Page 39 of Witch You Weren't Here

‘Newcastle? Bloody hell. How long does the ferry take?’ She handed him his coffee absently.

‘Twelve hours.’ He winced.

Her mouth fell open. That wouldn’t work at all. ‘I’ll completely miss the wedding ceremony.’ And barely make the reception, even if she raced the length of the country to arrive in the clothes she’d been wearing for two days at that point.

Her blood pressure sky-rocketed as she began lamenting the fact that she’d thrown in her lot with Harry and his itchy magic compass. Maybe they should have split up in Dusseldorf. She could have gone to stay at Ilina’s and just been patient.

A tingling started in her fingers, matching the beat of her frantic pulse, and she had to close her eyes and take a couple of deep breaths to calm herself. She supposed the only bright side was that if she was really going to miss the wedding, at least it would guarantee Joe a special day without her destroying it with her crazy magic. What if she accidentally set fire to Sandy’s dress or something?

She jumped as Harry’s hand lightly touched her wrist. Opening her eyes, she found him watching her, his brows slightly furrowed to cause a tiny crease between them. ‘There’s sort of good news too, though.’

‘Yeah?’

‘If we can get to the Hook of Holland, we can get a ferry to Harwich.’

‘Where’s Harwich? Is that closer to home than Newcastle?’

‘Yes. It’ll only take a few hours to get to Surrey from there. And the next one leaves at eleven, so we’ll arrive first thing tomorrow morning.’

She nodded slowly. ‘Nothing sooner?’

‘’Fraid not. I’m sorry. I know it means missing the rehearsal dinner, but it’s the best option out of not very many options.’ He gave her wrist a consoling squeeze, making her belly flop over, and then he dropped his hand.

‘It’s OK. The wedding is the most important bit,’ she said, though she hated the thought of missing the dinner. Particularly when her mum and dad would be there, brooding, at opposite ends of the table. Mum would definitely be taking one of her magic mood-blocker pills. And drinking a lot of wine. Goddess, Kay hoped there wasn’t a scene. Joe and Sandy didn’t deserve that.

‘So, I’ll grab us tickets?’

‘Let me come and pay for mine.’

‘We’ll divvy up the expenses once we get home. I’ll try to figure out our best options for getting to the Hook as well. We’ll need to be there for boarding at half past nine.’

‘Is that far from here?’

‘I don’t think so. We should have plenty of time to get there.’ He offered her a reassuring smile and disappeared off to queue again, while Kay braced herself and phoned her brother.

‘Oh, crap,’ Joe said, when she explained the ferry situation and broke the news about the dinner, already sounding a lot more harassed than he had first thing that morning. Was it only that morning? It felt like days ago at this point. ‘I suppose it’s not the end of the world. I’m not even quite sure why we need a rehearsal dinner … There’s not a single flight? No, don’t even bother to answer that. Of course you’d be flying back if you could, rather than taking a ferry. You’re going to hang around in Amsterdam all day and most of the evening on your own, though? I don’t like the sound of that.’

‘It’s fine,’ she tried to reassure him. ‘Well, I mean, not fine, obviously, because I was really hoping I’d be able to make it back, but it’s not a problem to be stuck in Amsterdam for a little while. Then I’ll be travelling to the Hook in time for the ferry.’

‘Right. So, you’ll only be wandering around Amsterdam, on your own, for most of the day and then taking a train or something at night. By yourself.’ His tone made it clear that he didn’t think that was a better scenario.

She chewed on her lip and decided that it wasn’t fair to let him worry about that, on top of everything else. ‘I’m not on my own.’

‘No? You’re with someone from work?’

‘No.’

‘Who then? Don’t make friends with random people, Kay. That’s not any safer.’

Kay let the patronising tone go because she knew he was extremely wound up about the wedding, she’d just broken some bad news to him, and despite all that, his main concern was her safety. ‘It’s not a stranger. I’m with Harry Ashworth.’

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone. ‘Say again?’

‘Harry Ashworth. You know. Who you went to school with?’

‘Of course I know who Harry is. I’m just struggling with you two … bumping into each other? I mean, I assume this is a coincidence, unless there is something you’re not telling me—’

‘No,’ she jumped in. ‘Totally a coincidence. We were both in Prague and when the flight got delayed at the airport, we ran into each other, and since we’re both heading in the same direction …’

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