Chapter 26 Prudence, Loose Ends & I Love Yous
PRUDENCE, LOOSE ENDS & I LOVE YOUS
PALOMA ALLENDE LEADING THE MAYOR RACE!
Paloma Allende is organizing a massive fundraiser to install state-of-the-art fire suppression equipment throughout Crow’s Nest’s oldest buildings to ensure that they are protected against fire hazards.
Impressive gestures aside, with former Mayor Fowler out, it’s Ms. Allende’s race to lose, despite the initiative groups formerly backing Fowler being in the process of nominating their new candidate to replace him.
Meanwhile, Deryn Crowhart, the famed pastry chef of London, New York, and LA, is back on the island. Our sources have stated that the youngest Crowhart has every intention of remaining on Dragons for the foreseeable future and is looking for a suitable space to open a bakery.
In other news, Rhiannon Crowhart has begun renovation of her destroyed bookstore, promising it will return better than it ever was and will honor the history of women persecuted on the island accused of witchcraft. A plaque with their names will be placed on the restored Crow & Cat.
Watch the renovation and watch the plaque. You might find some surprising names on it!
—Crow’s Caw
“So Christian says both old Jerome’s and Margaux’s wills are ironclad.
They did not rely on marriage as an indication of their wishes.
Margaux was named and so is Rhiannon in the testaments.
Your father would’ve had a strong case to Crow & Cat if Rhiannon was to fail the terms of Margaux’s will, but now that he’s stepped aside, all she has to do is stay on the island till summer and voilà, everything is hers.
The auction house, the money, and Crow & Cat. ”
Lachlan bit with gusto into his croissant and pushed Pru’s mug closer to her.
The evening was creeping into the streets of the Crow’s Nest, and Pru found herself at loose ends with her store closed and Rhiannon busy with Victoria and Ceridwen.
Lachlan grabbing her and dragging her to Seren’s coffeehouse seemed her best option.
Only now that he started going down that “what will Rhiannon do” rabbit hole, she regretted accepting his invitation.
She stirred the nonexistent sugar in her tea and tried unsuccessfully to tune him out.
“If you ask me, his plan was very flawed. A subpar airport paperback full of plot holes. He didn’t want anyone to know about his bigamy, but was all ready to assume property once he sent Rhiannon packing prematurely?
Weird. I think something else or someone else is involved, and we just aren’t seeing it yet.
I mean, who knows? We’re on the island till summer, and this being Dragons and things constantly being set on fire…
something nefarious might still come up. ”
Pru listened with half an ear. She had reached the same conclusions during the past few weeks. Things were not adding up. She wrapped her cardigan around herself tighter, took a sip, and made a face at the tepid concoction. Lachlan did not notice.
“Also, seems the picture might’ve been Lisa after all, but she’s off the island and the sheriff can’t locate her to figure out how she even found out about Margaux or gotten her hands on a photograph from family archives.
You can’t google that one. And sheriff said he can’t ascertain who it was that ratted Lisa to Headmistress Nox and got her fired.
The info checks out and Headmistress McHot obviously was right in her actions, but there’s no trail there.
So, like, we have a lot of loose ends to trim in the coming months.
Things to look into, secrets to unravel. ”
Lachlan made a passable imitation of a spooky noise then dipped the rest of his pastry in his mug.
“Anyway, Rhiannon has work to do either way. She’s booked and busy, that girl.
The restoration of the books that Seren and her crew dragged out after the fire was put out.
You know she had Margaux’s journals in fireproof containers?
Clever, clever Rhiannon. Plus the boxes that she had in her storage, and the Crowhart and Fowler Bibles.
And the other ones you swiped from your dad that night, which was awesome, by the way.
Coolest move ever. I call it righteous thievery.
” He licked the crumbs from his fingers and looked at Seren with puppy dog eyes. Seren ignored him. Lachlan pouted.
“What was I saying? Oh, yes, nothing stops our Rhiannon. Law is on her side, so will money, and she already has me looking at a few townhouses in New York—”
He skidded to a halt like the errant golden retriever that he was.
“Oh my god, Pru. I’m an asshole. I’m so sorry! She didn’t, I’m wrong, I… Fuck.”
“Indeed.” Seren was right there with a brand-new mug of tea. As she set it down, replacing Pru’s barely touched one, she gave her a cautious look. “Listen, about Rhiannon… I mean… She’s…”
Seren shook her head, unable to find words that would somehow be helpful. Pru knew that nothing Lachlan or Seren could say would actually help, so she let them both off the hook.
