Grace Unchained

by Heather Walker

  “Hey, fruitcake,” one of them jeered. “Where’s the costume party?”

  Grace blushed, but Jamie didn’t understand what they were talking about. “Can ye find a doorway any place ye choose?” he asked Grace.

  “I’m talkin’ to you, pansy!” the man snapped. “You must be a flamer to go walkin’ around the streets in a skirt like that. What’s the matter? Couldn’t you find your pantyhose to put on this morning? Why don’t you come on over to my place after work this afternoon? I think I might have an extra G-string you could wear. You’d look cute in that.”

  Grace rounded on the man. “Shut up, dirtbag. Go home to your mama and tell her to wash your mouth out with soap, ’cuz you’re too rude to walk the streets with decent people.”

  The man’s friend gripped his arm. “Cut it out, man. Leave ’em alone.”

  The first man jerked his arm away. “A firecracker, huh? I like that in a girl. Maybe you’d like to come along and watch me have a party with your girlfriend here. What’s the matter? Are you a little that way, honey? Why don’t you let me show you what a real man can do? Once you’ve tried a nice hard piece of meat, you’ll never go back to a drag queen like that.”

  Grace flew at the man in a rage. “You son of a….”

  The man spun around to meet her. He would have caught hold of her coming if Jamie hadn’t stepped between them. He slammed his hands down on the man’s chest and sent him reeling backward.

  The man’s friend jumped in front of him. He threw his arm across his friend’s chest and wrestled him away. “Back off, man. Just drop it.”

  Jamie’s hand flew to his sword hilt. “Ye’ll taste a piece o’ this if ye come near her again. Is that what ye’re after?”

  Grace seized his arm. “No, Jamie! Just ignore them. Come on.”

  The signal changed, and she dragged him backward into the street. He wouldn’t turn away from the two men until the second man hauled his friend away in the other direction.

  Grace stopped to catch her breath on the opposite sidewalk. “Phew! That was close.”

  “He’s a hound,” Jamie muttered. “Fer a song I’d ha’e cleaned out his mouth wi’ the butt handle o’ me blade.”

  “I’m sure you would have,” Grace replied. “We have to get you out of here. If anybody sees you, this could end in disaster.”

  “I told ye that awready.”

  She blew her breath through her lips. “All right. Come on.”

  She set off up the hill, past the Aviary, and into the woods. She found a secluded spot and looked around. “This is it. This is where you can get back.”

  “Will it lead me back to the village?”

  She nodded. “It will open in the dell above the ford. That’s where I always come through.”

  “Very weel. That’s as good a place as any.”

  He started to turn away when she laid her hand on his arm. “Jamie?”

  “Aye?”

  She opened her mouth to say something, but no sound came out. She glanced around the forest, but her eyes didn’t register anything around her.

  Jamie studied her. He had to find a way to reassure her, to convey his certainty to her. He laid his hand against her cheek, and his fingers slipped into her hair. She froze, and her eyes riveted to his face.

  He held her there with their eyes locked. He read his destiny way down deep inside her. He could dive all the way down to the bottom of her soul and find himself there. He faced her there the same way he faced her here, face to face, eye to eye, and skin to skin.

  She had a long way to go before she got there. She still had her husband to put in the ground, but she would get there eventually. When she finally got there, when she got her life figured out, she would find him there.

  He bent down and kissed her, just once, just to show her what he meant. She didn’t fight it. Some part of her understood the same way he did. It would happen in time. It had to.

  He broke away. “Where’s the doorway?”

  She pointed to a shadow behind a tree. “Over there. Just walk into it, and you’ll be there.”

  He crossed the space between the trunks. He paused at the shadow to look back. “Lassie. Me own Lassie.”

  He stepped into the shadow and was gone.

  Chapter 13

  Grace let out a shaky breath and slumped against a tree trunk. She stared at the shadow where Jamie disappeared. What in the world was wrong with her? Her husband of ten years hadn’t been dead more than a day, and here she was, kissing someone she barely knew.

  Even so, she sensed the same inevitability Jamie mentioned. All four of his brothers couldn’t have married her four friends and the same thing not happen to her. She would get with Jamie, and he would take her back to Urlu with him.

  That word sounded so strange in her mind and in her mouth and in her ear, but somehow, it called to her. It called on her to say it again and again, to think it and feel it and be it. Urlu, Urlu, Urlu.

  Jamie was a dragon. He belonged to a different world. He moved through that world of dragons and wolves and Faery, of magic and wizards and spells. That world was normal to him.

  He wore that world with such easy grace, but she had to remind herself he wasn’t born into it. He grew up in the regular world. It might not be the regular world to her, but it was to him at the time. He never knew about any of that magic stuff until the curse forced it on his family.

  She started down the hill toward home. She had a job to do. If she really cared about Jamie and wanted to help him, she had to do this. As he said, she could only do it here. Once she found out about this strange woman living in Carmen’s house, she could take the information back to Jamie. She might actually be of some use to him instead of getting in the way all the time.

