| |
Orville might not be a witch, but he was a man of his word. I had the names within an hour.
Even though the more I thought about it, it might not do us all that much good. It’s quite possible the girl was from right here in Wind’s Crossing and only just this year confronted the man. It’s also possible that the girl was simply passing through. But it was a place to start, and I wasn’t about to leave any stone unturned on this.
The shop was still going like mad, though, and I was trying to make it up to Kimberly for taking the time off this morning to meet with Orville. I really didn’t want to ditch her again so soon after that.
So the two of us double-teamed the customers and when lunch hour finally came around, I asked Kimberly if I could borrow baby Pearl. For what it was worth, Kimberly was getting pretty darn good at the Ravenswind look.
“Do I get to ask why?”
“Sure. I’m visiting a new witch in town, and I thought baby Pearl might help break the ice.”
One of the names on Orville’s list had immediately jumped out at me. Patience Goodheart. With a last name like that, I was betting she wasn’t the one we were looking for. But then again, she could have married into it. Either way, having a baby along for the call just seemed like a good thing. Witches, for the most part, loved babies. And no, I’m not taking eating them, either. Hansel and Gretel gave us witches a terrible reputation. A mostly untrue one, too. I mean, sure, there were always rotten apples in any barrel.
She blinked at me. “If you think I’m going to balk at having the shop all to myself for an hour, you’ve got another thing coming. Go for it.”
I didn’t have to be told twice. I strapped baby Pearl’s harness to my chest—I was going to hate it when she got too big for this thing—and we headed out. It was a beautiful spring day, so we hoofed it the three blocks to Patience’s house.
I’d met the witch once or twice over the course of the last year. The last time being when she came to me for spell ingredients and advice on which plants grew best in the area. By now, her witch’s garden should have a good start. That seemed like a good reason for a nice, friendly visit to me.
She opened the door and smiled when she saw me standing there. It was a pleasant change from the normal. Kind of made me feel guilty for not visiting sooner. But then, my family had been rather busy this past year.
Of course, her attention didn’t stay on me for long. Her eyes were immediately drawn to baby Pearl. As I’d known within reason that they would be.
“What an adorable baby girl!” Then she stepped back. “Please, won’t the two of you come in?”
I stepped across her threshold and immediately felt at peace with the world. I didn’t know what kind of cleansing spell she used, but I truly hoped she would be willing to share. Once I got to know her a bit better, of course. One didn't ask a witch to share spells with you until you got to know them. And them you.
With baby Pearl strapped onto my chest, I could feel rather than see her little head turning back and forth, taking everything in. She was a baby. She could get by with that. If I did it, it would be rude. Even though I really, really wanted to.
Patience’s house was just that special. At least her front room was. I was betting the rest of the home would be the same.
“I love your home. This couldn’t have been easy to do.”
She laughed. “It wasn’t.” Then she turned to look at the room with pride. Well-founded pride. The room would have been considered the very height of witchy fashion—about two hundred years ago. “But if you love this look, I’m afraid the rest of the house would be rather a disappointment to you.” She shrugged. “I meet clients here, and they seem to expect all this.”
It took her saying that for my eyes to light on the small round table in the corner. The table itself wasn’t anything special, but I was guessing that the slightly glowing crystal ball at its center was another matter altogether.
“You’re a seer?” I was prepared to be either highly impressed or highly let down. Seers were rare, indeed. But charlatans were not. I was hoping she wasn’t the latter.
Patience ducked her head for a moment. “At the Goddess’s will, yes. Not, unfortunately, all the times I would wish for it.” She paused. “And some of the times I would not.”
I got that. I had always been rather happy the seer gene had skipped my family. It wasn’t nearly as fun as everyone imagined it would be. In fact, it could be quite the opposite.
“For the times the sight fails me, I use Tarot cards. I have quite an extensive collection of decks.” She shrugged. “I pull the one I think is best suited to the individual client. They seem to like that. Not that any of my decks wouldn’t do the job just the same.”
Truth. The picture on the cards wasn’t what mattered at all. It was the meaning behind the image that mattered.
“Did you come for a reading?”
“No.” I wavered. I liked Patience and suddenly pretending to be there for any reason other than the one I was there for just seemed... wrong. And yes, a part of me wondered if that feeling didn’t have something to do with that cleansing spell. Or another one protecting the house. Either way, it worked. “I actually came to ask you if you knew Reverend Castle.”
