Read Aunt Dimity Goes West Online
Authors: Nancy Atherton
eled to another sphere. He didn’t like being seen by
me or by Angelique. He prefers to move undetected
through the physical world.”
“Who?” I asked.
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165
“The male spirit who accompanies you,” she replied.
“Couldn’t you sense his presence?”
I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck,
as if a chill breeze had blown through the room. I
knew of only one male spirit who would frighten cats
and freak out psychics, and I didn’t want him hovering
within a hundred miles of me.
“Describe him,” I said warily.
Amanda closed her eyes, spread her palms on the
table, and breathed deeply through her nostrils. “Light
hair. A slight build. The glint of spectacles. No.” She
frowned in concentration, then corrected herself.
“Pince-nez. On a chain.”
Tension drained from me. Whoever Amanda was
describing, it wasn’t Abaddon.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about,”
I said.
“He has not yet made himself known to you,
though I sense . . .” Amanda peered at me intently, al-
most hungrily, as if she suspected that I, unlike most
people who walked into her shop, had some experi-
ence in her chosen field of expertise. “Have you ever
been in touch with the other side?”
“The other side of what?” I asked.
“Eternity,” she whispered dramatically.
“I don’t
think
so.” I pursed my lips and frowned slightly. “No, probably not. I’m sure I would have
noticed.”
Toby sniggered and Amanda waited for me to go
on, but I had nothing more to add. I wasn’t about to
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tell the queen of hocus-pocus that I’d been in touch
with “the other side” nearly every day for the past seven years. Aunt Dimity was a dear friend, not a psychic
phenomenon. I didn’t want her name bandied about by
a bunch of aging hippies holding séances in the geo-
desic dome.
Amanda waved a freckled hand toward an empty
chair. “Come. Sit with me.Tell me about your dreams.”
“Sorry,” I said, refusing the invitation. “I never re-
member my dreams.”
It was a bald-faced lie, but my nightmare was
strictly off limits, and no power on earth would com-
pel me to speak of long, languorous dreams starring
heroic, blue-eyed cocker spaniels while Toby Cooper
was within earshot. He was a bright boy. He wouldn’t
need Amanda’s help to interpret the symbolism.
“Perhaps the sphere will guide our sight,” she sug-
gested.
“Actually, we just came in to buy a geode,” I
told her.
“You may
think
you came into my shop for a mun-
dane purpose,” Amanda said, smiling complacently.
“But I believe a greater power guided your steps. Shall
we consult the orb?”
“Oh, why not?” I said carelessly.
I unbuckled my pack, added it to the pile on the
chair, and took a seat at the table. After a brief hesitation, during which he no doubt struggled manfully to
keep from voicing his opinion on orb consultations,
Toby followed suit.
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167
Amanda rose and removed from the cupboard a
round object covered with a fringed, jacquard-silk
cloth. She placed the object in the center of the table, resumed her seat, and swept the cloth aside to reveal a
large and quite beautiful crystal ball on a little wooden stand. As she bent over the crystal ball, she bracketed
her face with her hands, as if to block everything else
from view.
Toby sat back in his chair with his arms folded,
looking askance at the proceedings, but I leaned for-
ward, propping my elbows on the table and resting
my chin in my cupped hands. If Amanda had seen
Abaddon’s unholy ghost dogging my footsteps, I would
have been nervous. As it was, I felt calm, relaxed, and
ready for a bit of fun.
“I see a long journey,” Amanda intoned. “You have
come from afar.”
I almost laughed out loud at her pathetic attempt
to impress me. Anyone linked to Bluebird’s highly
efficient grapevine could have learned that I lived in
England.
“You will meet a short, dark stranger,” she went on.
“Isn’t it supposed to be a
tall,
dark stranger?”
Toby muttered.
Amanda continued to peer intently into the crystal
ball, as though Toby’s words were beneath her notice.
“Those you love most will surprise you,” she said.
Again, I had to restrain the urge to laugh.There was
nothing remotely mystical in Amanda’s mumbo jumbo.
I had every reason to believe that she, like everyone
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else in Bluebird, knew all about my five-year-old sons.
It didn’t take psychic powers to predict that little boys would at some point surprise their mother. Will and
Rob surprised me every day. It’s what five-year-olds
do.
“Death came to claim you,” Amanda murmured,
“but you escaped his grasp.”
I sat upright and the laughter died within me.
Amanda might be throwing darts blindly, but even
blind throws struck the target from time to time.This
one had hit a bit too close to home.
“He will come for you again,” she continued. “You
risk all by sleeping beneath the eagle’s wings.The kill-
ing curse will not leave you unscathed.”
“That’s enough.” Toby pushed his chair back and
got to his feet. “I knew you’d get around to the curse
sooner or later, Amanda, but I didn’t think you’d give
it such a sick twist. You’re supposed to use your al-
leged gifts to do good, but I don’t see anything good in scaring people. Did James Blackwell come here, too?
Did you try to scare him?”
Amanda looked up from the crystal ball. “All of my
consultations are private and confidential.”
“How convenient,” Toby scoffed. “It means you
don’t have to defend yourself when you’re wrong.”
“I describe only what the orb reveals to me,”
Amanda said serenely.
“
And
what you hear in the cafe,
and
what you make up,” Toby snapped.
“The inner eye does not lie,” said Amanda.
“I hate to interrupt such a rousing debate,” I said,
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169
with forced nonchalance, “but the closest I’ve been to
death lately is a stroll around the cemetery with Rose
Blanding—although I may die of starvation if I don’t
have dinner soon. Lunch was a long time ago and
we’ve done quite a bit of walking since then.” I stood.
“Thanks for your time, Amanda. If you don’t mind, I’d
like to buy two geodes and get back to the Aerie. I
really like sleeping beneath the eagle’s wings. Should
I, er, cross your palm with silver here or at the cash
register?”
