A Charming Secret (Magical Cures Mystery Series Book 6) (3 page)

She was right. I had no idea why or how I was the chosen one, but I was. Evidently I wasn’t the chosen one to be the Village President because I just couldn’t do it. In my gut, there was a task out there for me as the chosen one, only I hadn’t found out what the task was. I figured it would rear its ugly head. In the meantime, I couldn’t worry about the task and had to live my life.

“Don’t sugar coat it.” Peony laughed elbowing Amethyst. “Really she means no harm.”

“I think you are way off base.” I wasn’t going to stand there and let her accuse me of coming to Whispering Falls to deliberately take the Village President dream from Petunia. “You have no idea what you are talking about and until you do. . .”

“What?” Amethyst questioned me.

“Oh dear.” Petunia wrung her hands. “Oh dear.”

“Yeah, what?” Gwenie took a step forward.

“What potion girl? Are you going to give me some evil potion to shut me up?” Amethyst stood tall and scared me a little. She tapped the toe of her shoe.

Cousin Gwendolyn took another step closer like they were some gang backing each other up. “Because I’m here to tell you no one, not even a little two-bit potion witch is going to hurt my family.”

“Is something going on here?” Colton Lance stepped up behind us.

Colton took his police hat off; his messy blond hair fell down around his ears. He and Ophelia were an item. They came to Whispering Falls together and they lived above Ever After Books. He was in charge of the police department after a misunderstanding with Oscar a few months back, but now they were both in charge.

“Colton.” Petunia’s worry lines softened. “This is my sister, Peony, my best friend, Amethyst, and my cousin, Gwendolyn.”

Colton was gracious enough to shake their hands before he turned to me. “Are you okay, June?”

Gwendolyn and Amethyst walked off toward Glorybee.

“I’m fine. Just looking for that ornery cat of mine,” I looked past Colton to make sure they weren’t going to A Charming Cure’s line of customers.

“Oh cute white one?” Petunia’s sister asked bringing me back to the present conversation. Petunia’s face balled with a smile and her head nodded. “He was at Glorybee.”

“Yes. I would guess that.” The fog was slowly lifting and some cars were driving by. I had to get the shop open.

“He’s a little charmer that one.” Peony smiled.

“Yes, he is. He loves a pretty face.” I instantly liked Peony. Anyone who loved my cat, I liked. He didn’t just like anyone either.

“We might have given him a few treats before we walked down here.” Petunia blushed knowing I had asked her to stop giving him so many since he was putting on a little weight.

“I better get going,” I said before I started to cross the street. There was a line already forming outside of A Charming Cure.

“I love the name of your shop.” Peony and Petunia crossed with me.

“Thank you. I’m a little partial to it.” I could feel the pride written on my face. I knew Petunia had already told her, but maybe she was so young she had forgotten. She seemed a little flighty.

The shop has come a far way since my days of selling the homeopathic cures in the Locust Grove Flea Market.

“Can we go in there later?” She turned to Petunia.

“Of course.” Petunia bent down and picked up a fallen tree branch off the road and stuck it in her hair. “I want to take you into every shop before you go back home.”

“See you soon.” I waved and darted between the cars like a human game of Frogger. Colton had crossed the sidewalk a distance down and he seemed to be waiting on me.

“Was Petunia’s friend threatening you?” Colton asked when I approached him. 

“No.” I shook my head refusing to let her ruin Petunia’s moment. “I’m sure she’s nervous about Full Moon.”

“It sure sounded like she threatened you and you said something about casting a spell on her.” His words stopped me dead in my tracks.

“I did no such thing.” I had to clarify. “She badgered me.” My words came out more frantic than I wanted them too.

“So she did threaten you?” he asked again.

“She was only taking up for her best friend,” I assured him. “Something about the history between me and Petunia with the whole Village President thing. But that is going to be corrected tonight.”

“You said she badgered you.” He cocked a brow.

“She asked if I was going to put some sort of spell on her or something because I started to take up for myself before I decided to let it go.” I tucked a piece of hair under my chin. His questions were making me nervous. “Ridiculous.”

