The Second Life of Magnolia Mae (4 page)

“Your name?”
he called after her.

“Daciana.” Her smile spread across her face as she disappeared into the trees.

Magnolia found herself staring at the mural as soon as she awoke with the dream still fresh in her mind. There had to be something there, more of a clue. Why were the dreams more frequent? Why were they in more detail? Why was the wolf always coming around? She thought about the ring that Bash had found. Dragging herself out of bed, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes before she ran a brush through her hair and then bounded down the stairs in her flannel Star Wars pajamas. She had to know more. Who killed Daciana, and why was she dreaming of her in more detail than she had before? She bounded into the living room at the bottom of the stairs to find Bash sprawled across the floor with his hands tucked under his head.

“Nice jammies.” He winked at her.

She felt a blush creep up her cheeks. “What are you doing here?”

“We researched far into the night. Jace said I could crash here.”

Jace walked into the room with a pile of books. “Good. You’re up. There’s some biscuits and gravy in the kitchen if you want some.” He plopped down onto the floor then scattered the books.

Magnolia fixed a bowl for breakfast then curled up on the couch in the living room. “What’s all this?” she asked before taking a bite.

“I went to the library, searched through the garage, the basement, and the attic. Now, maybe we can get some more answers.” Jace was holding a book. “How did you sleep?”

“The dreams are coming in more detail.”

“Hmm, I wonder what that means?” Jace’s nose was back in the book before anyone had a chance to reply.

The room filled with silence as the morning passed with the three of them flipping through books. Magnolia did not think that the answers she was searching for could be found on their pages. Many of the books from the library did not have much about Daciana, if anything at all. Nobody seemed to know what had truly happened to her. Magnolia had to keep looking. She had to know why.

Bash glanced up when she slammed a book shut.

Dropping the book onto the table next to her, she glanced around the room. Bash’s blue eyes met hers, and her breath caught for a brief second. Something in his eyes made her heart beat just a bit faster. Frustration at not knowing why she could not find answers melded with confusion over her rapid pulse sent her out of the room in a huff.

CHAPTER FIVE

M
ONDAY MORNING SEEMED TO
come earlier than normal. The weekend had been spent reading and talking about dead people. Dead people who seemed to have a hold on the future. Walking into the school, Magnolia tried to clear all thoughts of Daciana out of her head.

“If it isn’t Little Orphan Annie,” Sarah cooed from her locker where she was surrounded by the other cheerleaders.

As always, she was perfectly put together. Not a hair was out of place, because her hair would never defy
her
. There she stood in skinny jeans, heels, and a low-cut blouse — which pushed the boundaries of the school dress code — blocking Magnolia from continuing down the hallway.

“Where did you get those clothes? The church basement?” Sarah’s voice carried through the corridor.

Magnolia glanced down at her clothes: a white tee-shirt with a long-sleeve flannel over the top, dark boot-cut jeans, and hiking boots. She didn’t think she looked all that bad. “Move, so I can get to class,” she finally replied to the girl who enjoyed torturing her.

“Leave Bash alone, and maybe I will leave you alone,” Sarah said with a fake smile, her voice dripping with venom. “I heard he was with you at the diner this weekend. That boy is going to the dance with me.”

“Hmm, he didn’t seem to know anything about that when I talked to him.” She watched as Sarah’s face turned red with anger.

“He’ll know soon enough.”

“I’m sure you won’t have a problem trying to make him go with you.” She pushed through the cheerleaders to head to class.

Sarah stomped off in the other direction, huffing at the underclassman who got in her way.

Magnolia wanted to feel proud for standing up to her, but she didn’t. She only felt dread for pre-calculus. After walking into the classroom, she tossed her bag onto the floor next to her seat then plopped down. She pulled out her book and papers. This was going to be a long day. She’d never felt like she belonged here. It was not that she hated school; she just didn’t have any friends. Nobody ever sat with her at lunch. Bash had been the only one who’d ever been nice to her here, and he’d graduated, leaving her to fend for herself in this jungle. A collective moan escaped from her classmates, jerking from her thoughts. That was when she saw two dreaded words in large black letters scrawled across the whiteboard: POP QUIZ. The day had just gotten worse.

The horses whinnied loudly when the door to the stables opened. The smell of hay, horse sweat, and manure bombarded her nostrils. The long stable had fifteen stalls on each side of the indoor arena. The lights were not turned on, causing the stables to appear dreary. The place was suddenly illuminated, chasing the shadows away.

Magnolia saw Bash at the far end of the stables, his arm muscles flexing in and out as he maneuvered the full wheelbarrow. She grabbed the handles of another wheelbarrow with a pitchfork inside. She maneuvered it to the door of the first stall. “Hi, Sweeting.” She crooned to the horse and stepped into the stall. It was not the most pleasant job in the world, but she preferred to be around animals more than people, especially those her age. Here she didn’t feel out of place. When Bash’s uncle said that he was looking for some extra help at the stables, she’d jumped at the chance. Soon the manure and wet straw was gone from that stall. Bash would lay down fresh bedding. Quietly, she cleaned out stall after stall, the horses nudging her when she entered. She stopped to rub each velvet nose before beginning. It was perfect, safe. The warm breath of the horse next to her tickled her neck as he nuzzled her.

