by Nic Saint
“Where are your granddaughters?” she asked, anxious to meet her cousins.
“They’re upstairs, resting,” she said with a warm smile. “They’ve been through quite a lot today, the poor dears.”
“Yes, they have,” agreed Felicity.
“They’ve moved mountains,” said Aunt Cassie with a tinkling laugh.
“Or at least buildings,” Felicity chimed in.
Bettina and Bianca now joined them, and were eyeing Cassie a little trepidatiously. But to show them that there was no resentment in her heart, Aunt Cassie enveloped first Felicity’s mom and then Aunt Bettina in a warm embrace, and said, “I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years.”
“We’re sorry we didn’t do this sooner,” said Mom, wiping away a tear.
“I don’t blame you for breaking off relations with Merrill,” said Aunt Cassie. “I was never fond of your brother myself, truth be told. Though I have to admit he changed. When they died, he wasn’t the scoundrel he was when they met. She changed him for the better, Abra did, God rest her soul.”
“The last time we met was at their funeral,” Bettina reminded her.
“I remember vividly,” said Aunt Cassie, her smile fading. “Such a sad occasion. I wanted to reach out then, but…”
“It’s all water under the bridge as far as I’m concerned,” said Mom.
“Yes. Let’s drop the past,” said Aunt Bettina. “After all, Merrill has been dead for twenty years now. Too long to let this rift in our families carry on.”
“That’s what I always say,” agreed Aunt Cassie. “Forgive and forget.”
Bianca and Bettina laughed gratefully, and when Aunt Cassie locked her arms through theirs and took them out into the gardens for a quick tour, Felicity heard her say, “We’re going to be the best of friends, I’m sure.”
Felicity saw that Rick and Reece were admiring the building, while Chazz and his cronies wandered into the garden, enjoying the balmy weather.
Alice now walked up and joined her. “I love what your great-aunt has done with the place. It’s quite an improvement.”
“Wanna go upstairs and meet my cousins?” asked Felicity.
“Sure thing, hon,” said Alice happily. “You know? I could really see us living here. Plenty of room for all of us. And I simply love those gardens.”
Felicity grinned. “Don’t give Reece any ideas. He’d jump at the chance.”
“Or Rick. I bet he’d love to build himself one of those writing shacks and start writing the great American novel.”
They returned inside and quickly found the sweeping staircase that led up to the second floor. “I hope they don’t mind us intruding like this,” Fee said.
“I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to finally meet their cousin,” Alice assured her.
“We should probably host a big get-together. So they can meet the rest of the family as well.”
They arrived upstairs, and Felicity saw that the place was bathed in light, the walls painted a light beige, and a single stained-glass window depicting what looked like a midwife delivering a child into this world. Five doors led off the landing, and she wondered behind which door she would find her cousins.
But after she and Alice had knocked on all the doors, and darted curious peeks inside, just to be on the safe side, it was obvious the rooms were empty.
“Are you sure they’re home?” asked Alice. “I mean, we just saw them on TV moving buildings around the country. Maybe they’re still at it?”
“Aunt Cassie said they were resting upstairs,” Felicity said with a slight frown of bewilderment. Where could they be? “They’re probably sleeping and can’t be disturbed,” she added, experiencing a slight pang of regret.
“Oh, well, you’ll meet them some other time,” said Alice as she stared at the staircase moving up one more flight of stairs. “I wonder what’s up there,” she said, darting a look at Felicity.
“Let’s have a look,” she suggested, propriety never having stopped her before, and then they both hurried up the stairs, giggling lightly. She felt like a kid again, Felicity thought, exploring another person’s home. But then her aunt Cassie was family, so this was almost like a home to her.
They arrived on another landing, with a single door greeting them. When she opened it, she was surprised to find herself in a spacious attic room, the walls lined with bookcases, a large desk in a corner laden with knickknacks and paraphernalia that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the movie Hocus Pocus as part of the house of the Sanderson sisters, and then her eyes fell on three unconscious figures lying on the floor in the center of the room.
