The Hidden Grimoire

by Karla Brandenburg

  Chapter 27

  When I arrived half an hour later, the hospital receptionist directed me to the maternity waiting room. Georgia was there playing in a children’s corner while Sharon looked on.

  Sharon rose from her seat, her expression indicating she wasn’t happy to see me.

  “We’re fine here,” she said.

  Georgia nearly knocked me off my feet when she launched herself at me and hugged my legs. “Aunt Bwinn.”

  “Hi, sweetie.”

  Jason turned the corner and stopped. Sharon’s face softened with such open adoration I wondered how he couldn’t see it. Or if he did, maybe he liked the attention or shared her sentiment.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  I glanced at Sharon, who shrugged. No. She wasn’t going to get away with this. “Sharon called me. Georgia hid from her again and she asked me for help. I wanted to make sure everything was okay.”

  Jason narrowed his eyes at Sharon, who once again shrugged. “Everything seems to be fine now,” he said. “You don’t need to be here.”

  “No,” Georgia said. “I want Aunt Bwinn.”

  Jason took a menacing step closer to me. “I don’t know what you’ve done to her...”

  “I don’t know what I’ve done to you,” I retorted.

  He shot a glance at Sharon. “Do whatever you want. You can both go home.” He knelt beside Georgia. “Are you ready to meet your baby brother?”

  “Jeannine told me you were having a girl,” I said.

  Jason’s sister rounded the corner as I spoke. “I came as soon as I could.” Jeannine shot a glance at Georgia, tension stringing every muscle in her body.

  “Hi, Aunt Jean,” Georgia said from her spot on the floor.

  “Hey, Georgie girl.” No hug. No affection. “She can’t pronounce my name,” Jeannine told me. “How’s LeAnne doing?” She drew her lips into a tight, thin line.

  Jason looked at his sister with an unguarded look of wonder on his face. “It’s a boy.”

  Jeannine blanched. “I thought you were having another girl.”

  “So did I. Apparently, sonograms aren’t infallible.”

  Jeannine looked like she might come apart at any moment. She reached for the back of a chair in the waiting room with one hand and covered her heart with the other.

  I rose from my seat and put an arm around her. “Are you okay?”

  She forced a tight smile. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  After studying her a moment longer, I drew her in for a hug. Her breath came in short bursts, as if she was doing her best not to cry.

  “You’ll have another opportunity,” I whispered in her hair.

  Jeannine pulled away. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Right. Because we weren’t really sisters. Merely cousins, and barely that.

  “Why are you crying?” Jason asked.

  “I’m happy for you,” she sobbed.

  “Do you want to see him?” Jason asked.

  “No.” She shot me a glance of pure misery. “I have to go.”

  “But you just got here.”

  “Everybody’s healthy?” she asked.

  “Yeah.”

  She nodded, turned on a heel and left.

  Jason rounded on me. “What did you say to her?”

  “I think the question is what didn’t she tell you.”

  “If you know something I don’t...”

  Not my place, even if I did want to tell him. He shot me one last threatening glare and held out his hand to Georgia. “Let’s go see Mommy and your new brother.”

  Georgia circled my legs with her little arms. “Aunt Bwinn, too?”

  “After Mommy comes home.” He looked over his shoulder at Sharon, said, “Thanks. I owe you one,” and walked away with Georgia.

  “You don’t believe he’s going to leave his wife,” I said. “Especially with a new baby.”

  “What he does or doesn’t do is none of your business,” she whispered.

  “You still want to break up his family?” I met her gaze, looking for the telltale glimmer that would show me she was a witch. Nothing.

  “I mean to fight for what’s mine,” she said. “When you grow up the way Narcy and I did, you learn to scratch and claw for everything you’ve got. He wouldn’t have married LeAnne if she hadn’t gotten pregnant to start with.”

  Another new facet to my cousin I didn’t know before. Sharon had known Jason before he married LeAnne? Which meant at least three years, which was a long time to hold onto a romantic obsession, unless he was encouraging her, or acting on it. “Clearly he likes her well enough to get her pregnant again,” I pointed out.

