by Nancy Warren
Oh, she’d meet lots of great guys, but most of them would be undead.
Chapter 7
As we drove into Oxford, Jennifer cried out with delight. “Oh my God. I’ve seen these buildings in like a million movies.” It was great fun to see her excitement, and I took a little pride in being able to tell her a bit about the colleges, point out the Radcliffe Observatory, the Bodleian, the Sheldonian. I was becoming a local.
She twisted around in her seat, taking everything in.
“This is really a walking city. I’ll take you on a proper tour tomorrow. But for now, I thought I’d take you to the shop and we’d get you settled upstairs in my flat.”
“You’re sure you don’t mind me staying with you? You must have so many friends and relatives that I can find a hotel.”
We’d had this argument online. “No. You’re staying with me. It’ll be like a two-week slumber party.”
She beamed at me. “I can’t wait.” We drove past a group of students. “I can’t believe you live in Oxford. Do you feel smarter?”
“No. Mostly I feel like I don’t know anything. Honestly, just eavesdropping on kids’ conversations on the street is intimidating. Most of the time I don’t know what they’re talking about. It’s kind of fun, though.”
I pulled onto Harrington Street and then down the narrow lane that led round to the back of the shop where I could park.
“And here we are,” I said.
“It’s so cute,” she said, looking at the small herb garden that I really needed to tend.
We hauled her suitcases out of the back and then up the path to the door that led up to my flat.
“This is so nice,” she said, when we reached the living room. She ran to look out of the window onto the street below. “The shop’s downstairs,” I told her, pointing to the set of stairs that led down to Cardinal Woolsey’s. However, we took the stairs up one more level to the bedrooms. I showed Jen the bathroom and the guest room. She looked out of the bedroom window and squealed with excitement. “I can see the dreaming spires.” She turned to me. “I can’t wait to explore.”
It was nice to have a guest who was enthusiastic. I felt proud of my adopted city.
“I should go check in at Cardinal Woolsey’s. Why don’t you unpack, make yourself at home, have a nap if you want to or a shower. Are you hungry? Because I’ve got some light snacks in the fridge.”
“I ate on the plane, but I could sure use a cup of coffee and a shower.”
“I’ll put the coffee on. You shower. Walk on down to the shop when you’re ready.”
After I’d made coffee, I left Jen unpacking in the guest room.
I got back to the shop to find my cousin Violet in a particularly grumpy mood. She bit my head off when I said hi and complained that the shop was too hot and stuffy and that we should put in air-conditioning. She was right. It did sometimes get a little hot in there, but warm weather never lasted. And besides, I wasn’t sure the old electric system could support air-conditioning. I thought it was something else making my cousin hot under the collar.
I tried to remain cheerful. I had my best friend here, after all. But I couldn’t stop thinking about that box with the substance in it. “I can’t think about that right now. I got a strange wedding gift. It looked like petrified dung in a box. I’m pretty sure it’s from the Wicked Witch of Wallingford, but there wasn’t even a proper card.”
Vi looked horrified. “She’s not invited to your wedding, is she?”
“No.”
“Good. I think you should stay away from her. She’s a troublemaker. And she tried to kill me, don’t forget.”
“I’ll never forget that,” I assured her. What an unpleasant time the hex had caused all of us.
We had a few customers, and then Alice popped in. She didn’t work full time in Frogg’s Books, but she was often to be found there. She and her husband, Charlie, were so happy, it was enough to make anybody believe in marriage.
She came in like a burst of fresh air and said, “Lucy, Violet, I’m so glad to have you together. I’ve got such news.”
I didn’t need my witch powers to divine her news before she spilled it. There was a glow about Alice that made her beautiful. I could tell Violet had picked it up too, because her negative energy dipped even lower. It was like standing beside a black hole. I stepped forward as though I could shield poor Alice from Violet’s dissatisfaction with life. I wouldn’t spoil her surprise.
“What is it?” I asked, all innocent.
She made a movement as though she were jumping up and down without lifting her feet. Kind of like a bobbing doll. It was absolutely adorable. “I’m expecting.”
My delight was sincere as I threw my arms around her and gave her a hug. “Congratulations. You’ll be a wonderful mother.”
“It’s early days yet, so please don’t tell anyone, but I had to let you know. I’m worried about my matron of honor dress. I think we might have to get something in stretchy fabric.” She blushed adorably and put her hands to her still very flat stomach. “In case I’m showing.”
I doubted very much she’d be showing in a couple of weeks, but I loved that she had shared her news with us. Violet finally managed to move forward, though she might as well have had heavy bricks instead of feet.
“That’s great, Alice. I hope you’ll be very happy,” she managed. She sounded like she was giving a eulogy at a funeral, but she was doing her best.
Alice sent her a slightly surprised glance. “Thank you, Vi.” Then she asked, “And when are we going shopping for bridesmaids’ gowns?” She turned to me. “And what about your wedding dress? You haven’t said. Don’t tell me you’ve picked one out without us.”
I was so thrilled that she cared enough to worry about my dress. “Some friends are making it for me, as my wedding gift.”
