Midsummer Magic

by Julia Williams

  They hadn’t said much, but Josie felt as if they didn’t need to. They could communicate through their minds, their senses; everything was accentuated. The sound of the sea, the soft summer breeze, the brush of his cheek against hers. Never had she felt like this. Never had she felt this dizzying rush of love and sweet desire. She wanted the moment to go on and on for ever.

  ‘Good. I thought I’d find you here.’ Tatiana swept in, with M’stard rushing behind her saying, ‘Please, Tati, I think you should get back to the yurt, I’m not sure this will help.’

  ‘I want to know what you did to me tonight, Freddie, you bastard. And I want any footage you’ve got of this evening, destroyed, capisce?’

  Bron got up. ‘Tati. Look, this was my fault. I thought I wanted to get back at you, and let Freddie persuade me it was a good idea. I realise now it wasn’t.’

  Tatiana looked sad suddenly.

  ‘That’s the trouble with you, Bron, isn’t it?’ she said. ‘You’ve always let Freddie dictate to you. Even when it comes to us. Especially when it comes to us.’

  ‘I know, and I’m sorry,’ said Bron. ‘You’re right. Freddie, mate, I think this hypnosis thing has gone far enough. You need to sort things out.’

  ‘If you absolutely insist,’ said Freddie, ‘but you have to admit, it has been such fun.’

  ‘Not for me, it hasn’t.’ Josie turned to see Harry glowering fiercely at Freddie. She’d never seen him look so angry before.

  ‘Oi, Ant,’ he said. ‘Leave my fiancée alone.’

  Ant stood up. ‘I’m sure we can sort this out in a civilized fashion …’ Ant began, before Harry launched himself at him.

  ‘I’m not,’ said Harry. Josie screamed as he struck Ant on the nose, and knocked him to the ground.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Diana leapt to her feet, hand over her mouth as she watched Harry tackle Ant to the ground. ‘Harry, no!’ she screamed as Harry sat on Ant’s stomach and pummelled his face, followed by, ‘Please don’t hurt him.’ Not that he looked in danger of doing so. Ant being the stronger, he soon recovered from the element of surprise, and managed to push Harry off him.

  ‘Come on, mate,’ he said, ‘we’ll never solve anything like this.’ But Harry just threw another blow at him. Ant ducked and Harry nearly tripped over.

  ‘You bastard, Ant,’ he panted, arms flailing wildly. ‘You’re not going to get away with this.’

  He was bright red in the face from the exertion, and made a most unlikely boxer.

  ‘You’re mad,’ said Ant, ‘but if you really have to do this then –’

  He struck out and caught Harry a glancing blow on the cheek.

  Harry appeared infuriated by this and charged Ant, who pushed him away easily. The pair tussled to and fro for an instant, neither gaining much advantage, Josie shrieking helplessly, ‘Stop! The both of you. Please.’

  ‘You’re never satisfied, are you?’ spat Harry, as Ant managed to land another blow. ‘You think you’re so much better than everyone else, that you’re entitled to take what you want. Well, you’re not having Josie, do you hear?’

  He hit out wildly, and managed a lucky blow in the stomach.

  ‘Oof,’ said Ant, before coming back at Harry with a huge shove, which made Harry fall over.

  ‘It’s not up to you, mate,’ he said. ‘Why don’t you ask Josie?’

  ‘What, so you can treat her like you did Di?’ said Harry. ‘Josie, you can’t have forgotten that this is the man who left his girlfriend alone while she was having a miscarriage? Some romantic he is.’

  ‘You bastard,’ said Ant. ‘It wasn’t like that, and Di knows it.’

  And with that, he was like a raging animal, raining blows down on Harry like a man possessed.

  ‘Stop!’ screamed Di. ‘Both of you, please, just stop!’

  Ant had never been so furious in his life. He couldn’t think of anything but that he wanted to punish Harry, and pummel him half to death. How dare he say that about Diana? What did he bloody know about it?

  Harry wasn’t going to back down easily though. He might not be as strong as Ant, but he was good at ducking and diving, and hard as Ant tried, he wasn’t connecting many punches. Ant was soon breathless from trying to keep up. He’d put on weight since he’d been home and Harry spent more time in the gym, which was giving him an advantage.

  ‘And what about you?’ he taunted. ‘Some loyal fiancé you are. Not even prepared to follow through your promises. Josie’s better off without you.’

