Casual Hex

by Vicki Lewis Thompson

  “Religious differences?”

  “Not really. Although, in a way . . .” Gwen hesitated. She was about to make the man she loved sound like a gullible person at best, a flake at worst. But Annie needed to know this. “He believes there’s a dragon living in the Whispering Forest.”

  Annie choked on her coffee.

  Gwen got her some water and patted her back, but inside she was smiling. This was the reaction she’d hoped for. Her friend didn’t believe in that kind of nonsense, either.

  At last Annie pulled herself together and cleared her throat. “Why would he think that?”

  “It’s a long story.”

  “Unless you’re worried about the shop, I have all morning.”

  Gwen spilled everything, beginning with the erotic dreams and ending with the scene in the forest with something that looked like a dragon and a person who made it appear that he had wings and could levitate. “I’m sure it’s all fake, something created by Dorcas and Ambrose, but Marc believes it’s real.”

  Annie gazed at her for several long seconds.

  Finally Gwen couldn’t stand the suspense. “What do you think?”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Want more coffee?”

  “Do you have any Bailey’s to put in it?”

  “Let me look.” Gwen went to her liquor stash and found an unopened bottle her parents had given her for Christmas a year ago. “We’re in luck.” After filling each of their mugs three-quarters full of coffee, she poured in a generous amount of Bailey’s.

  Annie took a sip. “Ah, better.”

  “I don’t know if I mentioned that the Lowells gave Marc and me a bottle of that Mystic Hills wine.”

  “You didn’t mention it, but it’s standard procedure. They were definitely setting you two up. I wish I’d been here.”

  “Believe me, so do I.” Gwen took a drink of her coffee and decided the Bailey’s was a very good idea. Between talking to Annie and the Bailey’s, she felt much more relaxed. “Is there something special about that wine or is it the power of suggestion?”

  “A little of both. But I can tell you this—you and Marc need to work this out or you’ll both be extremely miserable. He’s the one for you, Gwen. And guaranteed you’re his true love.”

  “How can you know? You’ve never met him.”

  “Let’s put it this way. When the Lowells bring two people together, they do their research. There’s nothing random about the choice. We’re talking eHarmony to the tenth power.”

  “They told you this?”

  “I asked. I’m a reporter, remember?”

  “True.” Gwen savored her coffee and felt more mellow by the minute.

  “Have you talked to Dorcas about any of this?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  Gwen had consumed a fair amount of her Bailey’s-laced coffee, and somehow the truth slipped out. “Afraid to.”

  “Finish your coffee. Then we’ll walk over there together.” Annie picked up the paperweight. “And bring this. I’ll bet Dorcas can fix it for you.”

  “Fix it? It’s heavy blown glass. You can’t just pour some Elmer’s on it.”

  “Dorcas is very good at fixing things.”

  Memories rose to the surface, of a piece of paper ripping and Dorcas saying something in Latin. Then they’d come home to Gwen’s shattered kitchen window. Gwen hadn’t wanted to watch, hadn’t wanted to acknowledge what was going on, but Dorcas had fixed that, too.

  Gwen drained her mug and stood.

  Annie followed suit. “Ready?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Annie walked around the table and gave her a hug. “You can do this. We’ll do it together.”

  Fifteen minutes later, as Gwen stood with Annie on the Lowells’ front porch, she was shaking. If Annie hadn’t been there, she would have turned around and left. But Annie was already pushing the doorbell, which chimed Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

  Ambrose came to the door, wearing a sweatshirt printed with a picture of a bee wearing a halo. Underneath it said BLESSED BEES. “Annie, you’re home!” He threw open the door and gathered her into his arms for a bear hug.

  “Feeling like a rock star, are you, Ambrose?” Annie hugged him back and then tapped his chest. “You still haven’t let me hear you play that bass guitar.”

  Ambrose blushed. “It doesn’t sound like much without the rest of the band.”

  Gwen watched the two of them, her mouth hanging open. She’d had no idea they were so close.

