“Maybe I should just go continue my research,” Joy finally whispered to Grace.
Grace nodded. Who knew how long this would take? And why should her friend have to stay for the most boring ghost-hunting event ever?
Hope cleared her throat and motioned that she was going to go with Joy.
Grace nodded and whispered back. “Raincheck on tonight? I have a new client this afternoon, and I don’t know how long it will take.” As soon as she was done with Isobel, she needed to meet Lucas. Since he’d said to not say anything to Hope just yet, she hadn’t been sure how she was going to slip away without lying by omission. Grace didn’t like keeping things from her two best friends, but she would keep Lucas’s secret for the moment, considering he was a client and an old friend.
“No problem,” Joy said while Hope nodded her agreement.
Grace watched her two friends leave and then sat back and waited for Isobel to do her thing.
Eventually Isobel got to her feet and then spent the next half hour running her fingers over every surface of the old house. By the time she made her way back into the living area, they’d been there for over an hour.
Grace, irritated that she was paying by the hour for the woman to do next to nothing, crossed her arms and asked, “Did you see anyone?”
Isobel shook her head. “Nope. They aren’t showing themselves today. If you want me to come back and try again, I can probably find time later in the week.”
“Um, no. I don’t think so.” Grace was already fishing her keys out of her bag. “Sorry to waste your time, but instead of checking out the other houses, I think it’s best if we just call it a day.”
Isobel blinked. “Really? You don’t even want to know what I learned here?”
Grace raised one eyebrow. “I thought you said the spirits weren’t responsive.”
“That doesn’t mean I didn’t get a read on this house.” She gave Grace a knowing smile. “I bet you were thinking I was going to have an EMF reader or perform some sort of spell to make the spirits appear, right?”
“Um, maybe?” Grace felt her cheeks go warm with embarrassment. “Is that not how this works?”
“Oh, sure. For the people who can’t inherently hear and sense spirits, it’s a way of communicating. But that’s not how I work.” She placed her right palm flat on the front door and closed her eyes. A silver shimmer coated the door, and Isobel nodded as if she were satisfied with whatever she felt. “Did you see that?”
“Sure. You coated the door with magic.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I didn’t do anything except call the magic that is already embedded in the wood. The front door and the entire front porch area of the house are heavily saturated with magic. That’s probably not surprising since you can see how fast the conditions are deteriorating. But what’s interesting is that the rest of the house has hardly been touched.”
“Okay. So what does that mean exactly?” Grace asked, frowning.
“It means that while the spirits here are actively trying to keep people out, they aren’t necessarily interested in terrifying anyone. In other words, the spirits aren’t dangerous. They’re just particular about who they want living here. In order to sell this house, you’re likely going to need to find someone they approve of; otherwise they’ll continue to make their displeasure known by being a nuisance.”
“Gigi,” Grace said. She’d loved the house, and the house seemed to love her… right up until her husband arrived.
“Who’s Gigi?”
“The perfect buyer for this property. Unfortunately, the house hates her husband. Once he arrived, the spirits were really active and obviously not pleased.”
“What did they do?” she asked, her expression full of excited curiosity.
“There was a peacefulness and a rightness while Gigi was here. But when her husband showed up, that energy vanished and the spirits kicked up a lot of forceful wind. Nothing dangerous, just enough disruption for the spirits to make it known they were not pleased.”
“Yes. That tracks with what I sensed here,” Isobel said.
Grace let out a heavy sigh. “Do you know how long it will take to find someone who the spirits accept? Is there any way that you can get them to leave? We tried smudging but—”
“Smudging won’t work even for the most skilled ghost-whisperers,” Isobel said, cutting her off. “The spirits here are tied to the home. Their attachment runs deep. It’s not all that surprising due to the magical nature of Premonition Pointe. What might work in other towns isn’t going to work here.”
That made sense. Premonition Pointe had been founded by witches, and magic was woven into the fabric of the town and the older buildings. The Victorian was one of the first homes to be built back around the turn of the twentieth century. She’d suspected all along that ultimately, she’d need to find the right buyer who could deal with the spirits. She’d just hoped there was an easier way. “Right. But what do I do when the house loves the wife, but not the husband?”
Isobel raised her hands in the air, palms up, indicating that she didn’t have the first clue. “That sounds like a marriage that might need therapy, not a new house.”
Grace couldn’t agree more. But instead of gossiping about the couple, she gave the woman an apologetic smile and asked, “Are you still free to look at the next house?”
“Of course.” She strode toward the front door, opened it, and stepped outside. As Grace joined her, she said, “Now that I’m all warmed up, it shouldn’t take nearly as long.”
* * *
Famous last words. So much for not taking very long. Grace sat on the back deck of the large white cottage and waited for Isobel to do whatever she was doing. They’d arrived forty-five minutes earlier, and so far Isobel hadn’t done anything other than sit at the top of the stairs and meditate.
