Fallen Elements (21 page)

My head felt as if it were spinning, and I
clutched the back of the small wooden chair near our kitchen
hearth. “You left me to guess that my midwife was a tool of the
devil?”

Isaac helped me into the chair, and kneeling
in front of me spoke calmly. “No. Do you think it an accident that
I happened home all those times? Do you think it an accident that
Goody Mabyn has been frequently visiting?” The man shook his head
quickly back and forth. “No, wife. We have all been watching for
signs of treachery.”

Tears had begun to stream from my eyes, and
I wiped at them with the back of my hand. I still found doubt in
what my husband told me, and that alone stirred in me a great
sadness for I had never questioned my husband’s judgment before,
knowing he always had our best interests at heart.

“
I want to speak with Margery.” The words
had left my mouth before I could think better of them, and I could
see from the shocked expression on Isaac’s face he was uncertain
what to respond. “I want to hear this from her.”

My husband stood, and I could see from the
set of his jaw that I had strayed over a line that perhaps I could
not return from. “I will not have my wife and child exposed any
further to that family’s vileness.”

I was caught up by Isaac’s own tone, and
standing, found a strength I had not imagined. “Until recently,
that had not been an inordinate concern of yours. I do not see the
harm in permitting me to speak with a woman who –”

“
Silence!” Isaac had practically hissed at
me, and the courage I had found moments ago left me as swiftly as
it had come. “I will not have my wife conversing with a known
witch!” Without another word, Isaac turned and left the
kitchen.

My knees failed me, and I sat hard on the
chair. I could hear muffled voices coming from the front room, and
then the front door opening. Moments later the house fell silent.
It was a silence unlike any I had experienced. The certainty of my
life had left me. I had been unknowing and ignorant in my dealings
with Margery, and hated that I still struggled to reconcile what
Isaac had told be with the woman I knew.

Ryan closed the diary and put it back on her
nightstand. Glancing at her alarm clock, she jumped out of bed,
grabbed her bathrobe from the back of her bedroom door, and headed
toward the bathroom. The last set of entries in the diary had
engrossed her to the point she was now running late for her outing
with Leah.

Turning the shower on, Ryan got undressed and
took one of the quickest showers ever. It reminded her of her
sophomore year in undergrad and rushing to make the dreaded eight
o’clock in the morning Shakespeare class.

As she lathered the shampoo through her short
brown hair, she couldn’t help but think her ancestors – though
clearly products of their time – were a cluster of superstitious
idiots. To add insult to this, Ryan was disheartened that their
ignorance was clearly costing Remembrance a relationship she held
very dear.

Stepping out of the shower, Ryan toweled off,
and began brushing her teeth. In between counting brush strokes, an
OCD habit she had indulged in since she was seven, Ryan wondered
what was going on between Coleen and Margery. Coleen was clearly
hot, so maybe the tension Remembrance was sensing was of a sexual
nature?

Ryan sighed as she cinched the tie of her
robe shut, reminding herself these had been actual people and not a
melodrama.

Chapter 11

“Are you sure you don’t want to drive?” Leah
grinned at Ryan as the two women stood in front of Leah’s
bookshop.

“The restaurant is only a few blocks up on
Main, right?” Ryan glanced up the Ellicott City street. The sun had
just set behind the hills that surrounded the small town, and its
main thoroughfare was teeming with cars and pedestrian traffic.

“Yeah, but I remember my first new car. I
wanted to drive it everywhere.” Leah nodded toward the new navy
blue Honda Civic parked next to the curb.

Ryan grinned. “I won’t lie, it’s great having
my own car - even though parking in the city is a bitch.”

Leah peered into the passenger side window.
“It’s nice.”

Ryan put the keyless remote in her pocket.
“Thank you, but I think I can part with it long enough to walk over
to dinner.” She had the Civic for over a week, having decided to
finance the car instead of using any more of her inheritance. She
still had only told Nicole about the windfall, and wanted to keep
things as normal as possible. Most people didn’t pay cash for their
first new vehicle.

