“Do you think she watched us when we were little too? In Ohio?”
“Yes,” I said without hesitation.
I didn’t begrudge Harper’s endless questions. She was scared to death. A part of me was, too. What if I was wrong? What if the Elder was just . . . the Elder?
I shoved the what-ifs out of my head and took my own advice to feel.
The Elder was my mother. Tears built in my eyes, blurring the path. I recalled all the times I thought she’d sounded familiar. All the times her laugh turned my heart to mush. All the times I’d screwed up and felt as if I’d been disciplined by a parent. Even her name, Deryn, meant “bird” in Welsh. Then there was that telltale blue eyeliner.
I should have figured this out sooner.
But I wouldn’t dwell on that now. Or ever. I was too happy to know the truth.
I couldn’t possibly be angry that I hadn’t known she had been with us all these long years.
I knew it now. That was the important thing.
It was a gift. A miracle, really.
“Oh my good gosh, is this the longest path ever created?” Harper moaned.
“We’re almost there. See that rock?”
“The one that looks like a piece of cake?”
I nodded. “It’s just past that.”
“Then come on,” she said, yanking my hand as she sprinted ahead of me, Samuel’s mothball-scented cloak flapping in my face. “Come on, Darcy!”
I held tight to her hand and couldn’t help laughing.
She glanced back at me and started laughing, too, as we raced along, jumping over roots and rocks and anything standing in our way.
At the cake rock, we slowed as the grassy meadow came into view.
“This is it?” Harper whispered, sounding let down.
“Just wait.” I kept hold of her hand as we walked into the field.
“Seriously, this is disapp—”
Harper’s words died on her lips as the weeping tree in the middle of the meadow lifted its branches. Sunlight burst through the clouds, blasting golden beams onto green stems that spiraled upward out of the ground, and unfolded to reveal dazzling wildflowers.
It seemed to me that the colorful blooms were even brighter and more abundant than usual. From the top of the tree, a mourning dove lifted up and took flight, circling and swooping, and I thought my heart might stop from how hard my chest was being squeezed with raw emotion.
The bird landed ten feet from us, flexed its wings, then disappeared in a cloud of sparkle and smoke. When the smoke cleared, I gasped.
In the bird’s place was our mother, barefoot and dressed in a white gauzy dress that billowed around her in the breeze along with her long brown hair.
It didn’t even seem the least bit odd that her bare feet didn’t touch the ground.
She was floating.
Literally floating.
With fine lines around her eyes and silver sparkling in her hair, she looked simply like an older version of the woman I loved so much. And even though I had known Harper took after her, the resemblance in person stole my breath. Her petite stature, the shape of her eyes, the wide forehead and narrow chin.
Then she smiled . . . and in that instant I saw myself in her, too.
“Hi,” she said tentatively.
“Hi . . . ,” I said, pushing the word out of my dry throat. “ . . . Mother? Mom? Mum? Mummy? Elder? Birdie?” I rambled, not sure what to call her.
She smiled. “I rather like Birdie, but here in the meadow, just call me Mom. Like you always did. I’ve missed the sound of it so much. Outside of here, always refer to me as the Elder unless we’re certain we are with those who know my identity.”
As she spoke, I realized she’d been disguising her true voice from me nearly a year now. This voice, the one she was using here and now, was as I’d always remembered. It must have been incredibly difficult for her to keep her identity a secret from me.
“Mom,” I said, testing it out. It felt strange to say it aloud after all these years. Strange, but not wrong.
I glanced at Harper. Tears streamed down her face. I squeezed her hand.
“I thought this day would never come,” our mother said. “It just about killed me. Well, you know. If I weren’t already . . .” She laughed.
At the sound, I almost fell to my knees from the reaction it caused within me. To hear it straight from her lips, to see it, caused my chest to hurt as if I were having a heart attack. My throat tightened, my legs went weak.
She added, “I’m truly not one for patience. Just ask your aunt Ve. I’m working on that. It’s an endless endeavor.” She held out her arms, inviting us to her. “Come here, my darling girls.”
I let go of Harper’s hand and gave her a nudge. She stumbled forward, then stopped. Forward. Stop. Then my mother floated forward, toward Harper, and the hood of the cloak fell backward off Harper’s head as she rushed to meet her halfway. Harper threw her arms around our mother’s waist and squeezed her as tightly as she had done to me just a few minutes ago.
My vision blurred as I saw my mother cheek to cheek with Harper, running her hand over the back of Harper’s head as she cooed and soothed. I wanted them to have this moment. I’d had seven years with my mother, whereas Harper had had none. They had a lot of time to make up for.
We all did.
Above Harper’s head, my mother’s gaze met mine. She waved me over, holding out an arm to invite me into the hug.
I tried to stay cool and calm as I took one step, then another. Before I knew it, I was running. As graceful as an out-of-control bowling ball, I fell into them both, knocking us all to the ground. Mom laughed. Then I did. But Harper just kept clinging to her for all she was worth.
