Chapter Thirty
“Well,” said David weakly, “I take it you found my note, Mrs. J.”
Mrs. Jupiter set Bianca down, and the Chihuahua immediately took off at a run toward them. “I did,” she said, “but not before Mrs. Holland came to tell me you were in trouble.”
“We were,” said David, “but it’s all right now. The worst is over, anyway.”
Meredith leaned down to let Bianca leap into his arms, cradling her and whispering reassurances as he and David ascended the low stairs onto the deck.
David grimaced as he caught sight of their reflections in the sliding doors.
They both looked much the worse for wear: his pajama trousers were torn and muddy, his forearm was scraped raw, Meredith’s dress was in tatters, and both of them were covered in scratches and smudges of dirt.
“We’re sorry to have caused any alarm,” said David, “but as you can see, everything is—”
He broke off as voices carried up the hill from the direction of Bednarek’s cottage. In the next moment, three new figures came into view as they ascended the path—Bednarek, Cartier, and Kinley, who gesticulated emphatically with the thick sheaf of papers in his hand.
“—according to the Endangered Species Act, not to mention that the Wood has officially been listed on the National Register of Magical Places since Wednesday. No way in hell are you or anybody else putting a housing development there!”
“Indeed,” said Cartier with a placid nod. “In fact, that’s just what I came here to discuss with Mr. Bednarek. I take environmental preservation very seriously, you know.”
“Yeah, well—well—” Kinley faltered, then deflated. With evident reluctance, he allowed, “I guess we’re in agreement there.”
“Such big fuss over such little mice,” lamented Bednarek. With a resigned shrug, he said, “But I suppose, if they are special mice, is nothing to be done.”
Then Kinley caught sight of Meredith and David and rushed over to them, his exclamation nearly drowning out the sound of a vehicle pulling into the driveway. “Oh, shit, what happened to you guys? You okay?”
Meredith just had time to let Bianca escape before Kinley seized him in a hug—and then, to David’s surprise, pulled him into the embrace as well.
“We’re all right,” said Meredith, then amended conscientiously, “Unharmed, anyway. You and me will talk later, but short version—you probably owe me that ass-kicking you promised not too long ago.”
As car doors slammed shut and footsteps sounded on gravel, the three of them broke apart, though Kinley kept an arm slung over Meredith’s shoulders as they all turned.
From around the corner of the house emerged Florian and Adalynn, who both stopped short by the rhododendron bushes.
“Dad?” said Adalynn in surprise, and Cartier raised a hand in greeting as he and Bednarek proceeded along the edge of the deck.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” muttered Florian. He wiped a hand down his face. “Sorry, Ada. I should’ve known coming here was a bad idea.”
Adalynn tilted her head. “What do you mean?”
Kinley’s expression hardened. “Hey, you got a problem, man?”
The sound of Florian’s scoff was unmistakable, and the expression that passed over his face was unsettling in its familiarity—the same sharp sneer David was used to seeing when Meredith was in one of his rare vicious moods.
Kinley looked as if he wanted to say more, but something unspoken passed between him and Meredith, and he nodded and kept silent.
Meredith stepped forward to face his brother. “Do you?” he asked.
“What do you think?” Florian’s voice was tight, laden with condescension.
Adalynn frowned. “Of course not,” she said. “We were worried when you didn’t turn up at brunch or answer your phone.”
Florian pinched the bridge of his nose. “No, you know what? Fine. You’re right.” From where he stood in the garden, he had to look up to meet Meredith’s level gaze, and for an instant, hatred glittered hard and fierce in his eyes. “I am sick of your shit.”
Though Florian’s tone was harsh, Meredith didn’t flinch.
Perhaps it was no more than a flight of fancy, but David would have sworn there was something new and regal in his posture.
In spite of the absurdity, in spite of his crown being nothing more than a circlet of sweet woodruff not yet in bloom, David felt as though he really were standing in the presence of the ruler of the Midnight Wood.
“Florian—” Adalynn reached for his hand, but he shook off her touch.
“No, this has been a long time coming.” He came a step nearer and made an abrupt, violent gesture in Meredith’s direction. “I mean, what the hell kind of stunt are you trying to pull here? First you make a scene at my fiancée’s bridal shower—”
“What?” said Adalynn in confusion. “No, there was nothing like—”
Florian went on, talking over her. “You make a goddamn spectacle of yourself parading around like that in public, you don’t even bother to show up this morning so all anybody talks about is Oh, where’s your brother at, then come to find you here after you’ve obviously been out all night doing God knows what, and hanging all over this—”
“Careful.” Meredith’s voice was a knife’s edge.
