by Tess Lake
It was a kiss a long time coming, a kiss that had been waiting impatiently, a kiss that could no longer be denied.
All around us the crowd went crazy cheering and laughing. When we pulled apart our beards stuck to each other for a moment.
“Wow,” breathed Jack.
I had no words, so I grabbed his hand and lifted it in the air like we’d won a prize. The crowd around us cheered again and then Aunt Cass told us to get moving because we were holding up the parade.
I couldn’t help smiling to myself as we walked along hand in hand. Life was good, and now it looked like it was about to get even better.
Chapter 9
You know how they say that if a man asks you out on a date at the last minute, you’re supposed to decline? Keep the mystery, you’re too busy and so on?
The hell with that! I had a date!
I was waiting outside Valhalla Viking while Jack found somewhere to park his truck. With all the tourists flooding in, parking spots were at a premium. It was still pirate parade day and there were many Blackbeards roaming the streets (some drunk and looking more and more like real pirates as the festivities turned merry).
We’d walked hand in hand the rest of the parade until we had eventually reached the park. The mayor had given some crazy speech as usual and everyone cheered (he was dressed as a pirate, but imagine a pirate who’d been dipped in Technicolor paint). Jack and I’d found a quiet spot away from everyone else to grab a bite to eat and I’d discovered that the whole thing had been set up by the moms!
Jack had known he was coming back to town today. He’d arranged with them to participate in the pirate parade so he could come swashbuckling in. Jonas had built the float all by himself, including the wooden mast (he, of course, was the other Blackbeard).
I was amazed the whole thing had been set up just so Jack could come swinging in!
I had to admit I didn’t mind this type of meddling. We had a thousand things to talk about, but then the moms had found us and pulled me over to the bakery table and put me to work. Jack had asked me out, and on the spot I said yes!
The moms were certainly beside themselves with glee at how successful their meddling had been. For the short time Jack was at the bakery table, Kira didn’t say a single word. She only blushed and mumbled when he said hello. I could see why Molly kept teasing Michael. Teenagers can be quite adorable.
Sometimes.
And now, there I was waiting outside Valhalla Viking, watching tourists come and go, feeling on top of the world, when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around with a smile, only to find Carter standing there. His arm was still in a sling and he was unshaven, which was unusual for him.
I felt my happiness falter, but then I recovered. Not even Carter could ruin my night!
“Hey, Carter, how you doing?” I said, the very essence of chirpiness.
“Not good. I fell through a broken step at my office and fractured my arm. When I told my real estate agent that they needed to repair the step, something I’ve been asking them to do for months, they responded by upping my rent and threatening to evict me. What do you know about Sylvester Coldwell?”
Wow, this was not good at all.
“Not much, I guess. He and his family own a lot of land and control many properties in town. I don’t like him very much, I can tell you that,” I said.
“I started looking into his family’s history. Do you know that his grandfather bought a few places that had burned to the ground and then developed them? That’s how they got their start in Harlot Bay.”
It was easy enough to see where he was going with this.
“I did know some of that. But there’s not really any evidence, is there?” I asked.
“Behind every great fortune is a great crime,” Carter said to me. He sighed and rubbed his stubble with his free hand. “Look… Coldwell squeezing me is going to cause serious problems for the Harlot Bay Times. I think there is something worth investigating regarding his family, and I want to ask you if you want to be involved because I know that you’re good at that type of thing.”
Yes, he said it while essentially looking at the sidewalk and mumbling through it, but it was still a compliment from Carter Wilkins. He wanted my help?
For a moment I felt a spiteful anger rising up... but then I let it go.
He looked so sad and defeated that I couldn’t bring myself to smack him around despite what he had written about me and my family in the past.
“Okay, well… I guess I can help you. Do you want to trade background information or something like that?” I asked.
“I thought we could work on it together. I’ve been doing research and you have too, clearly. Let’s put our heads together and then investigate more. How about I come to your office tomorrow? Maybe in the afternoon?”
