Sybil darted ahead and opened the door so Mr. Foreman and I could carry the bundle into the house. The first thing I noticed as soon as I stepped inside was that the cottage smelled like the hut in the woods where I’d first met Sybil. The scents of rosemary, sage, and different flowers that I didn’t even know mingled in the air, and the atmosphere was warm and smoky.

  There were herbs drying from the ceiling, just as there had been in the cottage, and the center of the house was lit by a metal furnace with a long chimney that reached toward the ceiling. The place was covered in pots, pans, and worn but comfortable furniture, and I was sure the windows let in plenty of sunlight on less rainy days. Even though it was small, and it looked like there was only one other room in the back, it had a homey atmosphere that somehow reminded me of growing up with my family in New Jersey.

  Goscle and I placed the heavy bundle on the floor, and he slapped his hands together and barked at the two men sitting on a large, floppy pink couch on the other side of the room.

  “I thought you two were in town,” he said as the young men immediately shot to their feet.

  “We were in town,” the guy on the left said, and he looked at me and smiled.

  I recognized him as Darius, Sybil’s brother whom I’d met once before in town. He was wearing the same light-colored pants and tunic as his dad, though he’d topped his outfit off with a brown woolen vest. Like his father and sister, he had green eyes and jet-black hair instead of the older man’s gray, but there was no denying the family connection.

  The man to his right, on the other hand, looked quite different. He had lighter, sandy-colored hair, and slightly less intense eyes that were still green but didn’t shine as much as his siblings.

  “Oh, yes, so you were in town but didn’t think to help your old father do the afternoon feedings?” Goscle asked. “What do I keep you boys around here for?”

  “Oh come, father,” the man on the right laughed. “We have visitors. Now isn’t the time for another lecture.”

  Darius walked over and gave me a firm handshake, accompanied by a cheeky smile.

  “Hank,” he said. “It’s such a pleasure to see you again.”

  “I will thank you boys to address knights of the realm by their official title in this house,” Goscle snapped.

  “Oh, really, it’s fine,” I added with a laugh. “They don’t need to address me like that.”

  “I’m Hieronymous,” the other brother said as he held out his hand to shake. “It’s a great honor to meet you, Sir Henry Baker. And an even greater honor to have you in our home.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you all, finally,” I said with a smile as I grasped his hand. “Sybil often talks about you.”

  “Excuse me,” Sybil said as she sidled to the front. “But why is nobody more excited to see me? I am your flesh and blood, after all.”

  The witch tapped her foot on the floor, and both brothers rolled their eyes.

  “That’s exactly why,” Darius laughed. “You’re our flesh and blood. We see you all the time.”

  “I’ve been gone,” Sybil pointed out.

  “A mere drop in the bucket compared to the years we spent trying to lose you in the woods,” Hieronymous pointed out. “Yet you always found your way home.”

  “Big brothers can be so cruel,” Imelda laughed.

  “Yes, they can,” Sybil agreed.

  “Your friends, however, are guests,” Hieronymous said as he gestured to Imelda and Tabitha. “And ones we’ve never met. It would be very rude if we did not remedy that.”

  Goscle rolled his eyes as both Darius and Hieronymous kissed Imelda and Tabitha’s hands.

  “This is a very fitting welcome for a lady such as myself,” Tabitha said as the door slammed shut again.

  “Goscle, there’s a giant black dog in the herb garden,” a woman’s voice announced. “I think it’s a direwolf pup, but it’s not one of Sir Charles’ mounts.”

  “Dear,” Goscle said and motioned toward me and my girls. “We have guests.”

  We turned around and found ourselves looking at an older version of Sybil. The woman’s skin was criss-crossed with wrinkles, and her black hair had turned gray, but she had the same face and the same long neck. The only thing that surprised me was that her green eyes matched Hieronymous rather than Sybil, so Sybil had obviously inherited her glowing eyes from her father.

  “How do you do,” I said politely as I took in the long, black leather dress and silver necklace with a vial that made Sybil’s mom look like a hard rocker goth milf.

