Dana

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I have a place in mind that I think you’ll love. I’ve eaten there a couple of times with Elissa, and enjoyed it very much.” She asked if it was the Dirty Harry Diner. “Yes, I take it she’s taken you there as well.” “She has. My favorite is the fried pickles. Who knew that something like that could be battered and fried?” They were both laughing as they made their way to the little diner. “I have a sudden craving for onion rings and a thick juicy burger for some reason.” To call it a restaurant would have been grossly overstating their business. It had about ten tables, several more out of doors, as well as a bar. The bar wasn’t for drinks as one would think, but simply for more room to feed people. He loved the pictures on the walls too. The pictures reflected the times. They started when the town was nothing more than a wide spot in the road. A few log cabins that served as a holding point for mail. There was a trader too, who dealt in not just deer and other pelts, but also beaver, as they were that close to the river. There were others too, but the standing place that was forever in all the photos taken was some part of the castle. Either the turrets that were tall with flags or the family living there, always too far away or too blurry to be recognized. He was sure that was done on purpose so the town wouldn’t know that they’d been the original owners all along. Now, however, he doubted that anyone cared how long they’d been there— Danburn was that good to the town’s residents. Also, there were people standing in front of the large lake fishing for food for the family, he’d bet, or for the castle inhabitants themselves. All in all, there were no pictures of any of the kings and queens of the castle that could be made out. Dana ordered a hamburger, something he had gotten very fond of over the decades, and Sapphire did the same. She ordered onion rings to his baked potato, and when the waiter walked away, they began to talk and share side dishes. “I have had a lot of jobs over the years. I enjoyed making jewelry the most. But I’ve only recently started making larger pieces that I’ve had a great deal of luck selling off. It’s something I do for relaxation, and since I have no deadline to meet, it fulfills something deep inside of me when it’s done.” She said that she’d seen some of his pieces. “Really? That’s wonderful. I have all the gems—most of them I’ve bought, some were given to me, and then there are others, when I was first starting out, that I sadly admit to stealing. You and your sisters, you’ve been working less and less over the years, I’ve noticed.” “Yes, they are manufacturing the gems now, but it’s harder to manufacture what I make for some reason. And the opal has been manmade too, but it’s not nearly as pretty, and I think people can see that. There are cheapened versions of all of us, including you.” Dana nodded. “There is little that we can do about it, but when one of your pieces comes out, someone out there tries to make it cheaper and not necessarily better. Not to me.” “No, me either.”

  They talked mostly about what they wanted in the house. Nothing too personal was brought up, and he thought that he might like that better. It came to him that he wanted her, wanted to hold her, more than her hand, but he also needed to take things slowly. Not just for her, but for him as well. This was going to be his only love for the rest of his life. And he liked her. Loving her was part of him, but he also wanted to have fun with her. Do things together that they both enjoyed. Like fishing. She said she loved the sport, and he did as well. There was nothing rushing him, so for now at least, this was fine with him. Dana had his car there, but they decided to walk back to the house. Since he’d already paid for it and work was being done, they walked through it again, this time with the plan to make any more changes before they moved in. Or perhaps they could live there while things were being done; it was not like they didn’t have everything they needed even while it was being renovated. He saw the contractor coming toward them and had to smile. “Hey, Dana. How’s it...? I’m sorry, miss. I didn’t see you there. You must be the mate.” Dana introduced Sapphire to Charlie Brown, the contractor on their project. She giggled and asked him if that was really his name. “Yes. My parents thought I’d have so much fun with it. It’s not Charles, but Charlie. And I didn’t, let me tell you. I was, and still am to this day, made fun of. And I even went and married a woman by the name of Lucy. Lucy Brown. My goodness, you should hear it all now. Thankfully when we had sons, we didn’t go near the cartoon strip. My oldest is Sam and the other is William.” Dana had always liked the other man. He was in his mid-forties with a head of snowy white hair, and had the sense of humor of a man that had been made the butt of jokes his whole life and learned to live with it. Charlie was as good natured as his namesake, and just as goofy. “I don’t suppose you have a dog named Snoopy, do you?” He said that he didn’t but laughed with her. “You’re a good man. Thank you so much for making me laugh and doing this work.” Charlie wandered off with Sapphire to look at the kind of doors that she wanted in the house. Dana had hated the metal ones too. As far as he was concerned, when building a house, nothing should be metal when wood looked so much better. His phone was ringing when he made his way out on the master deck. “I need some advice.” He told Kip to stop wearing tennis shoes to every event that he went to. “Very funny. I was thinking that I need to make some changes in what I do. You know, stop being the playboy with a lady of the month on my arm.” “And you needed my advice on what, then? Sounds to me like you have it all set up.” He said that part he did, but he didn’t know what to do about a job. “A job, huh? What is it you’re good at, other than charming the panties off of some unsuspecting female that gets too close to you? Or spending money on things that you don’t need nor do you really want, but it was shiny or something.” “You’re a funny guy today. Did you get laid or something?” He told him what he’d done today. He’d bought a house and met his mate. “No shit. You bought a house?”

