Enchanted, A Paranormal Romance / Fantasy (Forever Charmed) Read online

  Lucas waved at Ally and then helped Mandy in to his Mercedes. “So, like I said, wow!” Lucas grinned at Mandy.

  “Thanks. It was all Ally,” Mandy offered.

  “It may have been all Ally’s idea, but this is all you.”

  Mandy laughed. “Don’t get the wrong impression. I almost never, no actually I never look like this!”

  “You look great no matter what,” Lucas proclaimed as they drove down the road. Mandy held back a laugh of incredulity and looked out the window. It didn’t seem as though she would win this argument, but maybe she didn’t want to anyway. It was nice to be complimented like this by a guy. An incredibly good looking guy.

  “Hope you like sea food,” Lucas said as they pulled into the parking lot of the Union Bluff hotel.

  “Yeah, I pretty much eat anything,” Mandy admitted. Great, why did I just say that? Now he probably thinks I’m a rhino… Mandy offered a half-smile in Lucas’s direction.

  “I pretty much eat anything too,” Lucas laughed. “It’s hard to find girls like that these days though.” Lucas reached over and caught Mandy’s hand. He intertwined his fingers with hers as they headed towards the landmark sitting atop the cliffs. The Union Bluff hotel had been standing guard over the ocean for over a hundred years. It was ironic that in all the time Mandy had been coming to York, she had never ventured in its grand doors before.

  The Union Bluff was a tall white hotel looming over the sea and beach. Multiple tiers of balconies overlooking the surf were stacked like layers of a wedding cake. Once inside Lucas led Mandy into the restaurant area and gave his name. “How many?” the hostess inquired.

  “Just two, please,” Lucas confirmed. Two. The word resonated in Mandy’s brain. Not so long ago Mandy had been longingly wishing to have a friend here. More specifically she remembered thinking how nice it must be to be half of a pair. Pair. Two. Half of a pair. Now here she was, only days later, wish fulfilled. Now she would know what it was like. So far it was nice, just as she had been predicted.

  The hostess showed Lucas and Mandy to a table near a dancing fireplace. The flames cast a warm orange glow about the room, lending the dark wood that adorned the doorways and walls an inviting feel. Mandy was glad that they had gotten a table close to the heat source. She always tended to be on the cold side, and having her nerves on edge and only wearing a skimpy dress wasn’t helping her warm up tonight.

  Lucas pulled out the chair for Mandy to sit on. “Thanks,” Mandy had to bite her cheek to keep from giggling. She knew that Lucas was a rare find, an even rarer one to be found by Mandy of all people, but she couldn’t shake the feeling of humor in all this irony. It just didn’t add up that he would want to spend time with her. And then to be so polite and chivalrous on top of it all gave Mandy the feeling of a being a bit over the top. Seriously, what guy pulls out chairs and opens car doors for girls these days? Well, Lucas apparently. Mandy liked it, but at the same time it kind of made her feel more self-conscious and inadequate. Lucas seated himself opposite of Mandy and the waiter came by with two glasses of water. “Need a couple of minutes or are you ready to order?” she asked.

  “Oh, um,” Mandy looked over at Lucas hesitatingly, expecting him to ask for a few moments as they had just sat down.

  “I think we’re ready,” Lucas raised his eyebrows questioningly at Mandy.

  “I haven’t even looked yet,” Mandy half whispered to Lucas.

  “You don’t need to. I know exactly what you’d love…you don’t mind if I order for you, do you?”

  “I guess not,” Mandy forced a smile.

  “She will have the wild caught salmon, and I will have the fillet mignon. Please,” Lucas flashed his winning smile at the waitress.

  “Sounds good,” she replied. “And to drink?”

  “Oh, sparkling water for both of us with a lime.” The waitress nodded and walked away, taking the menus with her. “Sound good?” Lucas asked.

