Page 51 of A Lullaby for Witches

“What do you mean? Why?”

How to explain this. Somehow, she’d justknownthat Margaret had been adopted by her aunt and uncle’s family, the same way she’d known that Margaret was pregnant; it was just part of her. “Think about it,” she said. “There’s no evidence of her birth anywhere in the Harlowe archives. The first thing that shows up that could even maybe be related to her is the expense for girl’s clothes. Before that she would have been just a baby. You said that Louisa Montrose was related to the Harlowes on Jemima Harlowe’s side. I think she was Margaret’s mother. She got into trouble, or died in childbirth, and the Harlowes adopted her daughter.” She didn’t tell him about the book with Louisa Montrose’s name in it. After she’d found it, she’d gone back to look at her family tree, and sure enough, there was Catherine Montrose and her daughter Louisa, born of an unknown man. After that, the line went dead.

Leo seemed to digest this. “So your common ancestor was Margaret’s grandmother?”

“I think so.”

He gave her an appraising look that made her skin tingle. “Maybe that’s why you’re able to see all of this,” he said. “Maybe there’s some kind of... I don’t know, some kind of genealogical memory passed down.”

It seemed crazy that she would be able to see things as her ancestor did, but was it any crazier than the hallucinations? “I was poking around online, trying to find information about reincarnation and stuff like that, anything that could explain it. It’s hard to know what to believe when it comes to all this, though.”

“Hmm,” was all he said. He leaned back on the bench, rubbed at his jaw as if thinking of something unpleasant, then looked away uneasily.

“What is it?”

He grumbled something that sounded an awful lot like “God help me for what I’m about to do,” and then leveled his gaze back on her. “You should talk to my mom,” he said.

Augusta blinked. “What?”

“My mother,” he repeated. “She’s into all of—” he broke off, gesturing vaguely “—all of that stuff. Crystals, angel cards, past life regressions... New Age stuff.”

Augusta absorbed this, then gave him a sly smile. “Are you saying you want me to meet your mom?” She still wasn’t sure if this was a date, and now she was going to meet his parents. So much for her big plans of taking some time for herself and getting some distance. It was impossible to keep her feelings tamped down inside of her when he was sitting so close to her that she could have rested her head on his shoulder.

“Yeah, I am, though I hope I don’t regret it,” he muttered. “She can be...a lot. But she’d like you,” he added quickly. “That’s for sure.”

“I’d love to meet her,” Augusta said. “I need all the help I can get.”

“It’s almost a three-hour drive up to Maine,” he said, as if hoping this might dissuade her after all.

“I love road trips,” she countered brightly.

He slanted her an amused look. “Well, in that case, I guess I have no choice but to bring you up.”

Exceedingly pleased with herself, Augusta took a long sip of her drink. Not only did she have an excuse to soak up some more one-on-one time with Leo, his mother might actually be able to help her. For the first time in what felt like months, she allowed herself to hope. She was free of Chris, free of the limitations she’d placed on herself for so long, and soon she might be free of the hallucinations, as well.

Being out in the fresh air with the faint pulse of music made her brave, hungry to take her ranks among adventurous souls who followed their hearts on crisp autumn evenings. She allowed herself to tilt her head just a little to the side, enough that she could rest her head on Leo’s shoulder.

She held her breath, her heart beating fast as she felt Leo shift a little, and then he was finding her hand and lacing his fingers through hers. The music had ended, and the only sounds were the shrieks of playing children. It was almost perfect, except for one thing.

She flicked her tongue over her lips. “Leo?” she asked.

“Augusta?”

“Is this a date?”

There was an almost imperceptible stiffening of his shoulder, and it took what felt like an eternity for him to answer. “Well, let’s see,” he finally said. “I picked you up at your house and brought you to this ridiculously romantic food fair, we’re sitting on a bench and your head is on my shoulder, and I was just getting ready to kiss you.” He paused. “Sure seems like a date to me.”

He was going to kiss her.Augusta tilted her face toward him as he cupped her jaw, her eyes drifting closed. Warmth buzzed through her body, anticipation mounting until it was almost unbearable.

But the kiss never came. Blinking her eyes open, Augusta drew back. Leo’s expression had hardened as he stared past her toward the path. “Do you know that guy? He’s staring at you.”

She followed his gaze and her whole body went rigid. What were Chris and Doug and Gemma doing there? And why did she feel like she’d been caught doing something wrong? Beside her, heat practically radiated from Leo. “That’s him, isn’t it? Your ex?”

Before she could fully process what was happening, Leo was pushing up from the bench, striding toward the path. “Leo,” she warned, trying to catch up to him. “Don’t say anything. It’s fine.”

He didn’t even slow his step. “He assaulted you. It’s not fine.”

“It wasn’t assault,” she pleaded. “It was just...” But she trailed off. Ithadbeen assault. Why was she so eager to dismiss it as such? But that still didn’t mean that she wanted Leo going for blood on her behalf.

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