Breach of Crust: A Charmed Pie Shoppe Mystery (20 page)

Ella Mae would strain to hear the high, haunting notes, but she never could.

“This one’s my favorite. Queen Cassiopeia.” Adelaide would direct Ella Mae’s hand, tracing the W shape of the stars. “In Greek mythology, Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, so Poseidon punished her by tying her to a chair and placing her in the sky for all eternity. History remembers her for her vanity, but there’s
usually more to a person’s story than one element. Especially when it comes to women.”

“What’s the rest of her story?” Ella Mae had asked.

Adelaide had smiled. “The constellation is known by other names in other languages, but that gathering of stars has always been a woman. She has always been a ruler. She’s always been powerful. However, she was only punished in the Greek tale. In the other versions, which are far older than the Greek one, she was magical. She was a mother of gods. She carried a half-moon scepter and no one would ever dare tie her to a chair.”

“I like that story better.”

“Of course you do,” Adelaide had said. “Remember this when you’re older. Don’t let anyone else write your story. Not any man. Nor any woman. Write your own.”

As Ella Mae watched the lights approach the Luna rosebush, she thought of how unbelievable her story would have sounded to her younger self. If she could go back in time to when she was married and living in Manhattan, what would she tell that naïve version of herself? Would she say that her husband was an adulterer? Would she try to explain that the entire world was populated by a small group of people with magical abilities? Would she tell her that all those books on Arthurian legend she’d read by Mary Stewart, T. H. White, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and Tennyson were based on reality? Would she hint at the existence of objects of power? Enchanted swords, flowers, fruit, and so on?

No
, Ella Mae thought, glancing over at Hugh.
I wouldn’t change a thing. Because if I changed something, I might not be standing here. And I’ve been waiting for this moment since a boy named Hugh climbed to the top of a tree to retrieve my kite.

The stars grew closer and separated, revealing themselves
as fireflies. Slowly, almost lazily, the radiant insects descended upon the rosebush, covering it completely. Adelaide held her palms over the glowing, throbbing mass, and whispered something to them.

“It is done,” she declared softly. She made a gentle shooing motion and the fireflies rose into the air and dispersed. What they left behind was a single rose. It shone with their incandescent light, turning every petal into a half-moon against a backdrop of dark leaves. The rose hummed and a shiver of silver light ran across its surface, like a whisper of wind over water.

Adelaide looked at Ella Mae and nodded. It was time.

Ella Mae, who hadn’t let go of Hugh’s hand since they’d entered the garden, now turned to him. He smiled down at her, but she saw the fear in his eyes. She felt the same fear, but she returned his smile and reached for his other hand.

“No matter what happens next,” she whispered to him, “I love you. I have loved you since I knew what it means to love. Nothing can ever change that. Nothing
has
ever changed that. Not time. Not distance. Not finding magic or losing magic.”

Hugh’s grip on her hands tightened. “We could just walk away. You were right. We don’t have to use this rose to know for sure. We can be like everyone else.”

Extracting her right hand, she placed it on his cheek. “We will never be like everyone else. And if we don’t belong together, then nothing in this world makes sense. Come on, we’ll pretend we’re kids again. We’ll close our eyes and count to three.”

“And then we’ll go.”

Ella Mae closed her eyes and whispered, “One.”

She felt a stirring in the air.

“Two,” Hugh whispered.

The movement got closer. It was so subtle that Ella Mae thought she was imagining it, but the strands of her hair shifted and she could feel featherlight touches on her shoulders, her arms, and the crown of her head.

“Three,” she said in a confident voice, for suddenly, she knew what the tickling sensation was.

She opened her eyes and saw butterflies.

Hundreds of butterflies.

They perched on her and Hugh. They hovered in the moonlight. They fluttered around the Luna Rose—a rainbow of patterned, striped, and spotted wings. Ella Mae’s totem creatures. At least that’s what they’d been when she was magical.

Is Suzy right? And Opal? Do I still have magic left in me?
Ella Mae wondered.
Somewhere deep inside?

As though in answer, the place on her palm where a clover-shaped burn scar had once marked her skin began to tingle. It was a strange pins-and-needles feeling, but Ella Mae didn’t have time to dwell on it because Hugh was reaching out, with her other hand wrapped in his, for the Luna Rose.

