“We want to do a spell,” Naomi blurted.
Once Jilly would have laughed. Now she merely tilted her head and asked, “What kind of spell, and why tell me?”
“A…well, not a love spell exactly. A—”
“Prediction,” Ruth whispered.
“Of what?”
“Who Ruth should marry.”
Jilly glanced at Naomi, then back at Ruth. “You want to get married?”
“Don’t everyone?”
“Not necessarily.”
Ruth shrugged and filled their glasses again. Jilly could have sworn the level of the liquid in the bottle hadn’t gone down a bit, even though they’d each had three helpings. The more she imbibed, the more sane the idea became.
“Our daddy,” Naomi continued, “says any woman who doesn’t want to get married is unnatural.”
Ruth ducked her head. Jilly figured unnatural in these parts meant lesbian.
“I never really wanted to get married,” Jilly admitted.
Ruth’s head came up. “Why not?”
“I didn’t want to, I had to.”
Ruth’s gaze fell to Jilly’s middle.
“Not had to had to. I mean, had to.” Jilly took another drink. “I didn’t have any money.”
“You married a man for his money?” Naomi said.
“Shh.” Jilly tried to put her finger to her lips, but missed and nearly poked herself in the eye.
“You’re a…a—”
“Yep.” Jilly nodded emphatically before Naomi said the hated words.
“Professional wife.”
“Huh?” Jilly blinked, but they were smiling, not sneering as so many other women would and had.
“Wonderful,” Ruth breathed.
“You can help us.” Naomi stood and pulled a small cloth bag from the pocket of her skirt.
“Help how?”
“I want to get married,” Naomi said.
“You got someone in mind?”
“Of course.” Naomi sniffed, but she didn’t elaborate.
Jilly’s eyes narrowed. She remembered Naomi eyeing Evan up and down every chance she got. Not that he wasn’t pretty to look at, but he was hers.
“Think again,” she muttered.
“What?”
“You can’t have Evan.”
Naomi burst into laughter. “Evan? I don’t want to die young. I wanna get married and have babies. Don’t you?”
Jilly’s mouth fell open. She had been thinking about babies a lot lately. Mostly because she’d delivered a few and taken care of even more. That was the only reason bundles of joy danced through her dreams.
“What are you talking about—die young? And what’s wrong with Evan?”
“Nothing. But I’ve seen the way you stare at him. You’ll stick my head in a bucket of pig innards if I so much as touch him.”
Jilly almost denied the accusation, until she paused and considered. She would do something violent if Naomi put her hands on Evan.
“Who do you have in mind?” Jilly asked.
The sisters exchanged glances. Ruth shrugged.
“There’s a boy on the other side of our ridge,” Naomi explained. “His farm lines up to ours. We been meetin’ after moonrise in the cornfield.”
From Naomi’s blush, Jilly had a pretty good idea what had been going on in that cornfield.
“So get married.”
“Can’t until Ruth is. Daddy says—”
“Oh, right.” Jilly remembered them saying something along these lines before. “Oldest gets married first.”
Naomi poured them another shot. “Daddy is fixed in his mind on the matter.”
Together they drank, then muttered, “Men.”
Jilly set down her glass with a decisive click. “What’s your plan?”
“Ruth’s perfectly willing to get married. ’Cept none of the men around here are interested.”
Ruth sighed.
“She don’t know nothin’ but this place. She’s not good with words. She don’t have no schoolin’ but what she had to have. Marryin’ is the only way for her. You understand that.”
Jilly did. However… “I don’t see how a spell will help.”
“We use the hair and fingernail test to hunt up the man. Once he knows the spell picked him, he won’t have no choice in the matter.”
“How’s that?”
“Daddy, and his shotgun, believe in the hair and fingernail test.”
Jilly had often lamented her lack of a father. But talking with Ruth and Naomi, she was suddenly glad she’d only had her mother to contend with. Mother had been difficult enough.
“Why do you need me?” she asked.
“We want to do the spell here. Now.” Naomi put her hand on top of the sack. “Is that all right?”
Jilly hesitated, but only for an instant. She was curious to see what, if anything, would happen.
“Okay.” She slammed back the rest of her drink. “Let’s do it.”
THEY STARTED A FIRE in the fireplace. Evan had finished the repairs the day before with the help of a local mason, whose ringworm Jilly had cured with the juice of a green walnut.
“Now what?” she asked, fascinated in spite of herself.
“Open the door,” Naomi instructed, and Jilly complied. “Leave it open.”
“Are you sure?”
Jilly glanced into the yard, where Lightning snoozed standing up, even though Peter, Zorro, Henry and Mario were chasing each other around his legs as if he were a maze.
“The animals will take that as an open invitation to come in here and play.”
“Put this on the doorstep.”
Naomi handed her a branch of some tree Jilly couldn’t identify. “What is this?”
“Dogpone.”
The hill people called many plants and trees by names Jilly had never heard of. This was one of them.
“It’ll keep animals from crossing your threshold.”
“Could have used this before now,” Jilly muttered as she laid the branch across the opening.
