The Rules of Magic (Practical Magic #2)(61)

William was driving and therefore didn’t see the worried expression cross Vincent’s face. There was something in April’s knowing tone that made him uncomfortable.

In Santa Cruz they had dinner outside, at a weathered wooden table set beneath a trellis teaming with flowering vines. The pale blooms gave off the bittersweet scent of almonds, reminding Vincent of their aunt’s greenhouse.

“It’s so familiar,” he said.

“Oleander,” April responded. “It’s poisonous.”

She had been inspired by the greenhouse in Isabelle’s garden and grew herbs that weren’t native to California.

As a girl, April couldn’t wait to leave home, yet now she favored wildflowers that could be found when traipsing through the woods in Massachusetts. Sunflower, wild bean, wintergreen. Blue flag, used for skin conditions. Blue vervain, for headache and fever, cardinal plant, appreciated by the native people as a love charm. Skullcap, for nervous conditions. She asked Regina to give William a tour of the greenhouse so he could see for himself. Vincent stood, about to join in, but April caught his eye and gestured for him to stay. “Don’t leave, Cousin, it’s been too long since we’ve spoken.” He felt he had no choice but to sink back into his chair, though he had a feeling of dread. April was a wild card. You never knew what she’d do or say. Now, for instance, as soon as William and Regina were out of earshot she turned to Vincent. “You know, don’t you?”

“April, don’t play games.” Vincent stretched out his long legs. He was all in black and he’d kicked off his shoes. He realized that he felt more at home singing in a subway station or in the park on a summer evening than he had in Monterey. All that time of playing around with The Magus, thinking he sought fame, and now it was the last thing he wanted. He was rattled by the festival, and had little patience for April’s mockery. “Your charm was always telling it like it is.”

“Well, you always knew what your charm was, especially that summer when you were fourteen and fucking everything in sight. Of course, this was before you knew who you preferred.” April gazed searchingly after William, who was bending down to fit his tall frame through the pitched doorway of the greenhouse. He was so courteous, listening to Regina’s ongoing lecture concerning the uses of poisonous plants. Vincent, too, watched William, intent on his form. He had a masculine grace that was enchanting.

“I don’t care what you think about me and William, so if you want to make nasty remarks, go right ahead. It will feel like old times.”

April reached over and took Vincent’s hand. “Tell me you don’t remember.”

He looked at her blankly. Family was always such a bother.

April raised an eyebrow, disappointed in his lack of recollection. “I came to your room. Into your bed.”

It had happened on a night when there was a rainstorm, when the sparrows took shelter in the branches of lilacs below the window. They’d told no one, and had never even spoken of it afterward.

“Oh, that,” Vincent said. He remembered now. Of course. A quick crazy fuck with their hands over each other’s mouths so no one would hear the heat of their sudden passion. Their aunt had given him a disquieting look in the morning, but his sisters, prescient as they were, seemed to have no idea of what had gone on.

“We are extremely distant from each other in the family tree,” April went on. “Third cousins twice removed. It’s fine genetically.” She studied his puzzled face and laughed. He had no idea what she was getting at. “You really don’t know! And you’re supposed to be the one with the sight. It just goes to show, people see what they want to see.”

“April,” Vincent said. “Don’t fuck around with me.”

“I think it was quite the opposite. You were the one fucking with me, darling.”

Annoyed, Vincent stood, making haste to follow William, but before he could April reached for him. Her tentative touch made him stay. She was emotionally raw, something he hadn’t thought was in her nature. Although she had been so vulnerable when she’d come to visit them after the summer, running off before they’d spoken.

“All right, then,” April said. “Perhaps you are clueless. Well here it is, my dear. She’s yours.”

Bewildered, Vincent watched the little girl in the greenhouse. She was gathering purple echinacea flowers for William. They had grown almost wild in Aunt Isabelle’s garden and had been used throughout time as a cure for scarlet fever, malaria, diphtheria, blood poisoning, and the common cold. Regina laughed as William accepted her gift, then bowed.

“Can’t you see yourself in her?” April asked.

“You said her father drowned.”

“What was I to say? That I fucked a distant cousin who was fourteen and too stupid to use a condom? And now here she is. An amazing child we share. A double bloodline. The problem is, I think she may live twice as fast. I saw it when she was an infant, and I think Franny did as well when I came to visit.”

“Franny?” He had a flicker of panic.

“Don’t worry. She doesn’t know you’re the father. That spell we placed on her in the library so she wouldn’t know what we were doing lasted. But she knows the fate. Something our girl has inherited. From both of us, really. A life line that is regrettably short.”

Vincent was stricken. “You know that for a fact?”