“She’s Rhiannon. She’ll do what she wishes whether it hurts or not. Like the windburn.”
She walked the twilight streets, past the neighbors and the townspeople waving at her and saying hello.
Past the tourists who paid her no attention.
Past the big pudgy ginger cat strolling purposefully down to the fish market, obviously in search of today’s scraps.
He stopped as she passed him by, watching her warily, silently discouraging her from touching him, and once she moved along, he was on his determined, albeit slow, way down to the pier.
Rhiannon was leaving for New York. Well, it wasn’t like Pru didn’t know this was coming.
Rhiannon had told her from the very beginning she was only passing through.
She had never promised her anything. Heck, she didn’t even say she loved her.
Pru went in and fell all by her lonesome, n matter what she thought she had seen on occasion in Rhiannon’s eyes.
It didn’t even matter that she could feel that Rhiannon cared for her. The woman saved her life. Granted, the woman also had a martyr complex the size of Lake Tahoe, but the point still stood.
She found herself standing on the edge of the Viridescent, the new resort behind her, the muted music and conversation too far away to disturb her solitude.
She took a few more steps until the stones felt unstable and flimsy under her feet and stopped, looking into the vastness of the dark ocean beneath her.
A sudden breeze ruffled her hair, and she knew she was no longer alone.
The woman who had all but walked with her this evening, since she had been the only thing on her mind, was here with her in person.
Pru turned around, a few stones escaping from under her sole, making her sway.
The breeze intensified for just one second, pushing her a step back to solid ground.
“I’ll catch you should you fall, Prudence.”
“You can’t promise that.” Pru’s whisper was frail. She could hear the fear in it, and that fear had nothing to do with the edge of the cliff. In fact, she’d take the edge of the Viridescent any day over whatever edge she was living on now with Rhiannon. That precipice felt deadlier.
“You can’t promise me that because you won’t be here to catch me every single time.”
Rhiannon smiled, the stretch of her lips slow and lazy, that knee-weakening arrogance back with a vengeance.
“I can promise whatever I want. And I do promise to catch you, Prudence.”
Pru turned away from her and stood her ground.
“Stop it. Why are you saying this? You’ve never promised me anything before so why are you doing it now?”
She heard Rhiannon’s footsteps behind her, moving closer.
“Is that what’s been bothering you these past few weeks? You’ve been distant. If I didn’t know you better, I’d say wary.”
“I’ve not been distant, Rhiannon. I’m fine. Everything is fine.”
“Oh, I can see very clearly that you are very fine. So very fine, Prudence.” Rhiannon had that unnervingly attractive tone, the one she employed mostly in the bedroom, and Pru got angry all over again.
“You’re impossible. I am not bothered by your never promising me anything. I am fine with everything. So. There. It’s all fine.”
Rhiannon came even closer until they were shoulder to shoulder.
“Clearly, everything is fine. Completely and utterly fine.”
Pru groaned and wanted to smash something. Why was this woman doing this to her?
“I just need to be alone, that’s all. And it should be fine with you. Can you?”
“Can I leave you alone? I can. Will it be fine with me that you are alone? No. Hence, maybe leaving you alone is not an option, Prudence.”
“Would you stop saying my name in that tone of yours?” When Rhiannon only annoyingly lifted that sculpted eyebrow of hers, Pru actually growled.
“Lachlan told me he is looking for apartments in New York for you, and then you will leave in the summer, and even if he didn’t tell me anything, you are still leaving, and…
And… You’re leaving.” Pru finished on a stuttering note and took a few steps away from Rhiannon again.
“Ah.” Rhiannon did not follow her.
“Ah? Is that all you have to say to that? Ah?” Pru thought she was going slightly mad.
“Well, you said you were totally fine and everything was fine, and so what can I say to that, Prudence?” Rhiannon’s voice was unnervingly devoid of any intonation.
“Jesus Christ, Rhiannon, there are so many things to say. So many fucking things. So many damn things!”
Pru was swearing, and for once she didn’t care. Rhiannon’s eyebrow had lifted yet again.
“You sound like there are things that you want to say. Those many things. Those many fucking things. So say them, Prudence.”
Pru felt lightheaded with rage. It had to be rage. It couldn’t be anything other than rage because Rhiannon was being absolutely impossible.
“I have nothing to say. And even if I had, there aren’t any circumstances under which I would ever say it.”