  ‘You!’ Harry launched straight at him, forgetting to parry, so Ant managed to catch him in the stomach. Not so much of an advantage then. Ant had evidently spent more of his youth scrapping than Harry.

  ‘Ugh,’ Harry staggered backwards, but he soon steadied himself, and like the Duracell Bunny, he kept coming back for more. It seemed as if nothing was going to stop him.

  ‘Don’t you dare talk about Josie,’ Harry said and he was off again, darting round Ant, throwing punches when he could.

  Ant was beginning to tire. It had been a very long night. He was vaguely aware the girls were yelling at them to stop, but he found himself unable to step back. Harry had started and Ant was buggered if he was going to back out now.

  ‘Can’t you do something?’ said Josie in desperation to Freddie, who looked like he was enjoying himself. ‘They’re going to kill each other.’

  ‘I doubt that,’ said Freddie. ‘It’s not like either of them is much cop.’

  It was true that neither of them had really managed to inflict that much damage on the other, which was something, Josie thought. But they were beginning to tire now and were staggering round the theatre. Ant had a cut on his lip, and Harry had a bruised cheek. Josie couldn’t bear that either of them was being hurt. She felt the first smidgeon of doubt about her behaviour. Had she done the right thing, choosing Ant? Maybe she’d have been better off choosing neither of them.

  ‘This is all your fault, Freddie,’ she said. ‘We were fine till we met you.’

  ‘You all agreed to be hypnotised,’ shrugged Freddie, ‘and the subconscious is a strange thing. You all appear to have acted out secret desires tonight.’

  ‘Yes, but we didn’t expect this,’ said Josie. ‘Di’s barely speaking to me, the boys are fighting, I’ve no idea what I feel about anyone. You have to stop it.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Bron said. ‘Freddie, this has gone too far. What we did to Tati was bad enough. But this – you’re playing with people’s lives. It’s not fair.’

  ‘And so the lion eventually roars,’ said Tatiana, looking slightly admiring.

  ‘You still got something to give?’ Ant taunted Harry, panting wildly. ‘Come on then, come and get me!’

  ‘I could keep this going all day,’ said Harry savagely, and launched another attack.

  Two of them fighting over her. Some other woman might be thrilled about that, but not Josie.

  ‘Freddie, Bron’s right, you need to do something now!’

  Harry could barely stand. His ribs were aching, he had a huge stitch, his shirt was torn and his fists felt bruised. He hadn’t had a physical fight with anyone since he was eight, when he’d punched Adam Fellows on the nose for saying Katrina Jones was a cow. Katrina had been his girlfriend at the time. Which just went to show chivalry wasn’t dead.

  Despite how rough he was feeling, Harry had no intention of backing down. Ant had crossed a line, and he was going to have to pay for it.

  ‘Gentleman, I think it’s time to call it a day.’ Harry was suddenly aware that Freddie Puck was standing in his way. ‘This has gone far enough.’

  Enraged that anyone would try to stop him now, and doubly enraged by all the trouble Freddie had wrought, Harry punched him on the nose.

  ‘Ouch!’ said Freddie, clutching his nose, which was pouring blood. ‘There was no need for that!’

  ‘Go, Harry,’ said Tatiana. ‘Team Harry for the win!’

  ‘Not helping, Tati darling,’ said Bron. />
  ‘Keep out of this,’ said Harry to Freddie. ‘It’s my fight.’

  He threw himself at Ant once more and soon they were rolling and scrapping on the grass like two street kids.

  ‘Harry, stop it! You’ll kill him!’ He vaguely heard Josie’s voice, which enraged him further. Harry fought like a madman, till he felt arms reaching from behind him and dragging him away from Ant. It was Bron.

  ‘Enough, Harry, it’s enough. This isn’t going to solve anything.’

  Harry stood panting, his heart hammering. The fury started to drain away. He looked down at himself. What a state. ‘I suppose,’ he said.

  Ant got up, looking rather sheepish, the cut on his lip still bleeding.

  ‘Did I do that?’ Harry was quite proud of himself. He’d never really considered fighting one of his life skills.

  ‘Right,’ said Bron. ‘Let’s be civilised about this.’

  ‘So long as Ant says sorry,’ said Harry.

  ‘Sorry? You started it,’ said Ant.