  “Yes, we did.” They were both laughing when Sapphire joined him again. “I must go, my friend. Find me when you get home and I might have some ideas for you. I’ve been having a great day, so I might actually be able to help you.” “I will. And seriously, congrats on the new mate. I’m sure that you guys will be very happy together.” He told him he thought that they would. “What is it you do? I mean, I know that you design jewelry—I’ve actually seen some of your work over the years, as I said, but what about it makes you so famous?” Sapphire’s face turned red when he acted as if she had wounded him. “You know what I mean. Fine rings and bracelets can’t make all that much money. Not in this market.” “I not only design jewelry, I also sculpt. The other day while walking in the woods, I came across a fallen log. That doesn’t sound very nice, but it had this growth of moss on it and I saw a brownie coming out of the hole near it. All I could think about after that was this log laying in an otherwise dead-in-the-winter forest with a family of brownies living in it. I’m working on the family now. I think that they’ll be blended nicely into the landscape so that you’d have to work hard at seeing them. Or at least that’s my plan.” “What will you use to make them?” He told her that he’d use silver and pewter that could bend easily for him. And then use other gems around it so that it would sparkle like it was in the morning, still with dew on it. She told him she loved that idea, and asked him if she could give him sapphires. “Would you? That would be wonderful. I’m going hunting in the mountain tomorrow. You can come with me and we’ll have a nice picnic if you’d like. And we can fly if you wish. Danburn said that it’s okay when higher up there; the villagers can’t see us from down in the town.” “I would love that. I’ll make something for us and you go foraging.” She laughed. “When my sisters find out that you’ve made them an offer to come live with us, you might have more than you ever wanted in the way of opals, rubies, and emeralds.” He thought that would be cheating, but he wasn’t going to say no. It might be nice not to have to search for and try to negotiate for the gems any more. But that didn’t mean he was going to do it. Dana didn’t want them there for a price, just for family.

