I got a quarter smile for that. "No, not this time." He crouched beside me and reached to untangle the rosebush from whatever statuary it hid, working carefully so as not to break the branch, saying, "Now the trick is to pull it like..." As I watched him, the scene hitched, and I was crouching in a meadow, beside a rabbit hole, Gwynn beside me, no more than ten or eleven, whispering, "Now the trick is to wait very quietly, until they think the coast is clear and..." A baby rabbit popped its head out and Gwynn scooped it up as Matilda laughed, and he held it out for her.
The scene faded, and Gabriel was tugging back the last of the branches. "There. Now let's see what..." He glanced over at me and frowned. "Olivia?"
I could feel the trickle of a tear on my cheek. I wiped it away and smiled. "Just the thorn. It startled me." I inched up beside him, being careful not to get too close and make him jump away. "Oh, it's..." I stopped. "I have no idea what it is."
"It's certainly odd. Let me clear away the rest of this."
The statue looked like a tiny man, somewhere between a dwarf and a gnome, exceedingly ugly, wearing a helmet and carrying a lantern.
"Is it...a tommy knocker?" I said.
"Close," said a voice behind us. "It's a coblynau."
I turned so abruptly I tottered. Gabriel put his hand to my back to steady me. Ida walked into the garden, followed by Walter and Veronica, and Gabriel's lips tightened, as if he was annoyed at the interruption.
"We'll wait inside," Veronica said. "You can finish exploring the garden."
"No, it's fine," Gabriel said curtly as we rose. He led me toward the house, his hand still against my back. Then he glanced back at the garden, and his voice softened a little as he said to Veronica, "You said a coblynau?"
"Yes. A Welsh version of the tommy knocker. In folklore, if miners are kind and feed them, they'll help by tapping at particularly rich areas. In truth, they were originally mountain-dwelling fae. Now they live urban lives, like most. They are hardworking, generally kind-hearted. If you are good to them, they will be good to you in return. That's true of most fae, but coblynau are more inclined to see goodness and return it. They are not particularly given to tricks."
"Are there any in Cainsville?" I asked.
She smiled. "Perhaps," she said, and her eyes glinted in a way that made me say, "Wait, are you--?" but she was already through the back door.
We followed her. The house was quiet and still, as it was whenever I visited. It had been empty for years and even thinking of that made me ache, just a little. I could feel the history here. My history. For such a beautiful old house to sit empty...
I could feel Ida's keen gaze on me. When we walked into the front parlor, I tried not to gape at the frieze of magpies. My great-great-grandmother had put them there. Like me, she'd been able to read omens.
I remembered what the little girl from my visions said about the house: It was built for you, long before you were born.
"We'd like to offer you the house, Olivia," Ida said.
Gabriel snorted, and she looked over, then said, "I'm sure that comes as no surprise."
"Not at all," he said. "I'm simply impressed by the speed with which you got to it."
"I believe in being forthright," she said.
"Ah, trying a new tack."
"Sarcasm does not become you, Gabriel."
Veronica cleared her throat. "We've earned his sarcasm, Ida." She turned to me. "We believe living here would both strengthen your powers and ease their negative effects."
Gabriel cleared his throat. "You say that, knowing--"
"Knowing you're concerned about those negative effects. Yes. That may seem like an obvious ploy, but I strongly believe Liv would do better in this house. To test that, I suggest she live here for a while and see if it helps."
"That was not what we discussed," Ida said.
Veronica smiled sweetly at her. "I'm improvising. As is my right."
Ida glanced at Walter, who pretended not to notice.
"I'm not really looking to buy a house," I said. "I'm only in my apartment about half the time anyway. What would I do with a place this size?"
Even as I thought it, my mind threw up answers. I'd turn one of the bedrooms into an office and leave another as a guest room, for when Gabriel needed a place to crash. I'd put exercise equipment in the basement--I didn't get to the gym nearly often enough lately. I'd redo the kitchen and maybe ask Rose to teach me to bake. I'd add a solarium, where I could curl up with a book and a mocha and--