The Jade Dragon (23 page)

“I was thinking more along the lines of giving your sisters time to calm down. They will come around.”

“Did you see the look in Beth's eyes?” Alanna shivered even though it wasn't in the least cold. “I thought it would be Rosa to cut me off. I expected Beth to be deeply hurt, but she's usually far more forgiving than Rosa. If Beth can't ever forgive me, what will I do?”

“I know it's an old adage, but the saying is true. Time heals all wounds.”

“Unless you harbor them so close to your chest they fester.” All the poison from hiding the truth had spilled out to infect her family.

She felt what remained of any color in her cheeks drain away. Ruth. “So what do we do about Ruth? Can you cast a spell to ensure her silence? Otherwise, the entire town will know everything by tomorrow morning.”

“They won't unless you tell them,” Gregori rested his cheek on her head. He brushed her hair away. “No one need ever know.”

She pushed herself away to look at him. “You don't understand. She may not have said anything yet, but she will. Ruth won't be able to help herself. She'll tell everyone.”

Gregori was unconcerned. “You don't give her enough credit. I trust she won't tell a single soul. Neither will her husband.”

“You don't know her like we do. Before the sun sets tomorrow, I'll be the focus of all the gossip in town.”

“Ruth is lonely. All she's been looking for is friendship. From someone. Anyone. I can't believe neither you nor your sisters have ever seen it. She's been in this town for nigh on thirty years and all this time, all she's done is try to make friends.”

“How do you know this? You've only just met her.” If this was true, then she felt so incredibly sad for Ruth.

“She told me she came to this town as an outsider and found it difficult to fit into a close knit community. You understand the concept, I'm sure.”

“But she found a place for herself.”

“She is loved by her husband, otherwise I fancy she would have left years ago. She's hungry for companionship from other women. She needs friends. She rushes from group to group imparting her knowledge in the hope they will finally accept her. Do you not think she knows what everyone says about her?”

“Have we been so blind?” Alanna shot from her chair. “If all this is true, then why should she now not tell all of Raven's Creek about what I've done and that we really are witches?”

“Her gossip is small stuff. There is nothing small about what happened today.” Gregori stood and followed Alanna as she stepped into the small kitchen.

“I only hope you're right,” she told him and placed her hand under the cold water before placing it against her neck. “What a mess. What a complete and utter mess.”

• • •

Rosa was the first to venture to speak with Alanna the next day while Zelda stepped in to run the Gallery. Beth refused to work while Alanna still lived above it. Rosa recognized her baby sister was deeply disappointed and hurt, but truly believed she would come around, given time to recover from the shock.

“I've tried talking to her,” Rosa admitted to Alanna, “but she won't listen. It's going to take her time to forgive you.”

“If she can't forgive me, I imagine you never will either. So why are you here?”

Rosa's eyes filmed. “I'm here because I love you. It's me you should forgive. I can't believe you've held such a dreadful secret all these years with no support from anyone. That you felt you couldn't tell any of us.”

“I think Zelda knew. I reckon she guessed, but she's never said anything.” At least Rosa was talking to her. “Gregori wants me to live with him in the South of France.”

Rosa wrung her hands in her lap. How could she urge her sister not to go, when she spent a lot of her time at Marylebone and even in Cyprus, the base of Aden's family home. “Is that what you want?”

“I want my family,” Alanna cried. “I want you and Beth, but I fear nothing will ever be the same again.”

“You're right,” Zelda spoke from the doorway to the studio. “It would be a mistake to pretend it is or will be again. Now is the time to start afresh. For you to prove to everyone you're not what you've set out to be ever since the accident.”

Alanna twisted her hands and fingers together and rested them underneath her chin. “Gregori said the same thing, pretty much. He thinks I've been self-sabotaging myself ever since the accident. That I've deliberately broken rules in an attempt to punish myself for my actions.”

Zelda walked over to the plinth to inspect Alanna's work. It was very clear now that the bust Alanna was sculpting was Gregori. “Where is your Dragon?”

