45. It’s Not the Plant’s Fault
FORTY-FIVE
IT’S NOT THE PLANT’S FAULT
Unclaimed fruit still left on the tree when the freezing rains come are an invitation for Ghost Apples to form. They are clear glasslike replicas of the bounty that was left behind.
Trapped inside an icy prison, the once sweet fruits shrivel, rot, and surrender their form. Only the briefest moment of sunshine is required for them to make their escape, slipping silently out of their frozen shells and returning to the earth below.
Ghost Apples are beautiful but hollow. They are a symbol of sadness and loss. They may be pleasant to look at, but provide no sustenance.
– EXCERPT FROM THE MUDPUDDLE MANUAL OF NATURAL MAGIC
While in the mudroom searching for matches, Maida heard a knock on the front door of the Mudpuddle.
Thanks to the full moon, she could see Lucretia Lathrop’s pinched face pressed up against the glass. Her aunt rattled the doorknob.
“Hello?” she called out. “Maida?”
“I’m coming!” Maida shouted back. “Just a minute.”
She was quite surprised, and not at all delighted to see her aunt, but at the very least, she hoped Lucretia might be helpful. She could use her magic to light a candle.
Maida made her way to the door, navigating around a sleeping Hildegarde, and dodging tables and chairs.
There were still embers glowing in the fireplace in the foyer.
As she passed by, the mantel clock chimed yet again.
She hoped Arthur and Will would be home with Rosie soon.
In fact, she wished they were already home.
She didn’t relish the thought of being alone with Lucretia.
She undid the lock and was about to open the door, but there was no need.
The shop bells clanged and clattered as Lucretia imperiously pushed her way in.
“Did you change the locks? My key didn’t work.” Lucretia frowned. “What’s with the candle?”
“Come in.” Maida waved her aunt into the room she’d already invaded. “And no, I have not changed the locks. The candle is because there’s a blackout. I was just searching for matches. Maybe there’s some on the mantel?” She felt along the ledge for a box.
“I told you she was useless!” Maida was surprised to see Lucretia looking over her shoulder, back out towards the porch. Lucretia pointed a finger at the candle, closed her eyes, whispered a short incantation and instantly, the candle’s wick bloomed with a flickering flame.
“She can’t even do the simplest, most basic spell that any four-year-old witch could master.” Lucretia clucked her tongue.
Now that the candle was lit, Maida could see the figure stepping out of the shadows.
“I wouldn’t put it that way.” Cormac stepped into the doorway, smiling at her with his charming, compelling smile. His words were velvety as he came to her defense. “I think that Maida can do anything she puts her mind to, with the right incentive.”
“Pfft.” Lucretia rolled her eyes and ran a finger along the mantel, checking for dust. “We’ll see about that.” She strode into the bookshop.
“I just want you to know this wasn’t my idea,” Cormac whispered to Maida. “I told Lucretia I could wait till tomorrow. She wasn’t having any of it.”
“Any of what?” Maida asked, suspiciously.
“Waiting till tomorrow to retrieve my great grandmother’s grimoire.” Cormac shrugged. “She also wanted to see that book I dropped off earlier. She thinks it might be a dragon grimoire. Do you still have it?”
“I do,” Maida said.
“Well, where is it?” Lucretia suddenly reappeared. “I’d like to have a look at it. It’s awfully strange that someone would have dropped it in the passage, don’t you think? A banned text like that?”
“Dragon grimoires are not banned, Lucretia,” Cormac corrected Lucretia. “They haven’t been for some time. They’re just restricted.”
“Well, they should be banned, if you ask me.” Lucretia huffed. “It’s an insult to our kind to even call them grimoires.”
Maida saw Cormac roll his eyes behind her aunt’s head, and she bit back her own smile. Perhaps it wasn’t such an awful thing that he was here.
“What did you do with it? I hope you took it right down to the Archives!” Lucretia strode to the center of the bookshop and cafe and snapped her fingers, lighting all the candles in the wall sconces and on the bistro tables.
She looked disdainfully at the sleeping customer.
“Is that Hildegarde Fish? Are you taking boarders here now too?”
“She was sleeping so peacefully.” Maida shrugged. “We didn’t want to disturb her.”
“I see.” Lucretia sniffed. “So, where’s that dragon book now?”
“It’s in the mudroom, actually,” Maida admitted.
“The mudroom?” Lucretia gasped. “You left something that dangerous just sitting out on a shelf in the mudroom?”
“I was actually taking it down to the Archives when the lights went out.” Maida could hear the defensive tone in her voice, and she didn’t like it. She didn’t have to explain herself to Lucretia. Cormac caught her eye and shrugged his shoulders. She appreciated his show of support.