  “Yeah, great,” Mandy forced another smile across her face. I can’t gag, I can’t gag. She really would have rather have just had a salad or a cheeseburger. And a soda. A nice cold Coke. When Mandy had said she liked seafood she had meant something more along the lines of fish’n’chips. She had never had salmon before in her life. The color freaked her out. And sparkling water? She liked her beverages with sugar and caffeine. None of this good for you nonsense. Ok, well the trade off to having to eat this unpalatable food is getting to be the envy of all the girls in York and be with Lucas. She would just have to deal with it.

  “So, I’m sure Ally’s introduced you to all her friends here,” Lucas started casually.

  “Yeah, some of them,” Mandy nodded.

  “You guys been hanging out a lot?”

  “Just once really. They seemed nice,” Mandy offered. “Not your clique?”

  Lucas laughed. “I don’t really have a clique. I’m a free spirit. I hang out with who I want to. People I find interesting.”

  “Good philosophy,” Mandy agreed, laughing. “You don’t find Ally’s friends interesting then?” she pressed.

  Lucas shrugged, suddenly serious. “Don’t get me wrong. Ally seems like she’s really friendly, and so do most of her friends,” he trailed off.

  “Most?” Mandy asked, picking up on the subtle hint he had dropped.

  “Well you should form your own opinions, Mandy. But there’s just something about that Hendry kid that rubs me the wrong way.”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it. He didn’t happen to mention me did he?”

  “No. We talked about my grandmother, actually.”

  “Dolly?”

  “Yeah, well, Nana. He said some weird stuff, but I guess I took it too seriously. He must have been joking.”

  “Weird stuff?”

  “Well, yeah. He said supposedly we’re descendents of some Mary Nasson lady that lived in York hundreds of years ago. And supposedly she was a rumored witch…so you can make the connection as to where he was going with that story,” Mandy shrugged. “Pretty absurd.”

  “Mary Nasson. I know that story actually. I’ve been to her grave.”

  Mandy got chills up and down her arms. “Excuse me sweetie,” the waitress interrupted. Mandy hadn’t noticed that she’d been so engrossed in the conversation that she was leaning across the table towards Lucas. The waitress had nowhere to put the food down.

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Mandy said as she backed up against her chair into her proper position. A plate of pink salmon was put in front of her, the plate decorated with some watercress and rice cakes. Yum, yum, not… Lucas’s piece of meat looked much more appetizing.

  “Enjoy!” the waitress chirped.

  “Thank you,” Lucas responded, ever the gentleman.

  Mandy really didn’t want to eat, especially not this. She wanted to know where Lucas had been going with that last statement. She wanted to know why he knew all about Mary Nasson. Something inside of her was telling her not to be overly eager, so she heeded her intuition and tried to stall by picking apart her rice cake. Lucas was sawing at his filet mignon with his knife. He cut off a bite and put it into his mouth. Mandy put some of the rice into hers. “Good?” he asked. “My mom loves that dish.”

  “Mmmm,” Mandy tried to fake approval at the vulgar dinner. She swallowed and tried to wash it down with her sparkling water. “So, what were you saying about Mary Nasson?” Mandy tried to appear nonchalant.

  “Oh yeah. Well you learn about her in history class here when you’re in elementary school. All the kids take a fieldtrip to the old burial ground to see her grave after the lesson. Pretty cool when you’re a little kid. Kinda brings her to life, you know?” Lucas delicately speared another bite of steak on his fork.

  Is that all? “Oh, yeah I can see where that would be cool,” Mandy smiled.

  “Yeah, but the coolest part is that it turns out that my family’s ancestors had some sort of feud with her. My great great great, well I lose count of
how many greats, but great grandfather was a doctor in York. In fact, the only doctor. Legend has it that Mary turned up and just about ran him out of business “healing” people. Let’s just say they weren’t on the best terms.”

  Mandy almost choked on the bite of food. The doctor had been mentioned in one of the letters Mary had written to Lavinia! How weird was it that a letter written so long ago could now suddenly have so much more meaning and reality pinned to it. Mandy feigned innocence. “Really? So what happened?”

