by Tess Lake
“What big announcement?”
“It’s a surprise. Having a family dinner tonight. There are no guests, so it’s family and Kira. Make sure you’re on time.”
“When have I not been on time?”
Mom ignored that too.
“Going to need you to do some work at the bakery this week. Is that okay?”
I glanced at my computer, where I’d written the first three sentences about the ongoing foreshore restoration project.
“That’s fine,” I said. “See you tonight.”
The phone went dead in my ear before I could even say goodbye.
A big announcement? The last time there had been a big announcement, the moms had entered us into the Gold Mud Run. Hopefully it wasn’t on a level with that, although given that they’d all been away at a business seminar over the weekend, perhaps they’d come up with some crazy new idea to make money. Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, really. The Torrent Mansion Bed-and-Breakfast had been full most Friday and Saturday nights, but for some reason people didn’t book very much during the week.
I called Molly to see if she knew anything about the announcement, but she didn’t answer. Even after hiring staff to help them at Traveler, they were still rushed off their feet.
I checked the time, but it was barely past ten in the morning. Far too early to go to Traveler to see my cousins on a lunch break. I decided to use the last two hours before lunch to do some journalism work.
Yes, I was essentially working out of spite, even though Carter Wilkins wouldn’t know it. I was going to find out what was behind these fires.
Although Aunt Cass said she thought it had been a fire spirit, perhaps people were involved too.
I dived into the history of fires in Harlot Bay, and soon the world faded away.
Chapter 6
Molly looked like she was about to kill someone.
She and Luce were standing across the street from Traveler, having a conversation with a man and woman. It was very clear even from a distance that Molly was definitely not enjoying said conversation. She was smiling at them through gritted teeth. Luce had plastered on a smile as well and she had a glassy look in her eyes. As I approached, Molly glanced at me and flashed the help me eyes.
“We’re really not interested in selling. Not for any amount of money,” Molly said, clearly repeating herself.
“Not even twenty thousand?” the man said.
“Not even for twenty thousand.”
“Hey, guys, ready to go for lunch?” I asked.
“We are! Sorry, we have to go now. Good luck,” Molly said to the couple.
“I really think we can do some business together,” the woman said.
“We can’t and we won’t,” Molly said. She turned her back on the couple and walked away, a little down the street. Luce and I followed.
The couple went the other way, muttering between themselves.
As soon as we were out of earshot, Molly swore and stomped her feet.
“What was that about?”
“They want to buy Stefano,” Luce said. “But we’re not interested.”
“Stefano?”
“The coffee machine,” Molly said in between stomping her feet a few more times.
“Love you, Stefano!” Luce said and blew a kiss in Traveler’s general direction.
The line for coffees was out the door. There was a double-decker bus parked down the street. Inside Traveler, Molly and Luce’s three new staff members, Alex, Isabella, and Julie, were working frantically behind the counter.
“Are you sure we can go for lunch? It looks crazy in there,” I asked.
“We’ve trained them as much as we can, and at some point we have to be able to leave Traveler. Today is that day,” Luce said.
“Why do those people want to buy Stefano?” I asked.
Molly made a snorting sound.
“They’re planning on opening a coffee shop. At first I thought they were just interested in information about the coffee machine. But then they kept asking a lot of questions about where we got it from, who was the supplier, all that kind of thing. I told them the website we brought it from, not that they had any others for sale.”
“Twenty thousand dollars is a lot of money, though,” I said.
“It is a lot of money, but we’ll be making far more than that in only a couple of months with this crazy coffee.”
We hadn’t made a proper plan for lunch, but in our wandering away from Traveler, we ended up in front of Five Slices, a pizza place. We went inside and sat in a booth.
“Mom told me that they have a big announcement tonight. Any idea what it is?” I asked.
Molly and Luce pulled out their phones and read the messages that they had received from their mothers.