I didn’t know how we were doing it, holding on to this . . . spirit, but I wasn’t going to question it. I was certain there was still a lot more we had to learn about this new development in the months to come. But we’d figure it out. In time.
Together.
Our mother being back in our lives was more than a gift.
More than a miracle.
It was magic.
* * *
The following weekend the village green was packed with people attending the first of the summer community block parties planned by the village council.
I had figured the event would be bittersweet, though my reasoning as to why had changed.
Originally, I thought that tonight we’d all be sad as we said good-bye to Reggie Beeson before she moved away. . . .
Instead the party was bittersweet because she wasn’t here at all.
Even though she had been arrested on theft charges and was currently out of jail, released on bond, she had opted not to stop by. By all rights, she should be here tonight, but she was too embarrassed to attend.
I didn’t blame her, but I felt for her nonetheless.
Archie had griped and grumped when he found out that Reggie had been behind his attempted abduction, but surprisingly he had opted not to press charges, which Terry complied with. Surprising because Archie was normally a vengeful kind of bird.
If he’d found it in his heart to fully forgive her, then I hoped one day I could, too.
I had time to work on it. For the foreseeable future, Reggie wasn’t going anywhere. Glinda had been right about the villagers not pressing charges—but the other victims of Reggie’s little crime spree had. She was to stay put until her legal matters were settled, which might take a while. Until then, she vowed to win the villagers’ trust once again, and Vivienne Lucas had promised to help every step of the way.
The first of those steps being that she was the person who’d paid Reggie’s bond.
The second was that Vivienne had decided to take over the Furry Toadstool.
She had signed a new lease and purchased from Reggie the shop’s
Web site content, its excess inventory, and its mailing list. Vivienne claimed she been wanting to expand her dog-walking business, and taking over the Furry Toadstool was the perfect segue.
The amount she was willing to pay for all those things hadn’t been disclosed, but I had the feeling it was enough for Reggie to travel comfortably once she was out of legal trouble.
Not that Vivienne would miss the money. Her divorce was on a fast track, and Baz wasn’t contesting it—or the prenup—at all.
Vivienne would be free of him soon . . . and a lot richer for it, in more meanings than one.
I’d heard through the grapevine that Baz had already left the village and was currently shacked up with a nurse he’d met at the hospital. To say he moved fast was putting it mildly. When asked why he hadn’t told Natasha that it was probably Ivy who’d been stalking her, he simply said he hadn’t wanted Ivy to get into trouble. That he cared for her too deeply.
There were some in the village who commented that he had gotten what he deserved.
I wasn’t sure. I had begun to think he should have gotten worse.
I didn’t like that much about myself, so I didn’t think about it too much.
The moon was high in the clear sky, and stars twinkled as music floated through the air, mingling with a gentle sea breeze.
“Darcy!”
The shout nearly knocked me over, and I grabbed on to a folding table for balance.
“Sorry!” Harmony said, sidling up to me. “Didn’t mean to startle you. I just wanted to say thank you for the painting. I love it so much.”
“It was all Angela’s doing, not mine.”
“Thank you,” she said again with a smile.
I smiled, too. “You’re welcome.”
She glanced around. “Not quite the party we had all planned for, is it?”
“Not quite.” I watched Nick spin Mimi around the dance floor. Mimi had plans to spend the night at a friend’s house, and Nick and I had some late-night plans of our own.
“Aside from the Midsummer Ball,” Harmony said, “I bet the next big shindig will be your wedding.”
I glanced at her. “I’m not even engaged!”
“I’d bet a dwarf goat and mini donkey you will be soon.”
Eyeing her suspiciously, I said, “You’re not just trying to pawn them off on me, are you?”
She laughed. “No. Don’t tell Angela, but I’ve become rather attached to them. It’s kind of amazing that Glinda found the two wandering around together, and that no one’s claimed Scal as their own.”
“Scal?”
“Scalawag, the donkey.”
I smiled. “Definitely amazing. Like it was meant to be.”
“Some things are. Speaking of . . .” She elbowed me, waggled her eyebrows, then slipped away.
Nick walked my way, his hand held out. “Care to dance, Darcy Merriweather?”
“Love to,” I said, slipping my hand into his.
He pulled me closed, and I looped an arm around his back. “What was that about? With Harmony.”
“Things that are meant to be.”
“Like Higgins and drool?”
“Exactly.”
Laughing, he spun me around the dance floor. As he led us along, I spotted Harper and Marcus near the buffet. Her face glowed as she laughed at something Marcus had said.
She was happy, which made me happy.
She’d been spending a lot of time at the Elder’s meadow.
Our mother’s meadow.
The differential was going to take some getting used to.
It seemed as though the past week had passed in a flash. Between dealing with the fallout of Ivy’s arrest and learning the Elder was my mother, I’d had some late nights and early mornings.
My mother had graciously allowed me to let Nick and Mimi, Starla and Evan in on the secret of her identity, and we all swore (literally—on a Wishcraft law book) to take the secret to our graves.
