At that particular moment, there were only two voices I would have stopped for. One of them called out to me.
“Tori! Wait a sec!”
I stopped on the edge of the cornfield so Angel could catch up.
“I heard you found the cure. Congrats!”
“Thanks,” I said with a tight smile.
She studied my face. “What’s wrong? You should be thrilled.”
“Thrilled that my mom can’t be relied on for even the simple task of reading?” I snorted, and started walking farther from the manor.
Angel matched my pace.
“She hasn’t been all bad,” she said. “She got the horses back from Dylan, she saved you when you threw fuel on the fire . . . .”
“The worst part,” I interrupted, “is I didn’t even get to eat lunch, so there’s no way I’ll be ready for tonight’s challenge.”
Angel reached into a satchel she’d slung across her body. “Here.”
She fished out a bundled cloth and handed it to me. Inside was a pile of plump blueberries.
“Oooh . . . I love you!” I told her. “Where did you find them?”
She pointed to the woods just beyond the cornfield. “There are bushes overgrown with them. I figured Mother Nature wouldn’t mind if I helped myself.”
I popped a handful in my mouth. “You are amazing. I wish I had survival skills like yours.”
Angel shrugged and did her best to look modest. “I guess my parents rubbed off a little.”
I swallowed and headed into the forest. “I want some more.”
Angel gave me a dubious frown. “The challenge will be coming up soon.”
“Exactly. And I need sustenance. I’ll pick some real quick, and then we’ll go back.”
She nodded. “Okay, real quick.”
“Make a path,” I told her as we pushed into the woods. Dozens of blueberries went from the stem to my mouth as we walked.
“Do you have an extra cloth I can put more in?” I asked. Even if I was mad at Mom, I knew she’d love some berries too.
Angel reached into her satchel again, removing a small handful of items. “Nope. Nothing I can spare.”
I looked at the items she clutched in her hand. Among them were some purple flowers.
“Is that lavender?” I asked, taking a sprig and sniffing.
“Uh . . . yeah.” Angel put everything back in her bag. “I found some growing wild and thought I’d put them in my room. Pretty, right?”
I stared at the petals for a moment.
“Tori?”
“How did you know I threw fuel on the fire?” I locked my eyes on Angel’s. “Mom and I didn’t tell anyone, and we were the only ones outside when it happened.”
Angel blinked at me. “I heard Dylan bragging about his prank.”
I shook my head. “He wouldn’t admit to sabotage. It might cost him the game.”
She shrugged. “Well, I found out somehow.”
I held up the lavender. “I read about this today. Do you know what it’s used for?”
Angel shifted the weight of the satchel on her hip. “Sometimes people use it in cooking.”
“Cooking tea?” I asked her. “Cooking tea that puts people to sleep?”
“I guess . . . .” Angel grabbed my arm. “We should really get back to the others.”
“You!” I jerked free of her grasp. “All this time, you were the one sabotaging me and my mom. Not Dylan!”
Angel forced a laugh. “Tori, don’t be ridiculous! I’d never do anything like that.”
“Sure you would,” I said, my mouth set in a line. “You really want your mom and dad to get off your case about living the natural life. You hate it. If you don’t win this, they’re just going to make you try even harder when you get home.”
Angel shook her head twice and then let out a huge sigh. “Fine! I was the one sabotaging you and your mom. And yes, I really need to win this. You have no idea how insufferable my parents are going to be otherwise!”
“Unbelievable!” I threw the lavender sprig at her. “You know how bad my mom and I need the money! How could you?”
Angel twisted her hands together. “Tori—”
“Don’t talk to me, you . . . you witch. If we lose this and my mom loses her business, it’s all on you!” I turned around, took five steps to the right, and paused.
“I still think you’re a witch, but . . . which is the way out?”
Angel squinted and pursed her lips. “I think . . . that way?”
She pointed at a path so overgrown with foliage, there was no way we’d just come through it.
“Fine, if you want to keep playing your little game.” I crossed my arms. “I’ll just go wherever you go.”
Angel shot me a dirty look and then stepped past me. I followed her in silence as we climbed over logs and swept plants aside. At one point she stopped and I noticed something on the ground.
“Is one of your legs shorter than the other?” I asked.
Angel sighed. “Why, Tori?”
“Because we just walked in a huge circle.” I pointed down at the lavender sprig I’d thrown at her earlier.
Angel stared at it. “Huh. We may be lost.”
“What?!” I cried loud enough to startle a nearby bird from a tree. “I thought I told you to make a path!”
Angel looked at me, wide-eyed. “I thought you said ‘makeup app’!”
“Why would I say ‘makeup app’?”
“Because I like makeup and I miss technology!” Angel screeched.
I tilted my head back and tried to see a patch of sky, hoping to figure out where the sun was, but the ceiling was nothing but tree branches and darkness. “Okay, well, use your survival skills to get us out of here.”
