Blind Trust

by Jody Klaire

  “So there is no mystery?” I asked Nan.

  “He lost his mouse,” she said. “And his name is—”

  “Tiddles. Yeah, I see.” I knelt down and peered at the name tag. “Should have figured.”

  “And why is that?” Blob asked in a bored tone.

  I smiled. “I got an affinity with animals. If I was gonna see any ghost, it was gonna be an animal.” I looked down at the mound of dirt. “So what was with the ‘he’s older than me,’ thing?”

  Nan swooshed around to my side. “He is, in cat years.”

  Figures.

  “Where do I go now?” Blob sounded so lost and, I guess, cute. He was a handsome cat. All fluffy and grey.

  Nan clicked. My heart leapt up into my mouth and clattered around. “What is it with the weird noises?”

  “Hush now, Shorty. Tiddles and I are gonna go level the score in the game.”

  I rolled my eyes. I’d never known she was so into cards but I guessed maybe time was different where she was now. “Say hi for me, won’t you?”

  “Sure thing, Shorty.”

  I fought the urge to lean forward and scruff Tiddles between the ears. Talking to ghosts was one thing but the cabin still had windows. “And Nan?”

  “Yup?”

  There were times when I really did want to hug her. Times like now. Times that just reminded me how separated we were. “Thanks.”

  “That’s what I’m here for. You did good.” Nan disappeared and I stared at the fresh dirt.

  A cat who couldn’t rest without his toy mouse. It was cute.

  If only I could fix Renee so easily.

  URSULA FREI SCOWLED at the noise as a teenager burst into the police station.

  “How long to fix it?” she asked Ewan, trying to ignore the shrieking.

  “Few hours, ma’am.”

  Ursula studied the wall. It looked as good as new. The locals in town had come to the meeting Lilia had suggested. When Ursula explained the need for discretion to help keep Aeron incognito, they had all agreed there on the spot. St. Jude’s had been blown over by hurricane Aeron and were totally besotted by her. Having watched the giant-hearted woman at Renee’s side, Ursula was with them every step of the way. She caught herself thinking it and almost smiled.

  Almost.

  And the damn kid was still shrieking.

  “Why are you yelling?” Her voice cut across the mayhem and silenced the room. She had a gift for it.

  “I did it,” the boy wailed. “I did it!”

  “Did what?” Her head was pounding. Hair of the dog was needed.

  The boy hurried to her, his eyes pleaded with her as he gripped hold of her jacket. “Ronny. I ran Ronny down in the car . . .”

  Ursula looked down at his hands and back to his face. Her favorite jacket.

  “Er . . . why don’t you explain to the deputy?” Ewan ushered the kid away from her.

  No one touched the jacket.

  The sheriff raised his eyebrows and exchanged glances with Charlie, the deputy. “You confessing, Seth. You should have your mother here.”

  Seth was undeterred. “I hit him because he got picked. I didn’t get picked.” He took a couple of breaths. “I swear I did it, just make it stop!”

  Ursula narrowed her eyes. “Who? Make who stop?”

  “The ghost,” he whined, gripping his head. “The ghost of my conscience!”

  “Okay, kid’s lost it.” Ursula turned and walked away. “He’s all yours.”

  To get away from the hysterics, she headed out into the street. The snow had fallen again overnight and it crunched beneath her boots. Renee loved this time of day and Ursula had always hated it. She had never been a morning person. She sighed. She missed Renee’s gentle chastising.

  “Yannick’s truck got hit. He’s been taken.” Aeron’s accusatory tone made her turn to look at her. “I heard Ewan saying that the police think somebody got tipped off.”

  Ursula kept her face impassive. Aeron wouldn’t understand. “Thanks for the newsflash.”

  “I know that he is like Sam but that ain’t right.” Aeron was looking at her and Ursula knew that she could read her.

  “He won’t ever let her be free.” She needed to see that.

  Aeron said nothing. Shock filled her eyes.

  “Aeron, please.”

  Aeron turned on her heels and strode off, her hand whipping through her hair as she headed down the street. Ursula sprinted after her and tried to keep up with her long strides.

