“Win, this isn’t the time,” she begged her friend, but Win didn’t budge.
“Can’t you wake him up?” she shot at the nurse.
Judy spluttered and shook her head. “He’s had his morphine. He’s in terrible pain,” she insisted. “You better get out of here.”
Win’s eyes were wild. “Not until I find out what happened to her. Hey!”
To Ella’s horror and Judy’s protestations, Win grabbed the old man by the shoulders and shook him. He gurgled and choked, his eyes fluttering open.
“Win, leave him alone!” Ella gasped, but Win leaned over him, too near. His eyes shot open. She narrowed her eyes, not realizing they were the eyes of a predator. She was near enough to smell his stale, unwashed flesh. He looked up at her, terror-stricken across his face.
Win snarled. “What did you do to her?” she sneered. “What did you do to Iris Hickory?”
The old man choked, his breath clogged, hands scrambling around, twisting in the bedsheets. Win was brought out of her feral daze, snapping back into reality. She’d been staring at Luke’s grandfather like he’d been vermin she wanted to tear apart. The same way her own grandfather had looked at her…
The old man found his voice at last. But to her horror, he opened his mouth and screamed.
Eight
THE GLASS HOUSING of the Virgin Mary clattered as Judy slammed the door after the both of them, not before shouting, “I’ll be sure to tell Luke about this behavior, Winifred!”
Win stalked down the porch steps. “Fine, tell him—don’t forget to mention we are related. I’m sure he’d love to hear all about it!” she shot back at the older nurse.
Ella was mortified, visibly cringing as they climbed into her car. It wasn’t the first time they’d been forcibly removed from Luke’s home.
Win slammed the car door. “I need to get home and find my grandpa,” she said, her jaw tight. Win’s eyes were round and like saucers, pools with yellow liquid.
Ella was too terrified to disagree. “Win, calm down. We’ll go find him, okay?” Ella started the car. But to Win’s fury, when they reached Hickory House, Ben told them John had gone to the festival to stretch his legs.
Win threw her arms in the air. “Dad, you weren’t supposed to let him out!” she cried.
“Let him out? Win, he’s a fully grown man. There was nothing I could do to stop him!”
Win did some deep breathing in the car; Ella drove slowly along the main road into town, eyeing her friend sideways. “Are you okay?”
Win opened her eyes. The color returned to their usual pale green. “She was married to him. He knew. Grandpa knew all this time, and he didn’t say anything…the feud…the feud between the Hickory’s and the Frasers. This is it!”
Ella kept her hands on the wheel, ducking her head, looking for spaces to park. Main Street was littered with trucks and carts, rammed into every available parking space. All the coffee bars were full, with patrons spilling out onto the streets under the afternoon sunshine. Steams of bunting hung from building to building. It was hot and bustling. Stalls selling vegetables, produce, and crafts lined both sides of the street.
“Look, we should find Luke and explain,” Ella said as she pulled into a side road, parking the car. “I’ll bet anything Judy would have called him. Then we can find your grandpa.”
“How is it possible?” Win’s brows knitted together in wonder. “He doesn’t look a day over sixty. No way, he’s nearly a hundred.”
They got out of the air-conditioned car, swaying in the heat. “Let’s find Rowan,” Ella said. They pushed through throngs of bodies, all melting in the fierce sun. The air was thick, loud, and filled with music, like one long street party. Stumbling through visitors, they made their way to Hardy’s, which was filled with people, the jukebox blaring, and tables and chairs littering the sidewalk. Win stood on tiptoe, spotting her sister waiting tables. Luke was inside the bar. He looked up from his guests, throwing Win a knowing glare when he saw her. He mouthed something to her, which read, ‘you are in big trouble.’
She swallowed and took a few steps back. Ella broke away from Win.
“I’ll go talk to him,” she yelled above the crowd. “We’ll come and find you!”
“Don’t tell him I nearly killed his grandpa…again!” Win tried to smile. Her adrenaline levels were plummeting, less chaotic and more like herself, her anger ebbing away. Ella gave her hand a squeeze and disappeared into the crowd. Win stood awkwardly for a moment, eyeing the tables for a spare seat. She tried to wave to get Rowan’s attention, but she was so busy, the older girl didn’t notice.
