Midsummer Magic

by Julia Williams

  ‘That there’s something Freddie’s not telling us?’ she said. ‘How would we know if he’d hypnotised us and made us forget what happened?’

  ‘That might explain why we’re all aching so much,’ said Josie.

  ‘And why Ant and I have got bruises,’ said Harry. ‘If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we’d been in a fight.’

  ‘You two?’ said Diana. ‘Don’t be so ridiculous.’

  ‘Nah,’ said Ant, shaking his head with conviction. ‘That would be like us all having the same mad delusion. Don’t believe it can be done.’

  ‘Me neither,’ said Josie. ‘We must have strained ourselves from canoeing yesterday. Come on, race you home. If you’re lucky, I might cook us eggs and bacon.’

  And with that, the four friends ran laughing down the hill in the sunshine.

  The world suddenly seemed a brighter, happier place.

  As if by magic.

  Now: Bron and Tatiana

  ‘Tati, darling.’ He’d been sitting looking at her as she slept. She had never looked more beautiful to him.

  ‘Mmm,’ she said sleepily. She stirred and stretched with a yawn. ‘I’ve been having the strangest dreams. You actually stood up to Freddie for once.’

  ‘That was no dream,’ said Bron. ‘I did. He deserved it. I should have done it a long, long time ago.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Tati, looking at him levelly. ‘You should have.’

  Bron took his courage in both hands. It was now or never.

  ‘Look, Tati, I know I let you down, over the abortion. God knows I wanted to have a baby with you. But I thought Freddie would replace you in the act if he found out you were pregnant. And I couldn’t stand it. It was the worst mistake of my life, and I’ve been paying for it ever since. Can you ever forgive me?’

  ‘Oh, darling Bron,’ she said. ‘I forgave you a long time ago. But pride, jealousy and the few shreds of dignity I had left stopped me from saying so. And I treated you pretty shabbily too.’

  ‘No more than I deserved,’ said Bron.

  Tati took his hand, ‘Oh, you dear, dear man. It was cruel and unkind of me to sell our story to the papers like that. Can you forgive me?’

  Without hesitation, Bron leant over and kissed her.

  ‘Nothing to forgive,’ he said. ‘Now, let’s put the past behind us and get on with the rest of our lives.’

  Epilogue: Three years later

  ‘Now, until the break of day,

  Through this house each fairy stray.

  To the best bride-bed will we,

  Which by us shall blessed be;

  And the issue there create

  Ever shall be fortunate.

  So shall all the couples three

  Ever true in loving be.’

  A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Act V, Scene 1

  ‘Dreams, Illusions, fancies. It’s a bit of fun really. Some mind trickery perhaps, but not to be taken too seriously. I’m an entertainer, that’s all. Mea culpa if I’ve ever offended you. But come on, have I … really?’

  Freddie Puck: The Art of Illusion

  ‘I’m so excited!’ Diana was bouncing up and down like a two-year-old on speed. ‘I can’t wait to see them.’

  ‘Me neither,’ said Ant. ‘Calm down. Their plane’s only just landed. They’ll be through soon.’

  ‘I’ll go and get us coffees,’ said Diana. She went across to Costa Coffee. ‘A latte and an Americano, please.’

  ‘I don’t believe it,’ a familiar voice said behind her. ‘Diana, is that you?’

  ‘Bron!’ said Diana. ‘How fantastic to see you. What are you doing here?’

  ‘Meeting Tati from New York,’ he said. ‘She’s just been playing in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof on Broadway.’

  ‘Oh yes, I saw that in the papers,’ said Diana. ‘So everything’s going well, then?’

  ‘Brilliant,’ said Bron. ‘You know we bought Tresgothen Manor, didn’t you? You and Ant must come and see us.’

  ‘That would be fantastic,’ said Diana. ‘I see Freddie has another series of Let Me Hypnotise You coming out.’

  ‘He certainly does,’ said Bron. ‘It’s amazing how successful that’s been. People are starting to call for a revival of Illusions, so when Tati’s had time to catch up, that’s going to be our next project.’

  ‘That’s so brilliant,’ said Diana. ‘I’m really happy for you.’

  ‘And you?’

  ‘Ant and I are meeting Josie and Harry. They’re finally coming home from their travels.’

  ‘I can see congratulations are in order,’ said Bron with a smile.

  Diana blushed; it was hard to miss the enormous ring Ant had given her.

