"Willow's Missing Tail" 29

Martha stood by the tray of tea and scones shocked by what had just transpired.

“Are you okay?” Dillon touched her arm and she turned to him with a bewildered look. “How did Percival find out about that summer?”

“Miriam threw me into the fray when Percival asked her why she was jealous of you.”

“Jealous of me, why would she be jealous?”

“I don’t know. She avoided that question by telling Percival about the summer of my masquerade.”

“I see,” Martha frowned, “I guess there’s little chance of keeping secrets locked up tonight.”

“It’s a strange night Martha, you said it yourself. Any hidden insecurity is going to rear its head.”

“Yes but I didn’t think resolved issues would be coming around again.”

“They probably weren’t resolved,” he offered sagely.

Martha considered the truth in that and, since her trust in him was back on shaky ground, she had to agree. “You may be right.”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to intervene before Percival and Miriam blew up.”

“Percival looks miserable,” Martha observed nodding to the dejected figure slumped on the sofa staring transfixed into the fireplace.

“Yeah, but I shouldn’t try to cheer him up. I’m not his favorite brother.”

 

Perfidia stepped over to the tray and poured herself a cup of tea. “Is this your tranquil blend Martha?”

“I hope so but with the degree of discord in the air, I’m not sure it matters.”

Perfidia took a sip and waited to feel the expected tingle of peace, but none came.
"Sorry Martha, your tea blending talent may have been absorbed by that ramulus too. There’s no calming effect in this, but it still tastes good.”

“Then I should be happy the ramulus didn’t stir in some bitter properties,” Martha smirked, “But I had wanted to offer everyone a sip of happy thoughts.”

Dillon smiled at her. “Commendable Martha, but this cloud of disgruntlement is too thick to evaporate even with your talent intact.”

“Dillon’s right,” Perfidia said, glancing at Jon. His displeasure with her was palpable and she wished again he’d stayed away tonight. If only she could send him somewhere else now. That thought made her consider something she hadn’t thought of before and with renewed hope, she put down the teacup and whispered it to Martha. “Do you think my kitchen pantry is still linked with your house?”

Martha considered it and nodded. “It could be. Chaos created the passage before the ramulus took away magic so it should still be there…I think.”

“Only one way to know for sure,” Perfidia said with a determined gleam in her eye and walked over to Jon.

“Care to join me in the kitchen?” she asked him sweetly.

 

Jon didn’t trust the Cheshire smile on Perfidia’s face but he had too many questions running through his thoughts to ignore an opportunity to release them. Still, he was suspicious of her motive. “Is this for conversation or have you found another way to get me out of here?”

Perfidia’s smile faltered. How had he read her mind?

Jon chuckled. “You’ve found another hatch to push me out of, haven’t you? Fine, I’ll take it.” He stood up and walked past her towards the kitchen.

Perfidia turned to Martha, her expression telegraphing she didn’t know what to do.

It was Dillon who offered advice. “Avery and Daphne showed us the way out of this. Confront the trouble in the air and be honest in your answers.”

Perfidia shook her head. “I can’t risk that. What if he doesn’t accept my reason for…what I did?”

“It’s the chance you have to take,” he offered, but his thoughts were on his own need to confess. He didn’t know if Martha would accept it, or not.

“There has to be another way,” Perfidia turned anxious eyes on Martha,” What do you think?”

“Dillon’s right. The truth will come out eventually. I think you have to take the risk tonight. We all do,” she said the last looking at Dillon.

“But I don’t want to,” Perfidia pouted. Her expression resembled a petulant child’s.

“You’ve already sent him to the kitchen, are you going to leave him in there waiting for you?” Martha reasoned.

Perfidia considered it but knew she couldn’t. She picked up her teacup again and drained its contents, hoping for insight if not peace from the blend. “Still nothing,” she grumbled.

“You can do this,” Martha encouraged her.

