Chapter Nineteen
After quickly getting dressed, Blair followed Luke down the stairs and into the bakery.
This was the first time she’d been inside the space since she snuck in weeks ago to snoop.
It was wild to think about how many things had changed since that day.
And after Luke unlocked the door and they stepped inside, Blair saw that the bakery had probably changed the most. It was a dusty construction site before .
. . now it was breathtaking. She remembered the mock-ups she’d peeked at that day, and the almost-finished bakery was even more beautiful than the plans had been.
The white-panelled walls, pale green countertop and lit glass display case all looked fresh and chic.
Glass chandeliers hung from the tray ceiling, and rows of white-painted baskets lined shelves behind the counters.
Blair spotted her nemesis, the pricey stainless-steel espresso machine behind the counter, gleaming under the pot lights.
Blair exhaled. Maybe she shouldn’t have come in here.
It was easier when the bakery was some abstract thing – something that she would have to worry about at some point, but not yet.
But this was real. And it was so inviting.
It was fine. Blair’s café was cute and rustic and fit in better in Moonbeam Hollow. Everything would be okay.
‘There will be banquette seating on this side,’ Luke said, pointing to the far wall, ‘and a handful of bistro tables in the middle. The white baskets are for breads and rolls, and pastries and pies will go in the display case.’
‘Why is she selling pies?’ Blair questioned. ‘That doesn’t sound like something a French bakery would serve.’
Luke nodded. ‘Mom’s French trained, but her pies are legendary. Wait till you try her pumpkin. Do you want to see the kitchen?’
After showing Blair the clean and modern space where his mother would make her perfect breads and pastries, he brought her to a small storeroom and ingredient pantry.
Blair hadn’t seen or heard him mention anything that answered any of her questions about why he’d chosen Moonbeam Hollow specifically for the bakery, or anything that told her why the witch spirits started their reign of terror the day he started building.
‘Did you find anything weird here when you started construction?’ Blair asked as they made their way back to the kitchen.
‘What do you mean, weird?’
Blair had no idea. She shrugged, running her hand over the shiny industrial-sized mixer.
‘It’s such an old building,’ she said. ‘I found old newspapers and these weird symbols on the walls when I started work in the café.’ She hadn’t found anything of the sort, but maybe this would spark a memory for Luke.
She was pretty sure that the building predated the incorporation of the town, so it had been here when the witches were alive in the area.
Maybe he’d done something to the building that released the spirits?
Luke shook his head. ‘The frozen yogurt shop that was here before had pretty much removed any original features.’
The yogurt place had been very modern. Something familiar caught Blair’s attention – a picture frame leaning against the back wall with some other decorative items not hung up yet.
She went to look closer. It was the painting that Luke bought at the flea market the day they ran into each other.
The place they had their first kiss in twelve years.
‘This is the third painting in my set!’ Blair said, excited to finally see it.
Luke grinned. ‘No, it’s my painting that’s similar to your set of two.’
Blair lifted the painting from the floor and placed it on the big butcher-block worktable.
The oil painting was in the same style as her two and was done in similar colours.
It was obvious that this one was a painting of this building – the rectangular structure with little ornamentation was unique in Moonbeam Hollow.
Blair leaned closer. The building’s bricks were now painted a rich grey, but they looked lighter, maybe unpainted, in the artist’s rendition.
She’d known it had been some sort of factory at one point, but she didn’t know what they’d made here.
But in the painting, she could clearly see a white sign with black block letters. STORMVALE TEXTILES. ‘Textiles?’
Luke leaned against the worktop. ‘Yeah, apparently this building used to be a weaving mill,’ Luke said. ‘I keep meaning to look into the company in my spare time, but I . . . um, haven’t had a lot of that, lately.’
The name Stormvale didn’t mean anything to Blair, but it still felt vaguely familiar. ‘This had to have been built when the old settlement was here, not Moonbeam Hollow.’
‘What settlement?’
‘My sister discovered that there was another village here before Moonbeam Hollow existed. This building predates Moonbeam Hollow’s incorporation, so this factory was from that village.’
‘That’s so cool! What was it called?’