“He went home to Cabasson. He said he had business to attend to. He'll be back in a couple of hours.”

“So, are you leaving us?” Rosa felt so sad. Guilty too. She'd never looked deep enough to see Alanna's fears. She was completely at a loss in how to handle this situation, realizing she didn't know her sister as well as she thought.

“I don't know.” Alanna's tone was flat, her shoulders slumped in defeat. It seemed to Rosa she'd shrunk several inches overnight. Her heart ached for her sister. “Perhaps it's for the best.”

“It's not,” Zelda declared. “What's best, is for you, Alanna, to get your magic back by working hard to atone for your past actions.”

“That could take years. I'm doomed either way,” Alanna whispered. “I will live a mortal life bound to Gregori. I will die and he will continue on after mourning my death. I've broken our family unit and will cause Gregori grief in the end. There will always be a gaping hole in my heart and I don't think it will ever be healed.”

“I should have been more observant,” Rosa declared her eyes bright with unshed tears. “I should have been less judgmental. Perhaps if I had been, you'd have been able to tell me everything years ago.”

She looked to Zelda who had never mentioned her suspicions. Not once. “If you suspected something, why didn't you say anything?”

“It was a feeling only. I knew as much as anyone else on the subject. Alanna's blanket silence convinced me there was more to this story, but because she refused to speak of it and because she'd built such huge walls about her, no one could breach her heart or mind. I knew we might possibly never know the truth. Do not judge me too harshly on my silence. You forget I was grieving for the loss of my best friend as well as trying to care for the three of you.”

Rosa rubbed eyes with dark circles beneath them. “Before the accident, even though Alanna has always been willful, she was never unkind or caustic. Beth used to trail around after her, and Alanna always took great care to ensure Beth was included in everything she did.” Her sigh was filled with regret. “I was buried so deep in my own grief, I never saw how much either of them had been affected. Plus I never saw just how much you, Zelda, suffered as well.”

Alanna trudged down the lane towards Clematis Cottage. Beth had refused all her attempts to talk with her. She would try one final time and then she was leaving with Gregori. Her grief — so long suppressed behind walls she'd crafted to keep it contained — now spilled from every pore and follicle. Before she left Raven's Creek, she would try one more time to speak with her sister.

Beth's door was charmed to open to both Rosa and herself at anytime of the day or night. She walked to the gate expecting it to open, but it remained resolutely shut. Her stomach sunk at the insult. Not a good sign. She let herself in and walked to the door, which also did not recognize her. She rapped her knuckles on the solid wooden door. No reply. Nothing.

“Beth,” she called. “Please. I'm leaving with Gregori. I want to speak to you before I go.”

Nothing. She walked around the side of the house to the deck. The door was closed. As were all the windows. She stared out over the yard that led to the embankment where the stream flowed into Raven's Creek.

To the right was Lavender Cottage. It looked as if she would never get to live there. A single tear ran down her cheek. She brushed it away with the back of her hand. No more feeling sorry for herself. She'd cried a bucket load and that was more than enough. From today onwards, she was going to do as Zelda said. Prove to her sisters and Marylebone she was a responsible, talented witch and that she deserved to have her magic back.

That she deserved Gregori's love. She would do her best to prove to Marylebone that she deserved to be Called so that she would never have to leave Gregori.

A movement caught her eye. She stepped down off the deck and sheltered from the hot sun under the Pohutukawa. She heard laughter. Beth's voice. Coming from Lavender Cottage. A squeal. And then Beth erupted from the back door with Goran chasing her.
Sweet Goddess!

Goran caught Beth and swung her up and twirled her in a circle. “Got you.” His voice was filled with laughter and triumph. Beth exploded into a bout of infectious giggles.

“It's back. It's back,” her little sister practically crowed.

Alanna's heart lifted to see Beth laughing. “Beth,” she stepped out from under the tree.

Her sister's laughter dried up in an instant and the delight in her eyes withered.

Goran lowered Beth to her feet. “What do you want, witch?”

“To speak with my sister.”