Grace had given up on waiting and went outside to watch the waves churn gently against the sand. There weren’t as many people on the beach as she expected. Considering it was a summertime weekend, the shoreline should’ve been dotted with families playing in the water. She squinted down the shoreline and spotted a much larger crowd about two hundred yards away. Interesting. She knew there was a public access between the house and the crowd. She figured there must be an event going on that she didn’t know about that was keeping the tourists occupied.
As she watched, a family of five with two dogs headed toward her end of the shore, but when they got about two houses away, they suddenly turned around and headed straight back to the crowd.
A loud cackle came from the house directly next door. Grace turned to find a woman with long blond hair sitting in a lounge chair and holding a wine glass in one hand and a book in the other. Her wrinkled skin along with her pronounced veins gave away her age, but her wide-legged white slacks and red silk blouse were so stylish that she looked as if she’d just walked off the pages of a magazine.
“Hello there,” Grace said, getting the other woman’s attention.
The woman jerked up and spilled some of the wine from her glass as she let out a startled gasp. “Oh, my. I had no idea anyone was over there. The house has been empty for so long I just assumed I was alone.” She got to her feet and moved to the edge of the deck closest to Grace. “Are you the new owner?”
Grace shook her head. “I’m Grace Valentine, the Realtor.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Grace. I’m Lara.” She held up her glass of wine in a toasting motion. Then she gave Grace a pitying look. “I’m so sorry you’ve been stuck with that house. Don’t get me wrong; it really is fantastic. Under normal circumstances, it should’ve sold in a bidding war, but instead it just sits here sad and empty.”
“Normal circumstances?” Grace blinked at her. “Are you saying this house has unusual ones?” Obviously, Grace knew the answer to that question; she just wanted Lara’s take on the spirits that haunted the place.
Lara snorted. “Please. Everyone knows that house is haunted.”
“B
y Jenny Kort?” Grace asked. “The wife who died here? I heard speculation that she might have been murdered.”
“Jenny murdered? Goodness no. She had a rare blood disease of some sort. Toward the end she was really thin. That fueled all kinds of rumors, including drugs. Poor thing. After she died, her husband moved and her sister Emma moved in. Lovely woman, but she never had any children. If I had to guess, I’d say both are still here in some form. They each loved this property in their own way.”
“They loved it but don’t want anyone else to enjoy it?” Grace frowned. “That’s strange, don’t you think?”
“Oh no, they aren’t the problem. I’m sure they could be dealt with, but it’s the curse that’s the issue. I just don’t think anyone is ever going to buy it. It’s too bad, too, because Emma was a fantastic neighbor. I just can’t believe that old curse is still working.”
“Curse?” Now that was interesting. “What curse?”
“You haven’t heard about it?” She chuckled softly. “I thought it was common knowledge. Emma used to talk about it all the time. Or at least she did when we were younger. She said her great, great aunt had cursed the house so that if anyone outside the family tried to buy it or take it away from them, the house would become unlivable. Apparently the family legend is that the patriarch of the family lost their home back east after being spelled into signing a bad business deal. His daughter, Emma’s great, great aunt, not only secured that cottage for them but also cursed it so that people who weren’t related to them wouldn’t want it. It worked, because right up until Emma passed a few years ago, the house had never belonged to anyone outside their family.”
“Until now. Mr. Saint isn’t a part of their family, is he?”
“Not as far as I know. After Emma died, whoever inherited the house never came here. They just sold it to the first buyer. I’m not even sure Mr. Saint checked it out. He wanted properties to restore and got it at a ridiculously reduced rate.” She shook her head. “It’s a shame. The place used to have a lot of life to it.” The woman started to move toward the back door of her own house.
“Lara?” Grace asked.
“Yes, dear?”
“Why were you laughing when the tourists turned around and went back down the beach?”
A wide smile spread across Lara’s face. “That is Emma’s work still going strong. She cast a spell to make this part of the beach uninviting to those who don’t live here. Genius, that one. It’s made our vacation home a true retreat.”
“That’s not legal, is it?” Grace asked, frowning. She was pretty sure Premonition Pointe had a law on the books that made spells like that forbidden.
“Oh, it is… now. Why do you think the town passed that law in the first place?” She winked and disappeared into her house.
Grace eyed the beach one more time and then chuckled to herself. It really was too bad she’d never gotten to know Emma. The woman sounded like someone she’d have been friends with. Smiling to herself, she walked back into the house to find Isobel still sitting on the stairs. Grace cleared her throat.
Isobel’s eyes flew open. Her furrowed brows and turned-down lips were the picture of frustration. “I’m just not getting a read on what’s really going on here. All I keep hearing are the words roots run deep.”
“Right,” Grace said. “I’ve gotten that message, too. But never mind. The neighbor filled me in on a few things, and now I have a game plan. We can get going now.”
Isobel walked slowly down the stairs, her fingertips grazing the wall. “What did you learn?”
“There’s a curse on the house. It needs to belong to a member of the original family that owned the property. No one else is ever going to be welcome.”
“That’s not a curse that can be broken easily,” Isobel said, her frown deepening.
