Page 40 of Hexes and Hiccups
They continued on throughout the store, cleaning and sweeping wherever they went.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
The front bell sounded sharply through Fields’ Herbals as the door swung open. Anne, dressed in a maroon shawl wrapped tightly around her shoulders, hurried into the store. She kept her head down, which wasn’t entirely normal for her. Despite the rumors being swept away and her good name restored, Anne entered Fields’ Herbalslooking as ridden with despair as she had before. She twisted around the aisles and leaned heavily against the front counter.
“Anne,” Daisy said as she approached her with a quizzical expression. “What’s the matter?”
“Oh! Nothing!”
Tessa appeared next, hands stubbornly on her hips. “Now, now, Anne. Don’t try to hide your feelings from an empath, you hear?” She rested a hand on the older woman’s shoulder, her magic already pooling in the room. “What’s the matter?”
Anne shook her head. “There is nothing to say!”
Daisy and Tessa shared a glance.
“Alright,” Daisy muttered. “How is it going with Malric, then? Is he still settling in well?”
Anne sighed, the slightest bit of a smile tugging at her lip. “Fine, fine. He’s alright.”
“That doesn’t sound all that sure to me, Anne.”
“Malric hasn’t caused one bit of an issue,” Anne said. “If that’s what you’re worried about.”
Daisy moved around the counter to take the woman’s warm hand within her own. “We are worried aboutyou, Anne,” she said in a quiet voice. “I haven’t seen you this down since the rumors started going around town. It isn’t that, right? I would hope that –”
Anne shook her head rapidly. “Thank the Lord, Daisy, that you and Tessa managed to solve all that dreadful business. Ihaven’t heard a single thing about those rumors in weeks. It isn’t that one bit.”
“Well, I hate to pry,” Daisy murmured. “But I hate to see you like this.”
Anne remained silent for a few more minutes, her eyes holding onto their intertwined hands. She let out a few shuddering breaths, glossy tears beginning to well up in her warm gaze. “There’s something happening,” she finally whispered. “Something that I am growing to be terribly afraid of.”
Daisy’s eyes widened. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”
“Tell us about it, Anne,” Tessa pleaded. “We might be able to help, you know.”
“I wouldn’t want to burden you ladies again.”
“You,” Daisy said in a firm voice, “would never be considered a burden to us, Anne. Please, tell us.”
Anne’s shoulders shook a few times before she spoke. “Recently,” she whispered, “Things have been disappearing all throughout my house.”
Daisy frowned. “What sorts of things?”
“Everything and anything,” Anne replied. “Whether it be the remote in my hand or the jewelry upon my dresser, it is gone in a flash. I…I am bewildered and frightened within my own home!”
Daisy’s gaze found Tessa’s another time, the same sort of speculation beginning to fester in their eyes. Malric had been staying with Anne for a few weeks by that point, almost a month. Though Daisy firmly believed the young warlock to be making a new name for himself, one that was not burdened with all the bad things he had done as a child, what Anne said made her think there was something about him they weren’t realizing.
Daisy took a deep breath. “Anne –”
“Before you go on saying it’s Malric,” she interjected sharply, “I knowfor surethat it isn’t the boy doing it.”
“How can you know that for sure?”
“He’s a good boy,” she said. “He has been a good boy since he started living with me. He can’t be the one behind it. He just can’t be.”
Daisy watched the older woman closely. Perhaps she was saying what she wanted to hear, and avoiding the truth behind the matter. It was oddly suspicious, and Daisy supposed it wouldn’t be all that weird for Malric to be stealing things from her. He didn’t have a job, after all, and needed to pay for his schooling somehow. Either way, out of respect for Anne, Daisy and Tessa did not mention his name, or accuse him of anything out of sorts. Before Daisy could say anything, the older woman leaned forward, her voice lowered into a whisper.
“I believe,” she murmured, “something disappeared right in front of my face.” Instantly, as if she heard herself, Anne waved her hands through the air defensively. “But I promise you both with all that I am that I am not crazy! I swear, I saw it vanish, and –”
