Darkmoon (The Witches of Cleopatra Hill Book 3) (15 page)

“You, too,” I said, and hung up.

A
lthough I’d gotten
permission to bring Lucas with me to the house on Saturday, I thought it would be pushing things to have him stay anywhere in Jerome. Cottonwood was still technically McAllister territory, but having him put up for a night or two there wasn’t quite the same thing as impinging on Jerome’s hallowed ground, so I suggested he see if he could find a place down the hill where he could stay. If not, I’d have him crash in the guest bedroom, and we’d all just have to deal with the consequences.

But, being Lucas, of course he found a last-minute cancellation at a highly rated local B&B, and reserved two nights. “Just in case,” he said cheerfully. “If nothing else, I’ll hit a couple of the wine-tasting rooms down on Main Street before I head back to Flagstaff.”

I had no doubt he would. If this meeting went anything like I feared it might, I’d ask him to have a couple of pours in my name as well, since I wouldn’t be drinking any wine for a long time. If ever.

Those thoughts kept skittering through my mind, refusing to be still. Yes, I could tell myself that I wasn’t due until December, and that gave us plenty of time to work on the curse, even with Marie taking a powder…but I was still worried, and scared…and trying desperately to conceal those emotions from Connor. It wasn’t good for him, me, or the babies for me to be in a state of perpetual anxiety. I knew that intellectually, but my emotions weren’t being good biddable things, unfortunately.

At least the wreckage in the kitchen wasn’t visible from the dining room. I whispered a thank-you under my breath to the formal Victorian architecture, so unlike houses being built now, with their “great room” concepts and everything open to everything else. To be fair, the contractors were very good about cleaning up after themselves, and they’d made great progress over the past few days — the extension of the one side of the kitchen was already framed and wired, and they’d also extended the roofline and laid down tar paper in preparation for installing composite shingles. It could have been a lot worse.

We did have Lucas come up early, though, and took him out to lunch at Grapes, where he charmed Tina, our server, so much that she was blushing like a schoolgirl and giggling at almost everything he said.

“You really ought to behave yourself,” Connor said, trying to sound stern, but I could tell he was more amused by Lucas’ antics than anything else.

“I thought I was,” Lucas replied.

Even I laughed at that remark, although I sobered up pretty quickly as we climbed the hill back to the house. Although I’d called this meeting, now I was sort of regretting setting it up in the first place. Well, there wasn’t much I could about it at this point, although I couldn’t help wishing that I’d inherited some of my Great-Aunt Ruby’s commanding air along with her
prima
powers. It would’ve really helped to keep the clan elders in line.

Since the kitchen was so torn up, I couldn’t offer much in the way of refreshments, although that was partly why I decided to have the meeting at one-thirty. If the elders hadn’t eaten lunch by then, it really wasn’t my problem. In the garage there was a Frigidaire even more ancient than the one I was replacing in the kitchen, and I sent Connor to fetch some bottled water I’d been storing out there, since the other refrigerator had already been hauled away — to the junkyard, or possibly a museum for antique appliances. Lucas helped me pull some glasses out of boxes, and I hurriedly cut some roses from the bushes in the backyard to set in a low vase in the center of the dining room table. By the time we were all done, the room looked downright respectable. You’d never know what chaos lurked on the other side of the door that led to the kitchen.

Not a moment too soon, though, since a knock came from the entryway just as I was shifting the vase of roses a fraction of an inch to the right. I straightened, as Connor and Lucas looked at me quizzically.

“I’ll get it,” I said. “It’s probably better that way.” I didn’t add that I thought this meeting was going to be tense enough without my answering the door flanked by a couple of Wilcoxes.

Leaving the two of them behind, I went to the entry and opened the door. As expected, there stood Allegra and Bryce and Margot, none of them looking all that happy to be here.

“Come on in,” I said, stepping aside so they could enter.

Bryce came in first, walking warily, as if he expected Connor and Lucas to be lurking somewhere in the foyer, ready to pounce, and he would be forced to protect the two women who accompanied him from bodily harm. I didn’t quite heave a sigh, but there might have been some eye-rolling involved.