“I can share you a table if you want,” a female voice said from behind her, and Win turned in its direction. There was a girl Rowan’s age lounging on one of the tables, her long legs crossed. She was tall, with long, ebony hair, which fell in waves over her honey-colored skin. Bright eyes scanned her keenly. “You must be Winifred. You’re exactly as she described you.”
Win shrugged, something about the way the girl was looking at her, making heat rise in her cheeks. It was like she was looking under her skin. Win shifted awkwardly on her feet, hooking her thumbs in her short pockets. “Sure.” She gestured to the empty seat. “If it’s not taken?”
“Please,” the girl said breezily, waving her hand. Win caught a glimpse of a tattoo etched onto the underside of her wrist, a square symbol with a dot in the center. Every finger had a ring crammed on, they glinted in the sun. Win darted a look nervously over her shoulder and slunk into the seat. The girl was still looking at her, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. Finally, she held out her hand.
“I’m sorry,” she said, smiling brilliantly. “I’m Evan…I’m Rowan’s friend?”
“Oh,” Win took her hand. Rowan’s friend. “Oh…”
Evan’s smooth hand closed over hers, and for a moment, a spark of warmth crept up her wrist, the girl was still smiling broadly, and Win thought she mustn’t have noticed. That smell, warm honey…the smell all over Rowan, it belonged to her.
“You look like you’ve got stuff on your mind,” Evan observed, sitting back in her chair.
Win tried to smile, her eyes flicking nervously around the bar, hoping any moment she’d spot her grandpa.
“Have you just moved here?” Win deftly changed the subject, forcing herself to concentrate. Evan was lovely, wide dark-eyed, and a killer smile. No wonder Rowan liked her.
“I work in a diner in Lincoln,” Evan explained. “Rowan started coming in after her runs in the morning, and we got to talk every day.”
“This wouldn’t happen to be the diner outside Lincoln?” Win smiled.
“Yes, you know it?”
“My friend Luke…it’s his favorite,” Win was saying. My probably ex-friend. Mind you, they were related now. He couldn’t get rid of her easily. It sounded strange saying that in her head. Her second cousin, to be precise. She turned her attention back to Evan, thinking the diner explained the waffle smell.
“Oh, the cute guy with glasses?” Evan grinned. “He always comes in with the other girl. The dark-haired girl? Big brown eyes?”
“Oh, you mean Ella,” Win confirmed. Ella was always with him? Win had that distinct feeling again, that she was being lied to.
“Hey, you two.” Rowan appeared, flustered, leaving to give Evan a kiss on the cheek. “You found my sister then?”
Evan grinned at Win, who was watching the way their fingers interlinked, the way Evan stroked her thumb along Rowan’s wrist. She was hit with a pang of…envy. It was similar to the way Grayson behaved with his hands. Win wished she wasn’t here on her own.
“How can I not spot her? She’s a stunner like her sister,” Evan said, her smile broad enough to reveal a set of white, straight teeth. Win glanced up at Rowan catching her eyes.
“I really need to talk to you…some point soon?” Win whispered, trying not to look rude as she watched Evan from the corner of her eye.
“Win, I can’t leave,” Rowan laughed. “Can’t you see how busy we are?”
“Have you seen Grandpa?” she asked, and Rowan shrugged.
“No, I thought he was at home.” Rowan made a face, clearly annoyed he would be out of the house so soon.
Win gave Evan an awkward smile and turned back to her sister. Oddly, she had the vague sensation Evan could hear every word she was whispering to her sister. “It’s about Iris,” she insisted, and Rowan took her gently by the shoulders. “And Luke….and Grandpa.”
Rowan’s brows flew skyward before she laughed shortly. “Anyone else?”
“I’m serious….I’ve discovered something.” Win sucked in her breath, aware of Evan’s dark eyes on her. Rowan squeezed her shoulders. “It's huge.”