She didn’t try to stop him. Her body felt electric. Her heart beat in time with the pulsing of the single flower, and she was sure that if she pressed her ear to Hugh’s chest, his heart’s rhythm would match her own.

And then, her fingertips made contact with the rose’s petals. The silken, moonlit petals. The butterflies landed on the rose too. They danced over its surface with quivering wings, and their movement coaxed fresh ripples of white light to flow from the center of the flower to its outer edges. Hugh’s hand was also on the rose and it still glowed. It had not winked out like a snuffed candle.

“You are meant to be,” Adelaide said with a delighted smile. “No power in this world can sever your bond. Your love will be a beacon. Let it guide you in all things. It will
grow stronger through the years, shining through the darkness like the light of this flower. Because you will face difficulties as all couples do, you should carry the memory of this night within your hearts like a lantern. Reach for it during times of trouble. The memory will remind you that what you have found in each other is greater than any form of magic. You have found true love. Respect this gift and live a long and happy life together.”

Adelaide whispered a few more words and the rose folded inward. The light slowly seeped away, like water draining from a sink, until it was completely gone.

The butterflies left too, melting into the shadows of the nearby bushes as though they were never there.

“Congratulations,” Adelaide said, coming forward to kiss Ella Mae and Hugh. “Go now. Go celebrate.”

“Thank you.” Ella Mae hugged her mother tightly and then watched her walk away.

When they were alone, Hugh looked at Ella Mae. “I know it’s late, but are you up for a short boat ride?”

Ella Mae smiled up at him. “Hugh Dylan, I’d go anywhere with you.”

*   *   *

Hugh led her to the end of the dock, where a motorized life raft was tied to the dock cleats.

“Doesn’t this belong to the fire station?” Ella Mae asked.

“Sure does,” Hugh replied. “I just borrowed it for the evening.”

He took Ella Mae’s hand as she boarded the wobbly vessel. Hugh hopped into the raft, untied the lines, and brought the motor to life. They were soon zipping over the lake and the wind noise made speech impossible.

Ella Mae didn’t care. She was content to sit next to Hugh,
her hair whipping around her face like a whiskey-colored tornado, while he kept one hand on the wheel and the other on the throttle.

She was wrapped in a cocoon of warmth, as though the light from the Luna Rose still glowed within her. But it was more than that. The sensation she’d felt when the butterflies had touched her was still there. Something was stirring within her. Awakening. The feeling was subtle, but it was lovely all the same. It felt like stumbling across a patch of sunshine after a long rain. There was a champagne bubble anticipation to it. Ella Mae didn’t know if it was her magic returning or the feeling of pure happiness, but she decided to simply enjoy the sensation without questioning it too deeply.

Hugh approached a dock on the opposite side of the lake from Partridge Hill. It wasn’t difficult to spot, seeing as someone had lined its entire length with battery-powered lanterns. The dock stretched out into the dark water like a runway, beckoning them to land.

“Who lit these?” Ella Mae asked after Hugh had cut the motor.

“Me.” Hugh flashed her a smile. “Come on, I have something to show you.”

He helped her step from the boat onto the dock and then led her to a pair of teal Adirondack chairs positioned at the end of the dock. A fishing pole leaned against the back of each chair and a table tucked between the chairs held a picnic basket and a tackle box.

“Are we fishing for sturgeon tonight?” Ella Mae teased.

Hugh shrugged. “It’s good luck to catch a fish during a full moon. Besides, I really wanted to show you the view from here.”

Ella Mae swept her arm around the dock. “But—”

Hugh stopped her words with a kiss. “I told you that I believed in us,” he whispered into her ear a minute later. “I
believed that rose would light up like the summer sun. I believed that we’d be standing here tonight and that I’d have the chance to give you this.”

Reaching into the picnic basket, he pulled out a folder.

Ella Mae looked at the glossy cover and, for just a moment, felt a twinge of disappointment. She hadn’t been expecting anything, so she had no reason to be disappointed, but she couldn’t see how the contents of the folder would complement what had so far been the most romantic night of her life.

Hugh quickly proved her wrong.

“Open it,” he said.