  “Things aren’t always black and white.” Ursula knew it was a call that Aeron would find hard to understand but it was a call that she’d make again.

  They reached the path to the cabin and Aeron finally stopped. “You’re supposed to be the boss. You’re supposed to be the one who makes the right calls.”

  “And I’m also human. I care about her too.” Ursula sounded more like she was asking the question not answering. “Yannick won’t stop. He’s fixated on her. You must know that what has happened to her. It’s all his fault.”

  Aeron flinched.

  Ursula nodded. “Yannick gave her those scars and could rob her of her mind.” She put her hands on her hips. “You want him to finish the job?”

  “No,” Aeron whispered.

  “You want him to go looking for her mother?”

  Aeron shook her head. Her amber eyes flicked over the ground. “He won’t, he can’t.”

  “He will.” Ursula had no doubt in her mind. She’d made the right decision.

  Aeron started up the path but kept talking. “What would my mother think?” she asked over her shoulder. “What would Renee think if they knew what you just did?”

  “I am doing it for their own good,” Ursula said. “Whatever happens to me, I am doing it for them.”

  “If the authorities find out, you’ll be the one on trial. What happens if they trace it back to you?”

  “I weighed the risks. I need to protect Renee.”

  The sound of voices ignited her instincts and she dropped her hand to her gun. She relaxed when she saw Martha and Lilia heading in the direction of the cabin from the yard. Lilia had a large suitcase with her. Ursula wasn’t surprised that she’d come straight to see how Aeron and Renee were before going to her own accommodation.

  “What will she do if she finds out?” Aeron asked.

  “Lilia?”

  Aeron nodded.

  “Report me.” At the very least.

  Aeron glanced at Lilia and back at Ursula. “She trusts you.”

  “She should,” Ursula answered, praying that Aeron would see it in her eyes. “I’d give anything for every one of you.”

  Aeron stared at her for long seconds. Lilia walked up to them and Ursula prepared herself.

  “Everything okay?” Lilia asked as she came up the steps.

  Aeron kept her eyes locked with Ursula’s. Eyes so much like her mother’s. “We just want Renee to get fixed up.”

  Lilia looked at Ursula. Aeron trusted her, for now. “Yes, if we can.”

  The faith made Ursula’s relief blurt out. She trusted her.

  Aeron’s eyes twinkled and she gave a curt nod.

  She trusted her. How had that happened?

  “Good,” Lilia said, drawing Ursula’s gaze back to her. The light shone through her eyes much the same as it did Aeron’s. “Because I have a plan.”

  I HAD TROUBLE following my mother as she explained how she felt Renee could be reached. My head was swirling with what Ursula had said. Thing was, when we got Renee back, how was I gonna keep that from her? I couldn’t lie. I was the worst liar that I knew.

  The other swirling thought was that my mother, Lilia, was just breezing in all over again. One half of me wanted to ask what she was doing here. The other was so relieved at the sight of her that I could barely stop myself from running to her like a child would. She was my mother and mothers fixed stuff. At least they were supposed to. It felt like such a dumb reason to want her around.

  �
�� . . . so, I think the only conceivable option is to reach her through this.” Lilia unzipped the large suitcase she’d brought with her and pulled out my violin case. She held it out to me. “I believe you once played her something?”

  “Not when I started but then she was there, watching in the doorway.”

  “I didn’t know it had been done on violin.”

  I shrugged. She’d hurt me pretty bad. I weren’t sure how to communicate with her. It hurt just hearing her voice. “I liked the music, so I adapted it.”

  Renee walked into the cell and stood looking at the music notation. She cocked her head, running her finger down the notes I’d written.

  “It’s just for me,” I said, the pain of her being so mean still echoed through me. Still I could see her envisioning me performing in some fancy place. “I ain’t playing to a theatre full of people . . . even if they are ten feet away.”

  I knew she was looking at me. I tried to block out how much it meant that she enjoyed it so much. I could feel her gaze on my cheek burning, urging me to give her a way back in. “Have I hurt you that badly?”