  “Well, story goes that although Mary was good at healing people, she also had a reputation for being different in the way she healed people. People got to gossiping and rumors spread about her. Although the big witch scare in Salem had been almost a hundred years previous to Mary’s time, it had not been forgotten. It was almost engrained in the people of New England.” Lucas paused to take another bite. Mandy tried to hide her annoyance. She took another sip of water and pushed the salmon around on her plate a bit. “Not hungry?” Lucas asked, catching Mandy moving the food around her plate.

  “I guess I just got distracted by your story. So what were you saying?” Mandy asked, trying to get Lucas back on track and distract him from her untouched salmon.

  “Oh, yeah, so eventually there came a time when Mary’s healing failed to work. A man named Elias Donagal sought treatment from Mary for flu-like symptoms. Fever, aches, normal stuff. So Mary gave him her usual remedies but this time there was no improvement in the patient. A few days passed and Elias went to see the doctor, but it was too late. Elias had smallpox,” Lucas shrugged at Mandy.

  “So what happened?” Mandy asked breathlessly.

  “Elias was quarantined, which kept the outbreak to a minimum. Elias and five others died from the disease. The town of York was in shock. They blamed Mary. It was said that she deceived people into believing that she could heal them when she really couldn’t. The townsfolk believed if Elias had gone to the doctor first he would have made a recovery and no harm would have fallen on anyone else.”

  “Well that’s stupid. Mary’s healing had been working before Elias,” Mandy pointed out.

  “Yes, but if Elias had gone to the doctor first, he would have been diagnosed quicker with greater accuracy. Perhaps the doctor would have had time to try a remedy,” Lucas rebutted.

  “So do you know what happened? I tried to look Mary Nasson up online, but I got a bunch of different results. No two pages said the same thing,” Mandy pushed, a knot in her stomach growing bigger by the second. Mandy wanted to know the truth, but she sensed that she might not like it.

  “Yeah. York held a trial accusing Mary of fraud, deception, and ultimately witchcraft upon the people of York. My great great grandfather testified as a witness,” Lucas smiled at Mandy, obviously proud at the chance to highlight this fact.

  “And?” Mandy probed. Just spit it out already!

  “Well the trial was quick, the jury unanimous. Mary Nasson was found guilty on all charges and hung three days later,” Lucas said, grimacing dramatically to give the desired effect to his chilling finale.

  Mandy’s mouth fell open a little. Her body seemed to drop a couple degrees. She was right by the fire, but she seemed immune to its warmth now. The knot in her stomach turned into a boulder that seemed to drop, leaving in its wake a million feelings avalanching all at once down Mandy’s insides. “That’s awful,” was all Mandy could muster. “She was innocent.”

  “Was she? Mary Nasson never denied the accusations during the trial. In fact, story goes that during the trial she said she could not be helped. When they led her to the gallows she said and I quote, ‘I go to death in truth’, whatever that means. Guess being a witch isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be,” Lucas joked. He began piling the remaining food on his plate into his mouth, oblivious to the dark cloud that seemed to have passed over Mandy. Mandy couldn’t get the conversation off her mind. She sipped her drink, staring at her plate almost in a trance.

  “You awake over there?” Lucas cut in to her thoughts.

  “Oh, yeah,” Mandy gave Lucas a small tight-lipped smile. Suddenly the waitress was back.

  “Did you want to pack that up?” the waitress asked Mandy.

  “Yes please,” Mandy nodded up at the waitress.

  “How was everything?” the waitress asked looking from Mandy to Lucas.

  “Great, thanks,” Lucas replied. Mandy said nothing.

  “You guys interested in dessert tonight?”

  “Oh, I’m too full,” Mandy said quickly. She didn’t really feel like sitting here any longer with Lucas suddenly.

  “All right. I’ll be right back with a box for you and the bill,” she smiled at Lucas.

  “I had fun tonight,” Lucas said to Mandy, grinning self-confidently at her.

