Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (19 page)

‘So what did she say?’

Harry slurped her coffee.

‘I said I’d heard there had been a bit of a kerfuffle at the café yesterday.’

‘Kerfuffle at the café,’ Nell said with a chuckle. ‘I like that.’

Harry silenced her with a look.

‘Sorry,’ she said.

‘Anyway,’ Harry went on. ‘She sort of laughed and said it was more of a peaceful protest. I bought a magazine, so then I gave her the money and held on to her hand – it makes it simple to read someone if you’re touching them. I asked her what she was protesting about and she said – you’ll love this – she said they were protesting about witches.’

I gasped. We’d known that, of course, what with their CLAW banners, but it just sounded so brutal when Harry said it.

‘So I said who was behind the protests, expecting her to say it was that Millicent,’ Harry said. ‘And she said, Brent.’

‘But she didn’t mean our Brent,’ I said, still refusing to believe it.

‘No she meant the other Brent,’ Harry said.

‘No need to be sarky,’ I said. ‘Maybe she meant our Brent, but she didn’t mean he was
leading it all. Because it’s Millicent who’s leading it all.’

‘Oh give it up, Ez,’ Harry said. ‘It’s not Millicent. It’s Brent. And we’ve let him into our lives – he’s got close to you and Suky, he’s been going through my accounts for pity’s sake, he’s got your mum’s email passwords. He could be doing anything. Clearing our bloody bank accounts, probably.’

‘But why would he do that?’ I was still bewildered. How could it be Brent? He was so nice.

Harry looked around the empty café.

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘But it’s working isn’t it? I’m going to find him.’

‘Oh Harry, no,’ I said. ‘Wait until we’re sure.’

She looked at me with barely controlled anger.

‘I’m sure,’ she said. ‘I know what I heard.’

She pulled her coat off the stand, and marched to the door.

‘I’m not going to let him get away with this,’ she said.

The door slammed behind her and I looked at Nell.

‘What shall we do?’ she said.

‘I don’t know.’ I put my head in my hands. ‘I am completely out of ideas.’

In the end what we did was shut the café. There was no point in keeping it open if there were no customers, so I locked up and said goodbye to Nell. I didn’t want to go home so instead I headed down to the beach. It had started raining, again, so wanting shelter, I headed to the cave.

I sat in the entrance, on the sandy floor, protected from the worst of the wind by the rock and gazed out to sea. I couldn’t believe some random man had taken against us so violently that it could cost us our business and our home. What had we ever done to hurt him?

I thought back over all my conversations with Brent and the questions he’d been asking about the café. Hadn’t he said his first business was property? Real estate, as he called it? Could this just be about money?

A noise behind the rock made me jump, and I looked up as Jamie appeared. He was wearing a suit and carrying his doctor’s bag.

‘You’re not dressed for the beach,’ I said.

‘I’ve just finished my house calls,’ he said with a grin. ‘I saw Nell and she said you’d come down here and might need some company.’

I smiled and made room for him on the sand.

‘Pull up a chair,’ I said.

Jamie sat down. I liked the feeling of him so close to me.

‘What’s up?’ he said. ‘Why have you closed the café?’

‘No customers,’ I said. ‘They’ve all turned against us.’

‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ he said.

‘Oh it’s true all right,’ I said. ‘Brent’s had a hand in it.’

‘Brent?’ Jamie said. ‘No, surely not. He’s a nice guy.’

‘Been showing him your accounts have you?’ I asked.

‘I have actually,’ Jamie said.

I nodded.

‘I think he’s been nosing round all the businesses in town, checking out which ones are the most lucrative. We’ve obviously come out top.’

Jamie looked a bit offended.

‘The practice makes money,’ he said.

I smiled at his defence of his dad’s surgery.

‘I think it’s our land that makes us the lucky ones,’ I said. ‘You can’t build on the loch now, can you? We’re the only business with that location and that view. And it’s never going to change. I expect our building is worth quite a bit.’

Jamie looked bewildered.

‘So you think Brent’s been snooping around trying to find a money-making scheme?’ he said.

‘I don’t know why he wants it but I think he wants property here,’ I said. ‘He pinpointed us, but he knew we wouldn’t sell so he’s had to play dirty.’

Jamie looked stern.

‘What’s he done?’

‘He’s got a campaign against us,’ I said wearily, leaning back against a rock and hugging my freezing legs. ‘He’s got the whole village involved and he wants to shut us down.’