  ‘Ant would insist on a rock,’ she said. ‘You and Tati should come to the wedding. Without you we might never have got together.’

  ‘That would be lovely,’ said Bron. He gave her a kiss. ‘Tati’s plane has just landed. I’d best be there or there’ll be hell to pay.’

  He slipped off out into the crowd, and Diana went back to find Ant.

  ‘They’re in baggage,’ he said. ‘Hopefully we don’t need to wait much longer.’

  ‘You’ll never guess who I just met in Costa’s,’ said Di.

  ‘Who?’ said Ant.

  ‘Only Bron,’ said Diana.

  ‘No! What’s he doing here?’ said Ant.

  ‘Meeting Tati. You’ll be pleased to know they’re going to do a new series of Illusions.’

  ‘Can’t wait,’ said Ant.

  People had started to dribble through from customs. And they scoured the crowds, patiently until …

  ‘There!’ Ant pointed at Harry, who was pushing an enormous amount of luggage, with a fair-haired toddler sitting on the handlebars. Josie was following behind, pushing a six-month-old baby in a buggy.

  Diana and Ant raced towards them, and soon they were all hugging and laughing together.

  ‘Let’s see the ring,’ demanded Josie. ‘Wow, that’s a monster. Trust Ant to be so ostentatious.’

  ‘And these must be Tony and Di!’ Diana said, as the little boy hid behind Harry’s legs and the baby burbled happily in the pushchair. ‘I can’t believe you named them after us.’

  ‘I can’t believe you’ve managed to get her knocked up, not once, but twice since you’ve been away,’ said Ant, before Diana dug him in the ribs.

  ‘How old are they again?’ said Di.

  ‘Tony’s eighteen months and Di’s six months,’ said Josie.

  Ant whistled, ‘That’s going it some,’ he said, ‘well done, Harry!’

  ‘Oh do shut up,’ said Di, ‘I think it’s perfectly lovely. Parenthood suits you, you both look fantastic.’

  They did. The pair of them were tanned, and glowing, and relaxed with the children.

  ‘Fine,’ said Harry. ‘I’ve got enough material from our travels for my new book, about going round the world with small children in tow.’

  ‘And we’ve decided we’re going to settle down in Cornwall,’ said Josie. ‘We got fed up of big cities on our travels.’

  ‘Well, I’m glad you made it back in time to be my bridesmaid,’ said Di. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’

  ‘And to think it was meant to be the other way round,’ laughed Josie.

  ‘You still not made an honest woman of her yet?’ said Ant.

  ‘Ah,’ said Harry, ‘we did have a wedding ceremony in Thailand, just us and the children on the beach. But I think now we’re back …’

  ‘Mum’s been emailing me every day, asking whether we’ve fixed a date yet,’ sighed Josie. ‘I suppose I have kept her waiting a long time.’

  ‘You are not going to steal our thunder, I hope,’ said Ant.

  ‘No chance,’ said Josie, ‘I have no intention walking up the aisle pregnant.’

  ‘You’re never –?’ said Diana.

  ‘Seem to be,’ said Josie. ‘It’s so hard to sort out contraception when you’re travelling.’

  ‘Harry, old man,’ said
Ant, ‘nice to see you’re firing on all cylinders.’

  ‘Now I know I’m home,’ said Harry. ‘I so haven’t missed Ant being rude to me.’

  ‘And we’re glad to have you back,’ said Diana. ‘Now I can start planning my wedding in earnest.’

  ‘So long as you aren’t thinking of having fire-eaters,’ said Josie.

  ‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ said Diana. ‘It’s going to be a small wedding …’

  ‘… With only 150 guests,’ whispered Ant.

  ‘Shh,’ said Diana, thumping him. ‘And now you two are back, I just know it’s going to be perfect.’

  Acknowledgements

  This time around my first thanks have to be to the Bard, Ole Will himself, without whom I’d have never thought of – pinched – this idea. And also thanks to my parents Ann and Joseph Moffatt, who ignited my love of Shakespeare in the first place, and my two inspirational English teachers, Keith Ward and Sue Brown, who fanned the flames. Sue, I hope I’ve done justice to your favourite play!

  At an early stage, I was inspired by the wonderful Pierces, whose song You’ll Be Mine sends shivers up my spine and sparked an idea. I also delved deeply into Derren Brown’s fascinating book Tricks of the Mind to get a proper understanding of how a real hypnotist works.

