. She would not.

  Her tone must have finally gotten through to them because even Millie stopped arguing, although her expression showed it cost some effort.

  “What if I volunteer at the hospital?” said Lupita. “I have some time off. I could be one of those candy stripers or something.”

  Letisha shook her head. “I don’t think volunteers get to pick the areas they work in, and there may be some kind of training period before you start. No, Leonore’s going to have to be the one. Jeff can get her in to see Lucy.”

  Leonore’s irritation rose again. “I told you, I’m not—”

  “Gonna tell him. I know. But you have an excuse to be on that floor. You can stop by, say you couldn’t wait to see him. Ask him if he’ll let you watch him with some of his patients.” Letisha pointed at Leonore’s answering machine, where the numeral four blinked red. “Tell me those four calls aren’t all from him. He’d be thrilled if you showed up.”

  Leonore resisted the urge to snort. “Oh, yeah, that’s just what I want to do. Be that needy woman who stalks some man she barely knows at his job. He’ll think I’m a psycho.”

  “No, he won’t,” said Millie. “He’s your one true—”

  “Don’t say it!”

  Ludmilla ignored her. “Love. And, whether you believe it or not, you let him feel your magic. You may not have done that before, but some of us have, and we know what happens to the guy afterward. Right now, you’re all he can think about. He’s dying to see you. If you show up at his job, he won’t question whether it’s appropriate behavior. He’ll just be glad you’re there.” Lupita and Letisha nodded in agreement, and Leonore threw up her hands.

  “Okay, okay. I’ll go by there.” She glanced at the clock—it was six thirty. “He’s going to be there for at least another hour, I think. I’ll tell him I’m stopping by on my way home from somewhere.”

  “Good girl.” Letisha stood up. “Now, get going. I have to get back to work.”

  “So go,” replied Leonore. Letisha didn’t move, just arched one eyebrow in a significant expression. Neither Lupita nor Ludmilla showed any sign of rushing out either, and Leonore sighed and got to her feet. “Okay, fine. I know you think I won’t go over there, but it’s really not necessary for you to watch me until I leave.”

  “Of course not,” said Letisha. She crossed her arms and still didn’t move. With what she hoped was a world-class eye roll, Leonore crossed the room and picked up her car keys and purse. “Fine. Just lock the door behind you when you leave.” She didn’t quite slam the door behind her.

  “It’s like having six nannies,” she muttered to herself as she unlocked her car. But as she slid into the front seat and started the car, Leonore realized she wasn’t really annoyed. She even grinned a little, remembering the stubborn expressions on her three closest friends’ faces. She would have agreed to go to the hospital in any case, because she probably wouldn’t be able to sleep without checking up on Lucy. And she had a sudden certainty that the girls were absolutely right about Jeff being happy to see her. Heat rose to her own cheeks and a tingle of anticipation spread from her belly to her inner thighs, as both her body and her magic responded to the idea that she’d be seeing him again in a few minutes.

  “No, Dr. Carson hasn’t signed out. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t gone home—they leave without signing out all the time.” The nurse’s tone made it clear she considered this disregard of the rules to be a personal affront. A light on the console next to her started to flash, and she turned toward it and punched a button, changing it to a steady glow. “Excuse me, I just need to check on a patient.”

  Leonore watched her step from behind the desk and head toward one of the corridors. It wasn’t the one that led to Lucy’s room. She eyed the other nurse. He was deep in a telephone conversation, holding the phone with his chin while reading information from a file, and didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her. Leonore didn’t have her fake lab coat or iden
tification badge with her—she had not wanted to have to explain them to Jeff—but she didn’t think anyone would stop her once she had gotten past the desk. Her real purpose for being here was to make sure Lucy was okay, not to see Jeff. Nevertheless, as she walked quietly down the hall in the direction of the child’s room, she found it hard to ignore the sour taste of disappointment.

  The door was open, and Leonore walked past it, glancing in. Both parents were in the room, seated on either side of the bed. Father and daughter were absorbed in a book, with the mother apparently listening in. No one glanced up.

  Damn. Leonore’s first reaction was irritation, but she quickly reassessed the situation. The stranger was unlikely to return as long as Lucy was not alone. Though she had only gotten a quick glimpse, Lucy had been sitting up and appeared to be quite animated, which meant she was probably feeling well.

  Leonore stepped into the visitors lounge, unsure of what to do next. With Jeff missing in action, she didn’t have any excuse to hang around. The visitors lounge was empty at the moment, but unlikely to stay that way for long. If she went home, she’d just spend the evening worried that the stranger would come back.

  She looked around. Like the last time she was in this room, a partially completed jigsaw puzzle was on a low table. She decided to wait just a little while. Jeff might return to his office, and Lucy’s parents would have to leave eventually. She tried one of the comfortable chairs, but felt too restless and soon stood back up. She perched on the arm of the sofa and tried to focus on the puzzle, but it was no use. She got up and went back to the door and peeked out.

  Looking down the corridor, Leonore felt even more edgy. She couldn’t see inside the room from this vantage point and, if she kept walking up and down the hall in order to look inside, someone was going to notice her. Why hadn’t she gotten Jeff’s cell phone number? She pulled her head back into the room, returned to the arm chair, and sat down.