Tessa’s forehead wrinkled. “You were married to Dr. Hamilton? The same Dr. Hamilton who took care of Honeysuckle Hollow? No one ever said anything to me about that . . . and you . . . were in love with hisbrother?”
Tessa didn’t know much about the Hamiltons other than that they were one of the founding families in Mystic Water, and they had been exceedingly wealthy.
“Before Matthias,” Crazy Kate said. She brought the cup to her lips and drank. “Geoffrey was a boy then, barely eighteen and just out of high school. I was sixteen, and he was the first boy who ever noticed me.”
There was definitely a story here, and Tessa’s curiosity overcame her. “What happened?”
Crazy Kate released a shuddering breath and lowered the cup, sloshing tea over the lip. “What am I?”
Tessa shifted in her chair. “I’m not sure what you’re asking.”
“When you look at me, what do you see?”
An incredibly unusual personseemed like an inappropriate response. “A woman.”
“And sixty years ago, do you know what you would have said?”
Tessa shrugged. “A girl?”
“An outsider,” Crazy Kate said. “My mama was a full-blooded Cherokee, and my daddy was a Scottish man madly in love with her. In the fifties, being different or foreign brought on a lot of discrimination. My daddy was a successful architect—brilliant, charming, and imposing—and my mama worked as a midwife. Because of that, Mystic Water mostly accepted them. They lived out here in this cottage, and they never paid much attention to what people thought about us, but people had their opinions. I had an older brother, Evan. He was handsome and popular, and I was his opposite. A little girl who belonged entirely to no one’s world. I wasdifferent, and not just because of my dark skin.”
Tessa nodded to encourage Crazy Kate to continue.
“Geoffrey didn’t care that I was different, not at first.” She turned and stared at a spot in the living room as though seeing the young man’s face before her. “But that didn’t last. Once he found out about my gift, he couldn’t handle it. I was heartbroken. Young hearts are so fragile.” She blinked away the tears in her eyes. Then she smiled. “But Matthias was there. Good, strong, dependable Matthias. He was so handsome, and he lovedme, no matter what. He respected my gift.”
“Wait,” Tessa said, feeling indignant for Crazy Kate. “Geoffrey broke up with you because of a gift? Whatkindof gift?”
Crazy Kate’s eyes shone like black pearls in the moonlight. She stood, grabbed her teacup, and poured out the rest of her tea into the sink. Sadness rippled off her. Dishes trembled in the cabinets, and wind wailed around the cottage like a lament. Tessa heard the frantic, high-pitched tones of the wind chimes clanging together. Crazy Kate exhaled and the wind quieted.
“A gift I couldn’t control. I’m not talking about having a talent for singing or building houses. I’m talking about a gift too difficult for most to accept. But it’s also why I buried the spear beneath Honeysuckle Hollow.”
Tessa stared at her cup of tea. What memories would surface if she drank it? Would she splinter inside like Crazy Kate seemed to be doing? Would a long-buried yearning surface? “What kind of gift?” she repeated.
Crazy Kate’s serious expression didn’t waver as she said, “I can see the future.”
Tessa eyebrows rose on her forehead. She thought of fortune-tellers at carnivals, hidden behind heavy drapes and burning incense. “Like with a crystal ball?”
Crazy Kate scoffed and tapped her finger to her temple. “In here. All sorts of futures tangled together like yarn. I know things before they happen.”
“Like premonitions? Is that why people call—”
“Call meCrazyKate?” A small smile tugged her lips. “People are generally afraid of what they don’t understand. The name doesn’t bother me anymore. It helps remind me that I’m special.”
Crazy Kate sees the future? Why not? There is already the possibility of a magically potent garden and a house-protecting spear.
“My mama once described it as being able to see the future in broken pieces. But making sense of the visions would be the same as trying to make complete pictures out of the shattered glass in a suncatcher.” Crazy Kate stared out the window. “But not all of my visions are so broken. Sometimes they are clear. Mama warned me never to change what I saw, never to act on my visions. I was meant to be a bystander.”
The tone of her voice caused Tessa to ask, “But you didn’t obey her, did you?”
Crazy Kate’s eyes darkened. “Would you?”
Tessa hummed in her throat. “Depends, I guess. I might ask for advice first.”
Crazy Kate shook her head. “You don’t trust your heart.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “I’ve been impulsive one too many times, and it has brought me nothing but misery.”
“Allowing others to navigate your life will bring you the same.”
