Page 14 of The Hermit on the Hill

I stomped back into Felix's office. "The car belongs to a woman who was parked on my property. A tree fell on her car."

Felix leaned back in his chair, sucking on his teeth. "Huh. Storm do that?"

"Lightning hit the tree, yes."

"Sure it wasn't your granny?"

"You knew my grandmother?" My voice was a growl, but Felix didn't flinch.

He stared me down for several long moments. "She delivered my daughter twenty-six years ago. Rosie Oakley was the best midwife in the area and a damn good healer."

I crossed my arms over my chest, not intending to mimic him, but needing to do something with my fists before I punched the old man. "She helped a lot of people." My tight jaw was beginning to ache. "Delivered a lot of babies."

He leaned forward, eyes sparkling. "She was more than that, though, wasn't she? Folks said she could do magic, said she was a witch."

My jaw clenched tighter, teeth grinding. "Get to the point." There were so many words I wanted to fling at him, but that wasn't the plan. Showing anyone in town my vulnerable underbelly had never been the plan.

He shrugged. "Maybe that tree falling was a message from your grandmother. Maybe she didn't like that woman on her property." His eyes danced again. "Or maybe she wanted to make sure she didn't leave. What did you say the woman's name was again?"

"I didn't."

All signs of amusement vanished from Felix, as though he'd heard the warning in my tone. "Real shame about what happened to Rosie. And to you and your sister."

I ground my teeth so hard I could have sworn I felt enamel flaking off.Where were you? I wanted to scream at him. Where the fuck were you when my grandmother was dying? When my grandmother couldn't scrape up the money for a doctor?

But I said nothing. Somehow, I held the words in, didn't give that man a hint of my rage and my hate. I'd known he wasn't to be trusted, but he was old and grizzled and he lived half an hour outside of town, so I'd been willing to cut him some slack. But now I knew. He'd known my grandmother. She'd helped him. And he'd done nothing for her.

Felix watched me, wary. Could he sense my anger? Could he feel the heat of it?

"My daughter was sick around the same time your grandmother died," he said. "She had flu so bad we had to take her to the hospital in Roanoke. I'd come back to town to ask your grandmother for some healing herbs, because the medicine the doctors gave our Cindy wasn't working, and I found out Rosie had died. You kids were already gone, taken away by family."

Some of the anger and tension leached from me. Not all, but some. "Did your daughter survive?"

Felix looked out the window at the darkening sky. "She did. Has a baby of her own now, down in South Carolina." He turned back to me. "We didn't know, Sam. None of us in town had any idea—"

And my anger broke like a wave on the shore, tumbling me and threatening to pull me under if I didn't let it out. "Nobody knew, because nobody came to see her. No one checked in on her. No one brought casseroles to the witch of Catalpa Creek."

Felix flinched, but he didn't look away. "I'm sorry, son. I should have done something, but your grandmother was the strongest woman I've ever met. She cured so many ills, I never believed she'd fall to one herself. I know it don't fix nothing, but I want you to know I'm sorry."

I should have thrown his apology back at him, should have stormed out the door and gone to the auto parts store. I should have raised his rent and left him alone to fend for himself as this town had done to my grandmother, but his words and the sincerity behind them touched me in a way I couldn't explain. My throat tightened and my eyes burned.

I cleared my throat. I'd figure out what to do about Felix later. "Just show me where the damn parts are."

CHAPTER FOUR

Jenna

Ilifted my attention from the page I'd been reading about a child's first year of life and blinked at my ringing phone. It took a moment to shift my thoughts from diapers and feeding schedules. I had the phone to my ear before I'd quite managed it.

"What?" Someone had spoken, but I'd missed it.

"It's your brother, Jared. The only one of us left in Georgia now that you're in Catalpa Creek with the rest of them."

"And you'll be here soon," I said, my brain catching up. "How did the phone interview go?"

"Great. It seemed like more of a formality than anything else. Dr. Fielding is beyond ready to retire and my references went to bat for me in a big way. I'll be in town next week to spend the day with him and make sure this is what we both want."

Jared was a large animal vet in rural Georgia, about an hour outside Atlanta. He was easily my very best friend in the world. When he'd been thinking about making a move to Catalpa Creek, too, it cemented my decision to come here. "Oh, my god, Jared! I'm so excited! Congratulations!"

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