A Passion for Potions (Petalfall #1)

33. Thirty-Three - A Respectable Gentleman

Thirty-Three - A Respectable Gentleman

Edric

I don’t think I’ve ever resented the words “respectable gentleman” before.

Ana holds my hand all the way back to town and offers me a sad little smile when she releases it before we step out of the woods.

Soon, it won’t matter who sees us together, or what they think... but we’ve all agreed to wait until Viggo is known to the town before we make this courtship public knowledge.

For now, they can guess and whisper.

“I will leave you at the temple entrance,” I say, softly as we walk through the square beside it.

“What has the Goddess done to earn your visit?”

“Viggo’s sister is more devout than most. She will want to visit while she’s here and I am going to ask that they hold one night’s prayer service a week from now on as well... so that Viggo may prostrate himself in front of the Goddess as well as us.”

She smiles up at me and her gaze goes to my lips. I see her sway forward and back again on her heels as if she remembered not to kiss me at the last second. “I will see you tonight?”

“Of course.” I do take her hand, bowing over it the way I was trained as a small child. “We’ll be waiting for you.”

An irritated huff comes from my right and I look sharply at the woman standing there, glaring daggers at me, arms crossed over her chest.

Her mother.

“Who,” she says with the thickest vitriol I’ve ever heard, “are you?”

“Mama!” Ana says, turning and keeping herself between us. “That is no way to treat the Forest Guardian.”

I assume my position and connection to the Queen is the easiest way for Ana to remind her mother to use her manners, but it doesn’t seem to work.

“He should not be touching you without your permission, I don’t care who he is!”

Her mother grabs her roughly by the arm and drags her away as though she was a child, not a fully grown woman and I glare after the woman as Ana scolds her, turning back to me with an apologetic glance and mouthing “I am so sorry,” before she puts her full attention into the argument she and her mother are now fully enmeshed in.

Standing firmly rooted in place, I have to force myself to stay still. If Viggo was here, I don’t know what would have happened.

Because for a moment, I considered violence in retaliation for the way Misses Eventide just handled her daughter.

As I watch them, Ana extricates herself from her mother’s grip and I wish I could hear the contents of their argument. In the end, I can’t tell if Ana won, or if her mother merely gave up arguing in favor of whatever else she had to say.

Shoving aside my desire to go to her, I walk up the steps to the temple and through the always-open doors.

The coffers burning around the edges of the sanctuary keep the gathering place toasty warm throughout the year and I take off my coat as I step further inside.

At the far end of the room, her feet submerged in water, her hands holding bowls of flames, a statue of the Goddess looks down at me. They are never sculpted with a smile, but somehow... the representations always make me feel like she is welcoming me in.

“Welcome back, Lord Edric.”

I don’t correct the temple attendant who stops beside me. They patently refuse to use familiar names. It was a struggle to get them to switch to Lord Edric from Lord Ceylon.

“What can the Goddess do for you?” She wears sheer robes and her hair is woven in braids that curl around her head and over her shoulders and down her back. Her body is covered in silver white lines of enchanted prayers, and one of her eyes has gone completely white as well.

I do not know how long the temple attendants live, but her appearance confuses me. There is an age to those markings and the impossible length of her hair that is not reflected in her skin, or the clarity of her other eye.

I realize I’ve been staring a moment too long and I clear my throat. She shakes her head at me before I can apologize and so, I tell her what I need. “I have friends coming and among them are those who would require night services.”

“Of course, we are always willing to accommodate the Goddess’ night children.”

“Thank you. They will arrive within the next week.”

“And how long will they be staying?”

“I’m not sure, for the moment, I would request that their stay be considered indefinite.”

She dips her head. “Is there anything else you require?”

“Not today.”

“Then I hope you enjoy the rest of the day with the Goddess’ blessings.”

“And you as well.”

She walks away from me, moving, so smoothly... as if on a track and I have no doubt another attendant would silently come to offer me aid if I wait long enough.

But when I step back outside, pulling my coat on, I wonder if I shouldn’t have lingered longer.

A small woman with a devilish glare and a strong grip takes my arm.

“Edric,” Misses Scoggins says—thankfully she has no aversion to using my name. “You’re going to come with me.”

The woman brooks no argument and her shop is nearby, so I don’t bother to fight her. I’ve learned that when humans have something to say, it’s best to let them say it in whatever manner they feel is most appropriate.

But when we get inside and she shuts the door behind me with the loud jangle of the bell, she doesn’t say a thing.

And when the silence has lasted a few heartbeats too long, I say, “Good afternoon, Misses Scoggins. I assume you have some fanciful thing you brought in just for me?”

“For you and not for you all the same.” She pulls out a bolt of fabric and unfurls it on her counter. “What do you think of this?”

“I think it’s a lovely shade of apricot,” I say, knowing that was on purpose, “and also a diversion from what you actually brought me into your shop for.”

Her lips purse and she huffs a little. “Just for that, I am going to make you buy her a dress.”

“Happily.” I wait and she shifts on her feet.

