A warm smile bloomed on Bing’s face as he surveyed Main Street, but I hardly had time to notice. A swirly mist had started to form outside the shop door and that could only mean one thing.

“Now, if you don’t mind, I must be going,” Bing said, pulling my attention from the mist long enough to see him start across the street. “See you tomorrow, Willa.”

“See ya.” I wasn’t satisfied with his lame explanation, but didn’t have time to go after him. I turned my full attention on the mist discovering, much to my surprise, there were two figures.

As the ghosts started to solidify, my attention was pulled away, yet again, by the trio of women walking down the sidewalk toward me. Pepper and Elspeth walked toward me side by side with, much to my dismay, Ophelia Withington following behind them.

“Pandora, it’s so good to see you all fixed up!” Elspeth kissed Pandora on the head and tweaked her tail. Pepper rubbed her neck.

Pandora, her eye on the mist swirls that only she and I could see, wriggled in my arms to get down. I gently placed her on the ground.

“And it’s good to see you all fixed up, too.” Elspeth gestured toward my bandaged hand.

“Yes, I was pretty lucky,” I said, glancing toward the misty swirls.

Pepper hugged me. “I’m so glad nothing bad happened to you.”

“Thanks,” I said to Pepper, then slid narrowed eyes over to Opheila. What was she doing here? I hoped she wasn’t going to cause some kind of trouble about me having Pandora in the bookstore.

“Mew.” Pandora, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have any worries as she batted and swirled at the misty figures. My brows pulled together … was that Robert Frost and Franklin Pierce?

It was! Which was odd, because the two of them never left the bookstore as far as I knew.

“Willa?”

I turned back to Elspeth and Pepper. “What?”

“I was just saying that Striker did a great job with your hand,” Pepper gave me a knowing look and I felt my cheeks burn.

“Yes, he did.” I glanced nervously at Ophelia who alternated between casting strange glances at Pandora and fiddling with something under the lapels of her wide red cape that flapped in the wind.

“That’s my cat, Pandora,” I said glancing back to see Franklin Pierce poke playfully at the gray cat. “She’s not feral.”

“Oh, dear, Willa. I’m afraid you might have heard the worst about me.” Ophelia pressed her lips together. “I must apologize for acting so badly, but you see, I just wasn’t myself.”

“Yes, it seems Ophelia has come to a new understanding.” Elspeth stepped aside as she said it and I noticed that whatever Ophelia had been doing under her cape involved something furry.