Kerry Barrett - I Put A Spell On You

I nodded. Chloe was the obvious choice – she’d been Esme’s best friend forever and knew all about our family and its quirks.

“She said no,” Esme said.

“What? Why?”

Ez screwed her face up.

“She’s pregnant.”

“Again?” I said in horror. “She’s got about four kids already.”

“She’s got two,” Esme said, in a tone that suggested she thought I was less intelligent than either of Chloe’s sprogs. “I think this one was a bit of a surprise and she’s only just found out.”

“So why can’t she be bridesmaid?”

“Because her baby is due in August,” Esme said. “And we’re getting married in September. She says she’ll do a reading, or be a witness, or whatever. She just doesn’t want to be bridesmaid and have to squeeze into a fancy frock while she’s sore and lumpy and breastfeeding.”

I shuddered.

“You’re not selling it, Ez,” I said. “So what has Chloe’s fertility got to do with me?” Realisation dawned.

“No,” I said. “I’m not the bridesmaid type.”

“Please?”

“No.”

“Mum would love it. Your mum would love it.”

Esme looked at me, her blue eyes twinkling.

“Will I have to organise a hen night?” I said.

Esme shook her head.

“What about the dress? Can I choose it?”

“You can even choose mine,” she said. “You’re much better at clothes than I am.”

I knew when I was beaten.

“Okay,” I said. “But you are not to call me anything vile like matron of honour.”

Esme grinned.

“Maid of honour,” she said. “Because you’re not married.”

I whacked her with a wedding magazine and she chuckled.

I left her and Jamie to their plans, ran myself a bath, and sank into the bubbles, closing my eyes and letting my mind drift. It was just what I needed after such a stressful few days.

I didn’t think about Star, or the power cut and our lost files, or Xander’s pursuit of Esme, or even the fact that I’d just agreed to be a bridesmaid. It was bliss.

Maybe it was all coincidence, I thought. This wasn’t the Wild West. No one had a grudge against me, no one would have targeted Star deliberately. It was just bad luck. I got out of the bath, and into bed feeling much better about everything. And then, the next day, it all went wrong again.

Chapter 10

The first thing that went wrong the next day was that Louise rang. Not that it was wrong that she rang exactly, it was more what she said.

“I looked at those pictures,” she said. “Do you think Star was in some kind of trouble?”

“It looks like it,” I admitted. “She must have thought so – otherwise why would she take those photos?”

I was sitting at my desk in my office. I twirled round on my chair, and stared out of the window.

“I was worried that she might have been protecting me,” I said. “That someone was targeting me and she got in the way.”

There was a pause.

“Can you think of anyone that would want to hurt you?” she said.

“No,” I said. “There’s no one. I know I’m not the easiest person to get along with and I sometimes rub people up the wrong way, but there’s no one I can think of who hates me.”

“That’s good to hear,” she said.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” I said. “Just a bit of bad luck.”

“Do you really think that?” She spoke in a soft voice.

I paused.

“Not really,” I said. “It’s too much all at once.”

Louise agreed. “Listen,” she said. “I can’t officially reopen the investigation at this stage but I will do some digging. Off the record. Let’s meet up and talk everything through.”

I felt a small glimmer of excitement that I’d see her again, then stopped myself. She was just doing her job, I told myself sternly. This wasn’t a date, or even a social meeting. It was business.

We arranged to meet the next day.

“See you tomorrow,” I said.

“Looking forward to it,” Louise said. Did she mean it? “And Harry?”

“Yes?”

“Please be careful. If you’re worried about anything, just ring me.”

I allowed myself a very small smile, then put Louise out of my head and got back to work. I had decided to send our regular clients each a special offer tailored just for them, in an attempt to get some professionalism back, and I was trawling through the list, trying to decide who to send for an aura-cleansing session and who to offer Reiki, when Xander breezed in without knocking.

“Morning!” he sang.

“You’re very late,” I said. It was nearly lunchtime. “But also very cheerful, “I added. Xander was a lot of fun when he was happy and I didn’t want to dampen his good mood.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said. He pulled up a chair and looked at what I was doing. “In fact, it fits right in with all this.”

“Go on,” I said, feeling a tiny spark of excitement. Xander was a genius when it came to business ideas.

“Let me do some spiritual counselling,” he said. “No, don’t disagree – listen first.”

I sighed, knowing he was right.

“Let’s offer some half-price sessions, with me doing the counselling and you sitting in. That way, you can make sure I’m doing it right and I can get some feedback. Plus, I reckon a cheap deal will get all the customers flooding back.”

I wrinkled my nose up. Xander definitely had a point about attracting customers, but he was very new to magic; I wasn’t sure how he’d handle the counselling. Plus, of course, it’s my thing. Mine. I wasn’t completely happy about

Spiritual counselling is the name I’ve given my witchcraft. It’s not explicit in my ads, or even talked about with my clients. But they come in with a problem, we chat about it, talk about some solutions and I come up with a spell. The way I see it is I’m almost writing them a prescription. I’ve got a loyal group of discreet clients and all my new customers come from word-of-mouth recommendations.

I looked at Xander.

“Have you had another session with Esme?” I asked him. He nodded.

“We’ve had a couple of sessions now. She’s a good teacher.”

“What have you done?”

Xander sat on the desk next to me and gave me a dazzling smile. He really was beautiful. I could see why he had the effect he did on women. He saw me looking and stretched his arms up above his head. It was obviously a well-practised move. His T-shirt slid up, revealing his smooth, taut stomach with a sprinkling of dark hairs. I prodded his six-pack with my biro.

“Stop it,” I said. “You know that doesn’t work on me. Tell me what you know.”

Giving an over-dramatic sigh, Xander ran through what he’d learned from Esme. I was impressed. She’d covered all the basics and even started him on a few simple incantations. She wasn’t normally so keen. I wondered if he’d tried the midriff trick on her.

“Okay,” I said, pushing him off the desk and starting to type again. “You can sit in on my sessions for the rest of the week – we’ll work together – then from Monday you can go it alone. As long as you run everything past me first.”

Xander blinded me with his smile.

“It’s going to be brilliant,” he said.

He was right, of course. I emailed the flyer about Xander’s half-price sessions to my regular clients and asked them to pass it on to their friends. By the end of the day our new appointment book was full for the next two weeks and beyond and any fears I’d had about the future of the spa were calmed. At least for a while.

At about five pm I decided to call it a day. It had been an exhausting week and I was desperate for a hot bath and a night in front of rubbish TV.

I switched off my computer, put on my coat and picked up my bag, then I paused at the door of my office and thought again. Spinning round on the heel of my boot, I marched back to my desk, unplugged my laptop and slipped it into my bag. Then I dug through my desk drawer for the keys to my office, the keys I never used, and took them out. As I left, I locked the door behind me for the first time ever.