Chapter 2
2
Lenora English, or Lenny to her family, had known early this morning that something was looming on the horizon. It had been the damn rabbit that had started it. She’d been almost out of the car park, driving home from her shift at the hospital, when it had darted across the road right in front of her car. She’d had to slam her brakes on, narrowly missing it. Making sure no one was watching she then had to jump out of the car, make a sign of the cross on the road and spit into it (which was most unladylike), while walking backwards to her car, praying the security guards weren’t watching her strange behaviour on the CCTV monitors in the office.
When she got home and decided to make herself some scrambled eggs for breakfast, the lid had fallen off the salt grinder as she’d taken it out of the cupboard, spilling salt all over the gleaming white marble worktops. Of course, she’d thrown a pinch over her left shoulder with her right hand, but it had unsettled her even more. Then a few hours later came the phone call she had been dreading.
She was sitting on the sofa, her legs tucked under her as she whispered down the phone to her sister Sephy, afraid that Dora may walk through the doors any moment and hear the conversation that wasn’t for her to know about. At least not yet.
‘How poorly is she, Sephy? Give me a timeline. What does she have left? Months, weeks? For the love of God do not say days.’
‘If you answered your mail occasionally, Lenny, you would have known this was coming. What’s taking her so long this time, why is she not even the slightest bit suspicious of her heritage? It never usually takes her this long, has something gone wrong, do you think? Has she forgotten everything? Lost her memories completely? Maybe sending her away was a bad idea. I hoped this time it would make the difference.’
‘How long has Lucine got, Sephy?’ Lenny replied, her tone firm.
‘You’re the doctor, if you were here, you would know. I can’t say for certain. Come home, Lenny, you can’t avoid it forever. I think you’re using Dora as an excuse not to come back. Well, it’s no good. I think she may have a couple of months if we’re lucky, she’s holding on to see Dora.’
‘But she hasn’t even started the process. Do you remember the last time we did it, when she wasn’t ready for it, and how difficult it was to get her to escape from that dreadful asylum? It gives me the shivers just thinking about that place, those poor people covered in lice and screaming from dawn until dusk. She’s a lot more fragile than the rest of us. More important.’
‘I know she is, and it was so horrid that she ended up locked in that awful place for months. It was lucky for her that you found her and managed to help her get out, but what are we to do? Each time it takes her longer to come back to us, I fear it’s not right. Something is awry.’
Lenny sighed, thinking that you could take the girl out of the 1600s but you’d never take the 1600s out of the girl. ‘Tell Lucine I’ll be there in a few days; I’ll bring Dora too.’
‘What will you tell her?’
‘I don’t know, I’ll think of something.’
The door to the luxury penthouse apartment that Lenny owned swung inwards, and she whispered, ‘Got to go,’ then hung up the phone.
Dora walked in and looked at her. Lenny knew that Dora suspected something was going on, it was always this way and had been since the beginning of their time.
‘Evening, Aunt Lenny.’
‘Good evening, Dora, busy day?’
Dora shrugged. ‘Not particularly, how about you?’
Lenny nodded. ‘Chaotic would be a good word.’ She walked over to the huge American-style fridge in the open-plan kitchen and took out a cold bottle of Pinot Grigio, waving it in Dora’s direction.
‘Would you like a glass?’
‘No, thanks. That bad a day, eh?’
Pouring half of the bottle into one of the fine crystal gin glasses that she favoured over a simple wine glass, Lenny took a large gulp and gave her the thumbs up.
‘Did you lose a patient?’ Dora asked quietly.
‘God, no, my patients are all just fine, I had to go shopping when I realised, we were almost out of wine and you know how that stresses me out, all those people it gets too much.’ She kicked off her black Louboutins and shrugged off her Gucci suit jacket, hanging it on the back of one of the bar stools, then, carrying her glass, went and sat on the sofa. ‘Anything exciting happen today at the shop then? Come on, give me something to cheer me up, Dora, you usually have the best snippets of gossip that make me smile.’