“Oh, no!” she cried.
Three women were lying there, and she recognized them as her three cousins Estrella, Edelie and Ernestine. And just when she knelt down to check their vital signs, they opened their eyes and stared at her.
“Who are you?” asked Edelie.
“Yes, who are you and where are we?” asked Ernestine.
“And where is Tavish?” asked Estrella, blinking rapidly.
“I’m Felicity Bell,” she said, “and I’m your cousin.”
They stared at her, clearly not comprehending.
“Our cousin?” asked Edelie.
“We don’t have a cousin,” said Ernestine, pushing up her glasses.
Alice, who’d taken a seat on the floor, said, “It’s complicated.”
“Well, not so complicated,” said Felicity, who also plunked down on the carpet. “I’m Bianca Flummox’s daughter, who is your father’s sister.”
“And I’m Alice,” said Alice. “No relation.”
“She’s my best friend,” explained Felicity.
The three women still looked confused.
“But… how did we get here?” asked Ernestine.
“And where is here?” asked Edelie, looking around the room.
“And where is Tavish?” repeated Estrella, apparently fond of that theme.
“You’re in Hartford Manor,” said Felicity, wondering what had turned her cousins into three fruit loops. Or had they always been like this?
“In Happy Bays,” added Alice. “Which is on Long Island.”
“Happy Bays!” cried Edelie.
“Long Island!” gasped Ernestine.
“Where is Tavish Mildew?!” asked Estrella again, stuck in her ways.
“Um, I don’t know who this Tavish person is,” said Alice, “but he’s not here. Trust me, we looked.” Then she quickly added, “Your grandmother gave us permission. Kind of.” She blinked. “You have a very nice home.”
“Tavish Mildew was mummifying us,” Edelie explained, quite outrageously, Felicity thought. “And then we passed out.”
“But not before we cast a spell to make him disappear,” said Ernestine, pushing her glasses up her nose again and looking very grim.
“Well…” Felicity exchanged a quick look of worry with Alice. “It must have worked, because you’re not mummies, and there’s no trace of this Tavish person.”
“Where is Gran?” asked Edelie, now scrabbling to her feet.
“She’s in the garden, showing Mom and Aunt Bettina around,” said Felicity, now also getting up. Then she saw that Edelie was swaying on her feet, and quickly held out an arm to support her. “Are you quite all right?”
Edelie stared at her. “This is so weird.”
“Yes, it is a little strange to finally meet after all these years,” she agreed.
“No, I mean, we were just fighting a…” She paused, then began again. “We were in Brooklyn and then suddenly…” She blinked confusedly.
Felicity softly said, “You guys are witches, aren’t you?” When Edelie gave her a look of suspicion, she added, “It’s fine. Alice and I are used to, um, dealing with strange phenomena, aren’t we, Alice?”
“We sure are,” said Alice. “We can see ghosts.”
There was a momentary silence, and then Estrella said, “Is that a fact?”
“Yep. So you see, from gh
osts to witches is only a small step,” said Fee.
“I… guess it is,” Ernestine agreed hesitantly.
“Look, we were fighting a warlock,” said Edelie, apparently deciding to trust this newfound cousin of hers.
“Tavish Mildew,” said Estrella.
Edelie nodded. “And he was going to destroy us, see?”
“And then… I think we managed to vanquish him,” said Ernestine.
“We’re not really sure what happened,” added Estrella.
Edelie was giving her sister a serious look. “Gran must have transported us here. There’s no other explanation.”
“So what happened to Tavish?” asked Estrella, returning to her favorite theme.
“We must have vanquished him,” said Ernestine with a shrug.
“Or maybe we simply made him disappear and now he’s someplace else,” Edelie said.
“I wonder where,” said Ernestine. “I just hope he’s not out there causing more harm.”
“Oh, my God!” cried Estrella, her hands flying to her face.
