Page 46 of Veil of Blood and Bone

My smile thins and warps. “No, we have plenty.”

Those two used to live on a cruise ship together. It was their way of traveling the world without having to pay for flights. But when Bunny suddenly developed an inner ear infection that made her seasick, they disembarked in New York and crept their way up the east coast.

Now the two old spinsters are our problem.

Not a problem, I correct. Local color.

The grin remains pinned in place when Seal shrugs out of her winter coat and thrusts it into my face, along with the reek of mothballs.

Bunny crowds close. The entryway is too small for a group of people. I’ll have to get some of the books and oddities out of the way so our older patrons, and my sister, don’t trip.

Keep busy, I tell myself. If you’re working, you’re not thinking. Or remembering.

“Did you hear about what happened at the Longship Festival yesterday?” Bunny’s eyes light beneath the folds of skin and the weight of peacock eyeshadow.

Seal elbows her. “Ninny. She was there. She had a booth. She saw it.”

“All of it?” The two of them are formidable opponents.

Both women only come up to my breasts and I’m not tall. The tops of their blue curls form a weightless cloud as they herd me out of the aisle until my spine presses to the barrister’s bookshelf.

“The town is positively buzzing with news of the attack,” Seal informs me. “Some are saying it was a hoax. A way to drum up business.”

“Mass hysteria.” Bunny provides the flourishing final sentence, and they pause.

Waiting for an answer from me, since I was there.

“What actually transpired, Miss Blake? Was there trouble? Or was it what they’re trying to pass off as a weather event?” Seal pushes.

I distance myself to hang their coats on the wobbly rack in the corner. “It happened so fast, everything is a blur.”

Bunny scoffs. “We’re not accepting drivel instead of facts. If we're hungry for slop, we'll watch the news. Tell us what really happened."

“You know we weren’t able to attend.” Seal taps her thigh. “Bum hip kept me from going up and down those hills. Hell of a place to host a Festival, if you ask me.”

“It’s the only area in town large enough for it, and they can’t exactly hold the rowing contest in old man Kimbel’s field, can they?” Audra quips from her stool.

Seal sniffs and says, “No one likes sarcasm, my dear.”

“There isn’t much to tell.” I present my arm out to gesture for the women to follow me. “And I’m sure the council is already working hard to get it cleaned up. Weather event. It came out of nowhere and destroyed the booths.”

I nod decisively.

Of course the town is buzzing. Too much happened for it to be quietly swept under the rug the way people want. But I can’t give the women what they want. I won’t say anything.

We’ve been scrutinized daily because of the situation with Mom. And Audra being in a wheelchair? Forget it.

We’re trying to go about our lives.

“Ladies?” I step aside to let Seal and Bunny totter past me, then slide my attention toward my sister.

She clenches the log book in her hands and shrugs like she can’t be bothered.

The women leave with their pocketbooks lighter, having dispensed with their exact change, and a collection of Poe poems divided between them. I’ve promised to deliver the candelabra in tarnished silver to their apartment when I close up for the day, since the women have errands to run after this.

“And don't fucking come back,” Audra calls to the clanking of the sign against the door.

“They’re eccentric,” I correct her, counting out their wrinkled bills and sliding them in the right slots in the register.