Page 11 of Spellbound
“Where’s Asher?” she asked, looking confused, as she came out on the porch.
“He was pretty tired, and he said his leg hurt. I took him up to his room so he could get some rest. He’s had a long day, and besides, we need to have a talk, Mrs. MacGregor.”
“Oh, please call me Janet. A talk? About what, dear?”
Rosalyn slipped an arm around her waist and shook her head at me. “Really, Ben, they just got here. Couldn’t all this wait until later? Tomorrow morning…”
“She’ll be busy moving Asher into the cottage tomorrow. We have privacy now and time to speak about this. And this ismagistrate business, Rosalyn. I know you understand that and why I have to ask you not to interfere.”
She flushed and gave me a dark, unhappy look but sat down in one of the rocking chairs on the porch.
“Earlier,” I began, “you made excuses to him when I caught him outside and kept him from falling, implying he imagined things because his blood sugar might have been low. Why did you do that?”
“I-I didn’t want to upset him. He doesn’t believe in magic, and he doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“What do you mean he doesn’t believe in it? Hehasmagic, though it’s bound. His father was a practitioner, and his mother claimed to be a witch.”
“He hates talking about all of that. He gets angry whenever I bring up the subject. Magic has always been in our family, but he refuses to acknowledge it. It was never strong inside me, and he tolerates my spell work, but I know he dislikes it, and I’m not allowed to talk about it. He thinks his father had a mental illness.”
“That’s ridiculous. His father was a talented practitioner and a magistrate.”
“I know.” She shrugged. “Asher can be a bit…unreasonable and stubborn. He gets angry if I bring up the subject.”
“What do you mean by ‘gets angry?’ Has he ever tried to hurt you?”
“Oh goodness, no, he would never. He’s very good to me. He can simply be insistent on having his way. He thinks talking about magic reinforces my belief in it, and he thinks it’s all fantasy.”
I snorted. “I’ll talk to him about that.”
“You said this was magistrate business just now,” Janet said. “I haven’t heard that in years. Not since my son…” her voicetrailed off and she sat down in one of the rocking chairs, looking down at her lap. “What did you mean by that?”
“I’m sorry, Janet,” Rosalyn said, reaching over to squeeze her hand. “Ben will explain. I hope you don’t mind answering some of his questions.”
“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter if I do, does it?”
“Of course it does,” I replied, “And if you don’t want to talk about anything I ask you, just say so. The Council may overrule you and force you to speak to me, but that’s up to them. I do feel as if this interview is long overdue, and I don’t want to do it with Asher until I know more. Tell me about the accident with his leg. He told me it was a climbing accident.”
“Not exactly.”
“I know a little of what happened. I checked into it and read the police report. He was hiking in a state park, wasn’t he? Who was he with?”
She shook her head. “Some friends. One of them was his ex-boyfriend, I think, or he’s an ex now. A young man named Brent. The outing was completely out of character for Asher—he doesn’t usually like outdoor things like that. They drove up there and then they climbed over a barrier and went up a trail beside a waterfall in the park, ignoring all the signs posted against it. Asher waded out into the water at the top, and the rocks were slippery with algae. The other people in the park that day witnessed the accident and saw him slip and fall. He went over the first set of falls and landed on the rocks below—another drop of twenty feet. It’s a wonder it didn’t kill him. Somehow, he managed to stop himself from falling any farther. He broke some bones in his leg so badly that he had to have surgery, and they put in pins and screws. He also sustained a severe concussion and was lucky he didn’t fracture his skull.”
“Why did he do something so dangerous and reckless? Had he done anything that before?”
“No, not that I know of.”
“What made him decide to go climbing around like that?”
“That’s just it. He won’t talk to me about it. I don’t know why he even went to that park. It’s nowhere near his home. At first, he said he didn’t remember why he wanted to go, and then he said it was just a ‘spur of the moment’ thing.” She shook her head. “It was so foolish. He could have died.”
“I know that Asher’s powers were bound a long time ago. What can you tell me about that?”
She gave a little gasp, and Rosalyn smiled at her reassuringly. “Just tell him whatever you know, Janet.”
“Wasn’t it his father who did it to him?” I asked. “I know some other magistrates were involved. No one else would have had that authority or that much power.”
“Yes,” Janet said, her voice breaking a little. “It was Rosalyn’s husband and son, along with my son, Richard MacGregor, and perhaps a few other magistrates. My son was Harvard educated and brilliant, possessed of good breeding and formidable power…why he married a woman like that Opal and had a son with her, I’ll never understand.”