She arched an eyebrow and laughed. “Oh yes. Quite well, actually.” She led me through a heavily beaded doorway and into a much more modernly furnished kitchen. She motioned to the table. “Have a seat. I’m guessing you’re on lunch. I have some freshly made tuna salad. Would you care to join me for a sandwich?”
“That sounds heavenly. Thank you.”
I watched as she pulled the salad out of the refrigerator and deftly made three sandwiches, then cut them all in half and put them on a plate. Pulling out a large bowl from a cabinet, she filled it with potato chips and then put both plate and bowl on the table.
“Help yourself.”
I did. The woman knew how to make a good tuna salad. And a person could ask for a recipe much easier than a spell. So I did. I got it too.
Afterward, as we sat and munched, she finally looked over at me. “What did you want to know about the good reverend? I didn’t kill him if that’s what you wanted to know. Had no reason to. Our business was in the past.”
I swallowed heavily and took a deep swig of the lemonade she’d poured me. “How far in the past?”
Patience smiled at me. “About twenty-five years or so, I’d say. That’s how old my daughter is, you know.” She winked at me.
I swallowed again. And again. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Unless you’re really slow to get things, yes. And I don’t think that’s the case, by the way. You strike me as an all-together kind of witch. It takes a lot to impress me. You and your family do. That says something.”
“Well, you’re kind of impressive yourself, you know.”
“Why, thank you. I try.” She took a swig of her lemonade. “Reverend Castle wasn’t a very faithful man to his wife, you know. I had no illusions of being his only affair.” She barked out a laugh. “And it sure as the dickens wasn’t no all-consuming passion thing on my part, either. Truth be told, I wanted a child. Not so much the husband part that people tend to think should go with that.”
“Does your daughter live in town too?”
She nodded and looked at me oddly. “She does. I moved back to Wind’s Crossing almost a year ago. Beatrix followed me here a few months later. I believe you know her. The two of you have something strong in common, you know. A certain sheriff?”
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Trixie the dispatcher is your daughter?”
“She is. And not all that happy that you’re taking the good sheriff off the singles market either. Beatrix had kind of hoped to be doing that herself.” She wrinkled her nose. “Truth be told, I’m glad that didn’t work out. No offense, but he’s far too old for her.”
“Agreed.” But then a lot of younger women went for older guys too. What was the term they used? Sugar daddies. The thought of my Orville being anyone’s sugar daddy was enough to make me smile. But that thought was for another time. Time to get things back on track. “You mentioned that Reverend Castle had other affairs. Any of them bear fruit too?”
Patience lifted a shoulder. “Who knows? A few of them were married women, as I recall. If they did have children by the man, who would know? I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t come forward about it, now would they?”
“Most likely not. Especially seeing as how the reverend was married as well.”
“Exactly. That man might have a few little darlings running around with his bloodline in their veins.”
Not exactly a comforting thought, that. All that meant was that our suspect pool had just gotten larger.
Why couldn’t anything be simple?
The rest of the lunch we just talked about other things, and yes, in the end, I got to see her witch’s garden. I could see the two of us becoming friends. It would be nice to have another friend close by. Especially if said friend was a true seer. One of those could come in handy for Team Destiny. Kind of made me wonder if the Goddess’s hand wasn’t in all of this. In a good way, this time.
When we were done, she walked me and baby Pearl around the outside of the house and to the front porch. She glanced down at baby Pearl for a moment and then back up at me.
“Would you be willing to accept a gift for the baby witch?”
I took a deep breath. No one but me and Sapphire knew who and what baby Pearl was. Not yet, anyway. Or at least, that’s what I had thought until now. And I couldn’t very well dispute that fact, now could I? That bordered on denying my Goddess. Something I would never do.
“I don’t see the harm in that.”
She smiled at us and told us to wait for just a minute. Patience walked into the house and was back out again within seconds. Holding a baby-sized broom.
A well-crafted miniature witch’s broom if ever I saw one. Not that I had ever seen one up until now. But it wasn’t hard to recognize it for what it was.
Baby Pearl’s reaction was immediate and ecstatic.
“I’ll take it that means she likes it.” Patience laughed. “The soul in that one is a strong one. I have a feeling you’re going to have your hands full when her magic starts coming on.”
I thanked her for the kind, and extremely fitting, gift and left. What was there to say? It wasn’t like I could admit that baby Pearl’s magic was already blossoming. That was unheard of.
But then again, as a seer, Patience might very well know more about baby Pearl than I was comfortable with.
I’d just have to trust the Goddess on that one.