Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Dora had screeched in delight as Ambrose had swept her off her feet and swung her around in a semicircle before putting her down. Despite everything that was going on, he always made her feel safe.
‘Am I happy to finally have you to myself,’ he said, smiling widely. ‘What should we do with this precious time?’
Dora was tempted to say go to bed, but the new moon was shining in the sky, and Salem was alive with such a warm buzz and lovely atmosphere that she wanted to walk around and soak it in.
The meeting with the council of witches temporarily forgotten about, she wanted to get to know Salem.
It had been her home for many lifetimes after all.
‘Can we wander down to the common and sit under those orange lights, maybe get some food or something?’
‘We can, have you had a cookie from Goodnight Fatty yet?’
She shook her head, and he laughed.
‘Right, let’s hurry and we might make it before it closes. You haven’t lived until you’ve eaten one of their freshly baked cookies under the orange lights on the common while staring at the Witch Museum windows.’
Dora hooked her arm through his and they headed down Essex Street, happy things between her and Ambrose had taken a better turn. It was still busy with people milling around even though the shops and market stalls had all closed.
Ambrose pointed to the old Town Hall. ‘You know that place, right?’
She grinned at him. ‘I put a spell on you.’ She sang the words in her best Bette Middler voice. ‘One of my favourite films, I’ve watched it so many times I can quote every line word for word.’
‘Wow, that’s impressive. Do you put that on your resume?’
‘Hahaha.’ She gently slapped his arm. ‘No, do you think I should?’
‘Depends, if you’re going to get yourself a job now you’re going to be living here.’
‘I think I’ll be working alongside Sephy.’
‘At the apothecary? Wow, that’s great. You’ll be working with me and Margo. Do you think you can handle Margo? She can be a lot.’
‘Margo is fine, she has a heart of gold. Yes, I think so, but I’m also hoping Sephy is going to give me a crash course in magic.
I mean I remember some of the basics and when I’m under duress, I can cast a spell to save my life or someone else’s, but I’d really love to be able to help people, make spells to improve their lives, that kind of thing. ’
‘For the good of all or not at all?’
‘Yes, that. Sephy drums that into me all the time, but I would never wish to do harm on another person. Well, unless they are wishing harm on me first. That pig Corwin doesn’t count; he got what he asked for…
’ She stopped, looking at his face for signs of discomfort.
‘I’m sorry, Ambrose. I keep forgetting he was your uncle. ’
‘He is, was, a pig, Dora. The vilest human being I had the unfortunate task of calling Uncle,’ Ambrose replied, putting a hand on Dora’s to reassure her.
‘I despised him just as much as you do, so you’re not upsetting me when you talk about him that way.
He beat me so bad that first lifetime after he found out I’d helped you escape that I could not walk for days.
It didn’t matter, after he’d hanged you and your aunts I had nothing left to live for and wished for death to take me too. ’
Dora squeezed his fingers. ‘Oh, Ambrose, I am so sorry. You risked your life to help me escape and I repaid you by walking straight back into his arms so he could arrest me and hang me with my family. But I know that I could not have lived without them; it was better to die with them than be alone for the rest of my life.’
‘But, Dora, you wouldn’t have been alone. I was ready to take care of you.’
They had reached the corner of Essex and Hawthorne Boulevard, the Hawthorne Hotel lit up and standing majestically opposite them, and Dora’s eyes lifted to the sixth floor. Clara’s steely grey eyes stared into her own emerald-green ones.
She turned to Ambrose. ‘I know you would have and you are so sweet for wanting to, but we were kids with no money and no place to go. I didn’t want to get you hanged with us; I thought I was doing the right thing by leaving you in the boat so you could go back to your life and carry on.’
He barked a short, sharp laugh filled with pain. ‘My life ended when yours did, but what’s done is done. We’ve made up for it many times over life after life, except for this one. This time it’s been different; it took you a lot longer to remember. But I am about to change all of that.’
‘How?’
He dragged her towards the end of the block. ‘By introducing you to Goodnight Fatty.’
Dora giggled. ‘You are insane.’
He nodded. ‘I am but hold that judgement for a few more minutes, please.’
They reached the brick building that had once been a grand carriage house.
There was a small red van parked in one corner with a trio of skeletons adorning it.
There were tables and chairs outside, all taken by customers with boxes of cookies.
Dora groaned. The smell was unbelievable and she felt her mouth begin to salivate at the thought of a warm, freshly baked cookie.
They went inside and Ambrose ordered one of each cookie.
There was a a giant spaceman on one wall, and it was incredible.
Holding the box of cookies as if it was the most important thing in the world, they left and crossed the road to the common which looked stunning under the rows of orange lights.
There were rows and rows of picnic benches and an assortment of food trucks.
There were a lot of tourists sitting around, and Ambrose led her to a bench that was empty and overlooked the Witch Museum.
Its huge windows that were usually lit up red changing colour every few seconds.
‘Close your eyes and take a bite of this.’
Dora did as he asked, closing her eyes and opening her mouth. Ambrose gently held a cookie to her lips, and her teeth sank into the warm, soft dough. She took a huge bite and he laughed. ‘Be careful you don’t choke, Dora.’
She opened her eyes for a second before closing them and chewing. ‘Oh my, this is the best cookie I’ve ever eaten.’
He was grinning at her. She picked up another one and tore it in half, melted chocolate dripping down her fingers. ‘Why did you do this to me?’
‘They’re good are they not?’
She nodded. ‘Too good, they’re all I’m going to think about now.’
‘You’re okay, you can’t eat them every day as they don’t open every day.’
‘Thank God, I’m never going to be able to run away from anything ever again if I eat these every day. Thank thee, Ambrose, they are as good as you promised.’ She was smiling at him.
He leaned over and gently used his thumb to wipe up melted chocolate that had dribbled down her chin.
‘Have you noticed that on the odd occasion you slip into seventeenth-century speech?’
Dora grinned at him. ‘You can take the girl out of the sixteen hundreds but you can never take the sixteen hundreds out of the girl.’
‘That’s exactly what your aunt Lenny says.’
‘It is?’
He nodded. ‘To Sephy, quite often.’
‘Hahaha, that does sound like a Lenny quote.’
They ate the rest of their cookies in silence. Dora couldn’t take her eyes off the Witch Museum building. When the cookies had all gone Ambrose stood up.
‘Where would thou like to go now, my fair maiden?’
Dora giggled. ‘To bed, I think.’
His face dropped a little. ‘Then allow me to walk you home.’
‘I meant to your bed, not mine.’
‘Oh, then in that case let me lead you to my abode. I am so glad I put clean sheets on this morning when I did the laundry.’
‘Sheets are a luxury, once upon a time we would have been happy with fresh straw.’
‘Yes, we would, but it did prickle your back a lot. I much prefer cotton sheets.’
Dora winked at him. ‘Me too.’
As they strolled hand in hand back to Ambrose’s apartment, she realised for the first time in weeks, she felt relaxed and truly at ease with him.
Clara, the bookstore and everything else for now had been pushed to the back of her mind.
All she wanted was to enjoy being with Ambrose, just the two of them truly getting to know each other all over again with no worries about the rest of the world around them.