“Next time someone you know is turned into a cat, I’ll be sure to inform you right away,” Guinevere said, looking around.She grinned when she saw Nat sleeping by the fire.
“So you need help with your situation,” Guinevere said.It wasn’t a question.“I can try to help.I can’t promise anything, and I can’t promise that it will be pleasant.It was a bit of a situation when I helped with Alexander,” she said.
“I think I speak for both of us when I say that he’s willing to do anything to end this,” Thea said.
A customer walked up to the counter, and Thea went through the motions of selling a muffin, her mind still on Guinevere and the fact that she might be able to help.
“What do you need from me to get started?”she asked when she was able to turn back.
“Well, Beatrice clued me in,” Guinevere said, patting the bag slung over her shoulder, “so I have most of what I need.I could use a table out of sight, though.
“If that’s all you need,” Thea said, gesturing to the back of the kitchen, “I can make that happen.”
She led the way toward her prep table in the back and watched, fascinated, as Guinevere pulled out a book and packets of dried herbs and a couple of bottles.
“I’m an herbwitch,” Guinevere whispered.“My ability is in taking herbs and plants and other natural ingredients and combining them with a little something extra to make a potion that will help with...other things.It means that while things may not be pleasant to taste, they usually make something happen.Sometimes it’s not exactly what I intended on happening,” she said, her lips curling up in a smirk, “but it shouldn’t kill him.And if I get it right, we may be able to turn him back permanently.Or not.”
She shrugged.“I’ve never tried this, and since it’s not a permanent curse, I don’t know that anything I try will work.I’ll give it three tries.If at the end it doesn’t work, well, I’ll do more research and be back later.So let me start the first one, and we’ll give it to him and see what happens.”
A customer walked up to the counter, and Thea hurried up to help Mrs.Hocking and her girls.They came to town every two weeks and always stopped in for a little treat.
“Hello, girls,” she said, pretending that her mind was not in the back room with Guinevere.She could hear Guinevere making noise as she made a drink for Mrs.Hocking and grabbed a pastry for each of the girls.
“Let me just check on something,” she said after taking the coins and putting them in her pocket.“I’ll be back in a moment if you need anything.”
She hurried back to Guinevere, who was pouring something from a bowl into a bottle that already contained a mysterious mixture that looked remarkably like the sludge left over after frying bacon.
“I’m glad I’m not Nathaniel,” she said with a grin.
Guinevere laughed.“I have reason to believe that my potions do not taste the best,” she said.“I lost my grandmother before she was able to teach me that part.And well, I can’t exactly go around asking if there’s anyone else who has that knowledge to pass down to me.”
Guinevere sounded forlorn, and Thea’s heart squeezed at the thought.She couldn’t imagine if she’d lost her father before he had taught her almost everything he knew.What would her life have been like if she hadn’t had all that generational knowledge?
“I’m sure you’ll do great,” she said, patting Guinevere’s shoulder.
Guinevere gave her a wry grin.“You don’t really know how to do physical affection, do you?”she teased.“It’s fine.I’m not looking for sympathy.Just explaining why Nathaniel might actually throw up after drinking this.”
Thea’s nose wrinkled.“Is that something we have to go through?”she asked.“Have you ever cleaned up cat vomit before?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Guinevere said, “and magical cat vomit at that.I can assure you it’s not the end of the world.I think this is just about ready,” she said, looking at the potion critically and shaking it about.“Do you want to wake him up and bring him back here?”
“I’m surprised he’s still sleeping,” Thea said.
“I’m not.”Guinevere shook her head.“Cats sleep a lot, and the man is probably chronically sleep-deprived from spending all his time chasing after you and taking care of orphans.And I’m sure he had a rough night, if he was in that form and not here.”
Thea raised an eyebrow, and Guinevere grinned.
“Your neighbor’s cat was complaining about the orange male in his territory last night.”
Thea’s eyes widened at the implication.
“You understand them?”she whispered.
Guinevere shrugged.“I can mostly understand them.Rose is by far the easiest to understand, but I suppose that’s because she’s a dragon, not just a cat.”
“So it’s true,” Thea whispered.
“Yes, they have a baby dragon.She might be one of the cutest things I’ve ever seen.”
