Page 16 of Season of the Witch (Toil and Trouble #3)

ten

Tia barely got through breakfast. Only Henry’s prodding had her eating any of the pastries he put on her plate, her focus on the English warlock at the end of the table laughing with another of his guests .

Her competitors.

She’d wanted to immediately drag Siddeley to another room, bind his hands and run through their sales pitch over and over until he gave in.

Since she was pretty sure the family would frown on a hostage situation, instead she’d stiffly parked herself in the nearest empty chair. She was nothing if not a swan.

Calm on the surface, thrashing like hell underneath.

With that in mind, she passed thirty minutes making small talk with the confectionary warlock and pretending the sweat on her face was a natural glow.

But hell. Thinking of everyone counting on her made swallowing difficult, until finally she refused to eat anything else.

When her leg started to bounce, she realized the second cup of coffee had probably been a mistake as well.

She cradled the china in her hands, bobbling it when Siddeley cleared his throat.

His smile was eager as he stroked the fat white cat in his lap, making it purr. It looked fluffy as hell and twice as adorable, until its gaze fell on Kingsley Chrichton. Fangs extended past its lips as its eyes narrowed, a long hiss erupting from its throat.

Funny how fast a warlock could scoot a chair when properly motivated.

Siddeley tickled the beast’s chin with no fear for his fingers.

“I want to thank you all again for coming to this little shindig, which, I promise, you’ll enjoy tremendously.

With that in mind, I’ve arranged a few activities for us over the coming weeks.

” A small flourish and six cream-colored cards appeared in front of them, one split between Tia’s and Henry’s place settings.

Elegant script at the top read: Winter in Westhollow: Itinerary.

Forced socializing.

FML , Tia thought, grimly keeping her smile as she read down the list.

Christmas baking… Mulled wine tasting… Snowman building… Christmas caroling… Starlight carnival… Snowflake Ball…

“Ugh,” she said under her breath.

“What?” Henry murmured, yet again too close as he read over her shoulder. His lashes were long and tipped with gold, and she hated that she’d noticed. Just as she hated that her body was on high alert, screaming that only two inches separated their arms.

She pitched her voice low, nose wrinkling. “Snowflake Ball. I mean, come on.”

His eyes flicked up, beautifully green in the daylight. “You don’t like balls?” As the words fell between them, a beat of childish glee resonated in her chest. To her surprise, a flush spread across his cheeks.

Since big ears were everywhere, she just smirked.

He gave her a faint smile in response. Rueful. Cute. A smile she hadn’t seen since they’d been seventeen and starting to circle each other.

“I’m all for the wine tasting,” commented Mina from across the table, jarring her from the eye contact.

Sawyer snorted. “Tasting, Mina. Meaning you have to spit more than you swallow.”

Up the table, Chrichton choked on his coffee. Tia almost did the same.

Mina smiled coolly even as her brown eyes flared in warning.

Siddeley was either oblivious to the innuendo or determined to ignore it. “We might even convince the witch who’s holding the tasting to let us make a batch,” he enthused. “Wouldn’t that be fun?”

More fun than a stupid Snowflake Ball. And what was a Christmas light walk-through ? Tia sighed.

“I know some of you are on different time zones so please take the morning to settle in, wander the grounds, maybe have a nap.” Here he paused to wink at Henry and Tia, and she wanted to dive under the table. It was a good reminder to set up a soundproof barrier around their room, though.

For their secrets. Not for…anything else.

She fanned herself with the card as Siddeley continued.

“Lunch will be cold and self-served on the sideboard here, so help yourselves. If you want anything specific, please ask Primm. If you call his name three times into a mirror, wherever he is on the estate, he will hear you. Our first activity will be at two p.m. and we’ll meet in the main drive to walk into Westhollow. ”

“Walk?” Annaliese queried, wrinkling her freckled nose. The statuesque redhead looked like she thought her legs were for fashion, not function.

Siddeley nodded as he scratched behind his familiar’s ears. “Westhollow has many witches living in its bounds but there are also humans, so we must keep ourselves discreet.”

Tia wondered at how snow that kept only to the Silkwood estate was discreet, but discreetly chose to keep that to herself.

* * *

By noon, she was dragging. Her body screamed for a soft surface to lie down on and her eyes were gritty and sore. Henry didn’t look much better on the other side of Siddeley as the three strolled in the gardens.

She’d ambushed him; she was witch enough to admit it. Before any of the other guests had finished breakfast, she’d asked Siddeley if he could show her and Henry his favorite walk on the estate and of course, the jolly warlock was happy to oblige.

Unfortunately, everyone had piled on—Sawyer seemed confident enough with “Archie” to leave him to the masses, but Chrichton, Griffith and Mina kept pace behind them.

Tia actually felt Griffith breathing down her neck at one point.

Thankfully, Annaliese had drifted back to the manor ten minutes in.

Maybe the walk had been too much for her.

