Aunt Dimity Goes West

by Nancy Atherton

  “I agree with everything you’ve said,” I said stoutly. “I’ve never believed that anything was wrong with the Aerie.”

  If you don’t wish to warn us about the curse, Mr. Pennyfeather, why have you made yourself known to us?

  I’m afraid I have news that you may find a bit disturbing.

  “Well?” I said eagerly. “What is it?”

  Very well, then. Prepare yourselves for a shock. The Lord Stuart Mine has been reopened!

  “Oh,” I said, unable to disguise my disappointment. “I know that it’s been reopened, Mr. Pennyfeather. Toby figured it out.”

  You don’t seem disturbed by the knowledge.

  “That’s probably because I’m not,” I admitted. “I’ll keep the twins away from the danger zone and let Danny Auerbach—the present owner—know about it. The Lord Stuart is really his problem, not mine.”

  I suppose it is. Forgive me for alarming you unnecessarily. My big news seems to be old news.

  A sense of anticlimax lingered in the air, but only for a moment. It had suddenly dawned on me that Cyril Pennyfeather might be able to answer a question I’d been asking almost from the moment I’d arrived in Colorado.

  Why had Florence Auerbach and James Blackwell abandoned the Aerie? I no longer believed that they’d been chased off by a bully, but while I still held out hopes for the curse as the root cause, Cyril’s unanticipated appearance suggested another explanation for their flight. Had they run as if they’d seen a ghost because…they’d seen a ghost?

  “Mr. Pennyfeather,” I said, “have you tried to contact other people who’ve stayed at the Aerie?”

  I have not. It would be a most imprudent thing to do. Not everyone would welcome me as warmly as you have, Lori. Most people would react like Miss Barrow’s cat if I revealed myself to them in any way.

  I accepted his answer philosophically. After all, I still had the curse to fall back on.

  “Well, it’s their loss,” I declared. “I think you’re a perfect gentleman.”

  Thank you, Lori. I’ve always felt that there’s no need to forget one’s manners simply because one has lost one’s life.

  In the interest of good manners, Mr. Pennyfeather, I must point out that we are keeping Lori up rather later than we should. Have you noticed the time, my dear?

  I swung around to face the clock on the bedside table and realized to my dismay that it was nearly half past eleven.

  “Whoops,” I said. “I’ve enjoyed meeting you, Mr. Pennyfeather, but you’ll have to excuse me. If I know Annelise—and I do—she and the twins will be back from the ranch bright and early tomorrow morning, and I don’t want to be groggy when they get here.”

  I understand completely, Lori. Would you care to stay a while longer, Miss Westwood? I was rather hoping you’d explain radar to me.

  It would be my pleasure, Mr. Pennyfeather, though I’ll have to explain a great many other things first.

  I smiled as I watched both sets of handwriting fade from the page. Neither Cyril Pennyfeather nor Aunt Dimity needed the journal to continue their conversation. I had a feeling that they’d communicate more easily without it, which was just as well—Cyril had a lot of catching up to do.

  I left the blue journal on the chair, damped the fire, and took Reginald to bed with me. My mind should have been spinning like a top, but as my head hit the pillow I felt nothing but a great sense of relief. My private demon seemed to be in full retreat, I had Cyril’s reassurance that the Aerie was untainted by evil, and I would never, for as long as I lived, have to break the news to Toby that the queen of hocus-pocus—and her cat—had been telling the truth.

  Nineteen

  I awoke refreshed and well rested at eight o’clock the following morning, threw on shorts, a T-shirt, sneakers, and a lightweight cardigan, and met Toby in the kitchen for breakfast. It was yet another picture-perfect Colorado day. The air was crisp, the sky bluer than blue, and leftover raindrops hung like diamonds from the branches of every tree.

  I stayed in the kitchen after breakfast to assemble the lasagna I intended to serve for lunch. I planned to throw together an artichoke salad later, while the lasagna was baking, but I asked Toby to run into town to pick up a fresh loaf of crusty bread to serve with the meal—I was unwilling to foist my first attempt at high-altitude bread-baking on an unsuspecting guest.

