Peach Pies and Alibis (30 page)

He did, giving her another kiss, light as air, before tucking a strand of hair behind
her ear. His fingers lingered at the base of her neck, tracing little spirals on her
skin. “I’ll hold you for the rest of the day if that’s what you need. All night too.”
He gave her a little grin. “Believe me, I’d like nothing better. But I imagine you
want to be with Reba.”

Nodding, she told him about the shifts Verena had created. She didn’t explain that
their bedside vigils were part guard duty. Until the harvest, she wouldn’t know whether
Hugh was one of her kind or not.

“I’ll come with you,” he offered. “Or I could swing by in an hour or so and bring
supper for you and your mom. Trust me, you don’t want to eat hospital food.”

Ella Mae grew slightly stiff in his arms. Did she trust him? She wanted him, yes.
But did she know him enough to trust him? She’d trusted Sloan, and look where that
had gotten her. And Hugh could be manipulated by Loralyn at any given opportunity.
He could turn on Ella Mae and her family at Loralyn’s command.

Except now,
Ella Mae thought, feeling a thrill of hope.
She’s too weak to enthrall him. This is the only time I can truly know if he wants
to be with me or not.

“Supper would be really nice,” she said. “So would your company.”

He gave her a boyish smile and gently released her from his embrace. “Let’s get Chewy
then. He’s been acting kind
of funny all day, like he has separation anxiety or something. I wonder if he knew
you were distressed. Sometimes our animals can sense stuff like that, even when they’re
not with us.”

“I can believe that,” Ella Mae said, following him through the doorway into the central
play area.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Chewy wakes up one day and speaks in complete sentences,
she thought, remembering what her mother had said.
With magic, anything is possible.

Upon seeing her adorable terrier, Ella Mae sank to her knees, laughing as her little
dog raced toward her, barking happily. “I missed you!” she cried as Chewy leapt onto
her lap. His tail wagged furiously as he covered her face with a dozen wet, sloppy
kisses.

Ella Mae drove home to Partridge Hill and took Chewy on a quick walk down to the dock.
She played a brief game of catch with him on the slope of soft grass leading to the
water’s edge, and when he was tired out, she let him rest in her mother’s garden while
she prepared to return to the hospital. Verena had called to report that there had
been no change in Reba’s condition and no suspicious activity or visitors either.

“Were you able to reach Maurelle?” Ella Mae’s mother asked as they climbed into her
Suburban.

“No. I left a message on her cell phone. It’s the only number I have for her.” Envisioning
Maurelle’s trailer, Ella Mae assumed that her employee didn’t have a home phone. “I
told her I was closing the shop for a week and that she was getting a paid vacation.
I’ve already put a check in the mail, and it should get to her by tomorrow afternoon
at the latest.”

Ella Mae’s mother gestured at her daughter’s handbag. “You brought the spider?”

“Yes, it’s in here. I’ll give it to Dee as soon as she and Sissy show up.” She glanced
out at the woods. The trees passed by the window in a blur of green and brown and
deepening shadow. “Hugh asked if he could bring us supper and I told him he could.
It’s just a friendly gesture,” she added quickly. “Let’s not get into why he isn’t
right for me and all that, okay?”

“Suit yourself.” There was a chill to her mother’s voice. “But this is hardly the
time to encourage him. Things are complicated enough.”

It was impossible to argue with that statement, so Ella Mae kept quiet.

As it turned out, Hugh was so courteous and obliging that he managed to charm the
doctors, nurses, and Ella Mae’s mother. He brought trays of chicken salad sandwiches,
homemade slaw, big bags of kettle chips, and rich chocolate brownies. When he presented
Ella Mae with a plate, she protested that she wasn’t hungry, but he coaxed her into
eating, saying that Reba needed her to maintain her strength. He stayed with them
for hours, and before he left, he kissed Ella Mae’s hand and told her mother that
should she need anything, he was only a phone call away.

The next day brought another round of shifts and worrying and waiting. The LeFayes
watched over Reba, studying her swollen throat, the lines on the monitors, and the
nurses’ expressions for the slightest indication of improvement in Reba’s condition,
but there was no change to observe.

Hugh reappeared during Ella Mae’s shift. He read aloud to Reba from a worn, leather-bound
copy of
Robin Hood
that he’d had since he was a boy, his strong, deep voice filling the room with vitality.
Dee thought Hugh had struck upon a wonderful idea and showed up at her next shift
carrying a copy of
All Creatures Great and Small.

On Friday afternoon, Ella Mae ran into Suzy Bacchus in
the lobby. Suzy was carrying two grocery bags filled with books, but as soon as Ella
Mae told her that she was visiting Reba in the ICU, Suzy dropped the bags on the floor
and threw her arms around her friend.

“Are you visiting someone too?” Ella Mae asked.

“No, nothing like that.” Suzy pulled out an old paperback from the nearest bag. “I
have a box in my store where people can donate gently used books. When the box fills
up, I bring them here. One of the hospital volunteers told me that the patient library
had been closed due to lack of funds and manpower, so she and I created our own. Only
with our library, the patients can keep the books they like.”

It warmed Ella Mae’s heart to hear this. “That’s so sweet.”

