Mostly Magic by Donna June Cooper

Author:Donna June Cooper
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: psychic;international;suspense elements;small town
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Published: 2014-06-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Daniel had to restrain a laugh at the expression on Mel’s face as she struggled up the hill from the goat pen. “It’s the altitude,” he said.

“I’ve hiked Mount Whitney,” she panted. “It’s not the altitude. It’s the shoes. My feet are killing me.”

He stopped and looked down at her with concern. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking. Do you need to rest or sit down or something?”

“It’s okay. They’re great walking shoes, but I’m breaking them in today. The broken-in ones went up in smoke. Poof.”

“You should’ve told me sooner. Here.” He pointed to a low retaining wall. “Let’s sit for a minute.”

After finishing breakfast with some of Ouida’s biscuits and another round of coffee, Daniel had dragged Mel off for a tour. She seemed interested in the berry bushes and fruit trees and the raised beds full of organic produce, but had been really intrigued by the long rows of medicinal herbs, especially the ones under the artificial lattice shade and tucked into the forest beyond the beds. Grace, who had gone outside to oversee some workers transplanting seedlings from one of the greenhouses out into the prepared beds, got a chance to wax eloquent about wild-crafted versus wild-simulated herbs.

Like all their visitors, Mel had been delighted by the elaborate chicken house and christened it the Chicken McMansion, which had caused a whole discussion about certified humane meat and eggs. But when they reached the solar barn, Mel had whipped out her digital recorder and grilled him about every detail of the property’s self-sufficiency, including the backup wood-fired boiler and the Web-enabled solar power monitoring system. They had spent so much time crawling around the control room and studying the inverters and generators that it was nearly time for lunch by the time they left, but then she had spotted the goats.

Mel had fallen in love with the Nubians with their big floppy ears. The farm only had four adults, all females kept and bred for milking, but there were brand-new babies who were bouncing around, exploring and checking out the visitors at the fence and then bouncing some more. As with the chickens, Mel was amazed at the sheer size of their enclosure, which included a rocky ridge they could clamber onto and trees for shade, and a huge wooden play set with ramps and walkways. Daniel enjoyed watching her coax one of the youngsters close enough to the fence so she could scratch his ears.

So far Daniel had avoided the whole “seeing the future” issue, and Mel hadn’t brought it up. He didn’t know exactly why not. He tensed up every time she started to speak, thinking she was going to bring up the earthquake and Francesca and who knew what else. As they sat companionably on the stone wall, she started to untie her shoes, then stopped, probably afraid to find out how bad the blisters really were.

“The way you talk about this place sounds like you grew up here. But your parents are in Philadelphia, right?” she asked.

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