Total Eclipse of The Hunt

by Mandy M. Roth

  Kelsey didn’t have much in the way of clothing. Just a couple of pairs of jeans—one black and one dark blue—a few shirts, some undergarments, and her jacket. She only had one pair of boots to speak of. She’d basically only kept what she could carry with ease and that hadn’t been much. Then again, she’d never had much to begin with. Hadn’t seen any need for it.

  “What can I help you with?” the woman asked with a bright smile.

  Kelsey nodded in the direction of the sign in the window. “You’re looking for seasonal help?”

  Relief showed on the woman’s face. “Oh my stars, yes! No one wants to work here. They’re all scared to work with my grandfather, which is ridiculous because he’s a sweetheart. And we need more than just seasonal help.”

  Kelsey found herself being grabbed by the woman and yanked behind the counter. The woman took Kelsey’s bag and backpack, set them on the floor behind the counter, and then started rattling off instructions on how to handle ringing up orders, and the times their delivery boys would make deliveries for large items.

  Kelsey nearly went for her backpack, her mind instantly going to the pendant. She’d kept it close to her since it had come into her life, and she wasn’t so sure how she felt about being separated from it. Maybe it would do her a bit of good. It could lessen the bizarre pull of the thing.

  The woman continued talking a mile a minute. The second she took a breath, Kelsey decided to jump into the conversation.

  “Does this mean I’m hired?” asked Kelsey, fighting a laugh.

  The woman stopped and smiled wider. “Yes. Sorry. I forgot that part. Oh, I didn’t get your name either.” She touched her chin. “I should probably know your name since I’m hiring you. I’m Penelope Lupine.”

  Penelope? She’d heard that name before. Then she remembered getting off the bus and hearing Mrs. Mays scolding Hugh on the street before threatening to tell a woman named Penelope. “Are you Hugh’s wife?”

  Penelope’s smile faded and worry spread over her features. “Hold the pickles. What has that man done now? Are he and Curt arm wrestling in the library again? Tell me they’re not singing karaoke at the Magic Eight Ball. When they get going on that ‘Piña Colada Song,’ it pretty much takes a village to get them away from the microphone.” Penelope began to wring her hands. “Oh, they aren’t challenging each other to a pie-eating contest at Chickadee’s again, are they? Neither seems to be able to concede and both end up making themselves sick. I swear, those two are so competitive.”

  Kelsey failed to hide her smile. While she’d only met the men in question briefly, she could already picture them doing everything Penelope described. “I ran into him the other day after Mrs. Mays yelled at him and hit him with her umbrella. Then he and Curt chased each other around the middle of the street like children. Curt tried to hit on me, and your husband told him to stop.”

  Penelope chuckled. “Pfft. Sounds like the two of them. And sorry about Curt. I really hope Mrs. Mays got Hugh a good one. That man is thick-headed. Wonder what he did this time to set her off.”

  Kelsey laughed, really liking Penelope. “It was over someone named Buster.”

  “Oh, poor Buster. I bet my husband threatened to eat him…again.”

  What a strange town.

  Oddly, she found it all endearing. Everyone seemed to know everyone. Very different from what it had been like for her in Boston. She’d never lived in one neighborhood long enough growing up to make any real connections. Any real friends. Yet she’d been in Everlasting less than a week and she already felt as if the people she’d encountered were friends. New friends, but friends all the same. Maybe the decision to follow the signs and come wasn’t such a bad one.

  “Your husband was worried you and I would meet. Seemed to think it would leave two of us telling him exactly what we think,” said Kelsey.

  Penelope tossed her head back and laughed. “Perfect! His bark is way worse than his bite. Trust me on that.”

  Kelsey found Penelope’s laugh to be infectious and joined in.

  “I’m sorry, what did you say your name was?” asked Penelope as she dried her eyes.

  “Kelsey Gibbons.”

  Penelope put out her hand and shook Kelsey’s. “It’s nice to meet you, and I’m so happy to have you working here. Can you start today?”

