Page 78 of The Trouble With Love

‘The ability to manipulate the police is a skill learned during a very misspent childhood. Give them Occam’s razor, nicely sharpened, and the event is as good as over.’

‘What?’ Isobel frowned.

‘Basically, you give them the simplest explanation which seems to fit the facts, and it takes a very keen copper to go looking for anything more complicated.’ Kai twisted his thumb ring for a bit, so as not to look at us.

‘But they have the candles!’

Kai grinned. ‘Not any more.’

‘You broke into Drug-Dealer Andy’s house and stole the candles? And the pictures?’

A small shrug and the smile went secretive. ‘Something like that.’

‘Then we were fortunate that we have you on our side, Mr Rhys.’ Vivienne, still possessed by the soul of Jane Austen, patted his shoulder. As she touched him, the floor of the living room seemed to swirl momentarily, the walls flowed and there was the brief sense that the world was a notional place. A second later everything was as before.

‘Did anyone else feel that?’ I swallowed the giddiness and gave my head a little shake. ‘Or is it those tablets the doctor gave me — they’re absolutely enormous. I’m not one hundred per cent certain which end I’m supposed to be putting them in and I’m sure they’re made for horses.’

‘A discharge of energy,’ Vivienne said. ‘The spell ending.’ Several cats ran in from the kitchen, stared at us accusingly and stalked, bristle-backed from the room again. ‘You see? They sensed something.’

Isobel sat down hard. ‘I thought it was me. I get dizzy sometimes. That, and I can’t bear the smell of Dettol.’

‘She’s pregnant,’ I muttered to Megan, who widened her eyes until she looked like a mad cow.

‘Really? But . . . I thought she said she was a virgin . . . Oh, surely not . . .’

Before she could start crossing herself and kneeling, I pinched her elbow. ‘The spell wasn’t that good. She’s just not a virgin any more, which seems to have been her desired result, oh, that and the baby.’

We all looked at one another, feeling the weight of statistical likelihood pressing on us. ‘And we all got what we wanted,’ Megan voiced what we were all thinking. ‘All of us. That’s pretty incredible when you think about it.’

‘One dog, one returned husband, one adopted son, one baby and . . .’ I hesitated. Kai was looking at me out of those yellow eyes with an expression that was impossible to guess the meaning of, ‘and one journalist,’ I finished, going for the safest option. ‘But was it really magic?’

A long arm slipped around my waist. ‘Maybe belief is all there really needs to be.’ Kai smelled of fresh air and his skin was cold as diamond. ‘Belief and love. Because that’s what this spell did, if it did anything, it showed that love doesn’t have a simple definition. Except in our case, of course. Which is where my carefully crafted theory falls down.’ The arm gave me a squeeze.

‘I said I loved you because I thought you were dead.’ I leaned away slightly.

‘So? I’m twice as easy to love alive.’ He closed the gap and whispered in my ear, ‘I move about more, for a start.’

‘You are so smug.’ But I couldn’t even manage to sound really annoyed; my breath had thickened in my throat and maybe there was some residue of self-imposed magic in the air because I suddenly wanted to kiss him, with the implied possibility of throwing him across a sofa and ripping his clothes off with anything capable of exerting sufficient grip.

But not in front of his mother, of course.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hey, mum. This is just for you. A kind of PS, if you like. The rest of the stuff I showed you, yeah, that’s making the book — being a journo has some advantages and one of them is knowing a load of guys who’re all fighting over the rights. Even Holl isn’t going to get to see this. She’s read the rest. Made her cry. But this one — this is ‘your eyes only’.

It’s not always going to be easy, what we’ve got. I know you want to rush straight into ‘mother and grandmother’ mode . . . all that shopping you did for Cerys and the twins? Christ, never seen so many M&S bags in my life, but, yeah, I understand. You might not be around forever, want to make up for not being there up till now . . . yeah. Understood. But. You can’t buy love, guess you know that. You have to earn it. Just be there, mum. That’s all I ask. Just be there. For them, for me, for Holly.

This time last year . . . wow, when I look back it’s like everything’s changed. Then I’d just fucked up my life with Imogen in ways that made Christmas in a war zone look peaceful. Now I’ve got a family, a real love, I’ve even got a bloody Christmas tree and a turkey — what the fuck is that all about? And you. You were always like this bogeyman in my head, you know, this creature who left me as soon as she could get away, and now I know you were just a scared kid — it’s like I’m reappraising everything.

And it’s going to take time. But I think we can do it. I never thought I’d love a woman, but I love Holly. So, just maybe I can learn to love you too.

Like Holly says, maybe there is something in this ‘magic’ after all. Or maybe it’s just us, offloading responsibility onto some ‘spell’ shit. Either way, we’re doing okay. Dealing with life, working things out.

Which is another kind of magic really, isn’t it?

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Christmas day brought a surprise visit by Cerys and Nicholas and the twins.

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