Blythe tossed another biscuit, but Lee caught it and stuffed it in his mouth, grinning so she had to look at all the mushed-up crumbs falling out of it.
Lavender pouted. “I could have sworn he was going to say something important to you.”
Matt’s knee tapped against mine under the table. I nudged him back, willing to share the big news with my closest friends. “Well, on our last night together, he did surprise me with a fancy dinner all alone with him on a rooftop overlooking the city.”
The girls oohed and ahhed while the guys nodded in appreciation of the effort.
I pulled the pendant from underneath my shirt where it had been resting against my skin. “He also gave me this.”
Lily shot out of her chair and rushed over to inspect the necklace. “That’s really pretty. Moonstone?”
“And a sapphire. It had been a gift Mason gave to Marian, the woman who was closest to a mother to him, when he graduated from the wardens’ academy,” I explained, rubbing the pendant and wishing Mason were here to give better details.
“That’s it? He didn’t say anything else?” Lavender pushed with a pout.
I smirked. “Well, he might have told me he loves me.”
The girls burst into cheers and congratulations. Lee handed Ben some money.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
Ben folded the bill and put it in his pocket. “I bet him Mason wouldn’t propose yet.”
“Because proposing and getting married are so-o-o scary,” Lily piped up, her brow furrowing for a second. Ben leaned over and whispered something in her ear that got her to stop frowning.
“Why isn’t your handsome beau back with you?” Mimsy asked, walking around the table to refill drinks and squeezing Lily’s shoulder for comfort.
I explained the little I’d been told about the Mordecai case and told them about encouraging Mason to stay to see it through. “But it really irks me that he hasn’t called me back yet.”
“The operation might be serious enough that he can’t,” Matt said. “Although, remember you and I discovered we had trouble communicating with our spell phones, too.”
“That’s right, when I was traveling back,” I said. “You told me you’d called and my phone says you didn’t. And then I told you I’d texted you, and you never received anything.”
Lee stopped eating midbite. “Really? Can I see your phones?”
Matt and I passed our phones down the table to him. While waiting for his analysis, I finished the rest of the food on my plate. Mimsy and Ada cleared the dishes away while we watched our friend swipe our phones, compare, and then use his own to check on things.
“You’re right. I can see where Matt attempted to call you, but your phone never received it,” Lee said, hunching over the two devices he laid on top of the table. “And the same with the text. Weird. Both have full signal now, so I don’t know what’s happening. Let me call someone to see if we can troubleshoot this.”
Our friend scooted his chair away from the table and went into the other room with our phones. His voice rose in concern while he talked to someone about the problem.
Thinking about my brother’s and my missed communications reminded me of my return to Honeysuckle. “Did y’all know that something’s going on with the guards?” After I told them about my encounter with Bagan, I asked the bigger question. “Why would they change their protocol after so long?”
Ben straightened in his chair. “More importantly, how did whoever did it exert the authority to do so without Flint’s knowledge?”
“Bagan said it was the woman in charge. I thought he meant Nana, but it couldn’t have been her.” I looked at my brother in shared sympathy.
He snorted. “It’s pretty obvious who did it if you think about it. Who would want to divide old residents from the new ones? Who would want a full report given to them to keep tabs on everything?”
“Aunt Nora,” we both said at the same time.
Blythe sucked in a gasp. “Ooh, that woman pushes all my buttons. After everything she’s done in the past, why is she all of a sudden asserting her power again?”
It was a good question, and one I wasn’t sure I wanted to answer. My eyes looked up at the ceiling. “You don’t think…” I trailed off.
“What, that our aunt did something to Nana?” Matt asked, his face crumbling from defiant denial to suspicion. “She wouldn’t do that, would she? I mean, she’s always been a little awful in her ways, but I don’t think she would stoop so low. She’s family.”
“To you and me,” I clarified. “And she barely tolerates the notion of me being related to her since it’s not by blood.”
“But we were there for her with Uncle Philip. Especially Nana,” Matt said, shaking his head. “Aunt Nora may be a lot of things, but I don’t think she would risk everything by trying to hurt our grandmother. Right?” He glanced around at the rest of my friends seated at the table.
Ben leaned forward and placed both hands on the wooden surface. “If she is involved, then the law will have to get involved. I can’t believe your grandmother never pressed charges against her after her involvement with the Charleston contingency.”
Matt clicked his tongue. “Nothing would have stuck if we tried to. Although we heard her talk about how Calhoun promised her a rise in power here, there wasn’t any evidence to back it up.”
Before we could speculate on my aunt’s possible guilt, Lee brought back our phones. “I hate to leave you before we’ve settled on a schedule, but I have to go.”
“Is there something wrong with our phones?” I asked, holding mine up.
Lee texted something and frowned while waiting on a response. “It’s the spell phone network around Honeysuckle. I didn’t notice it earlier because I hadn’t tried contacting anyone outside of our town. But I had Dash ride to the
