Нора Робертс - Blood Magick

Candles she’d scented with cranberry she tucked into the fancy gift boxes she’d bought for the holiday traffic.

After a check of the list her manager had given her, she added salve, bath oil, various creams, noted down what needed replenishing, then began to carry boxes out to her car.

She’d intended to leave the dog home, but Kathel had other plans and jumped right in the car.

“After a ride, are you? Well, all right then.” After one last check, she slid behind the wheel, and took the short drive to the village of Cong.

The rain and the cold discouraged any tourists pulled to the area in December. She found the steep streets empty, the abbey ruins deserted. Like a place out of time, she thought, with a smile.

She loved it, empty in the rain, or full of people and voices on a fine day. While she sold straight out of her workshop from time to time—especially to those who might come in hoping for a charm or spell—she’d chosen to place her shop in the village where the tourists and locals could easily breeze in. And as she was ever practical, where they might exchange some euros for what she made herself.

She parked in front of the whitewashed building, the corner shop on the pretty side street where the Dark Witch was housed.

Kathel jumped out behind her, waited patiently despite the rain while she unloaded the first box of stock. She elbowed open the door to a cheery ring of bells, walked into the lovely scents, the pretty lights of what she’d made herself, for herself.

All the lovely bottles, bowls, boxes on shelves, candles flickering to add atmosphere—and that lovely scent. Soft colors to soothe and relax, bold ones to energize, hunks of crystal placed just so for power.

And of course, the fuss for the holiday with the little tree, the greenery and berries, some ornaments she bought from a woman in Dublin, the jeweled wands and stone pendants she bought from a Wiccan catalog because people expected such things in a shop called the Dark Witch.

And there was Eileen, her pixie-sized body up on a step stool, cleaning a high shelf. Eileen turned, her bold green glasses slipping down her pug of a nose.

“Well now, it’s the lady herself, and glad I am to see you, Branna. I hope you’ve come with more of those cranberry candles, for I sold the very last of them not fifteen minutes ago.”

“I have two dozen more, as you asked. I would’ve thought too many, but if we’re fully out, you were right again.”

“It’s why you made me manager.” Eileen stepped down. She wore her dark blond hair in a scoop, dressed always smart—today in tall boots under a pine green dress. She was barely five feet altogether, and had borne and raised five strapping sons.

“More in the car then? I’ll go fetch them in.”

“You won’t, no, as there’s no need for both of us to be drenched.” Branna set the first box down on the spotless counter. “You can unpack and keep Kathel company, for he insisted on coming along.”

“He knows where I keep special treats for lovely, good dogs.”

His tail wagged as she spoke, and he sat politely, all but grinned at her.

Branna went out into the rain again, Eileen’s laugh trailing behind her.

It took three trips, and a truly thorough drenching.

She waved her hands, down from her hair to her feet, drying herself as Connor had dried the dog that morning. Something she would have done for few outside her own circle.

Eileen didn’t so much as blink, but continued to unpack the stock. Branna had chosen Eileen to run her shop, and manage the part-time clerks, for many practical reasons. But not the least of them was the wisps of power she sensed in the woman, and Eileen’s acceptance of all Branna was.

“I had four hearty tourists—in from the Midlands—come to see The Quiet Man museum, have lunch at the pub. They stopped in, and dropped three hundred and sixty euros among them before they headed out again.”

And not the least of those practical reasons, Branna thought now, was Eileen’s knack of guiding the right customer to the right products.

“That’s fine news on a rainy morning.”

“Will you have some tea then, Branna?”

“No, but thanks.” Instead, Branna pushed up her sleeves and helped Eileen unpack and place the stock. “And how’s it all going?”

As she’d hoped, Eileen kept her mind off her troubles by catching her up with village gossip, with news of her sons, her husband, daughters-in-law (two, and another in June), grandchildren, and all else under the sun.

A scatter of customers came in during the hour she worked, and didn’t leave empty-handed. And that was good for the spirit as well as the pocketbook.

She’d built a fine place here, Branna reminded herself. Full of color and light and scent, and all tidily arranged as her organized soul demanded—and as artfully displayed as her sense of style could wish.

And she thanked the gods again for Eileen and the others who worked for her, that they dealt with the customers, and she could have her time in her workshop to create.

“You’re a treasure to me, Eileen.”

Eileen’s face flushed with pleasure. “Ah now, that’s a lovely thing to say.”

“A true one.” She kissed Eileen’s dimpled cheek. “How fortunate are we as we both get to do what we love and are bloody good at, every day? If I had to work the counter and such as I did in the first months I opened, I’d be mad as a hatter. So you’re my treasure.”

“Well, you’re mine in turn, as having an employer who leaves me to my own ways is a gift.”

“Then I’m leaving you to it now, and we’ll both go on with what we love and do bloody well.”

When she and Kathel left, Branna felt refreshed. A trip to her shop tended to lift her mood, and today’s had lifted it higher than most. She drove through the rain on roads as familiar as her own kitchen, then sat a moment outside her cottage.

A good morning, she thought, despite the dreariness of the day. She’d spoken to her cousin, one of the first three, and at her own kitchen table. She would think and think long and hard on the hope and faith needed.

She’d taken good stock into her shop, spent an hour and more with a friend, watched people take away things she’d made with her own hands. Into their homes those things would go, she mused. Or to others as gifts and mementos. Good, useful things, and pretty besides, for she valued the pretty as much as the useful.

And thinking just that, she lifted a hand and had the tree in her front window, the lights around the windows of her shop twinkling on.

“And why not add some pretty and some light to a dreary day?” she asked Kathel. “And now, my boy, we’ve work to do.”

She went straight to her workshop, boosted the fire while Kathel made himself comfortable on the floor in front of it.

She’d told Fin she’d be back by two, knowing she’d planned to return by noon. A bit later than her plan, she noted, but she still had near to two hours of quiet and alone before she had him to deal with.

After donning a white apron, she made ginger biscuits first because it pleased her. While they cooled and their scent filled the air, she gathered what she needed to make the candle sets on the new list Eileen had given her.

It soothed her, this work. She wouldn’t deny she added a touch of magick, but all for the good. All in all it was care, it was art, and science.

On the stove she melted her acid and wax, added the fragrance oils, the coloring she made herself. Now the scents of apple and cinnamon joined the ginger. With a dollop she fixed the wicks in the little glass jars with the fluted edges, held them straight and true with a slim bamboo stick. The pour required patience, stopping to use another stick to poke into the apple-red wax to prevent pockets of air from forming. So she poured, poked until the little jars were filled and set aside for cooling.