Chili Cauldron Curse - Lynn Cahoon Page 0,17
dish cloth. I’ll wash down the table before we start dinner.”
Mia stared into Mr. Darcy’s eyes. She saw terror from her cat who was now sharing his body with another soul, and a bit of humor from Dorian. Her grandmother was right. Dorian was in Mr. Darcy. She held the cat out toward Grans. “You need to fix this. Get him out. Mr. Darcy is scared to death.”
“Oh, dear, I hope not. He needs to stay alive or both he and Dorian will be lost.” Grans reached over and rubbed the cat’s ears. “Settle down dear. I’ll figure out a way to get you out. I just need to do a little research.”
Mia’s eyes widened. “You’re saying you don’t know how to fix him!”
A worried look crossed her grandmother’s face but it quickly disappeared. “I have to say I haven’t run into this much in my practice. I don’t typically like talking to the dead, but I thought this would kill two birds with one stone. I could say goodbye and solve his murder in one fell swoop.”
“But instead, you locked your boyfriend into my cat’s body.” Mia sighed as she kissed Mr. Darcy’s head. The cat’s heartbeat had slowed at least a little and she let him down on the floor. “Just get him fixed before I leave for Boise. I hate to have to leave him here with you until you can exorcise Dorian.”
Mr. Darcy hissed and ran out of the dining room.
Grans was shaking her head. “Please, don’t use that word around Dorian. He’s a little sensitive about being dead. Especially since he’s not sure which destination he’ll finally end up at.”
“And what were you thinking doing this where Christina could see?” There was no way she could hide this part of her from Isaac’s family, not now. She should have got a room for them at the hotel. At least Mr. Darcy would have been safe then.
Grans paused in her cleanup to focus on Mia. “Christina is an adult. She knows that you’re not normal. And she likes you because of it. You should be using that connection to help her rather than trying to pretend you’re just a regular person. Christina is different from her family. She needs to know that’s okay.”
Knowing her grandmother was right, Mia made a mental note to talk to Christina about this weekend and Mia’s powers. Maybe on the drive home. Where she’d be locked in the car at high speeds, just in case she took the news badly. Mia pushed through the swinging door to the kitchen and heard a thump. Looking around the door, she saw Christina rubbing her temples. Okay, so maybe the conversation wouldn’t wait until the drive home. “Sorry, not sorry. You need to stop eavesdropping. You might find out things about people that can’t be erased from your memory.”
“Like your grandmother putting a spell on Mr. Darcy? What’s up with that? Didn’t she like the cat?” Christina followed her to the sink where Mia rinsed out a clean rag she’d found in the drawer near the sink.
“Look, I know we need to talk about this. But can we wait for a bit? Just know that Grans loves Mr. Darcy. Unfortunately, he just got in the way. Anyway, it will soon be water under the bridge. Let me wash off the table and you can bring in the food and some paper plates.” She pointed to a cabinet near the kitchen door. “You’ll find plates and napkins in here. Hurry though, I’m hungry.”
Mia went back into the dining room, but now both Mr. Darcy and Grans were nowhere to be seen. She washed off the table, moving the candles and trying to feel the magic that had been conjured. Sometimes if you could feel the story, you could reverse it. Her mind kept going back to the conversation with Pricilla. The woman definitely blamed Grans for Dorian’s death. And she’d probably said as much to Officer Baldwin after she and Christina had left. She took the cloth back to the kitchen and folded it over the sink.
Christina was trying to balance the plates and silverware with all the bags from the Lodge. Mia leaned over and took the bags from her hands. “You’re going to spill something holding them like that. Set that load down and come back for some sodas. Grans and I will take the root beer. You can have whatever you want.”
“I don’t really like root beer. Or iced tea. I’m going