Chapter Thirty-four
HARMONY hoped with all her heart that reading the mural correctly would help bring peace to the castle.
“If Gussie loved Lisette and Nicodemus,” Storm said, “their treachery probably hurt her deeply.”
“If Lisette and Nicodemus were treacherous.” Destiny got that familiar faraway look they knew so well. “Maybe Gussie only thought they were treacherous. She’s known to have caused discord—still does. Someone who’s naturally negative and devious expects others to be that way. Suppose her assumptions about Lisette and Nicodemus were wrong. She was obviously paranoid.”
“Des is the Pollyanna in the family,” Storm told King and Aiden.
“Suppose Lisette and Nicodemus had nothing more than a father/daughter relationship,” Destiny said. “King, you and Reggie had a lot of catching up to do when she got here, right? Maybe Lisette and Nicodemus liked to catch up after his voyages, but Gussie didn’t like them getting along. Sound familiar?”
“Keep talking,” Harmony said.
“Okay, I will. Suppose Nicodemus and Lisette . . . escaped . . . Gussie’s watchful eye to catch up and keep her from coming between them. We know a family who pretends they don’t talk to each other so the instigator can’t come between them. They go camping together, take care of each other’s kids, and as long as the argument-causing matriarch doesn’t know, they get along fine. If the matriarch knows, she causes a rift between them.”
“You think Gussie suspected a romance where none existed?”
“I do, and my instincts are strong on this.” Destiny went to stroke the figure of Lisette wearing the gown. “I think King and Reggie remind Gussie of Nicodemus and Lisette.”
Storm shook her head. “That would make more sense if King had nearly died alone last night—”
“Daddy, you nearly died last night?”
“It’s okay, kitten,” King said, putting an arm around Reggie’s shoulder. “I’m okay.”
“Sorry,” Storm said. “My point is that Harmony nearly died, too.”
“Here’s a wild thought,” Destiny said. “King and Harmony were nearly sent to sea . . . where Nicodemus died, where Lisette started her journey to Salem. Gussie, I believe we’ve established, was mentally ill. If Gussie loved dolphins, she loved the sea, so sending people to the sea could have been her way of bringing them peace.”
The piano played again, loud and with feeling.
Storm shook her head. “I don’t know, Des. I think Gussie’s screwing with your brain. I think she killed them.”
“Do you see her killing anyone in this mural?” Destiny asked.
Storm smacked the mural. “I see angels hovering over the people who died.”
“But Lisette didn’t die,” Destiny said. “She made it to Salem, or Harmony wouldn’t have found her gown. Gussie only assumed she died.”
Harmony’s head went up, and she joined her sisters beside the last and darkest section of the mural. “The gown found me. Maybe Lisette led me to it, so I’d find the ring and come here.”
“That’s my point.” Destiny turned to include everyone. “A beached dolphin is a dying dolphin. Losing Nicodemus and Lisette broke Gussie’s heart.”
Storm scoffed. “Or losing the ring broke her heart. Lisette sewed it into the gown’s hem, don’t forget.”
“Because it was her last gift from her father,” Harmony said. “He died before she stepped in the sea. Lisette was left alone with a mentally ill woman who believed Lisette betrayed her. She might have loved Gussie, but she knew she wasn’t safe staying with her.”
The lullaby played again, with emotion. Harmony thought they might have gotten it right. “I’ll be. Lisette wanted Gussie to think she was dead. Lisette outsmarted Gussie.”
Aiden’s staging collapsed in a thunderous heap, sending wood shards, dirty water, and cleaning solution in every direction.
Reggie covered Jake with her body.
Storm and Destiny screamed, while King put himself between Harmony and flying debris. “Hey,” Harmony said, “thanks, but I thought I was supposed to protect you.”
“So why’s your arm bleeding? You insulted Gussie, and you were closer to the staging than anyone, so I figured you needed protecting.” King looked at her cut as Morgan came in. “Morgan, get the first aid kit. Is anybody else hurt?”
“I am,” Reggie said, a hand to her bloody cheek.
King didn’t seem to know which of them to tend first.
“Take care of Reggie,” Harmony said.
Destiny took Jake. “You okay, buddy?”
The boy nodded, but he looked with concern at his mother. “Kiss Mama better?”
“In a minute, scrumpling.”
Storm took the first aid kit from Morgan. “Gussie’s still manipulating the people around her.”
“True,” Destiny said, putting Jake down beside his mother.
“Reggie, are you all right?” Harmony asked.
“Who wouldn’t be with two Paxton men at her beck and call?”
“The splinter only caught her ear,” King said, “but I thought it split her cheek.” He sat on the sofa beside his daughter, looking pale. “Are you okay, Harmony?”
Morgan barked a mocking laugh. “Are you gonna faint, old boy, because of a few splinters? Hell, I’ve seen you walk away from death. You’re losing your edge, Paxton, because of a couple of women.”
