All in Bad Time

by Yvonne Montgomery

  "My dear..." Noreen began, her voice troubled.

  Rose rubbed at the ache in her temple. "It's not a question we can answer right now. We have to keep following the trail she left, and that's made harder by having to delay reading the rest of the journal as a group. We can't," Rose added at the question in Noreen's eyes. "We don't dare trust Eve until we've checked her out. We'll have to get in touch with whoever recommended her as an associate. What if the Board has been infiltrated, too?"

  "Rose, this is getting worse by the minute." Noreen regarded her with dismay. "Take that notion to its logical conclusion and soon we'll be turning on each other!"

  Rose recognized the truth of her words. "You're right. We've got plenty to be suspicious about, but we have to assume that at least the Wisdom Court community is okay." She tried to smile. "Talk about paranoia."

  "I wouldn't be against taking a look at whoever nominated Eve," Noreen added, "but more for information about her than anything else."

  "I'll get on it right away." Rose wrote a note on the pad beside her computer.

  "About the new journal..." Noreen frowned. "We can't afford not to read it, but it's going to be awkward."

  "Taking turns is probably how we should do it until Eve has moved into her own rooms."

  "You'll let her stay?"

  "What else can I do for now? She's been accepted as an associate. I'd like to get hold of her driver's license, though, just to make sure she has one."

  "Tell her you need to record her license number for insurance purposes."

  Rose regarded her with respect. "Good idea." She pushed herself out of her chair. "I'll talk to the others as I can, and you do the same. If we're doing Eve an injustice, I'll apologize later. We're in survival mode and we can't let any enemies behind the lines."

  Noreen got to her feet. "When I think of the efforts Caldicott took to mask identities, and how she hid the journals, my blood run cold. If Eve is a plant from that misbegotten group of devil-worshippers, she could do severe damage."

  "We'll keep her out of the loop." Rose put her hand on the doorknob and paused. "It's all we can do for now. With any luck we'll have her cleared sooner rather than later. Let's get back and make some excuse for not continuing with the journal."

  "Eve has to settle in. Aura Lee needs to prepare her quarters and you already have your routine for processing new associates."

  Rose smiled. "We keep on keeping on. I feel a little steadier now."

  Noreen's smile was austere. "Martial preparation produces little blood, but the blades will cut more cunningly for the time taken in honing them."

  Rose waited for the attribution. "Who said it?" she asked finally.

  Noreen gave Rose a sidelong look as she went out of the room ahead of her. "A woman who fought as a man and refused to be known as either."

  Rose watched the small woman walk down the hall, wondering if she'd ever find out the source of her quote. They didn't know everything about each other at Wisdom Court. Realizing that today was disturbing.

  * * *

  Eve cut the omelet on her plate into smaller pieces. When she noticed Kerry watching her, she lifted the fork to her lips. A drop of cheese fell onto her napkin and she looked down, then glanced quickly around to see if anyone was still looking at her. Rose's eyes jerked toward Aura Lee when their gazes met.

  Something was seriously out of synch. Ever since she'd come down for breakfast, she'd felt the atmosphere cooling. At first she didn't know if it was because of her or something else she wasn't aware of. Could Andrea be upset because she'd stayed in her room all night? She waved away Eve's apology this morning.

  As the awkwardness of the conversation became more evident, she came to think she'd made a mistake by confiding in them. They were regarding her with suspicion. But for what? If she couldn't tell them the truth and be accepted, there was no point in remaining here. Her heart sank at the thought of trying to find another place to stay.

  "What do you think, Eve?" Aura Lee asked.

  Eve's gaze swung toward her and she must have looked as blank as she felt because Aura Lee smiled. "You're still tired out, aren't you? You might like to go to your rooms and get yourself situated. I think we've taken care of everything as far as checking you in. I imagine your kitty is settling."

  Eve returned her smile and nodded. If she had to be on display much longer, she'd lose it. The apartment they'd given her was comfortable and quiet. She seriously needed quiet.