Complying, she discovered a packet of legal documents. She shot Hugh a questioning glance, but he merely grinned and whispered, “Read.”

It only took a few lines for Ella Mae to understand. Clutching the folder to her chest, she gazed up the hill to a patch of empty land. “You bought it?”

Hugh nodded and his smile grew wider. “It’s ours, Ella Mae. We’re going to build that dream house. We’re going to have the life we talked about.”

Ella Mae threw her arms around Hugh. He spun her in circles on the dock as she alternated between laughing and kissing him, the glimmer of lantern light blurring as tears of joy pooled in her eyes.

“I love you,” she whispered.

“I love you,” he whispered back.

Hugh slowed his spinning until their movement was more like a dance. Ella Mae put her head on his shoulder and the two of them swayed back and forth while the boards creaked under their feet and the stars winked over their heads.

In the distance, Ella Mae heard a gentle splash.

Hugh must have caught the sound too, for he gestured at
the chairs and said, “Are you ready to reel in that good luck fish now?”

“As long as that doesn’t require my baiting a hook with a worm,” Ella Mae said. “I’m not squeamish. It’s just that using live bait doesn’t seem to fit with the rest of our evening. The fireflies. The butterflies. I don’t know . . .”

“Don’t worry,” Hugh assured her. “I have a special spinnerbait for you in the tackle box. It’s pink, yellow, and purple. But be careful, there’s a hook hiding under its colorful skirt.”

Ella Mae took a seat in the chair closest to the edge of the dock and opened the tackle box. She saw dozens of different lures, but only one with the colors Hugh had described. Picking it up by its metal head, she dropped the spinnerbait into her palm. Something glinted from within the strands of the silicone skirt, and Ella Mae gently parted the strands, expecting to reveal a sharp hook.

Instead, she found a diamond ring. A beautiful platinum ring with white round-cut diamonds encircling a yellow diamond. It looked contemporary and yet felt very, very old.

Ella Mae gasped in surprise and her fingers began trembling so violently that she nearly dropped it, but Hugh was already kneeling in front of her. He put his palm under her hand to steady her.

“You don’t have to keep this ring. I’ll buy you a new one tomorrow if you want, but I promised your mother that I’d offer you this one first. You see, your dad gave it to her when he proposed. This ring has been passed down for generations. The setting has been changed, but the stone is really old. Your mom wore it until her wedding day. After that, she put it away for you. When I asked her for her blessing, she took it out and asked me to give it to you. That is, if you’ll agree to be my wife. Will you, Ella Mae? Will you marry me?”

Ella Mae could feel the tears shining in her eyes. “Yes. A million times over. Yes!”

When Hugh slid the ring on her finger, Ella Mae felt something like the butterflies’ touch. It only lasted for a second, and this time, it was a strong, masculine presence. It belonged to a man with an earthy smell. Ella Mae’s father. A man she’d never known.

And then, the presence was gone. However, the ring created a circle of warmth around her finger, and Ella Mae believed that both of her parents were with her in spirit because she wore it. Feeling that her heart might burst if she experienced another dose of happiness, she told Hugh that no ring could ever suit her better.

At the end of the lantern-lit dock, Ella Mae and Hugh celebrated their engagement. Hugh pulled a bottle of sparkling wine out of the picnic basket, and the couple drank from plastic cups as they spoke in low, joyful tones about the future.

Their voices floated out over the moonlit lake.

Tonight, the dark water did not make Ella Mae think of Beatrice Burbank. Nor did it remind her of Ruiping, Meg, or even Opal.

On this night, Ella Mae did not dwell on what had been lost. She was completely focused on what had been found. And that was a chance at happily ever after. Not the storybook kind—Ella Mae knew there was no such thing as a perfect union—but the kind where two people finish each other’s sentences. When they dance without music. When laughter is contagious. When fights are resolved before the covers are turned down at night. When wrinkles don’t diminish, but enhance beauty. When eternity will still not be enough time together.

Ella Mae had found that in Hugh. She’d found it as a little girl whose kite had gotten caught on a high branch. She’d
found her happily ever after that day but was too young to recognize it for what it was. And after she’d become an adult, it had taken her years to find her way back to Havenwood. And to Hugh.