  “You don’t understand. His wife is a real witch.”

  I laughed, assuming she meant to say bitch but was minding her manners. “The other woman always thinks that.”

  Sharon scowled. “No, it’s true. He’s a different person when he’s around her.”

  Yeah. In love with his wife. Ignoring the other woman. “Is that why you’re looking for magical perfume to try to lure him away from her?”

  “Narcy said...”

  “I wouldn’t trust anything Narcy said.”

  “You don’t know her.” Sharon’s voice cracked. “Didn’t know her.”

  Right. They’d been like sisters. I struggled to calm myself, fought against the rising memory of panic that came from being locked in a burning room while the face of evil looked on. “She tried to kill me,” I said through clenched teeth.

  Sharon took a step back, her expression skeptical. “Listen. Narcy wasn’t the nicest person in the world, but she was all I had when I was twelve years old. Kids at school used to tease me and wait after class to trip me,” she said. “One day a gang of them even followed me and threatened to beat me up. When you don’t have any real family, you tend not to trust many people. Everyone’s always out to get you. Narcy, she rescued me from that gang of girls, and after that, when people saw me with her, they left me alone. I’m not sure I would have survived without her.” She shook her head. “I don’t believe she tried to kill you.”

  Did I want to tell her what happened? Was she playing me for a fool? Hannah had told me to be on the alert, to keep my guard up. “Believe what you want. As for me, I believe if Jason wanted you, he wouldn’t have married LeAnne.”

  “You have no idea...”

  She was prevented from saying more when Georgia came running and flung herself at my legs once more.

  “I want Aunt Bwinn,” she cried.

  I crouched down to meet Georgia eye to eye. “I’m always here for you. You know that.”

  Jason followed. “Aunt Brynn has to go now,” he said. “Say goodbye.”

  Georgia pouted, big tears in her eyes. “Bye.”

  He carried her away again.

  As I turned to go, Sharon caught my arm. “You’re like her. Like Narcy. You have to help me. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”

  The woman she’d thought of as a sister was dead, and the man she loved married someone else. She’d grown up in the foster system, which meant she didn’t have family to turn to. Something inside tugged a chord of empathy. “I have to go,” I told her, “but we can talk another time.”

  “Tomorrow,” she said.

  “If that’s what you want.”

  She let out a breath and lowered her arms. The relief that washed over her was obvious.

  “I should warn you my fiancé wants to be there,” I added. “He doesn’t trust you.”

  “He won’t understand. Not the way you do,” she argued.

  “You’d be surprised.” I touched her arm and still didn’t get a sense she was hiding anything. She’d had ample time to strike out at me and hadn’t. “There’s a restaurant, the Hillendale Pub, across the street from my shop. Seven o’clock tomorrow night?”

  Chapter 28

  When I reached my car, my phone showed a missed call from Kyle. I redialed as I left the hospital.

 
; “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “I had to make a run to Milwaukee,” I told him. “LeAnne had the baby.”

  “Cassandra said Sharon called you. Why didn’t you let me know?”

  “I tried to call. You didn’t answer.”

  “You were supposed to wait for me to talk to her.”

  “Life doesn’t always work out the way you plan,” I told him.

  “Don’t,” he said curtly. “We’ve been over this. I don’t know what she might do to you.”

  “Might being the key word.”

  “Brynn...”

  “I’m heading back now. I can fill you in on everything when I get home.” I disconnected the call before he could say any more.

  My fingers played the wheel with the emotions running through me. As much as I wanted to put Sharon in the villain role, I couldn’t see her as the reckless woman Hannah had warned me against. Reflexively, I made the gesture Hannah had taught me to ward off negative energy, like a stretching exercise between my thumb and forefinger. Warm, white light settled on me and I released a pent-up breath.

  My phone rang, and with one more deep breath, I answered through the car’s Bluetooth.

  “Jason doesn’t know about my son,” Jeannine said.

  “So I gathered.”

  “Please, don’t tell him.”

