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Her palm glowed like she was holding a hot water bottle. ‘I don’t want to take this off now. It’ll be eight hours until I can put it on again and . . . I’ll miss it. The feeling . Like, now I know what being in love must be like. And I don’t want it to end.’ Unconsciously, her bottom lip stuck out.

Susie’s eyes went wide as she looked from Temperance to Stevie, shocked that Temperance had said so much – too much – about their powers.

Stevie gasped. ‘You love the dress! Of course you do: it’s like it was made for you, babe.

You shouldn’t take it off. Like, ever. Oh my god – let’s go and do the enchantment scene!

When she finally tells the Goblin King that he has no power over her.

It’ll be . . . like . . . you’re living the movie! ’

Susie smiled slyly. ‘There’s bound to be someone on the beach having a cheeky bonfire that we could dance around.’

‘Yes!’

‘Yes.’ Temperance’s voice came out strong and assured before she really thought about what she was agreeing to.

It was like the dress was speaking for her, as if it was longing to have one more dance, one more adventure.

As if it was dying to twirl around in all its poofy glory with its true love again.

‘But it’s chilly, so bring something warm.’

She grabbed the purple emergency beanie that always lived on the shop’s hat stand – the one her mum had knitted her years ago – and pulled it down over fluffed-up curls.

The almost-midnight air was cold, sending their breath out before them like a huddle of squiffy dragons as Susie lit the way with the shop torch and Stevie brought up the rear behind Temperance, carrying the train of the dress in the dead of night like the most dutiful, deranged bridesmaid ever.

‘You’ll love the beach in the dark, Stevie. It knocks California into a cocked hat.’

‘Sure,’ she replied gently. ‘But . . . I don’t want to know how a hat gets cocked, OK? It’s been a long day.’

Soon the footpath was taking them down, on sandy, jagged stones clumped together with sea grass, towards the beach. A light drizzle started to fall.

Susie squeaked. ‘A fire just on its last embers! We can stoke it back up again.’

They dashed to the edges of the beach to grab some dry wood. Well, the others dashed. Temperance sort of ungainly slouched there as the heavy silk got stuck in the sand.

Frustrated, and buzzed by so much cheap rum and pure love that she mostly forgot herself, Temperance held out both her hands, palms down, at her waist. The top two layers of the skirt floated up to meet her touch and with some of the mighty weight lifted, Temperance managed to stagger another few metres forwards.

She flopped down by the fire pit and watched the flames lick back to life as the others fed it.

The night air was sweet and crisp. Unadulterated. The waves washed themselves against the beach, soft and rhythmic and slow. Playing their music even if there was hardly anyone around to hear it.

Temperance shut her eyes. She loved being here with her sister and her very new friend, but a big part of heart was crying out that this was precisely the kind of moment you wanted the Love of Your Life for.

The wool of her beanie itched at her head, and she pulled it down lower to keep her ears warm.

Temperance put her hands to her middle, pushing the fabric in where it gaped slightly, drinking in the warmth and the charge of a real love, even if it was borrowed and second-hand.

‘Hmm, just as I suspected.’ Stevie’s hands were behind her before she even realised what was happening, looping something under her arms and pulling it tight. ‘It will need a belt for the party. But this was all I could find at the store.’

Temperance saw a flash of red as she glanced down and then a feverish heat ran up the back of her neck and down her front, ending up between her legs. Her breath caught in her lungs. She was aware of every inch of her skin that was kissed by the cool night air.

Wrists clasped by a strong hand. The delicious building pressure. The anticipation as he . . .

‘Oh my god!’ Temperance lurched to one side.

It was the red dressing gown cord.

Susie clocked what was happening and fell into the sand, laughing her arse off.

‘What?’ Stevie asked, a little worried.

‘Um, nothing, don’t worry.’ Temperance fanned herself. ‘Chuck me more rum! Quick!’ Temperance swallowed three mouthfuls, closing a door in her mind to the R-rated scene still playing there. For now.

‘Let’s begin.’ Stevie’s eyes glittered.

Temperance struggled to stand, swamped as she was by tulle and silk. She drew a line in the air with one flick of her wrist and the bottom of the skirt shook itself free.

Stevie blinked. Then blinked again. ‘This English beer is strong stuff, right?’

Susie only giggled nervously and tried to eyeball Temperance across the campfire. ‘So, erm, how does it go, Stevie?’

Stevie cleared her throat and started to speak, low and controlled: ‘ Give me the child. Through dangers untold and . . . hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle, the castle . . . beyond the Goblin City. For my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great. You have no power over me! ’

‘Wahey!’ Susie applauded from her prone position on the sand.

‘Very cool.’

Stevie looked down at them both. ‘Come on, join in. We’ve got a much better shot at banishing the Goblin King if we do it together. Girl power! Hold hands,’ she ushered them with her fingertips. ‘Now repeat after me . . .’

They stood in a circle, clutching each other’s booze-clammy hands, squeezing tight and somehow keeping their balance as they started to walk around and around the fire.

They soon fell into a sort of a chant, but Temperance’s voice drifted away as she let her mind wander back into the dress’s memories of its wedding day.

In fact, she sought them out – so delicious and moreish were these snapshots of a happy life, suffused with bright and beautiful love.

A four-piece band playing Rat Pack classics in one corner of the hotel ballroom, a giant fruitcake impeccably iced in another.

Temperance in the bride’s shoes, being twirled on the spot until she was dizzy.

A small pageboy tries to cut in but a low voice says very firmly, ‘Not today, Tim. I’ll think you’ll find she’s all mine today.

’ They are holding hands under the table as telegrams are read, they are standing hip to hip as they cut into the cake with a sword, of all things. Cheering, laughing. Happy tears.

Temperance felt the biting current of magic, starting in the very tips of her fingers and then travelling up into her shoulders and down her spine.

She started to rearrange the memory in her head.

To redesign it. It wasn’t something she’d ever done with a real memory before, but now, more than anything, she wanted this memory to be hers , as she would have it.

As if the dream of her future had already come true.

She squeezed her eyes and painted a scene in vibrant technicolour behind them.

It’s not a hotel ballroom – it’s the barn at the back of the Witch’s Nose.

Gold and silver streamers everywhere. A DJ in the corner, playing ‘Get Lucky’.

A huge tower of profiteroles and French Fancies.

Because who actually likes fruit cake? Susie and I are dancing like crazy, the sequins from her mini dress almost blinding me.

Until a hand finds my waist, snaking around, drawing me to him.

He smells like something familiar, like being outdoors maybe.

Shells and pine needles. ‘I can’t believe you’re mine,’ he says.

We hold hands as funny speeches are made, we bump into each other as we jostle to smush a French Fancy into the other’s face first. We’re so happy, we could burst.

Temperance saw herself in all of those moments, embroidering her own hopes into the story of the dress, mingling with its echoes of eternal love.

She blinked up at the starry sky, clearing the tears in her eyes, pulling herself back to reality.

Where were they again? Oh yes, the Goblin King. Totally normal.

As she tuned back into Stevie’s chant, Temperance found herself making her own version of the words in her head, born of the sort of honest desperation only a midnight beach and too much Malibu can bring out in a person.

Give me The One. Through long lonely nights I have found myself here, at the beach holding all of nature’s wonder. For my will is as strong as yours, and my magic as great. Love can have all power over me, if it brings The One to me. I swear.