Chapter 38 #3
“There was a letter sent from Florence Manning to the investors at Saint John who were funding that operation. I got a copy of it after everything that happened happened. Florence Manning was complaining that outside forces were interfering with her work; she asked that an injunction be brought against your parents on behalf of the University in Iceland.”
“But that’s …” Harper stuttered.
“Ridiculous?” Lady Bell chuckled. “That’s what Saint John thought too. Told her to focus on the job, stop being paranoid.”
“I bet that went over well,” Harper said as she sipped her drink, her skin buzzing.
“I am usually not an advocate of anyone telling a woman to calm down, but that one really needed to calm down,” Lady Bell replied. “But she had bigger problems than Saint John or your parents. Florence Manning had angered the huldufólk.”
Harper paused, happy to redirect the conversation that danced dangerously close to breaking her. “My teammate, he said a huldufólk was in our house in the village, and Polly … the cat? She killed one. Are they harmful? Dangerous?”
Lady Bell laughed. “They’re Fae, and cats straddle the line between the Fae world and ours.
Those two factions have been fighting for eternity and will continue to do so.
You know in the village, when a cat has a litter of kittens, the family will keep a candle lit and a ring of salt around them until the babies can fight on their own.
They do it because the huldufólk will steal the baby kittens and eat them.
” Lady Bell widened her eyes in a flash of drama.
Harper shook her head. “Does it work?”
Lady Bell shrugged. “Ritual works even without magic, the act of creating the protections makes the family more aware of the danger and more likely to chase anything out if they poke around. But I like the idea that a ring of salt and a candle are magic more than the logic of it all.” She took a drink.
“But you asked if the huldufólk are dangerous. They can be. All creatures are dangerous when they sense a threat, but generally no. I don’t think your teammate was in any danger, but that doesn’t make seeing one any less scary.
They do like to play tricks, though, knocking on windows, moving shoes that you leave outside your door. ”
Harper nodded. “They knocked on the window when I first arrived, and I saw one in the bushes.”
“They’re checking you out, and I think they like you,” Lady Bell said with a smile.
A large, tawny cat with a fan-like tail entered the sitting room and flopped down on the rug in front of the fire.
“Hello,” Lady Bell said to the creature.
“Speaking of magical creatures, we seem to be overrun with cats.”
“Does that happen often?” Harper asked.
“No, it doesn’t. It’s strange even for a strange place.
I don’t exactly have a roster, but I would wager that most every cat from the village is up here at the moment.
They’re all about the grounds as well. I do hope they had the sense to go in out of the rain.
I had Anna leave the grounds sheds open for them. ”
“Does everyone on Bell see the … huldufólk?” Harper asked hesitantly. “Does Anna see them?”
Lady Bell regarded Harper with a sly look on her face.
“You’d have to ask Anna yourself. I think that would be nice.
You two seem like you get along well. She’ll have her hands full with this weather, especially after it clears …
but right now, before she has to tend to sandbags and road closures, I would wager that Anna has time for a conversation. ”
Harper felt herself flush. “Anna’s been kind, I don’t know her well, but I think we could be good friends.”
Lady Bell had an amused smile on her lips. “Yes, I rather think that too. Yes, we should make sure you two ‘friends’ get some time together while you’re here.”
Harper set her drink on the end table and buried her face in her hands. “I’m obvious, aren’t I?”
Lady Bell set her own drink down and shuffled over to the love seat, where she took Harper’s hands from her face and held them in hers. Harper was overcome with the scent of lavender and cinnamon that wafted from her skin and hair.
“You are delightfully obvious, and I’ve known Anna for quite some time, and she’s no more subtle. It’s good to open your heart, you deserve to let someone in.” Lady Bell squeezed Harper’s hands.
Harper felt tears spring to her eyes. “I don’t cry, but I’ve cried twice tonight. Stop.”
Lady Bell laughed. “That’s okay too. It’s a sign you’re starting to let the drawbridge down a bit. Not entirely, you have quite a fortress around you yet, but maybe, just a little bit at a time, you’re starting to feel things again.”
Harper swallowed a lump in her throat. “I … don’t do that so much.”
“I know,” Lady Bell replied softly. “I know, but it’s okay to here, if you wanted.”
They sat in soft silence before the fire, Harper’s head against Lady Bell’s shoulder, the lavender and cinnamon wrapping itself around her, the cat warming itself in the glow of the fire, and all things right in the world, if just for a moment.