“I don’t understand.” The thing of it was, having a conversation with a cat who could appear and disappear at will was becoming rather normal in the short timespan that I’d discovered him. “What did Nan do to you?”
Rosemary knew that you had no one to show you the way forward, seeing as your mother cast aside her gifts. She had no choice but to leave someone or something behind to help you out. That someone was me, although any spell that goes against the balance of the good in nature comes with a price.
Leo shot an irritating glance at his tail before continuing.
My glorious self somehow became this…this so-called fur bag. Oh, and short term memory loss came with the consequences. It’s not like I’m this way normally. Speaking of which, I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
A knock came at the glass door.
Ah. The Bobbsey twins. They’ll want their hex bags. We’ll have to continue this later, but there is something you should know—never disclose your true gift. To anyone. These half-wits believed that Rosemary dabbled into witchcraft, and thereby could somehow grant their wishes. Dabbling in witchcraft is something entirely different from being a true practitioner.
And just like that, Leo was gone. He’d vanished into thin air as quickly as he’d appeared.
A true practitioner.
A witch.
That’s how Leo had referred to me. I glanced down at the ledger with its intricate carved leather and the astounding secrets that it no doubt held. I’d seen the symbol somewhere before, but I couldn’t place it. Unfortunately, my curiosity would have to wait, but at least my hysteria had somewhat subsided for the moment.
Again, my acceptance of such an encounter had me questioning on whether or not I’d completely lost my sanity by thinking this was a normal occurrence in someone’s life.
Another knock resounded firmly throughout the small shop, reminding me that I needed to appear somewhat composed. I quickly put the false bottom back in the drawer before swiping all the contents off the counter and back inside. Leo’s warning had come across loud and clear, though I wasn’t so sure of what the consequences would be if someone discovered that Nan had truly been a witch. Or that I was a witch.
Was I?
“Coming,” I called out, shutting the drawer and making my way around the counter. I smoothed my skirt down with trembling and sweaty hands. Would these ladies buy that I was still upset that a man had been murdered in my shop? That wasn’t so unreasonable, now was it? It didn’t take me long to flip the lock and open the glass door. “I’m so sorry, ladies. I’m technically still closed until I can get the tea shop ready for business, but Nan left behind some paperwork that indicates I have something for you. Please, come in.”
“We didn’t get a chance to talk to you over at the diner, but we wanted to let you know how sorry we are at Rosemary’s passing,” Elsie said, handing over a small plate of croissants from the bakery next to the diner. “We noticed you didn’t eat lunch with Liam, so we thought we’d bring you something that had some substance.”
“And we also wanted you to know that you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head over that Cora Barnes. She and her husband have been trying to get Rosemary to move her shop down the street to the vacant spot that has been up for lease…how long has it been now, Elsie? A year now?” Wilma frowned in distaste when she glanced out the display window. “Cora and Desmond have been trying to do the same thing with Mindy Walsh. She owns the adorable boutique on the other side of the malt shop, if you didn’t know that already.”
“Speaking of which, you and Mindy are about the same age. Wilma, we should introduce them.”
I’d noticed at the diner that these two older women talked somewhat constantly, hardly allowing anyone else to get a word in edgewise. Believe it or not, their talkative manner actually eased my nerves that I had a somewhat bereft sarcastic cat in the back room who fully believed he had been meant to be a Persian leopard in this life or the next.
That wasn’t the crazy part.
I was beginning to truly believe that I wasn’t insane, and that Leo—
Mr. Leo to you.
I spun around, thinking maybe he actually had the audacity to show himself, but he was nowhere to be found.
I don’t look that bad.
I would have responded to Leo, but I caught myself just in time. Instead, I addressed the women and told them it wouldn’t take me long to find their order before proceeding to the back of the shop.
“Would you stop talking to me when I’m in front of people?” I chastised Leo once I was through the strings of fairies. I brought myself up short, looking back at the carved beads. Now things were starting to make sense. “It’s true, isn’t it?”