  I met her eyes for the briefest of moments. Yes, she had. I had been wounded by her. I had put my trust in her and it had been shattered. It was too hard to care. It hurt too much.

  “It’s too late to apologize to you, the damage is done,” she said, placing the score back on top of the tiny dresser. “But, for what it’s worth, I am truly sorry.”

  I nodded but kept my eyes fixed on the wall, the same as when Yasmin died. I couldn’t let her in. It didn’t matter how moved she’d been by the music. I couldn’t.

  She stood in front of me so I had no choice but to look at her. Her grey eyes locked onto mine with such intensity that I couldn’t block her out. They warmed, her aura filled with pink. I’d never seen anything as vibrant. It was memerizing.

  “I believe you.” Truth glittered from her lips, the pink swirled from her and wrapped itself around me like a warm hug. She did, she really did believe me.

  I laid the case on the arms of a chair and opened it. I stared at the violin and ran my hand over it. It was my trusty friend and I hadn’t seen it since going to boot camp. Now it was in front of me, and I ached to play it, but how the heck was that going to help anybody?

  “Moonlight Sonata,” Ursula answered for me. “She didn’t shut up about it.”

  That made me smile. Renee had liked it that much? “I think I remember it.” Understatement of the year. I relived the memory once more, her standing in the doorway to my cell. It was such a strange moment, like the music somehow transcended all the barriers, the pain, the fear and forged a connection between us.

  Lilia walked to the dormant grand piano and sat down. “You get your musical skills from me. I’ll accompany you.”

  I did? Ursula and I exchanged glances. She looked as shocked as I was.

  “A woman can have many strings to her bow,” Lilia said. “Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘I have many skills’?”

  Ursula and I exchanged glances again.

  “No, should we?” I asked.

  Lilia sighed. “Violin?”

  I took out the cake of rosin and rosined the bow and then tuned the violin to the “A” Lilia played for me. Any worries I had about remembering to play vanished the second I ran through a warm-up exercise. As I let myself relax, the piano began to accompany me. I narrowed my eyes. Let’s see if she could keep up.

  I moved through a medley of pieces in different keys, different speeds. My mother effortlessly followed like she knew my every move. I slowed, she slowed, I paused, she added a flourish. I was having so much fun playing with my mother that in any other circumstance, I would have been filled up to the brim by it.

  And boy, could she play.

  “Ready?” she asked, a smile filling her every pore.

  I looked at Renee and nodded. “Ready.”

  THE MOUNTAINS GAVE a shady blue tint to the trees as the sun sunk lower into the summer sky. Renee reclined back on the grass, the sweet smell of flowers in the air, the gentle breeze dancing over her sun-warmed skin.

  “Hey.”

  Renee smiled up at Aeron as she flopped onto the grass beside her.

  “Mrs. Squirrel has requested a new door. She said it was getting all squeaky on her.”

  “Ah,” Renee replied. “I wondered why you were quiet.”

  Aeron looked down at a piece of grass she twirled between her fingers.

  “You have something else in that mind of yours?”

  Staring down at the blade, Aeron sighed. “I wish you didn’t have to go. This summer has been amazing, just like I always wanted.”

  Renee leaned on her fist. “I don’t have to go.” A part of her had longed for this conversation. She wanted Aeron to stop her. She wanted to stay here in Oppidum in Nan’s cabin and never leave. Here was home in every sense of the word.

  “If you stay,” Aeron whispered, her gentle eyes catching the warm glow, “you’ll never get to see this in real life.”

  Renee winced. It hurt knowing that no matter how she hid in her memories, in her safe world with Aeron beside the river, even in dream form, Aeron was too honest to let it slide. “I don’t want to leave you.”

  The sun set in a blaze of reds that gave way to a starlit night. “You need to go back if that’s true.”

  Renee shook her head. “Out there . . . I could be somewhere . . . I can’t.”

  Aeron wrapped strong arms around her and she calmed in the warm embrace.

  “In reality, I could watch you walk away.”

