“Don’t be afraid,” said Aunt Harriet. “We’re all here to help.”
I tore the letter open with shaking hands and started to read what was inside.
Dear Lemmi,
If you are reading this, then I am no longer around to tell you the things I would have wished to say in person. Paws may be difficult at times, but I trust him completely. I don’t know what happened, and I’m sorry to be gone. It was always my intention to instruct you and to share the history of witches with you. It is a complicated but wonderful history, and one that I hope you will come to love as dearly as I have.
I have instructed Paws to give you this letter in the event of my death, but to use his own discretion as to when the time is right. He’s a good cat and very loyal and helpful. It’s just that sometimes his catness gets in the way.
I have taken precautions over the last few years to hide my most important possessions. My jewelry is in the basement, my spell books are in the attic, and my most precious wand is in the shed.
The shed doesn’t look like it can stand upright, much like the porch, so I figured no one would ever suspect that I hid a priceless wand in there. There’s one thing you should know, my dear, if you are not old when you read this, it is likely that I did not die of natural causes. I do not care about this so far as my own life is concerned. I’ve had a very good one. I am concerned about it as it relates to you.
As the Witch of Mintwood, the witch of a territory, you have a great responsibility. The ghosts would say that your first responsibility is to them, and as usual they would be slightly off the mark. Your first responsibility is to take care of yourself. Once you do that, everything else will fall into place. It took me too long to learn this, and I did many foolish things before I did. We all make mistakes, and some of them are worse than others. I only regret the mistakes that are going to be passed down to you, my dearest grandchild.
Let me begin at the beginning. Growing up, I had two great friends. Ellie, Betty, and I were inseparable. Betty had a sister, but she was younger than we were, and never kept up.
Ellie and I were the ones who were truly closest, and sometimes that caused problems amongst the three of us. Still, we managed to remain friends well into our twenties.
Then things started to change. I was the only one of the three of us with territory I was expecting to inherit. This changed the dynamic between us, because my two friends weren’t sure where they belonged and what they should do as adult witches. For the longest time Ellie planned to settle with me in Mintwood.
As we got older, Ellie wanted more and more power. The best way to gain it, of course, was to have a witch territory of her own. During one particular period when I was training here at the farmhouse with my own mother, Ellie, instead of coming here, went traveling with Betty. That was really when everything changed.
We planned a happy reunion, but it became unhappy when Ellie arrived at the farmhouse. It didn’t take long for her to demand some of the land of Mintwood. Betty was backing her up, trying to force me to give them half my territory.
I refused, needless to say. I hadn’t even become the Witch of Mintwood yet myself, but I knew full well that their desire for power meant that they shouldn’t have it.
Ellie left furious with me and disappeared.
I didn’t hear anything from her for almost twenty years. Then I started hearing more and more about dark witches growing in power. There were stories of a group of witches who went around town attacking other witches and stealing their ghosts, and obviously their ultimate goal was to have their own territory.
Removing a witch from her own territory is very difficult, however.
I had suspicions that the ringleader of this group was Ellie. The witch in the rumors was very strong, which Ellie had always been, and she didn’t play by the rules. After our falling out, in fact, I realized that Ellie had stopped playing by the rules a long time ago. Now I knew that Betty, and Betty’s younger sister, were with her as well.
Other witches are naturally curious, but most don’t want your territory. They will just come around and observe you, but not say anything unless you make the first move. It’s enough that they enter your territory without your permission, to engage you would be something else entirely. Ellie never cared about these unwritten rules. And I think now all she cares about is power.
Why am I telling you all this? Because Ellie’s strength is growing. She spent years upon years gathering ghosts and learning dark spells. You would think she’d leave Mintwood alone, but I’m afraid she never will. This was the first territory she wanted, and if I do say so myself the best. I’m sorry to leave you with this problem; I would like to have handled it myself, and I have tried. Other witches are not terribly interested in acting against Ellie, because what do they care if a ghost or two goes missing? Most witches find the ghosts an annoyance more than anything else.
Now, let’s be practical. What should you do? As I am already not there to teach you the practical application of spells, I can at least be there to give you a road map of how best to fight off a dark witch.
First and foremost, you have to find my ghost. I’m probably not going to last long as a ghost after you find me, but you wouldn’t be reading this letter if my ghost had been at the farm. I don’t know where I am, but to reiterate: it is crucial that you find me as soon as possible.
Second, you have to fight the dark witches. Under no circumstances can they be allowed to gain control of the territory in Mintwood. Let them stay in Caedmon or Pennwood, nobody likes those towns anyway.
I almost forgot about the witch hunters. You probably don’t remember them at this point, but there’s a family in town that goes by the last name Wolf. They have a history of witch hunting. Usually, they hunt dark witches. The Mr. Wolf that I know has always maintained an uneasy truce with me. Witch hunters are protective of good witches but don’t like to get too close to us. It is like oil and water, we were never meant to be together. I say this to you because if you remain the Witch of Mintwood long enough, which I sincerely hope you do, it is likely that you will run into a witch hunter. Do not be afraid of them. Stand up for yourself.