And she wins a prize.
I decided not to respond to Leo’s mockery, because that would only further entice him to continue on the path that would no doubt lead to his demise at my still innocent hands. He was sitting next to the bags that he’d somehow gotten to fall from the top shelf. Both Elsie and Wilma had orders with their names on them.
This time, I couldn’t resist. I opened one of them and peered inside.
They’re called hex bags. Not all of Rosemary’s clients get them, though. It depends on the client’s needs. Pearl uses a mixture of herbs to give to Harold in his tea, thus causing him to have feelings for her. The hex bags are something else entirely, but I’ll have to explain those to you in detail at a later date. Your customers are waiting.
Leo yawned, showing his crooked fang. I had so many questions I needed answers to, but he was right. Now wasn’t the time.
“Leo, don’t you dare disappear on me,” I warned him in a soft voice, grabbing the bags and heading for the strings of fairies. “We’re closing the shop early, heading home, and then you’re coming clean about everything. And that includes Ted, the giant whatever living in my backyard. Oh, and you were right about me needing that wine.”
I pasted a smile on my face as I maneuvered my way through the various high-top tables, noting right away that Elsie and Wilma were whispering like two young schoolgirls gossiping about the new girl in town. They were most likely wondering if I’d continue to follow in my grandmother’s footsteps with regard to their orders.
What had Leo alleged earlier? There was a major difference between this town believing my Nan had dabbled in witchcraft and them having full knowledge of her being a witch. And the same would go for me, if any of his ramblings even held a morsel of truth.
A part of me was still leaning toward a gas leak, but that wouldn’t explain the fact that I knew the exact location of my grandmother’s ledger in the false bottom of a specific drawer. Leo had also mentioned a spell book, but that hadn’t been with the ledger.
“We can’t tell you how happy we are that you’ll be taking over the shop,” Elsie said, solidifying my opinion that she was the lead ringer out of the two. Wilma followed along, though it was evident that her hazel eyes observed anything and everything within her sight. “We were so afraid that the recent murder would run you out of town.”
Jacob Blackleach.
It still seemed surreal to me that it was only yesterday morning that Heidi and I found his dead body in the back of the tea shop. There had been a lot of strange things happening around me lately, but everything was starting to make sense now that Leo had made an appearance.
Magic was real, after all.
Was Jacob’s name listed in the ledger? Had he been one of my grandmother’s clients?
Leo had mentioned that Jacob’s death had been murder, which meant he must know the identity of the guilty party.
“We’ll see you next week, dear.”
“I’ll do my best to have everything ready for you,” I replied with confidence, totally unsure of any such assurance. Leo said he was here to teach me what my Nan couldn’t, but there was still a slight chance I’d either gone insane or inhaled gas from some leak in the old building. I’d know soon enough, because I planned on asking Leo who kil
led Jacob Blackleach the first chance I got. “You have a good afternoon, ladies.”
You know, we apparently got off on the wrong foot. It’s Mr. Leo. Mister, being the key word here.
The ruffian cat had suddenly materialized by my side, taking his time observing the window shoppers as some of the townsfolk took advantage of the beautiful fall day.
I think I’ll take a sunbath while you drive.
“You’ll do no such thing,” I said as I left him at the door to go and gather the ledger. I quickly made my way over to the counter before pulling the drawer open and repeating the same steps I had before in order to locate the leather-bound book. I planned to take it home with me and see who all had been my Nan’s clients from Paramour Bay. “First, you’re going to tell me who murdered Jacob Blackleach. I’ll come up with some way to tell Liam so that he can make an arrest. It’s best he doesn’t know anything about you.”
I took the brown silk ribbon that bookmarked one of the pages in between my finger and thumb, pulling on it to reveal the last date my grandmother had wrote in the ledger. It happened to be the morning of the day she’d died. Out of the blue, a cold draft came down from the ceiling and was the cause of my goosebumps.
