Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (21 page)

He picked up a sheaf of papers.

‘I’ve got the plans here,’ he said. ‘Do you want to see? There will be five luxury bedrooms, a bar and a restaurant.’

‘You’ll never get planning permission,’ I said.

‘Oh but I will,’ he said. ‘Because I’ve also looked at the accounts for the garage, and the CCTV at the pub, and I know things about some of your local councillors.’ He over-enunciated the unfamiliar word. ‘And I’ve helped the editor of the
Inverness Gazette
with his internet connection and – phew – do I know some things about him that he is not going to want his wife to find out about. So I can rely on his support. It’s going to be a real money-spinner. I even asked Millicent Fry if she’d manage it for me, but she turned me down.’

I was impressed.

‘She did?’

‘I’m still working on her,’ Brent confessed. ‘She’ll come round.’

‘You don’t have anything to persuade her with?’

Brent looked disappointed.

‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘She’s clean as a whistle. That’s unusual you know.’

‘So what’s this big meeting tomorrow night?’ I asked.

‘Ooh that’s the big reveal,’ he said. ‘I’m going to show all my friends here the plans, and ask if I can count on their support.’

‘What’s with the posters then?’ I said, puzzled.

‘And I’m also going to get them to force you out of town,’ he said conversationally. ‘They’re all so scared since I suggested you might be witches that they won’t take much persuasion. And then on Tuesday, you’ll receive a much lower offer for the café.’

I had heard enough.

‘You have chosen the wrong family to mess with,’ I told him, standing up to leave.

‘Yeah, yeah,’ he said as I opened the front door. ‘Try harder, baby, I’m not scared of you.’

I was furious, and spoke without thinking.

‘Yeah well you should be,’ I spat. ‘You know those stories about witches? They’re all true.’

His laughter followed me down the street.

Harry was right when she said she’d thought her altercation with Brent would make things worse. Or maybe it was mine. Or both. Who knows?

Chapter 43

Monday morning started out badly when the letterbox rattled first thing. Harry went to the door, thinking – of course – it would be the postman. But it was a hand-delivered, tatty-looking, padded envelope with nothing written on it. She tore it open and recoiled in disgust.

Holding it at arm’s length, she opened the front door and threw it out. Mum and I watched her in surprise.

‘What on earth…’ Mum started.

Harry gagged.

‘Dog shit,’ she said. ‘God, that’s disgusting.’

Mum put her hand to her mouth.

‘Why would anyone…’ She trailed off, obviously unable to take it in.

I was furious.

‘This has gone too far,’ I hissed, putting my arm around Mum. ‘We need to stop it.’

I guided Mum back into the kitchen and put the kettle on. Harry sat on the work surface, her dark eyes clouded with anger.

‘We need to find out what’s going on,’ she said. ‘Something’s changed.’

What had changed, we found out later, was that Brent, who was obviously still stewing about Harry’s knock-back, had whipped his CLAWs up into such a frenzy that – to please him, I guess – they’d decided to up their game.

Mum and I sat at the kitchen table, huddled over our cups of tea.

‘Don’t tell Suky.’ Mum stared into her mug as though she was telling her own fortune.

‘Of course not.’ I was slightly cross she even thought we would consider it. ‘What about Eva?’

‘I’ll tell her now.’ Mum drained her tea. ‘Can you open the café?’

I gawped at her.

‘Seriously?’

She shrugged.

‘I’m not really sure what else to do.’ Her voice cracked on the last word and she swallowed, then pulled herself together and spoke brightly.

‘Right then, let’s get on.’ She kissed the top of my head, pulled her jacket from the hook and disappeared out of the back door to find Eva. Harry went upstairs to see her mum and I was alone.

Slowly, I got up, put on my boots and my coat and, winding my scarf round my neck, I left the house. I averted my eyes as I walked past the soiled envelope; even thinking about it made me feel sick.

As I walked I thought about ringing Jamie. I wasn’t sure what to say but I dialled his number anyway. I was relieved though to find his mobile was switched off and I couldn’t think what to say on a message.

‘Hi, it’s me. Just wanted to let you know someone sent us dog poo in the post. Call me back!’

Perhaps not.

I wasn’t really paying attention to my surroundings, so it was a surprise when a stone scuttled across the pavement in front of me as I walked, narrowly missing my leg. I glanced round, instinctively, and caught sight of some young teenage boys skulking in front of Stringy Hair’s newsagent’s. Had they thrown it? Surely not. But they were all staring at me in a defiant way and I had to walk right by them.

