Some of them Witches

Chapter 29

Marianne softly tapped her knuckles against the door of Violet's bedroom. Violet answered, looking between them and in a hoarse voice said, "Good morning."

Lily looked over at her from the bed where she held the baby. "Finally," and addressing her mother, "Mer and I need to talk."

"How about we all talk over breakfast?" Violet suggested hopefully.

"Leave us." They may not have been related by blood but the imperious tone and word choice Lily adopted just then was pure Virginia.

"Come on." Virginia took Violet's elbow. "Why don't we go make some coffee?"

"You don't drink coffee," Violet was gently protesting as they slid out the door.

There were so many questions Marianne wanted to ask the girl, but the only one that mattered right then was, "How are you feeling?"

"Alive," she said, patting the mattress beside her in invitation.

Marianne sat stiffly at her side, muscles tense, not wanting to disturb the peace in their little oasis. "Did you know?"

"I suspected," Marianne began but reconsidered. "I knew," she admitted. "No one told me. I didn't even know about the thing with Vee and your mom but I knew you couldn't be related to her."

"Because of how I look? Am I the only idiot that wasn't ready to admit it?"

Marianne tucked an errant strand of black hair behind Lily's ear. "No. I tried to tell you once before that it's very rare to have two witches so close together in the same family. Generations apart or a distant branch in a large family maybe, but not something as direct as you two. Something you would have probably guessed if you read nearly any of the books on Virginia's reading list," she realized. "Maybe she was trying to tell you in her own way, too."

Lily nodded pensively a moment. "So much happened last night." Understatement of the century. "I still don't know what to think."

"I think..." and Marianne did just that before taking the sentence back up again. "I think we all feel that way," she said. "And I think we're going to feel that way for a long time. Sometimes I look back at my life and everything seems so ridiculously outrageous that I have to stop thinking about it and put it all back into the box because I'll just drive myself crazy if I don't."

"Your suggestion is we ignore it?"

"My suggestion is it's going to take a while to unpack everything so there's no point in rushing to figure it all out right now. Especially considering our new houseguest."

"Guess you're right," shrugged the girl. "Do you want to hold him?"

She managed a small nod and they made the delicate exchange. "Does he have a name yet?"

"I think I'm gonna name him after my father." As if on cue, he opened his eyes. They were large and sharp, with nearly black irises like Lily's. "I know it's dumb but it's the only thing that sounds right to me."

"He's beautiful," whispered Marianne, taking in his soft chubby limbs, his tiny fingers gripping hers. He had no hair or peach fuzz to speak of, not even eyebrows, she noticed.

"Will you be his Godmother?"

Her face snapped suddenly to Lily's, who's expression was so tranquil and sincere it calmed her speeding heart. "You know how I feel about God."

"Odd-mother, then," she smirked, nudging her arm playfully.

Marianne gave a short laugh. "Odd-mother it is. What do you think of Virginia's escape plan?" It was strange to think of but, "You have someone else to think about now."