  I’d just put a pitcher of sun tea out to brew on the breakfast deck when Bill called. I flopped onto a cushioned lounge chair and propped my feet on the railing while I told him everything that had happened since we’d last spoken. It was a joy to be able to speak freely about Cyril Pennyfeather to a tangible human being, but Bill, bless his heart, was far more impressed by my ability to weather the thunderstorm than he was by my encounter with the great beyond.

  “Why should I be astonished by Cyril?” he asked, when I teased him about his nonchalant reaction. “I was sure that someone like him would show up sooner or later. Dimity can’t be the only one of her kind in the world, or in between worlds, or wherever she is.”

  “Amanda Barrow would know the proper term,” I said, laughing. “Think I should ask her?”

  “Only if you want her to camp out on your doorstep with her crystal ball for the remainder of your vacation,” Bill said sardonically.

  I wrinkled my nose. “Nah. Doesn’t sound appealing. I guess I’ll keep the news about Cyril between you and me.”

  “It’s too bad you can’t share it with Florence Auerbach,” said Bill. “If she had Cyril’s guarantee that the Aerie isn’t cursed, she might change her mind about selling it.”

  “I can’t see myself trying to explain Cyril to a complete stranger,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ll just have to find another way of convincing Florence.”

  “Are you sure this curse business isn’t bothering you?” Bill asked suspiciously.

  “Do I sound bothered?” I asked back.

  “You sound great,” Bill admitted.

  “I sound even better in person,” I said, sighing. “I wish we were talking face-to-face.”

  “You may get your wish sooner than you expect,” said Bill.

  I carefully removed my feet from the deck railing and sat forward in the lounge chair. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean that I have to fly to Boston next week to confer with Father about a few clients,” he replied. “If all goes well, I should be in Colorado in ten days.”

  “Oh, Bill…” I grinned so hard I nearly strained my face. “That’s brilliant. Will and Rob will do backflips when they see you, but be warned—they’ll run you ragged, showing you the sights.”

  “Don’t tell them I’m coming,” Bill cautioned. “I don’t want them to be disappointed if I’m delayed.”

  “I won’t say a word. It’ll be a big surprise.” I perked up even more as another happy thought occurred to me. “Just think, Bill, I’ll actually have a chance to prove to you that the Bluebird doppelgangers aren’t a product of my homesick imagination.”

  “I look forward to meeting every one of them,” said Bill. “With the possible exception of Maggie Flaxton.”

  With an especially cheery good-bye, he rang off. I sat for a moment, savoring my good fortune, then went to the laundry room, where I sang cowboy songs at the top of my lungs while I folded the clean laundry. Toby returned a short time later with a loaf of Carrie Vyne’s Italian bread and a box full of her exquisite lemon tarts.

  “The twins and I can dig into the Calico Cookies after lunch,” he informed me. “But I thought the ladies might prefer a more sophisticated dessert.”

  “You are a pearl beyond price,” I told him, beaming.

  “I’m not bad,” he agreed complacently.

  Brett Whitcombe brought Annelise and the twins back to the Aerie at half past nine. The three prodigals had already eaten breakfast at the ranch, so they went straight to their rooms to change into fresh clothes. Annelise emerged first, wearing beige shorts, a short-sleeved cotton blouse, the aspen-leaf earrings, and a
big smile.

  Will and Rob were distracted by the stuffed-toy buffalo I’d left in their tent, but I eventually managed to get them into clean shorts and T-shirts. They thought the geodes were the coolest things they’d ever seen, apart from the real baby buffalo they’d seen at the ranch, but after examining the sparkling crystals and telling me all about their day in the saddle and their stormy night in the bunkhouse, they were ready to tackle the next adventure.

  “We’re going fishing,” Will announced.

  “Excellent,” said Toby. “We’ll go up to Willie Brown Creek, see if we can hook a few rainbows.”

  “We don’t want rainbows,” Rob objected. “We want fish.”

