9. Chapter 9
Chapter 9
Tessa’s fingers set a drumbeat on her steering wheel. She’d been sitting in the driveway of the dragon clan house for a while now trying to decide how much to tell her best friend. She hadn’t planned on telling her anything— yet . Unfortunately Alisha had not reached out with Evelyn’s last name. And if Tessa started questioning Megan about Mia, she would know something was up. At the very least, Megan would think that she was investigating on her own, which would be bad enough. Did she want to tell her everything?
Megan was probably going to be upset with her. Oh, who was she kidding, there was no probably about it. The question was, did she want her to be upset now or later?
A knock on her car window had her almost levitating out of her seat. She glared at Marcus as she rolled down her window.
“Don’t you have some security job you should be doing right now?”
He grinned. “That’s why I’m out here checking on the agitated woman parked in front of the house instead of finishing my dinner. Was wondering if you planned to come inside or if you were going to talk to yourself all night?”
She shook her head at him. “I’m thinking through some things.”
“Well, why don’t you come inside? Dinner is almost over, but I’m sure Marilyn will feed you.”
Tessa loved the clan’s cook. They had bonded over Marilyn’s love for baking and Tessa’s love for eating. She followed Marcus inside and walked with him to the dining room. Eric and Megan were sitting on one side of the table with baby Bella between them, and on the other side was Eric’s sister, Sienna. Marcus sat in the chair next to Sienna where a half-eaten meal waited for him. How long had he been watching her sitting in her car?
Megan grinned. “Tessa. Come join us. We’re just finishing, but I’m sure Marilyn can bring you a plate. How about some pork chops and sweet potatoes?”
At least that explained why Bella’s face had a jack-o’-lantern vibe going on. And she threw her orange hands in the air when she saw Tessa. Eric ducked out of the way as a glop of potatoes flew in his direction.
Tessa chuckled, which had Bella laughing as well while Eric tried to corral her hands with a baby wipe.
“You’re wearing your dinner, young lady. Did you actually eat anything?”
“Bah!”
Megan smiled at her daughter. “You wouldn’t think so by looking at her, right? Come sit down and have something to eat.”
She sat on the other side of Sienna as everyone started eating again. For once her stomach was churning while she tried to decide what to reveal. “I’m good.”
Megan gave her a puzzled look. “Okay, we’ll be finished in a few minutes, and then we’ll have dessert. Marilyn made salted caramel brownies.”
Tessa shook her head. “That’s okay. I’m going to skip dessert.”
Marcus’s fork jerked to a stop midway to his mouth. Eric stopped wiping Bella and stared wide-eyed at her, as did Sienna and Megan.
Megan blinked. “Are you okay?”
“What do you mean?” Tessa asked.
“You have never turned down dessert before,” Eric said. “Hel—” He stopped mid-word at Megan’s glare. “I mean, heck, you're going to give Marilyn heart palpitations.”
Sienna nodded. “Marilyn literally makes notes on her dessert recipes on how much you like something. She calls it TRS—Tessa’s rating system.”
Marcus frowned. “I asked her to make bread pudding the other day, and she asked me if you would be coming to dinner since it wasn’t one of your favorites.”
Tessa smiled. “I’ll talk to her for you, Mr. Sourpuss.”
Megan narrowed her eyes. “So explain to me why you don’t want a salted caramel brownie.”
Tessa tapped her fingers on the table as she tried to decide what she was going to tell Megan since she hadn’t exactly planned to spill it to the whole group.
Megan glanced down at her fidgeting digits, and Tessa stopped tapping. She might as well blurt it out since she was famous (some would say infamous) for speaking her mind, right?
Although maybe she would wait a few minutes before she told them what was going on. Distraction was called for. “So were you able to do some research on the Templars?”
Megan’s eyes lit up. “Yes. I’m actually surprised I didn’t know more about them. They were around from 1120 to approximately 1310. And I was right that they worked for the Catholic Church.”
“Doing what?” Sienna asked.
“There were three factions. One were knights who fought as part of the Second Crusades. Another group were sergeants who were tradesmen, and the third group were chaplains,” Megan answered.
“So they are like the knights we see in all the King Arthur movies,” Tessa said.
Megan nodded. “You have seen their symbol before in movies based on knights. The red cross on the white background.”
Tessa nodded. “I know what you mean.”
Megan leaned forward. “Here’s the interesting part. And I'm kicking myself because I didn’t make the connection at first. This red cross on the white background is on the flag of England. The UK flag we see a lot of the time has the red cross for England, the blue for Scotland and the red for Ireland. It’s a fascinating combination of the three countries’ flags in one.”
“Megs, stay on point,” Tessa urged.
“Sorry. That’s a discussion for another day. Anyway, the red cross is the symbol of Saint George, who is the patron saint of England and also known as the saint for soldiers.”
“And why is that interesting?” Marcus asked.