“Well by all means let’s go do that now, immediately before another moment passes and this whole place goes up in smoke.
” Lucretia bustled towards the hallway. “And while you’re down there, you can help my friend Cormac here.
I couldn’t believe you were so rude to him earlier when he brought that dreadful book in for you.
The least you could have done was offer to check the Archives for his grandmother’s grimoire.
He has as much of a right to that book as you have to this place!
” Lucretia railed. “Possibly more.” She strode towards the hallway, still mumbling officiously under her breath.
“I certainly think there might have been other, better, more obvious candidates to run this place.”
“Maida had quite a bit going on here earlier.” Cormac came to her aid yet again.
“That’s still no excuse.” Lucretia snorted. “I run a busy apothecary. You run a multi-million dollar international business with thousands of employees. Sometimes it’s necessary to compartmentalize!”
“I was fine coming back tomorrow,” Cormac soothed.
“Well, that won’t be necessary now, will it?” Lucretia’s heels clacked against the floorboards as she strode down the darkened hallway, flicking her fingers at sconces to light her way.
“I’m so sorry.” Cormac’s hand rested gently on the small of her back, bolstering her as she followed her aunt. “She really is the worst. I can come back tomorrow. I certainly don’t mean to disturb you.”
“What else does Maida have to do, right now?” Lucretia asked.
“Actually, I was about to feed the cat,” Maida answered, remembering that she had not yet fed Gemini.
“The cat?” Lucretia was horrified. “You brought a cat into this household?”
“Why not?” Maida couldn’t help but laugh. “Aren’t witches supposed to like cats?”
“Not our kind,” Lucretia froze in place. “Lathrops do not take familiars, and we certainly don’t condone bringing a vile feline into our personal sanctuaries.”
“Enough already!” Maida stopped in her tracks.
“I understand that you have your way of doing things, but if you wanted me to do things your way, you could have reached out at any point during my childhood. You didn’t.
And now this place is mine. With all due respect to you and the Lathrop line, I’m going to do things my way. ”
“Well done!” Cormac whispered in her ear.
“Hmmmph. I guess she does have some of her mother in her after all,” Lucretia mumbled.
“I’ll be right back,” Maida said, ducking into the mudroom to retrieve the dragon book. She looked around for Gemini and called the cat a few times with no luck.
“Perhaps I should come back tomorrow,” Cormac was saying to Lucretia, as she emerged.
“Nonsense. Just leave it to me. Maida will be happy to help you with your request.” Lucretia was practically simpering over Cormac.
Maida was embarrassed for her aunt. “I just don’t think she understood how important you are to our family.
You absolutely need to get hold of that missing grimoire.
Where did you say she was from, Cormac?”
“That depends on who you ask,” Cormac drawled. “But she liked to tell people she was from the same parts as your family.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Lucretia laughed and batted her lashes at him. “We pure bloods really have to stick together.”
“I can’t find the cat,” Maida said. “So we may as well take this book down now.” She held up Rosie’s book. “Just for safekeeping till its owner turns up,” she added. “I guess we can have a look for your missing grimoire at the same time.”
“That’s more like it!” Lucretia cooed triumphantly, leading the way to the large ironclad door at the end of the hallway. But when she reached it, she stopped again, gasping in horror.
“Maida Westabrook, is this how you care for things?” She gestured to the open door. “Do you simply leave the Archives open and unguarded?!”
“What do you mean?” Maida leaned forward to see. She was certain that as long as she’d been there, the door had never been opened.
“Fangs and claws!” Lucretia jumped and screamed out loud as Gemini raced out from the door full speed and tore down the hallway hissing. She reached into her wand pocket.
“Stop! It’s just the cat!” Maida said.
“Just the cat? You allow that thing into the Archives?” Lucretia sputtered in disbelief.
“Her name is Gemini,” Maida said. “She was chasing something earlier, a mouse, I think. She must have followed it down there somehow.”
“And now you’re suggesting that we have a vermin problem?” Lucretia was in a full lather now. “I’m sorry, but this is the final straw, Maida. I’m going to have to make a formal appeal to the Society. You are not fit?—”
“I’m sure it’s just some kind of minor glitch.
Weren’t you just telling me the house is temperamental, Lucretia?
” Cormac interrupted, speaking in soothing tones.
“Let’s just go down and make sure nothing’s been disturbed.
” He looked to Maida for permission and when she tentatively gave him the thumbs-up, he held the door open wider for Lucretia.