“Why don’t you find Ella? I think I saw her with Luke a minute ago. I’ll come and find you after my shift, okay?” Her eyes darted in Evan’s direction. “Then I thought we could all get to know one another? It would really mean a lot to me.”
Something snapped inside of Win, but she bit back on her words. She wanted nothing more for Rowan to be happy. But things had ended with Spencer only a few months ago. Instead, Win bit her lip and said nothing. Making an excuse to Evan, Win took off, saying she had to go and find her grandpa, truthfully she was glad to be out from under her watchful gaze.
Instead, she wandered the market stalls, which led all the way down past the local county jailhouse. She found herself browsing the produce, stopping to ask various traders she knew if they had seen her grandfather. For the first time since she had moved from Boston, Win was lonely. She had a strong suspicion Ella and Luke had been lying to her, and their comfortable trio was dwindling away. Wiping her brow, beaded with sweat, she trudged back up to the bar, keeping her eye out for Luke or Ella, but they were nowhere to be seen.
She had a strong sensation of eyes upon her, and as she crossed the street, passing the bookstore on her left, she found her grandfather watching her. He was sitting in the back of an open truck, a cold beer in his hand. Relieved, Win raced across the street, straight into his open arms. She struggled with the knot in her throat, fighting back childish tears.
“Where have you been?” she chided him, loving his woody, leafy smell, never wanting there to be a day where she wouldn’t have him anymore. Tears sprang to her eyes, and he only hugged her tighter.
“I heard a gorgeous redhead was looking for me, so I made myself easy to find.” He smiled, giving her nose a pinch. He saw her wet eyes and crumpled. “Oh, baby…I’m so sorry about what I did.”
She hooked an arm around his neck. “It’s not that…Grandpa. I know…about your sister.”
He heaved her up onto the truck as the sun started to wilt and melt into the late afternoon. Win rested her chin on her knees, listening as he talked about Iris, the corners of his eyes creasing with memory.
“How is it possible you are ninety-three?” Win marveled, “Do people around here know? I mean, they must have noticed you’ve been around a long time?”
John laughed and clapped his hands together before taking a swig of his beer. “It was different times back then. We were kept hidden away for a long time, Iris and me. People didn’t really get to know us. My mother was obsessed with keeping us safe—and look at what happened to her.”
Win’s lips mouthed the words, but she couldn’t say them out loud. “I don’t blame her.”
“Iris was…a little wilder than me.” He smiled fondly, and Win cocked a brow.
“Is that even possible?” she joked and earned herself a poke in the ribs.
“It’s true. I was the sensible one. We graduated school, and she was always getting into trouble…she was pretty and carefree. A bit like you.”
Win tilted her head, listening to his voice. “I wish I could have known her.”
“Me too.” He looked sad, wistful. He waved casually at some passers-by, and Win marveled at how well-liked he was. Everyone knew John Hickory. In this town, he was a legend. Robert Fraser’s haunted face crept across her mind. There was a link, Frasers and Hickorys. A blood one.
Is that what he’s still telling people? Jake had known. He had guessed their relations: resentment and secrets, years festering away. Spencer had known the truth, but Luke must have been completely oblivious of who his grandmother truly was.
“Grandpa…did you know Luke’s dad? Back when he was young?”
John folded his hands in his lap. “I didn’t have much to do with him. By the time he went to school here, Iris was gone.”
“When I met him, he said something odd about Mom. Like he knew Dad had been covering up her death all these years. It makes sense now, I guess. Did he have much to do with Mom and Dad in school?”
John cleared his throat the way he did when he was uncomfortable. He nonchalantly shrugged his shoulders. “It’s a small town, Win,” he offered, throwing up his hands. “They were the same age. They must have moved in similar circles.”
Win hummed, kicking up her legs on the truck. He was being guarded. She dropped the subject, smiling. “Okay…tell me about Iris!”
