Chapter 9
Nine
“I really don’t think I’m ready for this, Granny. I don’t even know where to start.” Granny has been determined to “try out” my powers. That’s if I even have any.
“Nonsense. Nobody knows where to start. We just follow our hearts and feel the magic within us.”
She has been trying to get me to move a salt grinder on the kitchen table for the last hour. I feel nothing short of ridiculous.
“Feel the magic, Harri,” she says soothingly.
I pull my chair closer to the table and adjust myself to concentrate. I close my eyes and breathe. My shoulders drop and my tongue falls from the roof of my mouth. I can do this, right?
I open my eyes and look at the salt grinder. I imagine it with all my might moving. I put every ounce of mindfulness into making this salt grinder move. Nothing.
“Urgh.” I break the concentration. “It’s just not working. I’m sorry.” I sigh, feeling defeated.
“Why are you sorry?” Granny softly rubs my arm, peering around me to look at me.
“Well, I’m not a witch, am I? Like the rest of you.” I slump my head onto the table and melt into it. If anything would have been a bit of a pick me up right now, it would have been being able to do magic.
“Oh, sweetheart, just because you can’t move something doesn’t mean you’re not one of us!
Aradia can’t use telekinesis, but she can read minds.
Your power may be something else or your magic just needs a little time to warm itself up.
We just need to figure it out and we will.
” She stands from the table as I lift my head to look at her.
Her big blue eyes meet mine. Slightly milky with age but still, like looking into a deep lagoon.
She kisses my forehead and heads to the Aga to continue making potions to sell at a market up north that her and Aradia are heading to at the weekend.
“You sure you don’t want me to come with you this weekend?” I mutter, my head still lying on the table, which makes her chuckle.
“Oh no, sweetheart, you stay here and enjoy the peace. We’re only away one night anyway.” She pauses for a moment and looks concerned. “Unless you need us to stay? It’s OK if you don’t want to be left here alone.”
I pick myself up from my slump. “No, it’s not that. I just don’t want to not be pulling my weight.”
Her face falls back to relief. “You do plenty around the house. You don’t need to do any more than you’re doing. You are sure you’ll be OK?”
I nod. “Well, I think I’m going with Lois and Hannah into Ravenswick. They invited me and I think I’m going to take them up on the offer.”
“Ah, that’s a great idea!” She beams. “Ravenswick is a lovely place! Good pub. It’ll be good for you to let your hair down. You have been such a help here, Harri. Go and have fun with the girls!” She winks.
I pull myself away from the table and stand with her in the kitchen. I help her add labels onto the empty jars as she stirs her large cast iron pot making the rest of her mixture.
“So, what does this do?” I point at the bubbling yellow liquid.
“This is a natural arnica ointment. It helps with aches, pains, bruises, muscle aches, insect bites and even swelling. Made from all natural ingredients.” She taps the side of the pot and adds in some more of the bright yellow petals that sit in a bowl next to her.
“Why don’t you just use your powers to just stir them all the time?” I ask, sticking another label to another jar.
“Lots of questions today, I like it.” She smiles at me and adds in something that looks like honey.
“Sorry,” I mumble.
She ignores my apology like it’s not needed.
“I like stirring them. Do not get me wrong, my power is great for some things, but it can be tiring to use, and I like to do things myself while I still can.” She opens a pot of dried herbs and adds them to the pot, continuing to stir it with her large wooden ladle.
“Will you lose your powers then?” I ask, still unsure of how it all works.
“No, my darling, but I’m not getting any younger.” She tries to reach up to a shelf, standing on her tiptoes. “Can you pass me that red pot please?” She points to a small red pot filled with red petals on the highest shelf.
I help her and watch as she carefully decants that into the pot. I watch her work. The concentration in her face. I think about what she has just said. She is right. She is not getting any younger and I feel like I have missed so much.
I study her face in the light of the candle she has lit around the Aga on the dark and gloomy October morning.
I study her lines and wrinkles, and her sun-kissed skin.
I can see pain in her, feel it in the back of her eyes when she looks at me.
She has been through it. Maybe it’s missing my life, maybe missing my mother’s.
But deep inside my granny I can see she will never forgive herself for the time that has passed.
And even though it wasn’t my fault, I can’t help but feel guilty for not being around too.
The emotions hit me, and I quickly wrap my arms around her to cuddle her close, making her jump.