Suzy shrugged. “It’s the least I can do. I feel like I got a clean slate coming to
Havenwood—that my future is a blank book waiting to be written. That’s a good feeling.”
She hugged Ella Mae again. “Call me if I can do anything for you. I mean it. I’d like
to help. That’s what friends are for.”

“Well, I could use some advice,” Ella Mae said and, over a cup of vending machine
coffee, asked Suzy what to do about Maurelle. “She’s not returning my calls, and that
has me a little concerned. Still, she’s a really private person, so I don’t think
I should just drop by her place unannounced, do you?”

After considering the question, Suzy shook her head. “You told her to take a vacation
and you sent her a check. Was the check cashed?”

Ella Mae nodded. “This morning.”

“Then she took you at your word. She’s dashed off to the beach or to Atlanta for a
long weekend. She’s your employee, remember? She doesn’t have to tell you her plans.
Really, Ella Mae, there’s nothing to worry about.”

If only I could believe that about everything,
Ella Mae thought, thanked her friend, and headed up to Reba’s room.

On Saturday morning, eight hours before the harvest ceremony was to begin, Ella Mae
sat in her mother’s kitchen drinking coffee with Sissy and Dee. Chewy had wolfed down
his breakfast and was snoozing in a patch of sunlight near the back door. When the
phone rang, he was so startled that he leapt to his feet and raced around the room,
looking for the source of the clamor that had interrupted his first nap of the day.

Ella Mae’s mother rushed to answer the phone, and when she did, the lines of worry
on her forehead turned smooth and her face lit up with happiness.

“The swelling’s going down!” she cried jubilantly. “Reba’s responding to the medication!”

All four women whooped and hollered. They danced around the kitchen, embracing each
other and taking turns scooping Chewy off the floor to cover his black nose with joyful
kisses. He grinned in delight as the sunlight streamed through the windows and covered
all of them with a warm, golden glow.

“We’ll still need to maintain our shifts,” Sissy said. “Right up until we have to
leave for the harvest.”

Dee fished a pack of Twizzlers out of the pocket of her denim overalls. “Look what
I’ve been keeping ready for Reba.”

Seeing the licorice twists, Ella Mae’s smile vanished. “If she doesn’t get released
today—and I doubt she will—what happens to her powers?”

“Reba doesn’t need to replenish like we do,” her mother explained. “Unlike us, her
gifts are more about innate skills and years of devoted training and less about magic.
The harvest keeps her body youthful and agile, so she’ll slow down over the winter.
But when the spring equinox arrives, her vigor will be restored.”

“I wish she didn’t have to wait. After all, there’s a killer out there,” Ella Mae
pointed out.

“Once we have a new Lady, Havenwood should be safe,” Sissy said. “With all of us walking
out of that grove tonight with renewed powers, it’s the
murderer’s
turn to be afraid.”

At the hospital, the LeFayes were told that the swelling in Reba’s neck was completely
gone and the doctors were bringing her out of her medically induced coma.

“It’ll take a few hours until she’s fully awake, but you should be able to talk to
her later tonight,” a nurse told them.

Ella Mae kissed Reba on the forehead and promised to return as soon as the ceremony
was over.

Before she knew it, she was standing at the wall of boulders that separated the normal
world from the enchanted one. She was both exhilarated and terrified. In a few moments,
she’d lay eyes on all the magical folk of Havenwood. There’d be no more guessing.
Ella Mae was looking forward to that, but she wasn’t eager to bear witness to the
Lady of the Ash ritual, no matter how moving Dee said it was.

“Go on, Ella Mae!” Verena ordered. “I want to be right on your heels when the Gaynors
realize that you’ve been Awakened! I bet their mouths will hang so far open you could
throw a tennis ball inside.” She laughed heartily and her sisters joined in.

Influenced by her family’s merriment, Ella Mae closed her eyes and stepped through
the rock.

She immediately heard music. Sweet, magical music that played in time to her own heartbeat.
The feathery notes of a harp entwined with those of an Irish flute. Underlying these
airy sounds was a more subtle melody—the soft, high ringing of tiny bells and something
else that Ella Mae couldn’t identify. It was a humming, a slow, steady throb of energy.
It washed over Ella Mae like a wave of pure light.

Looking down, she noticed that she was dressed in a clingy slip of a dress, made entirely
of a shimmering silver fabric. Stars seemed to wink from every crease and fold, and
her bare skin glimmered and sparkled. Turning to look at her mother and aunts, Ella
Mae gasped. All four were clad in shining silver and were as radiant as brides.

“We’ve got nothing on
you
,” Sissy said. “You look like a Greek goddess. There’s not a man alive who won’t fall
in love with you this night.”

This comment propelled Ella Mae deeper into the grove. Wanting to know whether Hugh
was of their kind, she hurried through the apple trees, marveling at the gold and
silver fruit hanging from the boughs.

Coming upon the clearing, she exclaimed in amazement. Women in silver dresses and
men in silver togas stood barefoot in the soft grass, holding unadorned goblets made
of clay. Most of the celebrants were gathered around an enormous banquet table covered
with hundreds of platters of fruit. Clusters of deep purple grapes were tucked alongside
mounds of ripe mangoes. Pears, peaches, and plums were piled next to dates, kumquats,
star fruits, kiwis, and pomegranates. Small trees bearing bright oranges bloomed at
each end of the table, and dozens of pottery wine jugs were grouped at the center.