Kisses for Lula (34 page)

I opened my mouth to deny all of the above, but shut it again. It was so not worth arguing with this guy. I just had to get through the next little while and then I’d be fine.

‘How long do you need to film?’ I asked.

‘Not long, if I get the right shots,’ replied Jack. ‘I’m relying on you to tell me the fascinating stuff. How about we start now?’

‘But we’re not there yet.’

‘Doesn’t matter. I need some personal background here. What was your grandmother’s name? What did she do for a living? How did she come to be linked with Coven’s Quarter? Do you mind talking into this?’

Jack held out a Dictaphone, and I recoiled immediately.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Jack. ‘A technophobe?’

‘No . . . uh . . . I’ve had bad experiences with recorded
conversations.’ But I took the little recorder from him and explained about my grandmother. How people adored her and how she helped them. How she was an incredible healer. A warm and funny woman who loved to laugh and sing and dance. I missed her.

‘Sounds like she was quite a grandma,’ said Jack, taking the Dictaphone from me and turning it off.

‘We should have come on bikes,’ I mused. ‘This road seems a long way by foot.’

‘Quite a person too,’ continued Jack. ‘But not very witchy. So the whole Coven’s Quarter thing – just an urban myth?’

‘Hardly,’ I said, irritated.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Clearly you don’t believe in magic,’ I said, lengthening my stride. I wanted to finish this and get over to Frey’s asap. ‘And, sure, sometimes
I’m
not completely convinced by it all, but Grandma Bird had a lot of uncanny abilities. There’s got to be more to it than just knowing the right herbs for the right ills, you know?’

‘Okay,’ said Jack doubtfully.

I began speaking faster, then tried to slow down. ‘Grandma said she wasn’t a powerful sort of witch, because she got too wrapped up in people and healing and stuff to practise all she should, but she looked after Coven’s Quarter. That was her responsibility.’ I paused, thinking about what Harry Harrow had said at the library. ‘Do you think Dirty
Harry was just bragging about connections in the council? That the documents are just a fly in the ointment?’

Jack shrugged. ‘I don’t think so, but the other councillors wouldn’t dare allow planning permission, now that Harrow has been arrested. Sounds like the Quarter means a lot to everyone, not just your family.’

‘Mm,’ I agreed. ‘It’s a special place, apparently, because it’s a node at which a lot of energy planes converge. Every once in a while other witches would come to meet Grandma Bird there.’

‘Other witches?’

‘Yep. Not a lot, six at the most, sometimes less. Grandma Bird was always really buzzed after sessions with her cronies.’

‘You ever go up there with them?’

‘Never. The jinx rumour is bad enough without adding me being a witch to the story.’

‘So you’re not a witch?’

Something in Jack’s voice made me feel suddenly vengeful because of all his recent coldness towards me, even though I knew I deserved it.

‘Me, a witch?’ I smiled. ‘Maybe, maybe not.’

‘Huh,’ said Jack. He didn’t look at all afraid like I’d hoped. ‘Well, you certainly can’t read minds,’ he said, only half joking. ‘The whole Ben Latter thing . . .’

I kept quiet, my cheeks aflame.

‘What made you fall for him?’

‘He got my fairy wings back from Eamonn Higgs before they got bent into jet-engine propellers.’ I sighed. ‘He was my hero.’

Jack cleared his throat. ‘Erm, I take it this wasn’t a recent event?’

I ankle-tapped Jack with the toe of a fabulous French pump as he was about to take another step. He stumbled with a curse.

‘
When I was six
,’ I explained, as if to a non-English speaker. Then I shook my head. ‘He was probably in cahoots with the little bully. Let’s not talk about him.’

‘Let’s not. How much further?’

‘See the clearing up ahead?’ Jack nodded, and pulled at the camera-bag strap again. ‘That’s where the road ends, and we cut into the woods at that point. From there, about ten minutes’ walk. I’d feel much better if I were helping with something.’

