Chapter 19
Dandelion listened to the sounds of laughter and forks clattering against plates and couldn’t believe her luck. The three women were having breakfast in the dining room this morning, providing her with the perfect opportunity. She kept her body low to the ground as she crept along the hallway and into the kitchen. Deftly jumping up onto the countertop, her tiny paws not making a sound, she sniffed at the various items scattered across the counter. Eggs and spinach were useless so she ignored those, heading instead for the porcelain bowl full of strawberries. She used her nose to find the smallest, ripest berry she could and deftly plucked it out of the bowl. After spotting a few good-sized crumbles of cheese laying next to the large wedge of aged Parmesan, she delicately batted the largest morsel towards her.
Gingerly using her teeth to pick up the berry and the piece of cheese, she jumped back down onto the floor and froze, swiveling her ears to listen. More laughter and noises of eating. The coast was clear! Hugging the wall, her black fur blending in with the shadows, she slinked up the stairwell breaking into a trot as she reached the top. She jogged into Alethea’s old room while still being mindful to be quiet with her footsteps, She was directly over the dining room now, and walked over to the armoire where she placed the highly coveted treats on the ground. This should be a good motivator. She backed up a good ten feet and sat regally, her tail wrapped around her body, resting on her front paws. Mice were such unbelievably stinky creatures. It was better to keep her distance. Her keen eyes zeroed in on the small hole created from hundreds of tiny gnaw marks. She was pleasantly surprised! It was actually making relatively good progress, for a mouse at least.
Priya pulledthe Wrangler into the driveway and the three women got out of the Jeep, their hiking books crunching on the gravel.
“What a phenomenal day! Thanks again for coming up with the idea, Dani.” Priya’s face looked blissful as they walked up the drive and opened the side gate into the backyard. They had spent a long day hiking, and Alethea couldn’t wait to get into a hot shower. She was tired to the bone, and although her muscles didn’t ache yet, she knew her legs were going to be plenty sore tomorrow. Danica had been right. The six mile out and back moderate hike had been a challenge for Alethea but it had been worth it, with a stunning panoramic view of the entire mountain range as her reward.
As they walked through the backyard towards the cottage, Alethea stopped in her tracks. She looked at the large section of the lawn that had been completely overrun with weeds and vines and stared, amazed. All of the weeds were gone and small patches of different herbs wound their way in circles around the birdbath. It would take a while for the herbs to start thriving again, they had definitely been fighting for their lives against the weeds, but Brent had been right, there they were. As she got closer, she saw rosemary, sage and marjoram and then recognized catmint and oregano, lemon balm and spearmint, too. Small patches of purple deadnettle and red clover had been left and were lining the far end. She was stunned, how did this happen? Looking over at her two friends who were standing next to each other, Danica‘s arm resting on Priya’s shoulder, both watching her and smiling, she figured she might have a pretty good idea.
“Did you guys do this?” Alethea was in awe.
Danica shook her head. “Nope. Brent pulled us aside yesterday and asked if we could get you out of the house for the day, hence the impromptu hiking trip. He said he wanted to surprise you with it.”
Alethea had no control over the huge smile that spread across her face, nor the warm tingling that filled her chest. Brent had done this for her? She was still in disbelief. It must have taken him all day! The small circular pathway that wound around the garden had been reformed, using tiny white gravel stones. Even though the herbs were still just scraggly patches at the moment, Alethea could picture how beautiful the circular rows would look once they filled in with new growth.
“So are you going to say it or are you going to make me do it?” Danica had her arms folded across her chest and was looking at Alethea.
“Say what?”
“That I was right. Face it, he’s got the hots for you. And I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t mind getting a taste of the Muffin Man yourself!”
Priya almost doubled over in laughter at Danica’s brashness, and despite Alethea’s best efforts, she couldn’t stop herself from laughing as well. “Seriously, the stuff that comes out of your mouth sometimes. You can be so ridiculous!” That was as close to admitting that Danica was right as her friend was going to get. But judging from the smirk on Danica’s face, it was enough.
…..
Alethea turned over on her side and rearranged her pillows for the thousandth time. Frustrated, she reached over to grab her phone off of the nightstand and checked the time. It was only midnight, but she felt like she had been tossing and turning forever. It looked like it was going to be yet another sleepless night, so she might as well go into the house and read if she was going to be awake anyway.
As she put on the kettle to make a cup of tea, she noticed the yellow notecard in Brent’s grandmother’s handwriting that she had thrown on the counter. She picked it up and read the herbs listed out. Lemon balm, mint, deadnettle, sage and rosemary. The odd combination of flavors didn’t sound particularly appealing, but now she was curious. Grabbing a pair of scissors from the drawer, she walked out back, the light of the moon bright enough to illuminate the path in front of her. She snipped off a few sprigs of each herb listed and went back inside, washing them off in a bowl of cool, fresh water as the notecard instructed. Once she had shaken off the excess water and patted them dry, she gave them a coarse chop and filled a loose-leaf tea holder with the mixture. The sound of the tea kettle whistling was extra loud in the still of the night, and she carefully poured the boiling liquid into the raspberry colored mug, sitting down to read for a few minutes while the tea steeped. Dandelion wove around her ankles, purring so loudly that she sounded like a revving engine.