  She headed back to her house. It had changed when she came back alone without Mike. Now it changed again. Jamie’s presence infused the whole house. He’d slept in her bed, his smell still lingering on the sheets. His hand had touched that doorknob. The place would never be the same. He chased Mike’s ghost out of the house, but Jamie didn’t destroy Grace’s love for Mike. He only strengthened it.

  Both men occupied their own special places in her heart. They couldn’t displace each other. They didn’t have to. She loved them both, but in different ways. Jamie never wanted to stop her loving Mike. He never considered Mike a threat.

  The pictures all over the place no longer haunted her. Jamie made it all okay. He softened her grief and made Mike a permanent part of her now.

  She marched upstairs. She rummaged through her whole house until she found what she was looking for. She had to search long and hard. At last, she dug up an old fishing tackle box that used to belong to Mike’s brother, who’d left it here on his last trip. He planned to come and pick it up, but somehow, he always seemed to forget.

  In the third tray down, she found a Swiss Army pocketknife. She checked the blades. They were all perfectly sharp and folded on smooth bendable springs. She slipped it into her pocket. Never again would she be caught unarmed in that curious world. She probably wouldn’t find a more suitable weapon until she returned there, but she could wait.

  She strode down the street, and this time, she knew exactly where she was going. She headed straight for Carmen’s house and knocked on the door. Sure enough, an old woman answered the door. She didn’t look like any homeless woman, either. “Yes?”

  “Hi, there. My name’s Grace. I’m sorry to bother you. Please understand I’m not here to hassle you about Carmen giving you this house. I just want to ask you some questions about her. I’m an old friend of hers, and you must understand the way she disappeared was a little strange for all of us. Do you mind if I ask you about the last time you saw her?”

  The woman narrowed her eyes at Grace. She compressed her lips. Then her eyes flew open. “You’re here about the spell, aren’t you?”

  Grace gasped. “How did you know that?”

  “Oh, I just do.” The woman waved her hand. “You better com
e inside if you want to talk about all that.”

  She went back inside and left the door open. Grace looked back and forth. She’d never set foot in Carmen Hendricks’s house before, and she didn’t like the idea of doing it now. If she was right, though, it wasn’t Carmen’s house anymore. Carmen wouldn’t be coming back here any time soon.

  She crossed the threshold. Right away, she noticed details of the place that didn’t come from Carmen. Potted plants stood in the sunshine coming through the glass doors leading out to the patio. A cat lounged on the flagstones outside. Carmen never had time for pets or plants.

  “Have a seat,” the woman told her. “I’m Lucy.”

  Grace didn’t take a seat. “So did Carmen come back here to give you this house?”

  “She came back, but she didn’t come to give me this house. Something happened. She got sent back here against her will, and she wanted to return to Urlu to be with that guy of hers. She gave me the house in exchange for working the spell for her.”

  Grace gasped. “You know about Urlu?”

  “Sure,” the woman replied. “I’ve been there hundreds of times.”

  “How did you do that?” Grace asked.

  “I used the spell, of course,” the woman returned. “What other way is there?”

  Grace looked away. “I can think of a few different ways.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like, for example,” she began, “my friend Hazel used a Faery mound to get back.” Grace studied the woman. “Are you Faery?”

  Lucy laughed out loud. “No, I’m not Faery. I’m just a plain old girl who found out about the spell. I used to go there all the time when I was a kid. I haven’t been back in a long time. I suppose you want me to send you back there, too.”

  “No,” Grace muttered. “I don’t want you to send me back there.”

  “That’s a shame,” Lucy chirped. “It’s a nice place. Anybody would want to go back there.”

  “What’s so nice about it?”

  “It’s just nice. It’s a lot nicer than this world. The people are great, even if they are dragons. They’re good people. I could understand why Carmen wanted to go back and marry one of them.”

  Grace pulled herself together. “That’s what I wanted to ask you about. You used the spell to send her back. Did you use the spell to send anybody else over there—any other women, for example?”

  “No, I never sent anybody there. I thought about going back myself after what happened with Carmen, but this house sort of stopped me. I mean, it’s the nicest house I ever had in my life, and I wouldn’t have it anymore if I left, would I?”

  “So you never sent anybody over there?” Grace frowned. “That makes no sense.”

  “I never told a living soul about the spell except my sister Alice,” Lucy replied, “and I never taught it to her. The only person I told was my little niece, but she never used the spell. I just made it up as part of a fairy tale I was telling her. I made up a story about a world where people can change into dragons and whatever else they want. I made up a story about the Highlanders fighting the forces of evil, and magic and all that. I just wove the spell into the story.”

  “What did you tell her?” Grace asked. “Did you tell her the magic words?”

  “I repeated them. I told her about this princess who had to cast the spell to do…something or other. I can’t remember what I told her, but yes, I repeated the words, but that was twenty years ago. She was just a little girl. She wouldn’t have remembered it. Besides, she couldn’t have worked the spell. She’s been living in Seattle for the last ten years.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?” Grace asked.

  “Maybe a month ago. She moved here to be closer to her sister. They were really close growing up, and I guess they missed each other. She couldn’t have disappeared between then and now.”

  Grace shook her head, but she didn’t argue. Jamie was right. No evidence existed that the women who crossed the doorway came from this town. They could have come from anywhere. They could have vanished years ago and only appeared in the Highlands right now.

