Page 6 of Eye on the Ball

I grinned at her. “Beautyandbrains. You’re like an encyclopedia of old stuff.”

She laughed. “It’s my job, after all. Your uncle Jeremiah taught me to learn everything about everything in this business.”

“Is it valuable?”

Both women shrugged.

“Depends on the market. I couldn’t offer a lot for this bottle, unfortunately,” Tess said. “Are you sure you don’t want to keep it? The sentimental value must be much higher than?—”

“You don’t understand,” Ursula broke in, looking desperate. “I need to get rid of it. I know you won’t believe me, but the bottle … it’s …enchanted.”

“Uh huh,” I said, yawning. Hadn’t had enough coffee.

“Sure,” Tess said, resigned.

Ursula stared at both of us. “Didn’t you hear me? It’s?—”

“Enchanted,” Tess and I said together.

“It’s not our first rodeo,” I said cheerfully. “We’ve had it all here in Dead End Pawn.”

The woman blinked at us, her mouth hanging open for a moment before she collected herself. “Well. Okay, then. Then you know why I have to get rid of it.”

“What does it do?” I asked her. “Play rude music?”

Tess: “Steal Christmas presents?”

Me: “Tell doom-and-gloom fortunes?”

Tess: “Compliment your wide hips and birthing potential?”

Ursula’s head kept whipping back and forth between us like she was a spectator at a tennis match. When we wound down from listing some of the many enchanted items we’d encountered over the past year, she held up a hand.

“Stop. Birthing potential? No. Never mind. I don’t want to know. The perfume makes me irresistible.”

“To who?” I asked.

“To whom?” Tess said, her lips quirking up.

“To everybody,” Ursula said.

I’m naturally skeptical, so I shrugged, picked up the bottle, opened it, and sniffed.

Then I sneezed.

Loudly.

“That is a truly horrible scent. No offense, Ursula,” I told the woman, who was scrambling back and away from me, hands held out like I might jump on her.

“Nothing?”

I shook my head and sneezed again. “Possibly I’m allergic to it.”

She frowned. “Wait. Let me put some on. Maybe it has to be on a person.”

Ursula took a deep breath, dabbed the stopper to her wrist, and stared at me with terrified eyes.

I shrugged.