“Leo?” I wasn’t about to get sidetracked about the shop’s air conditioning. It was getting to be that time of year where I’d have to shut it off anyway, preparing for a cool autumn. “Who killed Jacob Blackleach?”
Well, I remember watching him go through all the shelves in the back. He was looking for something, and then…
“Then?” I glanced up to find Leo’s whiskers even more warped than before, if that were even possible. It might have been his thinking face, but I couldn’t be sure given the slight lift of his top lip from the crooked tooth. “What happened then, Leo?”
Funny thing about that, Leo said rather nonchalantly, swishing his bent tail from side to side as he made his way toward me. Did I mention that I have short term memory loss? It’s rather unfortunate, really.
Chapter Eight
“Can I help you with something?”
The back of my head hit the steering wheel as the monotone voice came out of nowhere.
“Owww.” I rubbed the spot where there was sure to be a goose egg shortly before crawling out from the floor of my car. “Ted, you have to stop doing that kind of stuff.”
“Offering you my help?”
I sighed as the pain began to somewhat recede, but it honestly just blended in with my previous headache. And it was a doozy.
“Is that such a horrible thing?” Ted asked when I didn’t respond to his previous question.
Who wouldn’t have a headache under these insane circumstances?
I had discovered earlier today that my Nan was a witch. No, she was an honest to God, boil you in a potion kind of sorceress. Her former familiar was bound to this plane of existence in the form of a Persian leopard trapped in a munchkin cat’s body. He had been left with a myriad of other physical problems, including short term memory loss. On top of all that, it would appear that I was no closer to finding out who killed Jacob Blackleach than I was yesterday.
Today wasn’t shaping up to be the best day of my new life as a self-employed small business owner, that’s for sure.
I sat in the driver’s seat of my car to face Ted, who had somehow once again been able to sneak up on me without the slightest sound. It was downright creepy, and I had to wonder if Nan hadn’t given him a spell, potion, or hex bag to grant him such an annoying trait.
“I was talking about how quiet you are, Ted.” I finally lowered my hand in defeat, believing I had no choice but to drive back into town. “I lost my phone. I could have sworn I had it with me when I left the shop, but it’s not in my purse.”
“Do you have pockets that you might check?”
Okay, Ted’s sincerity was rather endearing.
“No, I don’t have any pockets, but that was a good suggestion.” A thought crossed my mind. “Ted, would you like to drive into town with me? I don’t see another vehicle here, so I’m assuming you don’t have one. If you ever need a lift, all you have to do is ask. I have to go back into town, because the only place I could have left my phone was at the tea shop.”
“I’d like that.”
Without another word, Ted began to walk around the front of the Corolla. My gaze happened to land on the living room window, where Leo was poised and cleaning his odd-colored fur. His relaxed stance made me wonder if he hadn’t had something to do with my missing phone.
Leo had mentioned he could hear my thoughts. Most of my contemplations were centered on calling Heidi, needing the reassurance that I wasn’t losing my mind. I needed a dose of reality, and she was my only tether left to my former world.
You’re probably wondering why that wouldn’t be my mother, but what if for some crazy reason she confirmed every insane thing that had happened today? I couldn’t take that chance. Not right now. I needed more time to accept these outrageous illusions and claims made by a talking cat asserting to be a leopard.
“Here,” I said after Ted opened the passenger side door, “let me slide the seat back.”
Ted was tall enough that I wasn’t so sure he would fit inside my car, but he somehow managed to fold his legs and tuck his body in such a way that he could close the door. Visions of those funny cartoons broadcasted on Sunday morning came to mind, but they immediately vanished when he waved toward the house.
I quickly looked back at the window to find that Leo had stopped cleaning his fur and was looking directly our way.
“You can see Leo? The cat?”
“Of course.”
Ted looked directly ahead as if I’d already started the car and we were on our way into town. His short replies were rather irritating, but I gathered my patience as I thought back over the last couple of days. I might not be that crazy, after all.
