Page 38 of Uncharmed
Hal did a double take. ‘Vivienne? As in Vivienne Cinder?’
‘You know her?’
‘Absolutely not. I made it a personal mission to ensure I never knew her after she asked whether I was the stable boy at her endarkenment ceremony. Demanded that I fetch her a cab and an unsweetened tea and that I do something about fixing the draught in the foyer. A draught – in an ancient, underground, magical headquarters,’ he said, stony-faced.
Annie cringed and gave him an apologetic smile on Vivienne’s behalf.
‘I’m not sure any of my wicche friends would be your cup of tea. They live very different lives to yours,’ she laughed, but the words felt like dropping a glass on the floor. She hated how she sounded as soon as she heard them.
Hal cleared his throat, focused determinedly on the tray that he’d already dried to within an inch of its life. ‘I bet.’
‘Mmhmm,’ Annie replied, keeping a placid smile on her face so as not to reveal the fact she felt like smacking a soapy hand directly to her forehead.
The realization that she had said the wrong thing sat heavy in her chest; the spell had faltered and stalled, all of the magic in the air after the day’s incantations was upsetting the balance.
‘Not that it’s better or worse,’ Annie rambled on, desperate to patch over the awkwardness she’d accidentally created. ‘Just different. They wouldn’t understand the appeal of this place.’
‘It’s that bad, huh?’
‘Oh no, not at all,’ Annie muddled. ‘I just mean that...Well, you and I. We’re so opposite, aren’t we? It’s funny! We don’t go together, we hardly belong under one roof, in such close proximity.’
‘Right,’ he swallowed. ‘That’s true enough.’
The splashes of water against the sink sides and a very faint snuffling of some kind of creature on the porch were the only noises, until Hal spoke again.
‘Nice change of pace for you here, though – with me and the kid. You needed a break, but you’ll be glad to get back to your shiny world,’ he said bluntly. Annie shook her head as she placed a plate onto the rack and flicked the bubbles off her hands.
‘Hal, that wasn’t supposed to sound how it did. This is a very special place. It feels wild and beautiful. It’s the biggest adventure I’ve ever had. Well, the only adventure, but...’
‘But not exactly pretty and polished up to your standards. No chandeliers, no sparkling champagne towers, no grand fireworks – apart from when something accidentally explodes while I’m cooking at the cauldron.
..or if the kid has anything to do with it,’ Hal laughed under his breath.
‘Your world is somewhere brighter than this place. You need all that stuff.’
Annie watched him closely, giving up entirely on the dishes. ‘You think so?’
‘Sure seems that way.’
Privately, she had started to wonder over the past few days whether that really was the case.
Her life had been a series of designated, polished paths that led to glittered rooms. She had assumed that she belonged neatly among them.
But barely a moment had gone by at Arden Place when she’d even felt a pang of longing for any part of that world.
‘I’m doing okay at this, aren’t I?’ she asked hesitantly. ‘Yes, it might have been a bit of a shock to find myself with a toilet that I have to cross a literal stream to get to, but...I stayed, I’m seeing it out.’
‘You’re doing great. Especially with Maeve,’ Hal said with a resigned smile. ‘But you’ll leave, too,’ he added, ‘as you should, because you deserve the best.’ He sniffed. ‘Like keeping a swan in a chicken coop,’ he grumbled to himself. It made her laugh.
‘I’m learning that your world has its own kind of brightness,’ she said quietly. A beat of silence thrummed while Annie tried to figure out what to say next. Why wasn’t the spell taking charge of this messy, complicated moment for her?
‘You couldn’t see yourself leaving it all behind, starting again?
’ Hal asked, surveying her with soft eyes.
She willed the spell to formulate her next move, the right answer, the correct response, but nothing seemed to come.
Her mind was blank. Why was it failing? Annie opened her lips before she’d quite figured out the right answer, just as Maeve swung herself around the kitchen corner.
Annie and Hal took simultaneous steps apart.
‘Annie, Karma won’t take her enormous head out of my custard tart,’ Maeve whinged, holding out her snack plate at arm’s length.
‘I saved it since breakfast to have in bed while I was drawing and she’s.
..Oh.’ Maeve did a double take, the cat dangling over her shoulder and shoving a paw into her face to try to steal the custard for her own whiskered chops.
‘Sorry. Didn’t realize I was interrupting. ’
‘You’re not! Never. Absolutely not, of course not, not at all,’ Annie said frantically. She spun around quickly to lean against the sink, snapping the moment. Her face must have been approximately as bright as her neon pink slippers. Even Karma had stilled, sensing the tension.
‘We’re running low on wood for the stove.
Better go top us up,’ Hal muttered to excuse himself, giving both Maeve and Karma matching scruffs on the top of the head as he shifted past. He grabbed his jacket from the hook and the front door swung behind him with a bounce before Annie could ask if he needed any help.
Although, now that she thought about it, they had loads of firewood. Annie remembered seeing him chopping it earlier in the afternoon. It had been extremely distracting.