“Nell figured out the code to open that?”
“All by herself,” Tris said.
“I am proud to know her.” Gemma leaned forward to look inside the hole. “It looks as though it was made especially to hold the necklace in its box.”
“That’s what I think too.” He pushed it closed, then stepped back and motioned for Gemma to try it.
She got it on the second try. “Truly amazing that the child figured that out.”
“And told no one!” Tris added. “She knew that if she did, someone would take the box away from her.”
“Then she lied her way into getting her mother to help her open it,” Gemma said in admiration. “And it was very clever of her to hide it in plain sight around the neck of her teddy bear. It was as though she was daring any adult to see what she’d done.”
“That’s my dear little niece,” Tris said. He went back to the dining area and they began to clear the table. “So, anyway, Nell was on the phone to me and practically hysterical because her father was going to take the necklace away from her. Of course all the problems were caused by the lie she’d told, but she didn’t want to own up to that little detail.”
“Interesting that she was telling you the truth of what she’d done and not her parents.”
Tris gave a little laugh. “Why do you think she loves to stay with me? I let her get away with murder. You should have heard Addy when she found out that I let Nell ride in Mr. Lang’s truck with him.”
“He’s not—?”
“No, no,” Tris said. “No deviant sexual behavior, but the man is eighty-five years old and he’s still driving.”
“In that case, I agree with Nell’s mother,” Gemma said.
“Yeah, me too,” Tris said. “It won’t happen again, but the problem is that I let Nell wrap me around her fingers, and she knows it. She knew that I’d be more interested in her story than in trying to teach her not to steal. I leave that up to her parents.”
He paused as he put the bowls Gemma had covered in the refrigerator. “When Nell told me where she’d found the box and what was inside it, I remembered that it was blinking the day I met you, then later . . .”
Gemma nodded. “Right after that, Nell got her wish for her father to come home and live in Edilean.”
“Exactly,” Tris said. “So if it was blinking again on the day of the barbecue, then—”
“Someone was making a wish. I guess you found out about our little game that afternoon.”
“I called Sara, and she went over everybody’s wishes.”
“And since then, Sara unexpectedly had twins,” Gemma said softly as she thought about what had been said that afternoon. “At least no one wished for something bad.”
“I think your mind works like mine,” Tris said. “If the world found out that there’s a possibility that something like this existed . . .”
“No Frazier would be safe,” Gemma said. “I could see Shamus being kidnapped on his way home from school and some crooks demanding that he wish so and so would win the lottery.”
“Or they’d demand weird things like being able to stop time.”
“Good one,” Gemma said. “How about spirit transfer? Or wish for the power to be able to take over the world.”
“When I heard of Sara’s babies, all I could think of is the bad that could come from this. I wish it weren’t already all over town.”
“Me too,” Gemma said. “Colin says . . .” She broke off.
Tris gave her a little smile. “Got it bad for him, don’t you?”
Gemma smiled modestly. “We get along well, and he’s easy to be around.”
“That’s not what other women have said.”
“You mean Jean?”
“No,” Tris said. “The other women Colin dated when the two of them weren’t together. They wanted his full attention, and when they didn’t get it, they weren’t, shall we say, pleasant.”
“But Colin does give a woman his attention,” Gemma said. “We talk about everything.”
“That you get Colin to talk at all is something no other woman has achieved.”
Gemma was smiling as Tris went to the picture on the wall and opened the safe, ready to put the silver box back in it.
“Wait!” Gemma said. “I think there’s something you should know about wall safes. Is it okay if I tell you the truth about the robberies?”
“Sure. Colin and I talk about his cases all the time.”
She told him how the robber had opened the safe in one house. When she finished, Tris said, “It sounds like someone is looking for something small that’s well hidden.” He nodded at the necklace.
“But who could know what the Heartwishes Stone is? Know that it’s small enough to fit into a little safe? I’ve done a lot of research and I didn’t find out what it looks like. I mean, until now, that is. If that’s the Stone, which we’re not sure of.”
“So where do I hide this thing if not inside a safe?” Tris asked. “Maybe I should put it back where Nell found it.”
“The thief found a brooch inside a bedpost, so I doubt if that picture will hinder him. Why don’t you give it to me? I’ll have Shamus sketch it and I’ll photograph it. At least that way, whatever happens, we’ll have a record of it.”
“Where will you keep it?”
“In its lead case, and I think I’ll put the compact in with my other makeup so it won’t look like anything special.”
“Gemma, that’s quite clever,” Tris said and smiled at her warmly. “Are you sure you’re set on Colin? No other man has a chance?”
He was a truly beautiful man, but she wasn’t interested. “I think perhaps I’m absolutely sure.” She looked at her watch. “It’s after nine. I better go. The gym comes early tomorrow.”
He walked with her out to her car. It was a beautiful night. “I’m glad you’ve come to Edilean. You’re a good addition,” he said as he kissed her cheek. His eyes sparkled. “And if you ever find out what a lowlife Colin Frazier actually is, you know where I live.” He opened the car door for her.
“I’ll be sure and tell him that you said—” Gemma broke off because she was suddenly overcome with a wave of nausea that she couldn’t suppress. She bent over and threw up her dinner on the ground.
