Rory didn’t go to prison. Mum said we’d had enough of courts and questions and stories in the news, and so she made up some story about how it was all a big misunderstanding, and somehow the police bought it, even though I was standing there with blood all over my hands.
And we didn’t leave North Berwick. Rory did though. Everyone was commenting on his feed, saying they’d never employ him, and warning others not to give him work. And when the police went to tell him he was off the hook, they found he’d gone and not left a forwarding address. I felt a bit sorry for him in a way, but I was pleased he’d gone and even more pleased we didn’t have to move again.
And the best thing was that Hermione came back.
After I’d run out of Rory’s flat, Mum’s friend Mandy took us back home and we all trooped inside, a bit shellshocked and sort of spaced out by everything that had happened. And there she was, sitting beside her empty bowl in the kitchen, mewing very crossly because she was hungry. She was a bit thin but none the worse for her adventure. And now she follows me round all the time. When I leave for school in the morning she comes with me to the end of the road, and then she jumps up on the wall and watches me walk away. And when I come home again, she’s there waiting for me. She sleeps on my pillow every night, and she’s honestly the cutest thing. Mum even let me set up an Instagram account for her. She’s got more than a thousand followers. Can you imagine?
Mum’s amazing. She’s got to be really good friends with Cassie’s mum and they go running together all the time. And Mandy, the woman who showed up on Halloween, is part of their gang too. Except she doesn’t run. She works with Mum at the Haven but she’s a singer and she does gigs at pubs and for old people’s birthday parties and that, so Mum and Andrea go and watch her quite a lot. I’ve seen her on YouTube. She’s pretty good.
Callum and I are still together. He’s awesome. And Cassie’s still spending all her time drooling over douchebags.
And we got an A for our history project, so that was cool.
‘Stop dawdling,’ Cassie said as I wandered along thinking about everything that had happened. We were on our way to the museum, because Heather said she had something to show us. ‘Max said he’d be on the beach later and I want to go and see him after.’
‘Max is a douchebag,’ I said automatically and Cassie grabbed my hand and pulled me along to make me go faster.
Heather was really pleased to see us. She was wearing bright pink today and her nails were painted to match. I liked it.
‘I have finally managed to find out what happened to Honor and Alice,’ she said, with a bit of a swagger. ‘Thought you might want to know?’
‘Totally,’ I said, grinning at Cassie. Then my face fell. ‘Ohmygod, they didn’t die, did they?’
‘Well, yes, eventually,’ Heather said. ‘But not in the witch-hunts.’
I was really pleased. ‘What happened?’
Heather had loads of photocopies of old documents. She spread them all out on the table and Cassie and I peered at them. They were totally impossible to read. Heather laughed. ‘Honor married Davey Kincaid,’ she said. ‘There’s a parish record of their wedding.’
‘The baddie?’
‘Perhaps he wasn’t a baddie after all,’ Cassie pointed out.
‘He actually became the laird,’ Heather said. ‘I don’t know why. Perhaps his brother died, though I couldn’t find a record of his death. He seems to have been quite popular in the town.’
‘So Honor married him?’
‘She did. And they had two children together – twins. A boy called Tavish John and a girl called Thora Marion. Both those names mean “twin”, which I thought was quite sweet.’
‘Aww, that’s nice,’ I said.
‘What happened to Alice?’ Cassie wanted to know.
‘She lived in the town her whole life. She never married, but she was well into her sixties when she died.’ Heather smiled at us. ‘Davey Kincaid’s son, Christy, married and had several children. And it seems both twins married and had children too. I’m trying to trace their descendants. There would be so many of them, I’m fairly sure we’ll find some living today.’
I was thrilled. ‘That would be amazing.’
‘I’ll keep you posted,’ said Heather. ‘Maybe you could do another project?’
‘Maybe,’ I said.
Callum was waiting for us outside the museum, sitting on the wall in the spring sunshine. My heart lifted a bit when I saw him.
‘Hello,’ he said. ‘You’ve been ages. I was worried I’d missed you.’
I gave him a kiss and Cassie made sick noises behind my back. ‘Heather had lots to tell us.’
We walked slowly – much to Cassie’s disgust – towards the beach to meet our friends, and I filled him in on everything we’d found out.
‘Oh, that reminds me,’ he said, digging into his pocket and pulling out a flyer. ‘Did you see the drama club is putting on another play? I thought you might want to audition.’
He handed it to me, making a face. ‘But it might not be your sort of thing …’
‘Wicked?’ I said, staring at the picture on the ad, which showed a green-faced witch cackling.
‘What do you reckon?’
I crumpled up the flyer and with an exaggerated flourish, I threw it in the nearby bin.
‘Nope,’ I said. ‘I’m completely done with witches.’
Gripped by The Secrets of Thistle Cottage? Don’t miss The Book of Last Letters, another unputdownable novel from Kerry Barrett. Available now!
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