King shot to his feet. “I don’t know what’s eating you, but apologize.”
Morgan raised his hands. “Kidding.” But his neck and ears turned ruddy. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to be a shi—” He caught Jake’s gaze. “Short-sighted, bigmouthed idiot.”
“He means it.” Destiny regarded him with surprise. “Morgan, even your aura’s embarrassed.”
Harmony turned to her sister. “You don’t read auras.”
Destiny pointed a thumb over her shoulder toward Morgan. “I can read his. It’s dirty.”
“I resent that,” Morgan snapped.
Destiny raised a satisfied brow. “That’s why I said it, but you are screwed up.”
Morgan frowned, and Destiny ignored him. “I think Gussie caused strife so she could be the peacemaker and center of attention. It’s a sickness.”
“She and Nicodemus never had children, so when Lisette washed up on shore, the girl must have seemed like a gift,” Harmony said. “A gift who betrayed her with her husband, or so she thought.”
“King?” Storm asked. “How can you be the heir, if they never had children?”
“I descended from Nicodemus’s black sheep brother.”
“Figures,” her sisters said.
“Thanks,” King said, “but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re doing a lot of speculating.”
“Speculating?” Storm hooked arms with her and Destiny, so they stood three against the world. “We’re psychic. Get the picture?”
“Psychics make mistakes,” Morgan said.
Destiny rounded on him. “Psychics don’t exist in a debunker’s world, so how would you know?”
“Forgot.” Morgan snapped his fingers. “No such thing as psychics, witches, or ghosts. So leave me out of this.”
Destiny raised her chin. “Never forget who you’re pretending to be. Where have you been all morning?”
“I was pretending to get the new bedding set up. Jake, you have a great new room. And there are eleven other bedrooms with good mattresses. You just have to choose a room and some furniture now.”
“Not before we protect and bless the rooms and neutralize the furniture,” Storm said. “I wouldn’t stay in any of them unprotected with that psychotic witch on the loose.”
The lights went bright, then everything went black.
“Oh happy day,” Storm said. “I pissed her off again.”
They heard King’s pager go off.
“I’m sure that’s the foreman telling me the lights went out,” he said, “but I’m not leaving anybody in the dark. Grab a hand, and I’ll lead you to the site, and out the door, if necessary. Roll call, sound off.”
When Jake heard everyone accounting for themselves, he yelled, “Jake Paxton and Mommy, too.”
Curt, King’s foreman, said he didn’t know what caused the power surge, but a backhoe cut the main power line.
“Nobody’s hurt, then?” King asked.
“Nah. The crew’s outside till we get the power on and they can come back to work.”
Harmony saw lights and did a double take. The empty elevator behind the main stairs came down lit like a Christmas tree. “Could the elevator be on a separate circuit?”
Curt whistled when he saw it. “You don’t understand. We cut the main. Whatever’s running that elevator is not connected to a power line.”
“Make it stop,” Jake said. “The lady wants to get out.”
“Is it the lady in purple?” Harmony asked.
Jake nodded. “And she’s even sadder.”
The elevator rose again, and when it came back down, Jake sighed. “She’s gone, but that’s okay because she wanted to get out.”
She wants to get out, Harmony thought. She wants vindication. Hadn’t Destiny come darned closed to vindicating her this morning? Maybe the right spell . . .
King hugged Jake, as if he’d protect him from everything, if he could.
Harmony sighed. A sucker for a good father, she was falling hard. “Lotta karma going on around here,” she said.
“Gussie may have wanted the ring at the beginning, but I’m not sure she knows what she wants, now,” King said.
“Us either,” Storm and Destiny agreed.
“But she does want Harmony here,” Storm added.
“Think about what you just said. She wants harmony here. Maybe that doesn’t mean she wants me. Maybe she wants peace.”
“It seems to me,” Reggie said, “that her husband gave her things but never himself. Maybe that’s all she ever really wanted. I know how that feels.”
King paled, and Reggie touched his arm. “I don’t feel that way now, Daddy. Mom used to say you didn’t want me, but your guilt money bought me things.” She leaned into King, holding Jake, and Jake stroked his mother’s hair. “I didn’t want things,” Reggie whispered. “I wanted my dad.”
“You know better now, right?” King pulled her closer.
“I do.”
“Then this might be the right time to tell you that I applied for your custody, yours and Jake’s, until you’re eighteen and can assume custody, though I hope you’ll stay with me when you do.”
Reggie threw her arms around his neck, and Harmony fell even deeper.
“Don’t count your chickens. Applying for custody is the easy part, compared to the real battle.”
“Mom.” Reggie groaned.
King nodded, looking as miserable as his daughter. “My lawyer’s making inquiries as to whether she reported you missing. If she didn’t, we have a case.”
“And if she did?”
“I go to jail for having you here.”