  SIX

  KELSEY WAS sure she’d heard Penelope wrong. She couldn’t really want her to start working immediately, could she?

  “Today? Don’t you want references? Something?” asked Kelsey. “Do you want to know if I’m even qualified?”

  Penelope lifted her hand and moved it around as if swatting a fly. “Resume, smesume. My gut says you’re the one. Plus, you’re a total lifesaver. I don’t need any references. You were brave enough to ask for the job, knowing you’ll be working with my grandfather around, and that’s sufficient for me.”

  “Okay. Yes. I’d love to start right now,” said Kelsey, incredibly thankful to have a job after the way her luck had been going. “Now if you tell me there is a place that serves awesome coffee in town, I’ll really start to think my bad-luck streak is broken.”

  Penelope’s eyes widened and she nodded, grabbing Kelsey’s hand and dragging her to the front window. She pointed across the street at Witch’s Brew. “Anna’s coffees are to die for. They’re soooo good. My husband has tried to limit my caffeine intake but Anna sneaks me one small latte a day. She knows it’s a hard habit to break.”

  Kelsey laughed. She couldn’t imagine having to give up caffeine. She’d never make it. “My week is looking up after all.”

  “Yep. See, your bad-luck streak is broken,” said Penelope.

  “Who is having a bad-luck streak?” asked a man who looked to be in his early sixties. He had a head of salt-and-pepper hair that looked as if it was hard to tame. He wore a green sweater and a pair of tan slacks. If he was the man everyone was so scared of, the town had to be nuts. He looked sweet.

  Penelope pointed to Kelsey. “She is.”

  The man smiled and then looked to Penelope. “How are you feeling today? Still suffering from morning sickness?”

  “You’re expecting?” asked Kelsey, noting that Penelope wasn’t showing yet, so she probably wasn’t that far along. Kelsey understood now why Penelope’s husband wanted to limit her caffeine intake. He wasn’t just being mean.

  “I am. We only just found out. That’s part of why I could use some help around here. Grandpa Wil is supposed to be retired, but he’s not going down without a fight, and I’ve had a rough time with morning sickness as of late. It’s been morning, noon, and night all of a sudden. The doctor tells me that it’s nothing to worry about. That some women have morning sickness and others don’t.”

  Grandpa Wil looked at Kelsey and studied her silently for a few seconds. “You the new hire?”

  “I think so,” she responded, unable to believe she’d lucked into a job so quickly upon arriving in Everlasting. “Petey told me to come over.”

  “Yes, Grandpa, this is Kelsey,” said Penelope, waving her hands in the air before turning to face her grandfather. “I almost forgot. The package with those rings we were discussing last week came in. They’re going to go quickly, I just know it. They’ll need to be polished and displayed. I was going to do that next.”

  “I can handle that. I managed how many years doing it all on my own?” he said, drawing her into a hug and kissing her cheek. It was easy to tell he cared greatly for her. “I can’t say I’m happy you’re married to that heathen, but I can’t wait to meet my great-grandchild. It’s not the baby’s fault his father is Hugh. It will still have Messing blood in it. Might cancel out that heathen’s. So, what say you go on to my place and rest for a bit? You’ve been going hard all day. Hugh will be here before you know it to collect you. It was all I could do to keep that boy from taking off with you and heading south for the winter like he normally does. Can’t believe Petey stayed up here for the winter too.”

  Penelope laughed. “Gr
andpa, you know as well as I do that you threatened to kill Hugh and hide the body, should he take me from Everlasting. And you know Petey wouldn’t dream of going south without Hugh.”

  Kelsey bit her lower lip, wanting to comment on how there was no apparent love lost between Wil and Hugh, but she held her tongue. It wasn’t her business, and she needed a job.

  “He even thinks of it and I’ll put his pelt on the wall in my living room,” snapped Wil before stepping closer to Kelsey.

  His pelt?

  “You keep pretending that you don’t like Hugh, but I know you do,” said Penelope. “Your secret is safe with us.”

  Wil winked.