“Because St. George is someone I do know about. He died around 300 AD. He refused to denounce his Christianity and was killed. But around the time of the Crusades in the 1100s, his story changed to include—wait for it—him slaying a dragon . There are numerous art pieces that show the battle. Obviously it has been interpreted as myth with the dragon symbolizing evil.”
“Or could it possibly be true?” Tessa asked as she glanced around the table at the serious faces.
“Exactly,” Megan said. “We also don’t know for sure if the Templars took on the symbol of St. George because he was the patron saint of soldiers or because of the dragon story. And were the Templars the ones who fabricated the story since it was introduced during their lifetime? Or is it a true story that was brought forth by the Templars since they were fighting dragons as well?”
Megan rested her hand on top of Bella’s head as if to protect her. “The Templars were disbanded in the early thirteen hundreds. And while there was an Order of Christ that many Templars transferred to in Portugal, that order has been gone for centuries. There has been speculation that other groups like Freemasons were descended from the Knights Templars, but nothing to really substantiate that.”
Bella slapped her hands on her high-chair tray, oblivious to the heavy conversation happening.
“So if this group has been gone since the fourteenth century, what does ‘Templars unite’ mean in the second paragraph of the curse?” Tessa said. “A curse that was created by John Baker’s grandmother hundreds of years after the Templars?”
Marcus scowled. “Are the Templars resurrecting to come after dragons in the present?”
Sienna blew out a hard breath. “And we can’t forget that the next line in the curse is ‘blood shed’—if they are coming, I don’t think it’s going to be a friendly meeting.”
Crap on a cracker. Tessa was glad she’d decided to follow Ben. This was too serious to rely on John to keep them apprised of what was going on.
Megan pushed her plate to the side away from Bella, who was reaching for it. “I hope that John’s PI can find a lead on Mia White. She is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to all things dragon and mythology. Maybe she would be able to fill in the blanks.”
Tessa chewed on her lip. It was time to come clean. “Yeah. About that. I need to tell you something. I might not have let John handle the search for Mia White on his own.”
They were all staring at her now. Even baby Bella was quiet as if anticipating something was about to happen.
“And what did you do exactly?” Megan asked.
“Well…I started to go to John’s cabin to convince him to let me help.”
“And how did you know where he lives?” Eric said.
“Megan’s address book. I didn’t just memorize his phone number the other day when I called him. You really should stop using a paper book.” Not the best way to handle things, but she blurted nonsense when she was nervous.
Marcus chuckled before covering it with a cough when Megan glared at him. At least she wasn’t glaring at Tessa, yet.
Eric interrupted the glare fest. “You said you started to go to his cabin?”
“Yep, I was almost there and I saw a truck coming from his house, so I followed it.”
“You followed a strange truck!” Megan barked.
“Yes. Since John is a recluse who doesn’t have people come to his cabin, I figured it was the PI John hired, and I thought I might not get another chance to help. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.” It made perfect sense to her.
Megan pinched her nose. She did that when she was getting a headache. “And where did you follow him to?”
“To a coffee shop.”
Megan glared at her. “Please tell me you didn’t confront him, Tessa.”
So much for avoiding Megan’s wrath. “No.”
Megan blew out a breath. “Good.”
Tessa swallowed. “He…umm…came over and knocked on my car window.”
Megan groaned.
Marcus shook his head. “Because he saw you following him.”
Tessa ignored Marcus’s statement even though she wanted to stick her tongue out at him.
“What did he say to you?” Sienna asked with a twinkle in her eye. Tessa was glad someone was finding this amusing.
“He brought me a coffee and said he thought I might be thirsty after tailing him.”
Marcus laughed and Tessa wished she had stuck her tongue out at him to begin with.
Megan huffed at the security chief. “Marcus! This isn’t funny. What happened next, Tessa?”
“I convinced him to let me help with finding Mia White.”
Eric smiled. “This I’ve got to hear.”
Tessa sighed. Everyone except Megan seemed to be enjoying this too much. “I told him that I’m a friend of John’s and he was reluctant to let me help find Mia, but I wanted to be a part of the search. It didn’t hurt that I had researched her online and brought a bunch of things for us to comb through about her past. We went to Vanderbilt University today and talked to one of the associate professors there who used to be Mia’s TA. Her name is Alisha Brown. Do you recognize the name?”
Megan nodded. “Yes. But I didn’t work with her when I worked for Mia. Alisha was writing her dissertation to finish her degree during that time.”
“I asked her if she knew anyone that Mia might reach out to, and she mentioned Mia’s foster mother Evelyn. But she couldn’t remember her last name.”
Megan closed her eyes for a moment. “I don’t remember ever hearing that name before from Mia. But then she really didn’t tell me too much about her past.” Megan’s eyes popped open. “Wait! I might have a way to find out. I’ll be right back.”
Megan hurried out of the room, and Bella watched her go with a squawk. Before it turned into crying, Eric unbuckled Bella from her chair and held her. “Don’t think you’re out of trouble. Megan is going to let you have it at some point.”
