"Willow's Missing Tail" 30

Martha headed to the kitchen to speak with Miriam but was side-tracked by a pull of intuition. Something was happening in the library.

She placed the two teacups on a side table and headed towards the library instead. She felt a strong rumble of unstable magic as she approached the room. It was coming through the cracks around the library’s closed door.

What was transpiring and how was Willow faring? Could Willow and Thistle continue to ignore the pull of that stick’s ancient magic? Martha worried as she stepped to the door and tried to turn the door knob. It wouldn’t turn. The room was sealed shut by the ramulus within.

She looked down at the three loyal cats, Max, Chaos and Ram sitting next to her. They hadn’t moved from their guard cat positions and remained ready to help, but with no working magic and the sealed door between them, all they could do was wait for the sunrise. 

Martha shared the cats impotent, restless mood.

There wasn’t a glimmer of light outside the window and sunrise felt an eternity away as they awaited Willow’s fate.

*

Perfidia walked into the kitchen to find Miriam mumbling to herself while preparing a cup of tea at the counter, and at the other end of that counter stood Jon.

She smiled at him but his expression wasn't welcoming. She committed to keeping her casual smile in place anyway.

“We should talk,” she said in a breezy tone.

“You want to talk?” he asked in a dark and focused one, “What about, Perfidia? The newest door you’ve found to push me through?” he scoffed.

Perfidia may have deserved the sarcasm but that didn’t mean she was going to accept it.

“If you’re not going to be serious there’s no point in talking about anything.” She started to turn away.

“Wait.”

Perfidia looked over her shoulder but her eyes slid to Miriam. She’d just sat down at the table and was stirring her tea with a vengeance and grumbling, presumably about Percival. Perfidia didn’t want to talk where anyone else could hear them.

“I know where we can have a private conversation,” she said to Jon and walked over to her pantry door.

“You want to talk in a closet?”

Perfidia opened the pantry door and peered inside, her eyes lit with relief. The path to Martha’s was still open.

“Just come here,” she said waving him over.

Jon stepped behind her and looked inside the pantry. “Where does it lead?”

“To Martha’s kitchen on the other side of town.”

“So you did find another way for me to leave,” he scoffed and walked around her into the pantry.

Perfidia placed her hand on his arm to stop him. “No, I’m not getting rid of you. It’s a place we can talk without interference from that dark nonsense infiltrating my house at the moment.

“Fine,” he shrugged and continued to walk through the long pantry and into the adjacent kitchen.

Perfidia followed him but when she got to the threshold of Martha’s kitchen she found the path blocked. She was stuck at the doorway looking at Jon on the other side.

“I can’t follow you.”

 “I see,” his suspicion returning,” so this was the plan. You got me out of your house and I admit it’s clever, bravo Perfidia.” he said with sarcasm and applause.

“No, I didn't plan this. I wanted to follow you over there.”

Jon smirked, not believing her. “Just tell Martha I’ll be sleeping in her house tonight and I’ll leave first thing in the morning.” He stepped back to close Martha’s pantry door but Perfidia’s words stopped the action.

“Jon, wait. I promise you it wasn’t a trick. Come back over here and we'll talk…somewhere else.”

Jon wasn’t convinced she wasn’t a little pleased he was out of her house but maybe, she hadn’t planned this exact departure. 

“Okay,” he said walking to the threshold but this time it was he who felt the thick band of resistance at the doorway. He couldn’t pass back through it. 

He chuckled darkly. “It seems I can’t come back.”

“Try harder.”

Jon pushed against it but found no give in the unseen fibers. It was no use, he couldn’t return.

He shrugged. “I can’t.”

“Okay, then stay at Martha’s tonight but don’t leave in the morning. Once the challenge ends at sunrise, I’ll come over there and we’ll talk.”

Jon gave a short mirthless chuckle. “I guess you got your way Perfidia, you usually do. Don’t you?’

“What do mean?”

“You wanted to wait until tomorrow to discuss your need for that enchanted bracelet and now you’ll get your wish.”

“I told you, I didn’t plan this…I,” she began to deny it but the truth was, she did prefer to wait until the morning when that dark matter couldn’t interfere. But she didn’t want Jon to think she’d planned it this way, even if it had worked out the way she’d wanted. No, in truth, she wasn’t sorry he was out of Martha’s house.

“Don’t bother to deny it Perfidia, I can see the relief written all over your face,” Jon said with an intense scrutiny of that guilty face before he stepped back and closed the pantry door between them.

It was obvious Jon was annoyed with her.

“Please Jon, wait there until tomorrow. Don’t leave, okay?” she begged, but there was no response from the other side of that closed pantry door and she wasn’t sure he’d heard her.

She tried to open the door but the knob wouldn't turn.

Jon hadn’t promised to wait and she felt a chill in her heart at the idea she might have lost him, but was it the dark matter playing with her confidence or was her fear real? She couldn’t tell which it was but she had to ignore it. She had to concentrate on the other problems in her house that the interfering dark matter had stirred up.

Everyone here was in opposition and she could help them now that Jon wasn’t a concern.

 

Perfidia didn’t know that some of the occupants in her home had used the dark instigation to talk honestly about the conceived wrongs between them, and some had already repaired the damage done.