“Ah.” Rhiannon said again, and Pru actually thought she saw red. She balled her fists and in the distance heard thunder. Well, bravo, she was summoning a storm.
Rhiannon looked back and actually smirked, and Pru lifted her eyes to the heavens.
Why me, Goddess? Why me?
“I think you should say what you so clearly want to say, Prudence.” Rhiannon’s voice was much closer than Prudence expected, and she flinched, a firm hand on her forearm steadying her. She shook her head. She couldn’t… She wouldn’t…
“Say it!” Rhiannon’s eyes were tumultuous, the green and silver of her magic swirling dangerously in their depths, and Pru felt hypnotized by them.
“I can’t.”
Rhiannon’s other hand clasped her forearm, and she felt helpless now, surrounded by the scent of petrichor and the fury of the wind.
She closed her eyes and savored it. For the first time, she felt their winds colliding, flying free together.
Tears she didn’t realize she had been holding back spilled.
“I can’t say it, Rhiannon. You’ve perfected the art of martyrdom. And I will never be one more burden, one more responsibility, one more person with whom you stayed out of duty. I can’t be one more obligation. So I can’t say it.”
Lightning split the sky directly above them, and the ocean beneath danced, whipped into a frenzy by the storm.
Rhiannon’s face was one of a fallen angel, perfect, doomed.
Pru reached out and tucked an auburn tendril behind her ear, then traced her cheekbone.
Sharp, pale, beautiful. Her hand moved lower, and her fingertips caressed the full lips, slightly parted.
When Rhiannon spoke, Pru felt it on her skin more than heard the words.
“I love you.”
Pru wrenched her hand away, but Rhiannon caught it and brought it back to her face.
“Stay with me, be mine, on this island, build a life with me at Crow & Cat. Spend a month or two a year with me in New York, in a townhouse a stone’s throw away from Central Park, where you can jog in the mornings and get pretzels and feed the ducks. I love you, Prudence Ophelia Fowler.”
Pru blinked, her tears falling in earnest now. Rhiannon’s face was blurry, and Pru thought that she had never been more in love. Rhiannon remembered her silly dream.
“I was going to follow you to New York, you know. I was going to let you go and then follow you. I was never going to make you choose between the island, duty and yourself again.”
Rhiannon frowned.
“That’s not a very efficient plan of action, Prudence.
I don’t know why you think I’d be sacrificing anything by staying here—” Pru just stared at her and Rhiannon grinned.
“Granted, I was rather pig-headed about the island and my family and what it meant for me to stay, but my sisters and my wayward aunt are helping me. I’m going back to therapy, since it’s clear my issues of guilt run way deeper than I can handle.
I already called in a favor from a friend of a friend who’s a big deal in LA. She will set me up with her therapist.”
Rhiannon smiled against Pru’s fingertips, and it felt like bliss itself. “I am slowly making peace with everything that happened. Margaux’s life, and her death… Well, I will have to learn to make peace with that too.
“And I can work anywhere, so why not here? Where my family has lived for centuries, where my shop is being renovated, where my cat has fallen in love with a magically long-lived possum who worships the ground she walks on. Where a Crowhart and a Fowler already loved once and had never gotten to see their love fly free. And where the woman I love, my fated mate, my Wind, flourishes between the rows of books. You love the island, you love the town, your roots, despite their many issues—Goddess, a Fowler of all people?—run deep here. It seems that I haven’t pulled all of mine out either. And most importantly?”
Rhiannon placed a finger under Pru’s chin, lifting her eyes until they were looking at each other.
“I love you. My life, my Wind.”
Pru felt the words in her bones, in her soul. The thunder above them stopped, the sky cleared. A long rainbow connected the Viridescent Cliff to the Dragon Eye lighthouse. It was a sight to see, yet Pru couldn’t take her eyes off the one she never wanted to look away from.
“Then I guess I have to say it too.” She chewed her lip. Rhiannon narrowed her eyes.
“You have to?”
“I really have to. Not as an obligation. But as a promise. As a vow. To love you, to cherish you, to exasperate you with my possum and my books and my bad cooking.”
Rhiannon’s laughter was all joy.
“I’ll take the possum and the books and the cooking, which is amazing, my love. Everything about you is. Now say it.”
Pru touched her lips to Rhiannon’s for the briefest of moments, looked into the tender eyes watching her every breath, and gave Rhiannon what she wanted most.
“I love you.”