Mr. Tom shrugged. “I don’t know—I’ve never felt it. I’ve always felt welcomed. But I’ve seen plenty of people go running out of here, so there must be some feeling of repulsion. It’s very strange that Austin Steele didn’t feel it—or maybe he did and didn’t want you to see him run like a coward? He’s very guarded about how people perceive him—oh bloody… Hurry, get into the house. That horrible woman is back from the bar. She’ll be all curses and put downs. She really is very trying.”
Once in the house, he took the wine from me and directed me to the kitchen.
“Are you hungry? Do you want dessert?” he asked.
“No, I’m fine.”
He sat me at the small table and poured me a glass of wine before sitting opposite me. “Listen, Miss, Austin Steele is a great man. He has done a lot for this town. He has some very good reasons for wanting to keep the magic confined in Ivy House. But ultimately, he has an agenda. He has created this town as he envisioned it. He is an alpha—he can be very shortsighted when it comes to other people’s visions. Ivy House is speaking to you. The magic is calling you. It would be a travesty to ignore it.”
I stood, suddenly exhausted. “I hear you M—Tom. I understand what you’re saying. I think I’ll just turn in now.”
“Of course. Yes.” He stood and bowed. “It has been a big day. Lots of new ideas.”
I hesitated as I turned to leave. “Who were those people last night? You never said.”
“In Jane terms, those guys worked for one of the major mob bosses. If that boss wants to own this town, there is nothing Austin Steele could do about it.”I sat at the table in my room not long afterward, letting the sweet air drift in through the windows, and thought about the situation before me. A situation right out of storybooks.
I felt like I was in my own twisted sort of fairy tale, only instead of the handsome prince, I had a geriatric gargoyle. Despite all the messed-up things afoot, I was pretty sure I’d traded up.
I could become magical!
Which was the part my mind really couldn’t compute.
This sort of stuff didn’t happen to me. I’d married young and spent the last twenty years being a wife and mother. My idea of a crazy, reckless adventure had been changing towns without a plan.
I blew out a breath, staring out at the labyrinth, the hedge leaves shining in the moonlight as though they’d just been waxed.
If everything I’d been told today was true, I had to assume everyone had an agenda. Austin had seemed genuinely supportive toward the end, but he’d been drinking. Mr. Tom was right—he had a vision for this town, and he wouldn’t want to see me tarnish it, no matter how much he’d waxed poetic.
That being said, Mr. Tom wasn’t any better. If the magic would act as his fountain of youth, of course he wanted to activate it. Who wouldn’t?
Me.
My heart sank, the sentiments I’d shared with Austin rising to the surface, along with his response.
Stop being ignored. Raise your voice until you are heard. Look however you want—be whoever you want—and demand people pay attention to you.
“That easy, huh?” I whispered.
Magic wouldn’t solve my problems. Even if it was real and this town wasn’t playing an elaborate, special-effects-laden game of “make fun of the tourist,” it wouldn’t make me feel good about being me. It would make me a different me. How could I stand up to people’s prejudices about middle age if I no longer looked middle-aged? Because I knew this was a fight worth having, if not for myself, then for the younger generation.
No matter what happened, I didn’t want to forsake who I’d become or the battle it had taken to get there.
I sat there for a while longer, letting the blissful night wash over me. The last thing Mr. Tom said, right before I’d left the kitchen, rolled through my head and sent nervous shivers racing through me.
If that boss wants to own this town, there is nothing Austin Steele could do to stop it.
Hopefully this was all some elaborate joke, because if Austin couldn’t stop it…someone would have to.Twenty-ThreeI awoke with a jolt, half expecting Mr. Tom to be standing over me like he’d done every other morning. But it wasn’t morning.
Deep night blanketed the windows. The room around me lay quiet, the silence stretching into the rest of the house.
A presence prowled the grounds.
I didn’t know how I knew, I just did. A stranger tread on the property, someone who didn’t belong. Not a kid up to mischief or a drunk night hiker who had taken a wrong turn, either. This intruder had an aura of danger. My absolute conviction sent my heart racing.