Chapter 7
SEVEN
LONDON, PRESENT DAY
Dora and Lenny made it home without a hitch, but as the Uber pulled up outside Lenny’s penthouse apartment block, Dora paused.
London no longer felt like home, everything had changed, and now she wasn’t sure if it had ever really been her home.
After dumping their backpacks and freshening up, Lenny had left Dora alone while she went to the hospital to speak to her head of department about handing in her notice.
Dora stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling glass windows, staring down at the South Bank for probably the last time.
This was a flying visit, she simply wanted to see how Katie was now she was out of hospital and to say goodbye to her friends.
The autumn sun was setting, casting its burned orange glow over the buildings that were reflected in the water below them.
All the twinkling lights from the buildings and boats across the river were so pretty, this was her favourite time of day in London.
The merging of day into night was always something Dora had loved.
She let out a long sigh. Her soul felt weary.
The past few weeks had been exhausting in ways she never knew existed.
Finding her mom, Lucine, Aunt Sephy and Hades, then losing her mom to the cancer that killed her every lifetime.
Fighting that monster George Corwin, finding Ambrose and realising that she had loved him for centuries.
Almost losing Katie. All of this weighed her down.
She hoped the guilt over Katie would ease a little with what she was about to do, at least that would be something.
Her stomach was a little queasy as she strolled past her beloved flower shop. She kissed her fingertips, pressing them to the glass, then carried on to Marco’s, the little Italian restaurant that she and her two friends, Katie and Mabel, adored.
Even though Corwin had taken Katie to Marco’s for a meal before he’d attacked her, she still insisted on meeting Dora and Mabel here.
Dora had hoped to arrive before her friends but as she walked inside and inhaled the aromas of garlic, cheese and fresh bread she spied the pair of them sitting in a booth near to the bar.
Dora grinned and rushed towards them, first scooping Katie into a hug and then Mabel who didn’t want to let her go.
The older woman was definitely the best hugger she knew, although her aunt Sephy’s hugs were almost as good.
Katie squealed. ‘Dora, you look amazing. Your hair, it’s beautiful. It’s like pure silver. How much did that cost you? I bet it was expensive. It looks so natural and really suits you. I would never have thought you’d go silver in a million years.’
Dora tugged at her hair. She had forgotten that neither of her friends had seen her with white hair. She grinned at them.
‘Katie, you look much better than I expected. How are you?’
Katie shrugged. ‘I’m okay, well I am if I don’t think about what he did to me, but I’m having counselling and I’m not letting that man ruin my life forever. Is it true that he’s gone?’
Dora nodded. It was hard to know how much to tell her friends about what had happened to her in Salem. She didn’t want to hurt them; all she wanted was to protect them. Would they believe her if she told them she was a bloodline witch who had first been executed in 1692?
‘He’s gone, for good,’ she said. ‘At least I think so. He chased me to a cemetery, and we had this huge fight.’
Both Mabel and Katie were staring at her wide-eyed.
‘Oh my God, did he hurt you too, Dora?’ Katie asked.
She shook her head. ‘He collapsed and had a fatal heart attack, lucky for us all.’
That was the best she could do. She felt terrible lying to them but, in a way, he had collapsed and ‘heart attack’ sounded more believable than telling them he exploded into a fetid, stinking, black mess that had got sucked into the void by Hecate the queen of all witches.
‘Wow, that was a stroke of luck for you, Dora. You could have been seriously hurt like he hurt Katie.’ Mabel’s hand reached out, and she clasped Dora’s fingers gently.
‘The main thing is he’s gone to hell… hopefully, and he can’t hurt any of us ever again.
He got what he deserved; bad people get what’s coming to them eventually. ’
Dora squeezed Mabel’s fingers back. ‘You’re right, Mabel, bad people do get what’s coming to them.’
Katie was smiling at them both. ‘So, how is your crazy aunt? The one who owns the witchy shop. She sounds amazing. Nothing at all like Lenny. And how the heck did Lenny keep her such a secret for so long? When can we meet her? I can’t wait.’
Dora’s stomach clenched but she’d rehearsed this for so long with Sephy she knew it would be okay; she wasn’t lying to her friends to hurt them, in fact it was the opposite. She was lying to them to protect them and that was far more noble.
‘My aunt Sephy is adorable; you will both love her when you come visit. She is kind, funny, beautiful and I love her so much. She and Lenny had such a big falling out years ago and the pair of them are both very stubborn, so Lenny decided not to tell me about her. Which I kind of get, but it was a wonderful surprise when she finally did.’
‘Lucky for you they kissed and made up because now you have a whole new life in the States of all places – the coolest place on earth. I’ve done a lot of Googling and Instagram scrolling on Salem.