  “I think you know that ain’t true,” Aeron whispered and then hummed a slow sweet tune that was so very familiar. “Do you remember?” She got to her feet. “Do you remember when I played this?”

  Renee watched as Aeron picked up her violin and bow.

  “Yes, you were in your cell . . . God, it was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.”

  The arpeggiated notes eased out of the violin and colors oozed from Aeron’s hands.

  “On a night like this,” she said. “There is nothing more magical than a sonata.”

  “Moonlight Sonata,” Renee whispered back.

  Aeron laughed, reaching upward to touch the night sky. The world shifted and the stars danced, swirling as the music rose and fell. The colors wrapped her up and twisted her around.

  Aeron held out her hand. “Come back to me.”

  Renee tried to reach out and felt a warm face under her fingertips. Real warmth, no vivid dream, but warmth. She focused on brown eyes before her. “Aeron?”

  “Hey.”

  The sound of a piano still carried the tune and Renee blinked, turning her head. “Lilia?” And the familiar face of her old friend beside her. “Urs?”

  “We’re here.”

  The panic shot through her system and she gripped the leather beneath her. “He—”

  “He’s gone,” Ursula said. “Aeron punched his lights out.”

  Renee frowned, sure that she was in a dream still. “Sorry?”

  Aeron gave her a wry smile. “I . . . he . . . well . . . yeah, I knocked him clean on his butt.” She shrugged. “That’s what happens when people try to hurt you.”

  Renee didn’t miss the glance between Aeron and Ursula. Something had warmed between them, and it made her smile. “He is really . . .”

  “You’ll never have to worry about him again, Renee.” Ursula’s voice was so certain that Renee’s fear faded with it.

  Renee went to smile but her face stung and made her eyes water. “What . . . what happened to me?”

  Aeron put down the violin.

  “Aeron . . .” Lilia sounded her warning.

  “If she is gonna be up and about, I ain’t having her look at what he did.”

  Before Renee could ask, Aeron placed her hands on her face.

  “Just relax, okay?” she said. “I just want to fix you up.”

  Relishing the touch, Renee let Aeron’s hands soothe away her pain and w
as not surprised to feel it permeate through her like liquid warmth. It seeped into her mind and chased away her fear, her doubts. Aeron was in front of her, she was real and she had taken away the one thing that had terrified her into silence.

  After long minutes, Aeron’s hands trembled and she dropped them away. Stitches fell to the floor. She stood, wobbling, and staggered in the direction of the bathroom.

  Renee got up to go after her, the rush after being still for so long making her woozy.

  “It’s okay,” Lilia said, taking Aeron by the elbow. “I’ll see to her.”

  Renee nodded and Ursula came over to help.

  “Did she really do that?” Renee asked, glancing at the door. “I thought you said she wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

  “If I hadn’t stopped her . . .” Ursula helped her to sit back down. “Aeron would have pureed him up against the bars.”

  “How close?”

  Ursula sighed. “Let’s just say Aeron was your knight in shining armor. I was fashionably late and Yannick won’t be a problem again.”

  “How?”

  “You weren’t the only one he hurt.”

  Renee nodded. Part of her was relieved that he would never come back, the other part wanted to see it with her own eyes. “Why did I have stitches in my face?”

  Ursula’s blue eyes flicked away. “It doesn’t matter now. Wonder healer just vanquished any sign.”

  “You saw it healing . . . in front of your eyes?”

  Ursula shook her head. “I saw nothing until the stitches dropped to the floor.” She smiled and touched warm fingertips to Renee’s cheek. “Your skin looks rosy.” She dropped her hand away. “Thing is . . . We need to—”

  “Hey, Black,” Aeron called, hurling something at them. “Go long.”

  Renee reached out and caught the tension ball in her left hand, then she turned to look at it, stunned. She saw it coming.

  Ursula shook her head and muttered something under her breath, and Aeron shrugged.

  “When you helped me back in Oppidum,” Renee frowned up at Aeron. “You couldn’t fix it then . . . ?”

  Aeron smiled and Renee felt like mush. It was even more potent in reality.

  “Let’s just say I’ve got some practice in since then.”