If at all possible, track down my elusive daughter, your aunt Harriet. She’s traveling, and it’s all well and good that she wants to see the world and all that nonsense, but she’s needed in Mintwood. She must help you defend the town.
Lastly, it is imperative that you protect the ghosts. Other witches thinking that ghost protection isn’t necessary is silly. You must find the ghosts in your town and you must get them to the cemetery or get them to the farm and keep them safe. Of course, if they are going to be Poofed and go on, that’s also fine.
My dear girl, I am so sorry that I’m not there to be with you, but there is one other order of business that I must attend to. And that’s my teacups. They are very important. If at all possible, please don’t break them. If you do break them, please learn the spell to repair them. The blue one has been broken at least nineteen times and it looks brand new.
With all my love, Evenlyn
Tears were streaming down my face as I read the letter. When I finished, I looked up bleary-eyed at my companions, who had been sitting quietly, Harriet knitting, Greer reading a book, and Charlie working on her latest article. When I finished they waited for me to say something.
Carefully, I folded the piece of paper. “We have a lot of work to do.”
Chapter Eleven
“Grandmother says I have to find her ghost,” I said, looking at Aunt Harriet.
“Yes, I can’t understand where her ghost has disappeared to,” said my aunt. “Except, I’ve been wondering if she maybe didn’t die where we thought she did.”
“You mean her ghost might be stuck where she did die?” Charlie said.
“Yes, it would be a good reason to kill her elsewhere, to try to trap her ghost,” said Harriet.
“So how do we go about finding her?” I asked.
“There are a couple of wa
ys, but they’re tricky and they don’t always work,” said my aunt. She looked perplexed. If this were easy it would have already happened. “We’ll have to do some research. Your grandmother’s books in the attic might have some information.”
“What else did she say?” Charlie asked.
I handed her the letter, and when she’d read it she handed it to Greer, who read it and passed it to my aunt. Each of them looked totally absorbed as they took in my grandmother’s message.
“So Jasper isn’t bad!” said Greer jubilantly.
“We don’t know that he’s good either, though,” said Charlie. “What if he thinks Lemmi’s a dark witch?” Charlie said. Given how implacably hostile Oreo Wolf was, this was all the more confusing.
“Like my mother said, witch hunters and witches don’t usually mix,” said Aunt Harriet.
“She was good friends with Ellie and Betty? I suspected that after the pile of letters, but it’s hard to believe,” I said.
“I came along after the friendship had ended, but she used to mention them from time to time. I think she always wanted Ellie to come back and be like she had been when they were young,” said my aunt.
“I wonder what turned Ellie into a dark witch,” said Charlie.
“There are so many things it could have been,” my aunt said, shaking her head. “It’s tough for witches who don’t have a territory.”
“It hasn’t been tough for you, has it?” I said. I was vaguely worried that Aunt Harriet wanted to be the Witch of Mintwood, and that that was part of why she’d come back. That worry made me realize how much I actually cared about the place, even Paws.
“I’ve been blindingly happy traveling the world all these years, and I wouldn’t have given it up for anything,” said Harriet. “I don’t think I was meant to settle in one place, which is just fine with me. I have enough witch friends who will let me stop in and visit from place to place, and I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re here as the Witch of Mintwood. It was never my destiny.”
I was indescribably grateful that my aunt had spoken so forcefully to put my fears to rest.
“I’m glad your grandmother wrote the letter. I’m sorry about what happened to her, though,” said Charlie.
“That’s just the thing, I don’t know what happened to her,” I said. I bit my lip, thinking hard.
Greer rubbed her temples. “It sounds like she was murdered for the territory, but why didn’t whoever killed her get the territory?”
“They would need her wand, and they’d need to defeat Lemmi,” said Aunt Harriet.
So Paws’ hiding Evenlyn’s wand had in fact saved the day, so much so that I might even have to thank him.
“What would other witches do?” asked Greer.
My aunt looked grim. “Those who aren’t your friends would think you should be able to defend your territory. If you can’t, it’s your own fault. The more witch friends you have the better, because they’ll come to your defense. I would come to your defense, as here I am.”
I nodded my gratitude at her.
“I can’t believe we had Betty and her sister in this house for tea,” said Charlie.
“They just seemed like they wanted to help.” I gave a big sigh. “I should’ve known better.”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it now,” Greer advised. “And anyway, we should be getting to bed. We have a lot to do.”
I nodded. Tiredness had been taking over my body since we got home, and the adrenaline I’d gotten from this flood of information from my grandmother was now wearing off. All I wanted to do was sleep. Even my aunt looked tired.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this, I promise,” said Aunt Harriet.
“Yeah, don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” said Charlie, covering a big yawn with her hand.
I smiled at all of them. “Exactly. We’ll figure it out. Tomorrow.”
I slept with my grandmother’s letter under my pillow so it would be as close to me as possible. When I woke up the next morning, I pulled it out from under the pillow and read it again, just wanting to make sure it was real.
