Page 16 of Cursed

Chapter Six

Had it really been two weeks?

Another gorgeous late summer day dawned bright and full of promise, and Edeena sat on the gracious back porch savoring the view. It was almost impossible to believe they’d been on the island for nearly fourteen days. One lazy afternoon flowed into the next, and time seemed to drift along.

After the initial party at the Sea Witch had exposed them to more sound and noise than they’d experienced in a year in Garronia—and Janet Mulready had disappeared, never to bother them again, she hoped—the lives of Edeena and her sisters had quickly settled into a more sedate pace. Caroline had made it her goal to learn everything about the local farms in the area and was already beginning to meet some of the resident homeowners, as well as members of the community works foundation. She’d dragged Cindy all over the island with her, but maybe that wasn’t so much necessary anymore, Edeena mused, her eyes not quite focusing on the flowers fluttering softly in the breeze. Caroline knew the island well enough and was always home well before evening, preferring to stroll along the beachfront at Heron’s Point versus the more crowded public beaches lining the seaside edge of the island up past the Cypress Resort. She, at least, Edeena could stop worrying over.

Marguerite was a different story, but in all truth, she was also proving to be less trouble than Edeena had feared she’d be. They’d even cut Rob’s hours to occasional drive-bys at the Cypress—and, of course, he was there to pick her up and drop her off.

As promised by Count Matretti, Marguerite had been picked up by the Cypress Resort as an intern, working her way through the food service roles on site at the resort. She’d moved up quickly enough to a sit-down breakfast and coffee bar, then had set her cap for the lunch crowd. She’d never spoken again about Wyndham Masters, but Edeena had done the research anyway. It was too bad the man was engaged, but merely seeing Marguerite’s clear interest in him had done Edeena good. The idea that her sisters could potentially fall in love with their future husband was the real stuff of fairy tales to her. Fairy tales that she could help come true.

Edeena smiled as her mind turned again to Vince Rallis. He’d shown up for duty the next day after the party, both of them acting as if they hadn’t made out in public the night before, but she hadn’t given him much reason to protect her from any further danger. He stopped by the house once a day to give her an update on her sisters, to ask after her, and to encourage her to do more than walk the beach at Heron’s Point, but Edeena had more than enough work to keep her busy in the house. She’d been reviewing the family’s financial statements—particularly her mother’s, to which she’d gained access through a private trust that Silas could not touch. No matter what Silas did, her sisters would be well cared for, and that was the greatest gift a mother could give her daughters. The greatest gift an older sister could give, too.

Edeena had also confirmed an interesting fact about Heron’s Point. Though the house had always remained in her mother’s family, there had been several years where it had been occupied by the Saleris—from all accounts in the same typical high-handed way they’d been annoying their countrymen for generations. Apparently, the Saleri guests left rooms full of unwanted belongings behind with the Contoses when they’d returned to Garronia. Edeena suspected said ancient belongings remained stuffed in the attic, waiting to be reclaimed. She grimaced. She really should begin looking into listing the house, but they’d have to explore that attic, first.

“Oh! There you are.” Cousin Prudence stepped out onto the porch with her own cup of tea, and Edeena looked up as she approached. Her cousin’s gaze lingered on Edeena’s untouched breakfast, but she said nothing as she fussed with getting herself arranged comfortably. “It’ll be a warm one, today,” Prudence said. “I thought the girls might enjoy going into town. Marguerite doesn’t appear to be working today.”

“Oh! A visit to Charleston would be lovely for them,” Edeena nodded. “I’ve received yet another package from Garronia, and eventually, I’m going to have to look at them.” She sighed. “It’s the sixth one this week.”

“I noticed that,” Prudence lifted her brows at her. “You don’t know what they are?”

“No. I spoke with Silas via email yesterday and confirmed receipt, but I put him off, saying we’d been traveling the eastern seaboard. He wrote back entirely too cheerfully, however, saying there was no rush, that my birthday was still a week off.”

She made a face as Prudence set her teacup carefully down on its saucer. “That sounds like a threat,” her cousin said.

Edeena nodded. “I thought so, too. A very pleasant one, admittedly, but a threat all the same. So I need to know the girls will be away long enough that . . . you know, they don’t see whatever is in those packages.” She tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Maybe we can tell them we’re interviewing real estate agents and they should stay away all day. That will sound sufficiently boring, don’t you think?”

Prudence sighed heavily. “Edeena, you know they would be more than happy to help you bear this burden. You don’t have to go through it alone. It seems like you’re all so much closer than that.”

“Oh, I know,” Edeena said. She’d worked through this all in her own mind, already, preparing for the questions when they inevitably came. She didn’t expect them to come from Prudence, but now seemed as good a time as any to practice her responses. “But they were so much younger than I was when our mother passed away, and I got to enjoy her for those years when they didn’t really know enough to connect with her. Then she passed away and it seemed like everything I did, they had to do, too—the lessons, the exact same schools, the endless round of events we attended as Silas’s perfect children. Every memory of Mother he could, he gradually whittled away, until there was nothing in the house left of her. It was all his relatives, his family’s past, his family’s future. Even if I’d wanted to protect Caro and Marguerite from all of that, he wasn’t about to spare any of us from learning about the proud heritage of the Saleris and the responsibility that came with it.”

She waved toward the lush back yard. “But this, I did for them, bringing them here to get away. And whatever’s in those packages, I can manage that, too. It can’t be so terrible as all that. It’s undoubtedly more dossiers on global royalty, probably with financial statements this time.”

“Maybe . . .” Prudence said.

“Definitely.”

It was the work of a few hours to get the girls on their way to Charleston, both of them so intrigued by the idea of shopping that they willingly relinquished Edeena to the task of meeting with realtors. By the time she and Prudence gathered in the front parlor, Edeena was feeling almost hopeful. There were really only a handful of royal contenders, and the Saleri name and modest fortune had to be appealing to at least a couple of them. Surely she could get one on the hook long enough for her to figure out how to beat the Saleri curse some other way than through marriage. There had to be an out.

Prudence handed her a large set of shears, almost comical considering the size of the first package. They’d decided to open the boxes in the order they’d arrived—the largest and most official looking one first.

“Are you sure these enormous scissors are necessary?” laughed Edeena, but Prudence nodded.

“There’s something in these boxes that has been weighing on you for days, if you haven’t been willing to open them,” she said. “It’s good to give that discovery the respect it deserves.”

“Fair enough.”

Edeena set the shears to the first box, cutting through the packing tape. Inside, there were files on the royal families outside of Garronia. She already knew this information, of course. Either way, seeing them made her expel a long breath of relief. “Well, fine,” she said, paging through the folders—even stopping on a candidate she hadn’t considered, before.

“Who is Prince Ferdinand?” she asked, looking up at Prudence.

“I . . . well, I’m sure I don’t know.”

But Edeena was already paging through the file. “Ugh, he’s ten. Never mind.”

At the bottom of the first box was a summary sheet of the contents, and she checked the files against them. “Well, at least this one isn’t a surprise but . . .” she frowned at the other half-dozen packages. They were all small, barely enough to hold more than a dozen folders each, but—why were there so many of them? And if she’d already gone through all the likely candidates after the first box, including the ten-year-old, then what could these new deliveries signify?

She picked up the next package, this one a thickly padded envelope, and tore the flap wide. A single letter in an envelope peeked out, and she pulled it free with a frown.

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