  Ambrose glanced over at Gwen. “Good to see you.” His smile was cautious as he ushered them both into the hallway. “How’ve you been?”

  “She’s been in a world of hurt,” Annie said. “We need to talk to Dorcas. Both of you, actually. I just wasn’t sure you’d be home. Jeremy said you’re pretty regular at Click-or-Treat these days, checking your MySpace page.”

  “I stayed home this morning to help Dorcas work on something. Excuse me a minute. I’ll get her.” He opened a doorway and started down what appeared to be the basement steps.

  Gwen caught a glimpse of candlelight. “Are we interrupting?” She didn’t want to know what Dorcas and Ambrose had been working on by candlelight in the basement. An unusual smell floated up the stairs. “Because this can wait. In fact, I should probably—”

  “Stay right here.” Annie caught her arm and pulled her into the parlor. “Take your coat off. Make yourself comfortable.”

  Gwen followed Annie’s instructions and took off her coat and boots, because if she didn’t, she’d look like a complete coward. But she remained standing as memories washed over her.

  The last time she’d been in this room, she’d sat with Marc on the purple sofa. Missing him became nearly unbearable as she remembered that afternoon. She’d lapsed back into the habit of figuring the time difference and realized that he could be having dinner now, maybe even at the caf’ where Josette worked.

  “I don’t see Sabrina anywhere,” Annie said. “She usually comes out.”

  “The last time I saw her, she was after the bracelet Dorcas loaned me. Dorcas had to close her in another room because she seemed ready to attack.”

  Annie laughed. “She was probably playing. She’s not the type to leap on someone.”

  Once again, Gwen was surprised at how familiar Annie was with Sabrina. “Do you come over here a lot?”

  “Fairly often.”

  “Why?”

  Annie sat on the purple sofa. “You’re about to find out.”

  “Annie!” Dorcas hurried into the room, arms outstretched. “How was Scotland?”

  Annie got up to give her a hug. “Very productive.”

  “Good. And how are you, Gwen?” Dorcas’s expression was as guarded as Ambrose’s had been.

  “She’s confused,” Annie said. “I’ve told her you’ll explain everything.”

  Dorcas’s eyebrows lifted. “You have?”

  “I think she’s ready.”

  Gwen wasn’t so sure. A movement by the door caught her eye, and Sabrina pranced in wearing the diamond bracelet as a collar. “You gave that to the cat?”

  Ambrose followed Sabrina in. “Actually, I gave it to her originally. But it . . . didn’t work out at first.”

  “I hope it does now,” Dorcas said. “I’m still not sure we got it all. She looks pretty cocky to me.”

  “Of course she does.” Annie picked up the cat and scratched behind her ears. “Who wouldn’t be cocky wearing a collar like this, huh, Sabrina? Come sit with me on the sofa.”

  The cat purred loud enough to be heard throughout the room. Even Sabrina seemed to know Annie very well.

  “Do have a seat, Gwen.” Dorcas gestured toward the red wingback. “Ambrose will make us some tea.” She walked around the coffee table and sat beside Annie.

  Gwen perched on the edge of the chair, her coat in her lap.

  “Why don’t you show Dorcas the paperweight?” Annie said.

  Gwen unfolded
her coat and took the paperweight out of the pocket. “Marc brought this over from Paris.”

  Dorcas nodded. “I’ve seen it.”

  “Did you know it was cracked?” Annie asked.

  “As a matter of fact, I did.”

  “I figured,” Annie said. “You don’t miss a trick. What would you say to fixing it?”

  Dorcas turned to gaze at Annie. “That’s a big step.”

  “I think it’s a necessary step.”

  “All right. I’ll get my wand.” She left the room.

  Gwen’s heart raced the way it had when she was a child right before her first roller coaster ride. She’d never learned how to like roller coasters. “Did she say she was going to get her wand?”

  “Yes.” Annie glanced at her. “Gwen, you look scared to death.” She settled the cat on the sofa and came over to crouch beside Gwen’s chair. “Trust me, it’s okay.” She took the paperweight and stood. “I want you to see this. You need to know it’s not a trick.”

