"Willow's Missing Tail" 33

The banquet table in Perfidia’s massive, living room was laden with an array of tantalizing comfort foods. The mingling aromas drew the men from the study.

“Food is just what we needed,” Avery said walking into the room and sniffing the air. “Food and drinks,” Dillon clarified, stepping behind the bar in the room and concocting his specialty drink. Percival was the last to enter but as soon as he did Miriam flew to his side. Miriam and Percival may not have resolved all their issues but Miriam was going to pretend they had. She wasn’t giving up on setting their wedding date sooner than later and, with fingers crossed, having that engagement ring back on her ring finger.

“I’ve made everyone a drink,” Dillon announced.

Perfidia walked over to the bar. “What is it?”

“It’s my recipe for Sloe Gin Fizz.”

“That should mellow us out,” Perfidia chuckled.

“It definitely takes the edge off,” Dillon nodded and passed drinks out to everyone but he found he was left with one lone glass on his tray and realized someone was missing. “Where’s Jon?” he asked Perfidia when he stepped back to the bar.

“He left.”

“He left, how? Did you finally push him out a window?” Dillon accused with a suspicious eye.

“No, I didn’t push him out of anything.”

“Then how? As I remember, no door or window would open for us, so enlightenment me.”

Perfidia frowned as she’d rather say nothing. “There’s a portal to Martha’s kitchen from mine and Jon walked through it of his own accord, no pushing necessary.".

Worry lines appeared on Dillon’s forehead. “Martha knows about this portal?”

“Of course.”

“Then I guess it’s a good sign she hasn’t shoved me out of it.”

“True, but I still might,” Perfidia gave him a slightly sinister look and grabbed the lone glass off the tray before walking over to Martha.

“Double fisting drinks now?” Martha eyed the two glasses in her hand.

“This one is mine,” Perfidia lifted her right hand, “and this one was for Jon,” she lifted her left hand and shrugged, “I figured I owe it to him to enjoy it for him since he…you know…left me.”

“I wish I could promise you he’ll be there waiting tomorrow but…”

“I know, without your perceptive talents you can’t know. So let’s not dwell on it, let’s sloe gin it out of our thoughts. Cheers!” She lifted the first glass and owned the contents in one smooth gulp. “Hey, that’s pretty good,” she nodded towards the bar, “Maybe that Dillon is a keeper.”

Martha looked past Perfidia. Her eyes caught Dillon’s and he smiled as he lifted his glass to his lips. Martha’s eyes slid to them but she shouldn't think of those lips, or his kisses. He had explaining to do before she 'd know if she had a tomorrow with him…or his kisses.

The wee hours crept closer and everyone’s stamina began to fade.

Avery and Daphne drifted into slumber curled up on the couch. Miriam nooded off shortly after in a club chair near Percival who was stretched out, snoring on a chaise lounge. Perfidia sat on the stairs in her entry hall where she took little cat naps trying to stay awake till sunrise and Martha hadn’t been able to sleep at all. Her concern for Willow in that sealed off library had her keeping a vigil outside the door with the three cats.

Dillon fell asleep sitting on a bar stool with his head resting on the bar’s counter top. It wasn’t comnortable and he hadn’t slept for long intervals. He woke up with a pain in his neck and an icy, cold premonition…he needed to talk to Martha. He glance at the grandfather clock in the room and noted the time. The sun would be up soon. He also noted Martha wasn’t in the room but he had a pretty good idea where he’d find her. He wasn’t wrong. He found her standing by the library door with the three cats resting at her feet. “Are you alright?” he asked, gently touching her shoulder.

“No. I’m worried about Willow.” Her eyes orbs of fear.

“Can we go in yet?” he nodded to the door.

“There’s at least a half hour till sunrise but I’ve a sickening fear when that door opens, Willow will be lost to me,” she whispered.

“Martha,” Dillon pulled her close tucking her in his arms, “Willow will survive this night. She’s a feline with considerable talent.” 

“I want to believe that, but I’m scared,” her voice was muffed against his strong shoulder.

“Then maybe, just to take your mind off your worry…we could talk.”

 Martha’s eyes held a cautious interest but she shook her head. “We can’t,” she nodded to the ever present wisp of darkness above them, “I don’t want conflict weighing in.”

Dillon whispered in her ear, “I think we should risk it. I’m pretty sure I need to tell you all before sunrise.”

His words stirred the conficted air around them. It nudged them to have that conversation. Martha felt it and so did Dillon. Martha shook her head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.” 

“I know it’s not but I have to,” he insisted.

“This negative cloud isn’t going away.” 

“Doesn’t matter, I have to talk to you now.” He’d woken up with a dire premonition. If he didn’t risk all by telling her in this atmosphere, he would lose her trust and her by sunrise.

“If you’re sure then we can go into the dining room.”

Dillon nodded and Martha led him into the impressive room with its long, gleaming table and twenty chairs tucked around it.

