Page 21 of Air Of Mystery (Witches On The Hill #4)

Charlie called me around four and told me he would be leaving Ames Crossing soon.

Gauging the amount of time it would take him to arrive, I checked the dinner I had in the oven.

The food was done, so I switched off the oven and covered it with foil.

Leaving it in the oven to stay warm, I went to change my clothes before heading downstairs to wait for him.

I settled on the sofa and kept my eyes on the front windows so that when he pulled up I would see him. Once I spotted his jeep, I rose to my feet and double-checked my appearance in the mirror over the fireplace.

The simple sundress was a sky-blue fabric dotted with butterflies.

It made my gray eyes look a tad bluer and complemented my blonde hair—casual, sexy, and summery all at the same time.

With a nod of approval for my reflection, I went to the door and stepped out on the front porch as he approached the iron gate on the sidewalk.

“Welcome, Charlie,” I said and subtly gestured toward the lock. It opened with the softest click as he reached for it; he never noticed that I’d unlocked it from several feet away.

I admired him as he walked up the steps, carrying a bottle of wine. He was wearing navy shorts that showed off his muscular thighs and calves and a soft blue, short sleeve tee that accented his biceps. Seeing him made my mouth water and my hormones go into overdrive.

How did I get so lucky? I wondered. Leaning forward, I dropped a kiss right beside his mouth in greeting. “Come in,” I said and ushered him inside.

He handed me the wine. “I brought this for the meal.”

I glanced at the label. “The Trois Amis , semi-sweet white. Can’t go wrong.”

After a quick tour of the main floor, I took him upstairs to my place. “This is a great house,” he said as he stepped into my apartment. “And I like your apartment.”

“Thank you,” I said, placing the wine on the counter. “I have a cousin, Astrid, who does interior design. She helped me with the plans and the layout of the space.”

“I’ve met your cousin Luna. She helps out Kenna at the bakery on the weekends, right?”

I nodded and went to pull the food out of the oven. “That’s right, Luna’s the second eldest of her family—like me.” I shooed him towards a barstool. “Take a seat.”

Charlie walked over and took a seat at the peninsula that separated my kitchen from the rest of the living space. “How many cousins do you have?”

“Four Golden cousins,” I said, starting to carve the meat. “There’s Soleil—we call her Sunny. Then comes Luna and the twins: Astrid and Orion.” I turned around to discover him blinking at me.

“Your four cousins all have celestial names?”

“They do, just as my sisters and I all have names that correspond with an element.”

“How so?”

“Brynn…her name is Welsh and means ‘hill.’”

“As in Witches on the Hill?”

I smiled. “More like hill as in the earth.”

He nodded and I continued.

“Then there’s me.” I pointed to myself. “Skye, element of air. Pretty self-explanatory. Then Kenna which means ‘born of fire,’ and Cordelia, which is another Welsh name that means ‘jewel of the sea.’”

“Earth, air, fire, and water,” he said. “Did your parents somehow know what element you would each have a connection to?”

“There was a prophecy. My grandmother, Althea, foresaw four daughters, each aligned to one of the elements,” I explained as I began to transfer both dark and white meat onto a small platter.

“Can I help?” Charlie half rose out of his seat.

“Sure,” I said. “You can get the wine glasses and pour us each a glass.” I told him where to find the glasses, and I dished up the food as he filled them.

“So are the elemental and celestial first names like a Witch thing?”

“More like a Golden family quirk, you might say,” I replied as I began transferring the roasted vegetables into bowls. “I have money on the table that Grandma Althea may have influenced the naming of all of her grandchildren. You could say she’s strong willed.”

“After meeting your grandmother at Cordelia’s wedding, I can believe it.”

“Uh oh.” I winced and set the filled bowls and the platter on the peninsula. “Please tell me that she behaved herself.”

Charlie smiled as we took our seats. “She bumped into me, I took her arm to steady her, and she sort of stared right through me. Then she gave me this half smile and said, “Now you are unexpected. And exactly what she needs.”

I felt my face begin to flush. That canny old bird, I thought. When she’d first met Charlie, she must have read him and seen his future—with me.

He picked up his fork and speared a carrot. “Think she knew we’d end up together?”

“It’s more than likely,” I said, reaching for my wine glass. “She did the same with Kenna and Tyler.”

I trailed off as a vague memory of my grandmother saying something prophetic to me about Charlie floated through my mind. It had been months ago, but damned if I could recall the exact details. Shaken, I took a big gulp of wine.

“That’s a little spooky,” Charlie said, but he was smiling.

“Well, you are dating a Witch,” I pointed out as he began to sample the roast chicken. “Spooky is a part of the package.”

“So I’m learning.” He chuckled. “This chicken tastes great.”

“Thank you,” I said. “Glad you like it.”

“Tastes so much better than anything I make.” He pointed to the food. “What sort of herbs did you use? I can see them sprinkled on the potatoes and carrots.”

“Thyme, rosemary, and sage. They were fresh. I picked them from our gardens.”

He took another bite of chicken. “Seriously, Skye, it’s really good.”

I inclined my head, acknowledging the compliment. “I may not have Kenna’s sorcery with baked goods, but I think I can hold my own in the kitchen.” I hesitated. “I will admit that I popped into her bakery and picked up two of her Black Forest cupcakes for dessert though.”

“Maybe we can save them for later tonight,” he suggested. “Because I plan on having a second helping of this chicken.”

That made me smile. “There’s plenty. I made extra for the week, so when I didn’t feel like cooking, I’d have something to heat up.”

Charlie nodded and we finished our meal.

Somehow, we’d fallen back into the way it was when we first began seeing each other—easy conversations and being comfortable with each other. When we finished our meal, we lingered over it, and Charlie told me about one of the weddings that had been at the mansion over the weekend.

“Had a bit of excitement on Saturday night.”

I stood and began to clear. “More exciting than a woman going into labor?”

“Disappearing flower girl,” he explained, rising to help. “We tore the place apart looking for the five-year-old.”

“Wow. I bet her parents were frantic.”

“Her mother was,” he said. “The father was halfway to drunk and didn’t seem to notice.”

I shook my head as I started to fill the sink with soapy water and dishes.

“Anyway,” Charlie continued, “I had some of the hotel staff checking the gardens and grounds; housekeeping was checking the hotel suites and the pool area. Gabriella and Philippe were helping in the search too, double checking the private part of the building.”

“Please tell me this story has a happy ending,” I said, handing him a dish towel.

“It does, but it was sort of creepy too,” he said, standing beside me at the sink.

“I love creepy,” I said.

“Yeah, I know, but when I tell you about this don’t go all paranormal investigator on me, will you? I’d like to enjoy the rest of our evening.”

I smirked at that and passed him a plate to dry. “I think I can manage to restrain myself.”

“So anyway, I was in my office checking the security cameras to see if the flower girl showed up on the footage. I was on the verge of calling the police, and then all of the sudden Danielle appears in my office—from out of nowhere—and she’s with the missing flower girl.”

“Wow.”

“They’re casually standing there, hand in hand,” he said, “and Danielle says to me, ‘Hey Charlie, are you looking for someone?’”

“Did Danielle find her out in the gardens or something?” I asked.

“No,” he explained. “Danielle came into my office from behind me—and Skye, the only thing behind my desk is a paneled wall.”

I blinked at him in confusion. “Huh?”

“She came in through an unknown corridor.”

“You mean like a secret passageway?” I held my breath waiting for the answer.

“Yes,” he said. “Turns out there’s a panel in the ballroom. It’s low to the floor and if you push on it the right way, it springs open to reveal a passage. That unknown passage literally runs throughout the entire building.”

“Are you serious?”

He nodded. “The flower girl was hiding under a table and found it by accident in the ballroom. She decided to explore and got trapped inside.”

“Oh my goddess.” I gulped. “That could have been bad. And no one knew about that passage?”

“No adults did,” Charlie said. “However, it turns out that the Marquette kids discovered it a while back, and decided it was like having a—and I quote: a super-secret clubhouse. So, they didn’t tell their parents.”

I couldn’t help the laughter that escaped. “How big is the passage?”

“It runs from one end of the mansion to the other. There’s a hidden door in my office, too.”

“Which is how Danielle surprised you.”

“Correct.” He nodded. “And there are spy holes in most of the other rooms.”

“Like cut out eyes in old paintings?” I grinned imagining it.

“And areas where you can view the rooms through old metal grates.”

“No wonder they kept that secret to themselves.”

“Once the wedding cleared out, Philippe and I explored the passageway. It’s not large...an adult has to crouch or crawl to travel through, but for a child, it’d be easy to quickly navigate.”

“That’s awesome! Did you find any interesting artifacts when you explored the passageway?”

“Old newspapers from the late 1800s, a few candle stubs, stuff like that. Danielle, Archer and Celeste did manage to set themselves up a pretty decent fort inside of it. With old sleeping bags, flashlights and pillows.”

“That sounds perfectly reasonable to me,” I said, as I continued to wash the dishes. “I would have done the same when I was a kid.”

“Turns out the kids have been sneaking down at night and spying on the wedding guests while their parents assumed they were all asleep.”

“Oh boy. I bet that news didn’t go over well.”

“Especially after they’d gone to so much trouble to keep the family wing private,” Charlie agreed.

“How’d the kids find it?” I asked, handing him another dish.

“And here comes the spooky part.” Charlie took a deep breath. “According to Archer, the ghost of a young boy showed him.”

I slapped off the water and faced him. “The ghost of a boy?”

Charlie set the plate he was drying down on the counter. “Archer claims that the boy’s name is Jacques.”

“Jacques?” Closing my eyes I recalled my notes from my research on the mansion and the Marquette family.

“Claude and Amelia Marquette were the owners of the mansion during the scandal of 1847.” My eyes opening, I continued.

“They had their first three sons while they lived here in Illinois. The firstborn son was also named Claude—after his father I imagine. Then there was Henri and Tomas.”

Charlie blinked. “It’s somewhat frightening that you just rattled that off from memory. But yes, Philippe told me that as well.”

“According to Gabriella,” I continued, “it was her sister, Camilla, who followed the ghostly apparition of a boy, to what is now the hotel section of the mansion, to find the missing dowry...”

“The flower girl—Zoe was her name, she told her mother that a boy showed her how to open the panel in the ballroom. Then that same boy led her through the passageway straight to Danielle and the twins.”

“Did she say what he looked like?”

“She described him as talking funny and wearing long shorts.” Charlie gestured to right below his own knee.

“Wearing long shorts...Oh! Like breeches,” I guessed. “Which would have certainly been worn by children—little boys—from the 1800s.”

Charlie nodded.

“And the flower girl said that he was ‘talking funny?’” I thought about that for a moment. “Could he have been speaking French?”

Charlie studied me calmly. “That’s what we—I mean they—assumed.”

“I wonder who Jacques is...or was. I need to speak to Gabriella, see if she’d give permission for me to speak to Archer about his experience. But this is exciting because it means there is still an active haunting going on up at the mansion!”

“Gabriella asked me to bring you up to speed and talk to you about this latest...incident.”

“Manifestation,” I corrected automatically.

“Right,” he said on a long exhale.

For the next few minutes, we worked on finishing the dinner dishes. Once they were put away, I pulled the plug on the sink and draped the dishrag over the faucet. “Were you nervous to tell me?”

“No, but I worried that I’d lose your attention once I did.”

I gave him a friendly hip bump. “I assure you, although I may be excited at the prospect of the haunting, I am more... enthusiastic , shall we say, about spending some quality alone time with the gorgeous man that I have all alone in my apartment.”

His lips quirked. “Is that right?”

“It is.”

He nodded and placed the dish towel he’d been using aside. Before I could guess what he was planning, he reached down, scooped me right off my feet, and planted one on me.

Charlie then carted me across my apartment and dropped me on the mattress, making me laugh when I bounced. A moment later he was climbing in beside me. He took me in his arms, rolled over on his back, and I ended up tucked against his side.

“I like that skylight,” he said, staring up at it.

I began nibbling on his neck. “Me too. I like sleeping beneath the night sky and the stars.”

“It suits you.” He groaned when I began to work on his ear.

Hitching the skirt of my dress up, I hitched a leg over and straddled him. “Mind if I’m on top this time?”

He grinned. “No. I don’t mind at all.”

“Good,” I told him. “Because Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

I leaned in until we were nose to nose. “This time, you may want to hang onto something.”

“I promise to be brave,” he said, straight faced.

With laughter, I lowered my mouth to his and kissed him.