“Thank you for letting me stay,” I whisper, leaning into her.
She relaxes and leans back into me, her arms wrapping around my back. “Thank you for coming to stay, Harri,” she says and strokes my hair. “Now…” She straightens me up. “What is today going to bring? Another book? Maybe a walk and some fresh air?”
“That sounds good.”
She squeezes my hand, and I head upstairs to put on my thermal leggings and thick woolly jumper. The temperature has really dropped in the last few days.
My phones rings. Unknown number. I let it ring out before it calls again.
“Hello?” I answer tentatively.
A stern female voice on the other end speaks. “Harriet?”
“Who is this?” I ask, puzzled by a somewhat familiar voice, but one I can’t quite pinpoint.
“It’s Mrs Belfour.”
My body freezes.
It’s Greg’s mother. Like my mother, but worse. She once fired her home help for having an epileptic seizure and spilling water not on, but near her shoes. She is not a nice woman.
“Oh, Mrs Belfour, what can I do for you?” I say in my most polite voice.
“I think you know why I am calling, Harriet.” Her voice would make stone feel soft.
“Look, Mrs Belfour, I appreciate you reaching out, but I… there’s nothing to say.” I try my best to be as sunny as I can with the Ice Queen.
“There is a lot to say, Harriet. Now, you’re not a stupid girl. It’s one quality I like of yours. You’re not like the others around here and you know that. However, right now, you are acting very, very stupidly.”
“Maybe speak to Greg about why we broke up. Then we can see who has been acting stupidly.” OK, no more being polite.
“Oh, Harriet, Greg is an absolute idiot. No doubt about that. He’s been so foolish.” Wow, I didn’t see that coming.
I try to figure out where this is going. “So why am I stupid then?”
“Because, my darling, I love my family more than anything and I will stop at nothing to get what I want. And you, Harriet, you will marry Gregory, and you will return to London and live the life that you are meant to live.” She is so matter of fact, like my feelings are just something she can personally adjust.
“Right, so I just do what you say, right?”
“Yes, darling.” Don’t be fooled by the darling, it’s wrapped in poison.
“And if I don’t?”
“I have the power to completely ruin you all. Your father’s business, your mother’s name, I will even come after your newfound family out there in the forest. Darling, I know what you all are.
” She pauses for a moment. “Now you understand the importance of marrying my son. Our family needs the power that flows within you.”
“How did you—”
She cuts me off quick, her tone dark and sinister.
“I’m a force to be reckoned with, Harriet.
Now I’m not awful. I understand time helps heal the heart, so I am giving you time.
You have until the Winter Wonderland Ball at the end of November.
If you do not show, I’ll know you’ve made the choice to ruin your own family.
As for telling people where you are, that will be our little secret.
I’ve told everyone you’re selflessly giving your time to the less fortunate in the countryside.
How lovely of my future daughter-in-law.
” The sarcasm in her voice makes my stomach turn.
“I can wipe out your family with one phone call. But you have the chance to let them carry on with their pathetic lives while you join my family in greatness. Now, are we clear?”
I become dizzy with everything she has just poured through the phone like a plague.
“You can’t just blackmail me to marry your son,” I whisper with my broken voice.
“Oh, sweet girl, here’s the stupid side again. I can and I will. Enjoy your break, sweetie. Good day.”
She hangs up the phone. My stomach hits the floor. How does she know our secret? How does she know where I am?
I feel sick. I put my mouth over my hand and grab my abdomen. I grab the water on the bedside table and swig it, trying to push the nausea down back into the pit of my stomach.
There’s a light knock at the door.
“You OK in there?” shouts Aradia from the other side.
“Yeah, fine,” I croak, trying to compose myself.
“Can I come in?”
“Er, one moment, I’m just changing.” I throw my phone into my coat pocket and brush myself down. “Come in.” I stand there, smiling.
She looks me up and down. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing. Why would have anything happened?” I brush my hair behind my ears and continue with the smile. Fairly sure it’s not working.
“Harri. It’s written all over your face and your mind is going a thousand times an hour. The energy in here is crazy.” She looks around the room and back at me.
My shoulders slump and I fall back onto the bed to sit. My hands cover my face as panic sets in, and tears start to fall.
“Greg’s mum called and asked me to get back with him,” I wail from under my hands.
“Well, she sounds delightful,” my aunt says ironically and joins me on the bed with her arm around my shoulder. I lean into her.