The Old House (Haunted Series Book 16) (16 page)

Cid could see the sincerity in her face.  Her eyes held his, and he was reluctant to blink.  “Okay, I’ll stay, but while you guys are gone, I’m reinsulating your bedroom.  Making it soundproof.  There’s only so much a bachelor can stand to hear.”

Mia blushed.  “It’s me.  Sorry but…” she turned and looked over at her husband.  “Better put in double insulation.”

Ted walked over, and the three waved at Susan as she drove down the drive.

“Cid, I was about to tell Ted about my mystery date last night. Would you like to come in and sit with us, or listen outside the door?” Mia asked sweetly.

Ted started laughing.

“I’m in.  Should I ring the bell?  Murphy has far-out ideas on who you dined with.”

Mia looked at Ted, and he nodded.

Cid trotted over to the bell and rung it.  They watched as Murphy moved down the hillside.

Ted opened the door, and Mia walked in and on through to the kitchen.  She was hungry.  She picked up a frying pan, and Cid took it from her.

“No sense in starting a fire.  I promise to make you something to eat after you tell us.”

Mia turned and looked at the three males and nodded.  She smiled and announced, “I met my grandfather.”

“Orion?” Ted asked.

“No, Émile Neyer. He’s my mother’s father.  He didn’t even know I existed until my aunt Aubree saw the Ice Queen poster.  You see, I look just like my grandmother Adele at this age.”  Mia proceeded to tell them all about the meal and the kind offer of the visit.  When she was finished, she raised her hand and said, “There’s more. Grandma Fred came to see me last night while I was waiting for you, Ted.  She said that Émile is to be trusted, and that if this battle between good and evil starts, that I’m to take my family and my friends to stay with them in Alsace.  That you would be safe there.”

“In France?” Murphy asked.  “With frogs?”

Ted burst out laughing.  Cid shook his head.

“And I thought I was bad,” Mia said.  “You need classes.” Mia pointed at Murphy.

He smiled.

“So there is to be a battle?” Cid asked.

“I don’t know much about it,” Mia confessed.  “But all this attention I’ve been getting has to do with recruitment.  It may not happen for years, but evidently, sides are being drawn.”

“Does this explain the ramping up of the incidents of live haunts?” Ted asked.

Mia shrugged her shoulders.  “I’m not sure.  It would be nice to get a straight answer out of one of them, but no one’s volunteering any information.”

“Have you chosen?”  Ted asked.

“Sides?” Mia asked.  “I’m fighting for the human race.  Last night, when I was floundering with my first flight, I promised my shield and sword to Sariel if he would get me to you.  He wouldn’t accept it, as I was under duress.  He stressed that he was there to help me, not recruit me.”

Ted took her hands and looked down at her with tear-filled eyes.  “You would have enslaved yourself to Sariel as long as he got you to me.  I could have rejected you, but still you did this.”

“Ted, when are you going to realize that you are the single most important person in my life?  I’m nothing without you,” Mia said, embarrassed.

Murphy put a hand on Cid’s shoulder and drew him away from the couple.  They both left the house and walked out into the yard.

“How do you feel about this Sariel?” Cid asked Murphy.

“I’ve never had a conversation with him, but he has been good and kind to Mia.”

“But so has Angelo,” Cid pointed out.

“Angelo wants more than Mia’s sword,” Murphy stressed.  “He wants to possess her.  He wants something from her that she has already promised to another.  Sariel just wants a solider.”

“What about you?” Cid asked.

“I fight with Mia on the ground.  Up there, I don’t belong.” Murphy shivered at the thought.  “Up there, I want the mightiest of angels at her side.”

“Ted thinks Angelo will protect Mia because he loves her.”

Murphy spoke plainly, “Love gets in the way of common sense.  It makes us weak when tough decisions have to be made.  Believe me, I know.”

Cid nodded.  “Well, starting the day after tomorrow, we are going to have the farm to ourselves.  It’s just going to be us bachelors, no babies or women to mess with us.”

Murphy smiled.  “We ought to kick up our heels.”

“Yes, we should,” Cid agreed.

“You are truly amazing.  Are you sure I’m the one?” Ted asked.

“Why not?” she said.  “You’re impossible to replace.  I’ve looked in Heaven and in Hell for your replacement, and I could find no one that understands me better.”

