Two drinks later, Alanna was slurring her words. She was also feeling somewhat fortified. She tripped her way across the lawn to Rosa and Beth who were listening to Ruth rambling on about lawn bowls. Joseph was with the men and he appeared to be enjoying their company. Most likely he'd heard all Ruth's stories before.
“Bonjour, Ruth,” she said, breaking out into the greeting Gregori had taught her. “Bonjour, Rosa. Bonjour, Beth.” There. That was it. Her total sum of another language other than her own. Soon she would know more. She hoped to have lots of lovely little French babies to practice on.
Ruth was delighted, Beth amused, but Rosa's lips pursed and her eyes narrowed.
Alanna waved a finger at her. “I'm tipsy.”
“No kidding,” her big know-it-all sister said.
“Yep!” Alanna focused on Ruth. “So when are you going to start our lessons? I've decided to keep Gregori.” She waved her glass in his general direction. “He loves me.”
“Alanna!” Beth clapped a hand over her mouth in a failed attempt to smother her amusement. Rosa's lips pursed even more.
Ruth wasn't sure if Alanna was joking or not. Alanna laughed and looked at her sisters for their reactions.
Still uncertain, Ruth replied, “Any time you want, really. I'm free most of the time. Although,” she paused and tapped her mouth with an index finger, her gaze behind her glasses assessing, “I really don't think you need to learn his language to keep him. From my point of view he's crazy for you.”
“Crazy for me,” Alanna mimicked the words.
Ruth elaborated. “I've seen the way he looks at you.”
Well she would, wouldn't she? She saw practically everything. Alanna winked at Ruth. “I've seen that too.”
Rosa placed a hand over the top of Alanna's glass when Goran wandered up with a bottle in his hand. “No more wine for Alanna.”
Alanna wasn't so tipsy that she couldn't be pissed at her sister. “I make my own decisions.” She held out her glass to Goran. “Fill it up.”
“Why don't you have a juice first,” Beth suggested.
“Not you, too.” But she signaled for Goran to fill her glass with the juice in his other hand. She smiled ingratiatingly at her sisters. “Happy now?”
For some reason Rosa wasn't. Beth was patently puzzled. Alanna heard Gregori's words in her head, his tone gentle.
Behave yourself Alanna
. Alanna tucked her arm through Ruth's. “Not enough to eat and too much of Gregori's delicious wines. Come with me and try some of his private collection. It's a rosé and it's heavenly.”
Unfortunately, her sisters decided to follow. She heard Rosa mumble to Beth, “What the hell is up with her?”
Hell! That was it exactly! She was in heaven as well as in hell. Pretending everything was hunky-dory really wasn't working. She bit her bottom lip when it trembled.
No. Now isn't the time she told herself. Zip your lips!
“Gregori,” she called out. “Can Ruth try some of your rosé? She's teaching me French.”
Ruth colored prettily. “You know,” Alanna said to Ruth as they reached him. “You look lovely today. And your husband, Joseph. He's quite a dish. I don't think I've ever really spoken to him.”
“He's a quiet man,” Ruth said and looked over to him, a genuine fondness in her eyes. “A man of few words.”
Before Alanna could verbalize the thought,
that's because you talk so much
, Gregori murmured something to Ruth, snagged her glass and gave her a new one filled with his rosé.
“Try this,” he said. “Very few ever get to drink this wine. I'd be interested to hear what you think.”
He steered Ruth away, looked back over his shoulder and gave Alanna a fierce silent message. In her now more-than-tipsy state she had a hard time deciphering it but she imagined it went something along the lines like,
watch-it-or-I'll-zap-you-into-a-cockroach.
She giggled and drank some more juice.
Rosa took up sentinel duty on one side and Beth on the other. They were like flypaper. All sticky and bothersome. “Go away,” she flicked at them with a hand. “Shoo.”
“We're not going anywhere. I don't know what's happened, but you're behaving badly.”
“Badly!” A sad bubble of laughter escaped her mouth. “You don't know the half of it.”
Rosa looked about. “Where is Zelda when you need her?”