“Yeah… that would be okay,” I mumbled.
I was starting to realize that I would have to be around Carter if I was going to do any work with him. That didn’t sound like something I would be interested in. It was too late, though – I’d agreed.
Carter smiled at me, again looking like a nervous dog, and walked away just as Jack approached, jingling his truck keys in his hand.
“At the Festival of Lights, you were sword fighting recorders with some guy. That was him, wasn’t it?”
“That’s the one. And… I just agreed to work with him for some reason. Maybe I have heatstroke from walking around in a pirate costume all day?”
Jack laughed, and just like that I didn’t care whether I’d have to work with Carter.
We entered Valhalla Viking, which was packed with tourists. One of the waitresses, Carol, waved to me and then directed us to an empty booth near the back.
We sat down in the booth and Carol gave us our menus. She was dressed as a full Viking Shield Maiden with a golden breastplate, a horned silver helmet and her hair in braids.
Valhalla Viking is a themed restaurant and they take it seriously. They do serve beer, but you can also buy mead and it’s served in imitation carved horns. There’s a lot of meat on the menu and all the waiters and staff dress as Vikings. The inside of the bar and restaurant is dark and smoky. The tourists absolutely love it.
Carol zipped away, promising to return soon for our order.
“Would you like a beer?” Jack asked me.
“Absolutely,” I said. While Jack went over to the bar, I browsed the menu, my stomach grumbling. There were so many delicious things I didn’t know what to choose.
Jack soon returned with beers. We said cheers to the good health of all Vikings everywhere and then chose what we’d order. We finally settled on slow-cooked ribs to share, rough-cut potato wedges and something called Viking salad that didn’t give many details but sounded interesting. Carol came to take our order and then there we were, sitting at the table, no one to interrupt us, finally together after such a long time apart.
Jack’s hair was slightly longer and shaggy. He still had that rough stubble, and in the darkened restaurant I could see the glimmers of the small lights around us reflected in his eyes.
Upon hearing that I was going to go on a date with Jack, Molly and Luce had taken it upon themselves to dress me. There had been somewhat of a battle between the “low-cut, short skirt” side of things and the “slightly more demure but still a bit sexy” side. I think if Molly had had her way I would have turned up to this dinner in a push-up bra and panties! I’d finally settled on a blue dress that was still a little demure. Between a good dress, small golden earrings, makeup and red lipstick, I was, for once, not feeling like a poor small-town country girl. That was mostly thanks to Mom handing me some cash and telling me to have a good time.
“So,” Jack said, smiling at me.
“So,” I whispered.
“That was some kiss. Do you think that’s how Blackbeard actually kissed?”
I felt myself blush but in the darkness, he couldn’t see it. Yes, I’d kissed him. Then shortly after that, shyness had come rushing
back.
“Blackbeard was a great kisser. That’s a historical fact,” I said.
“Historical fact? That’s amazing,” Jack said, laughing. He threw his head back as he did in a laugh that shook his whole body. Some quiet voice inside me whispered this is the one.
The dinner raced by with unfair speed. The meal was extraordinary. The meat was falling off the ribs. It was perfectly paired with a smoky sauce. The rough-cut wedges were salty and delicious, and the Viking salad turned about out to be a crazy mixture that I’m sure no Viking ever actually ate. It was hard to tell in the darkness, but I’m sure it had flower petals in it. We ordered more beer, which offset the salty wedges, and talked about anything and everything. Jack told me he’d taken so long to return because he had to sell his house and getting all that in order was a difficult task. He’d had to arrange repairs and maintenance and painting. Like all projects, even if you assumed it would take a long time, it always took twice as long as you thought.