“Mine says, ‘Big surprise, dinnertime, dress well,’” Molly said, a glint of fire in her eye.
“Mine is… the same,” Luce said. She didn’t want to get Molly all worked up. Last time that happened, Molly had gone to dinner in a slinky low-cut tight dress just to annoy her mother.
“I don’t like it when they have big announcements,” I said.
“It probably has something to do with the bed-and-breakfast,” Luce said. “They did go to that seminar thing.”
“Okay, well, I think we have bigger problems,” I said.
I told them about Sylvester Coldwell coming to my office and asking questions about Grandma April and how he wanted to buy and develop Torrent Mansion.
“Two real estate agents want to develop the mansion? It’s not that popular, is it?” Luce said.
“I guess maybe they’re seeing the potential?” Molly said.
“You both missing the point. They’re trying to get in contact with Grandma, who is currently frozen in the basement and is not going to speak to them at all. Dominic Gresso said he had investigators on the case. What if it gets out that no one has seen Grandma for the last twenty years?”
“I’m sure Aunt Cass and the moms have it under control,” Luce said, although she kept fiddling with her menu, a sure sign of nerves.
We were interrupted by Sasha, the waitress, who took our orders. Five slices only served five types of pizza sold by the slice. I ordered a slice of margherita, a slice of pepperoni and a soda (sorry, thighs).
“All we can do is tell them tonight at dinner about the real estate agents. I’m sure they’ll come up with something,” Molly said.
I sat back in the booth and looked through the one menu Sasha had left on the table. Clearly my cousins weren’t taking this as seriously as I was. I felt a little annoyed, but then on the other hand, perhaps I was just worked up. After all, they weren’t the ones facing investigation. A problem which, I might note, no one had really talked about or seemed interested in. Both of them had gotten so wrapped up in their business and their new boyfriends that they really didn’t seem to care much that an arson investigator had come to the house to ask questions about me.
I pushed these quite sour thoughts out of my mind and listened in as Molly and Luce started talking about making plans for the weekend. They were both going out with their boyfriends to do all the fun, exciting things you can do around Harlot Bay.
“We’re all thinking of going to the beach on Sunday. Do you want to come?” Luce asked.
“Yeah, maybe,” I said, noncommittally.
Molly must have sensed something was wrong.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Preoccupied with work, I guess. Carter Wilkins implied that I wasn’t a ‘real journalist’ earlier today, so I’ve been investigating fires around Harlot Bay. Seems like there have been quite a few going back over the last hundred years.”
“So do you think the fires were lit by an arsonist?” Molly asked. “Aunt Cass seems to believe it’s a fire spirit.”
“What?” I said. Aunt Cass had sworn me to secrecy about her room downstairs, and then she’d told Molly and Luce anyway?
“Yeah, she said it’s a fire spirit and that y
ou and Kira had been setting up beacons for her. Do you think she’s going to catch it?” Luce asked.
“Maybe. We set up the beacons, so I guess we’ll see. Did Aunt Cass tell you she has a complete laboratory underground, too?” I said.
“Really? What does she do down there?” Molly asked.
I realized my error far too late. I was feeling a little snarky towards Aunt Cass because she had sworn me secrecy for apparently no reason, and so I’d let out that she had a laboratory under the house. Since Aunt Cass had cursed Molly, she’d had been looking for a way to get back at her. She had taken the “revenge is a dish best served cold” approach and had been biding her time. Now I’d just handed her something she could use on a silver platter.
“It’s no big deal. Actually, it was just a table with a few things that she used to make that potion to protect us against the morchint. I think she got rid of it all.”
“Liar, liar, pants on fire,” Molly stated. “She had all that glassware delivered, and I know she’s had other packages showing up at the house. Now we just have to work out how to use this information.”
I felt a sudden panic bubbling in my stomach. If Aunt Cass found out I’d blabbed about her underground lab, there was sure to be trouble.
