Bryony felt someone playing with her hair. She rolled onto her side and brushed her hand over her head. Her fingers were nipped by a sharp beak.
She opened her eyes and saw Sweetie’s face an inch from her nose. “Good morning, beautiful.”
Sweetie snapped her beak at Bryony.
“Is it breakfast time already?” Bryony stretched her arms over her head as she realized she had fallen asleep on the sofa. She pulled herself into a sitting position and saw Ivy at the other end of the sofa. Spike was sprawled on top of her, gently growling in his sleep.
She nudged Ivy with her foot. “Time to wake up.”
Ivy gave a groan. “Spike, get off me.”
Bryony yawned and stood up. She made her way to the mirror over the top of the fireplace and stared at herself for a few seconds. Sweetie had transformed her hair into an enormous blonde bird’s nest. She attempted to flatten it down with her hands, not altogether successfully.
“Ivy, we have to get the store open,” said Bryony.
“My dog won’t let me move,” said Ivy. She wrapped her arms around Spike who snarled in response. “I need another five minutes.”
“I know we’ve both got ice cream hangovers, but the customers won’t wait,” said Bryony. She looked at the clock and gave a squeak of alarm. “We were supposed to be open ten minutes ago.”
Ivy gave another groan. “They can wait.”
Bryony peered out of the window. “There’s a queue outside. I’d better go down and let them in.”
Ivy peered out from under one of Spike’s paws. “I like the new hairdo.”
“Sweetie designed it especially for me,” said Bryony with a smile. “It’s a bird’s nest deluxe. She’ll do yours if you ask nicely.”
Ivy muttered something into Spike’s fur before closing her eyes again.
Bryony ran down the stairs, flicked on the lights in the store, and unlocked the front door. “Sorry to keep you waiting.” She held the door open as the customers entered the store.
Mavis Banbury was the first through the door, and stared at Bryony’s hair for several seconds without speaking.
“How are you today Mrs. Banbury?” asked Bryony. “Did your talk go well?”
“Oh, yes, thank you, my dear,” said Mavis. “In fact, I’m here to get some more supplies. We had two more bookings after our first talk and sold lots of goodies.”
“That’s excellent,” said Bryony. “You know where the supplies are.”
Mavis looked at Bryony’s hair once more. “Yes, I’ll help myself.”
Bryony smoothed her hands over her hair again. Seemed like not everyone liked Sweetie's hairdressing efforts. She hurried behind the counter and opened the register, getting ready for what looked like another busy day as people gathered their final supplies for the upcoming solstice celebrations.
Five minutes later, Ivy strolled into the store, in a clean black dress, her dark hair gleaming.
“Finally decided to join me,” said Bryony as she handed change to a customer.
“I knew you could handle things on your own.” Ivy ran her hands over her sister’s hair and Bryony felt the chill of magic descend over her. “Might help if you don’t scare the customers away with your terrifying new look.”
Bryony checked her hair; it was its usual silky smooth self once again. “Thanks. I'll leave the scaring to you.”
“As it should be,” said Ivy.
Mavis bustled to the counter, her arms full of supplies. “I wasn’t sure whether you’d both be here today. After the arrest.”
Bryony paused from ringing up the sale. “The arrest?”
Mavis leaned over the counter. “I heard you girls were being questioned about the poisonings in the village.”
“Who told you that?” Ivy stepped towards Mavis.
“I heard several people mention it yesterday.” Mavis's eyes widened. “Somebody said one of you poisoned Lizzie Green.”
“You know that’s not true.” Bryony bagged Mavis’s goods and took her money. “We wouldn’t be here if we’d been poisoning people.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Mavis. “A lovely girl like you would have no reason to go around harming people.” Her gaze moved to Ivy before dropping to the floor.
“What else have you heard?” asked Ivy.
“Well, just that.” Mavis grabbed her bag. “You went to visit Lizzie and then she died. Is it true she was poisoned with food?”
Bryony nodded. “Chocolates. So be careful if you get any deliveries.”
“Chocolate! That’s my favorite food. I can’t go without chocolate.”
Ivy sighed. “It’s not all chocolate that’s poisoned. Lizzie received a delivery of tampered candies and was stupid enough to eat it.”
“Oh, well, that’s good.” Mavis moved towards the door. “And I’m glad to see you both here.” She left the store in a hurry, no doubt to tell her friends she’d just spoken to the evil Old Sarum poisoners.
“If I was the poisoner, I know who’d be next on my list,” said Ivy. “Nosy old woman.”
“She’s only curious,” said Bryony. “I would be too if someone in the village was rumored to be poisoning people.”
Mary Mayhew approached the counter, a single sachet of herbs in her hands. Her eyes were red rimmed and her hair looked almost as dishevelled as Bryony’s had when she first got up. “I hope you don’t mind me coming here. You know about my Belinda.”
