Chapter Sixteen
Family Secrets
This dinner was one of the most awkward meals of Felipe’s life.
When he asked Gwen to turn off the stove because he smelled dinner burning, he hadn’t expected her to set out plates and convince everyone to talk after eating instead of during dinner.
It was for the best as eating was the easiest way to reset Oliver’s mood and get things back on track.
Unfortunately, over the course of the meal, Mr. Allen had gone from looking as if he were about to go to the gallows to anxiously glancing at the front door as if someone might burst in at any moment.
The innkeeper’s repeated checking made Felipe wish he had donned his revolver under his bathrobe.
Felipe was about to excuse himself to go lock the door when Gwen met his gaze from across the table and set the lock with her powers.
That seemed to calm Mr. Allen, but it did little for Oliver.
After the dog sat in Oliver’s lap and refused to leave, the emotional chaos coming across the tether had slowed to a trickle until he realized their dinner was stuffed cabbage.
There were few things Oliver refused to eat, but this was one of them and there were no other options.
A pile of slimy, disemboweled cabbage leaves sat forlornly on the side of Oliver’s plate while he picked at the rest of his meal and passively sent wave after wave of disgust battering against Felipe’s mind.
Felipe ate his entire plate and an extra helping while barely tasting it, but at least the tremor in his hands had somewhat subsided.
He wished he could do something to fix the miasma of misery hanging over the dining room, but there was nothing to be done, except drag a thirty-seven year old secret out into the open.
The moment everyone was finished and their plates had been taken to the sink to soak, Felipe herded them into the parlor.
He needed to know whether he had to spirit Oliver and Gwen away immediately or if Mr. Allen’s story was nothing more than village drama.
And he wasn’t waiting until morning to find out.
Giving him a forlorn look, Oliver wedged himself against the armrest of the sofa, sitting as far from Mr. Allen as he could manage.
Oliver was probably not going to like what he was about to hear, but Felipe hoped it would at least bring him closure.
If anyone knew families could be far messier than anyone expected, it was him.
“Mr. Allen, could you start from the beginning and tell us all you know about Oliver’s parents?” Felipe asked from his place near the door as Gwen trailed in with Argos at her heels.
“Is the door locked?”
“Front and back,” Gwen replied as she sat beside Oliver.
Nodding, Mr. Allen plucked the wooden figurine of a horse off the end table.
He ran his fingers over its smooth flank and side before hesitantly meeting Oliver’s grey gaze.
“I’m still not sure if telling you this will help or put you in further jeopardy.
I was sworn to secrecy thirty-seven years ago, and I have never told another soul about this apart from your grandmother.
Are you sure you want to know what happened to your parents? ”
“Yes,” Oliver replied, his voice harder than Felipe expected, “I’m sure.”
“All right, though I’m not sure where to begin.”
“The name of Oliver’s father might be a good place to start,” Gwen said as she cleaned her glasses. “I have a theory, but none of us know for sure who he is.”
“I didn’t realize your grandmother never told you, though I understand why.
Your father is Stephen Jarngren. I didn’t know Stephen as well as I knew Joanna.
He was over ten years older than me, and he wasn’t close with my brother.
He was the oldest of the Jarngren siblings; there were four.
Daphne Stills, your aunt, is the second oldest and only living child of that generation.
Stephen and the two younger siblings are dead.
I don’t know how old Stephen was at the time, probably seventeen or so, but he got into a fight with his parents and left town.
My father had been the sheriff at the time, and your grandfather had told him about it.
I assumed the Jarngrens disowned him over whatever it was and that we’d never see him again.
But then, he suddenly came back to town in ‘57 or ‘58 with his new bride, your mother, Joanna. They had met in Philadelphia, which was apparently where he went after leaving Aldorhaven. I don’t know much about their life there, but he went to school to become a pharmacist, apprenticed, and opened the pharmacy that’s on Main Street with John Hughes.
You might have seen it. John and his son run it now. ”
Gwen gave Oliver an I-told-you-so look that he didn’t notice. “What was Stephen like?”