“Or perhaps you could just leave it be and leave her alone. I think she enjoys all the conflict, anyway. By engaging with her and trying to use this to your advantage, she is probably going to win in some other way,” I said as Sasha delivered our pizza and drinks. I took the opportunity to eat rather than talk.
“Yeah, maybe you’re right,” Molly said.
I didn’t believe she was backing off this for one second.
We quickly changed topics after that, moving on to the renovation plans Molly and Luce had for Traveler. They’d finally come to an agreement and decided to transform it into a full coffee shop. Because they were so busy during the day, they’d have builders coming in late in the afternoon and working into the evening, trying to do the renovation in stages.
“But no matter what, we’re going to have to shut down for a day or two,” Luce explained.
“I can’t wait to see it,” I said.
It was good to hang out with my cousins, and I was definitely happy for their success… although it did seem like everyone else’s lives were on an upward trajectory and mine was spiraling down to the ground. Their business was thriving and now they were expanding. The moms had the bakery and the Torrent Mansion Bed-and-Breakfast. Aunt Cass was training Kira and I’m sure had some other sneaky source of income hidden away.
And what was I doing? Investigating fires over the last hundred years in Harlot Bay, worrying about being charged with arson and trying to help a ghost who didn’t remember anything to move on. Oh, and every week I was writing a letter to a possible future boyfriend who still hadn’t returned.
“Who’s that guy out there?” Luce asked, nodding out the window.
I turned around my seat see a guy in bright orange shorts and a Hawaiian shirt standing across the road. He looked sunburned and had a camera around his neck.
“Just a tourist? Why?”
“I saw him a few days ago outside Traveler. And then I think he followed us here,” Luce said.
I turned around again for a proper look out the window. The man was checking his camera. He looked up at the pizza shop, checked his camera again and then wandered off down the street, taking photos of a few of the buildings.
“I’m pretty sure he’s just a tourist,” I said.
I mostly said that because I didn’t really want to deal with the idea that someone else was following me or my cousins! We finished our lunch, and Molly and Luce returned to Traveler. Despite wanting to go home and sleep the rest of my life away, I went back to the office. I was there for maybe forty-five minutes, struggling through some newspaper article I didn’t care about, before I finally did give up and drove home.
Chapter 7
Adams was waiting for me when I got home. I picked him up and he snuggled into me.
“Why do you smell like an old lady’s sock drawer?” I asked him.
“No, I don’t,” Adams said, purring.
He really did, though. It was like he’d spent the morning rolling around in lavender. After a while I wandered off to my bedroom with the intention of having a short nap. I know this was no way to deal with all of my problems… but on the other hand, my bed was very comfy and the room was cool.
I woke up when Molly and Luce got home. It was very late in the afternoon. I sleepily made my way out of the kitchen and then, because I wasn’t quick enough, I had to be third in line to have a shower to get ready for dinner. While Molly was showering, Luce told me in an undertone that the couple had come back again, this time offering thirty thousand to buy the coffee machine.
“So no talk about the coffee machine. I think she’s going to kill anyone who says anything about it,” Luce told me.
“I promise,” I said. Once we were ready, we walked down to the main house and into the dining room. The moms were in the kitchen doing the usual talking/bickering/meddling thing. I heard my name, but then they must have heard us, because the talking subsided.
I grabbed Molly and Luce and quickly pulled them into the lounge.
“They’re meddling! Did you hear Mom say my name?” I asked.
“Dude, you’re going crazy,” Molly said.
“Maybe you need to have a glass of wine?” Luce added.
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself. Okay, so they were a bit right. Just because I’d heard my name didn’t mean anything was happening.
“Okay, get the wine,” I said. We returned to the dining room just as Mom emerged from the kitchen carrying a covered serving tray.
“Oh, good, you’re all here,” she said, smiling at us.
I saw Molly and Luce glance at each other. Yes, Mom is generally cheerful, but this cheerfulness had an underlying sneakiness… she was planning something.