  Chapter 3

  “You’re serious? Dana bought the Wilkins mansion
and is allowing us to live there with the two of you?” Sapphire nodded at her sister, Opal. “I wasn’t very nice to him the other day. I think that I need to talk to him about that. So, you can imagine my surprise when he’s still going to be nice to us.” “None of us were nice to him. And did you give a gift to the young child that helped me? No, you did not. I went to take her mine and there was nothing there from any of you.” Em eyed her sisters, knowing that they were selfish at times but sweet women. “She saved my life, as you well know. The iron was headed to my brain, and we know what would have happened to me should Carmine not have caught it.” “I meant to. I even have it here.” Rolling her hands, bringing the magic forward with the gift, Opal showed them what she’d gotten for the child. Slivers of opal in every shade were covering a jewelry box for her. And her name, Carmine, was spelled out on the top in the dragon language. “I wanted her to have something that she could remember me by. And now that we’re staying, I can get to know her better. And I just love the other women as well. Elissa kind of scares me, but at least she’s not trying to harm us. You know as well as I that it’s been a long while since we’ve had such peace.” Em smiled as she showed them what she’d made for the child. “It’s her birthday month too. I thought that having earrings and a bracelet would be perfect for her. And I’ve put a little extra magic on them to make sure that if they ever get lost, she only has to call to them by using her birthdate and they come back. No matter where it is.” That was nice, and Opal wanted to put the same magic on the box as well. Ruby held out her gift. “It’s a red bird. See?” They did, and it was beautiful. The entire bird was ruby, and the flaws or whatever Ruby had put in it to make it appear like wings and eyes were a very nice added touch. As soon as Sapphire touched her finger to it, the bird came to life, for just long enough to sing. “Carmine is forever singing. I think that she sings more than I do. Even when she’s just sitting there watching television.” Sapphire asked about the other things in the palm of her hand. “This is a rose that I thought she’d enjoy. Em gave me enough to make the stem, and then I made her this; it’s a shard made of magic. It will be the strongest way for her to be found should someone take her.” “She has been bitten by the dragons, and the wolf.” Em told her that it was stronger even than that. And the redbird would be a very big part of it. “So, she must carry it with her at all times?” “Nay, I will give it to her and it will settle on her body. I have asked her sister and father about it, and they are welcoming of anything to keep her safe.” Em smiled at her. “And what did you give her, Sapphire? Something of yourself?” “I have a piece of my scale for her.” They were all shocked by the generosity of the gift. It was the greatest gift that one could give a person. “I have encased it in glass so that should she ever want to use it when she’s older, she need only to break it and bestow a kiss upon it to have a child. It will work for her for the rest of her life.” They decided to go and see the little girl now. It was after school and each of them were excited to give her the gift. But almost as soon as they were invited into the big house, Sapphire knew there was trouble. Or something that a child would think of as trouble. “They’re having a mother/daughter thing at school.” Sapphire asked if Quinn wasn’t able to go, thinking that she’d gladly take her place. “She’s not my mother, and the rest of the kids made fun of me.” “Did you hurt them?” All of them turned to Em. “Well, it’s a good question. I’m not saying that she should, but I might have. Stick them right in the—” “Emerald. She’s not going to do that.” A low growl made Em smile when she told them that she was only trying to help. “See that you help her less about her human problems. We don’t want the bad guys to know if word got out.” “He’s still coming, you know.” Sapphire asked if she knew who he was. “No. Somebody from a government office. My mom called them before we came here. She was trying to figure out what made me like I am. They were going to do all kinds of tests on me, but Mom got worse and we came here when my sister was hurt. We’ve come up with that I use almost all my brain.” “Okay, so someone is coming. If you can help us with who he might be, we can delay him. Not stop him—we can’t mess too much with the fates—but we can sort of muddle with when he is to arrive.” Carmine described him as best she could. “We’ll all keep our eyes out for this man. And if you need us, you know to call with your gifts.” They had given her the gifts when they found out about the tea that was coming up. But when Sapphire reached out to Quinn about it, she somehow got Elissa instead. Mothers tea? Oh my, they’re still doing that? I would love to go. She told her about the issues she was having at school. I wouldn’t have expected that from the pack school. But then children will be children. Not that it makes it any less painful to her, but it’s going to be easy to fix, I think. I’ll talk to Quinn. Perhaps she and I both can go. I’m officially her grandmother, and I know that Quinn is planning for the adoption paperwork to be finished soon. Maybe by then, it’ll be official. She’s very upset about it. Elissa said that she would be as well. I’ve tried talking to her, but she’s more worried about the man coming. Did she tell you about him? Yes, in a vague sort of way. I think only one has her concerned. To me it should if he’s doing this on his own. I hope so. I can’t take much more of this. Why don’t they just leave that little girl alone? Elissa was just as aggravated as the rest of them, she supposed. Going to the garden that was being worked on at the back of the house, Sapphire and Carmine sat down on the bench while her sisters fought over who was going to plant something first. It was always a competition to them. “My sister is going to have a baby. I don’t know what it’ll be to me.” Sapphire asked her what she meant. “Will it be my half-sister or my stepsister?”