Ted looked at the vacated kitchen.  “We lost the chef.”

“Seems so, but I’m no longer hungry,” Mia said coyly.

“You, you’re not hungry?”

“Nope, not for food,” she said.  A shadow fell across her face.

“What is it?” Ted asked, concerned.

“Last night, my grandmother took my ability to bear children away from me, temporarily.”

“Can she do that?”

“Evidently so.”

“Well, we did want to wait, and I’m going broke buying protection.  Let’s look at this as a good thing,” he decided.

Mia smiled.  “I was hoping you’d think so.”

“Does that mean no PMS or visits from Bloody Mary?”

“Ted!” Mia said, embarrassed.

“Well, we’ll take it one day at a time.  Right now, I think we need to investigate if you’ve got any more feathers.”

Mia’s blush turned beet red.  She picked up a tea towel and snapped him with it and took off running.  She made the stairs by the time he caught up with her.  He scooped her up and charged up the steps and into the master suite, kicking the door shut after him.

Cid looked over at Murphy.  “First, a trip to Home Depot.  Come on, I’ll let you pick out a tree to plant in celebration of Ted getting his head out of his ass.”

A shriek of outrage followed by Mia’s giggles rang through the countryside.  Murphy looked at Cid and said, “Two trees.”

They passed the old house without seeing it.  Mia was too preoccupied with Brian, who had to be convinced to stay in the car seat for another five minutes.  And
this
five minutes was indeed just five minutes this time.  Ted turned onto the long winding road that would take them to their rented cottage on the east side of Wolf’s Head Lake.  He slowed the car as they left the pavement for the gravel road.

Mark stopped and watched the approaching car.  He waved shyly at the young couple as they passed.  He saw the baby in the back.  He would tell Gran that the new renters had arrived.  She had baked a pie.  Mrs. Mavis, the owner, asked Gran to welcome them.  She had to take her hound to the vet and was worried she would miss their arrival.  Mark ran down the lane and towards his grandparents’ cottage.

He burst through the door.  “Gran, they’re here!” he called.

“My, I haven’t ever seen you so excited for the arrival of new renters,” she teased.

“I can’t explain it either, but I looked at that car and could have sworn that I felt a hug as it passed.”

“You and that fanciful imagination of yours.  Then again, you could have a bit of the gift.  You know, my mother had a way of telling a stranger’s worth without even talking to them,” she recalled  “Would you like to come along?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mark said.  “I can’t have you carrying that heavy basket up that hill.  Grandpa would be sore with me.”

Edie lifted up the basket and smiled. “I guess the extra jars of jam made it a bit heavy.”

“I thought you were only going to bake a pie,” Mark teased his grandmother.  He took hold of the basket and waited until Edie put on her sunhat.  He thought that his grandmother was the most beautiful woman in the world.  She had an old world grace to her, like Katherine Hepburn did in the old movies Grandpa Sam insisted he watch.

Mia walked through the cottage carefully.  She insisted that Ted let her go in first to make sure there wasn’t any ghost lurking before they brought Brian inside.  She smiled and said a thank you prayer before sticking her head out the door. “All’s clear.”

Ted ducked under the door and was pleased to see the high ceilings.  He looked around at the warm décor.  The landlord had put fresh flowers in the vase in the middle of a sturdy round table.  “It’s so happy in here,” he said.

“Yes, almost as happy as I am to be spending time alone with my two men,” Mia said as she stared out onto the lake.

“We should have done this long ago,” Ted said.

“We were too busy saving the world.  There is a crib in the small bedroom as promised.”

“Good, I didn’t want to share a room with Mr. Stinky Pants.”

“Again?” Mia asked.

“Food in, food out,” Ted commented.

Mia grabbed her son from Ted’s outreached arms.  “Come on, Brian, let’s get you cleaned up while Daddy cleans out the car.”

“No fair, Mia.”

“Ahem, at least this time I was around for the cleanup,” Mia said.

Ted ducked under the doorway and down the steps.  He gathered an armload of luggage and returned to the house.  He heard Mia singing, in her out of tune way, some song he didn’t know.  Brian was giggling.  He deposited the bags in the middle of the great room and went back for the rest.  He almost forgot to duck and scolded himself.