*

Percival had forgiven his brother Dillon, after he'd listened to his versio of events regarding the trick he’d played in his name that long ago summer. Now, he was on his way now to confront Miriam, but forgiving her was a different challenge.

Having just learned of the havoc and dismay she’d caused others last summer because she’d lacked trust in his feelings for her, wasn’t an easy to accept. He didn’t know how to project that behavior onto the kind and loving person he’d thought Miriam to be.

What he did know, she hadn’t been open and honest with him as she’d plotted those havocs while he’d been planning a life with her. And if they were to still embark on that life together, deception could have no part in it.

He questioned if their future was still a possibility, and if he could trust her, as he walked into the kitchen.

Miriam was sitting with her back to him at the long, kitchen table. He was about to approach her when he noticed Perfidia through an open pantry door. She was standing in there and talking to herself.

He stepped to the door. “Are you alright, Perfidia?” he asked quietly.

Perfidia jumped and spun around raising a hand to her heart. “Don’t do that. Don’t sneak up on people. And yes, I’m fine.”

“You’re fine? Talking to yourself in the pantry is fine?”

Perfidia let out a frustrated breath. “Sure it is, I often come in here and talk to myself, clears the mind,” she said with a sarcastic smirk.

“Then I’ll leave you to it,” he chuckled and turned away.

“Wait,” she whispered, stepping out of the pantry and closing the door. “Since you’re here, you should go and talk to her,” she nodded at Miriam.

Percival gave her a troubled look. “That was my intention but I don’t know what to say to her. I’m very confused by her actions.”

Perfidia understood his confusion because her actions had confused Jon. She had some explaining to do about that but that was tomorrow’s problem. She looked at Percival and thought about what she’d like Jon to consider when she talked to him, and she offered Percival that advice.

“Percival, you should to listen to her with an open mind and no matter how damning it may sound, try to remember Miriam did it because she loves you. It may not have been the best way to go about it, but she was trying to understand your feelings, if they were true, for her.” 

Percival would have liked to exonerate Miriam on the basis that love had ruled her actions but she’d involved others, and she’d hurt them. When all she had to do was talk to him, believe in him, but she hadn't done that.

“I'm not sure what I can promise,” he told Perfidia and walked over to Miriam.

 

Percival touched her shoulder and Miriam jumped higher than Perfidia had, but when she turned around he could see she was crying.

“Percival,” she sobbed, “I wish you would have told me those letters weren't for me, but I should have known it. You were still in love with her."

"It's true those letters were switched Miriam, but...I wasn't sorry they were. Your happiness at receiving them...mattered to me, but yes, I should have told you the truth."

Her eyes shed more tears at his confession. "You did care for me?"

"Of course I did, you know that."

"I didn't trust it...I’m sorry I’m so jealous of Martha and sorry I couldn't get over how much you once cared for her. I’m sorry for all of it, all the trouble I caused…you must hate me,” she concluded and her shoulders shook with her loud sobs.

Percival felt a break in his own heart at her misery. “I don’t hate you Miriam,” he whispered as he sat down and pulled her close.

He'd wait for her tears to stop, wait to begin the conversation they needed to have. If they had to talk all night to find the root of the problem, they would. Then they'd see if the love they’d thought was between them was still there.

*

Dillon shifted his back in the small club chair trying to find a comfortable position but he had the beginnings of a throbbing backache that now matched his already throbbing headache and had to standup.

Martha had wandered off after she’d told him to make things right with Percival, and he had. Then Percival left the room in search of Miriam. So here he was, watching the clock until sunrise, and feeling uncertain.

His thoughts revolved around his latest deception and he wondered, once Martha learned of it, would their hopeful reunion end? And it seemed every couple here tonight was at odds, all but one that is.

The instigator of the catnapping conflict, Daphne, had forgiven the man who’d driven her to adapt the diabolical plan in the first place. Avery had likewise forgiven Daphne.

The two had come back into the room a few minutes ago, after settling matters between them, and were now curled up, nice and cozy, on the most comfortable piece of furniture in the room, the large sofa. Daphne’s head rested trustingly on Avery’s shoulder and his arm was around her, holding her close.

As far as Dillon could tell, after they’d poured out their hearts and recognized their misunderstandings, they'd accepted their tender feelings for each other and now all was rosy between them, snuggled up as they were on the sofa.

How lovely,” Dillon scoffed under his breath, not thrilled to see them happy when everyone else who’d been swept up in their vengeful game was at odds with each other. Including him and Martha.

He glanced at the doorway and noticed Martha walking past the room towards the library. He knew she was worried about Willow and thought to go and comfort her, but he wasn’t sure she’d want his comfort.

She had a right to be suspicious, he hadn’t told her everything when they’d reacquainted at the summer festival. It was a hesitation of truth he’d come to regret, but at the time their new start had felt too fragile. He hadn’t wanted to quarry her mistrust, again. But in clear hindsight, he knew it for the foolish decision it was.

Martha turned from the library door as if she’d felt his eyes on her and she looked at him. 

Dillon noticed with a start, there was no love projected for him in her eyes. 

He sighed, knowing time would not change his story or her reaction to it and he walked over to her, prepared to tell her everything.