Alder's Grove

Written for my ladiesbingo card riffing off of The Strength. See also Deborah's Tag..

Short Summary: Aunts in the Family hold the magic, channel it, and generally direct the family - although the older women (grannies and mothers) often hold as much secular power, if not more. Aunts are childless, unmarried...

...except sometimes, it seems, when they're not.

Pearl was worried. She was more than worried, she was terrified. More than just terrified, she was living in fear of her grannies and sisters, a fear that no normal woman would have grounds to understand, much less feel.

She'd kept it a secret as long as she could, and that had been months longer than she'd thought she'd be able to. She'd used every charm she thought safe and some she wasn't sure about; she'd used every deceit and a few fashion tricks from her friends not in the family. Those friends knew - and if the grannies found out that, Pearl was doubly and triply doomed. She'd gone out of the family for help.
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