  “Rainbows are fish,” said Toby. “Come on, I’ll tell you all about rainbow trout while we pick out some poles.”

  When Toby and the twins had left the great room, Annelise beckoned to me to join her at the breakfast bar. I could tell by her expression that something was troubling her, so I quickly took a seat beside her.

  “I wanted to have a word with you before I went off again with the boys,” she began.

  I nodded, wondering what was wrong.

  “I put the idea of fishing into the boys’ heads,” she went on.

  “It’s a great idea,” I said. “They love to fish.”

  “Yes,” said Annelise, “but I put the idea of fishing into their heads because I think they should have a few days off from the ranch.”

  “Problems?” I said quietly.

  “As a matter of fact—” She broke off as the menfolk returned to the great room, bristling with fishing poles. “Never mind. I’ll tell you later.”

  “I’ll come with you. You can tell me on the way.” I got up, intending to change into my hiking boots, but I’d moved no more than a few steps away from Annelise when the doorbell rang. I stopped short and looked toward the foyer in surprise. “Who on earth can that be?”

  “Don’t ask me,” said Annelise, shrugging. “I didn’t even know we had a doorbell.”

  “It can’t be Mrs. Blanding,” I said, glancing at my watch. “It’s only ten o’clock. She’s not supposed to be here until noon.”

  “Maybe she decided to come early,” Annelise suggested.

  “Two hours early?” I said doubtfully.

  Toby strode across the great room to peer through the window wall. “There’s a pickup parked out front, but I don’t recognize it.”

  The doorbell rang again.

  Toby turned toward me and squared his shoulders protectively. “Do you want me to answer it?”

  I looked from the twins, who were dancing impatiently from foot to foot, to Annelise, who was clearly anxious to get going before Will or Rob started casting for trout in the kitchen sink, and reluctantly shook my head.

  “No, you guys run along,” I said. “I know how to get to the creek. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  Toby glanced once more at the mystery truck, then led the others to the mudroom behind the kitchen. The mudroom door opened onto the trail that would take them to Willie Brown Creek, so when I heard the door open and close, I knew they were on their way.

  The doorbell rang again, and I felt a surge of annoyance with the ringer for interrupting my conversation with Annelise. If there’d been problems at the ranch, I wanted to hear about them, not waste time with a casual caller. As I hastened into the foyer and flung the front door open, I was already devising ways to get rid of the man I found standing on the doorstep.

  He was short and stocky, with short, dark hair, green eyes, and a face so deeply tanned it looked like leather. His faded black T-shirt fit snugly across his muscular shoulders, but hung loosely over the waistband of his faded jeans, and his work boots were dusty and well broken in. He looked as though he might be in his early thirties.

  “May I help you?” I said crisply.

  “’Morning,” he said. His voice was deep and resonant, and he spoke with a western twang. “My name is James Blackwell.”

  The man’s lips kept moving, but a faint buzzing in my ears obscured his words.

  “James Blackwell?” I squeaked, grasping the door jamb for support.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “As I was just saying, I used to work for Mr. Auerbach. I have a paycheck and a letter from him, and my driver’s license, too, if you want proof of who I am.”

  “James Blackwell?” I repeated, dazed with disbelief. “The caretaker?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said James. “I’ve come to pick up a few things I left here. I’ll be out of your hair in a minute.”

  “Oh no, you won’t,” I said, snapping out of my daze. I seized his wrist determinedly and pulled him into the foyer. “I have about a thousand questions to ask you, James Blackwell, and you’re not going anywhere until you’ve answered them.”

  “But ma’am—” he began.

  “Resistance is futile,” I declared, tugging him toward the great room. “I’m the mother of twin boys.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and came along docilely.

  As soon as the great room door was closed behind us, I introduced myself and offered James a cup of tea, which he declined.

  “I wouldn’t say no to a cup of coffee, though,” he added.

  “You’d say no to my coffee,” I said flatly. “I don’t make it very often and when I do, it looks like mud. God alone knows what it tastes like.”