‘So what are we going to do about it?’

I smiled at the ‘we’ but I couldn’t help shaking my head.

‘I’m not sure there’s anything we can do,’ I said. ‘Suky’s so ill and Mum and Eva are knackered and Harry’s just angry. Maybe it’s best just to shut up shop, at least for now.’

‘No bloody way!’

I’d never seen laid-back Jamie so riled before. I stared at him in surprise.

‘You’re not giving up!’

I felt tears come into my eyes – again – and I couldn’t speak for a moment.

‘Ez, I’m serious.’ Jamie took my hand, his blue eyes creased with worry. ‘Who’s the bravest person you know?’

‘Suky I guess,’ I said. ‘Or my dad.’ Thinking about my dad made me want to cry again. ‘He’s really brave.’

‘And what has he done that’s so brave?’ Jamie said.

‘Oh you know, just little things,’ I said, with a small smile. ‘He fought in a war. He saw his friends killed. And then he was injured so badly that he had to give up the career he loved and build a new life for himself.’

‘Did he ever give up?’ Jamie asked.

Feeling slightly like a naughty toddler, I shook my head.

‘And what about you? It would have been much easier for him to walk away and never get to know you. But did he ever give up on you?’

I shook my head again.

‘Exactly!’ Jamie was triumphant. ‘And that’s why you can’t give up on this now.’

‘But it’s so hard,’ I whispered.

‘But I’m here to help,’ Jamie put his arm round me and for a moment I relaxed against him. It felt nice.

‘And there’s Chloé and Harry. We’ll all pitch in.’

‘Do you think it’ll work?’

‘I don’t know,’ Jamie said. ‘But I do know we shouldn’t just roll over and let Brent win. We’re better than that, Ez. We’re braver than that.’

‘Come on then, William Wallace.’ I heaved myself up and brushed the soggy sand from my bottom. ‘Let’s go and get a coffee.’

Chapter 38

As we trudged up the street, my phone rang. It was Harry.

‘I can’t find the bugger,’ she said. ‘Have you seen him?’

‘No,’ I said. ‘But I haven’t been looking.’

Harry sighed impatiently.

‘I really want to speak to him, Ez,’ she said. ‘I need to know what he’s playing at.’

‘I think it’s all to do with money,’ I said. I explained my theory again.

‘That makes sense,’ Harry said. ‘So you don’t think he’s like a modern-day witch finder general?’

‘I think the witch thing is neither here nor there for him,’ I admitted, talking quietly so Jamie wouldn’t hear. ‘I think he heard some people talking about being a bit dissatisfied with Suky’s spells and he just seized the opportunity.’

‘What a smoothie he is,’ Harry said. She sounded almost impressed. ‘He won our trust and used it against us.’

‘That’s why it makes me feel so sick,’ I said.

‘I know,’ she said sympathetically. ‘Me too. Listen, I have some stuff to do for Mum, will you be OK this afternoon.’

‘What stuff?’ I said.

‘Just stuff,’ she said, evasively.

‘Voodoo?’

‘Nothing creepy,’ she said. ‘It’s just if we’re going to do it, we need to do it on Halloween and that’s just a few days away now.’

‘Fine,’ I said. ‘Do your thing.’

I said goodbye and rang off, then I walked across the road to where Jamie had wandered. He was standing staring at a bold poster, slapped, slightly skewwhiff, on to a lamppost.

‘Look at this, Esme,’ he said.

PROTECT YOUR CHILDREN! the poster read.

‘What the bloody hell is this?’ I pulled Jamie’s arm and looked closer. At the bottom of the poster was a date – Halloween – a time – 7.30pm – a location – St Columba’s church hall – and a tiny CLAW logo.

Annoyed and scared I pulled it off the wall and stuffed it into the pocket of my fleece. But as we walked on, I realised we were fighting a losing battle – there were posters everywhere, each with a more sinister slogan than the last.

DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE? one read.

WHO’S WATCHING YOU? said another. And each one had the same date on – Brent was definitely planning something.

Jamie was furious and I was confused and upset as we whirled around town pulling down posters as fast as we could. Eventually, clutching a pile of the hateful flyers, we reached the café.

I was relieved to see Mum had opened up again, and even more pleased to see that though there were only a couple of customers inside, they were Chloé, Rob and the kids.

‘What’s happened?’ she said, as Jamie headed to the counter – and I slumped down next to her, giving Matilda a kiss.

