thing, darling.” Lila reached out, her hand dry and warm on Hannah’s. “I know the old-old stuff and the new-new stuff, but the years after Fae moved up the mountain? Nothing. I know she had a daughter who died. Tragic. She kept to herself mostly. The child hadn’t started school, and Fae wasn’t the mommy-and-me-class kind of mother. People in town talked, of course. Called her eccentric, witchy. Silly, stupid things. I hated all that.”
“You didn’t believe she was a witch? Or she was cursed?” Hannah searched her memory for what the kids had said to her all those years ago. She hadn’t known why. They’d never told her about Ruby, probably assuming she and Julia had known.
“I always felt so bad for her. Fae was a child herself when she married Warren, had no idea what she was getting herself into. I thought when she got away from him, her life would get better, not worse.”
“Why did she marry him?” Hannah wondered aloud. Who would marry an angry, abusive drunk? The only way was if he didn’t use to be that way. If life had ruined him. Had he started drinking because of Aunt Fae? Had Aunt Fae and Uncle Stuart’s affair turned Warren mean?
“Oh, well. Warren used to be a catch. Oh sure, he had tons of girlfriends from all over. Seemed to be plenty of women in love with Warren Turnbull. Some local, some from up north. I don’t even know where he met ’em all.” Lila pressed her index finger to her lips, thinking. “You know, before he pissed away his money, he was the only plumber in town. Every pipe in Rockwell was plumbed by Warren at one point or another. Even the hospital called him for backed-up toilets and clogged drains. He held a monopoly on the whole county, so he wasn’t rich, but he made a living. He was handsome too. A little rough and tumble, but nobody seemed to mind that.”
“How’d Fae and Warren meet?”
Lila looked up at the ceiling, searching her memory, her face twisted in concentration. “You know? I’m not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say a bar. Your Aunt Fae was pretty in her day. She came from Parksville, just down Route 17. In a town like Rockwell, everybody knows everybody, and your mama and your aunt Fae were just known. They were pretty girls from a respectable family. And everyone knew your grandmother. She was a county beauty, kind to boot, and real gem of a person.”
Hannah knew this to be true. She knew her grandparents had lived in Jeffersonville, in a Main Street duplex. Her grandmother had been a secretary at the high school before she’d died young at sixty-five from a sudden heart attack. Hannah’s grandfather had died a few years later from liver failure, his insides pickled in whiskey. He’d been a drunk but a jolly one. Functional alcoholic, they’d have said now, but back then he’d just been known as a widower, still in love with his wife, drinking to pass the time until he could see her again. He’d been a retired navy man, the owner of a local hardware store. When Mom had talked of her parents—which was infrequent—it had always been with fondness and a wistfulness that Hannah could never quite pinpoint.
“Then why did she leave him, do you know?”
“Well, Warren was abusive. He turned mean with age. Some men just do, you know? His anger became legendary. Most people stay out of his way now. All the women eventually left. Fae left; Ellie left. Everyone he loved left him.”
“Ellie?” The name sent a jolt through Hannah. Ellie. Ellie. All that long auburn hair, wild around her face. Telling jokes in the center of the circle that first day at the pool. Ellie, Julia’s best friend that last summer, the two of them stealing down the path toward the river, tossing glances over their shoulders. Ellie, in the center courtyard at midnight, her skin blue in the moonlight, her skirt and heels both high.
“So sad, that one. Such a troubled young woman. But see, she was a child too. Caught up in Fae and Warren’s drama. She adored Fae. Then she’d been alone with Warren, and it was too hard. I don’t blame her for leaving. Although I wish she’d get in touch. Last I’d heard, she just wanted to forget Rockwell. Who could blame her?” Lila opened and closed her mouth, like she wanted to say more, but