  Gwen swallowed. “I’d rather believe in tricks.”

  “I know.” Annie gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze. “But if you’re going to be happy with Marc, you need to step up to the plate.”

  “You were the softball star. I was never good at stepping up to the plate.”

  “It’s an expression.”

  “I know.” Gwen swallowed again. “I’m just babbling because I feel so disoriented.”

  “I’ll be right here.”

  Dorcas came back into the room, carrying something that could have been a conductor’s baton, but Gwen knew it wasn’t. It was a wand, the kind that witches used. All the things Marc had said about the shape of the streets and the name of the town’s founder came back to her.

  Annie held the paperweight in the palm of her hand and stretched her arm out toward Dorcas. Dorcas cleared her throat, pointed her wand at the paperweight and said “E pluribus unum.”

  Gwen had the insane urge to laugh. That was the phrase on a dollar bill! These people were quacks!

  Annie clutched the paperweight and peered into it. “Great job.”

  “You mean it’s fixed?” Gwen couldn’t believe it. “With some Latin phrase from a dollar bill? You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I’ve tested different phrases,” Dorcas said, “and some are too complicated to remember. This one works as well as any, and it’s easy to say.”

  “See for yourself.” Annie handed Gwen the paperweight.

  Gwen took it, and it felt almost hot to the touch. The crack was gone. She kept turning the paperweight over in her hand, sure she’d find the crack, but it wasn’t there. Her chest tightened as she absorbed the significance of that.

  Slowly she looked up. “Who are you?”

  “I’m a witch,” Dorcas said.

  Ambrose came in carrying a tray loaded down with cups and a steaming teapot. “And I’m a wizard.”

  “They’re in Big Knob because of George, the dragon,” Annie said. “And I understand congratulations are in order, by the way. That’s awesome about his golden scales.”

  “We had a party,” Dorcas said. “I wanted to wait for you, but he was so eager to celebrate. Maggie came.”

  Gwen’s head was spinning. “Maggie Grady? She knows about the dragon?”

  “She’d sort of have to,” Ambrose said. “She’s our assistant.”

  Gwen was having trouble breathing. “Who . . . who else knows?”

  “Well, Marc,” Dorcas said. “And now you. We would have filled you in completely that night, except . . . you didn’t seem to want to know.”

  Gwen held on tight to the paperweight as she gazed up at Annie. “What about Jeremy?”

  She shook her head. “It’s better if he doesn’t know. He’d worry himself sick if he realized I was out there in a boat this past week talking to Nessie. Which reminds me, Dorcas. Nessie gave me a few baby things to pass on to Dee-Dee for her little ones.”

  “How sweet!” Dorcas beamed at her.

  Gwen gulped. “Who’s Dee-Dee?”

  Annie took one look at Gwen and came back over to put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “She’s a lake monster who lives in Deep Lake.”

  “Oh . . . my . . . God.”

  “Don’t worry, Gwen. You’ll get used to this. Having your Frenchman by your side will help. You don’t know how many times I’ve wished I could tell Jeremy, but I don’t think he could handle it. Maggie feels the same about Sean.”

  “I’m not sure I can handle it,” Gwen wailed.

  “Just hold on to your Frenchman,” Annie said.

  And suddenly, that’s what Gwen wanted to do. “I need to fly to Paris.”

  “Oh, boy.” Annie gazed at her in sympathy. “That requires a passport, girlfriend.”

  Gwen sent a pleading glance in Dorcas’s direction. “Can’t you make me one with that wand of yours?”

  Dorcas shook her head. “Sorry. In the old days, maybe. But with security the way it is now, I’d be asking for a whole lot of trouble. You’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

  “Then I’ll have to get it as fast as I can.”

  “You could start e-mailing Marc again,” Ambrose suggested.

  Gwen considered that for about two seconds. “No. What I need to say to him shouldn’t be said in an e-mail.” She looked around the room. “And don’t any of you e-mail him on my behalf. He would come straight over here, and I don’t want that. It will mean a thousand times more if I go to him instead.”

