by Adele Abbott
“They might be busy.”
“Nonsense. It’s never too early to get to know your new neighbours. Come on.”
Aunt Lucy led the way next door. The door was open, so she knocked, and called out, “Hello! Anyone in? We’re your neighbours.”
Moments later, there was the sound of footsteps.
“Hello there, neighbour,” Grandma said.
“Mother?” Aunt Lucy looked stunned. She wasn’t the only one.
“Do you have any tea at your place, Lucy? I haven’t managed to bring any supplies over yet.”
“Mother?”
“Why do you keep saying that? Do you have tea or not?”
“What are you doing here?”
“I live here. Didn’t I mention I’d bought this place?”
“No, you didn’t. When did you buy it?”
“When you told me you were moving, I decided to checkout your new house, and what can I say? I fell in love with this place. So, it seems we’re still neighbours. Isn’t that nice? Now, about that tea? Do you have any?”
“Err—yes. I brought some over yesterday.”
“Good. Off you trot, and put the kettle on while I show Jill around my new house.”
Still stunned, Aunt Lucy went back next door.
“How could you do this, Grandma?”
“Do what?”
“Buy this house without telling Aunt Lucy?”
“You mean like she bought her house without telling me?”
“That’s different.”
“Are you coming in or what?”
I followed her into what was an almost carbon-copy of the house next door. After she’d shown me around, I decided to tackle her about the shop.
“Grandma, is that your shop on West Street?”
“You’ve seen it, then?”
“Why would you open it right next door to Kathy’s bridal shop?”
“Is that what she’s opening? I’d totally forgotten.”
“Don’t lie. You know very well that’s what she’s doing.”
“A little competition is a healthy thing.”
“Fair competition, maybe, but how can she compete if you use magic like you did in Ever A Wool Moment?”
“I’m sure she’ll find a way.”
“You’re right—she will. Because I’m going to help her. If you use your magic to give yourself an unfair advantage, then I’ll do the same thing for Kathy.”
“That sounds like fighting talk.”
“You’d better believe it.”
“I look forward to it. Now, shall we go and get that tea?”
***
When I arrived home, Jack’s car was already on the drive. He’d been finishing work early more often recently. Although he’d never actually said as much, I’d got the impression that his mother’s death had made him rethink his work-life balance.
As soon as I walked through the door, I could hear him laughing. Not something he’d done a lot of recently.
“Jill? Come and look at this.”
I found him seated on the sofa, laughing at something on the TV.
“What are you watching?”
“Look. Do you recognise those two?”
A man and a woman were being interviewed. They both had long hair: the man’s was dyed red, the woman’s was bright green.
“No, but they look a right couple of weirdos.”
“Look closer. Try to imagine them without hair.”
I took another look. “I’ve never seen them before.”
“I’ll give you a clue: buckets.”
“What are you talking—hold on—it can’t be.”
“It is. It’s the balaclava twins.”
The so-called balaclava twins had lived across the road from us for a short while. They were weird with a capital ‘W’. They always wore balaclavas, and never spoke to anyone. But their main claim to crazy was that they’d purchased the entire supply of buckets from The Corner Shop—all sixty-seven of them. Until The Rose had struck, I’d been convinced they were the witchfinders, Vinnie and Minnie Dreadmore.
“What are they doing on TV?”
“Apparently that’s Chris and Chrissie Chrisling—better known as Chris To The Power Of Three.”
“You are joking.”
“I’m not, and if you weren’t such a philistine, you’d know they were world famous artists.”
“No way.”
“Yes way. Just wait until you see their latest masterpiece. There, behind them.”
“What is it?” I got as close to the TV as I could. “Are those—?”
“Buckets? Yes. They call the piece Pail Imitation. Get it? Pail?”
“It’s rubbish. It’s just a few buckets stuck together in a heap.”
“To you and me, maybe. To art connoisseurs, it’s an important piece, which is expected to fetch over three million pounds.”
“You’re having a laugh.”