Angel stood transfixed.
“Please tell me you’re recalling survival knowledge and not peeing yourself,” I said.
“I can’t get us out of here,” she whispered. “I get lost at the mall.”
I sighed and rubbed my eyes. “Is that why you went for a pretzel once and came back with a security guard and a balloon?”
Angel nodded. “I don’t have any survival skills. My parents have been doing it all. They’re the ones who told me about the blueberry bushes.”
I dropped into a crouch and took several deep, calming breaths. We needed to approach the situation logically. “The good news is that we can’t be too far from the property, so someone will eventually find us.”
“And the bad news?”
“We might be dead when they do.”
Angel whimpered. “I miss my phone. It has maps. And the number for the security guard at the mall.”
“Yeah, I don’t think he’d be able to help us navigate the woods, so we have to think.” I studied the trees around us. “Is there any way besides the sun to tell which direction we are?”
“The stars,” said Angel.
“I don’t want to be here after dark,” I said. “Anything else?”
She shook her head. “Nothing that doesn’t require sunlight.”
I thought for a moment, but nothing from my schoolbooks came to mind, and the only idea I could come up with was to wait for help.
“What would my mom do?” I muttered.
“She’d probably climb into the trees and live there,” said Angel. “Start a new dress shop, making leaf fashions for the woodland critters.”
I smiled. “Learn to speak chipmunk.”
“Maybe a little goose,” said Angel, pointing overhead. Somewhere above the forest a flock honked as it flew past.
I gripped her arm and gasped. “That’s it! It’s summertime!”
Angel looked at me quizzically and then suddenly mirrored my excitement. “Geese fly south in the winter, then back north in the summer!”
We quieted and listened intently to the birds.
“That way.” We both pointed the same direction and triumphantly began our return to the manor.
Even though I’d said I didn’t want to be out after dark, the sun began to set and it became harder to see in front of us. We were forced to rely on vague tree shapes to know where we were going.
Until we saw the lights sweeping from side to side. They were accompanied by voices. Several.
“Mom?” I shouted.
The voices stopped, and then, “Tori! Tori, thank God. Where are you?”
“And is Angel with you?” There was no mistaking Aunt Zoe’s anxious voice.
“I’m here!” called Angel. She sounded close to tears.
I found her hand, and we moved quicker toward where we’d heard the others.
“Keep talking so we can find you!” I shouted.
“I’m so sorry, Tori!” called Mom. “You were right to be upset with me. I’ve been failing you this whole time.”
A lump formed in my throat. “No, you haven’t!” I wheezed in a voice that was breathless with exertion and emotion. “You’ve been doing incredible things that I never could. You always have been.”
Silence from outside the woods.
“Mom?”
“Just get out here so I can hug you,” she said in a choked voice.
Finally, finally, there was a break in the trees and we could see bright beams of light and shadowed figures behind them. Several of the lights dropped to the ground, their owners blotting out light from the others as they dashed toward Angel and me.
“Tori!” Mom threw her arms open and wrapped me in a bear hug.
It was the best hug I’d ever had. Even though we both smelled like public toilets.
“I’m sorry I said all those mean things,” I said.
“I deserved them,” she said. “I shouldn’t have fallen asleep when something so important was at stake.”
I pulled away from Mom. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.”
I turned toward Angel, who was still hugging her parents but had twisted her head toward me, eyes wide with uncertainty. Ever so subtly, she shook her head, but I couldn’t let her take advantage of us anymore.
“Mom.” I took her hands. “Someone put lavender in your tea to make you fall asleep. The same person who added fuel to our water and spilled our cornmeal and did all those other nasty things.”
For a moment, Mom’s forehead wrinkled. Then the wrinkles shifted to frown lines and she spun around to glare at Dylan and Uncle Max.
“You?!”
“No, no.” I tugged her fingers. “Dylan wasn’t the bad guy. It was . . .” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words, so I just nodded my head in Angel’s direction.
At first, Uncle Deke and Aunt Zoe glanced around in confusion, wondering who I could be talking about. And then Aunt Zoe gasped, mouth hanging open.
“Wait . . .” said Uncle Deke. He held his daughter at arm’s length. “Angel?”
Instantly, her gaze dropped to the ground.
“It was me,” she said in a soft voice.
Everyone in the crowd was suddenly abuzz, especially Dylan.
“You thought I did those things? I’m offended!”
I glanced past Mom. “I’m so sorry, Dylan.”
“I would’ve come up with much better ways to destroy you,” he finished.
“And now I’m less sorry,” I said.
“This is quite the game changer,” said another voice.
I jumped in surprise, not realizing Eli was among the search party.
“We must away to the manor and discuss what needs be done,” he said.
“Will my family be disqualified?” asked Angel in a meek voice.
“That is not for me to decide,” said Eli. He motioned for the rest of us to follow. “Come. Judgment awaits.”