‘Not really. It’s Mabel’s birthday so we went for coffee and cake. She asked if I wanted to go to the bingo, but I said no.’
Lenny grimaced at the thought of the bingo hall, it wasn’t her scene. It never had been and never would be. It was too much like a meeting house full of gossiping Puritans ready to point fingers and see innocent people hang for no good reason. It brought back bad memories.
‘Oh, and this really nice-smelling man came in the shop just before closing. I mean, he smelled so good.’
Lenny sat up; this was interesting. Dora had always had a strong connection with smells and memories.
‘Really, who was he, what did he want?’
‘Well, this is the awful part, I was so rude to him. His poor girlfriend died, and he wanted a floral tribute for her funeral.’
‘How could you possibly mess that up?’
‘He didn’t like the standard stuff out of the book, so I asked him what she liked, and he mentioned handbags and champagne. I offered to make him a champagne tribute wreath for her coffin without even thinking of the implications.’
Lenny choked on the mouthful of wine; she started coughing. ‘You did what?’
Dora shrugged. ‘It just came out, then he told me that he didn’t think her parents would appreciate the sentiment and I started to giggle, well actually I was laughing, and it was awful, but you know when you know that you shouldn’t be laughing but then it makes it even funnier, so you laugh harder? Yeah, well that.’
Laughter from her normally serious Aunt Lenny filled the apartment and Dora smiled. It was so bad that it was funny.
‘Dora, what are we going to do with you?’ Lenny replied. She needed to introduce the idea of the trip to Salem, but what would convince Dora? ‘It sounds like you need a break, and I need to go away for work for a few weeks to the States. How do you fancy coming with me? We could turn it into a holiday, drink cocktails, hang out in seedy bars, find us a couple of cowboys to ride, visit Salem, that kind of stuff.’
Dora looked thoughtful. She seemed to react to hearing the word Salem; perhaps it was triggering some memories.
‘What about the shop?’ she said. ‘I can’t just shut it and disappear for a few weeks; things are a little bit tight at the moment. I could have really done with that sale.’
‘Yes, you can, I can float you some cash to make up for your loss of earnings and pay this month’s rent. You always say no to any financial help, which is very honourable of you, but come on, I want to help you and we both need a break. What about your friend Katie, isn’t she between jobs? Couldn’t she cover for you?’
‘She’s not a florist, she wouldn’t know where to begin with orders and deliveries.’
‘Well, this is important, I can’t miss it. I have to leave Monday at the latest, that gives you three days to teach her how to do it. It can’t be that hard, can it, I mean you manage it.’
An expression of hurt filled Dora’s face and Lenny realised she shouldn’t have said that. It was plain mean of her.
‘What I mean is of course it’s not easy, but maybe you could teach her how to make basic bouquets and she could always tell customers there’s no delivery service while you’re away? Come on Dora, we could have such fun. Salem is a wonderful place. There are all these museums and gift shops – you would love it; look how much you love Halloween, we could get lots of goodies to bring back for the shop to display.’
Lenny was lying through her teeth. Yes, Salem was an amazing place, but the thought of going home filled her with a cold shard of fear. It ran the full length of her spine and left a terrible taste in her mouth that no amount of Pinot would ever remove. When she’d first lived there it had been the most god-awful place in the whole world. But they always ended up back there. No matter how many lives they lived, they always gravitated back to Salem. It was the human equivalent of an elephants’ graveyard to the English women.
‘I’ll think about it, thanks.’ Dora disappeared into her bedroom, closing the door behind her, and Lenny took another large sip of wine. How was she going to convince her niece she needed to come with her? It was a big ask; perhaps the mention of Salem hadn’t even sparked the tiniest of memories inside her? She had hoped that sending Dora away would help them break the curse. The curse that had bound them for hundreds of years. They all knew Dora was the key. That there was a way to save her life.
She laid her head back against the soft velvet sofa and closed her eyes. Maybe it was time they all let it go, and accepted the curse forever?