The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (43 page)

* * *

Jamie took his turn talking to his parents after dinner. “So you are definitely going to the festival?” Rachel asked, sitting next to Carl in front of the computer’s camera. The family room at Jamie’s house in Hendersonville could be seen behind them.

“Yeah, I guess, though I still think we should stay here and work instead.” He neglected to tell them that he felt it was safe to make doorways.
Mom will want me to come home right now
.

“I wouldn’t mind going to that,” Carl said. “Sounds fun.”

“Brinna really sold us on it. Even Mrs. Tully is going.”

“That doesn’t seem like her.”

“She said she’s been going to it every year since she was a little girl. Apparently, everybody goes. It’s a big deal here.” He pinched his mouth tight and leaned back. “Still, it’s valuable time we could be spending with the books.”

“I have some news.” Carl’s expression turned grave. “Hank called and said they caught
the
bear.”

“The one they think is killing the hikers?”

Carl nodded. “In a heavy-duty trap. He said the bear is a giant, eight hundred pounds or so. Might even be a record for this part of the country.”

“What are they going to do to that poor thing? Are they going to kill it?

“Maybe not. They’re looking for a zoo to take it. He’s a heck of an animal.”

“Does this mean what I think it means?”

Carl nodded again. “They’re going to open up that part of the trail.”

“Oh, no.” Jamie rubbed one hand over his face. “What...what are we gonna do if we never find a way to get rid of the demon?”

Rachel glanced at Carl, and then looked firmly into the screen. “We could always move there, if things get too dangerous. It’s a good thing you’re keeping that house.”

Chapter 34

Jamie and his friends sat down to lunch with Evelyn, Aiven, and Mrs. Tully. The delicious-smelling vegetable soup and fresh bread had all been prepared by the hard-working housekeeper.

“I don’t make a lot of soup these days,” Evelyn said. “It’s too easy to open a can of Campbell’s and heat it up.”

“Bet it’s not as good as this, huh?” Aiven gestured emphatically at his bowl with his spoon. “Mrs. Tully can cook
anything
. She’s the best cook in the whole world, she is.”

“This
is
tasty, Aiven,” Jamie said, as he buttered a piece of warm bread, “but my Gramma’s a pretty good cook, too.” He gave Evelyn a quick wink. “You should try her fried chicken.” Fred and Rollie both agreed with him.

“Thank you, Jamie.” Evelyn said with a smile. “I’ve been helping Aiven with his reading, but the problem is we don’t have any age-appropriate books. These magic books are pretty dense, and some are poorly written.”

“I should loan him my Walter the Littlest Wizard books.”

Fred paused with a spoonful of soup halfway to her mouth. “You still have those?”

“All twenty-two of them. Those were my favorite books when I was learning to read.”

“Aren’t they a little bit too simple for him?”

“Not at his level of reading,” Evelyn said. “Though I wish my sister were here. She’d know better than I would, because she used to be a reading specialist.”

“Jamie, what are the books about?” Aiven asked.

“They’re about an orphan boy named Walter, who’s a wizard and travels around with this knight named Sir Brevis, and he has adventures and stuff.”

“I’m an orphan,” Aiven said without any trace of sadness. “And a wizard, too!”

Jamie smiled whimsically as he thought about those books, all the time he spent imagining he was the little wizard, making magic, saving people and doing good deeds. “I used to love those. I probably read them fifty times, every one of them.”

“I wanna read them! Can I?”

Rollie laughed. “With action figures and those books, he’ll be like a regular kid, won’t he? All he needs is a TV with some good cartoons.”

Evelyn frowned. “He doesn’t need a TV. Books will do nicely.”

“I may have some books for him, too,” Melanie said. “I’ll have to see what we saved. It’ll be good for Aiven to read something besides those magic books.”

Fred narrowed one eye thoughtfully. “Jamie, speaking of magic, I have a question. You remember when Mrs. Malley said that she was over a hundred years old? Do you think that’s true?”

“Probably. Witches can live a long time. As long as some wizards do, I think.”

“Well, won’t it be suspicious if you and I live that long? Won’t people know? That’ll be hard to keep a secret.”