“What did you say about a shop?” Colton asked.

“Amethyst owns the new bed and breakfast in town.” I looked around to see where it was. “Full Moon.”

“So, that’s her.” Colton’s head went from side-to-side, trying to get a look at Petunia and the girls off in the distance. “I heard there was a new shop, but it’s on the outskirts of town. Something about the Elders not wanting visitors to see all the magical happenings in the middle of the night.”

“I never thought of it, but I guess it makes sense.” I shrugged. “I’m just a bit shocked they approved a sleepover shop. I never thought we’d need a bed and breakfast. The Elders must be busy.”

The Order of Elders consisted of three past Village Presidents from different villages. They approved shops for all the villages and came when there was a crime committed. I had gotten to know them pretty well when I had found myself a suspect in a crime I had not committed. The Marys, as I so lovingly called them since their names were Mary Sue, Mary Ellen and Mary Lynn, were harmless.

I had a sneaky suspicion I was going to see them while they were in town. I scoffed the idea away and took off toward my shop.

Chapter Three

I opened the beautiful gate in front of the store; every store had the most amazing gates and doors welcoming the customers inside to a world of magic.

Two little window boxes under each window had fresh flowers. It didn’t take a potion to know Arabella had replaced my dead ones. Fortunately the outside of the shop was covered in the most beautiful wisteria vine, which didn’t require much maintenance. Good for me since I would surely have killed it.

The purple and white flowers grew up and around the front door. It was a welcoming sight each morning. Especially on cold foggy mornings like today. Instant happiness, I thought smiling as I looked at the vine.

“Outta the way. Excuse me.” I heard someone behind me when I stuck the key into the shop door. “Move it.”

I turned around to see the line of customers being shoved to the right and left as Patience and Constance Karima made their way to the front.

They two grey-haired sisters who owned Two Sisters and a Funeral, pushed their way to the front. They were always on the look out for fresh bodies. They didn’t care who was in their way. When they wanted something they took it. Patience, the shorter of the two, stood behind Constance.

“Yes,” Patience was the master of repeating her sister. “Outta the way.”

“Constance. Patience.” I tilted my head to the side. I blew my bangs out of my face. “It’s not very nice to cut line in front of these nice people.”

I had to make good somehow. There were some angry faces in the crowd.

“We must wait our turn.” I smiled and turned the key to open the door, trying to hurry in without them following me.

Constance must not have heard me, or she ignored me because she plowed on through the door even before I could make it in. The bell above the door rapidly swung back and forth, dinging in our ears.

“Welcome,” I said flatly. “I guess you aren’t waiting your turn,” I muttered under my breath. I could tell it was going to be one of
those
days
.

I flipped on the light switch next to the door and greeted each customer who came in. “Calming the soul products are on the left and anything pertaining to health issues are on the right. You will find wonderful products in the middle for facials and other external healings you might need.”

“We didn’t come here for no cleansing,” Constance protested. Her jaws clenched, her cheek muscles stood out.

“No cleansing,” Patience repeated, wringing her hands together. “Someone’s gonna die.”

A couple customers’ heads turned.

“Oh, I do have some embalming fluid for you.” I grabbed each of them and pulled them to the back of the shop not letting go until we were out of hearing range. “What is wrong with you two?”

“Oh stop it.” Constance smacked my hand away. Patience followed. “You aren’t the Village President anymore. I’m telling you. Something evil is lurking. It’s the evil feeling I get when someone is about to eeck.” She dragged her stubby fat finger across her neck.

Patience mimicked her. “Eeck.”

I put my bag on the counter and flipped the switch on my cauldron that was hiding from the world to see behind the small partition next to the counter. I wanted to protest and assure them nothing of the sort was going to happen but the glow from the bottom of my purse confirmed Madame Torres was trying to tell me something.

“I will look into it,” was the only assurance I could give them.

Neither of them had satisfied looks on their faces from my answer, but it was all I had. Constance turned and huffed away, Patience puffed along behind her. With a smile on my face, I greeted each customer we passed as I walked them to the door.