“Why, that’s wonderful. What fabric have you chosen? I remember being torn between the silk and the chiffon and lace for the bodice.” Her wedding hadn’t been that long ago, and she still rhapsodized about a day that contained some challenges but led to a genuinely happy marriage. I shook my head, glad I hadn’t had to make all those decisions.
“You mustn’t tell anyone, because it’s a surprise. But it’s going to be made with crochet. Fine silk thread crocheted.”
Her eyes opened wide. “What an enormous amount of work. Your friends will be working night and day.”
Night, anyway.
“My friend Jennifer just arrived this morning. Let’s give her a couple of days to get settled and then go shopping for dresses.”
Two customers came in, and so she said, “I’d better get back.”
“Saturday,” I called after her. “Scarlett and Polly can take over the shop on Saturday so we can go shopping.”
“And thank you so much for checking my schedule,” Vi muttered darkly.
I turned to her, trying to be patient. “Would you be available on Saturday, Vi?”
She looked even more annoyed now. “I suppose so.”
I told Alice we’d get together later to make final plans and then turned to my customers. I suggested to Violet that she might like to go into the back and pack some of the mail orders that were waiting. The more I could keep her away from the customers, the better my business was likely to do today.
One of my customers was an excited new grandmother. “The best part is it’s twins, a boy and a girl, so no need to choose between pink and blue sweaters. I can make one of each.”
The other was making slipper socks for her husband. “It’s for his gout, you see. He likes the extra warmth.”
Once I’d helped them choose wools and patterns and they’d left, I went into the back room, where Violet was packing packages with such violence, I was glad that wool wasn’t breakable.
“Do you want to talk about whatever’s bothering you?” I asked her.
She chucked the whole package down and slumped into a chair. This being England and all, I put the kettle on.
“I don’t mean to be horrible, but you don’t know what it’s like. You’re all happy and smelling of honeysuckle and bridal bouquets, and now Alice is having a baby, and I can’t even get a date.” With that, she burst into tears.
“I know it’s hard. You just haven’t met the right guy.” It was such a feeble thing to say, but what else could I give her? It wasn’t that she didn’t try. She’d been on Witch Date, and that hadn’t gone so well, dated several men who had turned out not to be the one. But worse, she had a close and friendly relationship with William Thresher, and I suspected she wanted more.
She wiped her wet cheeks with her hand. “What if I have met the right man? And he doesn’t want me.” Her voice wobbled at the end.
I wasn’t going to beat around the bush anymore. “Is it William?”
She sniffed. “You know it is.”
And, of course, I did.
“What’s going on with you two? You seem to get on really well. He always asks you to help him when he has his catering gigs.”
“I know. And sometimes he looks at me and I really think he might be interested. But he never makes a move or asks me out. I couldn’t drop heavier hints. I’ll say things like, ‘I’ll be alone Saturday night. Wonder what I’ll watch on telly.’”
“Well, that sounds encouraging,” I said.
“And then you know what he’ll say to me? ‘If I get a catering job on Saturday, I’ll be sure to let you know.’”
Ouch. I thought about it for a minute. “Maybe he’s just shy.”
“And maybe he doesn’t like me in that way.” She was really having a pity party now.
“Do you think maybe it’s time you found out once and for all?”
She sniffed again but looked up at me hopefully. “What do you mean? Some kind of revealing spell?”
“No. Not witchcraft. Actual, real, human communication. Why don’t you ask him out?”
She put a hand to her forehead and looked as though she might faint with horror. “Sometimes you’re so American.”
Like that was a bad thing.
“At least talk to him. Tell him how you feel.”
“No,” she wailed. “I can’t talk to William. It’s hopeless. What if I asked him to go out and he said no? Then I wouldn’t even be able to work with him anymore.” She shook her head, and I thought she was getting more upset, not less, thanks to my little pep talk. “No, Lucy. I must accept it. I’ll be a lone witch forever. One of those old crones that children are frightened of, in a tumbledown stone cottage in the middle of nowhere.”
I immediately thought of Margaret Twigg, who lived in a stone cottage on the edge of Wychwood Forest. Though no one would consider Margaret lonely or pathetic. She was powerful and seemed more than happy with her single state. But Violet wasn’t like that. And the more I thought about it, the more I believed she would make a good mate for William. She knew Rafe’s secret, and being a witch, she had some secrets of her own.
She said, “I thought at least I might be paired with him in the wedding party. You know what they always say, if you’re a bridesmaid, weddings are a great place to meet blokes. But he’s not even in the wedding party,” she wailed.
I’d been surprised by this too. “I don’t think it’s because he didn’t want to walk down the aisle with you, Violet. William’s the caterer. He didn’t feel like he could both run the event and take part in it.”
“I don’t know. Personally, I think he ducked out of the wedding party to avoid me. No doubt he’ll hire a load of pretty young things as waitresses to giggle and flirt with in the kitchen while I’m standing out there alone watching my cousin”—and here she glared at me—“my younger cousin get married.”
I really did feel sorry for her, but this was getting old. I said, “I really think you should talk to him. You’ll never know until you do.”