Jack stopped. ‘Okay. Fine. I admit defeat. Not because I’m lacking in muscle power, okay?’ I nodded solemnly. ‘Only because I want you to feel part of the team. And because this bag’ – he pulled off the smaller of the two – ‘is very manageable for someone who can do tae kwon do.’ I sniffed haughtily. ‘And because this little thing’ – off came the furry microphone – ‘is just making it hard for me to carry the big bag.’

I loaded up and noted that Jack was right. Neither was
heavy. Both were inconvenient to carry. We speeded up, and stopped again only for Jack to shoot a few views over Hambledon from the clearing. The cloud hung back from the moon till he was done, and then drifted quickly across it, plunging us into near darkness.

‘Have you got a torch?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ said Jack, and he pulled out his keys to show me a mini-mini Maglite on the keyring. He twisted the head of it and a small beam shone out, enough to light up the path just ahead. ‘You can take it,’ he said, holding it out to me.

‘No, no. You take it and go ahead. I’ll step where you step. I wouldn’t want you to hit the ground with that bag.’

‘Me neither,’ he said, that smile back on his face.

‘Not overly chivalrous, are you?’ I said. ‘You’re supposed to argue with me till I give in and take the torch.’

‘If you take the torch, I’m going to hold on to the back of your jeans so I don’t get lost in the dark, dark woods.’

‘Just teasing,’ I said hastily. ‘You take the torch.’

‘And you hold on to my jeans.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ I said, more hastily still. ‘Turns out I
do
have second sight.’

‘Ha ha,’ said Jack, and he set off, holding the torch down by his side, so I could see where to step too. It was slow going and I had to grab on to branches once or twice where I lost my footing in the bracken and mulchy earth,
but at last the ground began to slope and I could feel that familiar stillness.

‘Are we here?’ asked Jack in a whisper.

‘Just about. Can you feel it?’

He didn’t say anything for a minute, just stood still for a while. ‘Is it warmer?’ he asked then.

‘
I
think it is. Alex and Carrie say I’m crazy, but Tam agrees with me. We should measure one day. Prove the presence of energies.’

We started off again, but the slope made it difficult to keep my footing, so I swallowed my pride and held on to Jack’s forearm. ‘Your damn bags,’ I said crossly. ‘They keep unbalancing me.’

‘Sure,’ said Jack, that smile in his voice again. ‘Blame the bags.’

‘Oh, sorry,’ I replied. ‘You’re right. It is your animal magnetism that’s unsettling me.
Yeeep!
’ I slipped then and would have fallen hard on a knobbly tree root, but Jack’s reflexes were good and he yanked me up before I even went down.

‘Thanks,’ I said. Then, ‘Look,’ and I pointed downhill. The trees had thinned out ahead of us and the moon was glowing brightly again so that Coven’s Quarter looked like it was spotlit.

‘Beautiful,’ said Jack.

I let go of his forearm and reached for the camera in the
bag on my chest and Jack took it from me along with the sound device, which he plugged in and held in his other hand. He kept the camera at his eye all the way down.

When we entered the circle of stone chairs, I walked over to my throne and dropped my hand to stroke the back of it. My fingers tingled and I sat down while Jack stood in the centre of the circle, filming each of the other stone chairs in turn. He came to mine and began walking towards me slowly. I stared at the camera lens as he got closer, keeping quiet in case he needed the background noise, or lack of it, for the final mix of his film. He stopped three metres from where I sat, and kept the camera on me. My eyes moved from it to the dark face behind, the thick straight hair falling over his forehead on to the camera itself, just touching the top of his collar. He seemed backlit in the moonlight, his wide shoulders and lean legs forming a strong silhouette in the silver glow. I wondered what his face looked like behind the lens. Serious? Smiling?

His dark eyes came to mind, his craggy nose, the way he always looked unshaven. I thought of his lips, soft and full, his teeth white and even.

My mouth went dry.

Jack lowered the camera, standing in the same spot.

He lowered the sound boom.

Then he placed them carefully on the ground, took off the heavy bag and walked slowly over to where I sat.
Our eyes met. (I know. But they really did, so I’m telling you.) He crouched down in front of me and put his hands on my knees.

I noticed that his face was very serious. I could not speak.

One hand left my knee and touched my lips. Suddenly he was sitting beside me, turning my face to his, his mouth an inch from mine.

