The Witch of Roan Mountain (2 page)

She sat down on a bench and pulled her water bottle and a granola bar from her daypack.

Maeve heard the woman before she saw her. A childhood spent in the woods had given her sharp ears. There was no mistaking the soft footsteps on the fallen leaves coming toward the bench as those of a woman.

When she looked up, she was shocked.

Staring back at her was the one woman she ever expected to see.

*****

I’d known that she was coming. I’d felt it in the wind, the trees, the change of the seasons. We were tied together, she and I, and she was the only one who might be able to help me. I’d prayed for her to hurry.

Even dead women pray. Probably more than the living ones.

The woman on the bench was small, tiny. Fragile. More like a teenager than a woman. Long blond hair pulled back off her oval-shaped face. The most remarkable thing about her was the way her blue eyes were as sharp as icicles.

It worried me. I’d waited a long time for her to come home and now, looking at her from behind the trunk of a balsam tree, I wasn’t sure she was going to be able to help me.

She wasn’t like her granny. Where her granny was mostly gristle and vinegar, this girl was cotton and clouds. I was terrified that I’d wasted all my energy to get up here just to find I’d been wrong.

I wasn’t sure she’d even be able to see me. Not at first. It might take her awhile to believe I was real. Well, mostly real.

I eased out so that I was standing on the pathway. She turned immediately. I put all my energy into making myself visible. It felt strange. I’d spent so many years hiding and now I was trying to do the opposite. I bit my lip and concentrated as hard as I could.

Her eyebrows went up.

She saw me.

That fast.

Maybe I was right in waiting for her. She had the gift.

“I’m Delphine,” I said. It took all the energy I had to mutter two words. Back when I’d been alive, I could talk all day without flagging an inch but now it was exhausting.

The woman nodded. “I know who you are.”

“Help,” I muttered. “Need help.”

And then I faded into nothing.

*****

By the time the ambulance transported Granny Holcolmbe to the Avery County hospital in Newland, it was nearly noon. Her leg was broken and her sugar was a little high, but she was in otherwise great health.

It was time to track down Maeve. Campbell hoped back into the cruiser.

Shit.

It wasn’t the first time he’d had to chase down Maeve but Lord willing, it would be the last.

When that girl left Avery County, she’d taken most of his heart with her. Campbell had never loved anyone the way he loved her. Never before and never since. He would’ve been happy to live the rest of his life without seeing her face again.

Granny insisted on telling him everything about Maeve’s life in Atlanta. Hot shot attorney, big salary, important friends. Out of respect to Granny, he pretended to care. And maybe, deep down, he did care a little. But not much.

He turned his Charger onto the paved road and drove toward Carver’s Gap Road. If the girl who’d come home was anything like the girl who’d left, she’d go to Roan Mountain first. When he got to the turn, he flipped on the lights and tore up the gravel road past the turn-off to the old Cloudland Hotel and straight up to the parking lot at Rhododendron Gardens.

Her shiny Volvo was parked right by the bathrooms.

A Volvo. A lawyer’s car. A reminder that she wasn’t the girl he’d fallen in love with years ago. Now she was a woman with whom he had nothing in common and never would. They were night and day, sun and moon.

After radioing the dispatcher, he locked up the car and started walking.

The sun was so bright it nearly blinded him. He put on his Oakley sunglasses and wound down the hill toward the overlook patio. Fall was coming early this year. He felt the cool, like a hidden blanket, beneath the September air. It wouldn’t be long before the first frost and the quick slide into the winter.

Maeve was sitting on a bench, her back to him.

Campbell took a deep breath. He was going to control himself. No flirting, no wishing. He was coming to tell her about Granny. Nothing more.

Maeve didn’t turn when she heard his footsteps coming down the pathway. Strange. She’d spent a lot of time in the woods and she’d learned to be hyper-aware. He’d been on enough hikes and camping trips with her to know how she should react to the sound of footsteps. Her eyes were fixed on a Balsam tree ten or fifteen feet away. Her head wasn’t moving. It was if she was hypnotized.

“Maeve,” he said.

She didn’t seem to hear him.

“Maeve,” he repeated.

Still nothing.

He walked faster until he was standing right behind her. He didn’t want to scare her but he didn’t know what to do other than to touch her on the shoulder. “Maeve?”

She jumped from her seat, an ear-piercing scream shattering the silence.

Campbell kept his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. It’s just me.”

She was more beautiful than when she’d left. It wasn’t the time to notice but he couldn’t help himself. Her long blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her blue eyes were piercing.

Her eyes went wide and the terror in her eyes receded enough for her to recognize him. “Campbell,” she whispered. “Campbell?” She clutched on to his forearm like it was a lifeline.

Before he realized what he was doing, he pulled her into his arms. She smelled delicious, like apple blossoms and vanilla. He’d forgotten how perfectly she fit against his body. Maeve shook with fear and he hugged her tighter, tried to comfort her. He inhaled the scent of her hair and felt the old attraction claw to the surface.

He leaned back and looked down into her wide eyes. “You okay?”

She sank down on the bench like all the air had gone out of her at once. “I’m not sure.”

“You taking anything?” He sat beside her. Her eyes were wild, her pupils dilated. “Medicine?”

Maeve rubbed her hands across her face as if she was trying to wake herself. “No. I just saw, well, I thought, I mean I saw...”

“A bear?” He rose and put his hand on his weapon in an automatic response.

She shook her head. “Delphine.”

