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“We knew you had magical blood from your grandmother,” Willow was saying, “but what you’ve done, what you’ve achieved, is so much more than we might have expected.”
Sunny felt light headed from what was being said. Things didn’t add up, and she tried to extract questions from the chaotic, murky mind-soup in her head. “Wait, you talk about my grandmother, and you’ve mentioned longevity. If she had magical powers, why isn’t alive now, like you?”
Celeste gave a sad smile. “Hanna didn’t want to add to her longevity. It’s a choice. Longevity can be gained through good deeds, or dark ways. It takes longer through good deeds. This is why Viscount Fox was tempted to the dark side, or so we believe.” She paused a moment, as if to emphasize her point. “But Hanna’s with you in spirit, remember that.”
The mention of Fox brought everything into sharp focus for Sunny.
Willow cleared her throat. “Sunny, can I ask if you suspect there’s magical heritage from your mother’s line, from the Moroccan side of your family?”
“I’m not even sure I understand what you’re saying about Gran.”
“Give yourself time,” Willow replied gently. “It’ll sink in. Tell us about your other family, your mum’s side.”
“I do know we haven’t always been in Morocco. I believe we came from a nomadic tribe.”
The group at the table looked at each other and nodded knowingly.
“That explains it,” Willow declared, slapping her hands on the table. “My goodness, girl, you’re doubly gifted!”
“It may add to our problems,” Celeste said. “Because the nature of the magic is unknown to us, isn’t it, Willow?” Celeste looked at her friend and raised her eyebrows. She turned her attention back to Sunny and Cullen. “Returning to the situation we find ourselves in...we meant you to be united, fulfilling your twin destinies. However, Viscount Fox wasn’t supposed to be involved in any way.”
“I see,” Sunny replied, not seeing very much at all. “So you knew Cullen and I would meet, but you didn’t know Fox would stick his oar in?”
Cullen harrumphed. “Yet it was Fox who brought us together. Nathaniel Fox arranged for us to meet at the cottage.”
Sunny gave an awkward laugh. “Cullen is under the impression I’m a ‘woman of the night’ supplied by Nathaniel Fox for his entertainment.”
On the other side of the table, Eben stirred, and he had a smile on his face and laughter in his eyes. “I can see how that might happen. There are bound to be misunderstandings.”
Cullen took Sunny’s hand in his, as if demonstrating their bond to the onlookers. “It was Nathaniel Fox who offered me safe passage on the ship known as the Gloriana,” he said. “The vessel was bound for the Americas. He was known to me as a friend, but I saw there may have been other reasons for his interest in us both.”
Willow nodded frantically. “Got it in one!”
Celeste nodded in agreement. “We hadn’t realized Fox had a vested interest in you, Cullen. He didn’t want you brought back here, but Sunny’s magic has enabled her to do a deal with him. What we did know is Fox has an unscrupulous interest in Sunny.”
Aveline reached into the bag she had hanging over the back of her seat and lifted out an iPad. She quickly tapped information into the keyboard.
“Aveline is our researcher and historian, as well as the local librarian,” Celeste explained.
Everyone waited patiently while Aveline did her research.
One of the other women topped up everybody’s teacups.
“I find no trace of a vessel called Gloriana during that period,” Aveline stated. “There was one half a century before, but it perished in rough seas off the coast of Jamaica.”
“Taken by the dark tides, no doubt,” Celeste replied.
There was mumbled agreement around the table, but no one explained what ‘the dark tides’ were.
“What does all of this mean?” Sunny looked from one to the other of them, attempting to put the pieces of the jigsaw together. What they were revealing made sense of some of it, but the implications were rather unpleasant.
“It means you have to be ready. Fox will come at the end of the time you negotiated and claim what he thinks is rightly his.” Celeste looked left and right at the others. “We have a battle on our hands.”
“What she means is,” said Willow, clarifying, “we have to teach you and teach you well, over the next thirty days. But the bottom line is, you have more than enough ability to take this battle on.”
Yeah, right, Sunny thought, feeling a tad overwhelmed. “I’m confused.”
“Perhaps we should let Sunny tell us exactly what happened with Fox?” one of the younger women said.
