Page 67 of Witch You Weren't Here

There were lots of pictures of Joe and Sandy looking adorable in the warm glow of candles and Sandy’s other bridesmaids got a lot of attention too, which Kay didn’t find surprising since it was Joe’s best man who’d taken on the role of cameraman and he obviously fancied the pants off of at least one of them. Probably Chelsea, a knock-out blonde Kay had met at the hen do, who could flirt at gold-medal standard.

There were no pictures of her mother. She was sure she wouldn’t have backed out of going, just because Kay wasn’t there. Guilt needled at her, but no – she’d done everything she could to make it.

Shaking her head, she tapped out a message to tell them all she was back in the country and on her way. A couple of responses with cheering and confetti emojis came through. She was just about to put her phone away in her bag again when it started ringing.

Her eyebrows lifted as she saw Sandy’s name on her display. They got along well – Sandy was a lovely person – but it was rare for her to call Kay. And given that this was her wedding day, it didn’t bode well.

‘Hey, bride-to-be,’ Kay answered brightly, turning the radio down slightly and hoping that it wasn’t completely the wrong thing to say. How likely was it that a bride would call the groom’s sister if she was having second thoughts? Ordinarily, probably not – but Kay could read emotional bonds, exactly the kind of gift you might ask someone to use if you were worried about the strength of your potential husband’s feelings.

‘Hey,’ Sandy’s voice was so clearly waterlogged from tears, Kay found herself sending a look of panic towards Harry. He sensed it almost immediately, tilting his head towards her, his lips pressing together before he had to turn his concentration back to the road.

Despite obviously being on the verge of some kind of emotional breakdown, Sandy demonstrated her loveliness by first asking Kay if she was all right after all her travelling woes. Once Kay had confirmed she was, Sandy carried on.

‘That’s great. I’m sorry if you’ve been through so much stress getting back in time for the wedding, though … I’m not sure it’s going to happen.’

‘Why not? What’s wrong?’

‘It’s the venue. A tree came down in the storm and caved in part of the roof and one of the windows.’

‘In the rooms you’d be using?’

Kay knew the place. It was a big old building on pretty grounds about half an hour outside of the village. Typically, they hosted two weddings at a time there – one wing each – with the ceremonies taking place in one room and then a meal and the reception afterwards in one of the larger ballrooms.

‘That’s what I asked, but it doesn’t matter – the building is unsafe. They can’t have the electricity on, it’s a mess.’ Sandy broke off to start sniffling.

‘Oh no.’ Kay sat up further in her seat, as the desire to give Sandy a hug filled her. ‘Is there another place you can go to?’

‘Joe and your parents are ringing around all the venues closest to us to try to organise something, but, honestly, how likely is it at such short notice? And we can’t really afford to pay for a whole other venue and the staff there, if they don’t let us bring the catering firms we’d hired. It’s taken months to plan this wedding – and we were keeping it fairly modest—’ She sobbed again. ‘The easiest thing would be to fix the problems at the venue, wouldn’t it? Get it safe again?’

‘I suppose so …’ Kay said slowly, figuring they were getting to the crux of why she had been called, though she wasn’t sure how she was meant to help with it. ‘But I’m guessing builders and electricians are going to be just as difficult to get hold of today, with all the damage from the storm.’

‘Do we need builders and electricians, though? What about … witches?’

‘Ohh, I see.’ Kay pushed her hair back from her face. ‘That’s … not as easy as it sounds, Sandy. I know it can seem like magic can fix everything, but first we’d have to find enough witches with the right affinities, and then how would we explain them coming in to do work on a property in a few hours that would ordinarily take days or even weeks?’

‘Couldn’t someone, you know, just hypnotise the people at the building to forget the damage even happened?’

‘Wiping people’s memories isn’t as simple as that.’

‘Isn’t that what happens in the village when a non-magical person sees something they shouldn’t?’

‘Er … no. Not really. It’s deflected. Influence is used to convince them they were mistaken in what they’d seen – not that it didn’t happen altogether. People can be convinced to reconstruct a memory slightly … but it’s not like plucking a photo from an album. Even if a witch could do something close to it, it’s not easy or safe or … fair, Sandy,’ Kay said softly.

Harry looked over at her again, his brow knitting together, and she blushed a little at explaining in front of him how the protective magic of Biddicote worked, when truly she’d only just learned the extent of it last night. Maybe she was getting it all wrong, but that was how the witches of Biddicote had always understood it.

‘That’s what your dad said.’ Sandy took a shaky breath and Kay blinked at the surprise of her and her father being on the same page. ‘I thought magic would be a bit more useful than it is, frankly. If it can’t fix things like this, what good is it?’

‘Oh Goddess, Sandy, I understand how you feel, believe me,’ Kay admitted, even though she’d definitely seen more of the benefits over the last couple of days, and even missed using her own, on occasion. Strange to miss something that she’d always had the power to use, if she’d really wanted to, but had chosen not to. ‘Sadly, magic isn’t this superpower that can eradicate all the difficulties in life. Witches are still just people, with a slightly different skill set, that can bring as many problems as it fixes. We just have to try to do our best.’

‘I know,’ Sandy sighed. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘You don’t have to be sorry. But we’ll fix this for you. We will.’

‘How? We’ve called nearly every wedding venue in the southeast and had no luck. Unless we’re going to start knocking on doors, I don’t see how we’re going to make it happen.’

‘We’ll think of something. I’ll be with you all by eleven o’clock, I should think, OK?’

Sandy thanked her, genuine but downhearted, and Kay hung up.

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