Free Wicked by Any Other Name by Linda Wisdom Page B

waitresses would be kept running.
    â€œYou know the problem with a small town?” Ginny said, finishing up her muffin. “Everyone knows everyone’s secrets. I couldn’t stay out one minute past curfew without someone calling my parents. Everyone knew when Rena Madison was having an affair with Adam Baxter before their sheets had a chance to cool down, and it’s a known fact you don’t go near Mrs. Grover’s house on the tenth of the month because she’s positive that’s when the aliens will touch down and take her up to the mother ship.”
    â€œAnd pretty much everyone who lives here knows two witches live in their town, even if they take off for a while and return under other names every few decades,” Stasi murmured.
    Ginny nodded. “It’s because of you two that our town hasn’t been gobbled up by developers.” She smiled at Stasi’s shake of the head. “How many other towns around here have been taken over by resorts and spas and city folk who want to build expensive vacation homes they use maybe a couple times a year? I remember when that one developer stopped here last spring. He sat in the next booth with a map, sheets showing costs, and pages of notes. He stayed overnight in Lisa’s B&B and was gone the next day.”
    â€œMaybe the town wasn’t what he was looking for.”
    â€œHe was interested in the lake,” Ginny said softly.
    That got Stasi’s attention. “The lake?”
    The other woman nodded. “He asked a lot of questions about the lake, namely the legends behind it.”
    Stasi feigned a laugh. “The only legend about the lake is the monster that’s supposed to live out there.”
    â€œSome say witches are legends, but they’re not. And kids have seen odd things out there late at night.”
    Stasi thought of the many nights of the full moon when she and Blair, and sometimes other witch sisters, walked out to the lake for a ceremony they’d begun the first full moon after the town was officially named Moonstone Lake. The word moonstone meant sanctuary, and that was what the lake represented for the witches. The full moon ceremony was one secret Stasi and Blair kept to themselves. They considered it enough they’d come out of the witchy closet to the townspeople, who were willing to consider it a town secret that need go no further, even if Floyd and Agnes thought it had huge tourism potential.
    â€œHey chicks.” Blair walked in, looking very 1950s in a white cotton blouse with a Peter Pan collar, a bright pink chiffon scarf tied around her neck, a pink circle skirt with a black fuzzy poodle appliquéd on it, white socks, and black-and-white saddle shoes. She’d pulled her dark auburn hair up into a perky ponytail adorned with a matching scarf and pink lipstick on her lips.
    â€œWow, we need Elvis playing in the background.” Ginny chuckled. “How cute!”
    Blair grinned and dipped a short curtsey. “I feel very Sandra Dee today,” she replied, sliding in next to Stasi. “What’s up?”
    One of the waitresses brought over a cup and filled it with coffee.
    â€œJust the usual,” Ginny replied. “Carrie’s working on a smear job.”
    Blair’s expression darkened. “The bitch needs a major attitude adjustment.”
    â€œPlease, don’t,” Stasi begged, fully aware of what Blair could whip up at a second’s notice. Her revenge spells were one hundred percent effective, and some were long lasting. Stasi had no doubt that Blair would conjure up a revenge spell that Carrie wouldn’t forget for a very long time. And in the process, she’d be in so much trouble with the Witches’ Council her banishment would never end. And Stasi wasn’t about to allow that to happen.
    â€œCarrie’s a bitter woman and I really should pity her.” Stasi stared into her coffee cup as if the contents would