I threw the posters on to the table and spread them out to show them both.

‘It’s Brent,’ I said. ‘He’s determined to shut us down.’

‘Brent?’ Chloé said in surprise. ‘He’s so nice.’

‘Long story, I said.

‘So what you gonna do about it,’ Rob asked.

I shrugged. All my fight had gone to the counter with Jamie.

‘I just don’t know.’ I looked over at Mum, who was smiling as she made Jamie’s coffee. Suddenly I felt close to tears.

‘Jamie thinks we can beat him but I don’t know,’ I said, my voice cracking.

Oliver put his little hand on my cheek.

‘Sad?’ he said.

I forced myself to smile at him.

‘No, darling,’ I said. ‘Esme is just a silly billy.’ I made a face at him and he giggled.

Chloé picked up one of the posters and read it, a look of disdain on her pretty face.

‘We’re going to take him on,’ she said forcefully. ‘Rob will help us. We can beat this, Ez.’

I looked at her doubtfully. Brent had been so clever so far, I couldn’t see a way out of his tricks.

‘Can we?’

‘Can we what?’

Jamie squeezed on to the sofa and took Matilda on to his knee. She snuggled into him happily and my heart melted. Honestly, I had to get a grip.

Over her shoulder, he peered at the poster.

‘Ah,’ he said.

‘What does “Ah” mean?’ I asked, slightly crossly. I was annoyed with him for being so perfect and making me fancy him.

‘It means I think we can take him on,’ he said. ‘I really think we can do it. We can’t just let him get away with it, can we?’

Chloé grinned triumphantly.

‘Exactly!’

Seemingly from nowhere she produced a pen and a piece of paper.

‘We need a plan,’ she declared. ‘Let’s get on with it.’

Chapter 39

In the end, though, despite the combined efforts of Chloé, Jamie, Rob and me, the plan – or at least the first bit of it – came from an unexpected place – Allan.

He was a quiet, watchful man and, to be brutally honest, apart from when he’d offered Harry and me his studio for my magic lessons, I’d barely ever spoken to him. He and Eva had a happy, calm marriage and as far as I could tell he was very nice. He was as much a part of the scenery of Claddach to me as Mum or Suky.

Anyway, he’d become part of our family and each morning I waved cheerily as he did his Tai Chi on the lawn, and we exchanged pleasantries when our paths crossed, but we’d never shared any jokes or secrets. So it was with a certain amount of surprise that I greeted him when he approached me in the kitchen at home, later that day.

‘I thought you might like to have a look at these.’ He handed me a bundle of papers.

I had been cooking dinner, so I turned the heat down on the pasta sauce and sat at the table, leafing through the papers. They were more posters – only this time they were adverts for the café.

BAD DAY? they read.

Or BAD BREAK UP?

Or BAD NEWS?

I rifled through them, faster and faster. Below that was a stylised drawing of a cupcake or a cup of coffee, then more writing.

GOOD FOOD, GOOD TIMES, GOOD FRIENDS AT CLADDACH CAFÉ, it read.

I looked at Allan. He grinned sheepishly.

‘I overheard you all talking earlier,’ he said. ‘I thought maybe we could play Brent’s game.’

I hadn’t even noticed him in the café, let alone clocked that he was listening to us. But I was very grateful he had. The posters were lovely. I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

‘Thank you, Allan,’ I said. ‘This means a lot. I know you’re busy with your exhibition coming up.’

‘Nice to have a break,’ he said gruffly, standing up. ‘I’ve got them on my laptop, so just shout if you need any more.’

As he walked out of the kitchen, Harry walked in.

‘What’s this?’ she asked, leafing through the posters.

I turned the pasta back on.

‘We’re going to put them up over Brent’s posters,’ I said. ‘We’re fighting back.’

Harry snorted.

‘We’re not fighting very hard,’ she said. ‘He’s not going to care about a few flyers.’

I bristled. I was proud of what we’d done so far.

‘It’s a start,’ I said.

‘It’s going nowhere,’ Harry said.

I turned to look at her. She looked back at me, as if daring me to disagree with her and I caved (damn it – she always intimidated me into giving in).

‘What do you suggest then?’ I said sulkily.

‘We need to confront him,’ she said again. ‘We need to find out exactly what he’s up to. And once we know, we can act. He should know we won’t just roll over.’

I took the pasta pan over to the sink and drained it.

‘He’s horrible, though,’ I said. ‘He’s not going to sit down for a chat.’