I didn’t have much to tell him about Harlot Bay. Not very much had happened while he’d been gone. The ice-skating rink renovations were slowly starting. The council was still debating about what to do about the burned-out lighthouse. Traveler was well on its way to becoming a thriving coffee shop, and the Torrent Mansion Bed-and-Breakfast was now up and running. The conversation flowed all over the place and it was simply wonderful. I found myself laughing again and again, feeling so happy I thought my heart would burst.
Soon we finished our meal and both of us were too full to have any dessert. We left Valhalla and Jack suggested we go for a walk, maybe to the point that overlooked the ocean.
I started laughing the moment he suggested it.
“What? You don’t want to go up to the point?”
“You want to go to Make-Out Point?” I said, gasping for air.
“Is that what the kids call it?” Jack said, understanding.
“No, it’s fine, we can go to Make-Out Point. Teenagers love it. It’s awesome up there,” I said, still giggling to myself.
“Okay, well, I’m not from around here, cheeky chops. What if we walk on the beach instead?”
“Romantic Stroll on the Moonlight Beach? You want to go to that one?” I said, poking him in the ribs.
I was still laughing as we headed off down the street, joining the streams of tourists all around us. Waiting on the corner for a car to pass, I caught a flash of pink hair and a glint of silver down a side street. I glanced and saw a teenager, but in the dark I couldn’t be sure if it was Kira or not. It certainly looked like her. Not that I was keeping track, but I’d thought she was at home tonight.
“See someone you know?” Jack asked.
“I think it was Kira. The teenage girl who’s staying with us at the moment. I don’t know,” I said.
“Is she not allowed out at night?”
“No, I don’t think she usually is. Her grandmother is fairly strict, but she is living with us at the moment and we don’t have the same rules, most of the time.”
“Why is she living with you?” Jack asked.
Eeep.
I’d blundered into a topic that I couldn’t give a straight answer to. What could I say? Well, she’s a Slip Witch and she’s being trained by my great-aunt who is also a Slip Witch. Oh, by the way, Grandma is in the basement and she’s been frozen in time for the last twenty years.
My lying skills kicked into gear.
“Kira has been having trouble at school. My aunt and Kira’s grandma are friends and thought a change of scenery might help.”
Okay, not that bad of a lie.
“We had a friend who did that. He lived with us for a while growing up because things weren’t so good back home. It’s a good thing to do,” Jack said.
We walked on and soon were down on the beach. I took off my shoes. The sand was still warm from the sun of the day. Soon we were barefoot, walking along by the water’s edge, not talking about much in particular. The moon was sailing high above Harlot Bay, lighting up the entire beach, and we kept passing couples walking hand in hand, giggling and talking. We hadn’t walked far when some nothing joke between us had us laughing and teasing each other, and soon the distance between us vanished and we kissed again. I could almost feel myself floating off the ground with Jack’s strong arms wrapped around me.
It was then, in the midst of a kiss that I never wanted to end, that I felt something clench inside me like a hot coal had been dropped in my stomach. It was like a fishhook, pulling at me, leading up somewhere into the hills that overlooked Harlot Bay.
I broke apart from Jack and gasped.
“Are you okay?”
The pain in my stomach spiked and there was a pull towards the hills. I looked up into the darkness to see the first flickers of orange flame. There was a fire.
“I’m okay. Saw that out of the corner of my eye. It gave me a shock,” I said, pointing at the small glow.
“Is that a fire?” Jack asked.
“Could be the arsonist,” I said.
We’d spoken briefly during dinner about some of the fires in Harlot Bay. We’d quickly moved on from that sad topic to something far more fun.
The hot coal in my stomach pulled again. I had to get closer to the fire.
“Let’s go and check it out,” I said.
“Okay,” Jack replied.
We jogged back up the beach. With every step towards the fire, the pain in my stomach lessened. Soon we were back up on the Esplanade, putting our shoes on.
“I’m parked over here. I had to park so far away because there wasn’t anywhere near the restaurant,” Jack said.
We rushed over to his truck and jumped in. We’d had a few beers during dinner, but not so many it wasn’t safe to drive.
