Chapter 18 Maggie #2
“I didn’t mean to be a thief, I swear.” The young woman was nearly in tears.
“I didn’t want to take food from the restaurant, that people actually needed, so I figured these things would be okay because no one needed them and they were already being given away.
I thought maybe later, if I had money, I could donate it where it was going to go anyway. ”
Maggie’s heart went out to her. She knew all too well what it was to do things she regretted, and to want to make amends.
“No one’s going to punish you for taking things you needed,” she said gently, though inwardly she was crossing her fingers that Hester and Mauro would also see it that way. “What’s your name?”
“Cara,” the young woman whispered, slowly uncurling. Maggie guessed her age at early to mid twenties, but she seemed very shy, or maybe just intimidated.
“Hi, Cara. I’m Maggie, this is Sam, and she’s Charlie.”
“Hi!” Charlie said. “We got lost in the snow. Why are you here?”
Maggie had already guessed why Cara was here, but Cara confirmed it, murmuring with a downcast gaze, “I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“For the holidays?” Charlie asked, horrified.
“Or at any other time.” Cara smiled a little, slowly unbending somewhat. “What are all of you doing out here?”
“We got lost,” Maggie said. “We were trying to find a—uh—” She realized abruptly that she didn’t actually know how much Charlie wanted her dad to know about what had actually happened with the necklace.
But Charlie took the lead. “I lost something important to me.” She shot a sideways glance at her dad. “I didn’t want to admit I lost it, and I—I lied about that, but I wanted to fix everything, so I went out to find it. And they were trying to find me. That’s all.”
Cara brightened a little. “Oh, this is a terrible long shot, but the thing you were looking for—is it this?”
She reached into her pocket and brought out a glittering handful of jewelry chain with winking red gemstones.
Charlie gasped aloud, and Sam made a soft, startled sound. Maggie felt her magpie stir briefly with its usual lust for shiny things, but it settled down almost immediately.
“That’s my necklace!” Charlie darted forward to grab it. “Where did you get it?”
“Yeah,” Sam said, low and a bit ominous. “Where did you get it?”
Cara shrank back a little. “I didn’t take it, I swear! I found it on one of the trails, while I was out looking for something I could graze on. I brought it back with me because I figured it might be valuable and it would just get covered up with snow and lost completely.”
“Well, we’re glad you did,” Maggie said. Sam remained quiet, evidently not completely convinced.
Charlie, meanwhile, was in rapture, running the chain through her fingers over and over before clutching the necklace to her heart.
“Thank you, thank you! I’m so glad you find this.
I was so worried. It was my mom’s, you know.
” Putting the chain over her head, she asked, “What do you graze on? Are you a deer? I’m a mountain goat. ”
“Charlie!” her dad exclaimed. “You don’t just ask people that. Or tell people that.”
Maggie thought Charlie was right that Cara was a shifter, though. They had already speculated that the thief was able to shift. Cara looked down again, flushing.
“We’re all shifters,” Maggie said quietly. “It’s okay to tell us.”
“I’m not sure if you’d believe me if I told you. It’s easier to show you. I need to take my boots off first.”
She slipped her feet out of her boots.
“Just your boots?” Charlie asked, intrigued. “Do you only shift your feet?”
“No, it’s just that I can shift with my clothes, but not boots or purses or anything heavy.”
“You can shift with your clothes?” Her eyes went round.
The only shifters Maggie had heard of that were able to shift their clothes were dragons, but it was simply a rumor, not something she had seen firsthand. So she was prepared, not without some nervousness, for the possibility of Cara shifting into a dragon.
A sudden flood of pink and blue sparkles coalesced around Cara, which Maggie had never seen before; every shifter she had ever met flowed smoothly from one shape to another with no fanfare. The sparkles faded away to reveal ...
Charlie let out a delighted shriek.
Cara was a unicorn, approximately pony-sized, with a delicate frame, a white coat, and a pink and blue mane.
She shifted back again a moment later, although Charlie was still in raptures.
“I didn’t know there are unicorn shifters. Oh my gosh. That’s amazing. How do you take your hair color with you? Dad! I want to try dyeing myself as a goat and see if the color comes back with me!”
“It’s my natural hair color,” Cara half-whispered. “It’s always been that way.”
“Are there more unicorns? Are they all different colors? Can I meet some more?”
Sam put a firm arm around his daughter’s shoulders.
“Charlie, don’t badger her. Why don’t we all go back down to the fire?
Actually, I have an idea.” He glanced at the small pile of pilfered food.
“Cara, in the morning our friends will be out looking for us, and we’re going back to the lodge.
Let’s eat the rest of this stuff tonight, and tomorrow you can come back with us to the hotel and have a hot meal. Something you don’t have to steal.”
Seeing Cara hesitate, Maggie added, “Unless you’re on the run from the law or something?”
Cara shook her head slowly. “I just can’t afford it.”
“We’ll take care of that. I’d consider it a perfectly fair trade for sharing your food, and your Christmas Eve.”
After a long silence, Cara gave a little nod.
Maggie picked up the fruit basket, and Charlie grabbed the snack box.
Her necklace was tucked safely inside her sweater, but when she moved, Maggie could see the gleam of the chain against her neck.
It was oddly not tempting to her magpie, as if it had finally begun to learn that some things were Not For Stealing.
She doubted if it would ever cease to a problem entirely, but it was turning into a manageable problem. She had shifted to fly in the storm, after all. She hadn’t lost her head, or lost control of her magpie. She had been completely in charge the entire time.
Whether or not Hester would let her back in the lodge, she had no idea. But she found that she cared much less than she would have expected. She felt right about her decision. She had done what was right, and she would take whatever fallout came from it.