Margot and Allegra followed, Margot looking cool and summery in a pale coral dress, dark hair as always pulled back in a low ponytail on her neck. Allegra tended to subscribe to my Aunt Rachel’s school of boho fashion, and wore a long embroidered black skirt and black T-shirt, her mousy graying hair piled haphazardly on her head in a bun.

Of all of them, she was the only one to smile at me, and even murmured, “How are you feeling?” as she entered the house. I nodded and sent her an answering smile, but didn’t want to go into any detail then. They’d all find out soon enough.

“This way,” I said, pointing toward the dining room, even though of course they’d been in there many times before and knew the way just as well as I did.

The briefest incline of her head from Margot and a furrowed brow from Bryce were all I got in reply. Great. If they were going to be this difficult now, when I’d barely said hello, how were they going to react to the rest of what I had to say?

Chin up, I led them to where Connor and Lucas were already waiting. They sat on the side of the table opposite the doorway, with Connor closest to where I would take my seat at the head of the table. As soon as the elders spied the two Wilcoxes, it was like watching the fur on a cat’s back bristle. Bryce went ramrod straight, Allegra’s eyes widened, and Margot’s mouth tightened.

Speaking quickly, I said, “You’ve already met Connor, but this is his cousin, Lucas Wilcox. Lucas, this is Bryce McAllister, Allegra Moss, and Margot Emory.”

As I said Margot’s name, I could see Lucas’ gaze linger on her, and I held my breath, praying he wouldn’t do or say anything inappropriate. Flirting with the waitress was one thing, but Margot? She’d rip his head off.

However, he only smiled, the slow, lazy smile that most of the Wilcox men seemed to share, and said, “Very pleased to meet you.”

For one long, horrible second, none of the elders replied. Then Allegra, bless her, said, “Very nice to meet you, Mr. Wilcox.”

“Lucas, please.”

“Lucas,” she responded, a fluttery little smile playing around her lips.

Margot only tilted her head and then sat down, while Bryce said nothing at all, gruffly pulling out a chair with a brusque movement that surely would’ve scratched the wooden floor if it hadn’t been protected by a rug.

“Well, then,” I began, after everyone was watching me with expectant eyes. Well, except Connor; he knew most of what I wanted to discuss, and although he hadn’t completely agreed with all of it, saying he thought the elders weren’t going to react well to what I had to say, he’d told me he would support me in whatever I decided to do. Pulling in a breath, I continued, “There’s been a lot going on lately, and since it affects both our families, I thought it was high time we sat down and talked about it like rational adults.”

A sniff that might have come from Margot greeted this statement, but since she didn’t actually say anything, I decided to just plow ahead.

“Our two families have been in — well, maybe not an all-out war, but definitely a cold war, for far too long. Maybe there was a reason for it once — ”

“You damn well know there was a reason,” Bryce cut in.

“—But now that Connor and I are together,” I went on doggedly, “it’s silly for us to keep acting like the Hatfields and McCoys or something. You all know that Connor and I are having a baby. Well, we recently found out that it’s not just one baby. We’re having twins.”

Since Lucas already knew that, he didn’t react, but only watched the other three. Both Allegra’s and Bryce’s eyes widened, while Margot’s narrowed, as if she were trying to determine what such an unprecedented occurrence might actually mean.

None of them said anything, though, and I glanced over at Connor, unsure what to do. I hadn’t exactly been expecting congratulations, not from this group, but I also hadn’t expected to get quite so completely stonewalled.

Goddess help me, I could really use a drink right now.
Since that was out of the question, I took a sip of ice water, then said, “Because these babies — these children — will belong to both clans, Connor and I think the best way to manage things is to have homes in both territories. We just made an offer on a house in Flagstaff yesterday.”

That got their attention. Margot let out a shocked “what?” before she could stop herself, Allegra gasped, and Bryce spluttered, “You should have consulted with us before taking a step like that!”

“Why?” I said coolly, somehow relieved that they’d reacted in such a way. Now I could act like a calm and collected adult, rather than a transgressing child. “So you could have said no and given me a bunch of silly reasons why it would never work?”