“Of course. How is she?” asked Bryony. “I heard the Charm Police are looking after her.”
“She’s not good.” Mary sniffed and rubbed her nose. “I went to see her first thing, and she was barely awake. The poison won’t stop moving, despite what the Charm Police are doing.”
“I’m so sorry to hear that,” said Bryony. “Are you buying these herbs to help her?” She inspected the sachet of mixed lavender, ragwort and fairy dust.
“No, that’s for me,” said Mary. “I’ve not been able to sleep properly since Belinda was poisoned. It’s such a shock.”
“I expect it is.” Bryony turned to the shelves at the back of the counter and extracted two small bottles. “Mix these together with the herbs and that will help you get a good night’s rest.”
“Thank you, that’s kind of you.” Mary's bottom lip trembled. “It wasn’t either of you, was it?”
“Either of us what?” asked Ivy sharply.
“It’s just that, well, I heard the Charm Police are interested in you, for the poisonings,” said Mary. “I don’t believe it, but I had to come and ask you. You didn’t have a falling out with Belinda and decide to get back at her?”
“Of course not.” Bryony patted the back of Mary’s hand. “We would never want to hurt your daughter.”
“Promise me you didn’t do it,” said Mary. “I want to know she is safe. And if you did do it, all I ask is that you reverse the poison. I won’t say anything to anybody else. It can be our secret. Please save my Belinda.”
“We’re doing what we can to help,” said Bryony. “But we had nothing to do with her being poisoned in the first place. We received a poisoned rose ourselves.”
“Could have been a decoy.” The harsh voice of Caspian Grave drifted across the store.
“What did you say?” asked Ivy.
Caspian stared up at Ivy as he approached the counter. He was a short, squat dwarf, with a tuft of black hair in the middle of his head. “You could have planted the rose on your own doorstep to take the heat off you and your sister. You poisoned those other girls, but wanted to make sure you weren’t suspects.”
Ivy growled and stalked closer to Caspian. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I know plenty about you, Ivy Thornheart. I wouldn’t put poisoning past you.”
“And I wouldn’t put thieving past you.” Ivy grabbed hold of Caspian’s jacket and yanked out several packets of herbs. “Don’t think I didn’t see you tucking these away.”
“I was going to pay for them,” said Caspian. “Just didn’t have anywhere to put them.”
“First you accuse us of murder and then you steal from us,” said Ivy. “Behavior like that needs to be punished.”
“You can’t punish me, I’ll tell the Charm Police.” Caspian pulled himself up to his insignificant height of five feet.
“There’s nothing you can say to them that they won’t already have heard,” said Ivy. “Besides, they already want to put me and my sister behind bars for something we had nothing to do with. Your little tell-tales won’t make any difference to them.”
“I’m sure Caspian didn’t mean it,” said Mary. “But people are talking, and you two were the last to see Lizzie alive. And my Belinda was involved with you before she got sick.”
“And I hear Tania is sick as well,” said Caspian.
“Belinda came to us with her poisoning,” said Bryony. “And we only knew about Tania’s problem when we went to visit her.”
Mary gave another sniff. “I don’t know what to believe. All I want is my daughter back home and to be safe and well again.”
“I understand that,” said Bryony. “Take these potions with my blessing and get some rest. Things will look brighter after that.”
“Unless you think what we’ve given you is poison,” said Ivy as she turned towards Mary. “Then you’d be wise not to take them.”
Mary gave a little cry of alarm as she stared at the bottles in her hands. “Are these safe?”
“You’re in a store full of people,” said Bryony. “I’m not going to give you anything poisonous with so many witnesses.”
“Sorry, I’m not thinking straight.” Mary rubbed a hand across her mouth. “I’ll go home and get some sleep as you suggest. And sorry over the accusations about the poison. I just want my Belinda safe. I’ll do anything to make sure that happens.”
“It’s fine.” Bryony walked Mary to the door and showed her out. “I hope everything goes well with Belinda.” She shut the door and turned to Ivy who was still glaring malevolently at Caspian. “This is going to be a long day.”
***
The lunchtime crowd thinned and Bryony and Ivy were ready to shut the store. They’d faced questions from customers all morning about the poisonings and why they’d been arrested. Bryony had broken up two fights Ivy got involved in when customers accused her of being the Old Sarum poisoner.
The store door opened and both girls sighed before turning towards the unwelcome customer. Bryony’s face brightened as she saw her Aunt Isadore walking towards them carrying a box of cupcakes.
“I thought you might like a treat.” Aunt Isadore set the cupcakes on the table by the sofa. “I imagine you’ve had quite an interesting day so far.”
