Miss Hawthorne Sits for a Spell by Katherine Hayton

Author:Katherine Hayton [Hayton, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-27T16:00:00+00:00

With a raspberry cola in hand, Emily perched next to Harvey on a stool at the bar, struggling to balance. Even without the encroaching numbness in her leg muscles, she’d never been great with barstools. If she had her wish, every chair in the world would be built with a solid back.

“If we’re sitting along here, how are you going to question anybody?” she asked, giving the tavern a quick scan.

“Don’t worry. The person I’m searching for hasn’t arrived, yet. He’s probably out the back doing some trade.”

Her watch announced it was ten o’clock, the robotic female voice sounding as out-of-place as Emily felt. She pressed the button on the side three times, condemning it to silence while her brother gave her a long stare.

“How hard do you find it, just getting through a normal day?”

She shrugged and took a sip of her drink. The old treat from her childhood had lost none of the thrill in her transformation to an adult, one of the few things that had stayed the same. “I get by just fine. There’s plenty who have worse to deal with.”

“I thought you’d be better off by now.” Harvey took a long swallow from his pint glass, a mild lager in a warm shade of amber.

The condensation beading on the glass made Emily shiver. With the days creeping farther into Autumn, a cold drink wasn’t the welcome sight it would have been a few months ago.

She chewed her bottom lip, warring between the truth or an easy lie. “I’m not going to get any better. In fact, the doctors have warned me I’m likely to deteriorate.”

Harvey frowned and ran a finger up the side of his glass, flicking the drop onto the stained oak bench. “You didn’t tell me that.”

“I didn’t know that until a few months ago. It came as a nasty surprise.”

“Is that why your limp gets worse during the day?”

Emily swallowed hard, taken aback that he’d noticed. “There’re some bone fragments left in my head from the accident. They’re pressing on the wrong bits of my brain but it’s too dangerous to operate and get them out.”

“Oh, sis. Why didn’t you say something earlier?” Harvey turned away from her, his voice catching. “I could’ve been here for you.”

“You know me.” Emily stared down into the dark red of her drink. For a split second, it looked like blood and oil, then she blinked, and it turned back into a harmless soda. “I always prefer to deal with things on my own.”

“That’s the problem. I don’t know you.” Harvey pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his nose.

The old-fashioned affectation tugged the corners of Emily’s mouth up into a smile. Heaven forbid he upgraded to tissues.

“We haven’t spent time together since we were little and now, I have no idea how to talk to you about anything serious.”

Emily waved her hand around the bar. “These are serious matters.” When her brother’s brow darkened, she added, “You’re doing just fine.”

“I know you don’t

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