“Forgot about it?” His voice rose and he appeared ready to launch into what her mother would have called a conniption.
Before he could do more than sputter, she added. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out. I’m on the case and Reid will help me. I’ll call Julie first thing and we’ll go over there and start looking for the last place in the world where light bends or whatever.”
Judging by the stern look on his face, Julius was not exactly pleased by her answer but there was little he could do about it.
“Now, what happened with Galmadriel?”
Again, he ignored the question in favor of one of his own.
“Did you accept her offer? Are you a reader now?”
“Have you been completely out of touch? Even with Estelle? A lot has happened.”
Anxiety wrote itself in the deepening lines of his face, now that she was paying attention, she could see he looked worn, tired and haggard as he motioned for her to continue. What on earth could a ghost be doing that would make him look so tired.
“If you would please be so kind as to enlighten me?”
“Yes, I accepted my gift but there were complications,” and she explained about the shifting auras and the three tests while he listened with barely contained patience.
“And the tests, have you passed them?”
“Only one so far. When Logan kidnapped Gustavia and I asked for and accepted help from the others to find her energy trail.”
“Did he hurt her? The gypsy girl, is she all right? And Julie?”
“Gustavia will be okay. He beat her up, but we found her in time and Julie’s fine.” He had come here first—without even checking in at Hayward House, Amethyst realized. But, why?
More gently this time, she asked, “Julius, where did Galmadriel send you?”
“On a trip through the past to find the origin of his hatred.”
“Logan’s?” Reid finally spoke. According to the story, Logan had only latched on to Julie as a means to an end, that end being sole ownership of Hayward House and its surrounding property.
“No, not Logan’s, he’s left town, by the way. This goes back well beyond him or…” Julius trailed off and remained quiet long enough for Amethyst and Reid to exchange a questioning look. “I’m only going to tell this once. I’ll round up Estelle if you would be so kind as to gather your friends. Call for me when you’re ready.”
Before she could protest, he was gone.
She threw her hands up in the air. “No, thank you, Julius, I didn’t have any clients today. Sure, I can just alter my life to suit you. No problem at all.” Her sarcastic tone was belied by the twinkle in her eye. Julius reminded her of her own grandfather and she had a soft spot for both of them.
“I assume you did have work related things planned.” Reid said as he pulled eggs, veggies and cheese from the fridge; she wasn’t going anywhere without breakfast.
“Yes, but no clients. I get a lot of down time around the holidays, but it picks up again once the winter sports season starts in mid-January. Then it gets busy again from spring through fall.”
“Anything I can do to help?”
“I just need to print off some shipping labels and invoices, seal up the envelopes, and make a run to the post office.” Her line of guided meditation packages sold well this time of year. Most people downloaded them in MP3 format for digital music players but there were always a few orders for the CD version. A spate of orders had come in during the week so she would be detouring into town on her way to Julie’s and Julius would have to live with that.
_,.-'~'-.,_
With Gustavia and Kat staying at Hayward House temporarily, they were already on the spot. Kat was just finishing up a mid-morning reading and Gustavia was working on the final edits of her latest children’s book. Finn was also there to reinstall the baseboard molding in the room where Julie and Tyler would be getting married.
His wedding gift to them had been to refinish the parquet floors that were paint-spattered from the time Estelle had used the room as a studio. Now sanded and coated in a warm honey with red overtones, they looked amazing.
“I could drop you at the house and go to the post office for you,” Reid offered. “I’m not really part of the crew so it doesn’t matter if I’m there and I get the feeling Julius isn’t the most patient of—I wanted to say people but I guess spirits would be the better term.”
“He woke me up; he can wait his turn,” then a thought came to her, “unless you don’t want to be there.”
Tension crept into the car until he reached over and laid a hand on hers. “I want to be there. I was just trying to be sensitive and supportive.”
“Um…hm. I see. I thought for a minute you had something against hunting for treasure. Frankly, that might just call your manhood into question,” she teased.
“I’m all man. If I was a doll, I’d be G.I. Joe.”
“Not Ken? He was the pretty one.”
“Nope. Got me the Kung Fu grip and everything.”
“Glad we cleared that up—I think.”
The Post Office occupied one of the smallest storefronts in town. With limited counter space, the line stretched out the door so Julius would be waiting a bit longer than expected. Several exiting patrons greeted Amethyst warmly as they passed by. The first time, she stumbled over introducing Reid. Did she call him her husband? Her friend? Finally, she decided to introduce him by name. Judging by his smirk, he found a great deal of amusement in her discomfort.
Amethyst ignored speculative looks even when Emily Snowden glanced back then surreptitiously pulled out her phone to send thumbs flying over the texting keyboard. The woman was the most notorious gossip in town and it came as no surprise several minutes later when jewelry store owner, Tamara, stepped out of her shop and walked purposefully toward the Post Office.
“And there’s the famous Oakville grapevine in full swing.” Amethyst murmured to Reid before greeting Tamara warmly. Tamara had managed to get a photo of Logan vandalizing Gustavia’s car a few months back and Amethyst was not about to treat her shabbily now. Besides, Tamara was relentless in her pursuit of town knowledge, ignoring her would be a pointless activity.
