“And Rayah has a violent side.” Gran added an extra present to one of the sacks. “Sadie Grace reminds me of her. We should maybe put that child in therapy before she turns out like Rayah.”
“I saw Sadie and her brothers before.” Sorrell leaned in a little closer to Zack. “How come they weren’t in school today?”
“In service training day,” Gran said, her hands on her hips. “They always have one this time of year.”
“During which not one foot is stepped inside the school buildings. The secondary school is the same,” Zack said, smiling knowingly.
“They do twilight training instead,” Sorrell said, tapping him on his nose because clearly he didn’t know everything exclusively. “After school, when the kids have gone.”
Zack pulled a face. “Training for what? So they know how to do a tick correctly or put a plaster on a knee?”
Sorrell smacked him lightly on the arm. “I spent a couple of days a week in schools doing play therapy with some of the kids. Or other types of therapy. Teaching isn’t a straightforward job—you have a lot of children who have suffered types of abuse or witnessed horrendous things. Teachers have to be the parent in their classroom to thirty kids every day. No amount of training prepares you for that.”
Zack touched the tip of her nose. “My cousin is a teacher. Jonny has three delinquent children. I have no issue with teachers having their Christmas shopping day.”
“Jonny got called out, by the way,” Gran said. “Fire up in Upperham. The old mill there. You won’t see the smoke because the wind’s blowing the wrong way, but they called out anyone off shift too.”
“A bad one?”
Gran nodded. “I’m looking after the scoundrels later, although Rayah said she’d have them if she was back earlier.”
“Where is Ray?” Zack said.
“Gone shopping for the children’s presents. Jonny was struggling to get into Leeds or Manchester before Christmas Eve, so she offered,” Gran said. “Don’t you two have a date to get to?”
Zack laughed, the vibrations waving through Sorrell. “We do. I’ll load the bags in my car. Pick you up at the same time we agreed?” He let go of her to take hold of the sacks.
She nodded, feeling the loss of his touch. She hadn’t been this way about Mark; he had never left her needing just the feel of him. “A quick change and I’ll be ready.”
“Cool.” He nodded.
She felt her smile broaden, totally oblivious to the knowing look spread all across the face of Gran and the rest of her coven.
Zack drove up roads she didn’t know existed, winding, single track paths with passing points and steep inclines. Sorrell was dressed for walking outdoors in the winter; layers of clothes, the walking shoes he’d recommended that would support her for the rockier bits, where there might be some climbing involved, although she had made him promise not to expect her to be some kind of super fit Wonder Woman. She wasn’t unfit, she was too active to be unfit, but she wasn’t a climber or even a walker of steep hills.
The views were spectacular as they climbed. Miles of countryside interspersed with hamlets and villages, Severton nestling in the centre where the buildings thickened. The season meant their views were unimpeded by thickened trees and she felt as if she was some ethereal creature with the ability to view the world from above.
“It’s amazing,” she said quietly. “I can see why you came home.”
Zack slowed the car, driving into a small parking area. “It’s got a lot of positives,” he explained. “But when I was a teenager all I wanted to do was get out of here. I hated everyone knowing what I was up to.”
“Or who you were up to,” she added, opening the car door.
A snowflake flickered down from the sky that was just the one shade of grey but full of promises.
“I lived in Jake’s shadow,” Zack said. “So no one paid much attention to me. They were all busy shaking their heads at him.”
Sorrell laughed quietly. “But you don’t deny anything.”
Zack shrugged. “There’s not that much to deny. Jake generally had at least two girls on the go. I stuck with one.”
“For how long until you’d break her heart?” Sorrell said.
He opened the car boot and pulled out his coat. “Fair point,” he said. “But what else are you meant to do as a teenager? How about your childhood sweethearts?”
“There were two,” she said. “I had a long term boyfriend through school, and then another at university. Then I fasted a bit before I met Mark. Do you want me to grab a sack?”
He pulled out the large sacks that he’d brought from the post office. They were clearly filled with wrapped presents, all labelled, but she hadn’t yet been able to read any of the tags.