“Are you dying?” Patience asked a woman looking at the facial creams.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized to the customer, whose face had paled. “She’s leaving.”

I opened the door and pushed the sisters out onto the steps. Mr. Prince Charming darted in. I closed the door and peeled the curtain back on the window, watching the sisters stop everyone in their path, talking to them.

They were probably scaring the daylights out of the tourists. I couldn’t worry with them. I had customers and nightmares to deal with.

“Excuse me.” A young woman with a small child wrapped around her leg had a bottle of Monsters Be Gone, a homeopathic cure for children who won’t go to sleep because they are afraid of monsters under the bed. “I was wondering how I use this?”

“Oh,” I held my hand out and she gave me the bottle.

My intuition got nothing from her but some anxious feeling. I gently reached down and touched the child on the head. Instantly my intuition went on high alert. Not only was the child afraid of monsters, the women in the neighborhood were gossiping about the child, discouraging their children from playing with him.

“I’ve got just what you need.” I held my finger in the air. “If you will wait right here, I will go put in the extra ingredients.”

l walked back to the counter and behind the partition where my cauldron was ready to go. I uncorked the bottle of Monsters Be Gone and poured the liquid into the pot. I ran my finger along the shelf behind me that was lined with bottles of special ingredients. The Slippery Elm ingredient glowed to my touch, letting me know it was the perfect herb to use and add to the Monsters Be Gone to halt the gossip.

“Ah, Passion Flowers.” My insides grinned when the bottle lit up.

Passion Flowers was one of my favorite ingredients. It promoted a lot of things such as peacefulness, sleep, and friendship. Something the little child could use a lot of. I turned back to the cauldron where the liquid was starting to bubble.

The bubbling, murky, thin fluid was rose in color. I used the ladle to slowly stir to a simmer before adding a dash of Slippery Elm. Instantly the fluid bubbled to the top smelling like mud. I put my finger in and took a quick taste.

“Um.” It might smell like muddy little boys, but it tasted like rich creamy chocolate.

That was how my potions worked. The child might be scared of monsters, but the bigger problem was the gossiping around it, the bullying from the others. The potions really made themselves and the taste was automatically what the child liked best. It smelled like mud because he loved to play in the mud or be outside. Either way, this was his special homeopathic cure and once they tried it, it would work. He would have tons of friends and no longer be scared of monsters, leaving me with a satisfied customer who would return for more cures. That was how this town was so special.

The swirling liquid was now a deep sapphire blue. The pinch of Passion Flower sprinkled in sent little bursts of fireworks above the pot. My insides were smiling, but my soul still ached from the nightmare I had last night and I knew I was going to have to deal with it sooner or later.

I let the mixture come to a boil while I picked out the perfect bottle. I turned back to the shelf and once again ran my finger along the empty glass containers. Like always, when I got to the one meant for this little boy and his special cure, it lit up.

The bottle made me pause, wondering if I had gotten it wrong. But it glowed green, pulsing like it had a heartbeat. The skull on the front made me a little leery, but I went with it and took it off the shelf.

With the ladle, I scooped out the liquid and poured it into the brown bottle with the skull on the front. Once it was filled to the top, I put the cork top on and pushed down to make sure it was nice and snug.

“Here you go.” I walked up to the mom and son.

When he saw the bottle, his eyes—so clouded when he walked in the shop—cleared.

“I love it. Can I eat some now?” He grabbed the bottle out of my hands.

“We don’t grab from people,” his mom scolded him. She bent down to his level. “The nice lady will tell us how to use it, honey.” The mom stood up and thanked me, apologizing once more for the child grabbing the bottle out of my hands.

“It’s not a problem. It is his, just like he knows it is.” I smiled at the child. He held the bottle in his hands and then grabbed my leg.

“Thank you, Doctor Lady.” The boy grinned from ear to ear. There was already a shift in him before he had even taken the first dose.

“Now, just use a little at night by rubbing it on his face and neck like a cream.” I rubbed my hands together and then along my neck to show them how to apply.

“It’s not digestible?” The mom looked confused.