“What?” asked Felicity. Her cousins were certainly very unusual young women, she thought. Not ordinary at all. But then that was to be expected from three women who’d just moved Falcone Tower here and there.
“Susan Gnash!” cried Estrella. “We have to find her!”
“Susan Gnash?” asked Alice. “You mean the president’s daughter?”
“She was taken by the same warlock who attacked us,” explained Edelie.
“We have to find Gran,” said Estrella, looking quite upset now. “She’ll know what happened.”
They followed the three witches out of the attic room, and then Edelie turned and glanced around, an incredulous look in her eyes. “How did she do this?” she muttered, looking even more dumbfounded than before.
“How did who do what?” asked Alice patiently.
“This room. It’s Fallon Safflower’s room. Our ancestor? She was a powerful witch, and these are all her things. Tavish was destroying everything, usurping their power, but here they all are. Her books, her brooms, her potions… everything. Exactly like it was in Safflower House.”
“Gran must have transported everything here before Tavish could destroy it,” said Ernestine, also surveying the room curiously. “And us along with it.”
“Come on, you guys,” said Estrella urgently. “We have to find Susan.”
Felicity and Alice were the last ones to step from the attic room.
“I, um, I kinda like your cousins,” said Alice finally as they closed the door behind them. “They’re… endearingly eccentric.”
“Well, they’re witches,” said Felicity, as if that explained everything.
“Of course,” said Alice with a grin. “What else did I expect?”
This was going to be fun, Felicity thought. Three witches in the family, or four, if you added Aunt Cassie. Reece had told them he wanted to liven things up a little in Happy Bays, and he was going to get just what he asked for. Perhaps even more than he bargained for…
Chapter 35
I was glad I’d met my cousin, though now was perhaps not a great time to get to know one another, as we were still trying to figure out what the heck had happened to us, to Tavish and, more importantly, to Susan Gnash!
We hurried down the stairs, and I could see Estrella touching her face, and when she gave me a questioning look I confirmed that, “Yes, your face is still absolutely normal, Strel.”
“Thanks,” she said gratefully. “I had the feeling that Tavish was sucking all the moisture out of it. More than any moisturizer could ever put back.”
“He was sucking all the life out of you,” Ernestine corrected. “No moisturizer could ever put that back.”
We arrived downstairs, and swept into the garden, ignoring the visitors now surveying the living quarters, which looked awesome, by the way, and made a beeline for Gran, who stood chatting amiably with two ladies, one with blue hair, the other with gunmetal gray hair.
“Gran!” we all cried simultaneously. “How—where—when—why…”
“Good to see you too, girls,” Gran laughed, and then we were hugging her, so glad to see her that we couldn’t utter a single intelligible word.
Then she let go of us and said, “Girls, meet your aunts, Bianca and Bettina. They’re your father’s sisters.”
My eyes widened as I took in these newcomers. “Hi,” I said uncertainly.
Bianca cried, “You’re the spitting image of Merrill!” and clasped me in a tight embrace, then repeated the same procedure with my sisters.
Then it was Bettina’s turn, and as she clasped me to her bosom, she whispered, “You lovely, lovely girl!” and smothered my face with kisses as if I were her long-lost kin. Which of course I guess I was, in a sense.
I stared at Gran, feeling a little out of sorts.
“What do you think?” she asked, gesturing at the house.
I stared at it, speechless, and so did Ernestine and Estrella.
“I bought it!” Gran cried.
“But what about Safflower House?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s become way too conspicuous,” said Gran with a wave of the hand. “What with all the warlocks trying to destroy us, and the media people trying to get a piece of you, I thought it better to get rid of the place entirely.”
“You got rid of Safflower House?” I cried, thunderstruck.
“Yes, it’s gone,” she confirmed. “Your ‘godfather’ completely destroyed it.”
“He wasn’t our godfather after all,” said Estrella quietly.
