Making Magic (18 page)

“I’ll bet,” Nick said under his breath.

“And the law degree made it worse,” Thea finished with a glare at Nick. “Why the Mother or the mountain or whoever gave
me this gift I don’t know, because this gift in the hands of someone with my temperament is not the best combination. And Marilyn wasn’t the only time it happened.”

That stunned Grace into silence.

Her Grandfather Hartford had made the mistake of insisting that she go to Tanglewood one summer instead of coming back to the mountain. A few weeks after she had lost her temper and persuaded him otherwise, he had dropped dead. That had been when she was twelve, after she was off the medication.

But she didn’t elaborate now. She didn’t dare.

“You need to go into the cave with me,” Grace finally said. “Daniel had problems dealing with his abilities until he went in.”

“But not until after Lily is born,” Nick countered. “The room is good at hiding itself from everyone except Grace. We haven’t been willing to risk anyone getting lost in there.”

Grace frowned.

“It does make a difference, but it’s hard to explain,” Craig spoke up. “It’s like it completes a circuit.”

“It asks for your acceptance of the gift,” Trish added sagely.

“More like signing a contract,” Nick said.

Thea looked over and saw him lift an eyebrow at her. The man was infuriating. It was like he always knew what she was thinking.

“It increases the power of your gift as well,” Craig added. “I could never have moved that cup of coffee before I went in, just pennies and flowers. I’m getting stronger and more accurate all the time.”

Grace winced and closed her eyes. Her sister knew her far too well.

“I’m sincerely glad for all of you and I hope your gifts can make a difference. The world certainly needs a shove in the right direction.” She picked up Bailey and rose to her feet. “But I can
kill
someone with the wrong word. I don’t want to get any better at it.”

She turned and walked into the house.

Jake balanced the stack of packages carefully as he opened the post office door with his elbow.

“Thanks,” he said with a smile.

“You’re keeping us in business, Jake. Just remember to think of us when you start shipping those beauties,” the postmistress replied.

“Yes ma’am!” he said. That was another thing on his to-do list—find the best way to ship his instruments to online customers. It was one thing to insure a package, but considering the hours and days of work that went into one of his pieces—losing one that way was unthinkable. He could always buy an extra airplane seat for the box and deliver them that way, but not even this could persuade him to get on one of those flying tin cans. Hell, he didn’t even like other people to drive him anywhere, let alone fly.

He could almost hear Thea yelling “
Control freak!
” and smiled at the thought.

“I’m glad to see you in such a fine mood this morning,” his mom said in a withering tone.

Jake didn’t react. It felt inevitable somehow. “Actually, yes I am. Evidently you’re not.”

She stood on the sidewalk waiting for him, a pinched expression on her face. Whatever spell she had been under last night had long since worn off.

On the other hand, he was still in rather good spirits. The wedding had gone well—nearly perfect, with only one glaring mishap. He cringed when he thought of Thea’s swollen ankle. But on the upside, he’d been inundated with requests for the band’s and the shop’s business cards. Hopefully Thea would take it easy for a while and heal up. With luck she might stay a bit longer than she intended.

He walked across the bridge over the creek to his store, his mother following behind. “Is Sarah open this early? I thought she was a creature of the night and lived in shadows.”

“You go ahead and make fun, Jake Moser. But she sees and knows things that you and I can’t see or know.”

Here we go again
. “Sounds scary. So, did you have a good time at the reception?”

She paused on the bridge, but he kept going until he reached the store. He had left the door open, the post office was only steps away and he could see the place the whole time he was in there picking up his mail. He turned at the doorway and looked back to see her still deep in thought.

“The food was delicious and the people at
my
table were quite nice,” she said finally, catching up with him.

“Really?” If he pressed her, did he risk disrupting whatever frail construction she’d erected in her brain that had helped her enjoy the evening?

Maybe he was getting drawn into her psychosis, thinking that Thea had something to do with her strange behavior. Who could ever predict what his mom was going to do or say next? Anything was possible with her.

“I’m glad,” he said.

“And your band was quite good. Everyone seemed to enjoy the dancing.”

That was
really
odd. She had never approved of his music, much less praised it.

“Thanks.” He went into the shop with his packages. He still needed to finish tuning one of the hammered dulcimers. Traffic in the shop was going to start picking up tonight as some of the performers and the public came into town the night before the festival.

“Except for Thea Woodruff,” she went on. “Falling down like that and trying to be the center of attention at her own brother’s wedding.
Honestly
.”

Jake set the stack of boxes and mail next to the counter. “I hope she’s doing better today.”

His mom made a clucking sound. “She looked just fine when I saw her a minute ago. She was right down the street.”

“What? Her ankle…” He stopped, remembering Grace’s fingers on his scar and Nick’s bloodstained vest. “Well that’s good. I’m glad she didn’t injure it too badly.”

His mom snorted. “She overreacts to everything with that temperament of hers. Always a drama queen, even when she was little.”

A memory surfaced—a similar conversation from when he was seven or eight. His mom had accused Thea of being a drama queen then too, for throwing a fit and yelling at her father during the grave-side service for her grandmother. It had resulted in an exchange of blows, Jake recalled, between her father and her grandfather—which had been the last time her father had set foot on the mountain. Jake’s dad had defended her, saying how much Thea had loved her Gram and how the Woodruff kids weren’t real close with their own parents. That was when he had first heard the word “dysfunctional”. He supposed it had been memorable because the whole situation had been so traumatic for Thea, and by association, for him.