Fishing in my bag, I pulled my phone out again and pretended to answer a call, just so I would look busy. But they weren’t fooled. As I walked by one of them, an unpleasant looking, overweight lad, wearing a too-small Hollister hoodie, made a noise deep in his throat. Knowing he was going to spit at me, I checked for a gap in the (non-existent) traffic and sprinted across the road, still pretending to chat on my phone.

‘I know!’ I said, gaily, desperately making out I hadn’t seen them. ‘It was sooooo funny!’

And then my phone rang.

The boys’ laughter echoed round the town, as I took to my heels and ran away.

Chapter 44

All morning I sat in the deserted café, hoping for a customer but jumping every time I heard a noise. There was no sign of the CLAWs, they were probably all preparing for tonight’s meeting, and though I thought I saw Brent running down by the loch, I wasn’t absolutely sure it was him.

I cleaned the café from top to bottom. With my actual hands, not magic. Then I sat on the counter, swinging my legs like I used to do when I was younger. Looking round at the business my mum had built up, I remembered how it must have looked just a few weeks earlier. Warm and cosy, the windows steamed up, noisy with chatter and the froth of the coffee machine. A safe haven.

Jumping down from my perch, I walked listlessly to the window and wiped off the condensation to peer out. It was raining and there was no one about.

Chewing my lip, I stood up and gazed out over the loch. The café was a solid, stone building, decades older than the local laws that forbade building on the shores of the loch. The views from the large windows were breathtaking. And though we only used the top floor for storage, it was ripe for conversion. It would make a perfect, quaint hotel. There was hiking, shooting and fishing on the doorstep – all things guaranteed to appeal to his target audience. Suddenly everything seemed clear. And completely hopeless.

Then I tried to ring Jamie – again. And got his voicemail – again.

Nell appeared at my side – I hadn’t even noticed her coming in.

‘Hi,’ I said.

She squeezed my arm sympathetically.

‘What are you going to do?’ She stared at me, a worried look on his face.

I shrugged.

‘Go home, I suppose,’ I said. ‘Back to London.’

‘What about your mum? And Eva? And what will Suky do?’

‘I don’t know,’ I snapped. ‘I don’t know anything.’

I put my head in my hands feeling useless. I couldn’t understand how everything had gone so wrong. Just a month ago I’d had a fabulous job, a handsome boyfriend (sort of) and a loving family with a thriving business. Now I’d lost my boyfriend, pissed off the
only man to treat me nicely for about a decade and ruined my family’s business. Well done, Esme. Nice one.

The door opened and I looked up. Mum, Eva and Allan stood there.

‘We felt we should all be together,’ Mum said.

I snorted.

‘Eat cake while we’re hounded out of town?’

Mum put her arm round me.

‘Pretty much,’ she said.

But I wanted no part of it.

While Mum and Eva enchanted some cupcakes to give us courage in the face of adversity (I snorted again at that one), I stared out of the window and watched groups of women hurrying towards the church hall, where Brent’s meeting was being held.

I wasn’t sure what was going to happen after the meeting. Would Brent just arrive and announce they’d decided we should leave? Or would they discuss tactics and plan ways to make our lives a misery until we left of our own accord?

‘Is Suky all right?’ I asked, shaking my head as Mum offered me a cupcake, then changing my mind and taking one anyway.

‘She was sleeping when we left,’ Mum said. ‘Harry knows where we are. She was in a right old mood. She was making lots of notes in her spell book. Lord only knows what she’s up to.’

I groaned. I had a good idea. In fact I wasn’t sure whether to be worried that Harry would experiment with the voodoo she claimed was good to help her mum, or dabble with more sinister black magic and try it out on Brent.

We were all quiet. Digging my own spell book out of my bag, I began leafing through it, looking for anything that might help our situation. Mum wiped down the counter. Eva and Allan sat on the sofa chatting quietly and Nell drummed out an unheard rhythm on a cushion. Outside it had started raining.

‘I got the email with the offer,’ Mum said suddenly.

‘How much is it?’

Mum shrugged.

‘A lot,’ she admitted. ‘But not nearly enough when you think about what it’s worth.’

There was silence as we all looked at each other.