  “This is my wife, Willow,” Goscle announced.

  “Sybil!” Willow cried happily and pulled her daughter into a tight hug.

  I laughed as the two witches embraced.

  “Mom, you’re going to squish me,” Sybil said as she squirmed in her mother’s grasp. “I’m in pain.”

  “No, you’re not, girl,” Willow Foreman replied with a cackle. “And why have you brought that massive bundle with you, of… what is it… moon beans?”

  The witch held her nose in the air and sniffed a few times before nodding.

  “Yep, you’re right,” Sybil laughed. “It’s moon beans.”

  “Are you traveling to sell them?” Goscle asked. “I may know of a few county markets in the North country that’d be interested in moon beans from this good soil, especially as we’re so close to the castle…”

  “That’s not why,” I said and did my own bit of squirming as everyone turned to look at me.

  Sybil’s mother crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at me before looking back and forth between me, her sons, Sybil, and the girls.

  “I smell something,” she said. “And it isn’t just the moon beans.”

  “Oh?” Goscle said and looked at his daughter. “Is there something you need to tell us?”

  I saw Sybil shrug as if to say that this was as good of an opportunity as any to get my proposal in, so I took a deep breath and addressed the family.

  “Foreman family,” I said. “As you might know, Sybil and I have grown quite close over the past few months. We reside at my estate, which is southeast of here, as I’m sure Sybil has told you.”

  “She has told us these things in the letters she writes, yes,” Goscle said. “Which is quite an improvement, because she never wrote to us before.”

  “I was a nomad, father,” Sybil groaned. “It’s not like I could just find a messenger in the middle of the forest.”

  “You’re a witch, you know which way the birds fly,” Sybil’s mother scolded. “But yes, Henry, since she’s been at the estate she’s been writing to us regularly about her new life. And I must thank you, because she seems happy with it.”

  “I’m glad to hear that,” I said and squeezed Sybil’s hand. “Because I’ve come with a very important request. I… I would like to take Sybil’s hand in marriage.”

  The family went silent for a long moment, and nobody moved or even breathed.

  Willow finally broke the spell first when she looked at old Goscle for several seconds and then nudged him to say something.

  “Goscle,” she whispered. “This is your duty.”

  “Sybil?” Darius asked and crossed his arms. “You actually want to marry my sister?”

  “Shut your mouth, Darius!” Willow scolded, and she dabbed a teardrop from her eye.

  “My boy,” Goscle said with a laugh, and the pig farmer bounded over and squeezed me.

  I felt like all the air was being squeezed out of me as Goscle picked me up and swung me around. I was impressed, since I wouldn’t have guessed that the man was so strong. But he swung me around like I was just another sack of grain.

  “This is a most happy day,” Willow cackled, and I watched as her and Imelda joined hands and started to dance around in circles.

  Once Goscle put me down, Sybil’s brother came toward me and slapped me on the back.

  “So now we have a knight for a brother,” Hieronymous laughed. “We will be kings in no time!”

  “Don’t speak like that,” Goscle said, and he pointed a muddy finger at his eldest son. “You know that we farmers are important to this kingdom, too. But I must admit, it’s nice to know that there will be a noble in the family!”

  “Oh, it’s a wonderful thing, for sure,” Tabitha purred.

  Sybil stuck her tongue out at the noble, who only winked in reply. Despite the teasing, it was clear that the Foremans were happy with my proposal. Still, I wanted to actually hear someone say yes before we started making our wedding plans.

  “So,” I laughed. “It’s official? You guys are okay with me marrying your daughter?”

  Suddenly, the four other Foremans roared in laughter.

  “Of course, of course,” Goscle said, and I could swear that his emerald-green eyes were becoming misty with tears of joy.

  Sybil was glowing with happiness as she did a little happy dance. Her emerald-green eyes were also a little misty, and she giggled at me before she wrapped her arm around my waist.

  “Oh, Hank,” she said. “I never believed that anyone could make my family so happy. I couldn’t ask to marry a better man than you.”

