“Did you know there’s always been a history of witches in Severton?” Sorrell sat a little bit further forward in her seat. “It’s part of the reason why there’s a convent here.”
“I thought the convent had been here for a thousand years or something.” Keren placed a hand on her rounded belly. “But then I suppose there were witches back then.”
Sorrell nodded. “I did some research recently for the hotel website and found out a ton of weird stuff. The stone circle was apparently put there by druids – on a certain day of the year, the moon and sun line up in some weird formation and they can be seen through certain stones…”
“Lammas,” Jake interrupted. “That’s why there’re always so many tourists here for the first harvest. I knew the stone circle was something to do with it, but had no idea what.”
“When you’re surrounded by something you generally don’t pay much attention to it.” Sorrell gave a slight nod.
“Too effing right.” Rayah tried to mutter the words but they came out too loud. This frequently happened. One of the reasons she was an outstanding teacher was her use of voice; she could control and calm a classroom simply by the tone and timbre of her words. Volume control was difficult when she needed to be quieter though.
Jake glanced at her curiously. “What were you lot talking about when I got here?”
“Jonny.” Keren stretched. “Your sister’s setting him up on a date. She and Sorrell reckon he needs to show the boys how to treat a woman. And to give Sadie Grace some expectations.”
Jake’s face broke out into a wide smile. “This is going to be interesting. Tell me more.”
“Be careful, or I’ll set you up on a date too. Nice single mum, three kids, in need of a rich farmer…” Rayah’s eyes flashed dangerously.
Jake laughed. “No such thing as a rich farmer, so go ahead. Let’s see how far they run when they realise I’m up at four-thirty most mornings.”
Rayah heard beyond the laugh. She knew better than anyone the effect of Scott and Zack finding serious relationships. Jake was a playboy, a self-styled one. The one girl she had known to steal his heart had never actually wanted it and had held it unknowingly for years. That girl was sitting in her rather pregnant form across from them.
“One day you’ll find the female version of you and you’ll understand exactly what you’ve put most of the female population of Severton through for years.” Keren lobbed a cushion at him.
Rayah knew that Keren had moved on rapidly from finding out how deep Jake’s crush had actually run, being more concerned about Jake’s relationship with Scott than anything else. Jake had assured everyone that whatever flame he’d fuelled for Keren had been doused, but Rayah knew that wasn’t entirely true.
“She’d be a lucky and blessed woman if she was the female version of me,” Jake stretched, rather like a cat and not one of the alpacas that he’d started keeping just under a year ago. “Ray, if you want me to put that shelf up this week you need to show me where you want it going.”
Rayah stood up. She could do many things: ride a horse better than any of her cousins or brother; fit a bathroom; create a stink bomb that could evacuate a whole floor and make Sunday lunch for twenty-seven people without giving anyone food poisoning. But she couldn’t use a drill without taking down half a wall.
“No chance of you doing it tomorrow?” She was pushing it getting Jake to work on it at all given that it was the final harvest of the year.
He shook his head. “Charlie’s party in the evening and then home to bed to prep for Saturday. It’s now or next week.”
“Fine.” Rayah gave him the same tone she’d used first as a six-year-old. “Let’s go.”
It was already dark outside,the nights starting to draw in. Rayah walked down the familiar streets with her brother, away from Sorrell’s newly extended cottage and down into the town. Outside some of the houses were baskets filled with apples, most harvested locally. Severton still kept the old ways, the unusual pagan traditions. Incomers adapted to it, knowing full well what to expect when they viewed a house as the local estate agents were sure to give anyone the complete lowdown.
On Saturday, there would be the big harvest, followed by a celebration in one of the large barns on the Maynard estate, spilling out into a field where there would no doubt be a bonfire or two, with any cattle driven between them to use the smoke as a delousing tool, a tradition no one was actually sure worked. And this was the time when the bonfires would live up to their names – bone fires. The bones of dead animals would probably be included in the tinder.
“Why are you trying to fix up Jonny?”
Rayah almost walked into a lamppost.
“Because he needs to get rid of this air of mystery that’s driving the single mum crew crazy – which isn’t helping the kids, by the way. And it’d be good for Charlie and Harry to see him have a life.”
“Okay. I kind of get that. But why you? Jonny is more than capable of asking a woman out. I’ve seen him at work.”
They had stopped walking, pausing outside the smaller of the village greens where there was a well that apparently had ancient healing properties. It was also where Jake had gotten stuck when he was sixteen. Since then it had been secured so no other teenager with bright ideas could climb down it.
“I was just being interfering. As usual.”
“Right.”
He didn’t continue walking, instead standing with his hands in his pockets and watching her like he knew she’d eaten all of his chocolate and was just waiting for a confession.
“If you want to say something, Jake, spit it out.”
