Emerald Tablet of Hermes, but also incorporating writings from the Rosicrucian—”
“Good work.” I felt bad about interrupting, but he would give me onerous detail if I let him. “That’s a pretty strange find for a small town in Georgia,” I added.
“To say the least,” he agreed. “It looks to me like there used to be a steeple in the center as well. Is there any possibility the library once served as a church?”
I considered. “It’s down near the old courthouse, so I’m going to say yes. Land records would probably tell us for sure.”
“At any rate, that building was blessed and protected at some point.”
“Anything else I should know?”
“I’m still working on discovering what spell would suck a town into a black hole and create an equivalent dark spot in the ether,” he told me.
I wished him luck with that, thanked him, and rang off. I needed to call Chuch and let him know I was still breathing. That didn’t take long. He seemed glad to hear from me, and warned me that things in Texas were still hot as a nest of scorpions. Montoya had guys looking for me and Chance, he said, and it would be smart of us to stay out of sight.
That trouble felt distant at the moment, so I told him to give Eva my love, and then made my last call. Senor Alvarez reported that the store was doing well, he was taking good care of my plants, and I shouldn’t worry about things at home. I wished that had relieved me, but I wanted to book a flight right then. I didn’t want Alvarez starting to feel comfortable in my pawnshop or in the life I’d built. I wanted to get back to it.
But I couldn’t until I finished things here.
Before leaving the bedroom, I plaited my long hair into a single French braid running down my back and secured it with a nylon band. I found the others waiting for me in the parlor. To a soul, they bore the same concerned expression. Even Butch lifted his head from where he was napping and gave me a worried glance.
“I’m okay,” I said. “Just a bit shaky. I’m sure a home-cooked meal at Miss Minnie’s will work wonders.”
None of them looked convinced, but they didn’t argue. Instead I packed up Butch’s food and water dishes, along with some kibble. Depending on what Miss Minnie put in the soup, it might not be good for the dog. Not that he’d mind. Dogs tended not to care about their health when food was at stake.
“We’re not late?” I asked as we climbed into the SUV.
“Nah.” Jesse shook his head. “We have time. We’re supposed to be there at six?”
Chance nodded. “It’s half past five now.”
I was interested in asking her a number of questions, things only a longtime resident of Kilmer would know. A smart woman like Miss Minnie would have missed nothing over the years; I just had to get her to tell me what she knew.
The ride passed mostly in silence. When we got to town, I gave Jesse directions, and we pulled up outside Miss Minnie’s house at ten to six. Her house didn’t seem to have changed at all—a snug little bungalow painted white with cheerful red shutters.
Chance took my arm as I slid out of the vehicle, a little overprotective but nice. If I wanted more physical contact from him, I couldn’t complain about the way it manifested, could I? Shannon and Jesse followed us up the four stairs to her door, where I knocked.
Miss Minnie answered promptly. As I’d seen outside the library, she was still willow slim, her hair snow- white, and her face wrinkled. She was clad in a button-down dress patterned with a floral print, and her eyes brightened when she saw all of us.
“My goodness,” she said. “It’s so good to have young people in the house again. I hope y’all like corn bread.”
Jesse nodded, Shannon looked ambivalent, and Chance said nothing.
“Thanks. It’s really good to see you.” I gave her a hug because she looked frail and old and she didn’t have her own grandchildren to do it. Sadly, I was probably the closest thing she had to family.
“You too, Corine.” She stepped back to usher us into the small living room.
“I hope you don’t mind. We also brought our dog.”
Almost as if in response, Butch bobbed up from the depth of my handbag and gave Miss Minnie a polite kiss on the back of her hand. She responded with a laugh of pure delight. “Why, he’s the sweetest critter I’ve seen in twenty years.”
Butch preened beneath her attentions and then yapped at me. I was starting to recognize the tone of his barks. This one meant he wanted to get down and make sure the place was safe. I bent and let him get to work; his little nose angled down.
I made the introductions and left it to Chance and Jesse to flatter her within an inch of her life. They didn’t disappoint. Chance complimented the décor and Jesse applied his down-home drawl to tell her that something in her kitchen smelled better than the supper his mama used to make. She blushed and dithered, so it took her a minute to realize she already knew Shannon.
But she didn’t question, just greeted the girl and then invited us all to take a seat in the dining room while she got dinner on the table. I would have offered to help her, but frankly, I was on my last legs. I sank down into the ladder-back chair.
Chance and Jesse followed Miss Minnie into the kitchen. At first she tried to shoo them out, and then she gave in. “I reckon I can get the food on the table, boys.” Shannon and I both stifled a snicker at hearing them called “boys.” “But it would be a great help if you’d slide the leaf into the dining room table. It’s just right back there. . . .”
She had chairs enough already, so I just kept out of the way as the guys pulled off the tablecloth, fitted the extra wood in place, and locked it. The cloth went back on and we were ready to go. Before long, we all sat down with hot bowls of vegetable soup, a platter of piping hot corn bread, and real butter.
I remembered that Miss Minnie would want to say a short blessing first, so I spared myself the awkwardness of beginning before the hostess. I nudged Shannon, who sat beside me, spoon on the way to her mouth. Fortunately, the lady kept it short. She was a considerate hostess, and she put down a dish of cold minced chicken for Butch. He trotted to the dining room as we all dug in.
While we ate, conversation was sparse. We made small talk about where I’d been since I left, and how I’d met Chance. Miss Minnie was quite taken with the romance of my returning his lost keys, as if it meant I held the keys to his heart or something. She made a little joke along those lines, and Chance slid me a weighted look. Everyone laughed politely, but I could tell Jesse wanted me to say that Chance and I weren’t together anymore, not like she seemed to think.
For the sake of honesty, I did. “We’re just friends now, though.”
Miss Minnie raised her brows in surprise. “Does
Chance frowned at me. “Unfortunately, yes.”
After we traded soup bowls for slices of Bundt cake, I felt almost up to bridging the subject we needed to discuss. Even then, I ate a few bites first, not wanting to miss dessert entirely if she took umbrage and chucked us out. Before I could decide what to say, Miss Minnie stood up.
“Go on, now. You can take your plates into the living room. I’ll make a pot of coffee and we’ll just visit a spell.”
“That sounds wonderful,” I said. “Thank you so much. It was delicious.”
The other three echoed my words with real sincerity. Living like we did, we missed out on home-cooked meals and grandmotherly kindness. At least, that held true for Chance and me; I wasn’t sure why Shannon wouldn’t have been eating well at home, unless she suspected her mother of tampering with her food. At this point I wouldn’t doubt it. But Jesse was the lucky one; he had a mother and a father waiting at home. She made pumpkin pie from vegetables his father grew at home. His family sounded impossibly idyllic, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like, sliding into a Fourth of July picnic at his side.
It sounded like everything I’d always wanted.
Five minutes after we sat down in the living room, Miss Minnie brought in a real silver tray, laid with fine