Before I even started breakfast, I went up to the attic to look through grandmother’s spell books. Aunt Harriet had said that we had to find the spells for searching for a missing ghost, and now I wondered why I hadn’t thought of that before.
Paws was right, though I would never want to admit it to him. I had a lot to learn.
The spell books were in their usual dusty pile in the middle of the attic. I spent nearly an hour sifting through them and finally decided to take Ghosts 101 downstairs.
Back in the living room, I saw out of one of the windows that my aunt was walking the edge of the property with Charger. She seemed to love the dog, and Greer had been grateful to have more help with him. Charlie never had much to do with the Lab, and I helped when I could, but Harriet delighted in taking Charger out for his morning stroll.
I settled in the kitchen with the newspaper, hoping there’d be fireworks on the front page again. I wasn’t disappointed.
Jimmy News had given Lena an interview about why he’d make a good mayor of Mintwood. The entire article was about how the town was overrun with ghosts. I groaned inwardly; the ghosts that actually lived at my farmhouse were going to be furious with me. They seemed to think I could do everything immediately, waving my wand and magic to make everything they wanted happen, as if nothing could possibly be hard or take some time to accomplish.
They were going to be very angry that these ghost theories were still front page news. I wondered if I could keep them from knowing, but probably not, because I didn’t know how they saw the paper in the first place.
It wasn’t long before Charlie joined me in the kitchen, and we read the papers in companionable silence. She obviously noticed the book I’d brought down from the attic, but she made no comment.
“Hansen has an interview with Vinny in today’s Chronicle,” said Charlie. Her voice was neutral, but I could see she was annoyed.
“Did you want to interview him for the Gazette?” I said.
We had interviewed him, of course, but Charlie had planned to do her own article about him later on. So far she had just used his comments to pepper other articles.
“No, I don’t think he knows anything. He’s just telling everyone how much he misses his sister, and Hansen felt the need to put it front and center,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“Stories about feelings are just dumb,” I confirmed.
“You can say that again,” muttered Charlie.
I lifted the newspaper in front of my face so she wouldn’t see me roll my eyes.
“Do you think the fact that there was a love triangle is relevant?” Charlie asked.
“I think strong feelings are hard to ignore, and love triangles are almost always relevant,” I said. “None of them liked hiking, and yet they went hiking, and then the couple slips off the cliff. Kevin and Kay also didn’t really say how the hike was going before that. I’d like to ask them. I’m not sure if the ghosts are even still at the mountain, though, since their bodies probably aren’t. Then we come across Detective Cutter and he says they were pushed.”
Charlie perked up at this. “Where do you think Kevin and Kay are now, then?” she said.
The police station doubled as the morgue, and I rather suspected that Kevin and Kay were downtown somewhere. I had a mind to go there that night, and I was glad that at least we didn’t have to climb back up Mintwood Mountain to see them. We probably wouldn’t have made it if we’d tried.
Reading my mind, Charlie said, “It would be better if we didn’t have to visit them in the ravine, because if we got lost again I’m not sure Jasper would come help us after how you treated him.”
“I didn’t treat him badly. He owes me an apology, and until I get it I’m not going to pretend that everything is fine and dandy,” I insisted.
Greer stumbled in the kitchen at just that moment, forestalling any further argument for the moment.
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“You’re up early these days,” said Charlie.
“I have to work at the bar during the day today,” Greer said, sounding disgruntled.
Usually Greer didn’t say too much about working at the bar. I knew she didn’t mind doing it, but she also didn’t love it, nor did she enjoy being confused about her life at this stage. Going on dates with Deacon was progress in at least one area.
“What are you doing later?” Charlie asked her.
“Deacon’s coming over after work,” she said. She lowered her head into her hands and moaned, “I hate the day shift.”
“I take it you made up after your fight at the mountain?” said Charlie.
I carefully avoided eye contact and didn’t say a word.
“It wasn’t really a fight, he’s worried about me,” said Greer. She almost looked like she thought it was romantic. Sheesh!
“What are you doing today?” I asked Charlie.
Charlie shrugged. “I’m going to work. I feel fine and I can’t have Lena or anyone else taking any more of my articles.”
Charlie was a very dedicated reporter; she didn’t mess around. In fact, I was surprised that she had even taken a day off after the magical marble attack.
“So today we’re going to try to find Kevin and Kay and talk to them about what specifically happened on the mountain,” Charlie prodded me.
“Looks like we are,” I agreed.
“What about Farmer Franklin’s mystery?” she continued. “I’m going out there again today to talk to him.”
I thought about going with her but decided against it, since I wanted to spend some time studying Ghosts 101 to see if I could get a better handle on spells that might help us find my grandmother’s ghost. When I told Charlie as much, we agreed to meet back at the house for dinner before going off to search for the hikers’ ghosts.
“Hopefully, Kevin and Kay can tell us something that will lead us to Chloe,” I said.
A Witch on Mintwood Mountain (Witch of Mintwood Book 4) Page 12