“We could always move here when we get older. Everybody on this world accepts magic.” He nodded. “We could retire here. This house would be a pretty good retirement home for us, don’t you think, once we put a bathroom and a modern kitchen in it?”

“Yes, but don’t you think we should get married first?”

“Uh....” A few chuckles popped up around the table.

“Unless, of course, this is a proposal.” She batted her eyelashes extravagantly. “But if it is, I would prefer that you do it the old-fashioned way, on one knee, with a nice ring.” She extended her hand across the table to him, and he felt his face grow warm.

Laughter erupted from everyone, even Mrs. Tully, as Jamie frowned and muttered into his soup bowl, “You know what I meant.”

* * *

Evelyn set the empty laundry basket on the table and opened the small refrigerator. “I need a break, Mrs. Tully. Would you like some iced tea?” To Evelyn’s surprise, she said yes. Evelyn pulled out the plastic pitcher, fetched two glasses from the kitchen and filled them.

“”Tis a nice day, Mrs. Wallace,” Mrs. Tully said as Evelyn handed her the drink. “Why don’t we rest by the river?”

Evelyn agreed, though she was amazed by Mrs. Tully’s sudden willingness to do something as extraordinary as
relaxing
. Evelyn followed the sturdy woman out of the kitchen to the backyard. Sugar looked up and snorted a greeting, then resumed her grazing near the stable.

They sat together on the bench by the river and watched the water for a while. It flowed clear and bright in the spring sunshine, and it sparkled where it splashed and bubbled around the handful of large rocks that protruded above the surface. Low trees lined the far bank, barely fifty feet away, and a willow, already bright green with new leaves, hung over the bend to their right. A white, long-legged water bird, statue-still and elegant as a dancer, perched atop a wide, flat boulder near the far side of the slow-moving river.

They looked behind them when they heard the back door slam, and Aiven came tearing across the yard. “Mrs. Tully! Mrs. Tully! Guess what Jamie just showed me!”

He skidded to a halt just behind them and they both turned around on the bench to see him. His face was bright as the sun overhead. “He showed me how to do a heating spell. Wanna see?”

He grinned expectantly and Mrs. Tully shrugged. “Of course.”

“Hold out your hand.”

She did, palm up, and he held his over hers, barely an inch away. He grimaced and narrowed his eyes in a fierce mask of boyish concentration. After several seconds, he said, “Did you feel it?”

“Why yes. It felt a little warmer, it did. Soon you shall be heating the water for my tea, I expect.”

He beamed and nodded. “Yes ma’am, and I’ll be able to start the fire like Jamie does.” He flicked his fingers. “Zing! Like that! And I’ll do lots of things for you.”

“I’m sure you will. I’m proud of you.”

He looked so happy just then that Evelyn thought he might explode. He said, “I gotta go back inside in case Jamie might need me for something.” He hesitated for a moment, then threw his arms around Mrs. Tully’s neck and gave her a hug.

He started to turn away and Evelyn said, “Don’t I get one?”

He gave Evelyn a quick squeeze and ran back to the house, stopping on his way to give the horse a loving pat on the neck.

They watched him until the door slammed behind him, then they turned back to face the river. Evelyn took a sip of her tea and said, “I can see why you don’t want someone else to adopt him.”

“He is a good boy.”

“He always seems so happy, especially for someone who’s had such a tough start to his life.”

“It is his nature. Some people are born with the sun in their hearts.”

Evelyn held her glass in her lap and watched the water swirl past them. “Now, you realize that he’s not the first ten-year-old wizard to come to this house, don’t you? Wasn’t Renn his age when he came here? And under similar circumstances? An unwanted orphan, just learning his magic?”

Mrs. Tully waited a long time before answering. “I will not let that boy turn out like Renn, if that’s what you’re suggesting.” She stared at the river as if considering the possibility. “He is not a bit like Renn, anyway. I think Renn was
born
angry. There was mostly darkness in his heart.”

“Mrs. Carthy must not have thought so.”

“Perhaps not. But she was lonely when she took him in. Her family had died in the same plague that took Renn’s, and I think they helped each other through a very bleak time.”

Evelyn nodded and took another sip of her tea. “You only had two children, didn’t you? Brinna and your son, Bann?”

“I had three others, all born before Brinna.”