Jack’s truck smelled like man and wood shavings and aged leather. On any other occasion, I would have loved sitting there next to him, driving through the darkness of Harlot Bay, but now all I could feel was anxiety. The hot coal in my stomach was a tugging pain, urging me to come closer to the fire.
We raced up out of Harlot Bay as fast as we could, which wasn’t really that fast because of all the tourists crossing the streets. We finally got out of the main part of the town and made our way up into the hills. The small flickering glow of fire was growing larger by the second. And as we raced along I heard the wail of the fire siren.
We reached the fire at the same time as the fire engine and got out of the truck. In front of us was a beautiful old wooden two-story house painted in bright colors with gigantic windows that looked out over the sea in one direction and the town in the other. They had a large green hedge surrounding most of the property. The fire had started there. The hedge was burning, flinging embers up into the sky, crackling and popping as the sap caught fire.
We watched as the firefighters set up their hoses and started trying to contain the blaze. There was a couple standing out on the road, a man and a woman. She was crying and he was trying to comfort her, but he looked worried too. They were probably the owners. All along the street, neighbors were slowly emerging from their homes to watch the firefighters. Now that I was standing twenty feet away, the hot coal feeling and the pull had disappeared. I looked around, hoping to see anyone who might have been at the last fire. Perhaps I could catch the arsonist (if in fact there was one). I had no idea what a fire spirit looked like or if it would even be visible to me or anyone else.
The firefighters soon got the blaze under control and I didn’t see anyone I recognized.
That was until the arson investigator, Detective Moreland, arrived in his shiny black car. I quickly got back in the truck and asked Jack to take me home. We drove away, but I’m fairly sure the investigator saw me.
It really seemed our romantic night was at an end. The fire had taken away all of our laughing and joking. Both of us were on edge. Jack drove me home and walked me up to the front door.
I was feeling anxious and unsure, butterflies fluttering in my stomach, worrying that soon I’d s
ee Detective Moreland again. I had no idea why I’d felt drawn to the fire. What if it happened again?
At the front door, I turned around and looked into Jack’s eyes and then all my worries disappeared for a moment.
“Let’s do this again sometime… except without the fire. I’m out of town for a few days. Let’s have lunch when I’m back,” Jack said. Then we kissed. I could smell his aftershave, the tinge of smoke from the hedge fire, the faint scent of wood shavings. The kiss was interrupted by the sound of my cousins inside the house calling out woooooo through the front door. We broke apart, both of us grinning. I agreed to lunch, we said good night and then I went inside. Molly and Luce pounced on me like lionesses out on the hunt.
“You kissed him. Are you going to have his babies now?” Luce asked.
“Do you have their names picked out?” Molly added.
“Shut up,” I said, laughing. I was happy, too giddy to care much about anything.
Molly and Luce demanded a complete debrief of every moment from when he picked me up at home, all the way to Valhalla Viking, our dinner, the beach and anything else. They were sighing and oohing the whole time until I told them about the sudden feeling of a hot coal appearing in my stomach and the pull of the fishhook dragging me to the fire.
Their faces went very solemn.
“Do you think it’s you starting the fires?” Molly said, as gently as possible.
“It’s not me. It feels completely different from when I do it,” I said.
“If it’s not you, why would you be pulled to the fire?” Luce asked.
I shrugged and gave the same answer I’ve given many, many times in my life.
“I’m a Slip Witch. It sucks,” I said.
I told them we’d left when the fire had been extinguished, but not before Detective Moreland had arrived. Molly and Luce didn’t like the sound of that at all.
I wanted to get off the topic as quickly as possible, so I told them how I’d stupidly agreed to work with Carter on investigating Sylvester Coldwell and his family.
“Carter seems to think that he might be behind some of these fires. He researched Coldwell’s grandfather and discovered that’s how they got their start being rich,” I said.