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“I’ve always said she’s the worst kind of witch,” Phil said. “So what are we going to do aboutit?”
“I don’t know.” All I had was Seth’s second-hand report. He’d left the notebook behind in Master Cortland’s house—as he should have. Who knew what chaos would result if my former tutor discovered a book like thatmissing?
But if I understood what Celestine was trying to accomplish better, I might be able to interrupt her magicking. I pushed myself to my feet. “I think I’d better start asking some morequestions.”
Meredith had been out back when I’d returned to the house, checking the new planting in the gardens. I darted to the stairs and down, my gut still twistedtight.
“Rose!”
My father’s voice carried from the doorway of the front living room. I stopped halfway down the hall and turned. He was smiling when our eyes met, but his expression fell as he walked closer tome.
“Is everything all right, lamb? You look upset. And you were running off in quite thehurry.”
My lips parted and then pressed shut again. An ache formed at the base of my throat. I wanted to tell him. Wanted to see his hazel eyes fill with affectionate concern, wanted to hear his warm baritone tell me he’d see that the problem wassolved.
When it’d been just the two of us in our family, no matter how busy he’d gotten with his work, I’d been able to turn to Dad for anything. The nights when the boys had been home and Meredith off-duty, he’d been my whole world. Reading stories to me in the library. Sneaking down to the kitchen with me to grab that last slice of pie toshare.
But Celestine had started to worm her way into our lives when I was ten, and nothing had been quite the samesince.
Whatever he saw in her, he cared about her enough to have promised her his loyalty. Anything else, anything she wasn’t involved in, I could have trusted he’d be on my side. Butthis?
I needed enough proof to makehimsure, beyond any doubt. I needed there to be no way for Dad to argue that I was simply making unfair assumptions. When I had that, he’d have my back completely. I just didn’t have ityet.
I swallowed hard and forced a smile. “Everything’s fine. I just remembered a message I forgot to pass on to Meredith. A little distracted with everything going on, youknow.”
Dad chuckled. “Of course. Well, you’d better hurry and find herthen.”
To my relief, I found Meredith in the gardens where I’d expected. She was scowling at a couple of newly planted lemon trees at the end of a bed of flowers. “These were meant to go on the other side,” she said as I came over to join her. “Well, the boys will just have to dig them up and move them overtomorrow.”
Evening was falling—the gardening staff had gone home for the night. I pitched my voice low so no one could hear from an open window. “Meredith, there’s something else I need to ask youabout.”
She turned to me, her pale eyebrows rising. “Go ahead,Rose.”
With the number of strange questions I was coming to our estate manager with, she was going to start wondering if I’d developed some sort of psychosis. I wavered and decided I was better off playing along with thatidea.
I clasped my hands in front of me. “I just—I guess it’s nerves. With the consorting so close. I can’t help worrying about things that seem silly. There isn’t any way that the ceremony can be… adjusted, to, I don’t know, change the outcome somehow, or hurtsomeone…”
Meredith shook her head. “You’ve spent too much time holed away with all those books. I promise you any story like that is only a fairy tale, child. It’ll be your stepmother conducting the ceremony. I know the two of you haven’t seen eye to eye all the time—and the Spark knows I’ve had my share of complaints—but you must know she wouldn’t mean you outrightharm.”
I didn’t know that. Not at all. But this was exactly why I couldn’t talk to Dad. If even Meredith reacted like this, to a question without anyaccusation—
I focused on the other part of her answer. “Books? I don’t actually remember reading anything about mixed upconsorting.”
“Oh, I’m sure you did when you were younger. Your father collects everything, and you read everything.” She let out an amused huff. “Clearly some idea got stuck in your head somewhere. But the ceremony is all very straightforward. You’d have to really be trying to get it wrong. So set your mind at ease, youhear?”
I ducked my head. “Sorry to botheryou.”
She waved me off. “Oh, badger me whenever you want. I’m glad to talk your head out of the clouds asneeded.”
I didn’t think she’d have been very happy if she’d known I’d taken her advice and then headed straight to the library. Philomena reappeared beside me as I trailed my fingers over the books’ spines, scanning for the section I wanted. Dad’s system of organization wasn’t entirelyintuitive.
“Do you know what we’re looking for?” Philasked.
“Witching stories. Our legends and that sort of thing. There’ve been some collections gathered over the years when people got around to writing them down. It sounded like that’s what Meredith was talkingabout.”
My hand stilled over one shelf.Tales of the Witching Past. Witching Folklore. A Compilation of Witching Stories.“Here weare.”
“And what are we looking forinthese?” Phil leaned her head over my shoulder as I pulled the first volume off theshelf.