Alanna focused her double vision on Rosa. “No one can help me.”
She could feel the pain of her past building to an uncomfortable level in her chest. She felt as if it was going to burst through her skin and she would bleed out everywhere.
My beloved. Not here. Not now.
Trust Gregori to immediately sense she was in danger of blurting out everything. It was as if her confession last night had loosened something inside of her. That and too much alcohol. Her eyes widened and she grasped the stem of her glass so tight it actually broke off in her hand. The top of the glass bounced on the lawn and the liquid drained into the soil.
“I appear to be developing super-human powers,” she joked, while her heart raced.
Oh, my sweet giddy-aunt, don't do it Alanna. Don't. Do. It!
“Have you cut yourself?” Beth was all nurturing and concerned.
Rosa picked up the glass and placed in a recycle bin nearby.
Alanna waved Beth off. “I'm fine.” She inspected her hand. Nope. Not a single scratch. She held out her palm for Beth. “See. Nothing.”
But she was shattered, broken and bleeding on the inside. She willed Gregori to come to her aid. There would be no mistaking her anguish.
Help me. Help me please?
He whirled sharply and murmured something to Ruth who nodded and he strode back across the lawn towards her.
What is it?
If only she could see as well as feel the link between them.
I'm lost,
she cried.
Then I'm lost with you,
he replied.
He slipped in between Rosa and placed a hand about Alanna's waist. Just his presence at her side made her feel more stable. “I've something to tell everyone.” The words tumbled out of her mouth. Tears brimmed in her eyes and fell unchecked down her cheeks. She looked up to Gregori. “I wish Zelda was here. She'd know what to do.”
Rosa's features had morphed into concern. She stepped in closely. “What is it?” She glanced over her shoulder and sent Aden a silent message.
Keep Ruth busy.
Beth had rushed to get another juice and she pressed it into Alanna's hand. “What is it? What's happened?”
Alanna looked to Gregori. He looked to her. “If you must say something, wait until we're alone.”
But Alanna knew it would be now or never. Her sisters should know what she was really like. She'd been hiding in plain sight for years. She was tired of the deception. Tired of holding the truth inside.
“It was me,” she whispered, grateful for Gregori's support at her side, holding her up. Otherwise she would be in a heap on the ground.
Zelda walked round the side of the house. “What's going on? I can hear you broadcasting all the way to my cottage.”
Alanna spun, ran into Zelda's arms and burst into tears. “It was me!”
Zelda looked up and met Gregori's gaze. She sighed heavily. “I didn't think it would be today.”
Alanna felt Gregori's start at Zelda's statement. “You know?”
“I suspected. I knew it would come out one day.” Zelda patted Alanna's back with affection. “Impeccable timing as usual.”
Aden's attempt to keep Ruth and her husband chatting failed the moment Alanna had thrown herself into Zelda's arms. Everyone had grown silent, except for Alanna's heart-wrenching sobs and Zelda's unsuccessful attempt to pacify her as Alanna spilled the entire story to everyone standing there.
Silence descended. Alanna shook like a leaf, but Gregori stood beside her.
Everyone started speaking at once, but it was Beth that surprised them all; everyone that is, except Gregori. He'd been in her head. He'd seen her heart.
“You killed them!” Her voice was loud and filled with disbelief. “It was you.”
The quiet gentle one's aura was so consumed by red, Gregori, immediately placed himself and Alanna in a bubble of protection. “It was an accident,” he said. “Alanna has revealed it all to me. She's lived with her guilt all these years, too afraid to tell you.”
“You killed them,” Beth repeated and backed away from the group. “It's you who should have died,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. She whirled away and ran inside Clematis Cottage, the door slamming behind her.
Rosa, pale and visibly shaking, stood wrapped in Aden's arms. “I should go to her.”
“Stay with Aden,” Goran said. “I will tend to her.” The inflection in his tone was like steel when he turned to Alanna. “Perhaps it's best you left.”
“I left a long time ago,” Alanna stuttered. “What you see is a shadow of the woman I could have been if I hadn't been crafting a spell I wasn't experienced enough to control.”
