Page 74 of Witch You Weren't Here

She’d spent so much time in the lead-up to the wedding thinking about how to help her mum get through all the forced-proximity with her dad – dreading it, if she was honest – but those weren’t the thoughts coming to her mind now. Perhaps it was because of finding out how ill Harry’s dad was, or perhaps it was because she’d had a wake-up call about how prejudiced she’d been about influencers in general, but part of her was wondering if she’d let her bad feelings towards her dad go on for long enough.

So, she didn’t give a barbed retort, she just squeezed him back and said, with all honesty: ‘It was quite an adventure.’

‘You’ll have to tell me all about it later. You always did want to do a road trip. Just like life to give you what you want and disguise it as a problem.’ Her dad stepped back and nodded at her hair. ‘Did you do that for your brother?’

Kay laughed. ‘Joe said that, too. Football on the brain, the pair of you.’ And so alike. It was part of the reason she and Joe had fallen out so badly when the divorce had happened and she was full of rage and disappointment in her dad. They were so close; Joe had probably felt like she disapproved of him as much as she did of their dad. She’d put the blame entirely on their dad for the divorce. For stringing her mother along for so long when he didn’t love her. She’d picked a side, she realised now. Whereas Joe had refused to.

But she and Joe had still been able to mend things. Eventually. All the bridge-building between them had taken place away from home because there had been no room near their mother for the messy, honest feelings they needed to unpick to make it better … which, now Kay thought about it, hadn’t been overly helpful of Tallulah.

Shaking off the thoughts, she gave her dad a smile. ‘How is it all going?’

‘Like a military operation. I got the manager at the old venue on board with letting us use the plates and cutlery and tables and chairs as planned. And I got some of my team on it.’

‘You got your football team here? That’s like having an army at your disposal.’

‘Sure. We needed it. We can’t use the furniture here – a lot of them are antiques – and I needed a crew for some heavy lifting. They were happy to help.’

She raised her eyebrows.

‘They genuinely were! It’s a little-known fact that footballers are romantics. No additional persuasion was required.’ He made a cross over his heart and she shook her head with a soft laugh.

‘Someone thinks he’s the Ted Lasso of Surrey,’ she joked.

He gave a sharp blast of a laugh, his eyes wide with a little bit of shock. ‘Please, I was motivating footballers when he was still growing his moustache. Come on. I’ll show you the rooms and then I’ll get back to mobilising the troops.’

Marvin picked up as many of their bags as he could manage and led the way up the wide staircase, which curved around the entrance to a gallery. There were paintings hanging on the walls, a mix of landscapes and portraits, some very old, some modern. Her legs were sluggish as they went up yet more stairs, a buzz starting in her chest in a way that worried her – like static on a broken TV.

If she lost her grip on her magic at the wedding … Set fire to something in this old house full of people …

But maybe the sensation wasn’t anything to do with her magic at all and she was just jumping to negative conclusions like she always did. Coming back into the Hall as an adult, no longer used to the constant magical atmosphere of Biddicote, it was even more obvious how the house was infused with it. Partly by design and partly just because of the long-standing history of the witches who’d lived there.

Her dad took them into a large suite decorated in pale green and cream pinstriped wallpaper, with a soft patterned carpet, a four-poster bed and a view overlooking the lawns out the back. There was a family-sized adjoining bathroom with double sinks, two dressing tables, a wardrobe with full-length mirrors on the doors and a sofa and armchairs. Other than some faded patches on the wall as though pictures had been removed, like it had belonged to someone who’d left, rather than meant just for guests; it was the perfect bridal suite. Sandy restrained herself from squealing and crying this time, but she did hop up and down on her toes a little bit, making them all laugh and tease her.

Marvin dropped off their bags and went over to assure Sandy that he and Joe had it all under control and she was to relax, pamper and enjoy herself. And if Kay thought he might have used a little bit of his influence to motivate his soon-to-be daughter-in-law to leave the stress behind and enjoy this part of her wedding day, she couldn’t really hold it against him.

In a frenzy of excited chatter, they all began hanging up their outfits and organising the space, ready for the hair and make-up artist to arrive. Chelsea pulled out two magnums of champagne and a set of half a dozen plastic glasses from her case. Remembering the atomic-level hangover Kay had experienced after the hen do, she wasn’t entirely surprised. Chelsea had been the one leading the group challenge for most shots consumed and yet still looked to be the soberest of them all at the end of the night. Erin had brought along a bunch of silky dressing gowns too, and they all took turns showering, donning the dressing gowns and making up ridiculous toasts to Sandy and Joe.

Something loosened momentarily inside Kay as she settled into the fun and anticipation of the day. She needed to get her mind off things, particularly her magic. Focusing on it, even clamping it down, never seemed to work. Distraction definitely seemed a better tactic, or concentrating on positive feelings, like Harry had helped her with on the ferry—

There was a knock at the suite door and Sandy jumped up with a whoop, opening it to let in the hair and make-up artist.

‘Kay, wow, what are you doing here?’

She slid off the end of the bed in surprise as she looked over and saw Tina parking a large wheelie case over by the dressing table. Luckily, her feet found the floor before her butt and she only splashed a little champagne onto her robe. ‘Tina.’ She hadn’t seen her old friend in anything but passing in the village since the summer they’d fallen out. Over Joe. She went to join Tina and Sandy at the dressing table, glancing between them. ‘I’m one of Sandy’s bridesmaids.’

‘You two know each other?’ Sandy smiled, like it was the best surprise in the world. She leaned in closer to them and lowered her voice. ‘I should have known, with you both being witches from Biddicote.’ She winked and practically skipped back over to the bed. If Kay’s dad had used magic on her, it was working in tandem with champagne now.

‘We went to school together,’ Tina said, unzipping her case and starting to get out smaller bags and packages. Her eyes caught Kay’s and she gave a chagrined smile. ‘I had the biggest crush on her brother.’

‘No way! You didn’t date, did you?’ Chelsea roared with laughter. ‘How did you not know this, Sandy?’

‘It’s not like Joe helped me pick my make-up artist.’ Sandy had flushed as red as her dressing gown.

Tina’s eyes were rivalling the size of the powder puffs she held in her hands. ‘You’re … you’re marrying Kay’s brother, Joe?’

Sandy nodded silently.

‘I think we need more champagne,’ Erin announced, grabbing the bottle to top everyone up, and bringing Tina a glass too.

---