Ellen lowered her mug and sighed. “I worry about Kristen. She’s been very quiet.”
“She’s quiet sometimes. She’s also smart, capable, super polite—I couldn’t ask for a better employee. She’s helped at my greenhouses for two summers now, and she’s great with people she knows, although she’s a bit shy when it comes to talking to new customers.”
“I guess I fall into the ‘new customer’ category.” Ellen put her mug back on the bar. “So far, our conversations have consisted of one-syllable answers and chilly silences.”
Ava winced. That didn’t sound like Kristen at all. “Julie’s death hit Kristen really hard. I’m sure she’ll adjust in time.”
“It’s more than that. She knows I expect her to move back to Raleigh with me, and I can tell she hates the thought.”
Oh dear. That wasn’t good at all. Ava tried to pick her words carefully. “Kristen hoped she would be able to stay in Dove Pond at least long enough to finish high school.”
Ellen shook her head. “I can’t spend a year and a half here. I have a new project coming up in April and I have to be there to oversee it. I’ve tried to talk to her about it, but she shuts me down every time I mention it.”
“Teenagers are tough. May I give you a suggestion?”
“About Kristen?”
“About teenagers in general. If she’s giving you the silent treatment, she’s telling you something, whether you understand what it is or not.”
“She’s being childish.” Ellen picked up her tea and took another sip. “I suppose that’s no surprise, though. It’s obvious from her purple hair and that horrible nose piercing that Julie left her daughter to fend for herself. Kristen may not like having a real parent, but that’s what she has now. And the sooner she understands that, the better for us both.”
Ava put her mug down. “Have you seen Kristen’s grades?”
“I have an appointment with the school counselor tomorrow. I’m sure Kristen will need some tutoring to catch her up before she moves to another school.”
“She’s at the head of her class.”
Ellen’s mouth opened and then closed, her gaze searching Ava’s face as if half expecting Ava to say she was joking. When Ava merely raised her eyebrows, the older woman’s mouth pinched into a frown. “Kristen never mentioned that.”
“She has straight A’s. She hasn’t missed so much as a single day of classes, even with her mother being sick. She works here most afternoons, too. She’s responsible and very mature for her age.”
Surprise flickered across Ellen’s narrow face. “That’s good to know. But it doesn’t change the fact that piercings and purple hair are the sort of decisions that can make life much more difficult. You know how people judge.”
“The way you did.” The words slipped out before Ava could stop them.
Ellen flushed and set her mug down so firmly that it thunked. “I thought you might help me convince Kristen to listen to reason, but I can see that was a misplaced hope. I—”
The door swung open, and Erma Tingle entered wearing a red puffer coat, her usually perfectly coiffed gray hair in disarray. Short and square, with deep brown skin, Erma was an active member of the Dove Pond Improvement Committee and was known for her no-nonsense attitude. She also had a tendency to wear her hikers every day despite the fact that she owned the Peek-A-Boo Boutique, a surprisingly fashionable shop just down the street.
She scanned the room, brightening when she saw Ava. “Thank God you’re here!” Erma hurried up and placed a tea canister on the bar directly in front of Ava. “This tea is messed up.”
In all the years Ava had made her teas, no one had ever declared any of them “messed up.” She picked up the canister. “What’s wrong with it?”
“It’s poison,” Erma said firmly. “That’s what is wrong with it. Pure poison!”
Ellen’s finely plucked eyebrows arched, her gaze sharpening.
Ava bristled. Great. Of course this had to happen in front of Ellen. Refusing to look her way, Ava opened the canister and sniffed gently. The scent of lavender, peppermint, chamomile, a hint of coriander, and a half dozen other herbs wafted up out of the tin. As she always did for this recipe, she’d mixed the soil around the base of a lavender plant with a teaspoon of dried oregano and a drop of white vinegar that had been exposed to a waning moon for two days.
Ava replaced the lid. “This is the same tea I’ve made you for the past four years.”
“No, it’s not. It’s cursed, I tell you!” Erma eyed the canister as if it contained a coiled snake.
“What happened?”
“It made me fall asleep the way it’s supposed to, but I wasn’t all the way asleep.” Erma leaned closer, her eyes wide. “Ava, I spoke to my Uncle Jeb, the one who passed away a month ago!”
Ellen made a noise that sounded like a cross between a snort and a laugh. When Ava and Erma looked her way, Ellen glanced at her watch. “Goodness, look at the time. I just realized I’m missing an appointment. Ava, thank you for showing me your tearoom, but I really must go.”
“Of course. I can put your tea in a to-go cup if you’d li—”
“No, no. I’ve had more than enough, thank you.” Ellen headed out, putting on her coat as she went. “I’m sure I’ll see you around. Good luck with your tearoom!” The door swung shut behind her.
Relieved Ellen was gone, Ava turned back to Erma. “About the tea… maybe you just had a dream.”
“No. It wasn’t a dream. It was him, Ava. And he was as mad as a wet hen.”
“About what?”
“That I gave his antique cupboard to his ex, my Aunt Susan. He yelled so much that I was sure Christine would wake up, but she never missed a snore.” Christine DeVault, who owned Antique Alley, which was just a few doors down from the tearoom, was Erma’s longtime partner. The two lived over the antique store in a delightful apartment with large windows that overlooked Main Street.
“Ava, it was horrible!” Erma shuddered. “Uncle Jeb wrote in his will that he wanted one of his nieces—either me or one of my two sisters—to have that cupboard, but it’s huge and Lord, is it ugly. I don’t know who made it, but it had big ol’ birds on each corner with their beaks open and their wings spread like they were getting ready to attack. The whole thing looked as if it belonged in a bad horror movie. So when Susan asked for it while we were sitting around after the funeral, we were more than happy to give it to her. She deserved something for staying married to that old coot as long as she did.”
“How do you know it wasn’t a dream?”
Erma gripped Ava’s arm and leaned closer. “Before he faded away, Uncle Jeb said there was a secret drawer in the bottom right panel of that cupboard and that there was a treasure in it, one he wanted me and my sisters to have. So the second the sun came up, I called Aunt Susan and asked her to look for that drawer. And Ava”—Erma’s eyes widened—“she found it!”
Ava’s heart sunk.
“Inside that drawer were three like-new 1843 Seated Liberty dollars, one for each of us girls. Those coins can go for ten thousand dollars or more apiece. It was a treasure, just like Uncle Jeb said.”