From the first step into the rolling snowy lawns, down the slope to the enclosed wooded area strung with lights and baubles, Tia chattered about the company and what they were working on, how their latest potion was selling and what types of containers they were looking at.

Siddeley nodded absently as the words kept coming, pointing out a favorite ornament in the spaces between her sentences, delighting in a robin halfway through a potion shop layout, clapping his hands when he triggered a mechanical Santa to sing “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” Tia smiled weakly at Siddeley and lifted her voice above the noise.

“…and I think if I showed you some of the figures—”

“Later.” Siddeley waved a hand, attention on something else.

Stung, she searched for what to do next. Her mom had stressed again that morning how important it was for the company to expand into foreign markets. Short of hogtying the man and going back to Hostage Plan A, Tia was running out of ideas.

Henry cleared his throat in the interim. “The gardens, Lord Siddeley, they’re…great.”

She mouthed the word great at him with wide eyes. He shrugged, adding, “Very Christmassy.”

Siddeley clapped Henry on the back, making the younger warlock stagger. “Quite so! We go all out here.”

“Are you a weather warlock, Lord Siddeley?” Chrichton piped up in a rumbling voice. He’d tucked his hands into his pockets, though a telltale shimmer around his body indicated he’d summoned a heat barrier to block the chill.

Siddeley nodded. “Parlor tricks, mostly.”

“I love the snow,” Mina sighed, outfitted in a furred hat and beige trench coat Tia envied. “Christmas just isn’t the same without it.”

This brought a beaming smile from their host.

Tia narrowed her eyes.

“Does it run in the family?” Chrichton asked.

“Father was very adept.” Siddeley brushed some frost off a tree branch and rubbed his fingers together as if relishing the bite of cold.

“And Lady Siddeley?”

“My mother has particular skill in glamour—which makes her very popular with her society set,” he joked.

A laugh circled the group, all of them polite.

Tia set her jaw. “Well, we’re launching a new potion for those nips and tucks soon—”

“So are we.” Griffith, the son of Hightower’s biggest rival, sneered. “So are all the other potion researchers. Didn’t the merger come up with any fresh ideas?”

Her temper bubbled like a cauldron left on the boil.

Henry intercepted. “You can’t expect us to give away our secret projects. But anytime Lord Siddeley would like to hear them, we’d be happy to give a rundown.”

Tia kept pace with Siddeley as they turned a corner, sliding on a dip the snow had covered. Henry grabbed her by the back of her coat and yanked her back on track. She barely blinked. “How about tonight after dinner? I have some figures I could pull—”

“Not tonight,” Siddeley deterred, and Tia ground her teeth. “Maybe later.”

“Tomorrow?”

Siddeley laughed. “Work, work, work. You’re here to enjoy yourself, Lady Hightower.”

Desperate, Tia smiled at him. Or she hoped she did. Otherwise, she’d just bared her teeth. “Call me Tia, please.”

Delight filled his features. “And you must call me Archie.” But the ground she’d gained fell away as he continued, “Let’s see how the days pass, shall we? Enjoy the season.”

Sensing weakness, Mina put in, “Christmas is my favorite time of year.”

Siddeley turned with sparkling eyes and took her arm. “Tell me what your most favorite thing about it is.”

Triumphant, Mina drew him off with her arm linked in his. “Well, family is all-important to me…”

Tia drifted to a stop as the group continued. Griffith threw a smirk at her as he sauntered ahead. She hoped he tripped and fell on his face.

Looking back, Henry reversed his steps. “What’s up?” The hat he’d pulled on drooped over one side of his forehead.

It shouldn’t have been adorable and she was crabby enough to contemplate yanking it off him. “He won’t let me talk.”

Henry gave her a good-natured look, pushing his hands into his pockets. “Maybe he couldn’t get a word in.”

“I paused.”

“When?”

“To breathe.”

He snorted.

She kicked at the snow and let her head fall back. Puffs of white curled from her mouth as she let out an annoyed growl. “How the hell am I meant to convince him to pick us if he won’t let me tell him about the business?”

“That’s the problem. You’re telling him stuff instead of showing him.”

She scoffed. “What, you want me to act out a potion experiment? Mime our profit margins?”

“Are you ever not a smartass?”

“Too bad you don’t remember.”

“Very nice.” He nudged her with his hip. Too close. Again. “He’s invited us all here to enjoy the season , right?”

“Ho freaking ho.”

“ Maybe what he wants isn’t a business pitch.” He tipped his head to the side. “You want to know what an amnesiac is really good at?”

She had some ideas.

His smile upped another notch as if he’d heard the traitorous thought. “Observing,” he answered for her. “The guy isn’t a typical businessman.”

“Okay, Lord Amnesia, I could’ve told you that.”

He tugged on her hair and she batted his hand away.

“He’s like…a puppy,” Henry decided. “He wants to bond with us. He’ll make decisions with his heart.”

Tia let her eyes travel over the many, many whimsical decorations scattered around the estate. And sighed. “We’re going to have to up our game.”