He pulled out the big cooler Cid had filled with easy to prepare meals, not trusting Mia to satisfy the culinary needs of living entities.  He set it on the deck and pulled out the canvas totes of groceries that they had stocked up on at the last town they drove through.  He carried them into the house and set them on the counter.  Mia showed up with Brian on her hip.  She grabbed the milk out of a bag and opened the refrigerator to find a bottle of white wine inside.

“Oh, how nice,” she said.  She lifted it up for Ted to see.

“Yup, it’s wine.”

Mia shook her head.  She found the coffee pot and proceeded to brew a strong pot of coffee while Ted went out for the cooler.

“Minnie Mouse, we have company,” he called through the screen door.

Mia carried Brian to the door that Ted held open.  She moved shyly into the protective circle of his arm.

An older woman and a boy were walking down the short drive from the road.

“Hello!” Edie called.  “Welcome to Wolf’s Head Lake.”

Ted left Mia’s side to walk over and introduce himself.  “Ted Martin, and this is my wife Mia and our son Brian. And you are?”

“Edie White, and this is my grandson Mark Leighton.  Ted, please accept our tokens of welcome.  Mary Mavis was sorry she couldn’t be here to welcome you in person.  She had to take Rufus to the vet.  He’s having some digestive problems.”

“Gran, too much information,” Mark said, making a face.  He looked up and saw the second most beautiful woman in the world standing there, smiling down at him.  He would tell his mother later that she looked like an angel, but he wouldn’t mention the wings that he could see behind her.

Mia pushed herself to walk down the steps.  She smiled and greeted the friendly woman and the boy.  Ted took Brian from her arms, and she reached out and, forgetting she wasn’t gloved, took hold of Mark’s hand.

The image of a man lying comatose in a hospital bed and the boy angry with him filled her mind.  “Where are you? I need you, Daddy.  Talk to me, please.”

She gently let go of Mark’s hand and breathed slowly.  She opened her eyes and said softly, “Mark, we’ll find a way to talk to him.”

He looked at her oddly.

“Oh, did I just say that aloud?” she whispered.

“Yes, but I won’t tell,” he promised.

Ted who had escorted Edie up the steps, waited for her and Mark.  “Coming?  Oh, I should warn you, Mark, that Mia is taken.”

Mark punched Ted in the arm on the way in.

“Ouch,” Ted complained.

“It serves you right,” Mia said, still a bit rattled by the encounter.  “Would you like a cup of coffee or is it too hot for that?” she asked their guests.

“Nonsense, a cup of strong coffee is never turned down in our house,” Edie said, looking around.  “Mary did a good job.  She’s mighty particular who she rents the Sunset Cottage to.”

“It has a name?” Mia asked, delighted.

“Yes. Make sure you take advantage of that deck as the sun goes down.  You’ll see why it’s called Sunset Cottage.”

“We will.  Please sit down.  Excuse our lack of manners.  Mia was born in a barn, and I was raised by wolves,” Ted said.

Mia went into the kitchen and pulled out four mugs.  She looked over at Mark.  “Are you a coffee drinkin’ man or would you rather have a Dr. Pepper?”

“Gran?” Mark looked for permission from Edie.

“You can have one Dr. Pepper,” she said.

Mia reached in the cooler and pulled out an icy can.  She looked around and spotted a tea towel and wiped the can free of water before handing it to the kid.

Mark’s and her fingertips touched again.  This time an image of an old house briefly clouded her vision.

“You’re full of surprises,” Mia said, shaking her head.  “Polite and full of mysteries.”

Mark’s eyes darted to Mia’s husband and back.

“He doesn’t bite, but he does tease,” she warned.

“Edie, how do you drink your coffee?”  Mia asked.

“Milk and two sugars, if you have it.”

“I better or Ted would have me drawn and quartered,” Mia said, fixing the mugs.  She handed one mug to Mark to take to his grandmother.  She walked to Ted, surprised she didn’t trip over her own feet on the way, she was so nervous.

She sat down next to her husband.  Ted handed her Brian, and she bounced him on her knee.

“I’m supposed to tell you that the landline is active for local calls.  We are in a cell phone dead zone here, according to my grandson.  If it’s quiet you’re looking for, you’ll find it here in droves.  The television’s crap, but on Wednesday night, my husband digs out his old movie collection and projects them on the garage wall.  You’re welcome to come, bring a snack to pass,” she said.  “Otherwise, there’s the lake.  Mary’s rowboat’s life vests are in the boathouse.”  She counted silently on her fingers.  “I think that’s all.”