“As I said, I wasn’t as close to him as I was to Joanna, but I liked him, even if I was wary of him at first because of his family.
Stephen could be intimidating if you didn’t know him, especially when he was working behind the counter.
I was always afraid of interrupting him because he looked so serious, but once he realized someone was there, he would flash a wide smile and ask after their families or conditions.
He seemed to truly enjoy being a pharmacist. I think he liked interacting with everyone and helping them.
It was strange at first to have one of the Jarngrens working in town, especially the eldest son.
People didn’t know how to approach him, but Stephen tried to make everyone comfortable.
Soon, he was one of us, which irked his parents and siblings greatly.
They continued to ‘disown’ him and treat him and Joanna as if they weren’t part of the family, which was fine with them.
Your parents bought a little house on the other side of Cemetery Hill, instead of living in the big house like the rest of his siblings did.
But they were happy together, and that’s what mattered. ”
“Did he love her?” Oliver blurted.
“More than anyone. I think Stephen would have left Aldorhaven for Joanna, but she loved him too much to do so. Rest assured, it was a love match for them.” A small, awkward laugh escaped the innkeeper’s lips as he stared down at the horse in his hands.
“I envied Stephen, that he could look at her like that, and that he got all of her love in return. I was in my teens when Joanna arrived, and I thought she was the loveliest woman I had ever seen. Everything I did, I did to impress her. It was foolish, I know, but you never forget your unrequited first love. I was besotted with her, and she was kind to me in spite of it; they both were. They gave me odd jobs to do to keep me out of my father’s way, and sometimes Joanna took me with her when she thought she might need an extra hand delivering someone’s baby. ”
Oliver bit his lip as a warm, grey wash of wistfulness rippled across the tether. “She was a midwife?”
“Yes, and a damn good one too. She could tell when babies weren’t doing well, even before they were born, and she knew when a mother needed extra help after. Dr. Miller hated her, but she was right more often than not. Did your grandmother tell you what her power was?”
“Necromancy,” Oliver said unflinchingly.
“Her power came in handy in unexpected ways. With her delivering babies and Stephen making medicines, they were a good team.”
A silent but hung in the air. The story stood on a precipice, and they all knew the players were about to fall. Felipe wished he could squeeze Oliver’s hand and wrap an arm around him to keep him from looking over the edge at the carnage, but they had to know.
“What happened to them?” Felipe asked.
Mr. Allen let out a heavy sigh and set the horse back on the table.
“It started long before they even came back to Aldorhaven. I don’t think your parents ever intended to leave Philadelphia, but the Dysterwood had too strong of a hold on Stephen.
The longer he spent away from Aldorhaven, the more it affected him.
My father once said that the Jarngrens can’t leave Aldorhaven for long, and I didn’t realize that was literal until Joanna talked about Stephen’s condition.
In Philadelphia, he had started to get sick once he decided to stay, but the longer they were there, the worse it got until he started to waste away, almost like he had consumption.
Nothing doctors prescribed helped, so they returned to town as a last resort to restore his health.
By then, he had been gone for over half a decade, and while he recovered, it had taken a toll on him.
One time that first year, they tried to leave to visit your grandmother and pick up supplies for the pharmacy, but they had to cut their trip short because Stephen’s illness came back.
I remember going to deliver eggs and hearing him in the next room coughing to the point of gagging.
Your parents tried to leave multiple times, but each time, your father grew sicker after and never fully recovered.
At that point, it was clear that the Dysterwood had sunk its claws too deeply into him, and it wouldn’t let him escape again.
“Then, Joanna became pregnant with you, and things changed.” Holding Oliver’s gaze, Mr. Allen gave him a sad smile.
“She was so excited and so was Stephen. They wanted you so much, but so did the Jarngrens. The moment they heard Joanna was pregnant, they tried to bring Stephen back into the fold. At first, Joanna thought they were just trying to make amends for what happened years ago and get to know her better. Daphne had had a little boy not long before, so it stood to reason they would want to know their other grandchild. But Stephen realized his family cared less about them and more about the baby.”
“Why?” Felipe asked.