No Place For Magic Book 4 (Completed)

Chapter 2

The ride to the swamp was only slightly less unpleasant than the ride to the cottage had been. The driver of the coach was more familiar with the changes in the road and was able to miss some of the deeper ruts. Although my mother didn't say anything at first, I knew that the spots of color on her normally pale cheeks meant that she was angry.

"Doesn't it bother you that Grassina is being so inconsiderate?" she finally blurted.

My grandmother had looked composed with her hands folded in her lap as she gazed out the window. When she turned to face us, she seemed surprised at the question. "Why, no, not at all. I'm sure that your sister wouldn't have asked us to come on a whim. I don't know why she wants us there, but whatever it is, it must be important."

The spots on Mother's cheeks flamed as she bit her lip. "You're taking her side, just the way you did when we were girls."

Grandmother nodded. "Yes, I am, but I take your side when you aren't around and your sister questions something that you do. I always give my girls the benefit of the doubt. I'm sorry the curse turned me into a horrible mother for all those years."

'You take my side, too?" my mother said as if that was all she'd heard.

"Of course," said Grandmother. "You just aren't there to hear it."

"Oh," Mother said. Although she didn't speak again until we reached the swamp, the bright spots faded from her cheeks.

I understood why Grassina had said that I would know the place she meant. My aunt and I were the only people from the castle who visited the swamp, and we'd been exploring it for years. But if this was as important as her summons made it seem, there was only one place we'd find her. She'd be at the pond where I'd first met Eadric and where she had changed Haywood from an otter back into a human.

We left the coach at the road as close as we could get to the swamp and walked the rest of the way. My mother was horrified, of course, because it meant getting her shoes dirty. She tried to keep her hem out of the muck when we reached soggier ground, but she didn't have much luck and finally gave up altogether, letting her hem drag wherever it would.

I was pleased to see that I was right about Grassina's choice. She was waiting where I'd thought she'd be, with Haywood at her side. Eadric and my father were there, as well as another man I'd never seen before. It wasn't until I saw that he was wearing priest's robes that I began to understand why we'd been summoned.

The ceremony was lovely. Grassina and Haywood stood before Father Alphonse at the edge of the water while the rest of us watched from farther up the bank. Although she wore one of her ordinary moss-green gowns, had a simple wreath of ivy in her hair, and carried a plain bouquet of daisies, the glow of happiness that lit Grassina's face made her as lovely as any bride had ever looked. Haywood was wearing one of the tunics my aunt had embroidered for him. It was decorated with oak leaves and acorns in dark greens and warm browns that seemed remarkably lifelike. He looked proud and happy standing beside Grassina, reminding me of the expression he'd worn when he was an enchanted otter and they had just found each other again.

As far as I was concerned, only one thing marred the ceremony: my mother wouldn't stop complaining. Although she stood on the other side of Eadric and my grandparents, I could hear every word she said, and none of it was nice. I glanced at the rest of my family. From their expressions, my father seemed to be the only other person who could hear my mother's tirade. Unfortunately, I could hear her as clearly as the grasshoppers chirping in the field behind us, the birds calling in the trees across the river, the fish burbling in the river, and . . . It occurred to me that I hadn't undone the spell allowing me to hear the butterfly. Maybe that was why everything seemed so loud.