“I think you have a new friend.” Bash’s voice was not nearly as gruff lately as it had been. It was more soothing, still with a deep tone, but he no longer sounded angry all the time. “He never lets me get that close to him.”

“Maybe he doesn’t like the way you smell.” She flung a pile of manure into the almost-full wheelbarrow.

“I smell a lot better than what you’re cleaning out of there.”

“I smell sweet.” She tried in vain to hide her lopsided grin. She whispered something to the horse then moved her hand quickly in an attempt to keep Bash from seeing what she was doing.

“You have a pocketful of sugar cubes,” he accused as he helped her out of the stall.

“There is no proof to what you say.” She dodged under his arm and went to dump the filth outside.

The fresh air was a nice change, and she wanted to breathe deeply the fresh clean scent of autumn a bit longer, but the cold sent her back inside. She knew that once the stalls were mucked out and the feed buckets filled, the smell would be one of clean straw and oats. Another forty minutes passed, and she set aside the dirty wheelbarrow. After washing her hands, she retrieved the wheelbarrow for the oats and filled it. As she filled each stall’s bucket with the horse’s dinner, Bash brought them all fresh water.

“Your uncle said he’d like to have all the stalls scrubbed out before snow comes.”

“Yup, start on that tomorrow. We can let the horses out to pasture to run in the morning and scrub them down. By the time you get out of school, they should be dry.”

“All thirty at once?” Her eyebrows shot up.

“No, two a day. That way if the weather turns bad, I can bring the two into the indoor arena.” He rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at her. “I was wondering what you were doing on Friday.”

“Avoiding the dance,” she replied, gazing up at his dirt-smeared face. How could a man be so filthy and handsome at the same time? His strong jaw was even more prominent, and his blue eyes shone brighter than normal, if that was at all possible. But his hair was a mess. Still, she found herself looking at his lips, wondering if they were as soft as they appeared. What would it feel like to be kissed?

“Would you… maybe we could…do you want to go to the game with me then the diner?” He kicked at a bit of straw that had not yet been swept up.

She nodded her head and smiled. “That sounds nice.” Her hand touched his forearm briefly, then she pulled it away. “I better get this swept up. Jace will be here in a few minutes to get me.” She hurried off to find a push broom. He’d asked her out! She was going to go on a date with Bash, the handsomest guy she had ever seen.

Magnolia hummed while she finished up her work and was all smiles when her brother pulled up in his old dented truck. She felt like she was floating on air the rest of the night.

CHAPTER SIX

“
T
HANK YOU FOR THE
tartan. I will be able to make many warm blankets with this.” An elderly woman with a weather
worn face peered at her with dim brown eyes. “So many need something to keep them warm this winter.”

“We would be much warmer if we had real homes. Houses with fireplaces to keep the cold out. Doors to shut out the wind. We will find a place to settle down soon. I am tired of being chased away all the time.”

“Dear one, this is the life that we have been given. What can you do to change this? Even you cannot command everyone about.” The
old
woman laid her wrinkled hand on top of
Daciana’s.

“Is there really nothing that I can do?”
She let out a long exasperated sigh. “I could seek an audience with the king here to negotiate a trade for some land. We do not need much. Enough to farm, to live on. Enough for the families that are in our care. With a kingdom as large as this,
would they truly
object to allowing us to have some land,
perhaps in a less populated region?
I wonder what’s beyond that mountain. Perhaps a valley with soil rich enough for planting.”

Her emerald eyes looked into the distance at the
jagged peaks. She gathered it would be two weeks’
journey to get to the other side,
not something they were unaccustomed to. They had been travelling for two hundred years, cast out of their own land.
Here she saw a chance at a future for her people, one with no more wandering.
With real homes
and land to
grow their own food. She’d
longed for a chance like this her entire life. With her father stricken ill in his old age, she felt the need to settle down even more urgently than she had before. She would go to talk to the
King of Marcello,
if not for the love of all of her people,
then
for her father.

“Do not go in assuming that he will deal with you fairly. You are a princess,
but you are one without any land or great riches as far as he is
concerned. He will want to know what you can offer in trade
for this land that you want.”

“I understand.
I must try,
Nonna.” She laid a gentle kiss on the
old woman’s forehead then looked around at the families in the camp. There
were several
wagons and even more tents strewn about the clearing in the forest. It was time that they had a real home,
and
time for her to do what she could to make that happen.

Word had travelled quickly about Bash and Magnolia going to the game together on Friday. All of Wednesday she’d gotten dirty looks from Sarah and her friends. When the final bell rang, she grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and rushed toward the exit. She knew that Bash would be waiting for her by the greenhouse to take her to the stables. She simply needed to make it there before the cheerleaders got to the field. It was not going to be her lucky day, though.