Instantly, Tristan changed from being a teasing friend into a doctor. He put his arm around her shoulders and led her back into the house.
“Stomach flu,” Gemma said, her voice rather loud as she tried to drown out her thoughts of what could be the cause of her being sick. “Or maybe I ate something bad. It’s probably food poisoning or a twenty-four-hour bug. I’ll be fine in a few minutes. I bet you have a lot of patients right now with whatever I’ve caught. It rained on Thursday and I got wet. I bet that’s what this is.”
Tris didn’t say anything as he led her to a powder room just off the hallway. He disappeared for a moment and returned with a little plastic cup. “Urine sample,” he said.
“Sure. To check for food poisoning, right?”
“To find out what caused you to throw up. See that room?” He pointed to a door she’d not noticed before. “I’ll be in there.” He closed the bathroom door.
As Gemma did what he’d told her to, she tried hard not to think. Of course it was some stomach virus. They were always going around, weren’t they?
By the time she finished and left the powder room, she was shaking. Tris, wearing his white coat, was standing in the doorway of the room he’d pointed out to her. It had been set up as an exam room.
“It’s smart to have this in your house,” she said, and she knew her voice sounded nervous. “Do you get many patients out here?”
“Some. Gemma, I want you to sit down there and take some deep breaths. Use what you learned in training and calm yourself down.”
“Sure,” she said as she watched him pick up the cup and leave the room.
She knew he was gone only minutes, but it seemed like hours. She looked about the little room and tried to use h
er historian’s brain to make a story out of what she saw. The exam table looked old, and she wondered if Tris’s father had bought it back in the 1950s. Against the wall was a tall metal cabinet with glass doors and it also looked old.
She told herself to get up and go look at it, but her legs didn’t seem to work. And her curiosity failed to elicit any response from her.
When Tris opened the door, Gemma was sitting just where he’d left her, and she looked up at him.
“How are you feeling?” he asked in what she figured was the voice he used with his patients.
“Food poisoning?” she whispered.
“Gemma . . .” he began, and she saw the answer on his face.
She put her hands over her face. “I’m not ready for this,” she whispered. “I have a job. I hardly know Colin.”
Tris put his hand on her shoulder. “How about some tea and toast? I’d offer crackers, but I don’t have any.” When Gemma didn’t move, he bent and helped her up. “Come back to the living room and we’ll talk.”
Minutes later, they were sitting on his couch and Gemma was trying to eat the toast Tris had made for her, but whatever went down wanted to come back up. He’d removed his white coat and was once again her friend.
“A baby?” Gemma said. “You’re sure?”
“Absolutely. Tomorrow I’m going to give you some prenatal vitamins, and I’ll get you an ob-gyn. Under the circumstances I don’t think I should . . .”
“Yeah,” she said. “That could get in the way of friendship.” She looked at him, and what she was feeling was in her eyes. “What do I do? How do I tell Colin?”
Tris put his hand on hers. “Gemma, if you don’t want this, I can arrange an abortion. No one but you and me need ever know that this happened.”
She jerked her hand from his. “I never want to hear anything like that again!”
“Good,” he said, and for the first time, he grinned. He took her hand again. “Gemma, everything will be fine. I’ve known Colin all my life, and he’ll do whatever you want.”
“You mean make an honest woman out of me?” she said and there was disgust in her voice. “I’ve always wanted a man to feel like he had to marry me.”
“If Colin weren’t madly in love with you, he would never marry you, but he would take care of you financially.”
“He is not in love with me!”
“You think not?” Tris got up to get her more tea. “I’ve never in my life seen Colin act obsessed as he does around you. Even when we were kids, he was always the steady one. When one of us would come up with some harebrained scheme, the others would agree to go along with it, but not Colin. He never cared if everyone was against him but always had his own values.”
“He took a job from his father that he hated.”
“Colin has a very, very strong sense of family.”
“Jean . . .”
“That was purely physical and Colin was dazzled by her,” Tris said as he filled a mug with hot water.
Gemma looked glum. “If Jean is dazzling, what am I? The bland, boring consolation prize?”
“You are love,” Tris said as he put milk in her tea and took it to her.
“But we’ve known each other a very short time.”
“You’re right,” Tris said as he sat down beside her. “It’s a known fact that in order to fall in love, you have to know a man two-point-six-eight years.”
Gemma couldn’t laugh. “What am I going to do? This isn’t what I planned for my life. I wanted to wait until my dissertation was finished, until after I had a good job. Then I was going to look for a man to spend my life with.” She looked at him. “But Mrs. Frazier wanted grandchildren so she wished for them.”
“You don’t think unprotected sex had anything to do with it?” Tris asked.
Gemma groaned. “I’d rather think this was caused by magic than by my own stupidity.”
Tris laughed. “Okay, it’s getting late. I’m going to drive you home. Tomorrow I’ll get your car to you and I’ll bring you some vitamins. Let me know as soon as you tell Colin, and I’ll get Rachel to help with your diet. You need to eat well.”
When he helped her to stand up, she looked at him. “A baby?”