  “Do you want a piece of blueberry pie, honey?” Lucy asked.

  “That’s okay. Thanks for talking to me, Lucy. Do you mind if I get in touch with your niece about this?”

  “Go right ahead. Her name’s Ivy Tennant, and she lives at 589 Witford Crescent, in Palmer.”

  Grace nodded. “Thanks. I can find that.”

  “I’m telling you, there’s no way she could have cast that spell.”

  “I’m not saying she did,” Grace replied. “I just want to follow it up. If you’re right and she didn’t cast that spell, then there’s no harm done.”

  Lucy shook her head. “I can’t believe she would remember it after all these years.”

  “Maybe she picked it up from somewhere else and it reminded her.”

  Lucy’s hand flew to her mouth. “What will you do if she is gone?”

  “I’ll find her, of course,” Grace replied.

  “How will you do that?”

  Grace shrugged. “I think I might know where to start looking.”

  “You let me know!” Lucy exclaimed. “You let me know if you find her. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.”

  Grace headed for the door. “If you’re right, she never left town. If she is over there, I’ll do my best to get her back, but I can’t promise anything. From what I can tell, that place has a way of catching people and keeping them.”

  “You’re right. I almost got stuck over there myself.”

  “I’m surprised you didn’t. I’ll see you later. Wish me luck.”

  Grace raced back to her house and got the car out of the garage. She fired up the engine and motored to Palmer on the other side of town. Her heart pounded waiting for every traffic light to change color.

  This Ivy Tennant had to be one of the missing women. The coincidences stacked up against any other conclusion. Lucy knew all about Urlu and even traveled there. She slipped up telling her niece about it and telling her the magic words into the bargain.

  Ivy must have sat on that spell for decades. She either remembered it all along, or it came back to her only now. She used the spell and transported herself and maybe some others to Urlu.

  Except she didn’t transport them to Urlu. She transported them to the Isle of Mull. These women visited their curse on Lachlan McLean and his Clan, not on the Camerons.

  Grace whizzed through the city streets. She looked up the address on her SatNav unit, but when she pulled into Witford Crescent, she hit the brakes fast. Police cars packed the cul-de-sac, and people packed the sidewalk. Firetrucks and ambulances angled every which way with their lights flashing.

  Firefighters hauled their dripping hoses all over the place, and big plumes of smoke billowed into the air. Grace found a place to park and joined the mob of rubberneckers on the sidewalk. “What’s going on?”

  “The place went up in flames,” a man told her. “No one knows how it started. They haven’t found any bodies yet.”

  Grace took another look at the disaster scene. She double-checked the address. Between number 587 and number 591, a smoking hulk of blackened timbers stabbed the sky. Ash lay piled on the concrete foundation. The fire crews sprayed water on the cinders and sent up plumes of steam.

  A lump stuck in Grace’s throat. That was Ivy Tennant’s house. Could she be dead in there, or was she far away in ancient Scotland right now?

  She spotted a young woman talking to the Police. The girl wiped tears off her cheeks. Grace migrated closer to eavesdrop on their conversation.

  “I’m telling you, she wasn’t in there!” the girl exclaimed. “She left about ten o’clock this morning for work. She wouldn’t have come back here in the middle of the day.”

  “How do you explain this happening?” the policeman asked. “Did you leave anything on the stove? Did the place have any electrical problems you know of? Something might have shorted out.”

 
The girl shook her head. “There was nothing like that. It was in good condition, and we all took extra care with fires and stuff. We had fire extinguishers in the kitchen and everything. Besides, her car is gone. She didn’t come back here.”

  The policeman jotted in his notebook. “All right. Thanks. I’ll let you know what happens with the investigation.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” the girl called after him. “Where am I supposed to sleep tonight? All my clothes and everything were in that house.”

  “You can get in touch with Victims’ Services down at the station,” he replied. “They have a small subsidy, but beyond that, you’ll have to work that out on your own.”

  He walked away and left the girl on the sidewalk. The poor kid looked all around her in stunned horror. Grace approached her. “Hey, how are you doing? Was this your house?”

  The girl nodded. “Emphasis on ‘was’. Now it’s a moonscape.”

  “Was it Ivy you were just talking about?”

  “She’s vanished,” the girl replied. “She’s not at work. She’s not at any of her friends’ houses. The police and I have all searched and searched. We can’t find her anywhere. Now they want to blame her for setting the house on fire and skipping town to cover her tracks. I keep telling them she wasn’t that kind of girl, but they won’t believe me.”

  “I heard what you just said to that guy,” Grace remarked. “You’ve got nowhere to stay tonight. Why don’t you come back to my house? You can stay there as long as you want. I won’t be around much. You can make yourself at home.”

  “Really?” the girl gasped. “That would be awesome. Thanks.”

  Grace put the girl in her car and started the motor. “So tell me about Ivy. What’s she like?”

  “She’s Miss Responsibility,” the girl replied. “She was always on time for everything. She always paid the bills. She never stepped out of line—ever.”

  “Sounds familiar. Do you know anything about her family life?”