Third Time's a Charm (Halloween LaVeau) (4 page)

It wasn’t a woman standing behind me
. It was a group of women, all dressed with clothing that appeared to be from sometime in the 1700s. They wore witches’ hats—big black witch hats. It was as if I’d stepped into a costume party, only I hadn’t invited these guests. They wore long black dresses that buttoned up to their necks. An odd symbol was embroidered on the side of the dress near the waist. It was a knot with smaller knots circling it. They stared at me expectantly, as if waiting for me to explain my actions. They didn’t look particularly friendly, but that fact didn’t really surprise me.

“Hello,
” I said calmly. I didn’t want to scare them and cause any sudden movements or crazy spells.

“What have you done?” one of them scolded me.

The woman shook their fists at me. Their eyes narrowed as their gazes locked on my face.

“What are you doing here?”
I asked.

“Why are you asking us that? You should tell us why you brought us here… and in the middle of the night too. This had better be important,” one of the women said
, shaking her finger in my direction.

Wow, they’d been here for two seconds and they were already angry with me. The women appeared to be in the age range between thirty and fifty—one of them tall, one of them short and the others in between. A couple had dark hair and the other two had light hair. All of them wore scowl
s on their faces. They didn’t look happy with me for bringing them here.

“I’m sorry about the time. I didn’t bring you here on purpose,” I said.

The woman standing in the front who I assumed was the leader let out a loud huff. “You mean to tell me you dragged us back here and you don’t even need us?”

“Oh, I didn’t say that. I mean, I don’t know what I need.” I was completely rattled now.

“I told you that these modern witches don’t know what they’re doing. They need to go back to the old-fashioned way of doing things,” the shortest woman said.

“It’s from buying store
-bought spices and herbs. They should grow their own,” the other woman said.

I waved my arms to get their attention. “Before you all get mad at me for not growing my own herbs, will you please tell me who you are?”

“My name is Rebecca Greene,” the woman said.

Rebecca had a stern face with what looked like a permanent scowl. Her brown hair was twisted into a tight up-do with her hat pointing toward the sky as if it had been starched within an inch of its life.

“This is Kimberly Adams.” She gestured toward the tall dark-haired woman to her right.

The woman had thick glasses and offered a half-hearted lopsided grin. “Hello.”

“Over there is Barbara Crane,” Rebecca said.

The petite blonde woman gave a little wave. Well, at least she was a little friendlier than Rebecca. Maybe they were starting to thaw their icy demeanor.

“And that is Sarah Kirkpatrick.” Rebecca pointed to her right.

The brunette with the long curly hair scowled and shook her head in disapproval. Okay, maybe the iciness was still there.

I threw my hands up. “Look, ladies, I didn’t bring you here on purpose and I’m sorry if there was some kind of mix-up. I’ll figure out which spell will send you back and you all can be on your way.”

Rebecca shook her head.
“Oh, no. It doesn’t work that way. If we are here then it was meant for us to be here. Apparently you need our services.”

I stared at her. “What exactly are your services?”

“We are the Enchantment Pointe Coven,” Rebecca offered.

My
eyes widened. “I know the Enchantment Pointe Coven and you all are
not
members of that coven.”

Rebecca placed her hands on her hips. “Well, of course we aren’t
now
, but back in 1785 we were most definitely coven members. Unfortunately, we were hanged for practicing witchcraft.”

I was back to my life spiraling out of control again. This was crazy. “But why would you be here now? What could you possibly help me with?” I asked.

Barbara looked over my shoulder. I twisted around prepared to see another reanimated spirit, but there was no one behind me. I turned back around. “What?”

She was still staring at me.
“You have the Book of Mystics? Are you the leader of the Underworld?” she asked, pointing at the book still on the counter.

The women’s
eyes widened as they waited for my answer.

“You mean the Underworld was around back then?” I asked.

“Oh, it’s been around for a long time. I don’t know how long, but it was very much in existence when we were alive,” Rebecca said.

I released a deep breath. “To answer your question, yes, I am the leader of the Underworld.”

They stared at me incredulously.

Rebecca said, “Well, we’re sorry if we’ve been rude, but you have to understand that it is a strain on us to come all this way.”

I nodded. “I’m sorry again, but the book has a mind of its own sometimes.”

She
scowled. “I never knew another leader to have any problems with the spells.”

I frowned
. “Yeah, well, I’m still learning my way around the spellcasting thing.”

“You don’t look that young. You should have figured it out by now,” Barbara said.

I wasn’t going to have this conversation with them tonight. I was too tired to debate my bad witchcraft skills. What would Nicolas say when he saw these women?

“Well, apparently we are here for a reason. We have to figure out what that is and remedy it so we can leave,” Rebecca said.

The women nodded in unison. I bet I wanted them to leave more than they wanted to leave.

Rebecca looked around the room,
then said, “But it is late and I am not doing anything tonight. We will rest for the evening and start fresh first thing in the morning.”

What was I supposed to do with a group of four women? They’d have to share rooms. The only paying guests I’d ever had in my bed
-and-breakfast were Nicolas and Liam. And that had only lasted a short time. I couldn’t ask them to pay now. So technically, if I didn’t get a paying guest soon, I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay the light bill.

I released a deep breath.
“Fine. I guess you’ll have to stay here for the night.”

“Well, you certainly can’t expect us to stay outside,” Kimberly huffed.
The woman cackled and the sound echoed across the room.

“Don’t be too loud,” I said, holding my index finger up to my mouth.