“It’s not easy to explain when you aren’t sure of your own motives,” Perfidia told her and placed the empty teacup down on the desk. “I don’t think this will go well at all,” she prophesied in a defeated tone before heading towards the kitchen.

 

“Did you mean what you said about confronting issues?” Dillon asked Martha

“Yes." Martha answered as she poured tea into two cups then handed both cups to him.

“Are we taking this somewhere?”

“You’re taking them over to Percival. You need to heal that wound first.” she nodded to Percival, who was now staring at the not so glittering diamond ring in his hand.

Dillon grimaced. “How hot is this tea? He may pour it over my head.”

“It’s cooled some so you’ll survive if he does. Now go,” she pushed him lightly in the direction of his brother.

Dillon walked away with hesitant steps and Martha poured out two more cups of tea. She was going to have a talk with Miriam, out of the kitchen, so Jon and Perfidia could have a private, heartfelt conversation in there.

She picked up the two filled cups and headed out of the study.

 

Dillon walked over to the couch and placed the two teacups on the coffee table in front of it before sitting down.

“Thought you could use a warm beverage,” he said to Percival with an awkward smile.

Percival eyed him with bitterness. “What I could use is an explanation of that summer.”

Dillon nodded. “You deserve that…and an apology.”

Percival relaxed and picked up one of the cups. “Well go on then. I’m listening.”

“I’m sorry Percy,” he said it in his best apologetic voice.

“Apology not accepted, but please do continue.”

Dillon chuckled. “Okay. I know I should have told you everything back then.”

“Agree. Why didn’t you?”

“I don’t know. Martha assumed I would tell you too but I was so mixed up. I needed time to assimilate.”

“Assimilate what?”

Dillon’s scoff was self mocking. “How fast I’d fallen for Martha. Of course the fact she was your girlfriend didn’t make it easy to accept, or discuss with you. I thought it best to leave it alone. Only, I couldn’t get past that kiss. The first one sealed it for me. The rest just confirmed the truth.”

Percival’s frown was severe. “That kiss was because you let her think you were me.”

“Yes.”

“It’s a deceitful way to get a kiss.”

“I admit it.”

“So what are you saying…? You took her out, brought her home, kissed her goodnight, and bam! You were in love?”

Dillon shook his head “It wasn’t like that.”

“Oh? How was it then?”

“When I arrived in town and found you weren’t at home I took a walk. You know the shortcut through the park to town. I was walking that path, intent on getting a coffee at the café when I noticed this beautiful woman walking towards me, with a look of surprise on her face. Then she stopped in front of me and asked what I was doing back so soon? I admit my brain didn’t function for a few seconds staring at her and before I could respond to her question, she kissed me. I don’t think I formed another coherent thought for a good while even after the kiss ended.”

Percival’s brow furrowed and his eyes held disbelief. “She kissed you?”

“Yes.”

“In the park?”

“Uh, yeah? Why are you asking like that?”

“Martha wasn’t openly demonstrative. I mean, we’d hold hands and hug when we’d meet somewhere, a brief hug. But if there was a kiss in public, it was a quick peck and I had initiated it…Martha never did. She wasn’t affectionate in public and not overly so in private either...” Percival stopped to consider his own words, mulling over the last fact as he stared into his teacup. He’d just summed up their chemistry and was wondering why he hadn’t noticed before how unromantic they’d been together?

Dillon on the other hand was elated by those facts and had a difficult time hiding his smile. He was pleased by the new perspective. It even confirmed the fact Martha had to have felt something different about him when she’d met him in the park that day, because she’d been very affectionate with him, right from the start.

“I don’t know what to say to that Percival…not demonstrative huh?” he replied with forced sympathy, “But Martha did think I was you and she did initiate that first kiss, and many more in those two weeks.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Martha I knew,” Percival said with a distracted look, his thoughts returning to that summer. “Before my trip, I’d begun to think Martha wasn’t in love with me and that I may have only been infatuated with her. We made sense in some ways as a couple and that was the attraction at the start but looking back, our feelings hadn’t progressed. And Miriam was right, I had noticed her that week before my trip and we’d spent every day together, having lunch at the café and talking about everything. The feeling was mutual between us and felt more like love than what I felt with Martha.”