“This guy,” spat Florian, his outstretched hand now jabbing in Kinley’s direction. “So, what, he’s your boyfriend?”
The final word held contempt. Though Adalynn said nothing this time, she now regarded Florian with cool appraisal—a mirror of her father’s expression some distance away.
“No,” said Meredith, and the moment he reached behind him, David stepped up to catch his hand and stand at his side. “David is.”
David couldn’t deny taking a certain dark satisfaction in the way Florian looked as if he were about to choke on his own bile.
“And,” Meredith went on, “I’ve had just about all I’m going to take from you.”
“You’ve had enough?” repeated Florian in disbelief.
“I have.” This time, there was no trace of broken glass, no forced false smile at all, only calm self-assurance.
“I had this idea that I was going to tell you off, but it really doesn’t matter anymore.
I know I’m not blameless when it comes to everything that’s happened between you and me, and you can take your pick from about a dozen reasons why I’m not what Mom and Dad wanted, but you’re not going to come here and go on speaking to me the way you have been, because I don’t deserve that. ”
“Oh, here we go.” Florian ran an exasperated hand through his own straw-blond hair, leaving it spiky and askew. “Playing the victim like usual whenever you can’t handle someone calling you out on your selfish bullshit.”
“You’re right, I have been selfish, actually,” said Meredith. “Adalynn, I owe you an apology, for not trying to get you to see what sort of man you’re marrying. I know there’s no reason for you to take my word over his when we barely know each other, but I still should have tried.”
“For Christsake!” Florian exploded, and advanced toward him, but stopped when Kinley, too, came forward to stand at Meredith’s other side. Bianca ducked through his legs and stood between him and Florian, growling.
Adalynn’s uneasy glance traveled from Florian to her father; a crease formed between her eyebrows. “What exactly would you have told me?”
“He doesn’t—” Meredith faltered at last. “He isn’t—I mean, if it’d b-been only—I sh-should’ve—”
“Don’t see how you expect to tell anybody anything when you can’t hardly talk as it is,” taunted Florian, heedless of Maitland Cartier’s steely gaze resting upon him.
David placed a hand at Meredith’s waist. Kinley gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze. “Hey, sis, you got this. And we’ve all got your back.”
“If you’ll excuse my intrusion,” said Mrs. Jupiter, who up to now had observed the proceedings in silence, “I believe I can aid in clearing up a few matters.”
All eyes turned to her.
“Now, Meredith,” she said, “some time ago I bestowed upon you an enchanted vessel for making persistence-of-memory potion. Did you fill it as I instructed?”
Meredith looked lost. “I d-don’t think—”
“That blue glass bottle you were so taken with,” supplied David.
“Oh! I did, yeah.”
Mrs. Jupiter nodded. “Would you fetch it for me, dear?”
Meredith slipped past them into the house, and David couldn’t bring himself to voice a word of protest at the dirt he was doubtless tracking through the living room.
“And, David,” said Mrs. Jupiter briskly. “Unless I am mistaken, you have about your person a piece of mind mirror, do you not?”
“I—” David patted down his pockets and produced the shard of glass, though he hadn’t remembered returning it there. “I do.”
He placed it in her outstretched hand.
Sylvania Holland now pushed herself off the deck rail. “And one of you is still in possession of the ring of revelation I gave to you, correct?”
With some effort, David twisted the ring from his finger and handed it over as well.
“Oh, come on.” Florian folded his arms. “I don’t know what you people are getting at, but my brother, he’s—Ada, you don’t seriously buy this crap, do you?”
Her voice was strangely distant as she said, “I’m not sure what to think anymore, Florian.”
Meredith emerged bearing the vinegar cruet, which he gave to Mrs. Jupiter.
“I doubt you will like what happens next,” she said, “though I promise you you’ll be better off for it. Still, I’d sooner proceed with your permission than without.”
He nodded, face pale but determined. “You have it.”
“Thank you. I don’t wish to subject you to a full parade of miseries, but I think a few recent events will suffice.”
Mrs. Jupiter and Sylvania held a brief whispered conference, exchanged nods, and began to recite an incantation.