“Neither,” she said, as unfazed by my reaction as
she’d been by Toby’s. “Take the geodes as my gift. To
commune with your spirit has been payment enough.”
“You’re very kind,” I said, avoiding her gaze.
Toby and I were back on Stafford Avenue in less
than ten minutes. I’d seldom been happier to breathe
smoke-free air, but Toby looked angry enough to spit
fire.
“I’m sorry about that,” he said. “Amanda’s always
seemed harmless to me, but I guess she couldn’t resist
making the most of the curse.”
“The
killing
curse,” I corrected him. “It has a certain ring to it, don’t you think?”
“I think,” Toby said grimly, “that Amanda had better
clean up her act or she’s going to go out of business.
Tourists don’t enjoy being frightened.
You
weren’t frightened, were you?”
“No,” I said. “Personally, I think there are enough
real horrors in the world. I don’t have to go looking
for them in crystal balls.”
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Toby gave me a searching, sidelong glance, as if
to convince himself that Amanda’s unsettling pro-
nouncements hadn’t upset me. My neutral expression
must have reassured him because he relaxed and
changed the subject.
“I’m glad you remembered dinner,” he said. “I’m
starving.”
“Me, too,” I said.
If I’d been completely honest with Toby, I would
have admitted that I’d used dinner as an excuse to get
away from Amanda Barrow and her orb.Amanda might
rely on educated guesswork for most of her predic-
tions, but she saw some things much too clearly for my
liking.
Death
had
come for me, and I
had
escaped his grasp.
Was he lying in wait for me at the Aerie, to complete
the job he’d left undone in Scotland? Would I be the
killing curse’s next victim?
As we entered Caroline’s Cafe, I felt a sudden rush
of empathy for James Blackwell, lying alone in his bed,
wondering what would happen next.
Fifteen
T oby and I decided to have dinner at the cafe,
to save ourselves the trouble of cleaning up
afterward. We returned to the Lord Stuart
Trail at half past five, stuffed to the gills with Carrie Vyne’s excellent fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and
three-bean salad. As we started up the trail I saw
something I hadn’t seen before in Colorado.
“Do my eyes deceive me?” I said, squinting at the
sky. “Are those . . . clouds?”
Toby followed my gaze and nodded. “Looks like a
cold front’s moving in.We may have a rainy night.”
I nodded, secretly reassured. I hadn’t dealt very
well with thunderstorms since I’d been shot—every
lightning bolt ignited flashbacks of Abaddon’s creepy,
pale face hovering over me on the storm-wracked
cliffs in Scotland—but I could handle a rainy night.
“What thoughtful weather you have here,” I com-
mented. “No rain until we’re done hiking—or trail
riding or cooking out.”
“It’s not always so considerate,” said Toby. “Which
is why—”
“We always bring our rain gear,” I finished for him.
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A brisk wind was swooping through the treetops
by the time we reached the Aerie, and the tempera-
ture had dropped by at least fifteen degrees. I was very glad we’d departed from the cafe when we did. If we’d
stayed a half hour longer, I would have seriously re-
gretted wearing shorts.
I left Toby to fill the cookie jar with Calico Cookies
while I put Annelise’s aspen-leaf earrings on her dresser and propped the pair of fuzzy buffalo against the twins’
pillows in the playroom tent.When I reached the mas-
ter suite, I glanced thoughtfully at the blue journal, but decided to postpone my chat with Aunt Dimity until after Annelise and the boys had returned from the ranch.
I knew that our conversation would be a long one—it
had been a remarkably eventful day—and I didn’t want
to be interrupted in the middle of it.
After changing into a pair of soft jeans and a long-
sleeved cashmere sweater, and swapping my hiking
boots for the blissfully supple moccasins I’d bought at
Dandy Don’s, I brought the geodes back to the dining
room and placed them on the table, where everyone
would be able to see them.
While I’d been distributing largesse, Toby had
changed into clean jeans, sneakers, and an old gray-
plaid flannel shirt. I returned to the great room to find him kneeling before the hearth, laying a fire.
“No fire pit tonight,” he said. “It’s too windy.”
“I wasn’t planning on it anyway,” I said, crossing to
lend him a hand. “It’ll be baths and bed for Will and
Rob when they get back, and I doubt that Annelise will
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173
want to stay up late.” I passed logs to him from the bin until the pile was ready for lighting, then stood back.
“The geodes will look fantastic by firelight, won’t they?”
“Yes,” Toby said, but he spoke as if he had other things on his mind. He closed the fire screen, straightened, and turned to me. He studied my face for a moment, then
said, “Lori, tell me the truth. After everything we’ve
heard today, does the Aerie seem different to you?”
“No.” I smiled up at him and raised my hand as if I
were taking an oath. “Scout’s honor, Toby, the Aerie
feels just as welcoming now as it did when I first set
foot in it. Even if I did believe in curses, I couldn’t believe that this place has ever been anything but loved.”
“I really could strangle Amanda,” he said darkly.
“Let’s forget about Amanda,” I told him. “Weren’t
you going to show me the stuff James Blackwell left
behind? You may as well do it now, while we have the
place to ourselves.”
“Okay,” said Toby. “Come with me.”
I followed him through the passageway at the end of
the kitchen and up two flights of stairs to the caretaker’s apartment. Since I was scrupulously respectful of Toby’s privacy, I would never have invaded his space without
his permission, but once I was there, I couldn’t help
taking a look around.
The caretaker’s apartment turned out to be a small,
self-contained unit with a kitchenette, a living/dining
room, a bathroom, a bedroom, and a private deck.The
rooms were comfortably if not extravagantly furnished
and clearly intended to be used by one person. Toby