A Bittersweet Garden

by Caren J. Werlinger

  Her lamplight faded as dawn broke. More birds began their morning chorus—wrens and doves. She thought she’d seen a kingfisher near the river with its brilliant flash of blue.

  She sat back and rubbed her eyes. Her stomach growled. She checked the clock. Time for breakfast before meeting Briana for their ride.

  Yesterday at the nursery, Sheila naturally had wanted full details of the kerfuffle at the stables.

  “She did not!” she’d exclaimed when Nora told how Briana had gut-punched Rafferty and then given him a bloody nose.

  “Yeah, she did,” Nora said, grinning. “It was great. I wouldn’t normally approve of punching someone, but he came there with the intention of making trouble. You should have seen that poor mare. She was terrified of him.”

  Sheila’s blue eyes flashed, and Nora got a hint of the temper that could rise inside her. “Good thing he met Bri and not Quinn then. If Quinn had been there, he wouldn’t have driven away.”

  Nora hummed to herself as she toasted some bread in her little oven. She hadn’t told Sheila about the invitation to go sightseeing with Briana. She’d keep that between them for now.

  By the time she got to the private stables, Briana already had Stubbs saddled and waiting. Shannon ambled to her, escorting her to the paddock fence where Stubbs’s reins were loosely tied.

  “Hi,” Nora said, leaning on the fence beyond which Lizzy stood quietly as Briana saddled her.

  “Morning.”

  For a long moment, they simply gazed at each other, but then Stubbs gave Nora a hard nudge with his nose, mouthing her jeans.

  “He’s looking for treats,” Brian said. “The bin in the barn has apples and carrots. Get a couple of each, would you?”

  Nora returned a minute later and gave Stubbs half a carrot. “Will she let me come to her?”

  “Try and see.” Briana moved aside as Nora climbed through the fence with the other half of the carrot in her hand.

  She approached slowly.

  “Talk to her,” Briana suggested when the mare threw her head and backed up a step.

  Nora spoke soothingly. “You don’t need to be afraid. You know you want this carrot.”

  Lizzy’s ears pricked and her nostrils fluttered as she sniffed. She stretched her neck out, but Nora stopped.

  “You have to come to me if you want this.”

  She waited patiently. Lizzy snorted and took a step nearer. Nora made her come all the way, patting her soft neck as the mare munched on the carrot.

  “Nicely done,” Briana said.

  Nora felt her face grow warm with the praise. “Thanks.”

  She reached out to touch gentle fingers to the swollen bruise on Briana’s cheek. The surprise in Briana’s eyes reflected her own at her boldness. “Does it hurt much?”

  “Not too much,” Briana said, looking ready to bolt herself. She cleared her throat and Nora dropped her hand. “Riders up.”

  They mounted and walked the horses into the green shadows of the woods. Nora breathed it in, enjoying Stubbs’s steady amble next to Lizzy’s prancing beside them.

  “Where to?” Briana asked.

  An idea came to Nora. “You said you’ve sometimes ridden by Eve’s place. Could we go there?”

  “Sure. Any particular reason?”

  “I need her help.”

  “You need a ghostbuster?” Briana asked with an impish grin.

  Nora laughed. “Something like that. She said to ask Móirín what she needs, but she won’t speak to me. Maybe she’ll talk to Eve.”

  Briana shook her head. “I never thought I’d be talking so hum-drum about a ghost. I never really believed in them.”

  Nora tilted her head. “I thought the Irish were superstitious.”

  “Maybe we are. But it doesn’t mean I’ve ever lived with a spirit.” She gave Nora a sideways glance. “I don’t know how you stay there.”

  Nora considered. “If anyone had told me beforehand that I’d have to share the cottage with the ghost of a woman who used to live there, I’d have said no way. But, like I told you and Sheila, I think she needs something. It’s not like a horror story about a vengeful spirit.”

  Briana guided them along narrow paths where tree branches hung close and low, forcing them to duck along the horses’ necks. Shannon trotted ahead of them, apparently knowing where they were headed.