Dillon gave a low whistle. “Perfidia must have some large gatherings in here.”

“You would think that,” Martha mumbled as she pulled out a chair and sat down. After a slight hesitation Dillon joined her.

“Okay, talk,” Martha folded her arms on the table waiting for the revelation.

Dillon’s brow furrowed. “I’m not sure where to begin.”

“How about, the reason you didn’t mention you had a dog.”

Dillon’s eyes locked on her. “That’s actually a good starting point. Frankie, showing up in my life, was the reason I found you last summer.”

Martha’s brow furrowed with confusion. “You mean when you showed up at the summer solstice festival?”

“Yes.”

“So you didn’t get an invite from Percival as you’d said?”

“I did but that wasn’t how or when I found you.”

Dillon’s guilty expression sent a tingle of apprehension through Martha. Maybe she didn’t want to know. “Are you sure we shouldn’t wait until tomorrow to discuss this?”

“I told you, I need to tell everything before sunrise.”

“Alright, go on.”

“I’d been searching for you for a long time. In fact, like Percival, I hadn’t stopped searching for you ever since that summer.”

“The summer of your deception…?” she teased but she had gotten over it.

“Yes, since then,” he smiled but it faded quickly with his next words, “You should know you were firmly in my heart Martha from the moment you mistook me for Percival. So I needed to apologize for the major doubts I’d caused you to have regarding my character.”

“You aren’t wrong. I doubted you had any character,” she scoffed, but still with a tender smile.

“And that,” he said, his eyes caressing her face, “that smile, welcoming me back into your life last summer was the reason I’d hesitated telling you everything. I didn’t want to give you another reason to doubt me. So…I omitted facts.”

“The fact you have a canine familiar.”

Dillon nodded. “When Frankie showed up on my doorstep I didn’t hesitate to take him in and I knew he was a familiar.”

“Okay, but why keep that a secret?”

“You’d have to know how grateful I was that Frankie chose me and you’d need to know the reason I was grateful. It was because Frankie gave me an easier route to finding you.”

“You used your familiar to find me? That’s it, that’s the secret?”

“Not the entire secret. Not the troubling part of it.”

“Oh…there’s more?”

Dillon nodded. “There’s more,” he waited a few heartbeats before continuing, “Martha, I believe I’m the reason your address ended up back in the local directory last summer.”

Martha stared at him, confused by the admission. She was sure she knew who’d been the cause of her residence’s discovery and told him so. “I’m pretty sure Incognito inc. listed it for Miriam’s request to havoc me.”

Dillon wished he could let her continue to believe that but the nudge of darkness hovering over his shoulder wouldn’t let him hold back the truth. He shook his head. “No, Incognito inc. may have used the knowledge for Miriam’s havocs…but you should question how Incognito inc. acquired your address in the first place.”

“I’d guessed it was from one of their many spying sparrows.”

“It wasn’t. Willow had a very tight protection around you, your home and your garden, keeping it and you magically inscrutable. Those sparrows couldn’t discern your whereabouts, or your identity.”

“If that’s true, how did they find me? How did you find me?”

“In my case, I knew you had Willow and once I had Frankie…I asked him to search for Willow because familiars can-”

“Yes, I know they can find other familiars.”

Dillon nodded. “And Frankie found Willow.”

“Did he?” Martha’s eyes began to narrow in consideration of this new fact.

“Yes, and that gave me an address but I needed to be sure it was you he’d found. So, I sent a letter under my office’s name with a return receipt, to verify Frankie had truly found you, only the letter came back un-deliverable.”

“Because I had Willow return unnecessary and unknown mail marked as address unknown.”

“Yes, Willow protected you even from the mail, and that was the problem.”

“Why was that a problem?”

“That returned letter made me doubt Frankie had found you and that he must have found the wrong familiar, gotten the wrong address. I was going to fly from California to check the address out in person only that’s when I saw a website for a delivery service that claimed they could deliver to anyone, a guaranteed delivery. I decided to give them a chance. I submitted a paid request to verify the person living at the address I provided.”

“Let me guess, this online service was Incognito Inc.?”

“I don’t remember a company name on the website, none that I recall, but the promise of success statement was what drew me in and that’s what I remember.”

“So you gave my information to them?”

“I did. I had to contact them through email and I admit it was a sketchy process but I was desperate to find you. So I gave your name and address to that unknown delivery service all because of that returned letter.”

“And they confirmed it?” she frowned at him, feeling uncomfortable with every new detail he was confessing to her.

“No, they didn’t.”

Her brows shot up in surprise. “They didn’t?”

“No, I never got a response back from that website. They didn’t even process the payment I’d posted for the service.”

“Then what are you telling me?”

“Hear me out. I tried to contact the website but the email I had was no longer viable but a mere week after that unsuccessful attempt online, I found your address, the same one I’d given to that website, listed in the local directory along with your name. I don’t think it was a coincidence.”