Harper and I had learned a little bit about the Eldership, about how the Elder had always been a spirit. Harper had dubbed the whole process the Dead Witch Society. Our mother, unlike other familiars, could morph into human form at will—a perk of being Elder. She had many ways to travel in and around the village but mostly preferred using her mourning dove form.
Mimi had been full of questions at the revelations, but had primarily wondered if it was possible her mother, too, was a familiar that was watching over her.
I told her the one thing I knew for certain: that anything in this village was possible.
Because it was.
“Is there any particular reason Dorothy Dewitt is giving us the evil eye?” Nick asked.
I glanced over at her. She was, in fact, giving us a death stare. I recalled something Reggie had said. “Probably not. Dorothy is just being . . . Dorothy.”
He laughed. “Well, I’d be glad if she did it elsewhere.”
I smiled against his shoulder as he twirled me around. I caught sight of Starla and Vince, dancing close by. Starla waved when she spotted me.
I wasn’t sure what was going to happen between the two, but was glad she was happy right now, in this moment. She’d been through so much but had worked hard at overcoming her personal losses.
If only Ivy had worked half as hard at letting go of the man she loved . . .
She had no memory of what had happened at As You Wish, which was blamed on her head injury when she fell. That was perfectly fine with Harper and me, as we’d told identical stories of what had happened inside the house, leaving out only the magical elements.
It had taken some digging by the police, but an online purchase order of cyanide had been traced back to Ivy via a fake name and post office box. When confronted with the evidence, she confessed she’d ordered the poison a month ago, planning ahead to kill Natasha at the Extravaganza—right in front of Baz. When the judges were at Natasha’s booth, looking at Annie, Ivy had slipped the capsule into Natasha’s coffee cup.
She had been counting on me not to be watching her closely in that moment, which hadn’t been an issue, as I hadn’t been there at all.
I woke up at night wondering, if I had been there, if I’d have been able to stop all this.
Maybe so.
Maybe not.
I’d never know.
For my peace of mind, I had to let it go.
I didn’t want to dwell on the fact that I’d been bamboozled by Ivy. She’d used me, plain and simple. Now that As You Wish was mine, I was going to have to make some changes. Be more selective with my clientele. Trust my instincts more.
“What’re you thinking about?” Nick asked as he played with the ends of my hair, twining the strands around his long fingers.
“Instincts and trusting them.”
“What do your instincts say about me?” he asked.
“They say you’re going to take me back to your place early tonight.”
“I like the sound of that.”
“Me, too.”
“You know what I can’t wait for?” he said, pulling back so he could see my face.
“What’s that?”
“For the day there’s no my place or your place. Just our place.”
“When do you think that will be?” I asked as innocently as I could.
He kissed me. “I wish it were today.”
I admired the way he had expertly avoided the question. “You know I can’t grant that wish, as much as I want to.”
“A guy can try, especially when his mother-in-law is you-know-who.”
I snuggled in close to him and smiled. I didn’t point out his slip of the tongue: that she wasn’t his mother-in-law.
Not yet at least.
When the time comes.
I’d wait for that marriage proposal for as long as it took,
because I finally agreed with Harper and Harmony and everyone else, it seemed.
It was going to happen.
It was just a matter of when.
Until then, I’d wait.
I was a patient witch that way.
* * *
Across the street from the party, a small gray-and-white dog and an iridescent gray bird with blue rims around its eyes sat on the porch swing at As You Wish.
“It’s good that at least one of us is happy,” Melina Sawyer, the dog, said to Deryn Merriweather, the bird. “I suppose of the two of us, it should be you, considering you’re the Elder, blah, blah, blah.”
“Mostly happy,” the Elder said in that calm melodious voice of hers.
“You’re worried about Dorothy and the Renewal, aren’t you?” Melina puffed a breath upward, displacing the fur hanging low on her eyes. She was in desperate need of grooming, but with Ivy headed to prison—where she rightfully belonged—a haircut was probably a long time coming. Melina wished she’d been more of a help with the Ivy situation, but when she’d run for help, Archie wasn’t in his cage, and she’d found no one else she could talk to. By the time she returned to the house, Harper and Darcy had been in the woods.
“The apprehension is warranted, Melina.”
She knew. Dorothy was nothing if not conniving. “Harper will come around.”
“And if she doesn’t?”
“She will. Give her time.”
“Something that is quickly running out.”
“Patience,” Melina advised. “We have a year.”
The Elder laughed. “You know I’m not very good with that particular trait.”
“To take your mind off the matter, you can get me out of the mess I’m in. I cannot live with Darcy and Nick and Mimi as though we’re all one big happy family. I’m happy for them—truly I am—but I cannot witness that love day in and day out and not start to feel some sort of resentment. I’m only human. Well. You know what I mean.”
“Then you’ve decided to move on?” the Elder asked.
Move on. It had been her intention all along, and she and the Elder had had this conversation before. It had always been Melina’s intention to stay in Missy’s form only long enough to restore family order to Mimi, then leave her be and pass over. Darcy was wonderful with her, and Nick had never been happier. It was all she could have ever hoped for. Except . . . “I don’t want to leave Mimi.”
Gone With the Witch Page 28