  “Me too,” Mandy lied. The more time she spent with Lucas the more she was starting to realize that he wasn’t really her type after all. It really shouldn’t come as a surprise, she had felt like something was not quite right the whole time. Too good to be true almost. She had banked on the thought that maybe she was just overreacting. However, Lucas just seemed to be giving off some sort of vibe that was just off. Mandy couldn’t pinpoint what it was. He was polite, and handsome, outgoing, and friendly. She just couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

  The waitress came back in a moment and handed Mandy a box for her food and placed the bill on the table between the two of them. Mandy and Lucas reached for it at the same time, but Lucas beat her by a fraction of a second. He pulled it towards him. “My treat,” he said.

  “No, let me at least pay my share,” Mandy implored.

  “Don’t be silly. I asked you here, I pay. Besides I’m the guy, comes with the territory,” Lucas smiled.

  “Well, thanks, that’s really nice of you,” Mandy gave in.

  The drive home was a bit awkward, some forced conversation punctuated by long, uncomfortable silences. Unpleasant images swirled in Mandy’s head and no matter how much she tried to focus on keeping up a cheerful façade she couldn’t quite seem to pull it together. Thankfully the ride was short.

  Lucas pulled up in front of Mandy’s house and put the car into park. “So, we should get together again soon,” he suggested.

  “Yeah. We should. Although school is starting in a couple weeks and my parents won’t be as lenient with me going out on weeknights,” Mandy pointed out.

  “Weekends then,” Lucas amended.

  “Yeah, well thanks again for dinner. I guess I’ll see you at school,” Mandy said unbuckling the seat belt.

  “Not if I see you first,” Lucas came back. He leaned over and Mandy quickly turned her face so that his lips only caught her cheek. Mandy thought she saw a flash of humiliation pass over his face but it was gone before she could be sure. She hopped out of the car before any more awkwardness could occur.

  “Bye!” Mandy called through the open car window.

  “See you soon!” Lucas called back.

  Mandy turned and walked toward the house. She turned the doorknob and let herself in quietly. She wasn’t sure why she was trying to be so stealthy, she knew very well that her parents wouldn’t do anything as crazy as go to bed before she made it back home. In fact, they were sitting in the living room just as she should have known they would be, like vultures waiting to swoop in on their victim.

  “How was the date honey?” Mandy’s mom called out.

  “Terrific,” Mandy didn’t even try to cover up her sarcasm. She walked to the trash can, plopped her take out box in it, and then headed up stairs before her parents had time to move onto question #2.

  * * *

  Chapter 11

  “I just don’t get what was so horrible about that date. It sounds like it was fantastic. I mean, how much more romantic can you get? Dinner by a roaring fireplace, hot guy, hot guy who helps you into your chair and orders for you…what more could you possibly ask for?” Ally grilled Mandy, shaking her head in exasperation.
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  “I know, it sounds good, and it was…nice. But I’m just not that type of girl,” Mandy replied with a sigh.

  “You’re not a nice girl?” Ally said sarcastically to Mandy. “So do tell…exactly what type are you?”

  “I don’t know. Not the fancy type, that’s for sure. I like things simple. I like to dress in my simple, casual clothes. I like to pick what I want to eat myself. And I like simple food. Have you ever really thought about how unbelievably good a cheeseburger is? I could live off them,” Mandy tried to keep her face serious. Ally just stared at her.

  “Seriously Mandy, you have issues. Do you like this?” Ally held out a turquoise top for Mandy’s inspection. They were at the Kittery Outlets shopping for back to school clothes. Currently Ally was holding Mandy hostage in Aeropostale. Mandy would really just rather go over to Old Navy where she knew she could find some basic jeans and shirts without breaking the bank. Her parents had given her a hundred bucks and she had taken fifty of her own to supplement her wardrobe. She didn’t want to blow it all on one pair of jeans and a shirt or two. Mandy reached for the price tag dangling from the shirt Ally was holding up and flipped it over.

  “No,” Mandy said letting the tag drop as her eyes bugged out a bit at the sticker shock.

  “No? Why not? It’s so cute,” Ally said.

  “The price tag isn’t so cute,” Mandy said.