It was not long after that his mom had started drinking and
his
family had become dysfunctional.

But at least this was normal gossip from his mother, not conspiracies and whispers of evil lurking around the Woodruffs.

“That does sound like Thea, although I think she’s mellowed out a bit since then,” he said carefully. How long would this last?

She made a dismissive sound. “Mellowed.”

“Why are you in town this morning?” Jake asked.

“Because I heard about those babies and I wondered what you were doing about it,” she said, though her eyes drifted towards Sarah’s shop.

So Sarah was worried about the babies? “I’m sure Charlie’s handling it.”

She leaned close. “Do you think it could be some kind of weird ritual? Someone planning to sacrifice them or something?”

Jake nearly rolled his eyes. Sarah was getting worse if she had put that idea in his mother’s head. He was beginning to wonder about her mental state more than his mother’s. He rarely saw her leave that place and when she did, she looked like what she purported to be, an old crone haunted by ghosts. And she was dragging his mom down with her. “Seriously, Mom?”

“Doesn’t it seem odd? They were so young. And returning them like that? It is strange isn’t it?” she hissed.

“I think that’s the point. They
returned
them. Kind of fouls up the whole sacrifice idea doesn’t it?”

“Not if they’re looking for someone specific.”

“Like a 666 birthmark or something?” He put his hands on her arms. “Mom, please, stop listening to Sarah. She’s not well. And I’m—”

His mom pulled back and glared at him. “Of course she’s not well.
They’ve
been trying to stop her—making her sick.”

That caught Jake’s attention. “Wait, Sarah’s sick?” The last time he’d seen her up close, had she looked any different? Since she tried to look old and decrepit for her trade, it was hard to tell if she was really ill.

“Shows how much you know.” She dusted off her sleeves. “You’re as closed-minded about Sarah as you are about the Woodruffs.”

Jake shut his eyes. It had been too much to hope that one night of normalcy meant anything at all. “What do the Woodruffs have to do with this?”

“Who knows?” his mom said in all seriousness. “But there’s something they’re hiding. Something about that mountain.” She gazed off into the distance.

He looked over at Sarah’s place and thought he saw movement in the doorway next to that unblinking neon eye. “Sarah’s not suggesting the Woodruffs have something to do with those babies?”

His mom folded her arms. “You see? Closed-minded.”

“Dammit, Mom.” He waved off her protest at his obscenity. He could think of a couple of things that he could do to put an end to this. He could take away the house, the car and the money, whatever it took until she stopped seeing that charlatan. Or he could tell her he didn’t want to see her or talk to her again until she stopped this insanity.

But he had a feeling none of it would work.

It would have been better if there were something they could see on an MRI. Something they could treat, or at least understand. At least he could remember, vaguely, what she’d been like before.

“Fine,” he said. “Sounds great, mom. I’ll pass along your suspicions to Sheriff Sloan.”

“
You’re
the sheriff.
You
need to do something about them,” she said.

“Right,” he said again. As long as she didn’t actually hurt anyone, or herself, he could tolerate her ranting. He would deal with it if she tried to disrupt the Woodruffs lives again.

She crossed her arms. “You are trying to get me to shut up, Jacob Moser, and I won’t have it!”

“Look, I don’t care how sick Sarah is, if she’s sick at all and it’s not yet another con. I won’t have you or her starting wild rumors about the Woodruffs. They are good people and don’t deserve to have anyone accuse them of whatever Sarah is cooking up. Especially not those babies,” he said calmly. “It not only sounds insane, it borders on slander.”

“Well I—”

“Did I hear someone mention the Woodruffs?”

Jake looked around to find a man dressed in khakis and a polo shirt standing at the door.

“Yes sir. Can I help you?” he asked. Probably someone in town for the festival. Hopefully he hadn’t overheard too much.

The man came forward, extending his hand. “Gregory Whitehead,” he said in a very cultured voice.

“I’m Jake Moser and this is my mother, Marilyn. Welcome to Patton Springs.”

“Mrs. Moser.” The man nodded politely in her direction and, of course, his mom smiled back sweetly. She always behaved well for strangers.

“I was heading for the post office hoping to get some directions. My map app…” He hesitated for a moment. “The GPS on my phone isn’t working.”

“Be glad to help,” said Jake. “Where’re you trying to get to?”

“The Woodruff place, actually. I think it’s called Woodruff Herb Farm and Cabins.”

“You have a reservation up there?”

He seemed a bit flustered. “Actually I’m looking for someone. Althea Woodruff. I meant to surprise her, but the app sent me up some road that didn’t go anywhere, as far as I could tell. Then it went on the fritz.”

Looking for Althea—
“Yeah, Woodruff Mountain does that from time to time. It’s not your phone.” —
to surprise her.

He studied the man. An average-looking guy. Nothing special. Kind of bland. Sickly even. Maybe even homely. Okay, now he was just being jealous. But he was sure this guy wasn’t Thea’s type at all. Then again, who was?

“It wasn’t my phone?” Gregory frowned. “But I couldn’t find the entrance.”

“That happens. Sometimes the Woodruffs have to send an escort down to help folks find their way up,” Jake said.

“And isn’t that odd?” his mom said, barely loud enough for Jake to hear.

“Well that
is
odd, isn’t it?” Gregory said, echoing her.

Jake cleared his throat. “Well, these mountains can be tricky. Guess she doesn’t know you’re coming? Surprise and all.”

Again, the man looked a bit flustered. “No. And I didn’t know her hometown was quite so…”