Martha stared in silence considering the connection to his searching for her and his giving her possible address out to an unknown online delivery service, probably Incognito inc., and it could be the reason for the havoc filled summer she’d had. Slowly her eyes focused on him, with accusation. “You’re the reason Incognito inc. had my address, the reason Miriam was able to havoc us all last summer?”

Dillon nodded. “I’m afraid it’s possible my searching for you gave them that information.”

Martha wasn’t pleased, not pleased at all that he’d kept this from her. When they’d reconnected at the summer solstice festival he should have said something. His omission was glaring and it tampered with her trust in him, again. Her eyes showed her disappointment. “And not once did you think about my feelings in this search or consider my rights, or that I had my reasons for not placing my address in the town’s directory?”

“No, I didn’t consider that because my only thought was to find you. I didn’t think about much else but, I should have. You’ve every right to be upset.”

“Do I? Thank you for that,” she scoffed.

“Martha, please understand-”

“I understand. I understand this was done to satisfy your want. I understand you had no issue disregarding my right to privacy and without my permission gave my information to all and sundry.”

Dillon knew he’d be taking a risk telling her the whole story but she deserved to know. He had hoped his confession would gain back her trust but now he wasn’t sure with that dark cloud hovering over Martha’s head if he’d made a mistake. That cloud had shaped itself into a face he wanted to punch because it was grinning at him. His hand fisted at his side but he moved his attention back to Martha instead. “In my defense, you’d disconnected from everyone when you left. I’d asked around and no one knew where you were, not even your closest friends had heard from you Martha. You’d cut them all out of your life.”

“If I did, I had my reasons.”

“Yeah I know the reasons, you were angry at me so you ran away. You cut ties with everyone here to insure if I asked about you, no one would be able to help me find you.”

Martha scoffed but wouldn’t look at him. “It isn’t always about you.”

“You’re right, this isn’t about me. It’s about you. You ran away, you cut yourself off from everyone you cared about, and only you know why.”

Martha’s brows furrowed with annoyance. She wasn’t the one confessing things. “None of that changes the fact you overstepped. Besides, I would have reached out to everyone, eventually, on my own. When I was ready, but you gave me no choice.”

“You don’t sound convincing.”

“How can I be? We’ll never know what I might have done because I was forced out by Incognito Inc. and Miriam who by way of you apparently took my options away,” she concluded with eyes blazing.

He knew Martha wanted him to regret his actions but he didn’t. If what he did had forced her to surface, he was glad. And she was happier, being back in the town she loved, back in touch with her friends, and for a short while she was happy being back with him too. Only, he should have told her everything last summer. That was his error. “I am sorry Martha. I should have told you at the festival.”

“Your hindsight is superb,” she quipped.

“But,” he stressed in a sharp tone, “I’m happy you’re back in my life. I love you Martha. I’ve been in love with you since our first kiss, duplicitous as it was on my part, it was magic. Don’t you agree?” He offered a smile designed to remind her of that tender moment and Martha felt the pull of attraction but frowned at him anyway. “Don’t deflect Dillon, bringing up that kiss is not your best defense. That kiss and your coming back into my life at the summer festival are both overshadowed by lies.”

“I regretted my deception that first summer we were together. I’ve regretted it even more when I realized it cost me a chance to have you in my life from that start. All I’ve wanted to do since was beg your forgiveness and ask for a second chance, but I couldn’t find you. You may not like the path I took, using any means available, but you have to know you’d left me no other choice. So, considering that…was it so wrong?”

Martha stared at him, weighing his words, but remained silent. Dillon felt a twinge of unease at her stoic expression. “I know I’ve put your trust in me in jeopardy, again. My reason may not justify the means for you so I guess the true question is…Martha, can you forgive me, again?”

Dillon’s question hung in the conflicted air between them. Martha felt the darkness wrap around her like a chilly shawl and his newest deception the icy threads within it. Had it changed her feelings? He said his reason had been driven by love but he hadn’t considered her feelings in his actions. If he truly loved her, shouldn’t he have considered her feelings?

Dillon couldn’t take her silence or the taunting cloud a minute more. He stood up and when Martha looked at him he shrugged. “Don’t bother answering. I think I can figur-” before he could finish, all the windows in the room blew open with the force of a hurricane wind. That wind blew through the house dispersing resistance, opening evey door and window and the grinning cloud of annoying conflict was whisked away by it too, and tossed out the closest window.

Perfidia ran past the dining room but stopped and doubled back when she noticed Martha and Dillon. “The house is unstuck, everything is unstuck. It’s sunrise Martha!” she said.

Martha’s eyes reflected happiness and fear at the news. “Willow,” she breathed and ran from the room. Perfidia and Dillon followed her.

The library door was opened wide. The three cats that had guarded it all night weren’t there and when they looked inside the room, they saw curtains fluttering around open windows but not a cat or ramulus anywhere to be seen. 

Martha’s heart squeezed with intense pain.

“Where’s Willow?!”