THE INHERITANCE - part twenty

THE INHERITANCE – part twenty ………

Welcome home

++++++++++

Kate answered her cell phone saying, “Hi Mo. Is everything ok? I thought I’d be coming to get you this morning.”

“I thought so, too, but Shaun has an errand I need to run for him later on, so I’ll be needing my car. I’ll meet you there.”

“Okay, then, but come prepared for breakfast. Paddy gave me enough to feed a small army.”

++++++++++

As she approached her home, Kate saw Terry O’Malley’s car alongside her dilapidated fence. She waved, “Hi Terry. Mo’s on her way.”

She walked to the door carrying the box from Paddy’s Pub and said, “Mo abhaile, please open the door.” And the door opened. Kate placed the box with the breakfasts on the table as she quickly looked around, then walked to the counter.

“Hmm, Terry look at this.”

“Kate, whatever you see that isn’t of your doing, don’t touch it. Not yet, anyway.”

“Believe me, Terry, I’ve no intention of touching anything that’s out of order, here.”

They turned as they heard Mo’s car drive up.

Kate said, “I brought an old plastic cover for the table. Let’s sit and enjoy our breakfast.”

As they were about to sit, they heard a familiar voice from outside, “Hello? Is it all right, then, if I come in and join you?”

They turned in surprise and saw Ryan Kelly standing in the doorway. Kate blushed as Ryan grinned.

Terry and Mo looked at Kate waiting for a response.

“Oh, Ryan, you caught me off guard. Sure, you can come in. We’ve plenty of food, thanks to Paddy. Come, have a seat.”

Mo stood and reseated herself next to Terry ensuring that Ryan would be seated next to Kate, which made Kate’s blush deepen.

Before Kate sat, she passed out the individual small boxes of food that Paddy prepared for them and dug in her pack for the plasticware. As she did this, Ryan filled the stove with wood and set it to light. “We’ll have tea in no time. Kate, hope you don’t mind that I took the liberty of started the fire for you.”

“Oh, Ryan, of course not. It’s a big help. Thank you. I see that my dear cousin has left us some bottled water. We’ll use that until we can inspect the well. As soon as the water boils, I’ll set out the teapot.”

Kate’s phone buzzed and she looked at the caller ID. “Oh, it’s my mother. Let me get this.”

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Once breakfast was consumed, Kate, Mo, Terry, and Ryan searched every inch of the cottage for damage. They found nothing out of sorts, but Kate wasn’t satisfied. Knowing what she had already seen of her cousin, Kate stood in the kitchen and said loudly:

**

“By the moon and the earth and the elements that be,

By the air that I breathe, and the tide and the sea,

Show us what is hidden from me.

So, I desire it; so mote it be!”

**

They stared at Kate in surprise as if she had transformed into someone else.

They felt a small rumble in the kitchen and each saw what seemed to be a shadowed hologram of Bridget trying to set the kitchen afire.

Each heard the same small rumble from the second floor and raced up the stairs. Opening the bedroom door, another shadowed hologram depicted Bridget trying to set the bed afire and when that didn’t work, she tried to pull the doors off the old chifferobe.

It was Ryan who spoke, “Cripes! What a temper she has.”

Mo said, “It’s nice to know she didn’t succeed at any of this but what spooked her so terribly?”

It was then they smelled the smoke and dashed down the stairs.

“Nothing’s on fire here, so what ..?”

Terry said, “It’s outside!”

As they walked out the doorway, the hologram continued, and they saw Bridget with the old wooden bucket working the pump to put out the blaze in her little sports car.

They saw Bridget finally extinguish the small fire, then all but collapse on the front step.

Mo began to laugh riotously. “Oh Kate, listen carefully.”

As if in a hushed whisper, they heard her great-grandparent’s conversation, then witnessed the pranks they pulled on her cousin.

Kate fingered the cross around her neck and said, “Thank you Grandmother and Grandfather for saving our home.”

They heard the kettle whistle and walked back inside for their morning tea.

“Well then, at least we know that as hard as she tried, there was nothing she could do to harm my grandparents’ home. I’m grateful for that. Now, I need to go through the entire cottage and see what I need to do before my mother arrives tomorrow.”

Mo said, “I still have two full hours to give you.”

Terry said, “As long as you don’t need me and there’s been no harm here, I’ll go back to my office and draw up that disclaimer for Bridget.”

Ryan placed a hand on Kate’s shoulder and said, “If it’s fine with you, I’d like to stick around and help.”

Kate who was about four inches shorter than Ryan, looked up into his gray-blue eyes, smiled, placed a hand on his and said, “Yes, I think I’d really like that.”

Before they began the task of going through each room, Mo suddenly asked Kate, “Mo chara, where in heaven’s name did you learn that spell to draw up that image?”

Kate looked dumbfounded. “Uh, Mo, I really have no idea. It just came to me. Out of the blue, you can say. I don’t even know if I could do it again. It felt like some other person had taken over my mind. I felt, well, strange. I’ll have to reread my grandmother’s spell book and see if it’s there. Maybe I read it the other night and didn’t remember right off.”

“Well, however you did it, it sure was a sight to see, now wasn’t it, Ryan?”

“Yes, it was that.” He looked into the green eyes of Kate and smiled.