Chapter 29 Hatfields and McCoys
TWENTY-NINE
Hatfields and McCoys
The room was silent as we all absorbed how close we’d come to ending up under a pile of rubble. Mom reached for her wine glass and finished it in one gulp. She closed her eyes a moment and straightened her shoulders. “Darling, I’m sorry your father and I ruined your dinner party.”
Elizabeth shook her head and rested her hand on Mom’s arm. “I’m the idiot who talked about the money.” She looked at Declan and me. “I’m so sorry.”
I patted Declan’s arm and he released me.
“It’s no one’s fault. Let me get dessert baking and we can go back to planning without fear of a massacre.
” I went to the kitchen and straight to the window.
Something was happening out there. It didn’t feel like anyone was messing with my wards, though.
I looked out and watched huge waves crash against the rocks and wash over the road. Yeah. He was pissed.
I understood where both were coming from, but I didn’t know how to bring them to the same spot. Putting that on the back burner, I began the process of filling, twirling, and placing the spiral croissants on a baking sheet. They had fifteen minutes to bake, so I went back out.
“Shall I make tea for anyone?” I asked. All the wicches said yes. “On it.” I went back to brew a large pot.
Declan, Mom, and Hester followed me with the empty plates and wine glasses.
“Dinner was delicious,” Hester said. “Thank you both.” She carefully placed the plates on the counter near the sink. “My goodness, what is that smell?”
I turned on the oven light to check their progress.
“It’s an experiment. I’ve never made these before.
I was zoning out a few nights ago, watching the travel channel, and they were visiting patisseries in Paris.
One of them is known for spiral croissants with a pistachio and chocolate filling, so that’s what I’m making.
So far, so good.” I clicked off the light.
“We’ll see. If anyone doesn’t want that, I always have treats in the freezer I can warm up. ”
Mom pulled down the cups and saucers. “Darling, where is your tea cart?”
Patting her on the back, I told her, “I don’t have one, but I’m sure we can make do without one.” To drive home the point, I flicked my fingers at the teacups and they disappeared.
“Ooh, these are so pretty too,” Faith said from the other room.
Mom looked through the doorway into the dining room, no doubt at the cups and saucers that were at every wicche’s place setting.
Hester stood next to Mom. “I wish I could do things like that. It’d save so much time and trouble.”
“I was teasing Mom,” I told Hester. “I shouldn’t have done that. If anyone was moving around, they might have accidentally knocked one of the cups over and broken it. I should have had my eyes on the destination before I did that.”
Hester returned to her seat, but Mom followed me back to the cabinet. “I’ll take the dessert plates out for you,” she said.
“Mom,” I whispered. “I’m really sorry about what Dad said.
” She shook her head, but I plowed on. “You know Gran sets him off, but Gran wasn’t here.
You were, so you ended up on the receiving end off all his anger and frustration.
I’m not making excuses for him, only trying to explain why anything related to Gran and especially Gran using me in any way angers him. ”
Mom’s eyes filled with tears. She blinked rapidly until they cleared. “I’m as angry as he is. We’re on the same side, but he’ll forever see me as the enemy.” She picked up the plates and gave me a sad smile. “Let’s not think about any of that. You’re hosting your first dinner party.”
The timer went off. “And I have pastries to get out of the oven.”
Mom grabbed a handful of forks as well and went back out to the dining room.
I let the croissants cool for a minute while I took down another platter. I brought out the teapot and filled everyone’s cup, except for Declan, who had filled his own pint glass. I left the pot on the table and went back for the dessert.
“If anyone would prefer something different, let me know.” I handed the platter to Bracken to pass, took my seat, then lifted my teacup to sip.
With a jolt, I stopped myself in time before my lips touched the cup.
Mom was the last person to touch it. I’d almost dropped myself into a vision related to Mom and probably Dad, given where her thoughts were as she pulled these from the cupboard.
Clearly too much was going on tonight; I’d forgotten to do a cleansing spell, and I never forgot to spell the things that had to touch my body.
Since I was a child, I’d been doing it. It was second nature.
The emotional upheaval was getting to me.
Declan held up the platter. “Are there enough for me to have two?” He was grinning, but I could see the concern in his eyes. He was asking if I was okay.
I nodded. “I have more in the kitchen.”
Everyone seemed to enjoy the dessert, which was good. Frank had a second as well before we got back down to business.
“Why all of a sudden?” Robert asked. “Coreys and Swans have lived in the same town for generations. Where is this hostility coming from?”
Mom seemed to still be processing what had happened with Dad, so I answered.
If there was one thing I’d been taught by Mom and Gran, it was family history.
Well, that and how to do magic at a very early age.
I needed to be able to protect myself from predators who seemed unnaturally obsessed with my fae blood.
“It’s a long and convoluted story,” I told him. “We’ve always been rivals, but only in the minds of Swans. Coreys have never thought of Swans as anything other than lesser.”
Bracken cleared his throat. “If I might interrupt. I doubt anyone told you this story, given my sister and her secrets, but it was whispered that Mary’s husband William may have had a dalliance with Catherine.”
Mom, Elizabeth, and I stared at him with wide eyes.
“What? How have we never heard this?” I looked at Mom, who appeared as confused as me.
Bracken nodded. “It’s quite true, I’m afraid. William never confirmed it, of course, and Mary would never speak of it, but I knew.”
“Wait,” I said. “Did she know that you knew? Is that part of why she was always so horrible to you?”