“It’s a very big step, Angela,” Allegra began tentatively, only to have Margot override her, saying,

“I doubt any of our reasons would have been
silly
.” She shifted in her chair, seeming to pin Lucas down with a sudden flash of her dark eyes. “Was this
your
idea?”

If it had been anyone else, I would’ve questioned how she could have possibly known that. Margot had said numerous times that she was not psychic, but I was beginning to have my doubts.

But, being Lucas, instead of appearing discomfited, he merely replied, “Well, I’d actually been telling Connor for some time that he needed to live someplace a little more suited to the Wilcox
primus
. And then when it came out that he and Angela were going to have a baby, it got more urgent. A house became available, they looked at it and loved it, and the rest, as they say, is history.” He shrugged and reached for his own ice water, taking a sip before adding, “I really don’t see anything that strange about any of it.”

“You wouldn’t,” she said in cutting tones. “It’s fairly obvious you Wilcoxes do things very differently from us McAllisters. But Angela should’ve consulted with us — ”

“She’s consulting with you now,” Lucas responded breezily. “She could’ve just shown up here with her moving boxes and not told you anything. She is an adult, you know, and capable of making her own decisions.”

For the first time in my life, I saw Margot Emory at a loss for words. Her mouth opened, then shut again, and I saw her knuckles whiten as she gripped the edge of the table. Whether this unprecedented response was due to what Lucas had said or the completely unconcerned way in which he’d said it, I wasn’t sure, but in that moment I had to choke back the impulse to break into incongruous laughter. And that, I knew, would go over even worse than Lucas’ reply to Margot.

Connor spoke for the first time, saying, “We’re only trying to do what’s fair — ”

“Fair?” Bryce exclaimed. “How is any of this fair?”

“Is it fair to expect the
primus
of the Wilcoxes to live here full-time in Jerome?” I asked.

“No, we would prefer it if he stayed where he was supposed to be — in Flagstaff,” Margot snapped.

“You know that wasn’t going to happen,” I replied. “Besides, if we were going to be completely
fair
” — I put an unnatural emphasis on the word, staring straight at Bryce as I said it — “then technically I should be spending three-quarters of my time with Connor in Flagstaff, considering I’m half Wilcox myself.”

I might as well have thrown a live grenade into the center of the table. “
What?
” Bryce burst out, while Allegra shook her head, saying, “That’s impossible!”, and Margot stared at me as if she’d never seen me before.

“It’s true,” I said. “That’s what we found out when we went to California. My mother was shacked up with a Wilcox out there. End result: me.”

The words came out sharper-edged, more flippant than I had intended. Probably because the mystery of why my father had gone there at all, and had sought out Sonya McAllister, still hadn’t been explained. It chafed at me, stirred up emotions I wasn’t sure I wanted to analyze. All my life I’d wanted to know who my father was, but finding the truth had only caused more problems.

Finally, Margot spoke. “This — you must be mistaken.”

“No mistake,” Lucas said quietly, this time sounding quite sober, unlike his usual ebullient self. “Andre Wilcox left Flagstaff a little more than twenty-two years ago, and no one’s seen him since. The timeline fits. Not that Angela’s mother would have known. She thought his name was Andre Williams.”

“So he lied to her. Typical,” Bryce said.

“Enough,” I told him, sending him what I hoped was my best
prima
stare. It seemed to work; he subsided and pushed up against the back of his chair, as if to create a little more distance between us. “Yes, it turns out I’m half Wilcox. Ironic, isn’t it? Here you’ve been doing your damnedest to keep me here in Jerome, away from the Wilcox clans, and it turns out you both have an equal claim.”

“Not entirely equal,” Allegra said in her sweet voice.

Everyone turned toward her.

As if unsettled by being the center of attention, she reached up to smooth a wisp of flyaway hair from her forehead. “It may be true that you are half Wilcox, but you are also the
prima
of the McAllisters. That means our claim is the stronger one. You can’t just…abandon us.”

“Did I say anything about abandoning you?” I replied, irritated. “All I’m saying is that you have to accept that I’ll be here part of the time and in Flagstaff part of the time. Even if there’s some crisis, it’s only a little more than an hour to get here. It’s not like I’m buying a flat in Paris or something.”

“And what happens afterward?” Bryce asked.