Unfinished Witchness by Ada Bell

Author:Ada Bell [Bell, Ada]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, Cozy, Animals, Paranormal, Women Sleuths, Amateur Sleuth, General
ISBN: 9781956819335
Google: ey6iEAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1956819339
Publisher: Empress Books
Published: 2023-02-28T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter

Fourteen

Back at the mansion, Josie was weeding the garden outside the kitchen door. My eyes pointlessly searched the ground for brambles. I couldn’t help myself. “Hey. I brought you breakfast.”

She sat back on her heels and took a bite. “You are a darling. Thank you.”

“My pleasure. Especially since, apparently, you’re gardening for me?” She hadn’t mentioned any knowledge of or talent for gardening, but she couldn’t possibly make the place look worse.

“Keeping my hands busy helps clear my head.”

“You didn’t think of anything interesting, did you?”

“You mean like, a clue to tell me who killed Martha?”

My cheeks grew warm. I hadn’t meant to be that obvious. Avoiding her gaze, I said, “Maybe if we could give the police a push in the right direction, we might be allowed to move back inside soon.”

“I understand. Unfortunately, unless it was an overgrown tomato bush that did the deed, I’m not sure I can help. But I’ll let you know if anything seems out of the ordinary. Besides all these weeds.”

“Thanks.” I held up my bag. “Do you want another one for while you work?”

She shook her head as she chewed another bite. “No, this should be fine. But I might swing by for another one later.”

“I’ll leave it on your doorstep,” I said. With what I had planned, it was better she didn’t come looking for me.

From the look of things, Josie would be occupied for ages. That gave me plenty of time to talk to Walter if I could get inside the mansion. Maybe he’d remember something useful if we talked about yesterday morning. Or he could help me come up with a spell. Things that would be better to do while my guest wasn’t around to ask questions. Josie knew about my magic and my cat, but we hadn’t talked about the ghost. Walter might not want too many people to know about him.

Then again, based on what I’d heard, he might want me to throw him a party to announce his triumphant return as reigning specter. Something for Future Emma to contemplate.

After pausing at Josie’s place to drop off more pastries, I made a beeline for the book hidden under the mattress in my cottage. Not the most ingenious of hiding places, but the book itself was covered in protection spells. This piece belonged to Walter, and it had been guarded so only his rightful heir could open it. Once I’d learned the basics, I’d repeated the spells, placing an additional layer over the magic laid by my grandfather so many years ago. No reason to take chances: I wasn’t sure how long my grandfather’s spells would last after his death.

The grimoire was old and heavy, its worn pages turning yellow. Only the magic in the book kept the paper from crumbling. Hidden under it was my own, much-newer spell book I’d started a few weeks ago in a purple Lisa Frank notebook depicting unicorns playing on a rainbow. I liked that it reminded me of my childhood. Pink called it gaudy.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.