The Memory Keeper

Chapter 9

"I am sorry to see you so ill," Colette said, stepping further into the room.

She wore a pearl colored dress. It hugged her slender curves and then pleated out at the bottom around her ankles like a blossoming rose bud. Already tall, the diamond heels on her feet offered a few more inches, so much in fact that she had to dip a little under the top of the door frame when she came in.

"I do not mean to call on you on such short notice, but because it has been six months since you were appointed a licensed mind weaver, I feel it is my duty to check on your status."

Natalie put the book down on her lap and did her best to look as amused as she would while observing an ant farm. It had been just as long since she had seen the queen mind weaver. It was hard for her not to feel as dazed as one would if they were to have stared at the sun for too long. Harder still to speak. "I see. What can I do for you, then, Colette?"

She did not believe a lot of the unconventional rumors she had heard around town, especially between witches and other mind weavers, tossed back and forth like candy, made sweeter or more sour with each pair of lips they crossed. But there was one hearsay she could not help not dismissing too quickly. And it was that Colette was immortal.

People who knew of her, especially the ones who had seen her, claimed the witches in Cape Colette conspired to create an elixir that only Colette received. In other words, Colette was too beautiful not to gawk at, but had been around too many years to not have aged even remotely. She looked no older than thirty.

"Well, I do hope you nor your client will not mind if I sit in for your next appointment and observe." She smiled. There was nothing malicious about it. She was only curious about her newest mind weaver. But for all the tension in Natalie's body, Colette may as well had sneered behind a wicked smile.

"I see," Natalie repeated, and then cleared her sore throat. "Then you might be pleased to hear that my next appointment is with the lord and lady of Coldton Palace. The lord has invited my assistant and I to the palace for dinner and a mind weaving session. He had one simple request, however. That I do not weave his memory. He wishes for me to in fact, perhaps, simply keep it."

***

Gas lamps lit the front entrance of Coldton Palace, the gates held open by guards on either side for Natalie, Piper, and Colette, who stood behind them both, impressed by the barberry bushes, touching the fuzzy reddish sprays, sniffing them. "I really ought to have my witches plant and raise these lovely plants," she said, and smiled. "Never mind the snow."

That smile had not been there earlier that day, when Natalie had explained what the lord of Coldton palace had requested. Colette had simply shook her head and said, "I will not discuss this matter while you recover in bed this way. What I have to say requires more, both of us dressed and at a table, perhaps over tea."

It had not been an unkind response. Natalie's dignity meant something to Colette. So the queen left she and Piper for a few hours, so that Natalie may dress and ready for a stroll and hot tea.

While she slipped out of her bed clothes, Piper paced the room, biting her thumb nail. With a quick look at the door, though the queen had long since left, she hissed, "Why, pray tell, did you admit that to her? I am sure it was not even true!"

Natalie had tossed her bed clothes to the bed and slipped into the sweater and skirt Piper had picked out for her. Topped with her lucky coat and a wool hat, she turned and said, "Piper, of course it was true. Colette will want to see the letter, the same one you read! So why would I purposefully set myself up for a lie?"

The witch had stopped pacing, and took a deep, despondent breath. "Why am I more stressed out about this than you?"

"Because you never make calming medicine for yourself, when you truly need it, like right now. Wait, is that a gray hair?" Natalie walked over and plopped her hands on Piper's shoulders, shaking them a little. "Stop. Worrying. Now." She smiled. "I think this will be a great opportunity for Colette to teach me how to keep memories. She is here to check up on me, sure, but what if it is also a test? A key to open new abilities?"