“Why didn’t you tell Martha?”

“I didn’t want to hurt her feelings. I cared for her. The trip gave me time to figure out what it was I felt, and how to tell Martha when I got back.”

“But when you got back you didn’t tell her.”

“No, because she was different, acting so out of character it fascinated me. There was this fire in her eyes that threw me off, and drew me to her. I began to rethink our relationship and how she felt about me. How I felt about her. But then we had that stupid argument and she left town.”

“I see, and because I never told you what put that fire in her eyes…you didn’t know.”

“No, and the change in her left me guessing for a very long time. It kept me from declaring my love to Miriam. And I suppose that drove Miriam to her jealous thoughts.”

Dillon laughed. “You think?”

Percival smirked. “Okay, I played a part in this too. But only because Martha was a constant question mark in my thoughts. I needed to know why she’d left me. I needed closure from our relationship, and needed to hear it from her.”

 

Dillon finally saw all the trouble he’d caused by his impromptu masquerade that summer.

Those two weeks of deception had changed all of their lives.

How different it would have been if he’d been honest with Martha, or told Percival about his deception. Percival and Martha would have broken up. Percival would have declared his feelings to Miriam and he could have had a real chance at dating Martha all those years ago. “Oh what a tangled web we weave…” he mumbled Shakespeare’s line with derision.

Percival chuckled. “Regretting your deception now?”

“Thoroughly,” Dillon admitted.

“If it’s any help, I think Martha has forgiven you.” Percival slapped him on the back.

“Yeah, for the first deception. I’m not so sure she’ll be as forgiving for the latest one.”

Percival’s brow rose in astonishment.

“You’re still playing the prankster Dil? Is life just a lark for you?”

“No, it isn’t. And, as I remember, you enjoyed switching places too. Remember Rebecca, my first girlfriend, she wasn’t too pleased when she found out it was you who’d taken her to the school dance instead of me. But she did tell me you were the better dancer…and you were, back then anyway.”

Percival smiled wistfully at the memory. “Ahhh yes, Rebecca was beautiful and funny. I couldn’t imagine why you didn’t want to go with her.”

“I was less confident at fourteen than I am now and dancing wasn’t my strong suit. I didn’t want to embarrass myself or ruin the dance for her. You were the better dancer when we were kids. I knew she’d enjoy herself if you took her.”

“So you’re telling me it was a selfless act of kindness?”

“It was, but I admit I was miserable knowing I couldn’t step up and teach myself to dance. So I made a promise that night, to learn how to dance before the prom.”

“And you did.”

“I did.” Dillon nodded and let his feet do a little two step as proof.

Percival laughed. “You know I hate that we’ve lost sight of what matters, lost time to share experiences because of distance. I love you Dil. I want you to be a bigger part of my life. And someday be the favorite uncle to my children…someday.”

“I’d like that, and if you have twins we can…”

“No. We’ll leave them alone. Let them be the individuals they’re meant to be.”

Dillon chuckled, “Agreed.”

Percival finally took a sip of the tea. The warmth slid down his throat and gave him a feeling of calm. “Mmmm…thank you for this,” he said lifting the cup, “It’s the tranquility I needed after this night’s turbulence,” he took another sip and smiled, “Martha is a wizard with tea, always knows what’s needed.”

Dillon scrutinized his brother’s reaction. “You feel calmer sipping it?”

“Absolutely,” Percival nodded, “I may even be able go and talk to Miriam after I finish this.”

Dillon eyed the second teacup on the table and picked it up. He took a sip and felt the warm liquid slide down his throat. It was delicious but it didn’t take the edge off his anxiety. He had to wonder at the differing experience to the brew.

Maybe the tea’s calm intent only worked on those without secrets.

Deceivers would have to face their deceptions before they could enjoy the calm.

*