“Introduce me to your friend.” Tamara eyed Reid with a twinkle in her eye. She might be a gossip, but was never malicious with it. Amethyst did as she was told then shamelessly left the man to his own devices when the line moved her inside. His look of panic as Tamara pulled him from the crowd was priceless.
By the time her packages slid into the bin waiting for dispatch, Tamara had extracted everything but his shoe size from Reid. Well, his shoe size and the fact that he and Amethyst were married. He barely managed to keep that one to himself.
Still, he was thankful when she returned and rescued him from Tamara’s clutches. Amethyst thought he looked shell-shocked.
“I think she used a truth ray on me. I spilled my guts to that woman and it took less than five minutes. She should be an interrogator or something.” He caught the look she slanted him. “I didn’t tell her our big secret. But another two minutes and I’m pretty sure she would have gotten it out of me. “
Maybe that wouldn’t have been so bad.
_,.-'~'-.,_
“…and then Julius said to call him when we were all together.” Amethyst explained as Julie and Gustavia glanced from her to Reid with speculation written all over their faces. If Reid hadn’t been standing right there, they would already be grilling her about how things were working with him living in her tiny house. She ignored them and called out for Julius.
“No need to shout, I’m right here. What took you so long?”
Biting down on the words—because I have a life—they just seemed too mean, she gestured for him to get on with whatever it was he had to say. Estelle tried but failed to hold back a smile because none of these women found Julius the least bit intimidating when he was in a black mood. It tickled her to see him bluster when he thought he wasn’t getting the proper level of respect.
“First things first,” he began, “have you found the key?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, why not?”
No one wanted to confess to forgetting the key.
“Wedding plans.”
“Getting ready for Christmas.”
“Deadline for my manuscript.”
Julius considered none of these a worthy excuse for shirking a duty. “Finding that key is imperative. Everything hinges on your completing this task.”
“I’m sorry. We’ll get on it right away.” Chagrin turned Julie’s face a delicate shade of pink and she vowed to treat the matter with the urgency it deserved.
“It would help if you explained what ‘everything’ is.” Gustavia gently probed for information without expectation. Whatever authority had allowed Julius and Estelle to be here kept a tight rein on their releasing any secrets.
“I’ve told you all I can about that; you’ll have to be satisfied with the story of my journey back through time.”
His words piqued everyone’s interest so they settled in to listen to his story.
“When I was sent back here, it was with a simple directive—to help my family find what had been lost. I don’t think the powers-that-be were counting on it taking so long. For certain, they had no inkling that Logan’s involvement would pose such a problem. Left to himself, he would have moved on by now. Unfortunately, he has not been left to himself—he has become a vessel for an Earthwalker.”
“Galmadriel told me that already. She said Earthwalkers are spirits that choose darkness.” Amethyst interrupted his narrative.
Julius raised an eyebrow at the interruption.
“As I was saying, Logan has become a vessel and I was sent to find the event that caused the Earthwalker to turn from the light.” He paused for long enough that Estelle gently prodded. “And did you find the event?” The look on his face was unreadable. Julius was finding it difficult to tell his story for some reason but he began anyway.
“My grandfather, it turns out, was something of a scoundrel in his youth. He grew out of it to raise my father with a keen sense of right and wrong—most probably because my grandmother would have tolerated nothing less—but before he married her, he had a rival for her affections. A young man named Billy—I didn’t catch his last name. The two fought bitterly over her affections, though it hardly mattered since my grandmother disliked Billy intensely. Still, for some reason, he thought he was a contender for her hand and sought to win her for himself.”
“In the end, the two men played a game of cards, agreeing that the loser would bow out. My grandfather won but Billy insisted that he had cheated and hatred grew within him. He vowed revenge but on the day my grandparents married, Billy went to sea with a merchant ship named Indestructible.”
“The next year, my father was born and my grandparents moved from Indiana to South Carolina where my grandfather worked, first in shipping then later as a trader. He became comparatively wealthy and eventually moved his family here, to Hayward House.”
This seemed to be the end of his story.
“So, you think Billy is the Earthwalker?” Amethyst mused.
“And you think it is possible that Billy is one of Logan’s ancestors?” Tyler felt the story click into place. That had to be it.
“I do. You’ll do the research?” Now that his contribution was over, Julius began to fade and before Tyler could answer, he was gone.
_,.-'~'-.,_
“Where do you usually find things?” Gustavia sat with her sprained ankle propped up on a large tie-dyed pillow, her face a rainbow of healing bruises. To celebrate the healing process, she had braided Band-Aids into her hair. Every size and shape fluttered around her face. After wondering how one added bandages to a hairdo, Amethyst gave in and checked for herself. Thread. They were sewn into the braids.
Julie repeated, “’Where do you usually find things?’ What kind of clue is that? It’s the worst one yet and we’ve left it until the last minute.” Now she was getting nervous. The stakes must be higher than she realized to keep Julius so agitated. Getting information piecemeal frustrated her no end.
