(eng) Patricia A. McKillip - Winter Rose 02 by Solstice Wood

Author:Solstice Wood [Wood, Solstice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

·11·

Iris

Tarrant Coyle’s card came fluttering out of the paper grocery bag while I was folding it up. I took one look at it and tore it into confetti.

“Idiot!” I said so sharply that Sylvia, sitting quietly at the table and staring into her coffee, jumped. “Sylvia Lynn, if you let Titus Quest Company have this place, I’ll haunt your marriage bed when I’m dead.”

The startled expression on her face made my brows jump up. Then she hid behind a sip of coffee. “Okay, I won’t. But why does he want it? He said something about a museum.”

“Pah! That man wouldn’t recognize a museum if he were hanging on a wall with a plaque under him.”

“Well, then—”

“He knows something. Or he thinks he knows something. He thinks he can make money off of it.”

Her eyes grew very wide. “You mean—about what you’re warring with in the woods?”

“He hasn’t a clue. It means Tinkerbell to him, little glowing lights at the far end of the garden, tiny winged creatures who wear acorn caps on their heads and ride black beetles for horses and feast on nectar and strawberries. He’d turn my wood into a kind of theme park.”

Sylvia inhaled coffee on an incredulous laugh. “Gram,” she said weakly when she stopped coughing. “You can’t be serious.”

“Try him. He’d open all the passages in Lynn Hall and wait to see what came through.”

She sobered at the thought, told me, after a moment, what was on her mind. “I don’t want to discuss anything yet. I mean about how long I’m staying.”

“No,” I answered equably, tossing a pinch of lavender in the stewpot to make the kitchen smell good. I’d seen her red car on that long road running between fields to the Avery place; whatever was talked about there had given her something to think about.

“I’ll call the shop tomorrow if I decide to stay a little longer. But before I leave, I thought we might go through the hall, and I’ll make a list of things that need to be done. Now, if you’d like.”

“That would be helpful.” I started cleaning the leeks she’d brought me. I really wanted to dance across the kitchen floor, cackling with glee, seize her in my hands and whirl her around a few times. But I controlled myself. “Very helpful. Just let me finish here.”

I chopped the leeks, trying for once in my life to be tactful, not to say the thing that might force her to a hasty decision. Hurley was still playing in the attic; I wasn’t sure where Tyler had gone. Back up to visit Hurley, or to his room, or out in the wood maybe, loitering in hope of his Undine. Syl had to be right about him, I thought. Love would make a growing boy brush his teeth and smell like a candy dish. I hadn’t even seen then what he had done to his bedroom.

I added the leeks to the pot, along with a sprinkle of this and that. Then I put a lid on it and left it to simmer.

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