Jennifer didn’t come down to the shop, so I assumed she’d fallen asleep upstairs. Violet’s mood had improved somewhat, so I felt safe leaving customers in her hands while I went to check on Jennifer. I went quietly up the stairs so as not to wake her and was surprised to find her sitting in my living room. “Jennifer? Everything okay?”
She glanced up at me with a funny look on her face. Then I looked around and understood her strange expression.
“Where did you get those?” I thought I’d hidden my witch paraphernalia so well. But she was sitting with my grimoire, my scrying mirror, and some black and white candles in front of her.
I had a cold, sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, probably what innocent young women in Salem felt when there was a certain knock on the door. I don’t know why I was so nervous. It wasn’t like they did terrible things to witches anymore, but I don’t know, my craft was private. A part of my life I didn’t readily share with people who didn’t have magic. Jennifer and I had been friends for so long, I didn’t know how she’d take this change in me. I couldn’t bear to think I might lose my best friend over magic.
She touched the scrying mirror with her fingers, and the surface rippled like the surface of a pond in a breeze. There was no way I could pretend it wasn’t what it was.
All she said was, “I wondered.”
Since she obviously wasn’t going to freak out and run screaming into Harrington Street, I walked closer and sat down beside her.
“What do you mean, you wondered? Did I act strange my whole life?” We seemed to be halfway into a conversation rather than beginning at the beginning.
“Remember when we used to play with the Ouija board?”
I’d almost forgotten. There’d been a stage when we were, I don’t know, ten, eleven, twelve, when we’d run home from school and get out this old cardboard Ouija board that her mom had in the back of the closet. We’d both put our fingertips on the plastic planchette, ask questions, and the disk would fly around the board. Some of the answers we got were frighteningly accurate. I nodded.
“Remember when we asked about my uncle Pat, who was having tests in the hospital? And it spelled out D-E-A-D?”
I could never forget that moment. Jennifer’s family didn’t get the news until later that day. I nodded mutely.
“Didn’t you ever wonder where we were getting that stuff from?”
I hadn’t until now. “You think I was using my powers and didn’t even know it?”
She smiled at me, put out her hand towards the grimoire, and to my absolute shock, as she raised her hand, the grimoire rose with it. She set it down and, with a practiced gesture, pointed at the candles, which immediately sprang into flame.
“You too? You’re a witch?”
She nodded. “I always thought of you as a sister. Now I know you really are one.”
I felt misty-eyed one more time. “How long have you known?”
“Not that long. I mean, I used to do things or think something might happen and then it would. But I didn’t know I was special until after you left. I guess I was bored and missing my best friend. For something to do, I took a class in healing plants. The woman who gave the class was a witch who recognized my gift and mentored me.”
“And you never said a word to me.”
“You never shared your special talents with me, either.”
Happiness rippled through me. Now I didn’t have to keep this huge secret from one of my favorite people in the world. Instead of separating us, our magic bonded us. “It was so hard because we were far away. If we’d still been living near each other, of course I would have told you.”
She looked at me seriously. “If we’d both been living the same lives, I bet we never would have discovered we were witches.”
I shivered, thinking of missing out on my gift.
“Do you think that’s why we were drawn together as kids?”
“Who knows? I’m glad we were, though.”
“Me too.”
I took her on the promised walking tour of Oxford, and then, that evening, we sat in my flat and talked for hours, catching up on old friends and reminiscing but mostly
talking about magic. She got out her knitting, and I got back to work on my crocheted sweater. “Do you ever use magic to make your knitting go faster?” I asked her.
“No. It would take the fun away.” She glanced up at me. “Do you?”
I shook my head. “Feels like cheating. Though I do have a spell for untangling wool that’s very handy. Oh, and I’ve used a tidying-up spell in the shop.”
“Completely understandable. That’s like using a computer to write a letter instead of laboriously writing one by hand.”
“Exactly. There’s a time and place for everything.”
Glad we understood each other, I suggested she might like to come to our next gathering of the coven.
“First, when do I get to meet the mysterious Rafe?”
“Tomorrow. He’s invited us for lunch.”
Chapter 8
“About time. I finally get to meet this groom of yours.” And then she poked a finger at me, mock-serious. “And I’d better like him.”
I felt strangely nervous about this meeting. Two people I loved were going to meet, and I really wanted them to like each other. What if they didn’t? I wasn’t going to cancel my engagement because my bestie didn’t like my fiancé, but I’d be sad.
One thing I swore to myself. I wasn’t going to magic her into liking him. She’d take him on his own terms. Should I tell her how very special he was? Even as the idea presented itself, I rejected it. It was one thing to know that I was a witch, something she could understand, since we shared that. But to give away that I was marrying a vampire? That might be a step too far. At least for now.
Next morning, I took Jen downstairs and showed her around the shop, which took about five minutes, and introduced her to Violet. I wouldn’t say the two clicked immediately, but Violet was polite and Jen enthusiastic about the shop, the wedding and our Saturday excursion to buy bridesmaid gowns.
