Bear Bride (Bear Cove #1)(11)
The brass bell at the top of the bakery’s front parlor chimed as Cynthia slammed the door shut behind them. She drew the curtains and though it was not yet time to close, she flipped the door sign and carried her niece off to the back kitchen. The smell of toasted marshmallows and toffee came like a jolt of a potent drug to Keyla’s tired senses and she let herself slump into a chair, while Cynthia put the kettle on the stove. Surprisingly, the torrent of questions from her aunt never came and when the old woman turned to fetch the pouch of calming chamomile tea, Keyla saw in the vague, flickering light of the fireplace that she was as pale as if she’d seen a ghost. Soon, a steaming cup of tea warmed Keyla’s trembling fingers and tickled her nose. Cynthia seemed to be fighting her urge to busy herself with small tasks around the kitchen, but after she put away the tea set and stoked the fire, she finally settled in the chair opposite Keyla’s and rested her chin over her folded hands.
“You saw a bear, didn’t you?” she asked with a heavy sigh and her voice came out hollow and distant.
“What? No, I…I,” Keyla stuttered, “I did. Aunt Cynthia, it was terrifying. The wedding… I don’t even know what happened. I came to in the car outside and I couldn’t remember how I got away. Those poor people…”
Cynthia reached out and took Keyla’s hand in hers, squeezing it tightly.
“Don’t worry about them. I’m sure nothing bad has happened to anyone. I’m just so… so glad you managed to escape—,” her voice broke and she burst into tears.
“Hey, please, it’s ok,” Keyla tried to appease her. “We should call someone, send people over there. Troy… And his brother…”
Now it was Keyla’s turn to cry. All the bottled emotions from her experience came flooding over her. When Cynthia spoke again, her voice was eerie and her gaze removed, as if she was telling a scary story around a campfire.
"I guess it's time I told you how you lost your parents and brother," she started and Keyla flinched at the sudden change of topic. "This isn't the first time that bears have invaded the mountain regions above Bear Cove. I suppose that's partially where the town's name comes from. Anyway, you've known your whole life that there was a terrible accident up in the lumber clearing, where a number of people met with their death and your family was among them. The truth is, the town was under surge at the time from a group of bears who were not only taking people's livestock, but soon residents of Bear Cove started to disappear mysteriously in the mountains. It was time we took action and so a group of volunteers went up there one night to try to put a stop to the tortures."
Cynthia stopped for a moment to look into the big round eyes of her niece, who seemed completely aghast at the revelation. Still, she kept quiet and her body was bent forward in expectation, which Cynthia took as a sign to continue.
"We, the people who stayed behind, never found out what actually happened up there. All we know is that no one ever came back from that mission and their bodies were never found. People started leaving Bear Cove. It was simply too much to bear. It held too many memories of their loved ones, but with an infant on my hands, I couldn't go anywhere. So, the two of us stayed here. After a while, the attacks stopped and the peace returned, but fear never left the town. Not for those old enough to remember."
Cynthia sipped from her own tea and fell silent. Keyla looked shaken, her lips trembling and her eyes pooling with new tears. It was all too much for her to comprehend at the moment, especially after being exposed to the horrors of the day.
"But, what about the carpenter people?" she finally asked after a long silence. "What about the wedding? And Troy? How do you know nothing has happened to them?"
"You must have noticed that these people are not like us,” Cynthia said cryptically. “They know how to take care of themselves. They are mountain people."
Keyla wasn't satisfied.
"Aunt Cynthia, I saw Troy's brother being ripped to pieces with my own eyes!"
"Oh, honey, you don't know what you saw. You were in shock. It's all my fault. I should have never let you go up there on your own. What was I thinking?"
In the next minutes no one said anything. As Keyla listened to the soothing crackling of the wood in the fireplace, the flames casting dancing shadows across the walls, she suddenly felt a strange warmth take hold of her. Her mind was becoming fuzzy and her limbs were getting heavy with slumber. The last thing she thought, before she laid her head on the table, was that Aunt Cynthia's herbs and potions were second to none and she was glad she was disappearing into a soft darkness, where what she had just heard wouldn't trouble her.
Chapter 8
Keyla
A faint rapping emerged through the convoluted sounds of Keyla's nervous dreams and she stood up with a start. She realized she was in her bed in her upstairs bedroom and it was some time in the middle of the night. It was dark in the room and a silvery ribbon of moonshine cut through the slightly parted solid curtains. Keyla reached for the nightlight on her bed stand and then she heard it again, clear and rhythmic. Someone was knocking on the front door of the bakery, which was right below her bedroom window. Who could it be at this hour?
She hurried out of the bed and felt the swish of a clean, silk nightgown. She lifted the hem and saw that the bruises and cuts on her legs had been carefully treated and dressed. Aunt Cynthia must have taken care of her once she was asleep and put her into a clean change of clothes. Her hair was also combed and flowed down soft and sleek over her shoulders. Keyla grabbed a shawl from the desk chair and scurried down the stairs, careful not to make a sound. Her aunt must be exhausted after the long, strange day they'd had.