“That’s right. A big, happy Frazier baby. Wonder what he’ll wish for when he grows up?”
“Don’t remind me.” She started toward the door, Tris close beside her. “I guess we know why the wishes were activated. Your niece pulled the lead away from the Stone and the genie escaped.”
“Guess so,” Tris said. “Have you thought of any baby names yet?”
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” he said. “Colin is my friend as well as my cousin, and I was dreading the day he’d come to me and say that he and Jean were going to get married. I always wondered if I’d be able to pretend that I was happy for him. But now he’s had the good sense to . . .”
“I know,” Gemma said. “You don’t have to say it.” They were at Tris’s car and he helped her into the passenger seat. “You won’t tell anyone about this, will you?”
“I would never reveal the secrets of a patient or a friend. Until you personally tell me it’s okay, I won’t say a word. Buckle up. You have two people to worry about now.”
23
GEMMA THOUGHT SHE wouldn’t sleep much after Tris left her at the guesthouse, but she did. In fact, she fell across the bed and was asleep in an instant. When she awoke early the next morning, the first thing she thought of was that when she’d first arrived in Edilean she’d so much wanted to belong to the place. Had that been a wish from her heart? Had Nell’s blinking necklace “heard” her? Had it known that she was destined to be a Frazier by marriage? Colin’s grandfather said the wishes included “ladies.” So maybe the Stone did include wives. In that case, she thought she should call Ariel in California and tell her to take a pregnancy test.
Gemma lay in bed and ran her hand over her flat stomach. She couldn’t imagine it growing with a child. But according to Dr. Tris, that was just what was about to happen.
She put her hands behind her head and looked at the ceiling. So now what happened? she wondered. Of course the first thing was to tell Colin.
On the other hand, what if he did what Tris had hinted at and asked her to marry him out of a sense of duty? What kind of marriage would that be if he spent his life feeling that he’d been forced—or tricked—into marriage?
Gemma got up and as she showered, the idea that she was expecting a baby seemed like a fantasy. She didn’t feel in the least ill, and wasn’t there supposed to be morning sickness? She put her hand on her stomach. “Are you so determined to be different that you’re going to make me ill in the evenings?”
She got out of the shower, dressed, ate a solid, good-for-you breakfast, and started to work. She was writing about what she’d found out about the first Shamus Frazier, and as she wrote, she nearly forgot her life-changing news. In the quiet of the library, she could put aside her concerns about her future.
At one point, she couldn’t resist looking at what was possibly the Heartwishes Stone. It was such a small thing, a little oval cage, no bigger than the tip of her little finger, and inside was the tiny rock that glistened when she held it up to the sunlight. Could this little object really and truly grant wishes?
Even though she told herself it was wrong, she clasped it in the palm of her hand and said, “I wish that my baby lives a long and happy life.” She opened her hand to see if the Stone was changing color as it had when Nell had it around the neck of her teddy bear, but the necklace was the same.
“This is ridiculous,” she said as she put it back in its lead case, and closed the top of the compact. As she’d told Tris, she put it in the little basket that was near the bathroom sink and held her other cosmetics. It was hidden in plain sight.
That afternoon young Shamus showed up at her door. She didn’t get up to open it, just motioned for him to come in. He went directly to the kitchen and made a c
ouple of sandwiches for them, then sat down to draw.
They had developed a routine where they said little to each other, and she knew that Shamus liked the silence that usually surrounded her. She’d seen that the inside of the Frazier house was more turbulent, more active, than she liked, so maybe it was the same for him.
“I’m going to have a quiet child,” she said, then glanced up at Shamus. She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but he didn’t seem to have heard. He just kept sketching on his big pad.
Later, she nodded toward his wooden art box on the table. Gray duct tape was all along the bottom, and it was very ugly. “Why don’t you leave that here and I’ll see if I can fix it?”
He nodded once but didn’t look up. Whatever he was drawing today was certainly absorbing.
She went back to trying to put her copious notes into a readable form. Twice she found herself looking at the names of the family she was writing about. The Fraziers seemed to love to stick to the old names, but she couldn’t bear to saddle her child with “Peregrine.” And what about the girls? Would Alea want her to name the child Prudence? Gemma reassured herself by remembering that Mrs. Frazier had named her daughter Ariel.
As Gemma was musing over this, Shamus left, raising his hand in farewell, and closing the door after him. She saw that he’d left his art case behind, and peeping out from under it was a piece of paper. Since Shamus rarely let anyone see his drawings, Gemma was overcome with curiosity. Getting up, she went to the coffee table. When she picked the drawing up, what she saw so jolted her that she sat down heavily on the couch.
Shamus had drawn Gemma sitting under a big tree like the one at Merlin’s Farm, and she was reading. She looked absolutely absorbed in her book, oblivious to her surroundings. It would have been a completely accurate portrait except that there were three little boys, each one the spitting image of Colin, near her. One was swinging by his hands from a low tree branch. The second one was wearing a sheriff’s badge and cowboy boots, and looking like he was about to arrest the boy in the tree. The third one, wearing a diaper that looked decidedly soggy, had constructed an obstacle course of rocks and twigs, and was running four tiny cars over it.