  "That's a good plan," she said. "I'm still feeling punch drunk from the trip. It'll probably help to unpack and get myself set up."

  Rose forced a smile. "Sounds good to me. I'll go get your driver's license and the welcome list we give everyone. It has the phone numbers you might need. Pizza places to order from and such," she added woodenly as she pushed away from the table.

  "Like we ever need to do that." Andrea took the last bite of her omelet and set down her fork. "I still think I'm going to weight three hundred pounds before I leave here."

  Aura Lee laughed. "We'll all be thin as rails if we keep hunting for Cottie's journals," she said. Then her face fell and she shot a look at Noreen. "I'm sure the cold from the manifestations are making us burn calories like crazy."

  Kerry coughed into her napkin, hard enough that Andrea pounded her on the back. "Are you all right?"

  "Bite went down the wrong way," she finally gasped.

  Eve looked at her bleakly. "Sounds like you might've caught something." She got out of her chair and pushed it carefully under the table. She draped her flowered napkin over the chair back. "I guess I'll see you all later." She gave them a meaningless smile before turning and leaving the room.

  They heard Rose speak to her in the hallway and a few minutes later the front door closed.

  Kerry emerged from her napkin with pink cheeks. She shot a look at Brenna. "That went well."

  "Don't start." Aura Lee met Noreen's eyes. "I forgot we're not supposed to talk to her about the journals. I'm absolutely no good at intrigue."

  "That's in your favor, my dear."

  As Rose came back into the room, Noreen searched her face. "Have you found out anything yet?"

  Rose shook her head. "Margery, the board secretary, is supposed to call me back this afternoon. She's going through Eve's file, and her paper trail ought to be clear. We'll just wait and see."

  "I hope she gets back to you quickly," Noreen grumbled. "I dislike this subterfuge. It makes me uncomfortable and Eve is obviously picking up on it. I hope it doesn't create a gulf between us that can't be bridged."

  Kerry nodded. "I don't like it either, but Rose is right. We have to be extra careful now. After the creep-out with the lights going out yesterday, I'm even more nervous about what's going to happen next."

  "Knock on wood," Aura Lee said abruptly.

  They stared at her and she huffed, "Do it. Knock on wood. Where do you think the old superstitions come from?" she added as they complied. "People were warding off evil eyes and bad luck long before we came along. Which reminds me," she said slowly. "I think we all need protection amulets." Her expression lightened. "I have a lovely new book of protection spells and charms that came yesterday. I'll get right to work." She got up from the table and headed out of the kitchen.

  "Make sure they're not stinky," called Kerry after her. She caught Brenna's look of surprise. "Apparently the bad-guy spirits frequently have to be warded off with the nastiest odors."

  * * *

  Eve climbed the curved brick steps to the outer door of the west associate house. A chilly wind was sliding down the hillside and it scurried through the dry leaves scattered across the courtyard. She slid her key into the lock and pushed her way into the hallway, letting the door shut behind her.

  She'd thought being upfront with them would establish her presence with little or no pretense. She was so tired of pretending. What if they wanted her to leave? Where could she go? Thanks to the hospital bills she'd almost run through her savings. If she stayed at
Wisdom Court—all expenses paid!—she'd be fine, but if it required her putting up with the chill she'd encountered today, she wouldn't last a week.

  She walked along the carpet runner down the tiled lobby and reached the door to her apartment. As she unlocked the door, the wall sconces flickered several times. She heard a fluttering sound behind her and air moved against her cheek. She wheeled around, heart in her throat.

  A large gray feather with black slashes on it floated lazily to the floor. What in the world? Eve cast her gaze all around, but couldn't find a source. The high windows near the ceiling let in gauzy light, blurring the edges of the apartment doors facing each other.

  When she bent to pick up the feather, the lights faltered again. She spun back to her door and turned the key in the lock, pushing inside, shutting the door behind her. Breathing rapidly, she waited—for another sound, another sign—but the foyer was quiet. Switching on the lights, she laid the key on the small table beside the door and looked for the feather. Not on the table, not on the floor.

