The Hidden Grimoire by Karla Brandenburg (pride and prejudice read TXT) 📕

you have work you need to do,” I said, rising from my seat, “Kyle and I are staying over. We can finish this later, or tomorrow morning.”

“That was Kyle on the phone,” she said. “Sharon is here.”

Chapter 36

Hannah led me down the corridor to the dining room. Kyle hung back in the shadows beside the entrance.

He kept his voice low as we neared. “They’re having dinner.” He nodded toward the dinner crowd.

Sharon. And Jason.

“LeAnne told me Jason was away on business,” I whispered.

“Does he work for Wisconsin Global Insurance?” Hannah asked.

“Yes.”

“They’re here on a retreat.”

“Which explains why she’s here, too,” Kyle said. “You did say they worked together. What’s your impression?”

I inched behind the wall and peered around, trying to stay out of Jason’s line of sight. Sharon stared at her plate, pushing food around. Jason chattered on about something.

“Not the cozy meeting I would have imagined,” I said. “She looks like she might burst into tears at any moment, and quite frankly, he looks oblivious.”

“What else do you see?” Hannah asked.

While Sharon’s aura had shifted to a grayish blue—melancholy—Jason’s aura was hard to see. Obfuscated. “I can’t tell in the low lighting, but his aura looks brown.”

“Very good,” Hannah breathed. “Do you understand what that means?”

I shook my head. “It isn’t on my color chart.”

“Brown means he’s conflicted. Confused.”

I held back a snigger. “Hello, other woman.”

“No,” Hannah said, laying a hand on my arm. “It’s more than that. I’m wondering if he’s bewitched.”

Kyle stiffened beside me. “You can tell by looking at him?”

I looked closer at Jason’s face, hard to see from this distance and in this lighting. Had I missed it all the other times I’d seen him? Then again, all the other times I’d seen him, he’d been angry with me for one thing or another. The one time he’d been happy was in the hospital, when he’d told Jeannine about the baby. Even then, in a moment of joy, there had been a glazed look in his eyes.

I straightened and took a step back. “Then it isn’t Sharon,” I said.

“Not judging by the somber look on her face,” Hannah said. “But I’m guessing she knows more than she’s letting on.”

Sharon had said LeAnne had bewitched Jason, but I’d seen LeAnne a couple of days ago. Her eyes didn’t glow, even with the unmasking spell. “I’m not so sure.”

“It seems an opportunity has presented itself.” Hannah extended her arm, inviting me to walk into the dining room.

“He’ll kill me,” I said.

“Don’t talk to him. Focus on her. If she is masking her true self, I won’t know. You, on the other hand...” She glanced at Kyle.

“There’s a table next to them,” Kyle said. “We can pretend we’re here for dinner.”

Hannah raised her voice and grabbed two menus. “I can show you to your table.”

Sharon looked up as we approached, her forehead creasing with her frown. Jason hadn’t stopped talking, and as we got nearer, I heard the words annuity and long-term care.

Kyle pulled out a chair for me, then sat before Jason finally noticed us.

As expected, he reacted poorly. He jumped up from his chair. “What are you doing here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Kyle said politely.

“Oh,” Hannah said. “Do you know each other? What a small world.”

I focused my attention on Sharon, checked her eyes. Lots of misery, no glow.

Jason’s face turned crimson as if he likely recognized what his dinner with Sharon looked like. “We’re here for work.”

“Hannah is a friend of mine,” I replied. “We were looking at the castle as a possible wedding venue and decided to come over for the night.”

Jason settled into his seat. “I think we’re about done anyway. Can I get my check?”

“Of course,” Hannah said. “I’ll send your server right over.” She nodded at me, and I returned the nod.

Sharon wasn’t masking her true self.

I’d ruled out my two top candidates. Who was the reckless woman I was supposed to be watching out for? Between the hidden grimoire showing me the spell for taking a witch’s powers and Hannah telling me to watch out for a reckless woman, I’d let my imagination run wild.

“I’m sorry we interrupted your dinner,” I told Sharon.

She pushed away from their table, eyes downcast. “We were done, anyway.” She darted a glance at Jason. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” And then she walked out.

I wanted to kick Jason for being so cavalier with Sharon’s feelings, for leading her on when she was so obviously in love with him. As if reading my thoughts, Kyle leaned close and whispered, “He doesn’t see how she feels.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Kyle nodded. “He’s too busy being mad, and before we showed up, he was talking annuities and insurance policies. Not what I’d call a romantic conversation.”

“But you see it, right? How forlorn she looks?”

Kyle chuckled. “She was hanging on his every word, as if he was reciting sonnets. Yeah. I noticed.”

“Speaking of, didn’t you promise to recite sonnets for me as a grand romantic gesture?” I teased.

Kyle put a hand to his chest with a dramatic flair. “A rose, by any other name...”

I laughed. “Thanks for that. Women love to know they smell.”

“But they smell sweet,” he pointed out.

The server arrived at Jason’s table and handed him the bill, which he signed immediately. His chair scraped the flagstone floor as he backed away, and with one last glare my direction, he left.

“The man has anger issues,” Kyle said.

“Only where I’m concerned, it seems.”

Kyle surveyed the dining room. “What about it?” he asked.

Now what did he have in mind? “What about what?”

“Getting married in a castle. Kinda cool, don’t you think?”

I laughed again. “Yeah, kinda cool, but I thought we’d agreed on the gazebo in town.”

Kyle took my hands in his and smiled at me. “Giving you one last chance to live out your princess fantasy.”

I wagged my eyebrows. “We still have tonight.”

“Then we’d best not waste another moment. We got what we came for, didn’t we? Or do you and Hannah have