‘No,’ Jamie said firmly. ‘No magic.’
I stared at him, a forkful of lasagne halfway to my mouth. I didn’t really understand what he was saying. He’d come downstairs after saying goodnight to Parker, Mum had dished up the dinner and everything had been going great. He’d even raised his glass and toasted me and Harry, saying how proud he was that we’d saved those people.
Flushed with pride, red wine and love, I’d filled Jamie in on how we were going to make sure our wedding went smoothly. And that’s when he’d turned to me, his face serious, and said: ‘No magic.’
‘What do you mean no magic?’ I asked him, trying to keep my voice level.
Jamie looked worried. He swirled the wine in his glass, then drank it down in one mouthful.
‘Let me tell you about Tansy,’ he said. ‘Her dad is black and her mum is white.’
I shrugged.
‘So?’ I said sulkily.
‘So that wasn’t easy in the southern states of America in the sixties,’ Jamie said. ‘Her mum’s family disowned her – they still don’t speak, as far as I know. What got them through all that was education. Hard work. Tansy’s dad is a brilliant doctor and his talent, eventually, overcame what other people saw as the limits of his race.’
Harry leaned forward. She loved America but she knew its dark side as well as its light.
‘I guess that’s why they ended up in Boston,’ she pointed out. ‘Easier than being in the south.’
Jamie nodded.
‘Definitely,’ he said. ‘I think they moved there so they could get married – inter-racial marriage wasn’t even legal everywhere in the sixties.’
I saw Harry and Louise clasp their hands together under the table. Their marriage wasn’t accepted by everyone they met, so I guessed they could understand a bit about how Tansy’s parents felt.
‘It’s still not straightforward,’ Jamie continued. ‘When Tansy and I were together, her dad got locked out of his house one day. He climbed through an open window, a passer-by saw him and called the police and he was arrested.’
‘For breaking into his own house?’ I said, confused.
‘They wouldn’t believe it was his house,’ Jamie said. ‘Not until Tansy’s mum arrived and backed up his story. Tansy was really upset when she heard.’
‘God,’ I said.
‘So you can understand why they wanted their kids to be well-educated? They’ve always seen it as a way out. Tansy’s got three older brothers – one’s in banking I think and the other two are academics.’
‘That doesn’t mean they’re not open to witchcraft,’ Louise pointed out. ‘You guys are all well-educated too.’
Jamie nodded.
‘I can’t remember the whole story,’ he said. ‘But back when Tansy was a teenager, her uncle died – her mum’s brother. Because her mum had been cut off by her family, she’d not seen him for years. They didn’t even bother to tell her he’d passed away.’
‘Horrible,’ Harry said.
Jamie carried on.
‘Her mum developed depression, I think. She was so fixated on the fact that she’d never got to say goodbye to her brother that she went looking for a way to speak to him after he died. She spent thousands and thousands of dollars on dodgy psychics, mediums, spiritualists – you name it.’
I shuddered. Some witches could see spirits – Harry herself was often seeing things that weren’t there – and I hated to hear about frauds exploiting grieving people.
‘What happened?’ I asked.
‘It nearly broke their family – financially and in terms of her parents’ marriage,’ Jamie said. ‘But Tansy’s mum eventually got help and they managed to rebuild their lives.’
‘Okay,’ I said, beginning to understand Tansy’s aversion to magic.
‘Tansy’s a scientist,’ Jamie explained. ‘She doesn’t believe in God, she has no time for ghost stories or horoscopes – and she’s positively hostile to anything “other-wordly”. If she so much as got wind of witchcraft she’d assume we were all crazy. She’d think this was like some weird version of The Wicker Man. And I can absolutely guarantee that she would pack her bags, leave Claddach as soon as that road opened, and I would never, ever see Parker again.
Jamie looked so upset at the idea of losing his little boy so soon after he’d found him that I clutched his hand tightly.
‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘It’s fine. We’ll sort it another way. If you say no magic, then there’s no magic.’
There was silence round the table as we all contemplated what that meant. I felt a bit sick.
‘What about Esme’s dad?’ Harry asked suddenly. ‘He doesn’t believe.’
She had a point. We’d never hidden our magic from Dad, who was as straight-laced as he was straight-backed. But despite our openness he’d have laughed if anyone had told him his daughter was a witch – it was like he just couldn’t see it.’
‘Yes,’ I said, seeing a chink of hope. ‘Tansy could be like Dad. She’ll just think it’s a wacky hobby.’
But Jamie shook his head.
‘She won’t,’ he said. ‘She’s like a dog with a bone if there’s something she doesn’t understand. When she was little, if she asked her dad a question – you know like kids do, like why is the sky blue – he would make her look it up and learn the answer. It’s how she works. If she thought there was something strange about us, she’d start asking questions. She’d talk to people. Loads of people here know all about you guys – remember when that guy wanted to buy the café? It didn’t take him long to ask around and find out, did it. She’d make notes. She’d dig and dig and dig. And eventually she’d find out the truth and it would blow her mind. And then she would take Parker and she’d go.’
He looked straight at me.
‘Please Esme,’ he said. ‘I know this whole thing is just shit. It’s not how we planned our wedding to be. And the snow has made everything a million times worse. But that wee boy upstairs is my son and he’s amazing, and I can’t risk losing him, Ez. I can’t.’
I knew when I was beaten. I laced my fingers together behind Jamie’s head and pulled him in for a kiss.
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I promise. No magic.’