  “First of all, it’s not my place. Second, he wouldn’t believe me if I tried. And third, well, third he has no interest in speaking to me in the first place.” Full circle. Whattya know? “You’re his sister. He cares about you. You should tell him.”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “But it does, and your response to his children shows that. The two of you seem to have a relationship in spite of your parents. Trust me. You don’t want to lose your family.”

  “I lost my son,” she said, a bitter edge to her voice.

  “All the more reason to love on your new nephew,” I replied.

  “Jason and I are better one on one, you know? We’re better without families involved, like LeAnne, and Georgia.”

  “But Georgia knows you.” Even if Georgia hadn’t run to Jeannine the way she ran to me. She’d recognized her.

  “Stay out of it. And if Jason has no interest in speaking with you the way you say, you and I should probably stick to one on one, too.” She drew a loud breath. “I’m not good in group settings.”

  “I’m still in the city. Do you want to get together while I’m here?” I asked.

  “Not tonight.” A sigh this time. “Brynn, I’m glad you were there. I don’t think I could have held it together otherwise.”

  From where I was standing, she hadn’t held it together. “Any time you want to talk. You’ve got my number.”

  “Why are you so nice to me?”

  I gave way to a smile. “We’re practically sisters, aren’t we?”

  She disconnected the call and a sense of wistfulness settled over me. Families were complicated units, with all their idiosyncrasies. I considered once more how lucky I’d been to stumble on my aunt Nora, and Kyle.

  And then there was Jason and LeAnne and Sharon. I wasn’t sure what to make of all that. Why would an ex-girlfriend stick around for three years, especially when there was apparent harmony on the home front as evidenced by another baby? Jason didn’t seem to be discouraging Sharon. Sister wives? Open marriage? Except Sharon had said she wanted to win him back. I didn’t need to know what was going on there—except for how it impacted Georgia.

  By the time I got home, I was more confused than ever. Kyle was in the kitchen window, no doubt waiting to read me the riot act for daring to meet Sharon without him. With my temper rising, I reminded myself he meant well, he was trying to protect me—and with good reason—but I’d made it this far without his help. There were times I’d appreciated his intervention and was glad to know I had someone in my corner.

  Kyle didn’t come out to meet me, a good indication he was angry. Head down, I walked inside.

  I held up a hand. “Before you say anything, you have to know I’m not used to people caring what happens to me. Years of experience, of programming. I tried to call you, but you weren’t available, and even if you were, you couldn’t have gone with me while you were still on duty. Georgia went missing. I had to go.”

  “She might have lured you into a dangerous situation, knowing how you feel about Georgia,” he argued.

  “It was a chance I was willing to take. Trust me, I thought about what could happen.”

  Kyle wrapped his arms around me. “I was so worried.”

  “She’s coming to talk to me tomorrow night, at the pub. I told her you’d be there with me. You will be, won’t you?” A peace offering.

  “I guess I’ll have to be.”

  I stepped back, hands on my hips, unhappy with his attitude. “You don’t have to be.”

  “Dylan asked me over tomorrow night. I told him you’d come, too, so you can catch up with Lisa. Sharon Clark is not my top priority.”

  “Dylan and Lisa will understand. There’s something odd about the whole Jason and LeAnne and Sharon thing.”

  “Why do you care?” he asked. “Jason has gone out of his way to be rude to you.”

  “There’s a little girl involved who needs my help.”

  His nostrils flared. He’d seen Georgia’s projection in the corner of my bedroom. “Why you?”

  “Because even if he isn’t willing to acknowledge Georgia needs guidance, he knows I’m the only one who can help her. As you pointed out, Jason has gone out of his way, which indicates to me he actually wants help, even if he’s not comfortable asking for it.”

  “And Sharon?”

  “Knows something I don’t,” I replied.

  Kyle circled a hand in front of my face. “You can’t...” he pursed his lips as if unsure of how to phrase his thoughts, “figure it out?”

  Telepathy. I drew a deep breath. He knew. We’d talked about things in vague terms. Despite my qualms, I trusted he could deal with the truth. “It’s sort of like peeking into someone’s windows. You don’t, unless you have a reason to. It’s intrusive.”