  “He’s certainly better than anyone that Maria girl is marrying,” Darius said with a wink.

  “We actually ran into her on the way here,” Imelda replied. “It sounds like Sybil has quite a history with her.”

  “Who cares?” Hieronymus laughed. “My sister is to be married. It’s a day I thought I’d never see for as long as I lived.”

  “Oh, don’t say that,” Sybil scolded, and the witch hit him lightly on his arm.

  “Just a moment,” Willow said, and all the attention in the house turned to the witch, who was holding out a long elegant finger in the air.

  “What is it?” Goscle asked in a suddenly-concerned voice. “Is it a vision, or something?”

  “No, no,” she said and shook her head. “No, nothing like that. But I must find a pigeon. We must alert the petty noble of Stock to come immediately to hear the good news. The first Foreman child to wed! It is a momentous day, indeed!”

  “I’d love to deliver the news to Charles,” I replied. “He’s the man who helped me find my way here in Lupercalia.”

  “I’ll send the message immediately,” Sybil’s mother declared as she hurried out of the house.

  “I don’t know what she did to those pigeons,” Goscle muttered. “But they’re like an army. They’ll go anywhere she goes, fly anywhere she says. It’s strange.”

  “It’s not strange,” Sybil insisted.

  “Maybe if you’re a witch,” Tabitha cooed. “But to us ordinary folk, it’s strange.”

  “When have you ever been ordinary?” Sybil asked as she rolled her eyes.

  “Hmmmm,” Tabitha mused. “You have a point.”

  I shook my head and grinned at Goscle Foreman. The pig farmer looked like his mind was a thousand miles away, and I couldn’t blame him. I was already picturing a weekly meeting with Sybil’s dad, maybe for a pint of mead at the Stock Tavern. We’d discuss our crazy witch wives and what they’d been up to that day, and laugh over the failed experiments.

  I thought back to my parents, too. They would’ve loved to know that I was finally marrying one of the finest women I’d ever met in my life. They might think that marrying a few of them was a little weird, but it was a different type of life I was leading in Lupercalia, and once they’d met both women, I was sure they’d understand why I couldn’t choose between them.

  “Boys, come now,” Goscle said as he came out of his trance, and he ushered his sons to a large rosewood box that was behind the fireplace. “We know what we must do.”

  For a second, I felt an ominous chill as they reached into the box. Had they been lying, and they were about to bludgeon me to death or something? Every folk horror film I’d ever watched suddenly ran through my head, and the procession at the end of the Wicker Man came to me in full color as Sybil’s grip around my waist tightened.

  But when Darius Foreman produced a nine-string lyre from the box and Hieronymus pulled out a drum, I took a deep sigh of relief. I knew that Sybil was from a musical family, and I’d heard the witch play her flute often enough, but I had yet to see the rest of her family play.

  “Oh, how enchanting,” Imelda said, and the priestess glowed with excitement. “I knew that there would be a wedding song!”

  She flung her arms up in the air and did a little twirl around Tabitha, who was leaning against a window.

  “I do love a song,” Tabitha said with a shrug, and the noble started to dance with Imelda and twirl her around her arm.

  “Then let us begin,” Goscle Foreman laughed as he pulled out a fiddle. “I think we know the only song that is appropriate to follow a proposal.”

  The trio played a few notes, but before they could really get going, the door was flung open again and Willow marched into the room. She scowled at the men of the family, and the instruments went quiet.

  “Unbelievable,” she said and pointed her finger at Goscle. “That you would think to sing without me!”

  “Darling, I couldn’t imagine such a thing,” Goscle said with a wink, and the witch pretended to roll her eyes as she caressed his ear.

  “Ah, I remember when my mother sang this when you proposed to me,” she sighed. “It’s the most heartbreaking tale…

  I had a feeling I’d heard this song before, when we’d met Sally Anne in the inn.

  “Oh, oh, I know this one”, Imelda said mid-twirl. “It’s The Maiden and The Sow.”

  “Oh, yes,” Tabitha said as she struggled to keep a straight face. “It’s that song about a pig that gets married.”