Dora, I love it, I can’t blame you one little bit for wanting to stay there.
’ Katie had that dreamy look in her eyes she got when she saw something on social media that made her want to change her lifestyle too.
The waiter brought a carafe of wine over, pouring Dora a glass, and she took a huge sip.
She needed this. It was hard not telling her friends everything.
Her aunts had told her she could, she felt one day she would…
but not until she was sure that Corwin was no longer a threat. Some part of her was still worried.
‘I do love it, and I do want to stay there. Sephy’s shop is wonderful, and her house is like something out of a fairytale, but I don’t just want to stay there because of her.’
Katie took a gulp of her wine. ‘Oh, then why do you? I mean you are giving up your life here and the shop too. You love the shop and—’ She stopped herself and took a breath. ‘I’m sorry, I’m being selfish. I don’t want you to move halfway around the world and leave me on my own.’
‘I don’t want to leave you either, Katie, but’ – she thought of Ambrose. She knew she was supposed to say that she had fallen in love. But something held her back from going that far so she simply said – ‘I met someone…’
Katie squealed even louder, which made Mabel jump, her elbow knocking her glass of wine all over the table, which made Dora scoot back away from the cold liquid that was spilling over the edge. The waiter was there in seconds, mopping the mess up then refilling Mabel’s glass.
‘Thank you, sorry about that,’ Dora said, and he grinned at her.
‘No worries, accidents happen.’
He left them alone and Katie was practically levitating off her chair.
‘Spill Dora, how did you meet him?’ Katie sighed. ‘It’s so romantic that you’re giving up your whole life for him. We forgive you for leaving us in that case, don’t we, Mabel?’
Mabel’s eyes were wet with unshed tears as she nodded. ‘Yes, we do forgive you. Oh, Dora, that’s wonderful, it really is. I just don’t want to have to say goodbye to you. I will miss you too much.’
‘It won’t be goodbye, Mabel; it will be the same.
We can phone each other and FaceTime. You can come out to visit me, and I’ll pop back to see you both.
Ambrose is a family friend who I didn’t realise I’d known as a child.
He’s so cute and kind, you will both love him. He hasn’t a bad bone in his body.’
‘Oh, Dora, I’m so jealous and thrilled for you at the same time. I can’t wait to meet him and yes, you better had. I mean don’t you forget about us two while you’re living your best life in witch city, Salem.’
‘I would never do that. Katie, you both mean the world to me and I have a present for you, and you can’t say no to it no matter what.’
Katie tilted her head. ‘What do you mean? Oh, and by the way, do you not know me at all? I mean I will never say no to a gift. Not ever, Dora.’
‘That’s good because I want you to have the shop.
I’m giving it to you; Vintage Rose is now yours.
My aunt Lenny bought the lease for it some years ago and the flat above it without telling me and it turns out the rent I’ve been paying she put to one side to give back to me when I needed it.
It’s all paid for. You have to pay her a minimum sum of money each month as a goodwill gesture, I think it’s a hundred pounds.
The rest of the profits are yours. Mabel you no longer have to pay rent and tomorrow there is a company coming to fit a stairlift for you.
No arguing,’ she said quickly, noticing that Mabel was about to interrupt.
‘That’s already been taken care of. I want you to be as comfortable as you can and to be able to spend all day at the bingo if it makes you happy.
There is no room for discussion, it’s already settled, the paperwork has been drafted up and you’ll both receive copies of it in the post. This way you can both afford to come visit me when I get settled in. ’
Mabel was shaking her head. ‘Dora, I can’t accept this.’
Dora squeezed her fingers. ‘Yes, you can. Please, Mabel, we all deserve a little happiness, and this makes my heart happier than you could ever know.’
The tears that had been pooling in Mabel’s eyes were now freely flowing down her cheeks, and she tugged a tissue out of her pocket to wipe them away.
Katie was open mouthed. ‘Dora, have you lost your mind?’
Dora laughed. ‘For a while I thought that maybe I had, but no. I want to do this, it’s the right thing to do and I know it will never make up for what he did to you, but it’s a brand-new start and it might help you to put it behind you.’
‘I don’t know what to say.’
‘Yes, you both say yes, and we eat some delicious pasta, followed by Tiramisu and lots of wine and we get to enjoy our time together doing what best friends should be doing.’
Katie stood up and flung her arms around both Dora and Mabel, and Dora felt all the tension drain away.
This was the right thing to do, she’d known that the minute the idea had come to her.
Lenny hadn’t argued with her. Her aunt had quite happily agreed to go along with her plans as long as it made Dora happy and this did.
It made her happier than she’d ever thought she could be.
She just hoped that this time it would last, and no evil witch hunter was there lingering in the sidelines ready to steal it all away from her.