  “I emailed my grandparents that I’d met Eve,” Nora said when the trail widened again and they could ride side by side.

  “Have you heard back?”

  “Yeah. I got a reply from them yesterday.”

  “What’d they say?”

  “It was weird. My grandmother warned me to stay away from Eve. That surprised me.”

  Briana turned to her. “Why did she?”

  “I don’t really know. She just said she wasn’t to be trusted and that I should steer clear.”

  “And so, we’re going to see Eve now. Do you always listen this well to your elders?” Briana teased.

  Nora grinned. “I’m working on my rebellious side.”

  Briana frowned, seeming to be trying to decide whether or not to say something.

  “What is it?” Nora prompted. “Should we not be going to see her?”

  “No,” Briana said quickly. “It’s not that.”

  “What then?”

  “Well, speaking of emails, Liam told me his sister waited on you at the Cottage a few days ago, and that you looked upset, maybe by some emails you received.”

  “Oh.” Nora had almost forgotten. You’re trying to forget. “I got an email from Amy.”

  “Your…?”

  “I guess she’s my ex.” Nora shrugged in resignation. “Never lived together or made a real commitment, but I suppose that’s what she is. Anyway, she wants to come here. For a couple of weeks.”

  Briana didn’t say anything for a long time. The horses walked on through the dappled shadows. All around them, birds sang and red squirrels chattered down from tree branches. Bri tugged one of the apples from the bag strapped to her saddle and slipped a knife out of her pocket. She cut a couple of thick wedges out of the apple.

  “Give these to the horses,” she said. “I don’t normally like to feed them when we’re riding, but I want to reinforce for Lizzy that this is something nice, and I want her to trust other people.”

  Nora took the apple wedges and leaned forward. Stubbs was already eyeing the apple greedily, but he plucked it gently from her palm. Lizzy did the same. Briana cut the remainder of the apple in half, handing one portion to Nora. They all munched as little rays of sunlight filtered through the trees to ripple over them.

  “When is she coming?” Briana asked at last.

  Nora had almost forgotten where the conversation left off. “I don’t know.” She quickly swallowed the bite of apple in her mouth. “I mean, I haven’t answered her.”

  “Do you want her here?”

  “No.” Nora was surprised at how much easier it was to say that. “I don’t. Sheila says I should just tell her so, but I’ve been too wimpy to do it. I haven’t answered her at all.”

  “Would you have done it? Back when you were still a habit for her?”

  Nora studied her, but Briana was carefully avoiding her eyes. “Yeah. Well, I wouldn’t have been here in the first place back then, so…”

  Briana’s face brightened. “So the rules have changed.”

  Nora smiled. “The rules have changed.”

  “Canter?”

  Again, Aoibheann appeared to have been expecting them. Shannon loped into the clearing ahead of the horses, and they found Eve outside her cottage, tending to some of her plants. Her silver hair was in a loose braid hanging down her back, and she wore her familiar robe, this time a dark, mossy brown. Briana had never given it much thought, but now she did, it seemed that nearly every time she’d wandered by this cottage, Eve had been waiting to greet her.

  Eve came to the horses and, to Briana’s surprise, Lizzy didn’t shy away from her. She murmured
to them in Irish, tugging their forelocks.

  “You can tie the horses to that downed tree there. They’ll be able to graze.”

  Eve and Shannon went inside, leaving Briana and Nora to follow. They took their riding helmets off and set them near the door. Nora’s blonde hair was long enough that it looked just fine. Briana ran a self-conscious hand through her short hair, mussing it more on purpose, wishing she’d stuck a cap in her pocket.

  Eve was laying out three mugs of tea for them. “Nora,” she said, “would you slice that bread there?”

  “We don’t mean to put you to any trouble,” Nora said. “I just wanted to ask you something.”

  Eve lifted the kettle off the hook over the fire and poured hot water into her teapot. “We’ll have a bite of bread and some tea, and you can ask your something.”

  Briana saw a pot—or was it a cauldron—steaming over the fire. And she noticed for the first time that the hearth had a separate oven built into the stone for baking.