  Eve peeked out the peephole and could see nothing. Summoning her courage, she opened the door and looked at the floor around the door. No feather.

  She heard the fluttering sound again, felt the breath of air on her face, and groped for the doorknob. She swung the door shut and listened to echoes of the knock of wood against wood. She leaned against the door for a long time, trying to explain to herself why she was so frightened.

  Chapter 5

  "I'm missing some ingredients." Aura Lee trailed in from the dining room, a large leather bag in one hand. Her brows were wrinkled in an abstracted frown.

  The others were still at the kitchen table, working on their second and third cups of coffee. "What ingredients?" Andrea asked lazily.

  "For the amulets." Aura Lee shook her head in resignation. "I was talking about them not fifteen minutes ago."

  "The protection amulets, right?" Brenna shot a glance at Kerry, pleased she was on top of something for once. "Of course I remember. And you don't have enough ingredients?"

  Aura Lee pulled out her chair and sat down. "Isn't it always the way? I'm all out of leek and fleabane, and I don't have enough cinnamon to make even three of them. I'll have to get some this afternoon or tomorrow."

  "Fleabane?" Noreen examined Aura Lee with suspicion. "You are joking, aren't you?"

  "On the contrary." Aura Lee leafed through a worn book she'd pulled from the bag. "Here it is. Fleabane will protect the home by denying entrance to evil spirits." She glanced at Kerry, mischief in her smile. "If you sprinkle the seeds on sheets, it will result in chastity."

  "I wish I'd known that when I had over a hundred schoolgirls in my charge." Noreen folded her lips in a line. "Life would have been much simpler."

  Kerry grinned. "I don't believe it."

  Aura Lee frowned over the list she was composing. "Turmeric would help." She looked up from the page. "So would yarrow, since it's strongest if you carry it. I don't know about larkspur, though. It keeps ghosts away and we don't want to get rid of the ones we've made contact with."

  "Why not?" Brenna recalled with a shiver the icy cold she'd suffered while in the company of a ghost.

  "Because some of them are trying to help us." A wounded expression darkened Aura Lee's blue eyes. Her voice softened when she added, "Including your grandmother. And dear Cottie."

  The heat in her cheeks made Brenna feel like a guilty child. "I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." She would do anything to keep from hurting her grandmother; no matter she'd been dead for nearly a year.

  Aura Lee extended her hand across the table and Brenna clasped her fingers. "I understand. It's hard to keep in mind how different things are here because of our spirit visitors."

  Brenna nodded, but the snarl of emotion in her gut whenever she thought of the woman who'd been more to her than a mother put her on the edge of tears. When she felt the touch of a hand on her back, she turned and saw the sympathy in Andrea's eyes.

  "Even though I can't make the amulets right this minute," Aura Lee was saying, "I can tell you about the herbs and objects I'll be using. I know how interested you are in the magical traditions I use."

  Kerry shot an alarmed glance at Noreen. "I thought we'd read from the journal. It's hard enough to get everyone together, without trying to keep one of us out of the loop."

  Aura Lee paused. "Well, it would be a good time since Eve isn't here." She lifted her brows at Rose. "What do you think?"

  She was already out of her chair. "It's in the sideboard. I'll get it."

  "What about Max and Neal?" Noreen asked. "Where are they?"

  "Max is presenting his credentials to a librarian at the university." Kerry took the journal from Rose and flipped through the pages to the scrap of paper she'd used as a bookmark. "They have a rare volume on witchcraft and he wants to check it out." She glanced at Andrea. "What about Neal?"

  "Appointment with a plumbing contractor, right, Rose?"

  "We want to get the fountain fixed as soon as we can. Those open holes are making both of us twitchy about libel."

  "Whereas I feel twitchy about Eve. Why are we keeping her from reading the journal?" Brenna looked from Rose to Noreen.

  "We're waiting until we know for sure she's legit," Rose said uncomfortably. She gathered her silver-blonde hair atop her head and stuck a pencil through it to hold it. "We can't afford to let her in on what we've learned until we do."

