EPISODE 12: THE BLESSING ## CHAPTER 1: ONE YEAR The anniversary approached like a gentle tide. Penny Thornwood stood at her bedroom window, watching the first light of spring touch Willowmere. In twelve days, it would be exactly one year since she had walked into Thistledown House for the first time—exhausted, grieving, entirely unaware that her life was about to transform completely. One year since she had inherited a magical bed and breakfast from an aunt she had never known. One year since she had met Silas. One year since she had become something she couldn't have imagined: a witch, a hostess, a healer, a home. "You're thinking too loudly," Silas complained from the bed. "Some of us are trying to sleep." "It's been a year." "I know. I was there." "Does it feel like a year to you?" The cat stretched, his fur cycling through lazy shades of morning gold. "It feels like exactly the right amount of time. Not too long. Not too short. The time it took for you to become who you were always supposed to be." Penny turned from the window, looking at the room that had become so familiar—the bed that adjusted to her needs, the closet that had somehow learned her preferences, the walls that seemed to breathe with the house's contentment....