“It reminds me of a joke my grandmother used to tell. Something about the thing you are looking for will always be in the last place you look. When I was a kid, I didn’t get it until she finally explained that if you find the thing you are looking for, you stop looking so whatever you found was in the last place you looked.” Reid mused.
“Good one, but not at all helpful.” Tyler had his laptop out and was either doing some kind of Internet search or making one of his famous lists.
Reid’s words triggered a fleeting thought but Amethyst couldn’t seem to catch hold of its tail. Standing, she paced across the room in short strides but the thought remained elusive. Last place you looked. She knew that was the clue and that Julius tended to speak more literally than figuratively. Following that line of thinking, the last place they had looked had literally been the chandelier because that had been the location of the last hidden cache.
“I’ve got it—or I think I have.” She turned and hurried from the room followed by everyone except Gustavia who yelled, “Hey. Don’t forget me.” She grabbed for her crutches.
Finn returned with a sheepish grin, “Sorry, got caught up.” He took the crutches from her and, instead, carried her up the stairs where they found Amethyst gazing up at the chandelier.
“That’s the last place we looked. I think we need to look at it again.”
Finn and Reid went out to set up a ladder while Tyler rounded up the glass lenses that triggered the lowering mechanism.
Their last batch of hidden heirlooms, family jewelry and a nice collection of pearls and gems, had been cleverly hidden above the chandelier. Using his unique set of skills, Julius had rigged up a concealed winch that only switched on when a series of glass lenses were inserted into the dentil molding on the front of the Greek-style architrave over the porch.
You had to give Julius credit for being inventive. Of course, since the man had made his fortune as an inventor, it made sense.
The jewels they had found, though, had not been listed in any family records that Julie had ever seen and Julius had not supplied any further information about them. Their estimated value made Julie a relatively wealthy woman.
In a few short minutes, the sound of the mechanism whirred above them and the chandelier descended from the ceiling. While they waited for the men to return, Amethyst took a moment to tune in on any aura surrounding the chandelier. Even with the angel’s block, most everything was surrounded with faint color. The chandelier was no different.
Concentrating a bit deeper, she began working her way through the layers of color attached to the fixture. Julie and Tyler’s overlapped each other as always and were easiest to spot since they were the brightest. Just to see what would happen, she made a brushing motion with her hand and to her surprise, they slid away.
Gustavia saw what Amethyst was doing and gestured for the others to watch.
Next were Gustavia and Finn’s auras, also bound together, they both whisked away as one. Kat’s was the hardest to remove because her aura was tied to both Julius’ and Estelle’s. But with some extra concentration, the two women’s auras flowed away like cobwebs before a broom leaving only the light patterns distinctive to Julius.
With a hand gesture similar to turning up a volume knob, Amethyst increased the aura’s depth and brightness. And that’s when she hit pay dirt. The increasing depth caused older aura signatures to deepen and become more visible.
The oldest were attached to the body of the fixture where a closer look at the intricate filigree patterns etched into the metal proved to be script of some kind.
“Look at this, I’ve found something,” her normally deep voice rose an octave in excitement. “I think it’s writing of some sort but I can’t read it.”
Tyler took one look and knew exactly what he was seeing. In time-honored tradition, he had played at being a sp
y as a boy. This was one of the oldest spy tricks he had used. Mirror writing.
Looking around the room, he found exactly what he needed, the handheld mirror from an antique dresser set and holding it at the proper angle began to read, “Glass can reflect or it can bend light. 3:15”
Among the sparkling crystal drops hanging from the chandelier were seven small prisms hidden in plain sight, but hidden so well that anyone not specifically looking for them might never notice.
Now they had the key and a time of day. It was an excited group that trooped into the room with the window.
Reid noticed Amethyst hanging back behind the others, a bemused look on her face.
“You okay?” Concern painted a deep crease between his eyes.
“What? Yeah, I’m fine.” Finding a way to control the auras felt like it had come from the same pool of calm she tapped when meditating. She hadn’t even thought about what she would do, just let that calm wash over her and it all happened from there. Easily. Naturally.
“Could have fooled me. I can see your hands shaking.”
“They are?” Holding them up, she flipped her hands from front to back and realized he was right, they were. “Oh. I guess they are. Did you see that? I controlled it.” The urge to jump up and down overcame Amethyst but she settled for a loud whoop. “It was amazing. I didn’t even think about what to do and my instincts took over. I could see the layers of color but more importantly, I could see the separation points between them.” She grabbed his face and planted a big smacking kiss on his lips then wiggled her hips in a victory dance down the hall as he laughed and watched.
One of the prisms fit perfectly in the wire holder that popped out of the frame but no amount of searching turned up so much as a second hidden holder, much less six more of them. After an hour of searching, they gave up and headed back downstairs where Julie suggested everyone stay and help decorate their Christmas tree.
Chapter Ten
Reaching for the same red ornament, Reid’s warm hand brushed against Amethyst’s smaller one. Catching her eye, he deliberately turned the accidental touch into a caress that felt like fire running across her skin. She froze, enjoying the sensation. It had always been like that between them, each touch kindling the flames of need.
She Shall Have Music (Psychic Seasons Page 15