  Noreen intoned sadly, "'Conspiracy stains the fabric of discourse and no soap but truth can erase it from the weave.' Prudence Wyatt Bellwether, eighteen-something to eighteen something."

  "Thanks," Rose growled.

  Noreen pursed her lips. "I know, I know. I signed off on this, too, but I feel as though we're doing something nasty."

  "We are." Kerry snatched up her cup. "But I don't see what else we can do, given the circumstances."

  "It's a gut feeling I can't shake." Rose said. "The story she told us last night threw me. The longer I thought about it, the more precarious everything felt." She poured cream into her coffee and stirred swirls of white into a mocha color. "What she described is similar to what's happened here and it rattles me to think of her being connected to the haunting before she even arrived. We have to make sure she is who she says she is before we share details about Caldicott's early life."

  Brenna shrugged, but her eyes were troubled. "What she told us is bizarre, but not any more so than what I went through. Or what any of us has experienced, for that matter. We're already in deep shit, pardon my French."

  Rose sighed deeply. "I know. That's the point. I'm hoping we'll be able to clear things up fast, and work together. I don't think I'd be so worried if she hadn't just shown up. It got my natural paranoia going, and I started thinking about how gullible people can be. Somebody appears and acts as if she knows what she's doing. Is that enough to go on? And then the total darkness in the kitchen..." She drank from her cup. "And you and Max see floating lights and hear voices... all this just hours before Eve gets here. All of it really bothers me."

  "That could be sheer coincidence," began Brenna. "We had a freak show here long before Eve showed up."

  "Let's table Eve for now and read the journal while we can," Rose pleaded. "We have to find out what's in it."

  "Agreed," Noreen said dryly, "but Eve won't stay tabled for long. Trying to keep her isolated while she's in the middle of everything won't be easy."

  Rose nodded and passed the journal toward Kerry.

  I graduated college at the end of the winter term of 1946. It was a milestone for the whole class, but I envied the open happiness and relief reflected by those in my group. Jane Putnam insisted we celebrate at her digs and as I drank the cheap wine, I couldn't help but think of the past. Would Duncan have been proud of me? I wanted to think he would, but we'd known each other for such a short time, not long enough to talk about what either of us wanted from life, let alone what he thought about women's higher education.

  The thought of Mum'
s pride at my achievement lasted but a short time. It was her wish that I marry, have children. The lengths to which she'd gone to ensure that I improve myself were focused on the ultimate goal of getting a man to marry me.

  Jane was the one person to recognize my mixed feelings and she asked me to stay behind as everyone hurried to the next celebration. "Come with me to a meeting tonight," she said. "There are some people I want you to meet."

  She'd been after me to attend political gatherings for the last year. This night I didn't want to be alone with my thoughts. After we'd straightened up her apartment, we set off for Greenwich Village.

  The meeting was in a small labor hall crowded between a greengrocer's and a tobacco shop. The people at the door looked me up and down, but Jane pulled me in as she greeted several of them. Her assurance was the only ticket we needed, and she led me to the front of the hall, where we found seats.

  The speaker was dreadful, his monotone draining every bit of life from the socialist views he apparently believed in deeply. After five minutes of his flat voice, I was ready to leave, but Jane leaned forward in her seat with intensity, clearly caught up in his rhetoric. Bored, I let my gaze wander about the crowd, surprised at how many people had come to hear this man.

  My eyes fixed on a balding fellow toward the left side of the hall. He had a small mustache and a pasty white complexion. He looked familiar and I spent several minutes trying to decide if he'd been in one of my classes. Then he turned his head and looked straight at me. My heart caught in my throat as I recognized him and I let my gaze move over him, striving to keep my expression blank. The last time I'd seen him was from Duncan's car when we'd driven through the village on our way to a county dance. The man had been opening the rear passenger door of the earl's limousine, and I'd assumed he was a chauffeur. I'd said nothing to Duncan at the time about seeing his father, not wanting to spoil our short time together.