Page 7 of Once Upon A Bear

The bear didn’t say anything, but he looked at her with interest in his eyes. How on earth could she tell that the bear was interested?

“I’m an herbwitch,” she said simply. “I can brew potions and speak to animals.”

Gideon let out a huff. “I gathered that you can talk to animals,” he said, the words testy. “I don’t know why that’s a secret.”

“It’s not a secret to you anymore,” she pointed out, “but magic is illegal.”

She had him there. The bear stiffened.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said, rearing up on his hind legs. “I want you to leave.”

Was he trying to intimidate her? “Oh, I would leave, but I’m afraid that me leaving doesn’t mean I won’t be able to hear you, and I’m tired of listening to you being miserable.”

The bear settled back down on his feet. “What do you mean you’ll be able to hear me?”

She grinned and pointed across the way. “My home is on the other side of that ridge,” she said. “I could hear you when you were in the woods. I just didn’t know what it was until recently.”

He’d done a good job of mostly staying quiet in the beginning, but recently, she’d heard him growling in pain and frustration. Fortunately, she’d started noticing something animalistic about Gideon Rendon before she’d realized there was a bear living on the other side of the ridge from her cottage.

Now she just had to get the stubborn fool to accept her help.

Which had, apparently, reduced her to blackmailing him—not that she was doing it for any malicious reason. It truly was simply because she hated to see him like this, and as the only herbwitch healer of the Northlands, that was, after all, what she had been taught to do.

The fact that magic was illegal didn’t take away her responsibility for using her magic. It simply made it harder.

“So you see,” she said quite cheerfully, “I am here to help you, whether you want help or not. You can work with me, or you can try to avoid me, and I will continue to bother you until you give in and allow me to help.”

“I don’t think a potion is going to be enough to fix me,” Gideon said bitterly.

Guinevere bit back her sigh. “I may not know exactly how to do it right away, but I’ll figure it out. I’ve already broken the curse of one lord in this area, and I’m not going to let you continue to suffer, especially when I can see the effect it’s having on you. You’re growing weaker as it goes on, aren’t you?”

Gideon’s jaw clenched before he slowly nodded his massive head.

“And do you spend more time in bear form now?” she pressed again.

He paused a moment before nodding again.

She’d been afraid of that after seeing him around town a few times and feeling it radiating from him. It wasn’t a good sign.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said gently, taking a step closer. Something inside her itched to reach out and pet him—his fur looked so soft—but she restrained herself. He probably wouldn’t take kindly to having a stranger who had just unveiled his biggest secret reach out and pet him. In her experience, men tended to prefer to act as if everything was fine, instead of showing anyone their weaknesses.

She didn’t need to make it worse—not yet. There would be time for that later.

Oddly enough, she was rather looking forward to figuring out this curse. It had been too long since she had a good puzzle. While she preferred the kind that didn’t involve humans, this one would prove to be a good challenge. Already, her mind was whispering with different ingredients she could try in her potion.

Her first attempt would most likely not work very well—it rarely did.

She blamed it on the fact that her schooling had been incomplete before her family was gone, but her potions never quite liked to listen to her. It would be one thing if she could at least make them taste better, but every person that she helped spent most of the next few months telling her how awful having her help had been.

It seemed rather pathetic at times—she would much rather taste a vile potion than remain cursed. But not all of them shared her views on the matter, which was a shame.

She noticed they always seemed grateful to no longer be plagued with whatever was ailing them, though.

“Can you talk about it, or is silence part of the curse?”

Gideon shook his head. “I can’t tell anyone who doesn’t know.”

The good news was that she had somewhere to start, then.