  Kelsey smiled.

  “My granddaughter give you the penny tour yet?” he asked, lifting his chin.

  “I was going to show Kelsey around the shop and then take her down to show her the storage areas,” said Penelope before yawning.

  Wil grinned. “Go on in and rest a bit. I’ll handle showing her around and getting the new antique rings displayed.”

  “Don’t scare her off,” warned Penelope. “She’s the only person who responded to the ad. Everyone is too scared of you to work for you.”

  Wil chuckled. “That’s not true in the least. I used something from one of the bag of tricks I’ve collected over the years to be sure only the perfect person for the job would come in asking for it. Looks like it worked.”

  Kelsey wasn’t sure how to respond.

  Penelope sighed and touched her flat stomach. “Grandpa, if you talk about certain things, you’ll scare her off. It’s enough she’s braving you.”

  “Nonsense. I get the feeling there’s more to our new hire than meets the eye. Go rest. I’ve got this. Besides, she said Petey sent her. If he didn’t manage to scare her off, no one will.” The way Wil looked at her made Kelsey wonder what the man knew that she didn’t.

  Before she had a chance to delve deeper into the matter, the door to the shop opened and the man Kelsey had seen walking on the side of the highway when she’d been on the bus entered. As the bell chimed, a black cat darted in as well, rushing past the man and hissing before taking off up the stairs.

  Kelsey did a double take. The cat looked exactly like Artemis. But that couldn’t be. She was still at the cabin, where Kelsey had left her, wasn’t she?

  Kelsey drew back slightly, surprised to see the man again. She’d pretty much forgotten about him over the past few days. Just like the last time she’d seen him, he made her feel uneasy. The only thing different about him today was that he wasn’t wearing the knit cap he’d had on before. His hair was free and looked wild, but like it had been styled to be messy. Not just messy on its own.

  The man’s icy-blue gaze fixed on her and she held her breath. She wasn’t sure why she was nervous around him, but there was something about the man that set her on edge. She did her best to mentally remind herself that he’d done nothing to warrant her feelings toward him. That didn’t seem to help any.

  “What can we do you for?” asked Wil, totally unaffected by the man. He also didn’t appear too worried about a cat running into his shop.

  “Just browsing,” said the man in the army coat, his duffle bag over one shoulder still.

  “Let me know if you need anything,” said Wil before touching Penelope’s shoulder. She was in the process of setting a package on the counter. “Off with you.”

  “I’m going, I’m going,” she said as she walked in the direction of a large door at the back of the shop. “Nice to meet you, Kelsey, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning at nine.”

  Kelsey nodded and then turned to find Wil opening the package on the counter. He pulled out a black box and opened it carefully. Inside was more wrapping, and when he was finally through it all, there were seven antique rings on the counter.

  They were beautiful. And all of them looked very old.

  One ring in particular caught her attention. It looked almost identical to the pendant she had with the triple crescent moons and purple gemstone. She drew closer, her interest in the ring proliferating. It was far too coincidental that a mysterious package with a pendant would show up out of the blue on her birthday, and then a matching ring would show up in Everlasting at the very place she was standing in.

  What was going on?

  She reached out and nearly touched the ring. It felt as if she were putting her hand through pure static. The air around the ring crackled with it.

  She jerked her hand back, her gaze snapping to Wil. “Do you feel that?”

  He licked his lower lip. “Feel what?”

  “That buzzing of energy or something around that ring right there,” she said, pointing to the one in question.

  Wil stared down at the ring and then lifted it, examining it closer. When he raised his head, there was a quizzical expression on his face. “Nope. I don’t feel a thing. Then again, I’m not the one who’s supposed to.”

  Puzzled by his statement, she froze.

  He smiled sweetly before glancing up briefly to look in the direction of the man. Wil’s smile faded quickly. “Kelsey, would you mind going upstairs to see if you can find Artemis?”

  “Artemis? That really was her?” she asked, surprised the cat had made it all the way into town on her own. “I must not have shut the door tight.”