“No computer games,” Mark said quietly.

“Well, that’s a disappointment,” Ted said, more to connect with the boy than to express his feelings.

“You youngsters, wasting your lives in front of a computer.”

Mia squeezed Ted’s thigh as a warning.  She said pleasantly, “My husband is a computer genius, so we may have a difference of opinion.”

“Oh my, I put my foot in my mouth,” she said, embarrassed.

“No, it’s okay.  I agree that you can lose quality time in the games.  I use my abilities to find better ways of communicating,” Ted explained.

Edie was mollified.  “That’s nice.”

“We’re here to reconnect with each other,” Mia told them.  “Our lives have taken different paths.  It was time to regroup.”

Edie nodded.  “Very smart, young woman.”  She went on to acquaint Ted and Mia with the functions of the temperamental furnace and explained how to get the most out of the old hot water heater.  “My husband Sam will be over to show you the boat.  He’s up at St. Mathews fixing a leak in the roof right now.”

“We’ll look out for him,” Mia promised and walked the two to the door.

Ted walked them as far as the road.  He came back smiling. “Nice folks.”

Mia nodded, yawning.

“You put Brian down, and I’ll finish up here,” he promised.

Mia left him to finish bringing in the gear.

She laid Brian down and smiled down at him.  “I think we may want to take advantage of the peace.  There’s something brewing down the street that Mommy and Daddy may have to look into.”

“Ooh ooh,” Brian said, and yawned.

“Yes,” she said, tucking him in.

Mia wandered out into the cottage and mentally planned how to secure the place if the dead came a calling.

“Uh oh, you’ve got that gotta-pour-some-salt look on your face.  Did the kid scare you?” Ted asked, shutting the outside door.

“No, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” Mia said.

“I’m here, Mia.  Let me calm your fears,” Ted offered.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do this.  I see and feel so much,” she said, letting him take her into his arms.

“We can’t save everyone, and not everyone wants to be saved.  But after a few days’ rest, we’ll be up to any challenge.  Let those shoulders ease,” he said, rubbing them.

Mia listened to his words while feeling his hands on her.  She closed her eyes and sighed.  The rubbing stopped.  Her eyes popped open.  She turned around, and Ted was gone.

“What?”

“Sorry, I wanted to give this to you.  Rubbing your shoulders reminded me.”  He handed her a tissue-wrapped package.  “Cid and I were up late last night working on it.”

“So this is from you, or you and Cid?”

“Me, Cid, and Murphy.”

“Now I’m intrigued,” she said and unrolled the paper to find a new scabbard.

“Murphy pointed out to us that you wouldn’t be fighting ghosts up there, so you now have little use for the shotgun,” Ted explained.  “I worried that the scabbard that you have would interfere with your wings, so we came up with this.”

Mia pulled off her shirt.  She slid the scabbard on and touched her wrists.  She glanced at the front windows, and when she saw no one on the deck, she tapped her wrists together and let the wings out.

“Whoa, I’ll never grow tired of that move.  Mia, it’s so damn sexy,” he said.

Mia flapped her wings, being careful to not knock over any of the furniture.  She brought them in tight behind her and turned around and wiggled her finger.

Ted walked over.  Mia rose up off the ground until she was eye level with Ted.

“How are you doing that?”

“I’m not sure, but let’s go with it.  Come here,” she said, reaching for him.  She kissed him long and hard on the lips before lowering herself to the floor.

Ted ran his hands first along the straps of the scabbard and then lightly along the feathers.

“They’re not papier-mâché, Ted.  Dig your hands in,” Mia instructed as she turned around.

He moved his hands over the feathers and stopped where they had become one with Mia’s body.  “This is impossible,” he said, sliding his hands under the wings, caressing the back underneath.  “The sword would stay here until you needed it.  Oh God, Mia, may you never have to use that.”

“I’m not exactly looking forward to it.  But it does have its uses.”

“Extend a wing, please?” he asked.

Mia did so.  He moved around her body, paying attention again to where it connected to her skin.  “Are they heavy? Does this hurt you?”

“No and no,” she said.  “When I first took off, it hurt like hell.  Fortunately, there was Sariel to stop me from doing it wrong.  I guess I should have asked Judy when I first got them, but I wanted to tell you first before even using them.”