He lifted a shoulder. “No idea. Most can’t read my facial expressions, and I certainly never told her I knew.
Anyway, about nine months after the affair started, Catherine gave birth to her son William—cheeky, that.
William, the son, went on to father Milo and Milena.
William, Mary’s husband, was a Jacobs. Like the Bishops,” he said, nodding toward Uncle Robert, “they are a powerful East Coast wicche family. Mary married him to fortify the Corey line. I believe Catherine had the same idea. Hurting Mary, stealing what belonged to Mary, was a boon.”
“How have I never heard this?” Mom asked.
“Well, I mean, come on,” I replied. “It’s not like Gran was going to broadcast that.”
Faith looked between me and Bracken. “Grandpa Will has been gone for a long time. Did Gran…?”
“Oh my goodness,” Elizabeth said, patting her daughter’s arm. “Of course not.” After the words came out of her mouth, though, a little line formed between her eyebrows. She was wondering too.
“All right,” Robert began. “But that doesn’t explain why the Swans have it out for the Coreys. That sounds more like why some Coreys might have a problem with a particular Swan.”
I looked at Bracken for that answer. I’d started telling the family history, but I had apparently missed a lot, so I deferred to the historian at the table.
He sighed. “It’s all rather petty and tedious.
I don’t know if William, the cheating husband, promised to leave Mary for Catherine or if she assumed he would.
Regardless, Catherine, with a pregnant belly or a newborn baby, seemed to be forever turning up where Coreys were.
Mary was incensed. For his part, William looked at Catherine as though they’d never met. ”
Frank gasped. “Gran spelled her own husband to forget his mistress?”
Bracken took a sip of tea. “I have no idea, dear boy. I must admit, though, I had the same thought myself. William was a powerful wicche. Mary, though, was more so. She could have done it, if she’d wanted to.”
Robert shook his head at the entire situation.
Bracken caught it and said, “Exactly so. I left town after that, so someone else will need to take over the telling.”
Mom had her head back in the game, so she took over. “This isn’t the most important part of this discussion, but William, the son, tried to date me.” At the looks of horror around the table, she nodded, looking a little sick herself.
“I’m going to assume he didn’t know we were half siblings because that makes me more comfortable.
” She grimaced and continued. “Coreys, in general, tried to avoid Swans. It was drilled into us from an early age that Swans were beneath us and not worth our time. My grandmother Marion hated them. She never passed on an opportunity to insult them.”
Mom shook her head and continued, “If someone did something stupid, we’d be met with, What are you, a Swan?”
Faith smirked. “It’s like the Hatfields and McCoys.”
“You’re not wrong,” I said. “Back in the day, Gran was on the Wicches’ Council, and she worked behind the scenes to cast the Swans in a bad light whenever she could.
Uncle Robert, as to why now, I think the feud went from petty irritations to murder because Calliope and Catherine had some sort of arrangement.
Cal used the Swans to do her dirty work with the promise of magical rewards, exactly what Catherine has always wanted.
She’s obsessed with proving their superiority over Coreys. ”
I rubbed my forehead, annoyed at the sudden headache.
“When Cal was…” I tried not to think about the athame flying from my hand into Cal’s heart but failed miserably.
“When Catherine no longer had access to a sorcerer for gifts of enhanced magic, I think she went a little crazy. She was so close to having the upper hand, but then it was gone again. She didn’t have a demon to call up, so she turned to black magic to get what she wanted. ”
“So, when we go to the meeting next week,” Faith began, “how do we show them that we’re not doing what Coreys have always done?” She looked between Mom and me. “How do we get them to understand that we’re not being petty? That they really are torturing people to do black magic.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” Mom said. “I think we need Arwyn to be the one to speak at the meeting.”
My stomach dropped. “Why am I getting thrown under the bus? We made you a nice meal. On our best plates.”
“I’m sorry, darling,” she said. “If I speak—which I recognize is my responsibility as the head of the family. If I speak, they’ll only believe I’m continuing the family bias.”
She glanced around the table, then back at me.
“You’re different. You’ve never engaged in any intrafamily squabbles.
You’re a world-renowned artist with a gallery that’s made the news.
I used to go to Wicche Counsel meetings with your Gran and Great-Gran.
They know me. And while most probably think I’m the same as those who came before me, you’re different.
There are no preconceived notions about you.
There’s only curiosity, and that’s a better starting place. ”
I stared down at the beautiful dining table, my stomach twisting. “I know you’re right. I’ll do it, but I won’t like it.”
“Is she in any danger, going to this meeting?” Declan asked. He was watching me, clearly not happy with the turn this conversation had taken.
Mom shook her head. “It’s been years since we’ve attended, but given who I believe will be there, Arwyn will be the most powerful wicche in the room.”
“Until someone touches her,” Declan argued.
“Don’t forget,” Bracken said, “I’ll be there too. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
Declan and Bracken shared a look, then Declan nodded.
“Okay, but do we have any actual evidence to present?” Faith asked.
“Not really,” I said. “We have video of someone outside our homes, but we can’t prove it’s Milena. We have video evidence of what Milo did in the gallery, but the only tie between the tortured man and the Swans is my vision. I could be a big, fat liar as far as the Council is concerned.”
I slumped in my seat. “I’m going to need to ask Osso if I could touch the hand again.” A shiver ran through me. “See if I can direct the vision to give me more information that might help us prove our case.”