Alethea held the mug up to her face and deeply drew in the fragrance. It really was a strange combination, those herbs together. It didn’t actually smell bad, just incongruent. Brent”s grandmother’s note said to drink the tea all in one sitting, so she gulped the tea down in a few large swigs after it had cooled enough. “I really hope this does the trick,” she said to Dandelion, who was watching her from the floor with interest. Book in hand, she was about to get back to her reading when suddenly her eyelids felt heavy. Whoa, this must be some powerful tea. A warm, sleepy feeling started creeping over her body, traveling from her toes all the way up to the crown of her head. She scooped Dandelion up in her arms and locked the kitchen door behind her, walking through the little moonlit path in the backyard back to the cottage.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, her overactive mind that was constantly buzzing with thoughts seemed to quiet. She felt calm, really calm. Even though she was getting more drowsy by the second, her thoughts seemed so much more clear than they had been lately. She had barely gotten herself into bed and pulled the thin summer-weight quilt up over her bare shoulder when Alethea fell into the deepest, most restful sleep she might have ever had.
…
Someone was mowingtheir lawn in the distance and the sunlight beckoned Alethea to open her eyes. She stretched with her whole body, reaching her arms high up over her head and let out a giant yawn. Wiggling her toes, she looked up at the ceiling and took a couple deep breaths. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this content. Wow, what a difference a good night’s sleep could make! For that matter, what time was it? She reached over for her phone. It was only 7:00 am. She was surprised she felt this well-rested after barely six hours of sleep.
She took her time showering and getting dressed, deciding on a denim dress and a pair of tan huaraches that were so broken-in they felt like you were wearing slippers. A smile kept playing at her lips, and she couldn’t help but hum along to the music coming out of her phone as she swept up her hair into a large bun piled high on the top of her head. Despite the fact that her life was a mess and either magic was real, or she was slowly losing her grip on reality, Alethea’s mood was decidedly sunny. She knew she should be worrying about the ramifications of what had been happening to her, but her thoughts kept straying to the herb garden instead. In all the years she had been with Jackson, he had never once done something so thoughtful. And yet here was a man she barely knew who had spent a whole day picking through scraggly brambles for no reason other than to do something nice for her.
She thought about Brent’s smile and his lips that looked so inviting, like they were begging for her to kiss them. There was no point in denying that she was attracted to him. The chemistry between them was almost palpable. So then why did this man raise her hackles so much? It was like her defenses went up at the mere sight of him and she became all prickly or stand-offish. Yet when she searched her heart, really truly listened to her gut, she felt nothing but trust for this man. She really needed to stop wasting her time thinking about Brent anyway. Letting a little crush distract her from the real issues at hand was harmless, but she needed to stop avoiding things and face reality, whatever that was. Figuring that out was going to be the hard part.
Once she had finished getting ready and had spritzed on a light citrusy body mist, she went over to the house where she found Priya and Danica in the kitchen working on breakfast.
“Well, look who finally rose from the dead!” Danica grinned widely at Alethea as she walked into the kitchen. “Girl, thank god you don’t snore like that all the time or we’d have to rethink this roomie situation.”
Alethea grinned. “Was I really snoring? Sorry about that. It took me a while but once I finally fell asleep, I slept through the whole night. I think that tea recipe Brent gave me might have actually helped.”
“Uh, yeah, and thensome! You do realize you slept for an entire DAY, right?”
Alethea put down her glass of orange juice on the counter and turned to stare at her friends. “It isn’t Tuesday?”
“Sorry.” Priya shook her head. “It’s Wednesday.”
“I slept for a whole twenty-four hours!?” Alethea was stunned. No wonder she felt so well rested. She had never slept more than eight hours in her life, never mind sleeping away an entire day!
“Uh, a little more than that I think but close enough.” Danica reached over and patted her on the back.
“You needed it, your body had to catch up on all the sleep it lost.” Priya paused to measure out some olive oil before continuing, “I’m just relieved you were finally able to get some solid rest.”
“This one kept running over there and checking on you to make sure you were still breathing.” Danica hitched her thumb at Priya.
“I still can’t believe I slept that long.” Alethea plopped down in one of the kitchen chairs and finished her juice, contemplating her stint as Rip Van Winkle.
“You sure do look good though.”
Danica nodded to Priya in agreement. “I’ll say! You’ve got this whole radiant thing going on.”
Oh, if they only knew. Alethea shushed her friends but then admitted that she felt pretty great, too. If she thought about it, despite the spooky stuff that had been happening to her, things were actually moving along nicely with the house. Pretty soon Alethea could list it on Airbnb and start the next chapter of her life. She barely thought about Jackson and Susan now, instead of doing nothing but. And to her surprise, she had really been enjoying being back in her hometown. She had forgotten how warm and friendly the townsfolk were and how much attention to detail was given to making the town look beautiful. Every house had a well-loved garden out front. Some were more practical like an herb or veggie garden, some more tightly manicured with topiaries and roses but all celebrating the bounty of summer in their own way. As much as she would never admit it out loud, she didn’t miss the city nearly as much as she had assumed she would.
Danica tried to convince her to come along on another hike, but Alethea had other plans. She wanted to spend some time looking up locksmiths or antiques dealers who were familiar with Victorian-era trunks. That old hope chest in the attic kept nagging at the back of her mind. The mystery of its contents had fixated itself in her imagination, and now she absolutely had to know what was inside. So while Priya went upstairs to put the finishing touches on a few baseboards, Alethea curled up on a settee in the drawing room with her laptop, searching the listings for someone not only qualified but, given the heft of the trunk, willing to make a housecall.