“I know. Though it’s not impossible if it comes to that.” Grace pulled her phone out of her purse and sent Joy a text letting her know they didn’t need to find any more information on Jenny Kort. It was time to find out if Emma and Jenny had any remaining relatives. She’d start there.
“Do you want me to work on some counter curses?” Isobel asked.
Considering the woman just spent over an hour listening to the same message without trying anything new, Grace wasn’t in a hurry to pay her for any more of her services. “No thanks. I’ll take it from here. Will you bill me for your time today?”
“Sure.” Isobel sounded disappointed, but her expression remained neutral. “Does that mean you don’t want me to take a look at the third house?”
Grace made a show of looking at the time on her phone. “Maybe another day. I didn’t realize this would take as long as it did, and I have another appointment I have to get to.”
“Right. One never can tell how these investigations are going to go,” she said, smiling. “I’m just glad I was able to be of help. Call me if you need anything else.”
“Sure,” Grace said, but she really didn’t mean it. While Isobel had been helpful at the Victorian house, she’d been late and of zero use at the cottage. Grace had a feeling that if she and her coven had just tried to talk to the ghosts, they’d have gotten the same information. When was she going to learn that her coven could handle almost anything if they put their minds to it? They were small but mighty.
A text came back from Joy almost immediately. I’m on it. Will call tonight with the research.
Grace grinned, ushered Isobel outside, and locked up. Twenty minutes later, she walked into the Pointe of View Café and nearly gasped out loud when she spotted Lucas King sitting in a booth waiting for her. He was clean-shaven with salt and pepper hair that had been recently cut. And damn, he was built as if he regularly hit the gym. Grace blinked and wondered if Hope was going to lose her mind. Because the man that had just moved back to Premonition Pointe had gone from sexy nerd, to full-blown tattooed hottie.
Chapter Nineteen
Grace walked over to Lucas, and just as she sat down across from him, her entire body broke out into a sweat as a hot flash took over. Without thinking, she started to fan herself with the folder she was holding. “Damn, is it hot in here, or is it just you?”
Lucas sputtered out a laugh and said, “Excuse me?”
“Um… dammit.” Her face flushed so hot she started to wonder if her head was actually going to go up in flames. “I meant is it just me.” She pulled her hair off her neck and tied it into a ponytail. “Just one of the joys of getting older. My temperature control button seems to be malfunctioning.”
“I can see that.” He handed her a napkin and added, “Looks like you could use one of those personal fans they sell on TV.”
“Thanks.” She took his napkin and dabbed at her neck and cleavage. But what she really wanted to do was grab his glass of ice water and dump the entire thing over her head. It was a damned good thing Grace had zero interest in Hope’s ex; otherwise she’d have been a thousand times more embarrassed than she’d ever have thought possible.
Lucas studied her for a moment and then grinned. “It’s good to see you, Grace.”
She dropped her folder on the table and smiled back. “You, too. You’re looking pretty good. Those tattoos are giving you a bad-boy vibe that kinda works for you. Just tell me one thing.”
He sat back in the booth and gave her a wary look. “Sure, as long as it isn’t about Hope.”
Grace snorted. “Oh, those questions are coming, but not yet.” She braced her elbows on the table and said, “What I want to know is how you manage to fight off all the admirers. I bet you have women and men chasing you down for your number. I mean, you’ve always been blessed in the looks department, but with the tattoos… sexy, Lucas. Very sexy.”
“Shut up, Valentine,” he said, laughing.
Grace chuckled. “Just calling it like I see it.”
“Sure you are. When did you become such a smartass?”
“Right about the time I stopped giving a shit what anyone thought about me,” she said.
Grace started to chuckle and then fell into a fit of laughter. Her eyes were watering by the time she got herself together. “Yeah. Right about then.” Grinning, she reached across the table and clasped her hand over his. “It’s really good to see you, Lucas. Tell me you’re home for good.”
His smile vanished, and he said, “I’m home for good.”
“What is it?” she asked, squeezing his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m that transparent?” he asked.
“Yes. You look just like you did when someone stole your favorite Matchbox car back at sleep-away camp when we were eight years old.”
His lips twitched into a ghost of a smile. “You would bring that up.”
Grace had known Lucas most of her life. They’d met at summer camp and had always been friends, and then later when Grace moved to Premonition Pointe as a young adult, he’d been the one to introduce her to Hope. The only time she’d ever seen him look so serious was after he and Hope had broken up and he’d made the decision to pack up and move across the country. “Come on. Tell me. What’s going on?”
He sighed and twisted a napkin as if he needed to keep his hands busy. “It’s my mom. She has the beginning stages of dementia.”
“Oh, no,” Grace said. “I’m so sorry. How bad is it?”
“Not terrible, but bad enough she can’t live alone. And please don’t say anything to anyone. She’s very concerned about being the talk of the town.”
“I understand.” But Grace didn’t know how she was going to keep any of this from Hope. She was one of her best friends and a coven mate. It just felt wrong. “Lucas, what about Hope?”
Witching For Grace: Premonition Pointe, Book 1 Page 14
