Ella’s suspicions were confirmed. “At what price? What did you demand in return?” She leaned forward to touch the table in her curiosity.
The woman cocked her head. She took a step toward Ella, inhaling, obviously intent on getting Ella’s scent. Her white eyes focused on Ella intensely as she leaned forward across the table to inhale again. Her mouth opened in a gasp. “You smell of roses!”
Confused, Ella pulled back. She lifted her arm to smell her sleeve. She couldn’t smell roses.
“Do you have many roses?” the woman asked enthusiastically. “What colors are they? Do they bloom? How many petals?”
Shocked and a bit overwhelmed by her sudden interest, Ella shook her head and opened her mouth to answer.
But before she could utter a word, the woman had moved around the table and stood before her, reaching out to her. “I know you. Eleanor Rames.”
A tremor of unease shot through Ella as the woman’s hand darted out to capture a lock of her hair and brought it to her nose. “How do you know me?” Ella asked.
“The roses,” she whispered reverently, almost as if she were lost in a dream. “I can help you.”
“Help me? I’m only here for answers.”
“I can help you.” The woman released the lock of Ella’s hair. She gently stroked Ella’s cheek sympathetically. “There is sadness in you. I can help you get rid of that sadness.”
Ella’s breath caught. As if her words brought it forth, Ella felt the weight of guilt over Edwin’s death return and her chest tightened in agony.
“I can make it go away,” she whispered.
“You can bring Edwin back?” Ella asked. She knew it was impossible. Edwin had been dead for five long years. And no one could bring the dead back to life. But the thought jumped immediately to her mind. She ached to see her brother again and tell him how sorry she was.
The woman cocked her head in compassion. “I can make your sadness disappear.”
Ella felt tremors of temptation run down her spine. She wanted her sadness to disappear. She wanted Edwin back. She wanted to tell him how sorry she was. What if this was her only chance? “What do you mean? How can you make my sadness disappear?”
“I can make you feel happy again.”
“How? What will you do?”
“Dumount is the cause of your sadness.”
Stunned, Ella stared into her white eyes. In those eyes she saw Graden Dumount and realized the woman was right. He had killed Edwin. He had wormed his way into her life by befriending Miles, a way that felt like betrayal on her brother’s part. Ella wanted Dumount gone and her family back. It was all she ever thought about, all she desired. She felt something moving down her cheek and wiped at it. She was surprised to find her cheek moist. “What will you do?”
“I will make your sadness disappear.”
Ella wanted Dumount gone, out of her life, punished for what he had done to Edwin. She dropped her chin to her chest, unable to resist the pull of the woman’s words. “What do you want in return? My soul?”
The woman chuckled. “No, dear. No. I want only one thing.”
Graden stood, holding the reins of the horse, staring at the shack. When he and Miles had returned from hunting to find Ella gone, he knew immediately where she went. She wanted answers. Plus, his instinctive need to warn her not to go to the witch, his fierce desire to keep her away, only fueled her curiosity. He knew where she was. He had ridden hard, and now stood staring at the shack as if he were twelve summers again. He wrestled with the desire to let her find out what he had done and the need to keep her from making the same mistake. He wanted to storm into the shack, grab her hand and pull her from the witch’s clutches. Yet, he knew she would fight him. She hated him. She wanted to punish him. He could not save her.
Ella emerged from the shack, her face pale.
Graden instinctively took a step toward her, drawing her attention. When her eyes alighted on him, her mouth dropped open and a bloom of red anger spread across her cheeks.
Graden straightened, mustering all his defenses for a battle. He approached her. “Did you receive all your answers?” he asked.
“Were you spying on me?”
Graden shook his head. “I thought you might be in trouble.”
Ella brushed past him. “Where is Sir Tristonay?”
“I sent him back to the castle. He looked exhausted.” He followed her to the horses, his boots crunching on gravel. “What did you do? Why did you come here?”