  “Eve, why have you never gotten a proper oven?”

  Nora paused as she cut the bread. “Do you even have electricity?”

  Eve smiled. “I’m used to doing things a certain way. Slow and steady is best for most of my work.”

  She laughed at the expressions on their faces. “I’m sure you can’t imagine life without your modern conveniences, but they’re just tools. I prefer antique tools, you could say.”

  She went to the hearth to stir the contents of the cauldron. She lifted the spoon to smell and taste it. Apparently pleased, she swung it back over the low fire.

  “Now, let’s sit with some tea and bread, and you can tell me what’s brought you here on this fine morning.”

  Briana, curious as well, took a bite of the heavy brown bread, spread with creamy butter. She broke a bit off and offered it to Shannon, who lay near her chair.

  “Móirín won’t talk to me,” Nora blurted. “She’s there. I can smell her and sense her, and I’m still having the dreams, but she won’t tell me what she wants. And I… I wondered if she would if you were to come and speak with her.”

  Bri wasn’t certain, but it seemed a shadow passed over Eve’s face. Just for a second and then it was gone. She decided it must have been a flicker of the candle that burned inside the glass lantern on the table.

  Eve considered as she sipped her tea. “Have the dreams changed?”

  Nora stared, her mug suspended halfway to her mouth. “How did you know?”

  “What’s changed?”

  “There’s a child.” Nora frowned as she remembered. “I haven’t seen it, but I can hear a child laughing in my dreams. And Móirín still cries and calls out.”

  Briana leaned forward. “Is it Rowan she’s hearing?”

  “Possibly.” Eve’s green eyes studied Nora. “How’s your grandmother?”

  Briana was caught just as wrong-footed as Nora apparently was by the abrupt change in topic.

  “She’s fine,” Nora said, but Bri noticed her slender fingers tightening around her tea mug.

  Eve was still staring intently at Nora, who was staring back.

  “What did she say?” Eve asked.

  “She said to stay away from you. Why would she do that?”

  Eve’s mouth lifted in the tiniest of smiles, but a little shiver ran down Briana’s spine.

  “Because she didn’t like what I told her,” Eve said.

  “And what was that?” Nora asked, her eyes big.

  But Eve raised her cup, eyeing Nora, regarding her as she sipped.

  “How willing are you,” she asked at last, “to see this through? To find out what happened?”

  Nora looked apprehensively from Eve to Briana and back. “What do you mean? I thought she might talk to you—”

  “It’s not me she’s reaching out to,” Eve cut in sharply. She set her cup down. “Would you be willing to go to their realm to find out?”

  “Now wait a minute,” Briana said. “This is getting creepy.”

  Eve’s eyes flashed green fire. “This is no different than trying to help someone here in our realm who’s in trouble. Móirín and Rowan are separated and can’t find each other. There is no peace for either of them until they do.”

  “But,” Nora’s brow creased, “if they’re in the same realm, why can’t they find each other?”

  “They may not be in the same realm,” Eve said. “They’re simply not in ours any longer.”

  Nora appeared to be just as confused as Briana felt.

  “There are many realms of… consciousness, let’s say,” Eve explained. “Some are still tied to this world, while others allow us to move on. What some call heaven or an afterlife.”

  Eve glanced from one of them to the other. “Haven’t you ever been in the same room with someone, and you still couldn’t connect, couldn’t say what was in your heart?”

  Nora’s eyes met Bri’s, and Briana was trapped, unable to look away. Eve broke the impasse.

  “I’ll come to help you. Tonight. Ask Sheila and Quinn to be there. At sundown.” She reached for a squat jar sitting on the table and slid it toward Briana. “This salve will help with that cheek. Apply some three times a day.”

  She rose. “I’ve things I need to prepare. I’ll see you both tonight.”

  Nora puttered around the cottage for the rest of the day. At the stables, she and Briana had found Quinn.

  “Tonight?” he’d asked, looking skeptical when they told him of Eve’s instructions. “What, are we doing a kind of séance?”