Mario saw her and started to yip. He came flying in her direction, and all the others followed him like the Pied Piper. He’d become their leader, which was downright odd, since Mario wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Evan insisted he’d grow a brain eventually, but Jilly had her doubts.
He flounced up the steps and skidded across the porch. His ears flopped nearly to his paws. He almost tripped over them in his eagerness to drool on her knee, or maybe piddle on her foot.
Then he saw the branch and paused. Henry ran into his butt, hissed and batted at his tail. Mario sniffed the leaves and yelped. The last Jilly saw of him he was headed for Cleveland at the speed of sound, with Henry, Peter and Zorro right behind him. Lightning didn’t bother to wake up.
“Think he’ll come back before dark?” Naomi stood at her side.
“Zorro is pretty good about bringing home imbeciles and house pets.”
“I thought they were one and the same.”
Jilly laughed and put her arm around Naomi. Together they joined Ruth on the floor in front of the fireplace.
Jilly’s head was fuzzy from the moonshine. She vaguely wondered what had happened to Evan, then forgot about him when Ruth suddenly cut off a hank of her hair.
“Hey! Watcha do that for?”
“We need fingernail clippings, too.” Naomi grabbed Jilly’s hand.
Jilly tugged it back. “This is supposed to be for Ruth.”
“Can’t hurt for all of us to try. Besides, the spell works better with a group.”
Ruth finished cutting a lock of her own hair, clipping a few fingernails and binding everything into a green leaf. She did the same with Naomi’s hair and nails. Then she looked in Jilly’s direction. Jilly put her hand into Ruth’s.
When all three leaves sat bound and ready in front of the fire, they scooted in closer.
“Now we put the leaves into the ashes,” Naomi said. “The next man you see will be your husband.”
She glanced at Ruth, then Naomi. They were her girlfriends. Her pals. Comrades in silly spells to predict their future. She’d missed this as a child, and she’d never known she’d resented that until right now.
“Thanks,” she murmured.
“For what?” Naomi shoved the first leaf into the ashes.
“Including me.”
“We needed to do this at the inn.”
“Why?”
“The spirits help with the spell.”
Jilly’s excitement dwindled and her shoulders slumped.
Naomi shoved in the second leaf. “But we’d have asked you anyway, no matter where we had to do it.”
“How come?”
Naomi glanced at her. “We like you.”
The warm glow returned to Jilly’s chest. They liked her; they really, really liked her.
“I like you guys, too.” She put her arms around them just as Naomi thrust the final leaf into the ashes.
The lights went out. All three of them froze.
“Uh-oh,” Ruth muttered.
A chill wind whipped through the inn, blowing the dogpone across the floor and causing the small flame in the fireplace to flicker.
The thump of shoes sounded on the porch steps, then strolled across the porch. Jilly squinted but saw nothing—not a shadow, not a person. No one.
The sound came closer and closer. The sisters shrank back and so did Jilly. Her ears must be playing tricks with her because she could have sworn the footsteps stopped directly in front of them.
“You see anything?” Jilly whispered.
Naomi and Ruth both shook their heads and stared at the empty air.
“Jeez,” Jilly grumbled, “is there anything alive around here?”
“I am.” Barry Seitz limped into the room. “Barely.”
Jilly glanced at the fireplace, where their leaves had all caught on fire, then back at Barry.
Aw, hell, she thought. He’s just my type.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“I DON’T SUPPOSE YOU HAVE any hidden treasure at your place?” Jilly asked. “Black gold? Texas tea?”
“What ye jabberin’ about?” Barry asked.
“Never mind.”
She wasn’t marrying him, and that was all she had to say about that.
Evan strolled in. “Where are the kids? And Lightning? Place is deserted.” He frowned at the fireplace. “What’s with the fire? It’s gotta be eighty degrees.”
Jilly glanced at the Wilder sisters. Ruth stared raptly at Barry. Naomi threw ashes on the flames with the fireplace shovel. No one appeared interested in answering him.
“Jilly?” Evan pressed.
“We just wanted to test it. Works fine,” she said brightly.
He gave her an odd glance, then shrugged. “Supper ready?”
“Sure. Can you set the table?”
“Glad to.” He went into the kitchen whistling. Barry followed, leaving Jilly alone with the girls.
“What’s going on?” she snapped.
“We got our answer. You saw him.”
“You are not marrying Evan,” Jilly snapped, grabbing Ruth’s arm as the bigger woman headed for the kitchen.
Ruth shook her off as if she weighed no more than a mosquito, and kept on walking. Jilly hurried after her, half expecting Ruth to toss Evan over her shoulder and disappear into the hills.
She reached the doorway just in time to see Ruth hold out her hand in front of Barry. In her palm lay the remnants of the green leaf.
Barry blinked at the mess, then squinted at Ruth. “Me?”
She nodded. He sighed. “Guess it’ll be good to have a woman around the house at last.”
“How did he know?” Jilly whispered.
“Any hill man worth his salt knows what a group of women in front of a fireplace on a hot August night is up to.”
Ruth leaned down and kissed the old man’s cheek. He smiled and took her hand.