  ‘If you can’t keep your hands to yourself,’ glared Harry.

  ‘She was up for it,’ taunted Ant. ‘Let’s face it, you lost her.’

  ‘You …!’ Harry threw a final enraged punch at Ant, which, catching him by surprise, caught him bang on the nose.

  ‘Oh,’ said Ant in surprise. He wobbled a bit, and unlike a Weeble, fell down.

  ‘Ant!’ there was a shriek from the girls.

  ‘Oh, Harry,’ said Josie. ‘What have you done?’

  Now: Bron

  ‘My my, quite the hero tonight, aren’t we?’ Tatiana said.

  Bron had taken Harry to one side and calmed him down while the girls were tending to Ant. Harry was sitting, looking genuinely stunned.

  ‘I didn’t mean to hit him that hard,’ he kept saying, ‘really I didn’t.’

  ‘I know old chap,’ said Bron, patting him on the back. ‘Heat of the moment, passions flying, and all that. If this were on the stage, it would make a great tragedy.’

  ‘Thanks,’ said Harry, ‘but my life isn’t normally this dramatic, and quite frankly, I prefer it like that.’

  Bron paused from what he was doing and looked up at Tati.

  ‘No,’ he said, ‘you know I’m not. I’ve never been the hero you deserved.’

  This was an improvement. At least Tati was talking to him.

  ‘You could always change that,’ she said, a little smile playing on her lips.

  Hang on, this was Tati warmer than he’d seen her towards him for years.

  ‘Erm, how exactly?’ he said, wondering if this were some kind of trick.

  ‘By following it through.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘The standing up to Freddie thing,’ she said. ‘I rather like it.’

  ‘Well, then, I shall do it some more,’ said Bron. He strode over to Freddie, who was still nursing his sore nose.

  ‘It hurts,’ he complained. ‘I should sue.’

  ‘Stop being such a baby,’ said Bron. ‘It serves you right. You need to sort all of this out, right now.’

  ‘Why should I?’ said Freddie sulkily. ‘They signed contracts. I never promised them they’d fall in love with the right people. Just that they’d plight their troth at midnight. Which they’ve all done. It will make great telly.’

  ‘Great telly, my arse!’ roared Bron. ‘You’ve muddled these lovely people up enough, they deserve to be back together with the ones they love. Got it?’

  ‘Got it,’ said Freddie, completely taken aback.

  ‘Ooh,’ cooed Tati, ‘I do love a masterful man.’

  And Bron glowed with pride.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Ant came to in a daze. He didn’t know where he was for a moment, then had a sudden rush to the head. He was lying in snow, next to Diana, giggling his head off.

  ‘Di,’ he said as her face swam into view, but then another face was looking over him anxiously. ‘Where’s Diana?’ he said. ‘I want Di.’

  ‘It’s Josie, Ant,’ the face said. ‘You’ve had a bang on the head.’

  Ant felt his nose, which really hurt, and his stomach was aching.

  ‘Josie?’ he said tentatively. He wasn’t lying in snow. Diana wasn’t beside him, he was lying in dew-soaked grass on top of a cliff in Cornwall. And everything seemed to hurt.

  ‘Are you all right?’ said Josie. ‘I was so worried.’

  Josie was worried about him?

  ‘I think so,’ said Ant. He tried to sit up, but felt a bit dizzy, and lay back down again. It was quite pleasant lying on the grass staring at the sky, relaxing. He had a feeling he had been under a lot of stress recently.

  ‘Ant, Ant, talk to me,’ Josie was rubbing his hands anxiously. Why was Josie rubbing his hands? Where was Diana?

  ‘I’m fine really,’ said Ant. ‘Just give me a minute.’

  ‘Yes, Josie, give him a minute,’ he heard Diana say. ‘Poor guy needs some air. Don’t fuss so.’

  ‘I’m not fussing,’ said Josie.

  ‘Here, this will help,’ Diana produced something strong in a hip flask. ‘It’s brandy, I got it from Freddie.’

  Ant took a sip and it nearly blew his head off.

  Freddie? He felt more confused than ever. Then it all came flooding back. The hypnotism; the mix-ups, rescuing Tatiana, the fight.

  He sat bolt upright, searching for Harry.

  ‘You knocked me out,’ Ant said indignantly.

  Harry managed to look sheepish and defiant at the same time.

  ‘You stole Josie from me.’