  “No problem,” he said. “I’ll make it.”

  I could tell by the way James moved around the kitchen that he’d been there many times before. He knew where to find the coffee and the coffeemaker, and he selected a large blue mug from the cabinet as if it was the one he always used. He certainly didn’t seem nervous or fearful. From what I could see, he was completely at ease in the Aerie.

  I sat at the breakfast bar and watched him mutely, glad to have a chance to recover from the shock of meeting a man I’d never expected to meet. By the time we’d settled on the sofa before the hearth, I’d calmed down enough to feel a twinge of guilt for lunging at him and dragging him into the Aerie against his will.

  “I suppose you’re wondering why I greeted you so…unceremoniously,” I ventured.

  “Not really.” James took a sip of coffee and cradled the blue mug in his large hands. “A man can’t just vanish like I did without leaving a trail of questions behind him. I expect you want to know why I quit my job.”

  “I have no right to interrogate you,” I admitted, “but yes, I would really like to know why you quit your job, and so would everyone else within a fifty-mile radius of the Aerie.”

  “I expect word’ll get out quick enough once I tell you, so I may as well get it over with.” James smiled briefly, then pursed his lips and sighed. “The first thing you have to understand, Lori, is that I’m a married man. The second thing is that I was laid off from my job last September. I was still out of work at the end of November, when my wife told me she was pregnant with our first child.”

  “I’m so sorry,” I said, adding swiftly, “not about the baby, of course, but about your losing your job.”

  “Thanks.” James took another sip of coffee. “The caretaker’s job sounded like it was custom made for me. I work construction, so I can fix almost anything, and I’m right at home in the high country. The only catch was, Mr. Auerbach didn’t want to hire a married man.”

  I recalled the single bed in the caretaker’s apartment and nodded.

  “I’d heard from a friend that Mr. Auerbach paid top dollar, and with a baby on the way, I needed the money,” said James. “So I lied. I told him I was single. And I got the job.”

  “Didn’t your wife mind being separated from you?” I asked.

  “Sure, but when I told Janice—that’s my wife—how much I’d be making, she went along with it,” said James. “Besides, we live in Denver, so I wasn’t too far away. I went to see her whenever I could think of an excuse to drive into the city. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but we both thought it would pay off in the long run.”

/>   “Did Mr. Auerbach find out about Janice?” I asked. “Is that why you left?”

  “No, that’s not why I left.” James put the blue mug on the coffee table and swung around on the sofa to face me. “I got a call from Janice last week—three days before you were due to arrive at the Aerie. She’d gone into labor. The baby’s not due until August, Lori. Since you’re a mother, you can imagine the state my wife was in.”

  “She must have been scared,” I said.

  “She was,” James acknowledged. “As for me, I panicked. I threw my stuff in a bag, left a short message on Mr. Auerbach’s answering machine, and hightailed it out of here. I met up with Janice at the hospital in Denver.”

  “Is she all right?” I asked solicitously.

  “They managed to stop the contractions,” he said, “but she’ll have to stay in bed until the baby comes. So I can’t work here anymore. I can’t work at all. I have to stay at home with my wife.”

  “How are you paying your bills?” I asked worriedly, then held a hand up to forestall his answer. “Forgive me, James. It’s none of my business.”

  “No offense taken,” he said easily. “Janice and me’ll be fine. As I said, Mr. Auerbach pays top dollar. I earned enough here in seven months to get us through till I can go back to work. And next time I’ll find a job closer to home.”

  “I’m glad to hear it,” I said, smiling. “I’m glad about Janice and the baby, too.”

  “Thanks,” said James, reaching for his coffee.

  “You’ll probably laugh at me,” I said, “but I was convinced that you’d left the Aerie because you thought it was cursed.”

  Instead of laughing, James compressed his lips into a thin line and looked faintly disgusted.

  “I wouldn’t let a curse run me out of the Aerie,” he said. “Mrs. Auerbach did, though. Stupid woman. She shouldn’t have listened to Tammy.”

  “Tammy?” I said inquiringly.