“What happened to them?”

“They all died,” she said with little display of emotion, as matter-of-factly as if she were talking about the weather. “The first two died not long after they were born, and the third lived almost a year before she got the fever and passed away.”

“I’m so sorry, Mrs. Tully. I didn’t know.”

“That was long ago. I’m not the only mother around here to lose children. Many do.”

I guess that’s normal for this world
, Evelyn thought with a sudden pang in her heart. “I don’t see how you bear it.”

“It is my lot in life.” She fingered her glass and glanced at Evelyn. “Is Rachel your only child?”

“No. I had a daughter before I was married.” Evelyn told her about how she’d gotten pregnant in high school and given the baby, Sophie, up for adoption, and how the girl, now grown, had sought her out recently and they’d established a relationship. Mrs. Tully seemed moved by the story, especially when Evelyn described the wrenching heartache of handing her newborn child to the nurse to be carried away to the adoptive parents. Mrs. Tully dabbed her eyes with the sleeve of her dress and nodded sympathetically.

“So you know what it is like to lose a child,” Mrs. Tully said, “though in a different way. A loss is still a loss.”

They both watched as the white, long-legged bird spread its broad wings and flew away, low over the water.

“Mrs. Tully, I know this is a personal question, so you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. What is it with you and Mayor Duncan?”

Mrs. Tully glanced at Evelyn again, then turned her attention back to her half-empty glass of tea, which she held in her lap. “We...weren’t always on such bad terms. We courted when we were young.”

“Oh really? What happened?”

“He saw me kissing another boy and broke it off.” She smiled ruefully and shook her head. “I have no regrets, though. The boy that I kissed became my husband, the true love of my life.”

“What did Mayor Duncan do?”

“He eventually married a rich widow, which raised his social status immeasurably. He would not be mayor now, otherwise. He lives in a grand house and has several servants.”

“It sounds like things worked out better for both of you.”

“Yes, but he has never forgiven me for that one indiscretion. He has spoken poorly of me ever since, to anyone who will listen.” She sighed. “I had hoped that he would have been more gracious, but it is not in his nature. He has changed as a person, and not for the better, I believe.”

Evelyn shook her head and smiled as she regarded the serious-faced, sturdy woman sitting beside her. “I can’t imagine you doing something like that, kissing another boy when you’re being courted by someone else.”

“And I can’t imagine you having a baby before you were married.”

“I guess we have something in common, then.”

“We have many things in common, and not just because of that, or that we lost our husbands.”

“We might be from different worlds, but I think we have similar values.”

Mrs. Tully nodded, still studying her glass in her hand, then she turned to face Evelyn. “I think so, too. I have to admit, I had my trepidations about your visit here, but it didn’t take long for me to see that my worries were for naught.” She gave a reassuring nod. “In fact, I rather enjoy your presence here. So does Brinna.”

“I’m glad you feel that way. I like it here. All of us do. We had our...trepidations, too, but we got over them right away.”

Mrs. Tully set her mouth for a moment and drew a breath through her nose. “I was especially worried about Master Jamie, being so young and so powerful. He killed Renn, after all. No small feat.”

“And I’m sure you were worried because we come from a different world and seemed so strange at first.”

She nodded. “But after getting to know you and your grandson, and the others, too, I can tell that all of you are good-hearted people.” One corner of her mouth turned up. “Especially your grandson. He may be an all-powerful sorcerer, but he does anything you ask, without question, and he is constantly offering to help me.”

“Which makes you uncomfortable, I know. Let him help, though. It makes him feel good. It’s the way he was raised.”

“And you had no small part in that. I know that you helped raise him, and Fred and Rollie, too.” She nodded again. “It shows. They do you strong credit, Mrs. Wallace.”

“Thank you, but their parents should take most of the credit for their character. They’re fine people, every one of them.”

“I know that Rollie is having difficulty with his father.”

“Yes, but we’re hoping he can work that out soon.”

“He is a good boy. All of them are good children. They all seem to have the same strong principles.”

“I like to think of it as a sense of selflessness.”

“They want to help others.”

“It’s why we’re here,” Evelyn said firmly, then chuckled to herself at her next thought. “I bet Renn never did the dishes, did he?”