Once she’d tasted Helena’s pain, nothing could stop her from healing it. She had spent the entire evening in the store, just finishing her task as Helena unlocked the front door on this warm spring morning and made her way into the kitchen.
“You beat me here!” Helena said, an honest smile on her face. “Well, let’s get to it. Should we start with the caramel apple truffle we were talking about?”
Claudette shook her head and held out the brown box she’d barely had time to tie a ribbon on. She hurried to her car and took off before Helena could respond, let alone open the gift. Curious, Helena loosened the pink ribbon and slid the top off the box.
She gulped.
Inside was the most elegant creation she’d ever seen. Claudette was a skilled engineer, but this candy surpassed anything Helena could even imagine.
The box held an intricate candy tree whose trunk was the size of Helena’s thumb. The bark was three different kinds of chocolate blended together in a seamless natural pattern capturing the shades of brown. The roots of the tree were also chocolate but curved around a glowing red heart crafted of rock candy so delicate it looked like blown glass.
Rather than leaves, the trees branches were covered with vibrant butterflies each the size of a freckle. Helena touched her tongue to one of them, a blue creature with swirls of white and green accenting its snowflake sugar candy wings. The tiniest taste made her heart soar. Her smile turned into laughter, and she tipped her face to the sun in gratitude.
Although some would have considered it too lovely to eat, Helena knew good medicine when she saw it and had devoured the candy on her drive to Artemis’ house, starting with the sweet crunch of the butterflies and working her way down the white, milk, and dark chocolate branches and trunk. When she pulled into his driveway, all that remained was the rose-flavored rock candy heart melting sweetly on her tongue.
She found him drinking coffee on his porch, as she’d hoped he would be. He set down his crossword puzzle and stood, his mouth tight with concern. His eyes, though, were open and safe, their edges wrinkled from years of laughter and adventure. He smelled of shaving cream, and his shirt was ironed despite the early hour.
“Come with me, please.” She took his hand, and his face softened immediately. She led him to his bedroom. She sat him on his queen-sized bed. The golden-orange of the rising sun warmed the corners of the room, falling gently on the bed with its white quilt, the simple dresser and vanity, both a dark maple and handmade, the bookshelf.
Across the room stood a full-length mirror much like the one she’d danced in front of a million nights ago. For a moment, she lost her courage. She hadn’t looked at her body since the surgery. Below her neck, she believed, she was deformed, a dissected woman. But the rock candy heart beat inside of her, and the strength of the dark chocolate roots grounded, and her transformation maybe, just maybe wasn’t the terror she’d imagined.
Quickly, she unbuttoned her blouse, standing in front of the mirror. Below it she wore only a camisole. She pulled that over her head. Her eyes snapped shut.
She couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t look.
She heard the bed creak. Artemis stood behind her. He placed his warm steady hands on her shoulders. “Look,” he said. The word reverberated, and its echo gave her the last bit of nerve she needed.
She opened one eye. Then the other. Her front was flat.
First, it appeared alien and slashed, but she leaned closer to the mirror. It couldn’t be! Not believing the reflection, she was forced to glance down at her own flesh. Her eyes hadn’t deceived her.
The scars weren’t cruel slashes.
They were vines crisscrossing her heart, the edges of the scar tissue unfurled like delicate pink leaves, creating a garden across her chest.
She covered her mouth in amazement. She turned and pulled Artemis into her arms, hugging him all the way to her skin, closer to her heart than she’d ever hugged anyone before.
She was finally ready to start causing trouble in this world.
Oh yes she was, and it would be the best kind.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I love the Catalains, and their gorgeous Queen Anne, and the quirky town of Faith Falls. This novella is me being unable to let go of them, and specifically, me wanting to find out more about Helena, who was so quiet in The Catalain Book of Secrets. She reminds me a bit of my grandma, Bernie, who I miss on a regular basis. I hope you enjoyed hanging out with her as much as I did.
So many people make it possible for me to craft these stories, but there are three standouts who I want to thank here. First, my mom, who not only watches my kids one day a week so I don’t have to stop writing at the end of the day, who not only has encouraged my love of words since I demanded everyone call me “Cursive” at age five, but who also reads the first draft of everything I write, encourages me through the early limping stages, and then copy edits (on super short notice, usually) all my books before they go to print. If you see any errors, it’s her fault.
The second person I need to thank is Tony. He is responsible for the gorgeous family tree in all the Catalain books, as well as the layout of the Book of Secrets pages, and much of the ideas that went into the front covers of the books. His creativity and his consistent, unwavering support of my dreams take my writing and joy to new levels. I am thankful every day he’s in my life.
Finally, I want to thank Linda Joffe Hull, the woman to whom I dedicated this novella. She supported The Catalain Book of Secrets at a crucial time. The manuscript had gotten oh-so-close to being picked up by three different publishing houses, but ultimately was turned down by all three. Linda offered to edit the manuscript, even though she was behind deadline herself, and she gave me wonderful feedback, including the infamous, “this book has heart, and now it needs a spine.” Those words, and the direction to implement them, made me see all the possibilities in the Catalains, and I hope will continue to inspire me to keep visiting Faith Falls.
Thank you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The Catalain Book of Secrets series is Jessica Lourey’s first venture into magical realism, a genre she’s loved since she was a teenager. She’s best known for her critically-acclaimed Murder-by-Month mysteries, which have earned multiple starred reviews from Library Journal and Booklist, the latter writing, “It’s not easy to make people laugh while they’re on the edge of their seats, but Lourey pulls it off…[A] very clever series.” Jessica is a tenured professor of creative writing and sociology at a Minnesota college. When not teaching, reading, traveling, writing, or raising her two wonderful kids, you can find her dreaming of her next story. If you enjoyed Seven Daughters, please check out The Catalain Book of Secrets, the novel it spun off of. You can find out more about Jessica and her books at www.jessicalourey.com.
Table of Contents
Also by Jessica Lourey
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Table of Contents
Also by Jessica Lourey
DEDICATION
PROLOGUE
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
/>
Seven Daughters Page 9
