‘I did,’ Luna replies, her face glowing. ‘I took Zara with me, and she talked Sabrina into renewing my contract. And she’s going to give me more responsibility from now on, too.’
‘Wow! That’s amazing.’
‘It’s strange, though.’ Luna wrinkles her nose. ‘It was almost like she was expecting me to ask; she didn’t even put up a fight. Then she said she acknowledged that she hadn’t been the boss I deserve, and that she’d aim to do better from here on out. So she didn’t actually say the word “sorry”, but .?.?. I think that’s what she meant?’
‘Well, we can’t expect miracles,’ I reply. ‘As long as her behaviour changes now she knows how it’s been affecting you, I guess that’s the main thing.’
‘Absolutely,’ Luna replies, nodding vigorously. ‘Anyway, I better get on; there’s still loads to do.’
I glance at my watch. It’s just past four o’clock, which gives us a few hours before the launch party’s scheduled to start; with just afewmore guests than Sabrina had originally planned to be in attendance.
I twist my hands nervously together, hoping we’re going to be able to pull this off. It’s not like I’ve ever tried to organise a party in a castle, after all, let alone one for a couple of hundred people.
‘Look,’ says Millie from behind me. ‘I think they’re almost there!’
Sure enough, Hunter and Ian have both almost chopped their way through their respective sections of the tree trunk; it’s hard to see who’s in the lead from here, but it doesn’t really matter, because, as we stand there watching them, they both suddenly stop what they’re doing, and put down their axes.
‘What’s going on?’ says Yasmin, who’s standing next to Millie. Both of them are wearing chef hats, having been roped into helping Izzie in the kitchen, and both of them look ridiculously cute in them. ‘What are they doing?’
I squint in the direction of the fallen tree, wishing for the twentieth time that I had my contact lenses with me. Hunter and Ian are still standing in front of the tree, talking. From what I can see, it doesn’tlooklike a particularly heated conversation, but you never know with those two, and a familiar bubble of anxiety starts to work its way up my chest.
As I watch, though, Hunter raises his arm and holds a hand out towards Ian; after the briefest of seconds, Ian takes it and shakes it firmly, while Hannah and Rowan dance around them, cheering loudly. Then all four of them move back towards the tree trunk, and start pushing. At first, nothing happens, and then, with another shriek of joy from Hannah and Rowan, the middle section of the trunk rolls away, leaving the gates of the castle clear.
I stop the timer on my phone, feeling smug.
‘Hunter technically won,’ says Ian, as the two men come walking towards us. ‘But he’s agreed to sit down with us and have a talk about how we can all work together anyway, so I’ve agreed to stop referring to him as a bawbag. I can’t speak for Izzie, though, unfortunately. She still thinks he’s a Nuckelavee.’
‘I think he might have won over Izzie too, actually,’ I say, with a grateful smile in Hunter’s direction.
‘I’ll still need to move the rest of the tree, obviously,’ he says, smiling back at me. ‘But at least the gates are clear now, so people can leave whenever they want.’
‘So .?.?. will you?’ I ask Ian. ‘Leave, I mean? Now that the road’s cleared?’
‘Er .?.?.’ Ian glances at Hunter, who steps forward.
‘I’ve managed to persuade him to stay until the power comes back on in the village,’ he says. ‘Well, actually, it was these two who did the persuading.’
He gestures at Hannah and Rowan, who’re both sporting matching grins.
‘We’re going to have a sleepover,’ Hannah says importantly. ‘Rowan’s going to stay with me and my stuffed animals, and we’re going to have a midnight feast. Daddy said it was OK.’
‘The road out of the castle’s clear,’ adds Ian, looking slightly abashed. ‘But the roads back to the village aren’t. And Hunter’s right; there’s no point heading back if the power’s still out. If it was just me and Callum, I’d give it a go, but I don’t think Rowan would enjoy going back to a house with no power.’
‘Well, that’s great,’ I exclaim, noting Ian’s use of ‘Hunter’ rather than ‘Bawbag’. That’s definitely progress. ‘And now you’ll all be able to stay for the launch party.’
There’s a murmur of excitement from the assembled crowd, and slowly everyone starts to drift back inside the hotel.
‘So, what happened?’ I say, falling into step beside Hunter. ‘To change your mind about talking to them, I mean?’
Hunter doesn’t look at me.
‘Ian’s a good man,’ he says to the ground beneath his feet. ‘A good man, who’s had a rough deal of it, and now he has a little girl depending on him; and a younger brother, too. So, you could say we had quite a bit to chat about.’
‘And a bit more in common than you realised?’ I suggest.
He stops walking and turns to face me.
‘Don’t push your luck, Rosie Winter,’ he says softly. ‘I could still throw them all out, you know; you too, if I really wanted to.’