  “I think you’re right,” Dorcas said.

  Gwen’s eagerness grew as she imagined seeing Marc face-to-face. She had so much to tell him! Then she remembered something that had been said earlier. “Is the lake monster . . . pregnant?”

  “Yes,” Annie said. “And we’re very excited about that. We’ve never—”

  “That means there’s another one?”

  “Oh, right,” Ambrose said. “I guess we forgot to mention Norbert from North Lake. We flew him over here last year.”

  Gwen started making mental notes. She could hardly wait to see the expression on Marc’s face when he heard that George wasn’t the only magical creature in Big Knob. He would love that.

  But she hoped he’d love seeing her even more. There was the slight chance that his feelings toward her had cooled once he’d returned to Paris. She needed to take that risk.

  Chapter 26

  Marc had taken to working in his office instead of taking a lunch break between his morning and afternoon classes. Food held no interest for him lately, and when he submerged himself in his teaching duties he managed to miss Gwen a little less. Not much less, though.

  Ever since returning to Paris, he had picked up the phone a dozen times. He had never made the call. He had no words that would make everything right between them.

  E-mail had been another option, but he had hesitated with that, too. He could have e-mailed Ambrose, but that seemed like the kind of thing a schoolboy would do. Have you seen Gwen? Does she still think of me?

  She might have tried to forget him. After all, he reminded her of that night where she had been part of a world she wanted to deny. He could not forget what he had learned that night, and she did not want to remember.

  He was in the middle of grading a batch of exams when his phone rang. The front office informed him he had a visitor at the main gate. He smiled. Probably Josie, come to drag him off to lunch.

  Grabbing his coat, he left the office and walked across the open courtyard toward the front gate. He should get his sister a pass so she could come in at will. She had never shown an interest in visiting him here, so he had not thought of it.

  But lately she had let slip a few comments that made him think she might apply for the fall semester. Once upon a time she had sworn never to attend a university where he was a professor. Now that he had stopped trying to run her life, she seemed less concerned about being in his sphere of influence.

  He thought about where they could go for lunch. There w
ere several small caf’s nearby. She was pickier now that she worked in one. The food and service had to be just so or she would complain to the manager.

  That made him smile, too. She was becoming more assertive, something she had desperately needed. Gwen had been right about letting Josette find her own way. Doing that was giving her confidence.

  As he approached the entrance he expected to see his dark-haired sister talking to the guard. But the woman standing there in a stylish wool trench coat was not his sister. His heartbeat kicked up a notch. He had not seen her in weeks, but he would recognize that profile anywhere.

  She caught sight of him and turned, her smile so achingly familiar that he had to control the impulse to rush forward and gather her in his arms. But he did not know why she was here.

  “Hi, Marc.” Her gaze was warm. That was a promising start. “Or should I say, Professor Chevalier?”

  “Marc is fine.” He stepped through the entrance onto the sidewalk. Confound it, he did not even know if he should touch her. “Hello, Gwen. I had no idea—”

  “I wanted to surprise you. Can you get away?”

  Get away? For her he would abandon his job and fly to Tahiti, if that would make her happy.

  “For lunch, I mean,” she said. “I’m sure you’re busy.”

  “Not terribly. Give me a moment.” Turning aside, he pulled out his cell and speed-dialed his closest friend in the department. He quickly asked Antoine if he would take all his afternoon classes, and told him where to find his notes. Antoine agreed without asking why, as if he sensed the urgency in his friend’s voice. Marc thanked him and hung up.

  Gwen stared at him. “Did you just duck out of your afternoon classes?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is that a good idea?”

  “It is a very good idea.” Deciding he could at least take her arm, he guided her in the direction of an area where they could find food. He did not care whether they ate or not, but she had suggested lunch, so she must be hungry. “When did you arrive in Paris?”

  “About two hours ago.”

  He skidded to a stop. “You have been flying all night?”

  “That seems to be the best way to make the trip. My friend Annie knows more about these things than I do, and she helped me set it up.”