“Do you have any guests at the moment?” Sarah asked.

The women looked at me expectantly for an answer.

“Yes, I do have a guest, and he is sleeping. I’ll show you to your rooms,” I said.

I motioned for the women to follow me up the stairs. Their heavy black boots echoed across the floor as they marched behind me.

“I hope you’ll be comfortable in the rooms,” I said, trying to make small talk. I wasn’t sure what to say. There was a bit of time gap. We probably couldn’t chitchat about current events.

“I’m sure they’ll be adequate,” Rebecca said.

I glanced over my shoulder and gave a little smile. She didn’t return the sentiment. That scowl was permanently on her face. There was probably nothing I could say that would make her smile. With their cold personalities, I definitely didn’t want them to hang around for long, so I’d have to find a way to get rid of them.

Once we reached the second floor, and I motioned for the women to follow me down the hallway, they stopped. I turned around and looked at them.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“What is on the third floor?” Rebecca asked, pointing up.

“There are a couple rooms up there, but that is where my other guest is staying.”

I didn’t want to tell them that my other guest was really staying in my room. There was no reason they needed to know that. Now if I could just keep them from waking Nicolas.

“Why aren’t we staying up there?” Kimberly asked.

“Because you’re staying down here,” I said matter-of-factly.

With that, I continued my way down the hall, not giving them a chance to ask more questions about the third floor. Why were they interested in the third floor, anyway? Had they sensed something? Did they know about the history of the LaVeau Manor attic? I needed them on the same floor as me so that I could keep an eye on them. I’d learned that from previous experience. Not to mention that the access to the attic was on the third floor. After finding the book up there, I wasn’t sure what else would be in that room, so it was off limits to everyone unless I went with them. I didn’t trust these women already and they’d only been here ten minutes.

When we reached the first door on the left, I stopped and opened the door. I stepped into the room and the women followed along behind me. A large wood
en-framed bed covered with a rich burgundy comforter and plush pillows sat against the middle of the far wall. A small table and burgundy velvet-covered chair was by the window.

“Rebecca, you can stay here with Kimberly if you’d like. I can put Sarah and Barb
ara in the room down the hall,” I gestured toward the hall.

“Sarah snores,” Barb
ara said. “I don’t want to stay in the same room with her.”

“I do not snore. You take that back,” Sarah said.

Barbara shook her fist. “I will not take that back. How do you know you don’t snore? You’re sleeping and you can’t hear yourself.”

Their bickering was surely going to wake Nicolas.

Rebecca released a heavy sigh. “Sarah can stay with me. I can sleep through any noise.”

“There are towels in the bathroom.” I stepped over and opened the door. “The sheets are clean on the bed,” I offered.

She nodded, then said, “That will be adequate.”

I shrugged and stepped over to the door. “Follow me, Barbara and Kimberly.”

I motioned over my shoulder and the women trailed along behind me as I made my way down the hallway. When I reached the bedroom at the end of the hall, I opened the door and motioned for the women to enter.

I wasn’t being the best hostess, but it was hard when you’d accidentally conjured up guests. The women stepped into the room hesitantly. It was basically like the other room, other than the comforter was rose-colored, so there wasn’t much to explain.

“The linen closet has towels too.” I pointed at the bathroom.

Kimberly ran over and snatched the piece of chocolate off the pillow that I’d left. She un-wrapped the gold package then popped the candy into her mouth. She groaned in delight as she chewed.
With a mouth full of chocolate, she asked, “What will we have for breakfast?”

I hadn’t thought about what I would prepare in the morning. I wasn’t even sure I had enough groceries left to feed that many people. “We’ll have pancakes and bacon,” I said.

Kimberly’s eyes widened. “I love bacon.” She hurried over and snatched the other piece of candy from the pillow before Barbara had a chance to pick it up. She popped it in her mouth before Barbara could snatch it away. She smacked her mouth as she chewed the candy.

When she finally swallowed, she looked at me and asked, “Do you have snacks?”

I stared for a moment, then said, “Well, you’re welcome to anything in the kitchen.”

I was hesitant about having the women in the kitchen without me, but I couldn’t stay away from Nicolas much longer
—he’d come looking for me soon. I knew he would see the women in the morning, so I wasn’t sure why I thought I could hide them from him. I might as well go ahead and tell him before he saw the coven members. He knew my magic wasn’t perfect, but apparently he liked me in spite of that—at least I hoped he did.

“Please don’t do any magic in the kitchen,” I said, giving them a stern look.

Their mouths dropped in unison. Barbara said, “I can’t believe that you would imply that we will be rude houseguests.”

The women stared at me. No matter if they were offended; I wasn’t taking any chances this time.

“I didn’t say that, but I don’t want you doing any magic. Okay?” I said with a wave of my finger.

Finally, they nodded, but the mischievous smiles on their faces made me wary.

After a second, I turned and walked out of the room. I hoped they followed my instructions. Walking past the other bedroom, I contemplated issuing the same warning to Rebecca and Sarah, but the room was quiet, so I figured they’d already turned in for the night. I’d just have to trust that they would behave.

As I
stepped into my bedroom, Nicolas turned in the bed and looked at me. I’d wondered how he’d slept through all the action.

He looked at me with
groggy eyes. “What’s going on? Is everything okay?”

His bare chest was exposed and the sheet covered the rest of his well-muscled body. Okay, he looked sexy everywhere, but especially in my bed. The glow from the small light in the bathroom glimmered over his handsome face.