“She doesn’t seem upset. Does he have money?”
Naomi gave her a strange look. “What’s money got to do with anything? Ruth’s been in love with him for years. He never paid her any mind. Wouldn’t leave his dim-witted brothers. But now, with the spell and all, he’s got no choice.”
“But—”
“He doesn’t have a pot to piss in. His cabin, the land, all gets split three ways.” Naomi’s forehead furrowed. “Though I guess it’ll be Ruth’s quicker than not.”
Well, that made a certain sort of sense. Land out here was like money. Wasn’t it?
“I don’t understand why Barry is Ruth’s intended. We all put our leaves in the ashes.”
“You want him?”
“No, thanks.”
Naomi grinned. “The spell says the first man you see.”
“I saw him. So did you.”
“But Ruth’s leaf went into the fire first.”
“Ah.” Jilly’s gaze went to Evan. “Whose was second?”
He glanced up and saw her in the doorway. Their eyes met. Jilly’s stomach danced as his smile made her remember everything they’d done last night.
“Whose was second?” Naomi laughed. “Whose do you think?”
EVAN WONDERED if the Wilder sisters and Barry would ever leave. After collecting all the animals, the girls had produced a bottle of moonshine. From the giggles of all three women, this wasn’t the first time they’d seen it.
He sipped at his glass slowly. Home brew rotted not only the gut but the brain, as well, and he’d heard from more men than one what moonshine did to the libido.
He’d never had a problem getting it up—quite the opposite—but he wasn’t taking any chances. Tonight he planned to make love to Jilly, then ask her to marry him, and he didn’t want anything to spoil that.
“I’d best get back to the boys.”
Barry hoisted himself to his feet. Ruth jumped up, too. As near as Evan could tell, she had done a spell that indicated Barry should be her husband. Barry believed it, and now they were engaged. Life was so simple in the Ozarks.
“I’ll go with you,” Ruth murmured.
Those were the most words Evan had heard Ruth string together at one time. Maybe Barry would be good for her.
“Thanks for the vittles,” Barry said. “Ye think ye can stop by the cabin in the morning, Doc?”
Jilly glanced around the room, then frowned. “Who’s Doc?”
“You are.”
Her eyes widened. “Am not!”
“It’s what they call a woman like you in the hills,” Naomi said. “A courtesy.”
“I never heard anyone call Addie that.”
“Most folks have known her all their lives. You’re from away. Just natural they’d be more formal with you.”
“I don’t want anyone calling me Doc,” she protested.
“Fine. Mrs. Duvier.”
Barry mangled her last name so badly it came out sounding almost obscene. Evan had to purse his lips to keep from laughing.
“Would ye check on my brothers in the morning?”
“Of course. First thing.”
The other two Seitzes had declined dinner on account of a stomach ailment. Most likely too much moonshine, if Evan knew them very well at all.
Ruth and Barry left the inn hand in hand. Naomi began to clear the table.
“I can do that.” Evan took the dishes. “I’m sure you have other things to do.”
“Yeah.” She headed for the door, pausing to whisper something to Jilly, which made her smile. Then Naomi waved and disappeared into the night.
“What was that all about?” he asked.
“She had to see a man.”
“I didn’t think she could date until Ruth did first.”
“Seemed to me like Ruth had a date.”
Evan glanced at the door through which everyone had disappeared. “I guess she did.”
He dumped the dishes into the sink and proceeded to wash them while Jilly finished clearing the table.
“Do you think that’s weird?” he asked. “Barry and Ruth?”
“Me?” She snorted. “Hardly.”
Evan wasn’t sure what that meant, but he didn’t want to ask right now. Right now he wanted to kiss her.
When she brushed past him to slip the silverware into the soapy water, he captured her mouth with his.
Her lips opened on a sigh. He loved how she leaned into him, her breasts squishing against his chest, both firm and soft at the same time.
She smelled like the earth and tasted like a winter wind. Wild rice and peppermint candy. He put his arms around her and only succeeded in getting her shirt wet because he’d forgotten to dry his hands.
She squealed and yanked her mouth away. “You’re soaking, and now so am I.”
“I can fix that.” He nuzzled her neck.
“How?”
She let her head fall back. Her hair brushed his wrists. Her hip bumped his thigh.
“Let’s get naked.”
He swung her into his arms and spun her around. She laughed, a sound so free and childlike he stopped in midspin and stared at her.
“What?” Her laughter died and confusion took its place.
He almost told her right then that he loved her, but he wanted to do this right.
“Nothing,” he said. “The word naked just makes my brain kind of freeze.”
“You and every other man.”
“Yeah, we’re funny that way.”
He headed out of the kitchen still carrying her.
“Put me down, Evan. You’ll hurt something I might need later.”
“I’m not carrying you with my penis.”
She snickered. “That’s not the only part of you I’m interested in.”
He paused at the bottom stair. “That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said.”
“Then I haven’t been nice enough.”
“You can make it up to me.”
“I can, can’t I?” She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him so long and deep he nearly dropped her.
The Husband Quest Page 18