Gladys froze, her own smile slowly fading, the pair of steel tongs in her hand beginning to tremble.
“Cordelia is Augusta’s niece,” Gordon told her. “She’s here with her sister to see to the estate.”
Behind her many wrinkles, Gladys’s skin grew pasty, her once-merry eyes hard as flint. A haggish pucker stole across her face, twisting the features nearly beyond recognition. “A Bone girl,” she said darkly.
“Cordelia’s from Dallas,” he argued for her. “She didn’t grow up around her family.”
Cordelia cleared her throat, wiping her hand on her jeans. “Did you know my aunt?” she asked, desperate to lighten the mood.
“Augusta Bone never stepped foot in here,” the woman spat.
Cordelia looked at Gordon, who flinched. “Your aunt let Togers arrange all of her shopping,” he told her.
“Allof it?” she whispered back.
He nodded.
“Done a dark deal, those two families,” Gladys croaked out, eyeing Cordelia and Gordon with obvious distaste. “Long time ago. Everyone knows that.”
Cordelia was shocked by the venom in her voice.
Gladys shook her tongs at Gordon. “You’re too young to remember what the rest of us do. I was alive when Violetta Bone dared to go to the hospital to have her baby. Young and beautiful she was then, like an electric storm. So full of life she couldn’t be contained. And that boy, Alton Crane, talked her into it. He was always skulking around there, mooning over that girl. Said it was the only way she’d be safe. Said that midwives were for puritans and hippies. He was going to be a botanist. He believed in science. He didn’t listen to the murmurs around town. And away they went. But when she came back, it was in a hearse.”
Cordelia recognized the name of her grandmother, but she’d never heard the story of her death or her mother’s birth.
“Bled right out in front of a whole team of doctors and nurses who couldn’t stop it,” Gladys went on. “My parents whispered about it for weeks. It was proof, they said. The old stories were true. Cursed with a dark power that place is. Augusta never set foot off that property since.”
“Because she was grieving,” Cordelia supplied, defending her great-aunt.
“Because she couldn’t,” Gladys insisted conspiratorially. “Don’t know what your momma did to keep you alive this long someplace else,” she said, sizing Cordelia up. “But it can’t have been easy. And I’m willing to bet money she met with a bad end all the same.”
Cordelia picked up the cup that had been waiting for her on the counter and dropped a five-dollar bill. “Thank you for the coffee,” she said hoarsely before walking out.
When Gordon caught up with her, she was standing in aisle seven of the grocery store, staring at a display of canned soup.
“Don’t let her get to you,” he said, handing out her change.
Cordelia dropped the money into her purse. “I can’t decide if I should get chicken noodle or tomato,” she said, pointing to the cans. She pulled one off the shelf and held it up. “Maybe split pea? Sounds like something only freaks would eat.”
Gordon took the can from her and put it back. “When people don’t understand something, they make up stories about it. In this case, that happens to be your family.”
“What stories exactly?” she asked him.
He looked away. “Well, there’s more than one. That you’re all deranged. That your ancestors did a deal with the devil. Some of the kids think you’re werewolves.”
She gave him a hard look.
“The rest think you’re witches,” he finished.
At that, she coughed, practically choking on her latte.
He sighed. “But I guess the most prominent belief is that the Bones can never leave their property, or they’ll die a horrible death.”
Cordelia stared at him. “What? Like we’re cursed?”
Gordon rested an elbow on a nearby shelf. “There was a rhyme the kids would say when we were growing up.They never drink; they never eat. The Bones are never fed on meat. They never age; they never toil. The Bones are fed on blood and soil. They never die; they never rot. The Bones can never leave their lot. So never stray onto their coil, or you’ll become their blood and soil.”
“Oh. My. God.” Cordelia gaped. “That makes us sound like vampires!” She started to walk away, then turned back to him. “Is this why you didn’t want to bring me shopping? You knew I’d find out that everybody hated us?”