‘I have no idea.’ This didn’t really answer Blair’s question about Luke’s role, since he’d only bought this painting after the weird stuff had started.
But still, the Briarwoods agreed to communicate if they learned anything at all.
She snapped a picture of the painting and sent it to her group chat with her sisters, telling them the building used to house a textile mill called Stormvale Textiles. Belinda immediately wrote back.
belinda: Interesting! Gladys said she has a book of her mother’s about the early settlers in the Kawarthas. We might be able to find out more about that factory in it.
Gladys was easily in her seventies, so her mother could have been around one hundred years ago when the town was incorporated.
blair: Yes! Ask her to bring it to the bookstore and we can take a look.
‘Belinda’s excited,’ Blair said to Luke.
‘Any particular reason she’s researching the town’s history now?’ he asked. ‘I thought you guys were searching for who was sabotaging the festival.’ He chuckled awkwardly. ‘You don’t think someone from the past has been doing it, do you?’
Yes, that’s exactly what they thought. But Blair couldn’t tell Luke that she and her sisters believed vengeful witches from one hundred years ago were the ones trying to sabotage the festival.
And that was the biggest reason why no matter how complicated Blair’s feelings for Luke were now, Blair couldn’t be in a real relationship with him. She didn’t want to hide who she was from her partner in life.
Blair’s text tone rang. It was Bianca, messaging in the group chat.
bianca: What’s this?
She had attached a zoomed-in screenshot of the picture Blair had sent of the painting. There was a symbol painted in black on each of the dark double wood doors. It looked a bit like a simplified Celtic knot.
belinda: Some sort of family crest? Blair, ask Luke if he’s seen that anywhere.
‘This symbol.’ Blair pointed to the door in the painting. ‘Have you seen it anywhere in this building?’
‘What do you mean?’ Luke asked.
‘Like on a wall, or the floor or anything like that? Before you started construction?’
Luke shook his head. ‘No. Not that I recall. Do you think it’s the company logo?’
Her text tone went off again.
bianca: There is soot over the windows. Fire damage?
Blair asked Luke about it.
‘Yeah, there was a fire here at some point,’ he said. ‘The realtor told me that’s why the bricks were originally painted. There are still some soot marks near my back door. Do you think it’s important?’
Blair wasn’t sure. A chill went down her spine. She didn’t know why, but she had a feeling she was looking at something significant in this painting.
* * *
The following evening after all the shops were closed, Blair and Bianca met Belinda in the bookstore to look at Gladys’s mother’s book.
The three sisters were in the small reading room called The Burrow at the back of the store that Gladys had set up to encourage customers to stay and read.
It was like a cozy living room with floral chintz sofas, a burgundy velvet armchair and a low pine table.
Blair had brought tea for her sisters, and all three were sitting on the floor with the large hardcover book open on the low table.
‘Here it is,’ Belinda said after they’d been flipping through the pages for a while trying to find information on Stormvale Textiles. ‘Stormvale Settlement was named after the Stormvale family, who ran a textile mill. The Stormvale family were the primary employers in the settlement.’
‘So the village had the same name as the factory!’ Blair said. ‘Does it say anything about the family?’
Belinda continued to read. ‘Founder Alastair Stormvale came from Scotland. He and his wife died of influenza in 1910. His three daughters took over operations of the textile mill, as he had no sons. The mill specialized in—’
‘Wait, Belinda,’ Bianca interrupted. ‘Three daughters. Are they the witches from the prophecy?’
Belinda’s eyes widened, looking over at Gladys at the front of the store, who was closing out the register and tidying.
‘It’s fine, Belinda,’ Bianca said. ‘Gladys couldn’t hear a bagpipe playing right behind her.’ Bianca’s voice lowered to a whisper. ‘Plus, I didn’t say we were witches.’
‘Gladys’s hearing is fine,’ Belinda snapped. She was very protective of her employer. ‘And especially with everything going on, we can’t be too careful—’
Which made Bianca snap back about how paranoid Belinda was. Blair shushed them both. The last thing they needed was for Gladys to come over to break up an argument.
‘Keep reading, Belinda,’ Blair said.
‘The mill specialized in fine woven cottons. When sisters Hecate, Ysadora and Nestis took over, they devel—’