  “I’ve no idea what she has in mind,” Briana had said. “But she wants us all there.”

  He’d shrugged. “Okay. I’ll tell Sheila.”

  Briana offered to spend the rest of the day with Nora, but she had declined.

  “That’s silly. You have your work to do. But I’ll see you tonight?”

  Briana had looked, for a moment, as if she wanted to say something, but all she said was, “Tonight.”

  Nora dusted and swept, gathered up her papers and pens into a neat stack, arranging and then rearranging her few books. She wasn’t sure what Eve had in mind or what they’d be doing or, come to think of it, where they’d be doing it.

  She briefly considered going to Sheila’s to send her grandmother an email, hoping to catch her online for a real-time chat. Whatever was between her Mamma and Eve she felt had now caught her up in its decades-old web. A voice seemed to whisper, It’s much older than that.

  She remembered the feeling she used to have growing up—the feeling that her ties to Ireland went back longer than she’d been alive. She’d figured it was her grandparents’ fanciful tales of growing up here. For some reason, those stories had always captured her imagination much more than any of her sisters’. She shook herself and resumed her cleaning and straightening.

  She made herself eat some supper, watching the sun sink lower in the west. She jumped up when she heard an engine from outside the open front door. Before she got to the door, Shannon trotted through to greet her. Sheila and Quinn parked behind Briana.

  “Hi,” she said to them. “Thanks for coming. I’m really nervous.”

  “Don’t blame you,” Sheila said.

  “Is Eve here yet?” Quinn asked.

  Nora shook her head.

  “Listen, are you sure about doing this… whatever she has planned?” He took her by the elbow. “We all like Eve, but…” He glanced at Sheila.

  “She told me ages ago,” Sheila said, “that many people who come to her don’t understand that the things she can do—I can’t bring myself to call it magic—but they come with a cost. They’re never free.”

  “What kind of cost?” Briana asked, voicing what Nora had been thinking.

  “I’m not sure, exactly,” Sheila said. “I don’t think it’s payment as we normally think of it. I got the feeling, it’s more in terms of, be careful what you ask for.”

  Shannon’s ears lifted, and Eve was suddenly there, a bulging pack hanging from her shoulders, he
r lantern in one hand. Nora hadn’t seen her approach, couldn’t have even told which direction she came from. In her gown of deep green, Eve could have blended into the forest and been almost invisible. In fact, Nora had the feeling that maybe she had been, listening to them before she made herself known.

  “Good evening,” Eve said.

  She stood, staring at the cottage. Nora couldn’t read the expression on her face but, for a moment, it seemed to her that Eve’s face changed, looking almost familiar in its sadness. It only lasted a second, and then it was gone.

  “Since you’re all here, let’s get started.”

  She led the way into the cottage, walking around the parlor, looking about as if she were sniffing out which way to go.

  “Upstairs, I think. Bring four chairs.”

  The others followed her up the steps, where Shannon again refused to enter the front room. She whined from the hallway. Briana gave her a hand signal, and she lay down, her paws just over the threshold of the room.

  The candle in Eve’s lantern flared, flickering wildly for a moment.

  She nodded. “Yes. This is the place.”

  The room was growing dark as the twilight deepened.

  Nora went to click on a lamp, but Eve said, “No. Leave it off.”

  She set the lantern on the bedside table and shrugged the pack off her shoulders. Squatting down, she reached into her bag. “If you four will slide the bed to the middle of the room, I’ll get things ready.”

  They did as she asked, shoving the bed into the center of the room and positioning the chairs around it while Eve laid a dozen candles out in a circle around them on the floor. She moved the bedside table into the circle and set out jars of various sizes and shapes.

  “Briana,” she said. “Could you get a glass of water, please?”

  Briana shrugged in response to Nora’s puzzled frown and went to the bathroom, returning a minute later with a glass. Eve took it from her and uncorked one of her jars. She dropped three pinches of the green powder inside into the water and then set the glass on the table.

  “We’ll let that dissolve. All of you step inside the circle.”