A shiver ran up his spine. He wasn’t a superstitious man but that was a name that had frightened him since childhood. “You’re tired. You’ve had a tough week.”

“It was Delphine. I’m sure of it.”

No way. That legend was as old as the hills. Maeve had probably just imagined it. “You’ve been fired from your job. You’ve come home after a long time away. It’s just the stress.”

Maeve swiveled so that she was looking directly into his eyes. He’d forgotten how her blue eyes flamed with cold fire when she was irritated or angry. “They fired me because I was honest, Campbell. Not because I was crazy.”

“That’s just an old story. She’s not real.”

“I used to think that, too, but now I know better.”

“We’re going to have to talk about her later.” He refused to let the witch’s name cross his lips. “Granny fell this morning. She’s okay but she’s at the hospital. She broke her leg.”

“What?” Maeve bit her lower lip and widened her eyes in alarm.

“She slipped this morning after you left. I caught the call from dispatch.”

Maeve put her head in her hands. “I told her I’d stay and help this morning. I should’ve stayed.”

“She’s going to be just fine.”

“I just needed some fresh air, some quiet. I needed to reconnect.”

It was telling that Maeve had chosen this spot. This had been their spot. Campbell pushed the memories back and said, “I can drive you there.”

Maeve stood. “No, I’ll take my car.”

“You’re a little shaken to drive.”

“I’ll be fine,” she called over her shoulder as she jogged to her car.

Campbell watched her walk away, the way her hips swayed from side to side. The last time he’d seen her, she’d been barely more than a girl. Now she was all woman. The faded jeans fit her like a second skin. Her ass was perfect. Perfectly symmetrical. Firm as a peach. The kind of ass that begged to be pinched.

Damn.

He wasn’t going to be attracted to her. Never again.

He might not want anything to do with Maeve McMahan but at least he could enjoy the view.

*****

On the way to the hospital, Maeve willed her hands to stop shaking. She knew what she’d seen. The woman she’d seen was as real as the moss on the trees. Not only had Delphine materialized right in front of her, she’d talked to her. Tried to anyway.

It was like something out of a horror film. Only it didn’t scare her, not until Campbell touched her and Delphine disappeared into nothing more than a blur.

Delphine was small and thin. Her bluish-purple dress was long and full with a high neck that buttoned nearly to her chin.. Maeve was no historian but it looked old, like something from the Civil War. The woman wasn’t solid. She was like a film, a layer, a shadow of another time.

Why had Delphine chosen her? A person who believed in cold, hard logic.

Lawyers didn’t make the best ghost hunters.

Maeve didn’t even believe in ghosts. Hadn’t until today.

She ran her fingers through her hair. Maybe Campbell was right. Maybe she was losing it. It
had
been one hell of a month.

She parked the Volvo near the entrance of the hospital. It was a small, brick building with only a few cars in the lot. Maeve breathed a sigh of relief. She was certain that if the break had been serious, they would’ve send Granny to Johnson City or to Asheville.

She decided to keep Delphine to herself for the time being. Granny loved nothing more than a good ghost story, and Maeve needed to sort out how she felt about it before she shared it with her grandmother.

Granny looked tiny in the hospital bed. Her long, white hair was spread out across the pillow and it was nearly the same color as the linens. She was pale and for the first time, Maeve realized how old she was getting.

“What in the world happened, Granny?” Maeve walked to the side of the bed and took the older woman’s hand in hers.

“I spilled some jelly on the floor and before I could clean it up, I slipped. My feet just flew out from under me.” She shook her head. “Embarrassing as all get-out.”

Maeve smiled. “It could happen to anyone.”

“Not me. I’m as sure-footed as a goat.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help.”

“You needed sun and mountain air, child. I told you to go.”

Maeve sat in a chair. “How long do you have to stay?”

Granny shrugged. “A day or two maybe. They want to make sure I’m okay.”

“That’s not so bad.”

Granny huffed. “Jelly won’t put itself in jars.”

“I can help when you’re feeling a little better.”

“You ain’t much in the kitchen. I love you, Maeve, but that’s not your strong suit.”

Maeve laughed. “That’s true but I’m good at following directions.”

“Said who?”

She’d missed the back and forth banter. Granny was as sharp as a tack and it did Maeve’s heart good to see that the old woman was a long way from cashing in her ticket. “I saw Campbell.”

That perked the old woman right up. She raised up in the bed. “You did?”

“Don’t play dumb with me. You sent him to find me.”

“I can’t control who’s on duty. You think I broke my leg just to get you a date?”

Maeve leaned closer to the bed. “I wouldn’t put it past you.”

“I could get you a date with Campbell Hyatt without injuring myself. I’m certain of that.”

By the time Maeve got back to the cabin, it was nearly dark. She poured herself a glass of wine and went out onto the front porch to watch the last fingers of the sun fall behind the mountains. If Granny knew she was drinking wine, she’d skin her alive, but after the day Maeve had, she needed something to take the edge off.

She tried to clear her mind but it was impossible.

Delphine. Campbell. Granny. The three of them banged around in her head, colliding against each other over and over again.

Delphine. The Witch of Roan Mountain.

It was an old legend, one she’d heard since childhood. She hadn’t thought about the story in years. She tried to remember the details, but it had been so long. The only thing she remembered was that the woman always wore a bluish-purple dress and that she sometimes carried a silver candelabra.

She should’ve asked Campbell what he remembered but she’d been too busy processing everything. It was too much at once. Way too much.

If Delphine wasn’t enough, there was Campbell to think about.

She had to admit that he looked good, damn good, in his uniform.