  ‘You didn’t want her,’ said Ant.

  ‘That’s not true,’ said Harry. ‘I love Josie. I just don’t want to get married … yet. Maybe one day, but not now.’

  They stared at each other, and for a moment Ant thought Harry might be about to kick off again, but then Ant burst out laughing.

  ‘I guess none of us has behaved brilliantly tonight,’ he said. ‘Look at the state of us.’

  He was aware that his nose was bleeding and his shirt was caked in blood, while Harry’s was ripped at the collar. They were both covered in bruises, Harry sporting a particularly fine one on his cheek.

  ‘It’s not funny,’ scolded Josie, applying a hankie to his nose. ‘Harry could have really hurt you.’

  ‘Here, let me,’ said Diana. ‘He needs his head held right back if that bleeding’s ever going to stop.’

  ‘Who do you think you are?’ said Josie, clearly feeling she had the right to take charge. ‘His mother?’

  ‘Ladies, ladies, I’m quite capable of holding my own nose,’ said Ant. ‘Wonders will never cease. Two women fighting over me. I could get used to this.’

  He pinched his nose, tipped his head back, got up and limped over to Harry.

  ‘No hard feelings, mate,’ he said proffering his hand.

  ‘None,’ said Harry. ‘Sorry about your nose.’

  ‘Sorry about your shirt.’

  They stood awkwardly for a minute before Ant said, ‘Come here you stupid sod,’ and enveloped him in a bear hug.

  ‘Now what?’ said Harry.

  ‘Now Freddie is going to put things right,’ said Bron.

  Josie was seething. Diana had pushed her way over to Ant, as soon as he’d gone down, and was acting as if he were her property. Diana, who hadn’t done anything but sneer and snipe at Ant all weekend. Diana, who’d spent half the weekend chasing after Harry, and the other half chasing Ant.

  ‘What is it with you and men,’ hissed Josie. ‘Do you always have to steal guys that belong to someone else?’

  ‘Can’t poor little Josie cope without her coterie of admirers?’ sneered Diana. ‘Are you going to add Freddie and Bron to the set? I bet Mike would happily join in too, given his recent disappointment.’

  ‘What?’ said Josie. ‘I’m not the one who pursues other people’s fiancés. Just because you can’t get a man of your own doesn’t mean you can steal mine.’

  ‘You’re the one who’s spent the be
st part of the night pushing Harry away,’ Diana said furiously. ‘You know your trouble, Josie? You’re spoilt rotten. With your big house, and your wealthy mummy and daddy who’ll bail you out of the slightest crisis. You can’t cope when things don’t go your way. You’re a spoilt little cow.’

  ‘And you’re a jealous bitch,’ said Josie. ‘I can’t help it if you’ve had a crappy home life, you’ve lost your job, and screwed up your love life. You need to start taking responsibility for your own life. Not blaming other people for your mistakes.’

  ‘You … you … You have no idea what it’s been like for me!’ Diana looked angrier than Josie had ever seen her. ‘How dare you say that?’ She slapped Josie round the face.

  Josie clutched her face, stunned.

  ‘Oh, God,’ said Diana, ‘I’m so sorry – I didn’t mean to …’

  ‘Josie, are you okay?’ Ant and Harry both sprang up like knights in shining armour.

  ‘Great,’ said Diana slumping down, defeated. ‘Always the bridesmaid, never the sodding bride.’

  ‘Blimey, a catfight,’ said Ant, trying to make light of things. ‘Did you have to stop?’

  ‘Shut up, Ant. Josie, are you okay?’ Harry said, putting his arm round her.

  ‘Fine,’ said Josie, shaking his arm off. She was still glaring at Diana, who was sitting down on the ground, the wind completely out of her sails.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Ant was over in a trice, trying to find a gap in her defences no doubt. She was fed up with the lot of them. Men were just too much trouble.

  ‘Absolutely,’ said Josie. ‘I’m tired, fed up and I just want to go home.’

  Harry came over to her again.

  ‘Come on, Josie,’ he said gently. ‘It’s been a mad night. We can sort this out, I’m sure.’

  ‘Can we?’ said Josie. ‘I think my whole life has just fallen apart in front of me, and no,’ – she could see that Ant was taking that as an invitation – ‘I made a mistake earlier on. Being with you won’t solve anything. I want to be alone, and this time I really mean it.’