  “Yes, yes,” Goscle said as he lifted his fiddle to his shoulder and tuned the strings. “Let me just...”

  The sons waited patiently for their father to finish while Willow hummed the song as she swayed back and forth. When Goscle was happy with the violin, he nodded to his family and then raised the bow.

  “At the ready, Foremans,” Hieronymus said, and he shot Sybil a look.

  “I have to join them,” she whispered as she moved away from me.

  Hieronymus started beating rhythmically at the little drum, and soon Darius joined in with a little harp riff. Soon after that, Goscle joined in with some longer, more drawn out notes, and Sybil and her mother began to hum.

  The effect was mesmerizing. The way their instruments came together made it sound like one heartbeat thrumming throughout the entire small cottage. And then, Goscle gestured at Sybil and her mother, and they started to sing.

  “The maiden and the sow,

  The best of mates they were!

  And when she ventured through the field,

  That great pig followed her!

  And through the hills and dales they trekked,

  Until they found a boar!

  That pig got married then and there,

  The best of mates no more!”

  The men played a heartfelt reprise with the violin taking the part of the voices, and then Hieronymus riffed a drum solo that finally brought the song to an end.

  “Ah, what a tune,” Imelda said in her dreamy voice, and she waved her arms over her head.

  With her red suede gear, her long platinum hair, and her wavy dancing, she would have fit right in at a Grateful Dead concert. Then again, so would Sybil. It was only Tabitha who had an extra edge to her, and whenever she rimmed her eyes with black liner, she reminded me of Cherie Currie.

  “That was amazing, everyone,” I said, and I started to clap.

  The family took their bows, and Sybil made an extra curtsy.

  “We’ve only played it at every village fete for the past hundred years, practically,” Hieronymous laughed.

  “This time it’s different,” Goscle snapped as he elbowed his son in the ribs. “It’s one of our own little piglets that will be wed.”

  “I like to think of Sybil as my little piglet as well,” Tabitha interjected with a wink.

  “By the Goddess, that’s given me an idea,” Goscle said, and he shoved his violin and bow in Imelda’s arms and ran out of the house.

  “Oh, what fine craftsmanship,” Imelda said as she studied the fiddle, which looked like it had once been the property of a middle-schooler who only played violin because his parents made him.

  “You must think our home is chaos, Henry,” Willow said with a low laugh. “And you’d be right. But there is a great deal of love in this home, and we’re glad to welcome you into the Foreman clan.”

  “I’m glad to be part of it,” I replied. “It’s an honor.”

  I didn’t notice how loud everything had been since my proposal until there were about thirty seconds of calm. Then, before I knew it, the door slammed open again with such force that a few dried rose petals fell from the ceiling.

  “Goscle!” Willow scolded. “It’s not as if those only sprout once a season, I’ll have you know!”

  “Yes, dear,” he laughed, and he ushered in another figure.

  It was Charles.

  The petty noble closed the door politely behind him and looked over to me. He was wearing a blue suede tunic with long sleeves and black sueded pants with chainmail covering both of them. His eyes glistened with pride, and the noble wrapped his arms around my neck and gave me a hearty pat on the back.

  “Hank,” he laughed loudly into my ear. “I had a feeling that this would be only a matter of time! And might I say, it’s truly the most wondrous occasion!”

  He pulled away from me and opened his mouth to say something, but when he did so, a tiny pig squeal came out instead.

  “Umm, Charles,” I said, and suddenly a hearty laugh boomed from behind Charles.

  “That one never fails,” Goscle said as he held up a tiny pink creature in his hand.

  The bubblegum-pink piglet had a large, round head and bright blue eyes. He had been wrapped in a linen cloth, but his little hooves dangled out of Goscle’s hands. The piglet looked happy, and he squirmed with excitement as he looked around at all the people in the room.

  “Oh, how cute,” I said as I accepted the pig. “Hey there, little guy.”

  “This is one of our prized little ones,” Goscle said. “Born far too early in the season, but just as healthy and strong as a springtime piglet.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28