He shook his head at me. “As it turns out, I’m meeting with someone who might know a bit more about that alchemy book. It’s been puzzling me.”
“The one with the pages that look fresh even though it’s an old book?” I had felt the magic surrounding the book. We’d visited the collector in New Zealand who’d previously owned the book. But oddly, when Rafe asked her about the alchemy text, she claimed the book had never been hers. She was so insistent that he let the matter drop. I’d felt the magic on the book which Rafe had bought for his collection. It was definitely spellbound.
“Yes,” he said.
“You’re meeting tonight?”
“Mm. It’s handy to know dons who like to stay up late.”
I wondered if the don was another vampire but didn’t pry. It was shocking how many Oxford dons were undead.
I was sorry Rafe wasn’t coming to the knitting club, but the vamps couldn’t work on my dress if he was there, and it was exciting to see the gown taking shape.
Rafe and I parted ways outside my shop, and I watched him walk away until he headed down Rook Lane and disappeared from view.
I was a little late for the meeting, so when I got there, they were already hard at work. Everybody had a piece of my wedding dress, and crochet hooks were flying so fast, I grew dizzy watching them.
Sylvia and Gran were talking quietly as I approached. I heard snatches of their conversation before they knew I was there.
“She could stay young forever,” Gran said.
Sylvia nodded. “It would be better for Rafe if she didn’t age.”
I nearly turned around and ran before stopping myself. This was my beloved grandmother and someone I mostly considered a friend. I moved closer.
“You two aren’t thinking about turning me into a vampire, are you?” I tried to make a joke of it, but I think the horror seeped through in my voice. I thought I’d been clear that I wasn’t interested.
They both looked up at me, so genuinely surprised that I figured they didn’t have some devious plan to turn me without my permission.
“Of course not, dear,” Gran assured me. “We were talking about Karmen, the Wicked Witch of Wallingford. Her youthfulness is entirely unnatural. And she’s definitely not a vampire.”
My heart settled down to something closer to normal speed. This conversation I could get behind. “It is curious, isn’t it?” I looked at Gran. “What do you think is going on?”
“It’s strong magic and nothing I’ve ever seen before. Or she’s an alchemist who’s discovered the elixir of life.”
I nodded. Gran had said the same things earlier. “Speaking of witches,” I said softly, “Mom and Dad are in town.”
“Are they?” Gran stopped crocheting to stare at me. Obviously, she and Sylvia hadn’t checked their phones in the past couple of hours.
“Yes. And you know what that means.”
Gran nodded. “Susan will be vulnerable to being taken over by dark forces. Again. I do wish that stubborn daughter of mine would accept her powers.”
Yeah, probably not going to happen. “It also means that you have to stay out of sight.” I looked at her sternly. “No sneaking up into the back room to have a chat. No little walks into town.”
She looked abashed. “You know about those.” She sighed. “All right. I’ll be more careful.”
“I’m going back to Wallingford,” Sylvia said as though the conversation hadn’t moved on.
“Why?”
Sylvia glanced up at me and back to her work. “To persuade the too-young-for-her-years witch to share her secret. I shall go and see her again. It would be so nice for Rafe if he could count on you for longer than your mortal years.”
I hadn’t liked Karmen, but I didn’t want her being “persuaded” to tell Sylvia her secrets. I’d seen Sylvia at her worst, and it wasn’t anything I wanted to witness again. “You’re not thinking of doing anything bad to her, are you?”
Sylvia sent me a cold stare. “Not unless giving someone a large sum of money is now considered in bad taste.”
“Right.” I would sit down and shut up before I got myself into any more trouble saying tactless things in a roomful of vampires.
I looked around at all the pieces of my wedding dress almost magically appearing. “What can I do to help?” My crochet was about as good as my knitting, but I had a selection of hooks with me. I could learn as I went.
Sylvia glanced over at me. “It’s all right, dear. We have it all in hand.”
“But I want to help,” I said, my voice ending on a whine so I sounded like Hester the permanently petulant teenager. Though even Hester had a piece of my wedding dress to work on, and she looked smugly superior when she glanced my way.
“Couldn’t I at least do some of the ribbing?” I knew what ribbing was. And I was pretty sure I could do it.
Sylvia gave an artificial-sounding titter. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck for the bride to work on her own dress?”
I’d never heard of any such thing. I shook my head at her. “No, it’s not. It’s bad luck for the groom to see the wedding dress before the wedding day.” So not the same thing.
She glanced up at me and said, “Well, if you worked on this dress, it would be bad luck.”
Twelve vampires made various hastily concealed sounds of amusement. I thought about acting like Hester and throwing a fit, but Sylvia was right. The dress would look a lot better if I didn’t have a hand in it.
Chapter 5
When I arrived at the shop the next morning, Violet was there ahead of me looking sulky.
“Good morning,” I