Leah and Ryan wound their way up Main Street
with minimal conversation as the street noise made it difficult to
hear one another. Ryan was thrilled to have the evening with Leah,
and had been pleasantly surprised with how quickly the blonde had
reached out to her for dinner after their uncomfortable exchanges
on and after Ryan’s birthday.

Vibrant Wine Bar and Restaurant was in a
renovated commercial building that had previously housed a local
print shop. The unfinished concrete floors, exposed red brick
walls, and wrought iron bar shelving and sheet metal bar top gave
the space an industrial feel.

Ryan and Leah were seated near the rear of
the restaurant, next to a large plate glass window that overlooked
the Patapsco River. Though the tables were relatively close
together, the space’s low lighting made it seem intimate. Ryan
continued to feel fortunate, if not a little nervous, to have the
evening with Leah.

“Do you have a favorite red wine?” Leah asked
as she scanned the wine menu.

“I haven’t really got onboard with that whole
wine thing yet.” Ryan took a sip of her water. “I guess I haven’t
acquired the taste.”

Without looking up, Leah nodded. “It can take
awhile.”

Ryan wished the tightness she felt in the pit
of her stomach would go away. Her exchange with Leah outside the
book shop after Ryan’s birthday had ultimately ended well, but had
left Ryan uncertain if this was a date or another friendly outing.
Ryan told herself it shouldn’t matter either way. Time with Leah
was time well spent.

“We can try the Casillero del Diablo Cabernet
Sauvignon. It’s fruity with only a little bit of astringency.” Leah
laid the wine menu down on the table. “I think you’ll like it, and
if you don’t we can order a couple beers.”

Ryan smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

The two women picked up their food menus.
Ryan was grateful for the distraction as she felt the conversation
was halting, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She decided
to stick with what was safe and relevant. “I was thinking about
getting the lamb cutlet. What about you?”

Leah continued to concentrate on her menu.
“Not a fan of lamb. I’ve had the pork tenderloin here, and it’s
wonderful.”

Ryan nodded. With anyone else, she might not
think much of the absence of small talk, but she and Leah had
always been masters of banter. The lack of it now made the air
around them seem thick.

“Have you ladies decided?” Their waiter was a
man in his late forties. His black hair was meticulously parted and
combed to the side. His white dress shirt, black vest, and black
trousers were starched so severely Ryan imagined the entire
ensemble could stand on its own in the corner.

“Can we please get a bottle of the Casillero
del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon? Then I’ll start with a Caesar salad,
and then the pork tenderloin.” Leah handed the man her menu.

“And for you, miss?” The waiter looked at
Ryan.

“I’ll have a Caesar as well, and then the
lamb. Medium-rare, please.” Ryan gave the man her menu, and turned
her attention back to Leah. “How’s business?”

Leah smiled. “It’s going well. We’ve just
began a partnership with three new auction houses; so the
additional outlets will increase business.”

Ryan nodded. “I imagine you lose a chunk of
your revenue to auction house fees?”

“It can range between five and fifteen
percent depending on the type of house.” Leah unfolded the black
cloth napkin that lay on the table to her right, and placed it in
her lap.

Ryan chewed nervously on the inside of her
lower lip. “Are you okay?”

Leah looked surprised by Ryan’s question, but
before she could answer, the waiter had returned with their bottle
of wine. The next two minutes seemed like an eternity to Ryan as
the waiter and Leah discussed the wine before the man poured a
small amount in Leah’s glass for her to taste.

Leah took a sip and smiled warmly at the
waiter. “It’s wonderful.” The waiter poured Leah and Ryan a half
glass of wine each and excused himself.

“I’m fine.” Leah said just before she took a
long drink of her wine. “To answer your question from earlier.”

“Are you sure?” Ryan was usually an advocate
for taking people at their words. She had never thought much of
prying information out of someone, particularly when feelings were
involved. As with most things that involved Leah, though, Ryan’s
usual playbook seemed moot.

Leah’s brow arched as she sat her glass of
wine down on the table. “Why do you ask?”

Seeing an in, Ryan cleared her throat. “We’re
usually better conversationalists than this; so I’m checking.”