Mom kept her arm linked through mine the entire time, as if she were afraid I’d suddenly vanish, but she was also humming. I couldn’t blame her. Now that we were reunited and the truth was out about the sabotage, it felt like we were that much closer to victory. Except . . .
I ground to a halt, jerking Mom back with me. “How did you do by yourself at the evening challenge?”
Mom snorted. “Really? You think we just kept on competing while two little girls were missing?”
“I’m not a little girl!” I said, pinching her side.
Mom kissed the top of my head. “You’ll always be my little girl.”
Behind us, Angel didn’t seem to be having quite the same bonding moment with her parents. I couldn’t hear every word, but Uncle Deke and Aunt Zoe were definitely laying into her, and I heard “dangerous” used more than once. I supposed they were right. What if Mom had been allergic to lavender? Or one of us had been burned in the fuel incident?
I didn’t envy Angel whatever came next. I had a feeling it involved a call to Great-Aunt Muriel’s lawyer or perhaps even the police.
When we were in earshot of the manor, Eli waved to his wife, who had emerged from hiding to pace the backyard. She stopped when she saw her husband and ducked her head into the house to yell to Caleb. Then she bustled toward us as fast as her lifted skirts would allow.
“Blessed be, you’re all right!” She smiled at me, but when she turned to Angel with the same greeting, her smile wavered. She took in Angel’s sullen expression and the irritated ones of Aunt Zoe and Uncle Deke.
“Eli, what has happened to this one?” she asked.
“We have a problem,” he told her.
Just then Caleb burst into view wearing a broad grin.
“Tori! You’re safe!” He hugged me.
In front of everyone.
Including his parents.
The crowd’s reactions were almost as explosive as they’d been for Angel, except Mom, who sighed and said, “Oh, Tori.”
“It appears I misspoke,” hissed Eli with venom in his voice. “We have two problems.”
He pulled Caleb away from me and pushed his son toward the servants’ quarters. “Wait there. And enjoy every breath as if it were your last. Because it might be.”
“Please don’t punish him!” I said. “It’s my fault anything happened. I was the one who broke the rules.”
“Oh, I am well aware of that,” said Eli. “And you will suffer the consequences.” He bowed his head and sighed. “I suppose it’s too much to ask for honesty in this day and age. You seemed like good, decent children.”
It was mine and Angel’s turns to bow our heads.
I didn’t try to persuade Eli any further, and he didn’t speak another word or even look at us as he led Angel and me and our parents into the house. His wife at least squeezed my arm reassuringly as we passed her.
Eli opened the door to a large study and finally spoke.
“Wait here while I contact the judge to decide your fate.”
Angel took one couch with her parents, while Mom and I took the other.
As soon as Eli closed the door, I faced Mom and began babbling, “I’m so sorry! I’ve doomed us to a life of poverty. We’ll have to close the dress shop and live in a refrigerator box and use the fabric to make tiny curtains for the cutout windows and—”
Mom cupped my face in both hands. “Tori. It’s okay. You’re a good kid, but I can’t expect you to be perfect all the time.”
I nodded and leaned forward with my arms around my knees, making myself as small as possible.
“Besides,” said Mom, “I knew you and Caleb were crushing on each other, and I could’ve interfered at any time.”
“Could’ve?” I twisted to glance at her. “You made me sleep in the barn!”
From across the room, Aunt Zoe let out a tiny laugh that she quickly covered with a cough.
“And clearly that didn’t work,” said Mom. “I should’ve done something more extreme. Like make you sleep in the footlocker with the chickens.”
“Chickens?” asked Uncle Deke. “You have chickens in your room?”
“Had,” I corrected. “They met a grisly fate.”
“That’s what all the squawking was!” Aunt Zoe elbowed him. “I told you they could sing better than that.”
“Hey!” Mom and I said at the same time, but by now we were all smiling, even Angel.
“I don’t think they’ve ever heard our rendition of ‘Don’t Stop Believin’,” Mom said to me.
“You’ll have to treat us to a performance one of these days,” said Uncle Deke.
The doorknob clicked, and we all stopped talking and sat up straight. Eli appeared, red faced and somber.
“Ladies and gentleman,” he said, “the judge would like to speak with you in person.”
“Right . . . right now?” asked Mom, raising an eyebrow.
Eli nodded. “Considering the severity of the situation, we thought it best. Is that acceptable?”
“It doesn’t matter if they find it acceptable—it’s my contest!” croaked a voice from somewhere behind him.
That voice.
Even though I’d only heard it a handful of times, it was unforgettable. And from the awestruck expressions on the faces of my family, I knew I was right.
Eli winced as a marble-headed cane smacked him in the arm.
“Step aside, you blundering buffoon! Or should I speak through you, like a ventriloquist working a dummy?”
A tiny white-haired woman tottered past him and fixed us all with her steely eyes.
“What’s the matter?” asked Great-Aunt Muriel with a sly grin. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”