“I knew that, of course,” said Gran. “I tried to warn you, remember? Several times, if memory serves.”
“We’re sorry, Gran,” I said sheepishly. “We didn’t know.”
“No, you didn’t, even though you thought you did,” she said primly.
Felicity and Alice had now also joined us and were listening quietly.
“With the whole world wondering how you made that tower disappear, and your faces appearing on every news bulletin, I thought it better to retire to this small nook of the world, where we can be amongst family and friends, and where the world won’t be watching our every move.”
“Can’t you just, I don’t know, wipe the world’s memory?” asked Estrella.
“No, I certainly cannot,” said Gran, pursing her lips. “You’ll have to learn to live with the consequences of your actions, dear, and know that everything you do carries a certain risk.”
“I’m sorry,” I said again. “We weren’t thinking.”
“No, you weren’t,” said Gran, her eyes shifting into steely-eyed mode.
“Your secret is safe with us,” said Aunt Bettina. “Isn’t that right, Fee?”
Felicity nodded. “Of course. And besides, it’s not as if people actually believe you’re witches. They just think you’re amazing magicians.”
I was relieved to hear it. For a moment I thought we’d ruined not just our own lives but Gran’s life as well. Making her move from her beloved home.
“Did you have to give up Safflower House?” asked Ernestine now.
“Yes, I did,” said Gran, implacable. “Safflower House served its purpose. Our new home is Hartford Manor, so you better get used to it, girls.”
I had the distinct impression she wanted to teach us a lesson in accountability. And she was succeeding quite nicely, too.
“What happened to Susan Gnash?” I asked.
“She’s perfectly fine,” said Gran. “Tavish was going to kill her, but then got distracted when he had the chance to get at the three of you.”
“What about those other women?” asked Estrella. “Couldn’t you… you know… save them, too?”
“First of all, I didn’t save you, dear. You saved yourself, and you should be proud of the fact, too. Secondly…” A shadow crossed her face. “Tavish had me fooled, too. I didn’t trust the man, but I never thought he’d resort to murdering witches. By the time I discovered what he was up to, three
of our kind had already perished, with you lined up to become his next victims…”
“So why didn’t you tell us he was a murderer?” asked Ernestine.
Gran pressed her lips together. “Would you have believed me?”
“No,” we admitted.
“You had to be taught a lesson, and this was the only way I knew how.”
“What lesson?” asked Estrella, her lip trembling. “That you won’t always be there for us?”
Gran’s face softened. “I will always be there for you, honey,” she said, taking Estrella in a warm embrace. “But you need to learn to fend for yourselves, and you need to learn how to use your powers wisely and responsibly.”
“So where do we go from here?” I asked.
“Well, you will start your own private security company,” said Gran, “and you will help the unfortunates who’ve been taken advantage of by the powers of darkness by reacquiring what was taken away from them and returning it.”
“You mean you approve of that?” I asked, stunned.
“Of course I do. I just wanted you to do it a little more discreetly than you’ve done so far, and not draw so much attention to yourselves.”
I followed her gaze and saw that two men had stepped into the garden. One of them was Reece Hudson, the movie star, and the other one… was the reporter who’d interviewed us after we made Falcone Tower disappear!
I pointed at him. “What is he doing here?!”
“Oh, God. That’s that reporter who filmed us!” cried Estrella.
And we were already raising our hands to vanquish the louse, when Felicity cried, “Hey, hold it! That’s Rick. He’s my fiancé!”
“Oh,” I said, lowering my hands.
The reporter ambled up. “Hi, there,” he said amiably. “So we meet again.”
I was still eying him askance. My cousin’s fiancé or not, he was the reason our faces were now known the world over.
“Not his fault,” Gran pointed out, reading my mind as usual. “That was your own fault, young lady.”
And she was right, of course.
“I’m sorry for making you world-famous,” Rick said ruefully, correctly interpreting our stares. “If I’d known you were Fee’s cousins, I’d never—”