“Can everyone see Leo?”
“Yes, when he wants them to.”
I almost asked Ted if everyone could see all close to seven feet of him, but that question had already been answered by Heidi herself. She’d seen and spoken to Ted. She’d also seen something furry twice, once at the store and the other inside the house. Ted had confirmed that Leo existed, and the ledger all but proved everything Leo had shared with me this afternoon.
So it was true, beyond a shadow of a doubt.
I was a novice witch.
Right?
“Ted, was Rosemary Marigold a witch?”
“Yes.” Ted shifted in his seat, sparing a glance toward my still open door. I couldn’t tell if it was in unease or if he truly was adjusting his large frame against the small seat. “Are we going to drive into town? I’d dearly like to be back before nightfall, if at all possible.”
Those were the most words Ted had strung together since I’d met him, but it was his answer that had me finally accepting reality.
Sort of.
“I don’t feel like a witch.” I had no choice but to close my door and start the engine if I wanted to get ahold of my phone any time in the near future. Besides, Ted was getting fidgety. Plus, this was my chance to get some answers. I had him all but trapped inside a small confined area. He had nowhere to go. I wasn’t sure what to ask first, so I drove slow and asked the obvious. “Ted, how long have you known my grandmother?”
“Oh, going on ten years now.”
Ted looked out the window as I drove the car past the Paramour Bay population sign. It wasn’t made of metal like the ones in New York. This welcome post was made of wood and painted in nautical colors. The white portion of the wood had noticeably chipped, but the navy-blue numbers looked fresh.
Ted said nothing more as I lifted my foot off the gas pedal. With his short answers, I was going to have to quicken my pace of asking just the right questions to elicit the responses I needed.
“Have you always lived on her property since moving to Paramour Bay? Are you the caretaker?”
“Yes.”
“To both
questions?”
“Yes.”
“And Leo is real?”
“Mr. Leo is certainly very real,” Ted exclaimed with a sideways look, injecting a bit of defense into his monotone voice. He’d taken offense to my inquiry, but it was the title he’d given to the cat that caused me to smile. “The type of spell Rosemary used came with strings, as all types of magic does.”
“Do you mean black magic?” I was getting off course, but even I’d watched enough movies to know that black magic was very, very bad. Wait. Fake Larry, aka Jacob Blackleach, had called Nan a wicked witch. “Was my grandmother a bad person?”
“Oh, goodness no. Not at all.” It was hard to keep my eyes on the road when Ted was actually making facial expressions. His sunken cheekbones made it virtually impossible to know what he was thinking, but every now and then his thoughts came through loud and clear. “Rosemary did what had to be done to continue your family legacy.”
Once again, pieces of information were starting to fall into place. Leo mentioned that when a witch died…so did his or her familiar. At least, that was the party line. Yet Nan had cast a spell of sorts to ensure Leo remained behind to show me the way. A warm, tingly sensation washed through my body at finally accepting that Nan had loved me and my mother.
“Ted, what about my mother?”
“Regina wanted no part in the supernatural.”
Ted reached out quickly and rested his hand against the dashboard. I quickly pressed on the brakes as we came up to the first intersection, pretending I’d known all along that the stop sign was there. The next street over was the tea shop, but I didn’t want this conversation to end.
“So, you’re saying that my mother is fully aware that Rosemary was a real witch,” I commented, waiting for Ted to confirm my suspicions. His curt nod told me exactly what he thought of my mother, but he certainly wasn’t the only one. She had a tendency to have that effect on people. So much of this was beginning to make sense to me now, and all I wanted was my phone so that I could call Heidi and tell her what had transpired today. There was one more thing I needed to know before I parked the car. “Ted, does Leo have short term memory loss or is it an act? Because he told me that Jacob Blackleach really was murdered, but Leo claims he doesn’t remember the identity of the killer. That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Magical Blend (A Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Book 1) Page 8
