“Then we may as well go as soon as you’ve had your breakfast. Lunch, now, I suppose.”
I clutched my stomach. “Not sure it’ll stay down. If I get hungry, I can get a muffin in town.”
When we walked outside, I squinted and yanked my sunglasses from my purse. The day was growing warm, but the humidity was uncharacteristically low. A comfortable breeze refreshed the air.
We took the footpath through the park and went into the shop through the back door.
“I think we have some boxes broken down,” I said. “I’ll grab some tape and we can start packing.”
Nora pointed at the storage racks, at a trunk on the top shelf, one I didn’t remember seeing before. “That will work better for the books.” She approached the glass-faced cabinet that held the recipe books and the door swung open to greet her.
“Even the books missed you,” I joked. “I’ll pack the oils and the bath salts. The big tub is almost empty, so if I mix a few new jars, I can pack everything else in the tub.”
Nora ran a hand across the label maker on the worktable with a faraway smile. “I remember the first time you mixed bath salts. Brynn’s Mix.” She turned to me, her eyes watery. “I miss you, too, sweet Brynn.” She opened her mouth and inhaled sharply. “Okay, I’d suggest music while we work, but there’s so much I want to talk to you about. Tell me more about this man you met at Gupta’s.”
I touched my pocket to confirm my phone was there. I itched to call him, but everything in its own time. “I should tell you before one of the local busybodies hunts you down—since you’re in town. He stayed the night Thursday.”
“The busybodies know this because?”
“From what I can gather, Kyle spread the word. Of course, Mrs. Knight, next door, might have said something. They’re all quite shocked, as you can imagine, and dismayed I would be so disloyal to Kyle.” The words came out strangled. I felt them more than I thought I should.
Nora rested her hand on my arm. “Things haven’t been right between you and Kyle for a long time. How easily they forget what he did to you, and how gracious you were to forgive him.”
I nodded, still choking on the guilt.
“We’re not talking about Kyle, now,” she said.
I set my hands on my hips and faced her. “How did you do it? With Fletcher? You said you knew he was the one for you, and yet the two of you stayed apart.”
“To a degree, yes. We had the prejudices of both cultures to overcome, and as young as we were, neither of us was up to the task.” Her eyes shone. “That’s why we enchanted the beech tree. There, we were free from prying eyes. You don’t have the same obstacles to overcome. You and Ian are free to pursue whatever the future holds for you, if you believe you’re meant for each other.”
I wrapped my arms around myself, anxious to call him. “It doesn’t seem quite real, the way I feel. I mean, how do you get so wrapped up in someone you’ve just met? It’s scary.”
Nora chuckled. “Trust me when I tell you I know. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Enjoy each other while you’re young. Fletcher and I lost so many years to public opinion. Your young man must be extraordinary.”
Ian had used the same word. I laughed. “Cassandra says she doesn’t know what I see in him, that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,’ but honestly, Nora, he is the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”
“I’d love to meet him, and then I can offer you my opinion.” She winked at me. “Does he live close by?”
“In Pratt. He inherited his uncle’s castle—not really a castle, I suppose. He calls it a folly.”
Nora plopped onto the stool beside the worktable. “Edgar Oliveiro’s folly?”
“You knew him?”
She looked off into the distance, at something I couldn’t see. “I met him a time or two. Odd gentleman. Some called him eccentric.”
“Including his nephew.”
“The story goes he built the folly to impress a woman, but as you know, our hidden abilities often present problems which are hard to overcome in relationships. A cold, drafty tower might be impressive, but it isn’t enough to inspire true love in the face of superstition. Or, more appropriately, fear of the unknown.”
“Ian said the woman rejected Edgar.”
Nora shrugged. “I didn’t know the man all that well, but I’d heard things from people at the solstice celebrations.” She scoffed. “I’m no better than the biddies in town. It’s all gossip at the end of the day, things I heard from the Wiccan women,” she leaned toward me, “some of whom might have been willing to take up with Edgar in that woman’s place.”
I laughed. “The difference is you aren’t mean-spirited in your comments.”
“That’s a matter of opinion, I suppose. I still want to meet this young man of yours.”
I couldn’t wait a minute longer. “I need to call him. I promised to call him last night, but I crashed and burned when I got home.” I took out my phone and dialed his number.
“Brynn.” His voice was flat.
“I meant to call you last night, but I guess I passed out. In fact, my aunt had to wake me this morning. I had too much to drink...”
“I need to know about Kyle,” he said.
“Kyle?”
“You told me it was over between you.”
“It is.”
“Are you sure?”
My pulse skittered. “Yes.”
He was silent a moment. “Then you can tell me why, when I called last night, he told me you couldn’t come to the phone, and that he was taking you to bed.”
My breath froze in my chest. “He told you what, now?”
“Is that why you didn’t want to see me last night? Because you were with him?”
“No. Ian, I went out with the girls, and when we came home, Kyle helped me inside. That’s all. I had