“I see you met the first Anastacia Eventide.” She watches my face and finds what she wants. “It doesn’t surprise me that Ana didn’t tell you her mother named her after herself. Just so you know, if anyone in town refers to her by her full name, they are talking about Ana, not Staci.”

“I will remember that.”

“Good.” Misses Scoggins rolls her bolt up more tightly. “Now, I would not be telling you this if Miss Ana did not light up like a candle around you, but I doubt she’ll tell you... honestly, there’s some of it, I don’t think she knows, herself.”

“I’m not sure I want to hear gossip.”

She smacks my hand. “Nonsense, gossip saves lives. What we know about each other is almost as important as what we know about ourselves.”

“And what do I need to know about Staci?”

She glances out the door, as if she expects the woman to be standing in it. “I don’t blame her for anything that transpired thirty years ago, heaven knows a fourteen year old girl shouldn’t have been put in that position, but... She married Niamiah Eventide because she thought he’d go off to war, die, and that would be the end of him.”

“But he came back.” As is obvious by Ana’s four sisters.

“Yes he did. And I will tell you, Staci did a marvelous job convincing that man she would have taken him for poorer instead of letting him realize she only stayed for the richer.”

“I see.”

“Miah came back knighted, with more money than half the people in this town could imagine, and with a desperate need to meet his baby girl. Back then his parents were still alive and they had let him know that Ana was the perfect grandbaby and was going to be the perfect daughter.

“All five of the Eventide girls are lovely, despite their tribulations. But Staci only cared about the daughter she had before reality came slamming back home at the end of the war and Miah... he loved his girls, but he didn’t know what to do with them half the time.”

“I imagine most fathers have a hard time accepting that they’re outnumbered.”

Misses Scoggins gives me a look. “Well, then Ana started making potions—Eudora started her real young—and he had some way to actually connect with her. Which is probably what made it all worse.”

I hesitate to ask. “How so?”

“Ana is Staci’s best friend. She has a few other friends that occupy her time, but everything Staci does is about Ana. It’s why three of her sisters got out the moment they were able.” She looks toward the potion shop. “I’m sure they don’t hate Ana for it, but I think it would be hard not to resent her a little.”

“No. That would be a difficult thing to understand, especially as a child, and the wounds we receive early are the ones that last longest.”

Misses Scoggins’ eyes narrow, but she doesn’t ask me what wounds I’ve suffered.

“This is the part that I doubt she knows, but that you, especially need to.”

“I am all ears.”

“Pointy ones too.” She leans closer across the counter. “There have been plenty of men who have considered taking her away from Staci. Several of them had a real good shot at convincing her to marry them. A few of those have suddenly left town and set up in the city or another village with an unexpected windfall.”

“She paid them to leave?”

Misses Scoggins shrugs, looking at me like what I infer is up to me.

“Others have disappeared, never to be seen again... one we did find... what was left of him at the base of the crag near the windmill? Seems he took a tumble.”

I open my mouth, but I imagine I would get the same response I did before if I questioned what Misses Scoggins was trying to tell me.

If she can’t pay Ana’s suitors off, she gets rid of them in other ways.

“Accidents do happen.”

“Yes,” Misses Scoggins says, “But we don’t want them happening to you.”

I watch her for a moment. “Are you telling me not to court Ana?”

“Oh, heaven’s no! Marry her tomorrow if you both like. But know the risks so that you can avoid them.” She pats the bolt of fabric. “We both know she won’t look to pay you.”

“No, she won’t.”

Ana’s mother might be a concern, but Misses Scoggins was right, knowing is important.

I head for the door and Misses Scoggins says, “Next time Ana’s in, I’ll ask her what she wants me to make with this and then I’ll send you the bill.”

“Do. And thank you.”

“Of course.” She nods, resolutely. “We take care of each other here. And you’re one of us now.”

The door opens before I get to it and a woman carrying a dozen bolts of fabric trundles in.

“Oh!” She says, bumping to a stop in front of me. “I’m sorry.”

She looks like Ana in the way Mina looks like Ana. Just enough, I’m sure they’re sisters without needing an introduction, but Misses Scoggins steps in to give one anyway.

“Morganna, what perfect timing you have. Let me introduce you to Lord Ceylon. He’s courting your sister.”

She looks from me to the dressmaker and I swear she rolls her eyes before going to drop the fabric on her counter, “You are almost as incorrigible as Mina,” she says softly to Misses Scoggins before turning back to me.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, m’lord.” She curtsies and I grit my teeth. Goddess, I hate that. “I’ve heard a great deal about you and I’m glad to see my little sister hasn’t exaggerated.”

“Oh, I’m sure she has. Mina certainly likes to see the best in the world.”

Morganna looks at me with a small crease between her brow. “And what would she see if she looked for your worst?”

“That... is a question you should ask Ana.”

Tipping my head to both of them, I bid them a good day and step outside, taking a deep breath.

The afternoon sun is still high and I head back to retrieve the picnic hamper and take it home.

I can only hope that misses Scoggins considers me one of them when I bring two vampires into their sleepy village... and keep one of them, too.