‘You look like a princess,’ he breathed.

‘Careful,’ I said, and he drew back to look me in the eyes. ‘I’m actually a witch.’

He smiled a little. ‘Mm,’ he said. ‘Flirting.’

And then he tasted my lips, and I tasted his and we were kissing.

Kissing
.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Blood rushed. Hearts pounded. Moonlight shone. A button may have popped on my sparkly top, but there was no apology and none demanded.

When our eyes finally opened and Jack drew a little away, I saw he was still looking at my mouth with heavy eyes.

‘Are you hungry?’ he asked in a gravelly voice.

Omigod
, I thought. Pen was right.
We’re going to go from first kiss to getting laid in ten minutes
.

I think he must have read my thoughts because he grinned suddenly and said, ‘It’s just that I heard you liked chocolate.’ He pulled me up from my throne and over to the centre of the clearing, then bent to unzip the big bag. Folded carefully on top was a bright pink picnic blanket. Jack pulled it out and threw it down on the ground. My jaw dropped. He laughed and rummaged in the bag. In minutes a banquet of my favourite things lay before me.

Tall spindly glasses rapidly filling with something sparkly, salty tortilla crisps, a tiny saucer of chocolate and two bowls of strawberries that Jack was pouring a rich chocolate sauce over.

‘Sit down,’ said Jack, still smiling.

I sat down, speechless. ‘Y-you planned all this?’

He touched my lips with his finger again and whispered, ‘Not the kiss.’

‘W-w–’ I started to stammer.

‘I just wanted to say thank you for coming up here with me tonight. I know it was a big ask on your birthday, and I had a feeling your mum was blurring the truth when she said you’d be happy to help me.’

I gestured at the food, and Jack put a fizzing glass quickly into my hand. ‘All this to say thank you?’

Jack smiled uncertainly. ‘Uh, if I’m honest, probably also to ask if we could start again. I-I . . . I like you . . . a lot.’

I smiled back. ‘I think I like you too,’ I confessed.

We kissed again, laughing, and ate strawberries and laughed some more and clinked glasses to toast the rescue of a magical place from evil capitalist pigs.

‘And the final toast,’ I said, touching my glass to Jack’s, ‘to my first kiss. At last.’

I took a sip and Jack looked at me, confused.

‘Hey,’ he said, pulling me close. ‘I didn’t know this was your first kiss.’

I stiffened. ‘Uh . . .’

‘You’re so good at it!’ he teased, a glint in his eye. ‘I’m amazed that Alex person didn’t let me know.’

‘Me too,’ I said, grinning. ‘What’s the time?’

Jack angled his watch to the moonlight. ‘About ten
to nine. Do you need to get to that party?’ His face was suddenly serious.

‘Nope,’ I said. ‘Just checking the timing of things. In just over two hours I really will be sixteen.’

Jack lowered his watch, a slow smile starting up. ‘Aha!’ he said. ‘You were so very nearly sweet sixteen and never been kissed or whatever that saying is.’

‘Can I just make sure . . .’ I said, moving in.

‘More flirting!’ he muttered, before I threw myself at him.

At 9.30 I pulled away, with a quick gulp of the last of my drink. ‘The girls will begin to worry about me,’ I said.

Jack sighed. ‘The princess shall go to the ball.’ He looked at me and sat up straight. ‘Can I come too?’

The Frey’s Dam guest list sparked through my mind, and I smiled. ‘I would
love
that,’ I said.

‘Uh-oh,’ said Jack. ‘Will Ben Latter be there?’

I nodded.

‘You want to flaunt your conquest in front of him? Make him writhe with jealousy?’

‘Hardly!’ I tried to laugh, but it sounded strained. ‘He was never interested in me in the first place. Just my dad. I don’t think the sight of us in a passionate embrace would make him feel anything at all. I just want to see the girls.’

We loaded up and, with the moon still out, I picked a path through the sparsest parts of the woods, up north
towards Frey’s Dam, talking and nattering without pause. When we got high enough, reception obviously kicked in. My phone buzzed with a load of text messages, and I pulled it out reluctantly. The first was from Ben: