The Chesapeake Diaries Series (93 page)

“Stef, you have to come now, right now,” Vanessa demanded. “Whatever it is you’re doing, drop it and come over
right now.
”

Steffie checked her cell phone for the time of her friend’s call. Almost forty minutes ago. She was just about to hit return call when the phone rang.

“What’s taking you so long? Why aren’t you here? What about
right now
do you not understand?”

“Ness, I just got the message.” Stef frowned. “Is something wrong? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine. But there’s something you need to see.”

“I’m on my way.”

Stef grabbed her bag and locked the front door. She’d hoped to have gotten at least one of the kitchen windows painted that night, but apparently that was going to have to wait. Whatever was happening at Vanessa’s must be really important, Stef thought as she locked the house behind her, because she sounded really fired up.

Less than four minutes later, Steffie was walking into Vanessa’s cozy bungalow on Cherry Street.

“What is going on?” she asked as she came into the house.

“Come into the living room.” Vanessa closed and locked the door behind her. “They’re in there.”

“Wait! Let me guess.” Stef stopped in the foyer. “You were fooling around with the Ouija board and it told you that you there’s a tall, dark, and handsome man in your future.”

“I could remind you that I already have my tall, dark, and handsome man in my
present
, but some might consider that gloating.” Vanessa led the way into the living room and sat on the sofa.

“What are those old books?” Stef stopped to check out the array of faded leather-bound volumes that were lined up one by one across the coffee table.

“That’s what you need to see.” Vanessa patted the sofa cushion next to hers. “Sit right here, and let me show you …”

She picked up the nearest book and opened it to a page she’d marked with a slip of paper.

“Remember I told you that old Miz Ridgeway left a ton of stuff in the attic?”

“Right.” Steffie nodded and took a seat. “No surprise there, though. Her family built this house, and she lived here forever. She was ancient when she died. We knew that.”

“Well, here’s something you don’t know.” Vanessa lowered her voice. “Miz Ridgeway … dabbled.”

“What do you mean, she dabbled?” Stef frowned. “You mean she painted?”

“No, I mean she
dabbled.
” Vanessa was almost whispering. “In
spells
.”

“What are you talking about?” Steffie laughed out
loud. “Are you saying that Alice Ridgeway was a wit—”

Vanessa clamped a hand across Steffie’s mouth.

“Don’t say it!”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Ness.” Stef slipped from Vanessa’s light grasp. “You’re talking about a woman who never left her house. She was agoraphobic.”

“So?”

“So don’t you think if she’d dabbled in spells that she’d have put a spell on herself to kick the agoraphobia so that she could go out into the world like a normal person and live her life?”

“Maybe it wasn’t agoraphobia. Maybe it was a spell that someone else put on her.”

“You make it sound as if St. Dennis was a hotbed of witchery.” Stef was clearly amused.

“It was.” Vanessa turned the book around and shoved it at Steffie. “Read.”

Steffie leaned forward and began to read aloud but Vanessa stopped her. “Not out loud.”

Steffie’s eyes skimmed the page.

“Okay, so some of the local girls thought Miz Ridgeway knew some spells and they wanted her to teach them what she knew.” Stef shrugged. “It sounds harmless enough. She was a lonely old woman and these kids probably thought she was more into it than she was because she never left the house and hardly anyone ever saw her.”

“Did you read the names of the young girls who wanted to learn how to do spells?”

Stef looked back to the book and turned the page.

“Holy crap!” she exclaimed.

Vanessa pointed to the top of the page. “Beryl
Eberly.” She looked up. “Do you think this is how she became a famous actress? By casting a spell to bring her fame and fortune?”

“Nah. Berry is naturally a great actress. I doubt she had to resort to magic. Besides,” she pointed out, “according to Miz Ridgeway’s own words here, all these girls wanted was to learn a love spell.”

“Aren’t you just a tiny bit curious as to why a woman like Berry would be interested in a love spell?”

“Maybe she was just going along with the crowd.” Stef’s eyes fixated on one name in particular. “Helen Kay Hinson. Huh. How about that?”

“Who’s Helen Kay Hinson?”

“That’s my nana Cummings’s maiden name. My mother’s mother. She would have been a little younger than Miz Ridgeway.” She grinned. “I guess that’s how she roped old Winston in.”

Stef looked up. “Winston Cummings was my grandfather. They owned the house on Cullen Drive where we grew up. We moved in with Nana when I was just a baby, right after my grandfather died.”

“Why didn’t she move in with you?”

“Because she had the big house, and she was by herself, and my parents had a small house and four kids. It worked out better for everyone that way.” Stef looked back at the page. “Anyway, I think it’s sweet that she wanted to cast a love spell on him. I think it’s sort of romantic; whether it was real or just so much hooey, it’s sweet that she wanted him to notice her that much.”

“I think the spell is for something more than ‘notice
me.’ ” Vanessa pointed to a name on the page. “Who’s Elinda Esterhouse?”

“That’s Mrs. Carlson. Reverend Carlson’s wife.”

“The minister’s wife wanted to learn how to cast spells?”

“She wasn’t a minister’s wife back then. She was a bit younger than Nana, so she might have just been influenced by the older girls. You know, young and impressionable. She passed on a few years ago, or we could have asked her about it.”

“Well, damn.” Vanessa frowned. “We need to find someone who’s still alive.”

“Well, there’s Berry. She’s still very much alive.”

Vanessa looked at Steffie as if she’d grown a second head. “Like a famous movie star is going to admit she had to resort to a love spell to make someone fall in love with her.” She tapped her fingers on the page. “Wouldn’t you love to know who Miz Berry had the hots for back then?”

“I’m betting it was Archer Callahan. He was her guy before she went to Hollywood.”

“Then I guess whatever spell she used wasn’t very effective, since she didn’t marry him.”

“But he asked her to, I’m pretty sure. And I’m pretty sure she said no.”

“Hmm. Why put a love spell on someone and then turn them down when they propose?” Vanessa wondered.

Stef shook her head. “I don’t know what was going on between them back in the day, but there were a lot of rumors.”

“Like what?”

“Well, the big one was that Ned—that’s Dallas and
Wade’s father—was really Berry’s son and not her sister’s.”

“What?” Vanessa’s eyes grew round.

Steffie nodded. “Don’t be repeating that, but that was what was going around for years. I remember overhearing my mom and dad talking about it once. Mom said that half the people in town thought it was nonsense, and the other half swore it was true.”

“Wow. Talk about your basic bombshell. If it’s true, that is.” She fell silent for a moment, then said, “So what do you think the spell would have been about?”

“I don’t believe in spells, Ness.”

“I don’t know if I do or not,” Vanessa murmured. “But these ladies did.”

“They were just girls back then. You know what it’s like when you’re fifteen or sixteen and someone gets something like this into their head. Didn’t you play with tarot cards and stuff like that at pajama parties when you were in high school?”

“I never did sleepovers when I was in high school. I didn’t have any girlfriends.”

“Seriously? Not one time?”

“Nope. I was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks, you know?” Vanessa looked wistful. “I don’t even know what girls did at those things.”

“You ate junk food and listened to tapes and called boys, and if the parents weren’t home, sometimes you all snuck out to meet the boys, who always knew where the pj parties were. Then the parents would find out or come home and the boys would scatter and the girls would come back inside and watch scary movies.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“It was.” Stef knew that her friend had had an unconventional upbringing, but she hadn’t known she’d been without friends. “Sleepovers were always fun. Next time Grady takes one of his wilderness groups into the wilds of the Montana mountains for a few days, I’m coming over to spend the night. I’ll get some scary movies from the movie store out on the highway and we’ll stay up all night watching them. We’ll sleep here on the living-room floor and we’ll eat ice cream and popcorn and stuff.”

“Can we have s’mores?”

“Are they a favorite?”

Vanessa shrugged. “I never had them, but I heard they were treats that you eat when you’re camping. Sleeping in the living room is sorta like camping.”

“Good point.” Stef pointed to the fireplace. “Does that work?”

“Sure. Hal told me to have a chimney sweep clean it out last year after I bought the place. We used it a couple of times last winter. Grady had some wood delivered so that it would be seasoned when the cold weather gets here.”

“Then it’s ice cream, popcorn, and s’mores for sure. I’ll bring the goodies.” Stef turned her attention back to the list. “Oh, but look! Grace Ellison’s name is here.”

“Who’s Grace Ellison?”

“Miss Grace.”

“Really? Well, that explains it,” Vanessa told her. “Miss Grace asks me every other week if I’ve found any journals or diaries that Miz Ridgeway might have kept.” Her eyes danced with mischief. “Now we
know why. She’s afraid I’ll find these and tell everyone.”

“We’re not going to tell
anyone.
”

“Of course not. I suppose it could be embarrassing for a woman to have her sixty-year-old business put out there for everyone to know about,” Vanessa agreed. “But I am going to let her know that I found the journals. I think she’d like to have them.”

Vanessa’s phone rang and she excused herself to take the call. Steffie continued reading the journals that had been written in Alice Ridgeway’s delicate hand. When Vanessa returned, she apologized.

“Sorry. It was Maggie. She just wanted to know if I was all right with her staying at Hal’s for a while. Which, of course, I am not.”

“Not really your business, though.”

“She made it my business by asking.”

Vanessa was clearly unhappy that her mother, Maggie Turner, had come to St. Dennis seeking a relationship with not only her daughter, but her son, Beck, and Beck’s father, Hal Garrity, as well. Everyone in town knew that Maggie and Hal had been in love once upon a time, and that Maggie, finding herself pregnant with Beck after Hal had deployed for Vietnam, had married another man. Until recently, though, no one—not Hal, or Beck, or Vanessa—had heard the real story—the whole story—that Maggie’s parents had forced their very young, pregnant daughter to marry a man she didn’t love. That marriage had been doomed from the beginning, as had all of Maggie’s subsequent marriages. Vanessa still wasn’t sure just how many trips to the altar her mother had taken, but lately, it was pretty clear that Maggie had
her heart set on winning back Hal. For his part, Hal showed absolutely no signs of resisting her efforts, a fact that wasn’t lost on her son or her daughter—or anyone else in St. Dennis.

“I hope to God Maggie never finds out about the love spells,” Vanessa grumbled. “Hal would be a goner for sure.”

“I hate to be the one to point this out, but Hal’s already over the moon as far as your mother is concerned.”

“Well, that just makes my night.” Vanessa took back the book and closed it, sending a puff of dust into the air. They both sneezed.

“Hal loves her, Ness.”

“God only knows why.”

“She’s pretty and she’s charming when she wants to be, and she cares about him.”

“She’s charming because she wants something from him.”

“What do you think she wants, Ness? You’ve said yourself that her last husband left her well off, so she isn’t after his money.” Stef took the book back from Vanessa. “I think she wants to be a family again.”

“She waited long enough to do that.”

“Better late than never.”

“Not necessarily. Besides, Beck still doesn’t want to have anything to do with her. After the way she dumped him on Hal’s doorstep when he was fourteen, I can’t say that I blame him.”

“Ness, I know you had it hard growing up …”

“Hard?” Vanessa snorted. “We moved more times than I can remember, she was never without a man in her life, and she changed men as often as she changed
our address. I didn’t even know that I had a brother—well, half brother—until I was in my twenties and she told me to come to St. Dennis and meet him and his father.”

“How many times have you said that was the best thing that ever happened to you?”

“Coming to St. Dennis
was
the best thing that ever happened to me. No one ever had a better big brother than Beck, or a finer father than Hal. Okay, so he isn’t my real father, but he’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to one. All that being true doesn’t make everything else my mother did right or excusable.”

“Hal is a good man, Ness. He has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known. And besides, he never stopped loving her. He, of all the people I know, deserves to be happy.”

When Vanessa started to protest, Stef said, “And has it ever occurred to you that maybe Maggie never stopped loving him, either? That maybe all those years, all that time, she was just trying to re-create what she’d had with Hal?”

“Well, I don’t want her trying to re-create it with the help of this book.”

“While you were on the phone, I read a few more pages. I think Miz Ridgeway was more amused by the girls than anything else. She says … where did I see it …?” Steffie scanned the pages again.

“Oh, here. Listen to this.” Stef began to read aloud.

“
The girls were back at my door today, wanting to know if they could come in to visit. Well, my curiosity got the best of me and I did invite them in. One by one, I asked them to tell me their names. These children  … and they’re all just children, I think Berry Eberle might be the oldest of the girls who have called on me but she wasn’t with this bunch today. None more than sixteen or seventeen, I would guess. I served tea, as I would have done for their mothers or their aunts—all of whom are well known to me, which made the entire exchange that much more amusing.
”