Mathilda, SuperWitch (Mathilda's Book of Shadows #1)(12)

Stuffy person arrived and asked if we were family (while glancing indiscreetly at Rory).

I pinched the back of Sebastian’s arm and said yes, we were his Auntie Mathilda and Uncle Ash (good nickname, eh? – took me awhile to come up with that one but one cannot keep saying (or writing) Sebastian all the time – too much) and we’d most certainly look after Rory.

Sebastian did not appear too happy (but may have pinched pretty hard, er… accidentally).

Hospital people came back out and told me Josephine wanted to talk to me.

When I arrived in her room, she looked exhausted, pale and terrified.

She waited until I sat by her bedside and leaned in. Her lips were all chapped and looked sore and I made a mental note to bring lip balm on my next visit.

“I’ve been poisoned…” she started.

Ack!

“Hunh?” I asked.

“Poisoned. I know it sounds crazy but please believe me. I know who you are, what you are… I, um, don’t believe in that stuff but I’m at my wit’s end.”

I gathered she was talking about Magic.

“That’s why I came to town, I’d heard about what happens here… that people could find help here. I’m so tired… scared for Rory. And he’s been so good. I got him that puppy and…” She trailed off, possibly remembering she’s a psycho then she asked, “What did I do to make them come after me?”

I had no answer for that and thought maybe I should go tell Stuffy Social Services Person that Josephine had lost her mind then she said, “They said your name, ‘Mathilda’. They said it the first time they tried to get him. They said, ‘He’s on the Mathilda Register’. When Aidan told me…”

Aidan! Ack!

Mathilda Register?!? Ack! Ack!

“He was working with a lady named Mathilda I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t know if it was good or bad. But I went in your café, The Witches Dozen, right? Witches. Yes. And you were so nice and Rory hasn’t talked to anyone like that in so long.”

“When you say ‘they’ who do you mean?” I asked.

She didn’t know, but “they” were always there… she has moved and moved, everywhere, to France, Amsterdam, Ireland, bladity, blah, blah and she can’t get away from “them”. She has no money, she’s working two jobs, taking in laundry (do people still take in laundry? – can’t believe that!), cleaning houses. She can’t let Rory out of her sight (except school and is even terrified of that, every day is a nightmare, she said) for fear they’ll get him.

“I’m trying to protect him, be a good Mum and…”

She was working herself up so I patted her hand and said, “He’s staying with Mavis and I tonight. Don’t worry, Josephine, he’s safe with us. You just rest. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

It took awhile to get her calmed down but she finally slept. I watched her for a moment and then it came, lightheadedness and flashes in eyes and I was back at the window that night with BecBec, looking in, watching Josephine about to hit Rory and then she collapsed to her knees on the floor. She grabbed him to her and hugged him, sobbing sloppily and apologizing and then they walked together out of the room with little Rory trying hard to be a big man and take care of his Mama.

Jeez.

Thank goodness Sebastian stopped me from zapping her.

I grabbed the phone in the room and called Mavis. Gave her a quick briefing and told her we needed to activate the coven and get a protection spell put on the hospital room.

“Oh, my darling, your first Spellbound!”

She’s very excited.

Personally, I’m scared shitless.

* * * * *

Sebastian and I gathered up Rory, his stuff, his dog and headed to The Gables.

I settled Rory and Cosmo in the Trunk Room, gave him a little potion to help him sleep (don’t get excited, it was a child’s dose of Night Nurse), tried my hardest to tell him everything was going to be okay (I don’t think he believed me) and explained that I was just a moment away, he only had to call and I’d be there.

Broke my heart the way he looked in that big bed. Scared and alone. Poor Rory.

I found Sebastian in the library.

“Don’t even start,” I warned before he could speak.

But then this was Sebastian, he had no intention of speaking just scowling at me and making me feel like an idiot.

I glared back at him for a second then muttered, “Right.”

Then he asked, “Ash?” with an eyebrow raised and in a voice that pretty much said he didn’t like his nickname.

I ignored that and said, “You ever heard of something called ‘The Mathilda Register’?”

Then came the first shock of many that night.

Sebastian reacted.

I could see it in his eyes, the way his body tensed. One minute he was oh-so-nonchalantly leaning against the desk with legs stretched out and his arms crossed on his chest and then he was not-so-nonchalantly leaning.

“Where did you hear that?” he asked.

“Josephine.”

“Who?”

Of course, he didn’t know her name. In the World of Sebastian, she was unimportant (what is, I wonder?).

“Rory’s mother.”

He just looked at me.

“Well?” I prompted.