“What I see,” Gregori said, loud enough for everyone to hear. “Is my beloved. A woman who was so afraid of losing her sisters that she felt she couldn't confess the truth to anyone.”
Goran tapped on Beth's back door. Silence. He could feel her distress, so whether she wanted to see him or not, he tripped the locks, invited himself in and made his way to her bedroom to discover her curled in a ball on her frilly lacy bed, crying tears by the bucket load.
He'd been right when he'd called Alanna foolish when she and Beth had accidentally Called him down. And it was foolish to have declared the truth in an open forum. Surely Ruth would be racing from door to door imparting her new, most scurrilous gossip yet. He couldn't imagine what damage that would do to them or their Gallery.
He'd been all set to cast a forget spell when Gregori had stopped him, saying it wouldn't be necessary. He didn't understand why, but he obeyed. He could always do something later, when Gregori was no longer in Raven's Creek.
He brushed a hand through his hair resenting the fact he cared for this small delicate woman. She looked up as he entered the room.
“Goran,” she hiccupped and burst into a fresh round of tears. “I'll never forgive her,” she stuttered. “She's so incredibly selfish, so ⦠so ⦠I never thought I would ever say it, but I hate her. I never want to speak to her again!”
He sat beside her on the bed, gathered her up in his arms and rocked her backward and forward, backward and forward until her sobbing decreased in volume and she fell into an exhausted sleep.
It was a pity he was a responsible Marylebone Dragon. He ached to release his own version of punishment on Alanna, but he'd been around long enough to know retaliation never worked. Beth's gentle nature, her pure-as-snow soul was clouded with an aura of darkness he'd never thought to see in her.
He would instead turn his attention to guarding Beth, ensuring she was safe. He was determined to teach her life could be good and that eventually she would forgive. Because to hate someone could infiltrate the heart and disease the soul, and it would be such a waste to see her head in that direction.
“Did you cast a spell on Ruth?” Alanna sat on the couch, deep in an island of despair and gloom.
Gregori stopped pacing the floor. “No. Why?”
“She doesn't appear to have told anyone what went down this afternoon.”
“She's a good woman. She just needs a real friend.”
“Well, it won't be me,” Alanna said and sunk further into the couch.
“For Warlocks' Sake, woman ⦠You were a mere chit. You didn't deliberately set out to cause your parents' death. It was an accident.”
“How can you forgive me so readily?”
“There's nothing to forgive. Your error of judgment in playing with spells you were not equipped to handle resulted in a cataclysmic event. No one in this world would ever wish it to happen to them. It did. It happened. It's time you allowed yourself to heal.”
“How can I, knowing my sisters hate me?”
“By proving you've grown up. That you've matured. That you will do anything to make amends.”
“I cannot bring my parents back.”
“No. You can't. But you can honor their memory by moving forward. By becoming the witch they wanted you to be. That you were destined to become. Holding that secret inside was slowly eating away at your soul. You can only hide a secret like that for so long before it will fester and come out in some other way. Your behavior had been growing increasingly destructive. If there's one thing I'm certain about is that you have an enormous capacity to love. Use that passion for good. Stop trying to convince the world you're as bad as you think you are.”
“Mindwalk me,” she said out of the blue.
“What?”
“Mindwalk me. Make me forget. Better yet, mindwalk Beth and Rosa.”
“I can't.”
“You can.”
“I will not.”
“Could you mindwalk me back to when I was fourteen and undo my spell?”
He paused. If only he could. “No.”
“Stop saying no.”
“Stop asking and then I will.” His voice was grave. “My father was hunted and killed by his own dragons after using mindwalking as a tool to get information from a mortal. That mortal went mad and my father's mind was so deeply affected he went rogue.”
Alanna flung the cushion onto the floor, her depression forgotten. “I'm so sorry. I had no idea.”
“So you understand why I won't do it, even for you?”
He reached out and she stepped into his arms. “So what happens now?”
“Come live with me in Cabasson.”
Alanna looked into his eyes, so full of warmth and love. How could he still care for her? “I've been hiding my entire life. Now you want me to hide with you in the South of France?”