  “She’s been staying with you? Interesting.” His gaze moved from Kelsey to the man with the duffle bag. “Seems today is a busy day for Everlasting.”

  “On it,” said Kelsey, though she desperately wanted to ask Wil more about the ring and possibly get his insights on the pendant. Maybe he knew who had sent it to her, and who had also gotten her a bus ticket. More to the point, perhaps he knew why.

  Pausing, she stared back at the counter, knowing her backpack was behind it. She’d not let the pendant out of her sight since it had appeared in her life. To a certain extent, she felt naked without it being within touching distance. Everything in her wanted to run to it now and put it on. She wanted skin-to-metal contact with it.

  Do not give in to the pull. Just find Artemis. Focus on your cat.

  She stiffened. She’s not my cat.

  She hurried past the man, careful to keep a wide berth so as not to bump him, and up the stairs. She took the steps two at a time to put distance between herself and the unnerving stranger.

  Once she was upstairs, she realized just how big the antiques shop was. She also hoped she wouldn’t be expected to know what every item was, or the history of it, because there was no way she’d be able to remember it all. “Artemis?”

  There was no sign of the cat. Worry began to weigh on Kelsey. She’d gotten used to having the cat around and didn’t want her to get lost or hurt. “Artemis?”

  Nothing.

  Kelsey kept looking, high and low through the endless rows of antiques. While she had a love for history and was slowly working on getting her degree in the subject, there were simply far too many items in the shop for her to be able to learn them all right away. And she was no expert on antiques, though she knew some furniture styles and their time periods from one of her classes.

  She made her way around a huge Edwardian armoire that looked to be made of pine, wondering how anyone had managed to get it up the stairs with as large as it was. It had a mirrored front door and shelves that flanked the door on each side. It was massive, and had to stand at least eight feet tall. There was ornate woodworking on the top. As she spotted a price tag of seven thousand dollars, she gulped. Too rich for her blood.

  Though it was beautiful.

  Everything in the shop was.

  She kept going, turning into another room upstairs, this one full of even more items. There was a huge Victorian parlor organ sitting against one wall. It was just over six thousand dollars. Her eyes widened.

  She kept going through that room and into another, already knowing old buildings tended to have rooms that opened one into the other, rather than through hallways.

  She was just about to enter a room that look
ed to be filled with old china when the organ went off.

  Spinning around, Kelsey spotted Artemis as the cat ran across the organ keyboard and then leaped high into the air. The cat landed on the floor with grace and casually walked in Kelsey’s direction as if she hadn’t just scared the daylights out of her.

  She touched her chest lightly. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

  She bent to greet the cat. She came right to Kelsey and let her scratch behind her ears. Artemis stared up at her with bright green eyes and meowed softly, rubbing against her more.

  “You made a long trip into town,” said Kelsey, her voice light. She’d always loved cats but had never been permitted to have one in any of the places she’d lived.

  She rubbed Artemis’s side, smiling as the cat lay down and rolled onto her back. She purred as Kelsey rubbed her tummy.

  Suddenly, she hissed, shot up and darted away, going in the direction of the armoire. She’d never hissed at Kelsey before.

  Kelsey turned to try to get her—and nearly ran into the man from the bus. “Mr. Reyes?”

  “Kelsey,” he said, smiling wide. He didn’t have his bag with him. “I thought we’d run into each other again.”

  “Already done visiting Bakersville?” she asked.

  He grinned. “I went, and now I’m passing back through Everlasting. I make the trip often. But the bus had some mechanical troubles. Ellswerth is having it serviced as we speak, so I thought I’d take a walk around town and stop into some shops. What brings you in here? Love antiques?”

  “I do,” she said, happy to see a friendly face, especially after the man downstairs and his icy stare. “Actually, I’m working here now.”

  Mr. Reyes paused. “You don’t say?”

  “Just got hired,” she returned. “I’d offer to help you find what you might be looking for, but I’m not sure what all is here just yet. And I’m currently trying to find my cat. I mean, a cat. Not mine.”