Page 1 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

“ M y father emailed me earlier. He wants me to come to a family meeting. Apparently, it’s been a while since I saw everyone,” Sly tells me, as we walk down the road.

“A while, try over five years,” I answer. “Are you going to reply?”

“I don’t know. Part of me thinks I should just ignore the email, but the other part of me thinks I should go to the meeting to find out if the rumours are true.”

I grab his hand and link our fingers together. “There must be another way we can find that information out.”

“I thought that was why we were here,” Xander said. “To find out what we can.”

“We are, but we need to proceed with caution,” Sly replies to my brother.

“Just send Enoch in. He’s cute, he can find out anything,” Xander says, grinning at our youngest brother.

He’s right, our little brother is twelve, has a mop of curly brown hair, brown eyes, and a cheeky smile, with dimples. No one can resist his smile or his cheeky look. Even I’m not immune to it.

Xander, at fifteen, still has a slightly cute look about him. I made the mistake of telling him that not so long ago. Needless to say, I’ll never make that mistake again.

“This town is strange,” Enoch says, looking around. “That man looks like a leprechaun.”

“He’s probably getting in character for the Haunted Farm,” I say. But he isn’t wrong. This town does feel strange, but not in a bad way.

“There’s a lot of magic in the air,” Sly says. “OMG, it’s the witch from Snow White.”

I snort out a laugh when I see who he is looking at. “And look at that, she has a crow on her shoulder.”

“I think I’m glad we’re staying here for a while,” Enoch admits.

We all look at him.

I touch his shoulder. “I know things haven’t been easy, sorry.”

He turns to look at me. “It is what it is. I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining because I’m not. You both saved me and Xander, and we love you both for that. But it would be nice to settle somewhere.”

“Well, we’re booked into the B pretty sure they are drooling. Mind you, even from here they look amazing. It doesn’t take long for the others to be served, and our turn comes.

“Hi, I’m Patty. What can I get for you all today?” the smiling worker says.

“Can I have that rainbow slice, please?” Enoch says, pointing at the layered rainbow cake.

“Good choice, each layer is a different flavour,” Patty tells him, picking up a cake slice and slipping it under one of the rainbow slices, the biggest slice, I might add, picking it up and putting it on a plate, before putting it on a tray. She looks at Xander. “And for you?”

“A fruit scone, please.”

She picks out the biggest one for him as well, and it goes into another plate. “Jam and cream?”

Xander nods. “Please, thanks.”

She picks two pots up and puts them on the plate, and then adds them to the tray.

“Sly,” I say to him.

“The chocolate gateau, please,” he says, smiling at Patty.

She plates his cake, again, the largest slice she has. “Would you like cream?”

“Totally, chocolate gateau and cream, is just a must,” Sly replies.

Patty laughs. “It is.” She picks up a small jug of cream, and they both get put on the tray. “And you, sir?”

“The Chelsea bun, please.” Again, she picks the largest one she can find. Do we look like we need feeding up?

She adds my cake to the tray, moves the food tray, and adds cutlery and napkins. “What drinks would you like?”

The boys get cold drinks; I get a latte and Sly an Americano. I pay, thanking the lovely lady, and pick up the cake tray. Sly can carry the drinks one.

The boys head outside and find a table near the back of the garden. It’s a little chilly out here, but we’re tough; we can cope. Plus, I love this time of year. Autumn and spring are my favourite seasons. They mean I can wear my cardies and jumpers again.

“This garden is lovely,” Enoch says. “Look, they even have a little waterfall.”

We all look where he points. The garden is like a peaceful oasis, even though there are people sitting out here, laughing and chatting.

We sit down and spend a few moments handing out food, drinks and cutlery, and all dig into our cakes. I take a bite of cake and groan. This cake is amazing. Mind you, happy sounds are coming from the others as well.

“So, I was thinking,” Enoch says around a mouthful of cake.

I stare at him. “Excuse me?”

He rolls his eyes and swallows his cake. “I said I was thinking. I could research Halloween and haunted houses as a history project.”

“That’s a good idea. I’m sure that will be a fascinating subject,” Sly tells him.

“Should you not do something like the Romans or Victorians?” I ask because, really, the history of Halloween?

“Nope, as long as I can prove history, I can research anything,” he tells me.

“And the Romans and Victorians, everyone does them,” Xander points out, putting jam and cream on the other half of his scone.

I shake my head. I know when I’m going to lose something when they all stick together. “If that’s what you want to do, have at it.”

I get a massive grin from my little brother.

I’m not his parent, just his brother, so I try not to come on too strong, and as long as they are studying, I let things go.

Because we move around a lot, they are both home-schooled.

I make sure they do Maths and English, but then they can choose whatever else they want to study.

If my brothers had their way, they would study magic.

I don’t hold with forcing a proper curriculum on them.

They should learn what interests them, but the home-schooling program doesn’t have a magic course.

“Just think,” Xander says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “If we find somewhere nice to live around here, you can start your chocolate business properly.”

Now there’s a thought. “That would be nice, having a permanent workspace,” I agree, and it means I could expand my range and be more consistent with work.

A lot of my equipment is in storage, along with pieces of furniture we’ve brought over the years.

I’ve no idea if it will go in wherever we find to live, but we fell in love with them anyway and bought them.

Pretty sure wherever we end up, we can make the pieces work.

“So, while we’re here, we’ll look around the whole of this area for a house, cottage, whatever,” Sly announces.

I see the hope in my brothers’ eyes, and a spark in Sly’s. “Then we have a plan.”