“I know, but I don’t trust John to tell us everything that he finds out. I want to be a part of it.”
“On that we can agree.”
At least she had someone on her side. “I’m just tagging along with the PI. What John doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
A few seconds later Megan rushed back into the room with a book. “This is a textbook that Mia wrote. It’s used in numerous Art History classes.” She sat and flipped through the book. “I seem to remember an acknowledgment page. Here it is. Maybe she mentioned Evelyn.” Megan ran her finger down the page and sat up straight like she’d been shocked. Her Cheshire-cat grin had Tessa’s heart speeding up. “Listen to this. ‘I would never have made it without Evelyn Turner, who was like a mother to me.”’
“Excellent!” Tessa exclaimed.
Marcus nodded. “I’ll have Jonas research Evelyn Turner online.” He turned to Tessa with a grin. “Unless you think your PI would have a problem with that?”
“I don’t know why he would. It could give us a leg up on finding her.” She smiled at her best friend. “And thanks, Megan. I can always count on you.”
Megan set the book down and narrowed her eyes. Uh-oh, apparently she was going to be scolded sooner than later. Time for a preemptive strike.
Tessa held up her hands. “I know. I know. I shouldn’t have gone off on my own concerning this, but I want to help. You all have your hands full with running the clan and the aeronautics company, and I think it makes sense for you to research the history of the Templars in case we don’t find Mia White. And I’m not out trying to find her on my own. I’m working with the professional John hired. I can help him look for her while you guys keep digging into the curse.”
Megan shook her head. “Tessa, I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”
Tessa rested her hands over her heart and fluttered her eyelashes. “Just love me, Megs.”
First Sienna and then Marcus chuckled. Tessa turned to them. “Were the eyelashes too much?”
Eric laughed. “Better that than brandishing a golf club.”
She scrunched her face at him. “I only need weapons when someone has been misbehaving. Remember that.”
Bella giggled from her perch on Eric’s lap. “Did you think that was funny?” He tickled her belly, and she squealed, which had Tessa’s heart squeezing in her chest. She would do anything and everything to protect Bella and Megan from whatever those cryptic words meant in the curse.
She reached for her best friend’s hand. “Are we good?”
Megan grabbed it. “Fine. But I don’t think John is going to be happy when he finds out what you’re doing.”
Tessa’s heart sped up. “He doesn’t need to find out right now.”
Eric chimed in. “I think Tessa is right. We let her work with the PI, and she can make sure we get the whole story instead of having it filtered through John.”
Eric was sticking up for her? Was it because of her earlier reminder about why she would pick up a golf club?
“You have never trusted John,” Megan said to her husband.
“No. He lied to us when we met him,” Eric responded.
Megan’s right eyebrow rose. “And we lied to him, so I don’t think we have much room to judge. If we speak to John, I won’t mention you’re working with the PI, but I also won’t lie to him if he finds out what you’re doing.”
“Fair enough,” Tessa said. “I didn’t tell Ben—the PI—to keep it a secret that I was helping him, so it will come out sooner or later. By that time, even if John is angry, hopefully we’ll have found Mia and she can help us with interpreting the second paragraph on the scroll. And let’s be honest—did you think I would be able to keep out of it?”
“Nope,” all four adults answered at once. Was she that transparent?
They were all sporting smirks on their faces. Why did she feel like she was the only one who didn’t know the punch line to a joke.
Sienna leaned forward. “When did you go to John’s house?”
“Why is that important?” Tessa asked.
Marcus answered. “It’s very important. We need day and time.”
“Ahh. It was yesterday morning around eight or so.”
Everyone groaned except for Sienna, who whooped before putting her hands out, palms up. “Pay up, everyone!”
“What’s going on?” Tessa asked.
“I won the bet,” Sienna crowed.
Tessa gaped at them. “What bet?”
Sienna smiled. “It was a bet on whether you were going to let John stop you from helping with the search for Mia White.”
Tessa looked to her best friend. “Did you bet I wouldn’t do anything?”
Megan chuckled. “Oh no, I knew you would do something too. We all did. I just didn’t think it would be this fast.”
She wasn’t sure what to think of that. “You all bet I would do something?”
The whole table nodded at her like bobblehead dolls. Bella copied everyone, bobbing her head up and down as well.
Marcus frowned. “I can’t believe you waited until yesterday morning.”
“I told Megan and Eric about the curse and talking to John around noon the day before.”
“I know,” Marcus said. “I thought you would do something that same evening.”
She turned to Eric. “And you?”
“I almost had you followed when you left the house that day because I was sure you were already heading for trouble.”
Sienna shook her head. “I knew you would think through things and then somehow become a part of the search for Mia. And I was right!” She started whooping again, which set Bella off with the giggles.
So much for her worrying about telling them the truth. She had actually turned away food when her nerves got the better of her. “Do you think Marilyn has some ice cream to top those salted caramel brownies with?”