  I am hugely grateful to the number of people on Twitter and Facebook who generously responded when I asked for experiences of hypnotism, and particularly to Clare Cody-Richardson, Rowan Coleman, Linda Green and Julie Mayhew, who generously shared their stories with me. And big thanks to my friend Rob Buckle for putting me right at the last minute on TV fees.

  As ever, my thanks go to my wonderful agent Dot Lumley, who has always given me stonking support, and my editor Claire Bord and the brilliant team at Avon: Caroline Ridding, Claire Power, Cleo Little, Helen Bolton, Sammia Rafique and Becke Parker.

  And finally, thanks to the people who read this in its earliest form: my twin sister Virginia Moffatt who is always my greatest cheerleader; the wonderful Rachael Lucas whose life is similar to mine, only with more children and pets; Sue Brown whose talk of Cornwall is always inspirational, Iris Rooney whose insights were incredibly valuable; and my lovely Twitter friends: Susan Creamer who taught me that procrastination is really processing, and Sarah Williams – I hope your wedding plans work out somewhat better then Josie and Harry’s!

  And finally a very special thank you to a wonderful couple, Laura and Iwan Griffith for allowing me to share in their special day and giving me an insight into the joys of Welsh weddings!

  Afterword

  Ideas come from all over the place for writers. And like the greedy magpies we are, we hone in on their shiny brightness and grab every trinket we can get. Often they begin small and burgeon into something as time goes on, and such was the case for me writing this book.

  All I knew at the beginning was that my editor, Claire, wanted me to write a summery book. And for a long time I was completely devoid of ideas. Then I heard a song on the radio, and a nugget of an idea began to form. (The song was called You’ll be Mine by the Pierces, and if you go to my website www.juliawilliamsauthor.com and look in the About section; you will find a list of the soundtracks to my books, and you can listen to it there.)

  Music is fantastically important to me when I’m writing, and often forms the inspiration for stories, scenes and characters. This time around the song, which I find very haunting, made me think of enchantments and spells and falling in love. Unusually for me (I have terrible trouble with titles normally), the idea of calling a book Midsummer Magic tumbled into my head. I thought immediately of Cornwall, (a place I find both mysterious and fascinating), Standing Stones, and magic. From there it wasn’t too big a stretch to thinking about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and how I could write a modern take on it.

  Initially, I thought this might be easy – after all, the plot’s all there (thank you, Mr Shakespeare), but what works well in a play – an impish sprite dropping magical potion into people’s eyes, seemed a bit more problematic in a novel. My first thought was to have my characters somehow take some hallucinogenic drugs, but that proved tricky, as it made my Puckish character seem rather sleazy, and Puck isn’t a sleazy character …

  In the end I hit on hypnotism as the key. I thought it could be a fun way of unlocking my characters’ innermost desires in a way that perhaps they hadn’t quite intended. I started to research the work of both Paul McKenna and Derren Brown for background and thus the characters of Freddie Puck, Auberon and Tatiana were born. I am indebted to Derren Brown’s fascinating book, Tricks of the Mind for explaining the process of hypnotism to me and a lot else besides. If you’re interested in mind games, it’s well worth a read!

  From then on in, I had my story, and though it has inevitably changed somewhat during the telling, the kernel of the original idea, which came from a simple song, remains. It’s been a blast to write from start to finish. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

  As summertime flourishes, it’s time for new beginnings … Kick off your sandals, enjoy a glass of rose and escape into another gorgeous novel this summer with Julia Williams.

  About the Author

  Julia Williams has always made up stories in her head, and until recently she thought everyone else did too. She grew up in London, one of eight children, including a twin sister. She was a children’s editor at Scholastic for several years before going freelance after the birth of her second child. It was then she decided to try her hand at writing. The result, her debut novel, Pastures New, was a bestseller and has sold across Europe.

  To find out more about Julia go to her website at www.juliawilliamsauthor.com, visit her blog at www.maniacmum.blogspot.com or follow Julia on Twitter @JCCWilliams

  By the same author:

  Pastures New

  Strictly Love

  Last Christmas

  The Bridesmaid Pact

  The Summer Season

  A Merry Little Christmas

  Copyright

  Published by HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  First published in Great Britain by Avon 2013

  Copyright © Julia Williams 2013

  Cover illustration © Sarah Gibb

  Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2013

  Julia Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

  Source ISBN: 9781847563576

  Ebook Edition © June 2013 ISBN: 9780007464487

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Version 1

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

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