“I have nothing to say to you,” Beth's voice was cold, emotionless.

Alanna's stomach fell through to the earth beneath her feet. “Then I'll do the talking.”

“Talk if you want. I'm not listening,” Beth spun on her heels, marching past her towards Clematis Cottage leaving Alanna standing alone with Goran.

“I thought she would be the most forgiving.” She spoke more to herself than to Goran. “How wrong I was.”

Goran's tone was full of censure. He scowled at her. “She's as broken as you are. It will take time for her to heal. Go with Gregori. Bind yourself to him. You won't be missed by anyone here.”

Alanna released an involuntary gasp. “Do you really hate me that much?”

Goran's eyes softened a mere fraction, although he stood resolute, his arms crossed over his chest, a sneer on his lips. “I don't hate you. I want to ensure Beth isn't hurt anymore than she has been already.”

“Then listen to this.” Alanna advanced until she was barely inches from him. “If you so much as hurt my sister in any way, shape or form, if you so much as dally with her like you've done with half the women in Raven's Creek, magic or not, I'll hunt you down and make sure your life is one miserable torment until the end of my days. Got it?”

Was that admiration in his eyes?

“Got it.”

• • •

Not long after Alanna's visit to Clematis Cottage, Zelda and Rosa both called on Beth as a united front in an attempt to get her to listen. It wasn't going well.

Rosa pleaded with Beth to at least consider talking to their sister. “Just like I fought to keep our family together as a unit when we were teenagers, so in a way has Alanna. She was afraid her actions would tear us apart. She's tried to protect us in her own way.”

“Strange kind of protection, if you ask me,” Goran grunted.

“No one asked for your opinion, warlock,” Zelda snarled. “Stay out of this argument.”

Zelda gripped Beth's shoulders. “Are you going to allow your family unit to be ripped apart because of something Alanna unwittingly caused? It wasn't deliberate. Reckless, yes, but there was never any intent to harm. In fact, she was trying to devise a spell to protect.”

Beth stood stiff, her eyes filled with what Rosa could only say was, inflexible indifference. This was an attitude she'd often seen in Alanna. It chilled her heart to see Beth taking on that same mantle.

“She was instrumental in me losing my magic.” Beth's voice was cold, emotionless. “I've nearly always taken the blame for whatever she's done. I looked up to her. All this time she's been lying, hiding the truth from us. I don't know if I can trust her any more. I'm stupid and foolish to think everything will always work out. Clearly it doesn't.”

“But that's what we love about you,” Rosa said. “You're the nurturer in the family. The one who believes the best in everyone. The one we can come to for positive advice, to provide calmness in a mixed-up world.”

“And who can I go to for the same?”

Silence. Rosa was shocked. She looked to Zelda who was equally speechless. “Me?”

“And me.” Zelda sat, a rare sign she was more than surprised. Guilt flashed in her eyes. “You always seemed so calm. So contained. As if you didn't need any help.”

“I had to be,” Beth admitted. “Rosa was hurting, barely coping while trying to keep us together and not be split up by the authorities. Alanna was injured and when she healed she seemed intent on creating mayhem every chance she could. Someone had to be the calm, happy one. I thought if I pretended long enough, it might actually happen. And it did. I have been happy.” Beth looked to Goran. “My magic is back. I'm happy about that.”

“Really?” Rosa grasped her sisters' hands as relief flooded through her. One less thing to worry about. “That's wonderful news.”

“Goran advised it was being unbound. I experimented this morning and yes, everything is back. For a few minutes, I forgot I was unhappy. Then Alanna came by and that happiness was snuffed out just as swiftly as a lit candle. She might want me to forgive her, but I don't
want
to. I
want
to be angry with her. I
want
her to know just how much she's hurt us all.”

“You have a right to your feelings,” Zelda stayed Rosa with a hand when she would have protested. “Despite your opinion, I feel you should know Rosa and I are going to petition Marylebone for Alanna to have her magic unbound and for her to be accepted as a neophyte within Marylebone.”