“That’s what they reckon. Not a bad return for buying a few buckets. It’s a pity we didn’t think of doing it.”
“I still don’t understand why they were living across the road.”
“In their interview, they mentioned they’d been living incognito, so that they could work without the eyes of the art world on them.”
“Why the balaclavas?”
“I assume they were afraid they might be recognised. Their hair is quite distinctive.”
“Recognised? Around these parts? I can’t imagine there are many art aficionados in Smallwash. Anyway, it’s nice to see you laughing, even if it is at those two nutters.”
He gave me a kiss. “Come on through to the dining room. I’ve made dinner.”
“That’s the best crockery. What’s the occasion?”
“You’ll see. Sit down. Dinner is almost ready.”
Before I could ask any more questions, he disappeared into the kitchen, and returned with a roast dinner for each of us.
“That looks lovely, but I’d still like to know what this is all about.”
“Eat up before it goes cold. All will be revealed later.”
Jack was happier than I’d seen him since before his mother’s death. I can’t remember what we talked about over dinner. It was nothing deep—just the type of idle chat we used to indulge in.
“That was delicious, thank you,” I said after we’d finished dessert. “You have to let me do the washing up.”
“Don’t worry, I intend to, but first there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Okay.”
He fished around in the pocket of his jacket, which was on the back of the chair.
I saw the ring even before he’d got down on one knee. From that moment on, everything seemed to happen in slow motion.
“I love you, Jill Gooder, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want us to have children together. Will you marry me?”
I could barely see for the tears streaming down my face.
When I didn’t reply, he said, “I was hoping you wouldn’t have to think about it. You must have been expecting this.”
At that moment, I hated that I was a witch. If I’d been just a normal human being, I would already have said ‘Yes’, but how could I? But if I said ‘No’, it would crush him.
“I want to, but—”
“But what?” He stood up. “I love you. I know you love me. What’s the problem? Don’t you want us to spend the rest of our lives together? Don’t you want us to have children together?”
“More than anything.”
“Say you’ll marry me, then.”
“I can’t. Not while—”
“While what? Jill, tell me.”
“There’s something you don’t know about me.”
“Whatever it is doesn’t matter.” He hesitated. “You’re not already married, are you?”
“No, of course not.”
“What is it then? I guarantee it won’t change the way I feel. Tell me, please.”
“Okay. You deserve that much.” I
wiped the tears away. “You’d better sit down because it’s a long story, and you’re probably going to think I’m crazy.”
“I already think that.” He grinned.
“It started about two years ago when I got a phone call from my birth mother.”
“I didn’t think you knew your birth mother.”
“The first time I saw her was on her deathbed. She contacted me because she had something important to tell me before she died. I got there just in time, and with her dying breath, she said I was a witch.”
“What? I’m sorry to say this about your mother, but to ignore you all of your life, and then to use her last breath to insult you? She must have been a nasty piece of work.”
“That’s what I thought at the time, but it wasn’t meant as an insult. She was telling me something that I needed to know. I really am a witch.”
He said nothing for a few moments, but then laughed. “You had me going there for a minute. I thought you really did have some deep, dark secret that you were scared to share with me.”
“I’m not joking, Jack. I realise how crazy it sounds, but it’s true, and I’m going to prove it to you.”
“Okay.” He was still grinning. “I’ll play along. How exactly do you intend to do that?”
I cast the ‘shrink’ spell to make myself six inches tall, and then looked up at him and said, “How’s this for starters?”
What now for Jack and Jill?
Will Jill’s revelation spell the end of their relationship, or mark the start of a magical new future together?
All will be revealed in the first book of the new season of the Witch P.I. Mysteries.
Witch Is How Things Had Changed
(Witch P.I. Mysteries #25)
(Season Three)
ALSO FROM ADELE ABBOTT:
Whoops! Our New Flatmate Is A Human
Susan Hall Investigates Book #1
Take a shy werewolf, a wizard who fancies himself as a ladies’ man, and a vampire dying for her first taste of human blood. Then add a human for good measure.
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