Midlife Hexes & Gathering Storms: A Midlife Paranormal Women's Fiction Mystery (Menopause, Magick, Mystery Book 5) by JC Blake

Author:JC Blake [Blake, JC]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Redbegga Publishing
Published: 2021-12-24T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

“Liv, I’ll help you to your room.”

I turned to see Meryld at my side. Friendly eyes and a hesitant smile greeted me.

“Thanks,” I replied. “I’ll just get my bags from the car.”

“I’ll come with you,” she stated, her arm now hooked through mine.

Stepping outside and breathing in the fresh air beneath a darkening sky helped soothe my fraught energy. It was only as the relief washed over me that I realised just how tense I had been and that a headache was beginning to take hold at the back of my head. With Meryld’s arm still slipped securely through mine, we walked together down the wide stone steps and across the driveway to my car.

“It’s so nice having visitors, Livitha!” she said as we reached the car and finally unhooked her arm from mine. I realised she’d waited to be at the furthest point from the house before speaking. “We hardly see anyone.”

“Don’t you have any friends? No one in the village?” I opened the car’s boot.

Meryld glanced at the house. “No. Mildraed’s not keen on us mixing with the locals and since Alice got a boyfriend, she’s been even worse!”

“Worse?”

“Yes, she hates it when we go out into the village but since Alice met Simon, she’s hardly let us out at all.”

My first impressions of Mildraed had been that she was arrogant, but I was beginning to think that she was cruel too. My aunts were nothing like her. “Sounds awful,” I commiserated whilst grabbing my overnight bag and deciding against taking more than my own. Coming back out to fetch the other bags would give me an excuse to be outside and free from the cloyingly morose atmosphere of the house.

“Well, it’s boring more than anything but with Alice being kidnapped and murdered then she was right to be worried.”

“Kidnapped?” I was taken aback. “How do you know she was kidnapped?”

“She went missing about two weeks ago. No one knew where she was.”

“If she went missing, how do you know she was kidnapped?”

“Oh! Well, I did think that perhaps she had run away with Simon, but when he came here looking for her, we knew that wasn’t the case and when she turned up dead, and with all the problems recently ...”

I realised that Meryld didn’t have actual proof that Alice had been kidnapped and pressed her for more information. “So, there was no ransom? The kidnapper didn’t call making demands?”

“No.”

“Did she have any enemies?”

“Alice? Oh, no, she was lovely. Not like Mildraed at all!”

“Do you know why anyone would want to kidnap her?”

“Well, no, I don’t think I do.”

“So, perhaps she wasn’t actually kidnapped?” I suggested.

“Well ... I suppose not, but then why did she disappear?”

To escape this place. “Do you think she just needed a break? Some time away? If Mildraed is as controlling as you say-”

“I didn’t say she was controlling!” She cast an anxious look back at the house. “She just cares about us, that’s all.”

Despite Mildraed behaving more like an abuser than a caring matriarch from what I could see, I decided not to contradict Meryld.

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