Page 33 of The Book of Unwritten Stories

‘You’re okay, you can’t eat them every day as they don’t open every day.’

‘Thank God, I’m never going to be able to run away from anything ever again if I eat these every day. Thank thee, Ambrose, they are as good as you promised.’ She was smiling at him.

He leaned over and gently used his thumb to wipe up melted chocolate that had dribbled down her chin.

‘Have you noticed that on the odd occasion you slip into seventeenth-century speech?’

Dora grinned at him. ‘You can take the girl out of the sixteen hundreds but you can never take the sixteen hundreds out of the girl.’

‘That’s exactly what your aunt Lenny says.’

‘It is?’

He nodded. ‘To Sephy, quite often.’

‘Hahaha, that does sound like a Lenny quote.’

They ate the rest of their cookies in silence. Dora couldn’t take her eyes off the Witch Museum building. When the cookies had all gone Ambrose stood up.

‘Where would thou like to go now, my fair maiden?’

Dora giggled. ‘To bed, I think.’

His face dropped a little. ‘Then allow me to walk you home.’

‘I meant to your bed, not mine.’

‘Oh, then in that case let me lead you to my abode. I am so glad I put clean sheets on this morning when I did the laundry.’

‘Sheets are a luxury, once upon a time we would have been happy with fresh straw.’

‘Yes, we would, but it did prickle your back a lot. I much prefer cotton sheets.’

Dora winked at him. ‘Me too.’

As they strolled hand in hand back to Ambrose’s apartment, she realised for the first time in weeks, she felt relaxed and truly at ease with him. Clara, the bookstore and everything else for now had been pushed to the back of her mind. All she wanted was to enjoy being with Ambrose, just the two of them truly getting to know each other all over again with no worries about the rest of the world around them.

TWENTY-FIVE

When Morana opened her eyes, she thought it was still night, until she saw that she had five missed calls from Kim. She threw back her covers, but not quite enough. As she jumped out of bed, her foot tangled in the duvet and she fell straight on her face and landed with a huge thump that normally would have Mrs Danby hammering on her door. She laughed and as she turned to try and get herself up, she noticed the corner of an envelope poking through a floorboard underneath the bed. Curious, she reached out for it, but it would not budge. It was stuck under there.

On her hands and knees now, she pushed the metal bed frame out of the way and grimaced at the dust bunnies underneath it. Yikes, cleaning was not her thing. She did the basics to keep on top, but who regularly cleaned underneath the bed? Well clearly not her. Tugging at the envelope, it would not budge any further. It was completely stuck. She tried to prise up the floorboard, but it wouldn’t move either. She needed a Phillips screwdriver or a crowbar to prise it up and she had neither.

Getting dressed she forgot all about phoning Kim back, she didn’t even look at the time. She was so focused on how she was going to lift the board to get to the damn envelope. Morana decided to go ask Ethan at the shop if they had either of those things she could borrow. Scooping her hair into a messy bun, she dressed in sweats and a hoody with the Blackcraft logo on and pushed her feet into her sneakers. Then ran down the stairs.

As she passed Mrs Danby’s door she noticed it was ajar. As much as she disliked the woman, anyone could help themselves to her stuff and that wouldn’t be fair on her family. She crossed towards it and knocked gently. ‘Hello, is anyone inside?’

There was no answer. She hesitated before pushing the door open enough that she could step inside.

‘Hey, is anyone home?’ The silence was too heavy. The apartment was painted peach, every wall and ceiling a different shade of peach ranging from the palest which was really pretty to an almost tangerine colour. Too nosy for her own good, she walked further in and looked around. She had never been inside. It was bigger than hers and cluttered with statues and magazines. The kind of statues that had been fashionable back in the seventies that you could pick up at the Salem Flea for thirty bucks.

As she walked further inside, she saw a stack of bills on the kitchen counter, a big stack of bills. Just waiting there for someone to take. Morana looked at the cash then shook her head. She wasn’t stealing cash from a seriously injured woman no matter how desperate she was. Besides if she died, Mrs Danby would haunt her for the rest of her life. She would probably do that anyway because she’d made her get hit by that truck. If she took the broad’s money, it would a full-on possession. She picked the money up and counted it, five hundred dollars exactly. Enough to pay the crazy lady for the book and not leave herself without anything. She put the money down, shaking her head. You are not desperate enough to steal from this woman! a voice whispered inside her head. Another voice, deeper, that definitely wasn’t her moral guide whispered, Yes, you should. She is an old witch. It’s not as if she needs it now. Morana gasped. Where did that come from? The money would be handy though, wouldn’t it and hadn’t she done a spell last night wishing for money to come her way?

Before she could stop herself, she picked the cash up and stuffed it into her pocket then turned and walked out of the apartment, leaving the door exactly as she’d found it. Her heart racing a little, she left the building and crossed the road to Enchanted.

The door was closed and it was in darkness. She sighed.

‘Hey, you’re early, we don’t open until twelve today.’