Stranger Than Witches (The Witches of Secret Hallow Book 3) Read Free

getting a little chilly.
    Who could blame him? Mud smeared his face and arms. His clothing was soaked. He had been burrowing through the garden like a little piglet rooting for truffles. Judging by the red smears around his mouth, he had been eating Kimberly’s tomatoes, too. They were delicious right off the vine, but they left him too sticky to sit at the dinner table.
    “Wash up, sweet baby,” Kimberly said with a slight tinge of admonishment, scooting him toward the bath that she had filled while cooking.
    “Don’t wanna!” he protested.
    “You don’t have to bathe if you don’t want to eat.” She wafted a basket of biscuits toward him. The sweet biscuits with honey butter were among Keene’s favorites. His little eyes with their long, luscious eyelashes went wide.
    He dived into the bath.
    Of course, Keene enjoyed himself as soon as he got into the tub. He was immediately splashing around joyfully, using his duckies to squirt water at the wall.
    Maddock swooped in just as the timer dinged to announce that Kimberly’s stew was done.
    “Woman!” he roared, wrapping his arms around her. “You’ve made me food! It smells amazing!”
    “Yes, I cooked all this food just for you,” she said dryly. She had made a giant pot of stew, and another giant pot was simmering for the next day’s lunch. It would be even more aromatic than what they ate tonight once it had a chance to be infused with herbs.
    Maddock was only pretending at being a caveman, but he did it well. He kissed her passionately and plopped down to sit at the table.
    He was dirty from his long day working, and that was how Kimberly liked him the best. She admired his stocky body coated in a sheen of soil and sweat. He was a man of the earth, a witch whose strength came from nurturing things even though his muscles made him look as though he could break a human in half if he so desired. But Maddock would never desire that. He was strong but gentle, as unyielding as the face of a mountain.
    Tonight, he wanted her food.
    “Come out of the bath, Keene!” Kimberly called.
    “No!” Keene called back, as he was often wont to do.
    “Great,” Maddock said loudly. “Then I will eat all your food! These biscuits look delicious!”
    Keene appeared at the table dripping wet within instants.
    “Darling bear,” Kimberly said, incapable of withholding her fondness for him. She feared that her approval of Keene’s sassy behavior would only make him more defiant, but it was difficult not to express such appreciation. She adored him and everything he did, even when he was a challenge.
    She bundled him up in a towel. Keene giggled as she dried his face, swaddled him in clothes, and set him at the table.
    “How was school, son of mine?” Maddock asked.
    “Great!” Keene said.
    How could he evaluate school as “great”? He had been knocked over by an elemental witch of incredible strength. Kimberly’s guts were still knotted with fear from the memory of it.
    Keene’s eyes were filled with honest delight when he turned his gaze upon her, though.
    “Mommy, can you please get me some food?”
    Kimberly grabbed one of the dishes on the table, and when she showed Keene that there were pasta noodles inside, he gave her a toothy smile and nodded, holding up his plate for her to scoop food onto.
    Naturally, she gave him several biscuits.
    Keene’s smile made her heart feel as though it might shatter into a hundred million pieces.
    Dinner in the Leif house was a generally subdued affair with just three of them, but there was plenty of food and the smells of fresh vegetables and grains in the air. Maddock liked to make sure the table had some kind of decoration as well, and the centerpiece that night was an arrangement of corn and gourds, the pale straw color of the corn husk setting off the darker oranges and greens of the gourds. The plates holding the stews and breads were colorful as well in a variety of shades and had obviously been well-used; the oranges