“You’ve heard the poison rumors too?” Ivy stalked over to the cupcakes and pulled the box lid open.
“It’s all everyone is talking about,” said Aunt Isadore.
“Do you believe them?” asked Bryony, a mortified look on her face.
Aunt Isadore put an arm around Bryony shoulders. “Not for a second, my dear. As if my two favorite girls would have anything to do with an unsavoury poisoning. We are much smarter than that when it comes to using magic.” She winked at Ivy. “Now, both of you take a seat and I’ll make some tea while you get stuck into those cakes.” Aunt Isadore didn’t wait for a reply and hurried away to the kitchen.
Ivy slumped onto the sofa, a chocolate cupcake in one hand. “If one more person asks me if I’m the poisoner, I can’t guarantee I won’t zap them with a fire bolt.”
“I feel the same.” Bryony joined her sister and selected a vanilla cream cupcake from the box.
“You’d zap someone with a fire bolt?” Ivy grinned at her sister.
“Well, maybe not a fire bolt. But I would have some harsh words with them.”
“That would stop them for sure,” said Ivy.
Aunt Isadore returned carrying a tray of tea. “Here you go, girls.” She handed around the cups and sat down. “So, has it been too terrible?”
“I’m disappointed that some of our regular customers are so quick to assume the worst,” said Bryony.
“It shouldn’t be a total surprise,” said Aunt Isadore. “We do have some interesting ancestors. And then there’s your aunt Lilith.”
“Aunt Lilith is lovely when you get to know her,” said Bryony.
“Yes, she’s sweetness herself.” Aunt Isadore smiled. “But she was expelled from every witch school she went to. And her father was not known for following the correct magical path all the time.”
“Wasn’t he the half demon who blew up the village hall?” asked Ivy. “I remember Aunt Lilith trying to tell us the story but mom stopped her.”
“That would be the one,” said Aunt Isadore. “So you understand why people automatically think there’s some darkness in our family.”
“And then there’s Great Uncle Buster,” said Bryony. “He’s rumored to be related to the original Grim Reaper.”
“There’s truth to that rumor,” said Aunt Isadore. “Great Uncle Buster has a liking for the more morbid aspects of life.”
“But that doesn’t mean we do,” said Bryony.
“Of course it doesn’t,” said Aunt Isadore. “And once the Charm Police discover the real poisoner, I’m sure everyone will be back to apologize for even thinking that either of you were involved.”
“I bet they don’t,” said Ivy. “I bet they pretend they never said anything. But I won’t forget.”
“You’ll be the better witch if you do,” said Aunt Isadore. “There’s no point in holding a grudge.”
“I find holding grudges most satisfying,” said Ivy.
Aunt Isadore smiled at her. “Have you had any more thoughts as to who is involved in these poisonings?”
“We’ve come to a dead end,” said Bryony. “We were discussing it last night, but none of our theories held up. I was so sure there was a pageant link.”
“The fact the girls were involved in the pageants is an interesting connection.” Aunt Isadore took a sip of her tea. “Have you spoken to the pageant organiser, Samara Renegade?”
Bryony’s eyes brightened. “We haven’t spoken to her. She will be able to tell us more about how Josie, Belinda, Tania, and Lizzie got along when they competed.”
“If she will provide you with the information, it may be worth getting a list of previous pageant entrants. If this poisoner is serious, they will have more victims in mind,” said Aunt Isadore.
“Let’s hope not,” said Bryony. “Now the poisoner is on the Charm Police’s radar, I’m hoping they’ll lay low and won’t risk any more poisoning attempts.”
“Whoever it is doesn’t care about that,” said Ivy. “After all, they paid Lizzie a visit straight after us with a box full of poisoned chocolates.”
“So that was how she was poisoned,” said Aunt Isadore. “Our poisoning friend is getting more inventive.”
“We need to stop whoever it is before they do any more harm,” said Bryony.
“Finish your tea and cakes first,” said Aunt Isadore. “If you want to go and visit Samara this afternoon, I will look after the store. It’s been a while since I’ve stood behind the counter, and I always enjoyed serving customers and mixing up new herbal concoctions.”
“That would be great,” said Bryony. “If you’re sure you don’t mind.”
“It will be my pleasure,” said Aunt Isadore.
Ivy shoved the rest of the cupcake into her mouth. “I’m ready when you are.”
Bryony grimaced at her sister. “You have cupcake all around your mouth.”
“You have cupcake on your nose.” Ivy leaned forward and wiped some vanilla frosting off Bryony’s nose.
Aunt Isadore pulled out a clean hanky and passed it to Ivy. “Less squabbling and more investigating. You have a poisoner to find and your names to clear.”
Ivy looked at Bryony. “Time for a new interrogation.”