  He pulled me into a hug once more. “I don’t know what to do with you. You probably don’t need my help, as you’ve demonstrated on many occasions, and yet I can’t help worrying about you.”

  “I know, and whether you know it or not, I do appreciate you, but as I said before, having someone care about me isn’t something I’m used to, so if my first thought isn’t about who can help me through a problem or who I can lean on, it’s because I’ve had all those years of having to rely on myself.”

  He nodded. “Just remember I’m here for you. You aren’t alone anymore.”

  No, now when I called for help, the danger fanned out to the people around me. Hannah had woven a spell to enhance positive energy for me.

  Kyle was still vulnerable to negative intentions.

  Chapter 29

  When the flower shop opened on Tuesday, I walked over and ordered an arrangement for LeAnne and the new baby. With my task checked off, I returned to Windfall to restock bath salts.

  Cassandra sat at her usual spot behind her sewing machine, but instead of doing alterations, today she was putting together one of her original designs. I paused a moment to watch.

  Despite the court of public opinion, Lucas seemed determined to date her, even if she wasn’t quite as sure they could withstand the gossips. Opposites attract?

  A parallel presented itself in my mind, one of me and Kyle. Dudley Do Right and the Witch. We’d survived the town gossips, to a degree. Then again, we weren’t married yet.

  “What?” she said, bringing me out of my contemplations.

  I laughed at myself. “Sorry, I was thinking about you and Lucas.”

  She turned in her chair. “I have no idea what to do with him. I mean, what if it doesn’t work out? What if we aren’t compatible? Seems like an exercise in futility.”

  “Wait. You went to school with these guys. You�
�ve lived here all your life. You should have at least some idea who Lucas is. Maybe it took you a while to connect, but I suspect the attraction is based on more than a sudden interest.”

  Her cheeks flushed, shining through the light-colored foundation she wore. “Well, no, it isn’t sudden, but we haven’t spent much time together since high school.” She shifted in her chair, and I detected more to the story.

  “Do tell,” I invited.

  She looked away, the blush creeping across her skin. “Nothing to tell, really.”

  “Why don’t I believe you?”

  She fiddled with her hair, a stylized mess pulled into a bun on one side of her head and hanging straight to her shoulder on the other side. “Actually, high school sort of makes the case that this is a waste of time.”

  She met my gaze head-on. I knew I was smirking—more trying not to grin like a fool over her discomfort. I wasn’t going to ask. She’d tell me if she wanted to share, but I was dying to know the untold story.

  “A group of us used to go out in the farm fields on the weekends and drink. Cheap wine. Libby Frazier—you met her, she’s Dylan’s sister—was good at schmoozing people outside the liquor store.” Cassandra stopped, pressed her lips together. “It was a long time ago.”

  “Go on,” I encouraged.

  “Usually, it was a group of us girls, but one night, Chip—he was one of the groomsmen at Lisa and Dylan’s wedding—and Lucas, and Kelly Goddard, Lisa’s sister...” Cassandra rolled her eyes. “There was a bunch of people who showed up. Lucas, well, he was sitting beside me, and the more we drank, the more people paired off and wandered into the fields. You must have done similar stuff where you’re from, even without farm fields.”

  I didn’t need to tell her I had no friends in school, that I wasn’t invited to parties. Instead, I folded my arms and cocked my head. “So you and Lucas paired off? Then you must have dated for a while in high school.”

  Cassandra studied her hands. “We made out, but that was all. No official dating.” She looked toward the ceiling. “Boy, did he know how to kiss. I thought for sure he would ask me out, but he never did. After that, whenever we went drinking in the field, he’d hook up with me. I started thinking of him as my boyfriend, except aside from drinking in the fields, he hardly even looked at me. Oh, other than that one time on the Fourth of July. During the fireworks. I was waiting in line to buy a Coke and he took my hand and led me behind the kiosk where no one would see us and kissed the livin’ daylights out of me.”