‘You’re not really going to leave are you?’ I said.

Mum and Eva glanced at each other.

‘No, we’re not.’ Allan’s voice was firm and probably a bit louder than it needed to be. It was so rare for him to speak at all, that I was taken by surprise.

‘I refuse to be bullied by some irritating squirt,’ he said.

‘Squirt?’ Nell giggled. Then I giggled. And so did Mum and Eva. Allan looked hurt for a minute, then he laughed too.

Chapter 45

As we all roared with laughter, my phone rang. It was Chloé. Not wanted to break the moment, I cancelled the call. It rang again straight away. I cancelled it again. When it rang a third time, I gave up and answered.

‘What’s up, Chlo?’ I was still chuckling to myself.

‘Oh Esme, thank god,’ Chloé was breathy.

‘What?’ My heart started to thump. ‘What’s happened?’

‘I’m at your house.’ Chloé sounded like she was going to cry. ‘I can’t get in, but I can see through the window and Suky’s lying on the floor. I’ve been banging on the front door and the window, but she’s not moving. I don’t know what to do!’

I was strangely calm.

‘Can you see Harry?’ I said. ‘Harry should be there.’

‘I can’t see her,’ Chloé said. ‘Where is she?’

‘I don’t know,’ I wailed. Chloé gasped and I took a breath. ‘Right, phone Jamie,’ I said firmly. ‘We’re on our way. Keep knocking on the window, she might wake up.’

Grabbing my bag, I looked at the white faces of the others.

‘Suky’s in trouble,’ I said. ‘We need to go.’

Mum had her car at the café, so we all piled in and luckily it started first time. When we arrived, Chloé was pacing the front garden and as we ran up the path, she flew at us, gabbling about what had happened but making no sense.

Mum tried to unlock the door but her hands were shaking too much to get the key in the hole. Instead, Eva reached over her shoulder, waved her hand and we all watched in relief as the door swung open. Then we pushed in to the lounge, where Suky lay curled up on the carpet.

Mum cradled her sister, stroking her hair and talking quietly to her. Suky stirred but she didn’t open her eyes. Her breathing was shallow and her skin was grey.

Feeling helpless, I looked around, suddenly realising what had been going on.

The air was heavy with magic. It hung in the room like a cloud of gas, shimmering
slightly as though a heat haze had leaked in from outside. On the coffee table was Suky’s spell book and several candles. One had been melted and moulded into a figure. I picked it up. There were some hairs pushed into the head that I recognised as Suky’s.

‘What’s this?’ I said, showing Eva.

She went pale and crouched by Suky and Mum.

‘What have you done, Su?’ she whispered.

What Suky had done was a super-powerful spell. She’d tried banishing her cancer, by cursing it out of her. But it was too much magic for one woman, especially one weakened by weeks of radiotherapy. The enchantment was hanging around in the air like a nasty carbon monoxide leak and we had to get rid of it.

I turned to Nell, who was looking pale, scared and very, very young.

‘Nell,’ I said urgently. ‘Can you find Jamie? Tell him we do need him, but try to keep him out of the way for about ten minutes. And see if you can track Harry down.’

We had to try to reverse the spell and I didn’t think a bemused onlooker would help.

Nell looked like she was going to ask me a question, then she thought twice.

‘Right,’ she said and headed out back down the hill.

‘What are
we
going to do?’ Chloé said. Her freckles stood out on her white face.

‘I have absolutely no idea,’ I admitted. ‘Where’s bloody Harry? She’d know what to do.’

‘Can’t you find her?’ Chloé said. ‘Tune into her or something?’

I was doubtful, though I knew Harry could always find me when she wanted to.

‘I can try,’ I said. I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, just as we’d practised in my magic lessons – and Harry was right there, reaching to me.

‘About bloody time,’ she said in my head. ‘I’m in my room. Hurry.’

I leapt upstairs, two or even three at a time. Harry’s bedroom door was closed.

‘Esme,’ she said from behind the door. ‘Mum’s up to something. Something bad. She’s taken all my voodoo stuff and she did some sort of binding spell to stop me going after her. You have to get me out of here.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Stand back.’

I had no idea what to do but somehow my magic just took over. Pink sparks flew from my fingers and the air around Harry’s room shimmered and crackled. The door
splintered, then opened, and Harry emerged. Her hair was slightly messy but apart from that, she was fine.