This had happened before; it would happen again.
ALWAYS CHRISTMAS WAS a world apart from Aunt Iris’s house, and as soon as I entered the shop, I felt better. Marcy and I got along well, maybe because I liked to work hard. About three o’clock that afternoon, when the temperature and humidity had soared high enough to keep vacationers inside whatever air-cooled place they’d found, the sleigh bells on the door stopped jingling. Marcy perched on a stool behind a counter, paging through wholesale catalogs, circling items. I picked up a spray bottle and attacked smudgy surfaces.
“Audrey mentioned meeting you two nights ago,” Marcy said. “I’d be willing to bet you had an interesting conversation.”
I glanced across the room at her and detected a smile.
“Yes. When Uncle Will invited me, he didn’t tell me I’d be living in a house of evil.”
She laughed. “That’s Audrey for you. My friends find her very strange and wonder why I keep her on.”
“Why do you?”
“Loyalty. She worked for my parents and was very good to me when I was growing up.” Marcy turned a page, then looked up. “You and I have something in common. I was adopted. Most people would consider it lucky to be me, adopted by a wealthy family like the Fairfaxes. It would have been, except that my mother later gave birth to a son, one who happened to look like the portraits of every firstborn male Fairfax since the seventeenth century. They nearly worshipped at the crib.”
“That doesn’t sound good, for him or you.”
“It wasn’t for me. Unfortunately, getting into trouble was the one way I could get my parents’ attention. Audrey looked past the stupid things I did. While the other servants enjoyed reporting those things to my parents and making our relationship worse, Audrey always tried to make it better. I guess she figured it was her job to save me and took me on as her mission in life.” Marcy smiled wryly. “I certainly kept her busy.”
“I hope she doesn’t make me her next mission. Marcy, are there other people in Wisteria who think Aunt Iris is in league with the devil?”
She thought about the question. “A few, probably, because of her reputation as a psychic. People fear anyone who differs from what is considered normal, and in a small town the idea of normal can be as narrow as the streets.”
“Did anyone fear my mother?”
“Why would they?”
“She was psychic.”
“I knew she lived with Iris and William, but I was away at college when she moved in. She died in a robbery, didn’t she? How old were you?”
“Barely three. I don’t really remember her. When Uncle Will asked me to come, he said he wanted to tell me about my family. He said there were some things that he needed to explain.”
Marcy nodded and turned a page, her eyes on the catalog. The fact that she didn’t study me with the overly concerned expression of a school guidance counselor encouraged me. “I need to ask you a question.”
She waited a moment, her pen holding her place on the page. “No point in backing out now.”
“Aunt Iris can get angry, crazy angry. You heard what the elf man said yesterday. Do you think she could have killed Uncle Will?”
“No.” Marcy circled an item in the catalog, then looked up.
“I don’t believe Iris is capable of really harming someone.
She’s just not that kind of person, Anna. I would worry about her health, but not that she’s a murderer.”
She flipped the page of the catalog. “Oh, my.” She brought over the book to show me the picture she had been looking at. “How do you like these?”
“Leprechaun angels?”
“Handsome, aren’t they? I could probably sell a bushel of them and turn a nice profit, but I do have some pride.”
“I didn’t know leprechauns were that big an item.”
“It’s angels. People collect them. I could sell an angelic choir wearing fatigues and riding in Humvees.”
“I like the ones by Cindy Reed.”
“Me too, but I’m afraid that’s the last of them. Cindy took her newest set of Christmas figures to Jeanette’s Crafts, showed them to Jeanette before she showed them to me.”
I walked over to the shelf of wooden angels. I was hoping to buy one for Mom’s Christmas gift.
Marcy returned to her perch. “Loyalty is very important in retail. Sometimes it is the only thing one can rely on.
Unfortunately, Cindy doesn’t know what I know. Jeanette’s lease is up next year and she’s planning to retire. Cindy will be out of luck — I’m not buying from her again.”
Having no experience in business, I wasn’t going to argue, but it seemed kind of senseless to me to stop carrying a product that customers bought, just because someone else got first choice.
Marcy laughed. “Your face is an open book. I admit, I have a healthy streak of pride in me, and I am the kind of person who likes to know whom I can rely on. I built this business out of nothing. My parents, with all their money, didn’t loan me a nickel — they thought I couldn’t pull it off.”
“That must have been hard.”
“Yes, but most things that are satisfying are hard. Don’t let others tell you that you can’t have what you want, Anna. Go after it.”
“Most of the time I do.”
As I turned away from the shelf of angels, I glanced out the window. Zack was coming down the street, carrying cardboard mailing tubes and wearing the preppy office clothes I had seen him in before. When he started up the steps to Marcy’s shop, I quickly looked for another piece of glass to polish.
The sleigh bells jingled.
“Hi, Marcy. Hi, Anna.”
“Well, this is a nice surprise,” Marcy said to Zack. “Is everything all right with your father?”
“Yes, I’m delivering some blueprints for him, and I thought I’d stop by.”
“You never stopped by before,” she observed.
“I never realized what great air-conditioning you had,” he answered smoothly. “I may have to come more often.”
“Uh-huh.”
He flashed his stepmother a grin, then walked over to me.
“Actually, I came because I have a last-minute invitation. My friend Erika Gill is having a big party tomorrow night, one of those all-out birthday bashes that girls like. Want to go?”
For a moment all I could do was stare at him. This is just a coincidence, I told myself. But in my gut I didn’t believe it.
What I had dreamed two nights ago was somehow becoming real, just like the fire. He was carrying out the drama queen’s request to date me.
“No. Sorry.”
“Since it’s a catered thing, at a restaurant, I’ll pick you up at — what did you say?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t do it.”
Behind his back, Marcy watched, her eyes bright.
“You’re busy?”
“I just can’t do it,” I said.
“Maybe she has a boyfriend, Zack,” Marcy suggested.
“She doesn’t,” he replied quickly, then bit his lip. “I mean, it’s just that we talked about that last night.”
Was that why he had asked the question? Was last night also part of carrying out Erika’s plan?
“I thought you might like meeting new people,” he said.
“Will there be any cute jocks?”
He looked irritated. “Yeah, sure, if that’s what you want.”
What I wanted was to stop falling for guys who acted interested in me, when really. .
“Maybe another time,” I said, and turned back to a display of glass figures.
When he left, Marcy shook her head in amazement. “Now I have seen everything. Zack never gets turned down. He needs a secretary to keep track of all the girls.”