Freya and Ingrid Beauchamp were brought to stand trial in the ad hoc court of oyer and terminer in Salem Village, where they were charged with witchcraft. He and Joanna had watched their daughters hang at Gallows Hill. Joanna could not forgive him for being unwilling to save them, for following the rules of the Council, and had cast him out of her life. His wife had finally forgiven him and had taken him back. Now they were reliving the pain of Salem all over again, but this time, he would not fail her. He would show her just how much he had always loved her. He would be the one to do as the Oracle instructed. He would get it right. He wouldn’t screw it up this time. He owed it to Joanna after everything that had happened between them.
The train stopped, and his wife shifted. Norman placed a hand on her head protectively, running a palm down the length of her hair, as he watched passengers disembark. He observed a few bundled-up New Yorkers looking for a quiet, romantic winter weekend in the Hamptons. The train doors closed. He turned to the window and watched another beachside town roll away beneath the blue sky.
“Dad?” came a voice.
Norman looked up. His gorgeous golden son stood over him, flaxen hair tousled, a knapsack slung over a shoulder. “Freddie! What are you doing here? What a great surprise!” he whispered. “Your mother’s asleep. I can’t move.”
Joanna’s head lolled. “No, I’m not,” she said. She lifted her head, yawning, turning toward the aisle as she pulled her hair off her face. “My baby!”
“Mother!” he said.
Joanna stared at her son with a sleepy smile. “Now this is a happy surprise!” She and Norman laughed as they rose from their seats. Joanna embraced her son. Norman came into the aisle, grabbing the strap of Freddie’s knapsack. “Come sit with us! Let me help you with your bag.” He lifted it, placing it in the overhead carriage, and hugged his boy.
“Can I be in the middle?” Freddie asked.
“Where else?” Joanna sat down, moving over to the window, patting the spot next to her. Freddie scooted in beside her. “Oh, my sweet, it’s so good to see you!” She kissed and hugged him some more, making a fuss. For once Freddie didn’t seem to mind. “What are you doing here? Where’s Gert?”
Norman knew Joanna had come to really like Gert, and they had believed the two of them were happily ensconced in New Haven. But now Freddie was staring into his lap. Puzzled, Norman asked, “What’s the matter?”
Freddie tilted his head, glancing at his father.
“You can tell us,” said Joanna.
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “It’s just… it’s not easy.” He sighed. “Gert left.” He put his hands over his face.
“What?” said Joanna, suddenly livid. “Why?”
“She needed to study, she said.”
“Well, students do need to concentrate…” Norman said, but his wife shut him up with a look.
“Not now, Norm,” Joanna warned. She patted Freddie’s shoulder and frowned at her husband.
Norman hugged his son. “It’s going to be okay. We’re going to get through this, kiddo.”
Freddie’s hands dropped into his lap. He sniffled. “But I guess the good news is the pixies picked up the scent again. They’re on their way to the trident. Or so they say. Who knows with them.” He looked at his father, then mother, then back and forth, studying them. “What’s wrong with you? You both look awful… I mean… really tired…”
“We’re okay, Freddie.” Norm peered at Jo, giving her a look. They simultaneously shook their heads, exchanging a tacit agreement not to share what they had learned on their trip to the city. They mustn’t tell him what the Oracle said would save Freya. Freddie already had plenty on his plate. And they had also decided to keep the Oracle’s suggestion secret from Ingrid, lest she fret more than she was prone to.
Freddie yawned loudly. “I’m exhausted!” His head fell onto Joanna’s shoulder.
Norm squeezed his knee. “You just rest, son. You probably need it.”
“I do,” said Freddie, closing his eyes.
All three sat silently for a while, and soon Freddie was fast asleep, lulled by the hypnotic sound of the train, comforted by the safe feeling of sitting between his parents. Norman and Joanna smiled at each other, watching over their boy sleeping peacefully between them.
“We did good, didn’t we?” Norman whispered.
“Yes, we did,” returned Joanna.
Still, the danger Freya was in and the knowledge imparted by the Oracle weighed on them. There was no ignoring it. Norman recalled what Jo had said at the meeting. Her words had haunted him: “I wouldn’t wish eternity in the underworld to anyone, least of all to our Freya. I would rather die myself.”
So would he.
chapter twenty-eight
The Manny Diaries
Light poured through the gauzy curtains billowing over the open sliding glass doors inside the little beachfront shack. Freddie felt the sun against his face and the cool, soft morning breeze floating in from the ocean. At first he thought he was home, back at Mother’s, as it had been a few weeks since he had returned to North Hampton. Then he remembered where he had spent the night. He grinned, keeping his eyes shut. Soon the sounds of the ocean lulled him back to sleep, the sheet only half covering him, exposing his tawny back and legs.
The little weathered hut was all the way at the end of town, way past the Beauchamp house and Gardiners Island, on a small ragged stretch overgrown with sea grass, the sand more pebbly and putty colored than fine and golden.
A sudden thump beside him woke him merely seconds after he had turned his head.
“Crap!” exclaimed a voice, followed by more bed thumping.
He reached out his arm and felt the empty spot. He opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, stretching.
Kristy smiled at him.
“Why are you cursing so early in the morning, babe?” He sat up to watch her, rubbing his eyes, blinking at the light. The bartender from the North Inn was still naked, riffling through a dresser drawer. The tan lines from her bikini emphasized her round bottom, a tattoo of a passionflower above it, slightly off to the side near her hip. She yanked on her underwear, then snapped on her bra.
“Hi, babe,” she said. She twisted her silky brown hair and tied it into a topknot. The light played in her hazel eyes as she batted her thick lashes. Like Freya, and now Freddie, Kristy was a bartender at the North Inn. With Freya gone, Sal had needed an extra hand, and Freddie had stepped in to fill it. His first day at work was also the first day he had started pursuing the hot single mom.