John exhaled through his nose. “One day, when we were younger, we were in town, and this jerk came riding in a brand new Ford, thought he was the bee’s knees,” he grumbled, and Win thought she knew who he might be referring to. “He was a big deal in the city but was coming back to renovate the old family home. He saw Iris right –over-there.” John pointed to the corner of Drummond Street linked with Hardy’s. A long flagpole stood in the spot outside the convenience store. “She was a breath-taking sight…long red hair, a pretty smile, and a yellow dress. You have to remember she was older, nearing her thirties, but she looked no more than a girl. Robert Fraser was entranced. He swept her off her feet. Iris had been caged in our home, my mother was a nervous wreck, so I guess the excitement of it all went to her head. I begged her not to marry him, but she ran away, and they eloped. Before the calling could draw her back, they moved home. She went in the house, and I never saw her again.”
Win’s eyes flew open wide, jolted out of her sleepy state. “Never?”
John shook his head, folding his tanned arms across his chest. “By that time, I was married and had tried to move on with my life. Luke’s father was born about five or six years later…I went by the house. I was desperate to see her, to know she was alright. By then, we both had children. I thought we could start over, get the family back together. But…” he choked, cleared his throat. “The maid told me she’d run away. She’d left them and her new baby in that house.”
“So the Fraser and Hickory feud…this was the start…I mean the real start.”
“I went back again and again. He put a restraining order on me, said I couldn’t go back to the house. But I knew she wouldn’t have left, not without her child.”
Win went cold all over, despite the lazy sun above. “She was a hare?”
“You should have seen us together, a wolf and a hare.” He chuckled softly, moisture wetting his eyes. “I miss her so much. Now my time is coming—don’t get upset,” he protested as she started to splutter. “My time is coming. I’m an old, old man Winifred.”
Win couldn’t bear to contemplate that, so she dodged the subject. “You know there’s topiary in the shape of a hare at Mercy?”
“Maybe the old bastard did love her,” John mused.
Win chewed on her lip, shaking her head. “Something isn’t right.” She hopped down off the truck. “I have to go back.” She reached back and squeezed his hand.
He tugged her back and wrapped his arms around her tightly. “I love you,” he whispered into her hair, and Win swallowed a lump in her throat. She jogged away before he noticed her eyes misting up. She passed Hardy’s, one last try at spotting Ella or Luke, but she couldn’t see them anywhere. Win jogged out of town where she was clear of pedestrians still making their way to the festival. She darted off the main road and slipped under the fence ran parallel. She wo
uld be easily able to access the fields and woodland through here. Slipping off her shoes, she tied the laces together and flung them around her neck.
Win knelt on the cold dirt, feeling the vibrations of the earth traveling up her fingertips. She closed her eyes and took some deep breaths, feeling power surge to her calves. When she opened her eyes, her vision was keen and focussed, and she sprang from the ground.
Wind rushed through her curls, her feet barely touching the ground as she flew through the fields. Long grass tickled her legs, and energy surged as she ran, faster than anyone could comprehend. Breathing hard, she reached Luke’s meadow, dashing across it, not stopping until she reached the rusty old back gate into the Mercy estate, bounding into the courtyard. She paused briefly in front of the hare topiary, her heart-wrenching in her chest.
I will find you, she thought. She had never been so sure of her purpose. The voices behind the door had called to her. Find Iris. She had to be put to rest. So she could rest with him. They were siblings, and they belonged together. Win frantically wiped back tears, rounding the house and flying up the porch steps.
She flung open the front door, not caring if she scared the life out of Judy. She didn’t stop until she reached the attic door. Swallowing thickly, she opened it and took the stairs two at a time. Win’s eyes flashed yellow and burned in the dark. She got on all fours and crawled through the dust and cobwebs, sniffing the air.
Come on, where are you? She tore the room apart, her breath ragged as she threw sheets across the floor, ripping apart boxes, pushing them out of her way. Jake’s box was still hidden behind the couch, right where she’d found it the first time.
She caught the scent; it gently wafted below her nose, like it was calling to her. She scouted the room. Following the scent, she realized she must look like a maniac on all fours. She reached the porthole, her eyes pricking with frustrated tears. She lay flat on her stomach and looked under the bed.
Wild Spirit: Huntress Page 10