We took our seats at the table after Molly retrieved a bottle of white wine.
“Has anyone seen Aunt Cass and Kira?” Mom asked.
“Nope,” Molly said and then took big gulp of wine. Luce shook her head and followed suit.
“Not me,” I said and took a mouthful myself. I felt the alcohol hit my stomach in a warm rush and a moment later started to relax. Yes, I was possibly under investigation for arson and, yes, my business was failing and, no, I had zero reasons to think anything would change, but did that matter all that much? Jack had sent me a letter saying he was coming back soon. Eventually I would see his handsome face again. Who cared what Carter thought of my journalism skills? The guy was one step above reporting on “Mysterious Mud Monster Found in Harlot Bay!”
Aunt Freya and Aunt Ro emerged from the kitchen carrying more covered serving dishes and brought them out to the table. The moms shuttled back and forth bringing out plates and silverware and even more covered dishes. It seemed they’d really gone all out for this dinner. I sat there drinking my wine, listening to Luce and Molly chat about their business plans for when the renovations were to be done. They had a local architect drawing up plans for the interior layout.
As I sat there, I felt more relaxed with each passing minute (thanks white wine!). Since the Torrent Mansion Bed-and-Breakfast had opened, we’d often had visitors sitting at our dinner table in the morning and at night. I’m not sure the moms had entirely anticipated this happening. As a result, we hadn’t had many dinners where it was just us witches.
Despite being peak vacation season, there were no bookings for the next few days. I expected the moms would be trying to pull us into dinners at every opportunity they got.
Finally, they finished ferrying dishes out of the kitchen. They brought a few more bottles of wine and then sat down across from us.
Aunt Ro checked her watch.
“So unlike Aunt Cass to miss dinner,” she said a touch sarcastically. Aunt Freya and Mom laughed, but then quickly stifled that when the
y heard a door slamming in the kitchen. Aunt Cass and Kira must’ve been somewhere under the house, probably down in Aunt Cass’s investigation room or the mad scientist’s laboratory that I’d told Molly and Luce about.
Mom had just lifted the lid on a spectacular-looking roast chicken when Aunt Cass and Kira walked in from the kitchen. There was a collective gasp from the other side of the table, and Mom dropped the silver serving dish lid on the table with a gigantic clang.
Kira still had a pink streak through her hair and a silver nose piercing ring. Standing beside her, Aunt Cass now had a pink streak through her hair and a shiny silver nose ring.
There was a pregnant pause before Aunt Cass turned to Kira and said, “Wow, awkward much?”
Kira laughed and then they high-fived.
Yes, you heard that correctly. The sixteen-year-old pink-haired nose-pierced Slip Witch and possible Queen of Sarcasm high-fived our somewhere-in-her-eighties great-aunt, who now had a vivid pink streak in her hair and a shiny silver nose piercing.
Aunt Cass made her way around to her traditional position at the head of the table and then waved at the three of us to move down to make room for Kira. We did so happily. Aunt Cass grabbed one of the bottles of wine and quickly filled her glass. It was when she reached for Kira’s glass that Mom finally spoke up.
“Um… we… it’s not right to… we don’t give wine to children,” she finally said.
“I know we don’t give wine to children. There are no children here,” Aunt Cass replied, bottle in hand.
Kira, who had been grinning, suddenly appeared panicked.
Welcome to your first Torrent dinner, kid.
“It’s okay. I don’t really like wine much anyway,” she said. Mom and Aunt Cass stared off at each other for a moment before Aunt Cass put the bottle down.
“Okay, dinner, everybody,” Mom said weakly. They removed the covers on the rest the dishes to reveal a spread of gloriously delicious food. Roast potatoes, roast carrots, roast pumpkin with pieces of roasted garlic. There were steamed green beans with almond slivers, a salad that had strawberries in it, and another salad with various sliced mushrooms.
