Page 38 of Refuge for Ailsa

“No, it’s not like that.” She took a deep breath, sighed it out, and started again. “She grew up in… Do you know where PottersFork is?”

“Yeah. That’s LetcherCounty, almost to the Virginia state line. District seven. I’m in district six.”

“Yeah, well, there’s this tiny little place outside PottersFork, a little northwest toward Fleming-Neon. It’s called MercyCrick. It’s not a town. It’s just a community out in the middle of nowhere. That’s where my mother grew up.”

“Small place?”

“Yes. By design.”

“Huh?”

“They were all Scottish families. Had been there for generations. Made their own fabric, grew their own food, taught their own children. There was no public school there. It was remote. Everybody thought the people there were just a little weird, and they were right. MercyCrick’s people were a break-off religious sect, a bit like a cult. They called it the Elm Brotherhood.”

Tavish wasn’t sure how he was supposed to respond, so he said, “That’s interesting.”

“Yeah. She lived there until she and my dad married. He was from CarbonGlow. They met at a farmer’s market the people from MercyCrick traveled to in Whitesburg. That’s about fifteen miles one way. They traveled by wagon to Whitesburg on Friday nights, slept on the ground, then got up on Saturday to sell their wares. Afterward, they slept the night again, then went back the next day, Sunday. But only during the summer. During the winter, they stayed in their little community.”

“Wagon?”

“Yeah. None of them had cars. There were no gas stations up in that area, so they couldn’t get gas anyway, and they didn’t have any money. They were dirt poor. Mom’s family were some of the better-off people in the community because of her grandmother’s skills.”

“Which were…”

“She was a granny witch.”

The night before, he’d dreamed about Ailsa. “Holy shit.”

“What?”

“I saw you in a dream last night, dressed in a green velvet robe and standing in the woods, cooking something in a pot. I mean, look at you. The wild, red hair, the pale eyes, your alabaster skin. You fit the description I would have in my mind, right?”

“I guess. And I do know a lot about being a granny witch. They didn’t have a doctor, so my great-grandmother would doctor them. She was a healer. There were granny witches all over Kentucky, and they all swapped information. But my great-grandmother didn’t. Her elixirs and tonics were a big secret, and my mother knows how to make a lot of them. I do too.”

“I always heard that when they put a pot out in the yard with a fire under it and something bubbling in it, it meant they were open for business.”

Ailsa nodded. “A cauldron. A big old iron pot, and it was bubbling and steaming. That’s true. And they weren’t real witches. They just called them that. But I’m telling you this so you know… My mom’s a little different. She still has a deep Scottish brogue. My dad, nah. His father and grandfather worked in the mines. He was determined to get out of there, so he went to school to become an accountant, and he’s a damn good one too. But he went to Whitesburg one day to buy some parts for his dad’s lawn mower and there was a farmer’s market going on. He said he saw a woman there who had the strangest blue eyes he’d ever seen, and he struck up a conversation with her, but she was really shy. He bought some honey from her and some jam, and he went home and thought about her all week.

“Then he went back the next Saturday to the farmer’s market and she was there, so he walked right up to her and asked her to marry him. She told him the only way she’d do that was if he married her that day and took her away, so he went all over town. He found a preacher and bought a little cheap ring, and he went back and told her that it might not be legal until the next week, but it would be right in the eyes of God. She agreed and when they closed up shop for the day, she excused herself to go to the bathroom, met my dad at the parking lot of the courthouse, and in an hour, they were on their way back to his parents’ house in his car. They got married by a justice of the peace the next week, but they consider that Saturday their wedding day.”

Tavish looked into those whitish-blue eyes. “That’s the sweetest story I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, well, it hasn’t all been roses, but they’re good together. They didn’t use any kind of birth control, but they were married for six years before Mason came along. They wanted a whole houseful of kids, but after Donovan was born, there wasn’t another. She said she thought it was just meant to be that way.”

“Sounds like it. Is that what you wanted to tell me? You could’ve told me that tomorrow. You need some sleep, girl,” he said and kissed her forehead.

“No. That’s not all I wanted to tell you. There’s something else, something I have to tell you, and it can’t wait. I don’t want you to ever think I’m keeping things from you, and if one of them slips up and mentions… I just need to tell you myself.”

“Well?”

“I was married.”

“Were.”

“Yeah. His name was Eric, and he was wonderful. I loved him with all my heart. We met at the community college in town. He was smart and funny and handsome and… Anyway, he just worked a regular job. Nothing spectacular. Worked for a roofing contractor. And one day, he fell off a roof.”

“Owww.”

“Yeah. Hurt his back. He struggled with it for a few months until they told him they could do surgery and that should take care of the problem, and it did. It fixed his back. But by then, he had another problem.”

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