Leah leaned back in her chair and rested her
hands in her lap as she closely studied Ryan. “I’m still feeling
awful about the comment I made to you the other day. I don’t want
to pull you back into it,
and
force you – the offended – to
console me, or convince me that everything is okay.”

Ryan was relieved at Leah’s candor, and felt
something akin to their usual comfort with each other beginning to
work its way back into the conversation. “I was hurt in the moment,
but I wouldn’t be here with you now if I was still upset with
you.”

Leah frowned. “I’m having trouble forgiving
myself.”

Ryan took her first drink of the wine, and
Leah’s description of it had been spot on. The fruity notes coated
her mouth, and a slight astringency puckered on her tongue as she
swallowed the liquid. Looking at the glass, Ryan nodded. “Not to
seem insensitive to your mental self-flagellation, but this is
really good wine.”

Laughter erupted from Leah, and she quickly
covered her mouth with her hand as diners at an adjacent table
looked annoyed at her. “Sorry.” The amused woman whispered to the
fellow diners.

Ryan was thrilled the mood seemed to be
lightening. “Are we cool?”

Leah looked at Ryan, her eyes sparkling as
they moved from Ryan’s eyes to her lips. “We’re cool.”

Ryan wiped at her brow. “Thank god, because
I’ve got nothing to follow up with once I take the word
flagellation out for a spin.”

The waiter appeared with their two salads.
After crunching on a crouton, Leah smiled at Ryan. “Are you still
wowing the public servants of Howard County?”

“I don’t know about the wowing part, but I
may be
annoying
the hell out of them.”

“I seriously doubt that.” Leah looked
suspiciously at Ryan.

Shrugging, Ryan took a drink of her wine.
“I’m looking at everything for the first time, and have the benefit
of a fresh perspective.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Leah asked.

“No, but it means I’m making and recommending
changes to systems that have been in place for years.” Ryan
discreetly picked with her tongue at a bit of romaine lettuce stuck
in her teeth. “In some cases the processes I’m changing were
implemented by my senior co-workers.”

Leah nodded. “Back to the office
politics?”

Ryan, confident she had extracted the
lettuce, smiled. “Exactly.”

Leah grinned, and pointed to her own teeth.
“Between your two front teeth. Lettuce.”

“Damnit. I thought I got it.” Ryan shielded
her mouth with her napkin and using her pinky nail, extracted the
lettuce. “Gone?” She smiled at Leah, who carefully inspected Ryan’s
teeth.

“You’re clear.” Leah nodded, and the two
women continued to eat their salads in what was now a comfortable
silence.

The waiter returned to remove their empty
salad plates, and refill their wine glasses. “Your entrees should
be out momentarily, ladies.”

It dawned on Ryan that this was as good a
time as any to learn more about Leah. Short of her limited
knowledge of the woman’s history with the Myers, and her affinity
for rare books, Ryan knew very little about the woman sitting
across from her.

“So, do you have any brothers or sisters?”
Ryan’s stomach and thighs were feeling warm, and she realized that
unlike beer, the wine was spreading warmth throughout her entire
body, not just her neck and head.

“My brother died many years ago; otherwise,
no other siblings.” Leah’s tone was casual, and Ryan wondered if
she and her brother hadn’t been close.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Was he older?” Ryan
didn’t want to open up an old wound, but her curiosity got the
better of her.

Leah nodded. “He was, but just three years.
He died in a car accident.”

Ryan felt a twinge of sorrow for Leah. “Were
you close?”

Leah shrugged. “Not particularly.”

Given Leah’s relatively short responses, Ryan
was sensing she needed a subject change. “Do your parents live near
Baltimore?”

Leah had been looking down at her lap when
Ryan’s question caused her eyes to shoot up. “They’re both dead as
well.”

The frankness in Leah’s voice did not match
the sadness Ryan saw in her eyes. Reaching across the table, Ryan
turned her palm up, encouraging Leah to place her hand in Ryan’s.
Leah hesitated before sliding her warm, smooth hand into
Ryan’s.

The waiter returned, and to make room for
their plates, Leah and Ryan reluctantly released each other’s
hands.

“Ladies, if you need anything else, please
let me know.” The man smiled and left the table.