“I was in your offices yesterday, as your secretary told you. I should apologise for what I did but I don’t think there were any unpleasant consequences. It has been vowed down the line of Granny Esmeralda to do whatever needs to be done to –”
“What were you doing in my offices yesterday, Mrs. Byrne?” Colin cut into her rambling.
She fiddled with the straps on her handbag and hedged, “It was for a good cause.” But when he leaned forward menacingly she rushed on, “I put a potion in your coffee.”
She couldn’t have surprised him more if she got up and danced a jig on his desk.
Then he realised what she was saying and the implications and he began to lose his temper.
His tone was low and even when he asked, “What kind of potion?”
“A magical potion to bring forward a past life, in your case the life of Royce Morgan,” she explained.
He stared at her in disbelief.
There was, he knew, no such thing as magic.
She carried on. “For a time, a brief time, Royce, through you, would be in this world again. Using your body to exist in this time, he would be you but he would be you as Royce.”
Colin felt his fury building as he stared at the woman and realisation dawned.
The kiss.
If this bizarre explanation was true then he had, as Royce, been in Sibyl’s small chalet in her back garden most likely kissing who he thought was Beatrice.
And Sibyl had kissed him back.
You weren’t yourself, Sibyl told him.
He wasn’t himself; he was Royce fucking Morgan, kissing Sibyl. Kissing Sibyl in a way that made tears come to her eyes.
Colin felt a searing jealousy tear through him even though he knew it was ridiculous, because it had been him but also, it had not.
Fury he could no longer contain made Colin slowly stand.
Mrs. Byrne watched him, her calm never leaving her and she stood as well.
“I had to do what I did,” she defended herself. “You and Sibyl did not have a very good start and things were not progressing very smoothly.”
His hands were clenched into fists but he held himself in check, though his voice was dangerous.
“Do not ever do that again, particularly, do not give such a…” he could barely make himself say it because he could barely believe it, “potion to Sibyl.”
“Of course not! I wouldn’t dream of it!” she cried, clearly affronted at the very thought.
“But you not only dreamt of it, you did it, to me,” he shot back.
“You’re a bit more difficult than Sibyl. She’s a sweet woman,” Mrs. Byrne replied calmly.
“I know that!”Colin thundered and, surprisingly in the face of his fury, Marian Byrne smiled.
“Well, finally. I thought you thought we were a couple of con artists. Hardly complimentary of myself but certainly not Sibyl…”
He stopped listening to her, sat back down in his chair and buried his head in his hands, resting his elbows on his desk.
This, although he didn’t know it, was a posture Mrs. Byrne was familiar with as she’d seen Sibyl do precisely the same thing.
His carefully controlled life had just turned over.
He was sleeping with a real life avenging (if somewhat misguided) angel, willing to raise shotguns at abusive husbands and sell her body for old people. This same angel was, apparently, the living reincarnation of the woman he, and his entire family, thought would magically enter his life at some point, not only to be his wife, but also to fulfil some longstanding legend of true love. He was right then sitting across from a “witch” who thought she was, and could even be, the descendent of the famous Esmeralda Crane. And she’d given him a magical potion that evidently worked, very well. He’d just decided to marry Sibyl, though he could not imagine, considering her spectacular temper, how she would react to all of this. And in the midst of that, how he’d convince her to bind herself to him in holy matrimony at the end of it, considering what he’d done to her.
Mrs. Byrne cut into his thoughts by asking, “Mr. Morgan, are you quite all right?”
His head came up with a jerk.
“Mrs. Byrne,” he starting, making a quick decision, “what are you doing for dinner next Tuesday evening?”
Colin had finally broken her steady calm and she blinked in surprise.
“I… I… don’t have any plans,” she stammered.
“Good, then you’ll be able to join my family, and Sibyl’s, at dinner at Lacybourne.”
She stared.
She smiled.
She accepted.
“I’d be delighted.”
Chapter Fourteen
Real Dream Man
It was sing-along day at the Day Centre Pensioner’s Club.
Not that the oldies ever sang along, every once in awhile the organist would play something they liked and they’d all sing but that only happened about once a month. They usually just talked and smoked but they always clapped for the hardworking organist after she finished a song.
Sibyl never got any work done on sing-along day. The organ was too distracting.
Today, she was simultaneously creating a flier that advertised the Talent Show while she was writing a letter to the Council to beg them to rewire the building.
Neither of these were going very well.
She was also considering the astonishing possibility that she was, and always had been, a witch with magical powers.
She was also thinking about what happened in her Summer House Laboratory with Colin, this she seemed to be able to concentrate on (with great focus).
Lastly, she was just plain old thinking about Colin and this she seemed to be able to concentrate on very well (with even greater focus).
And Royce, of course.
But mostly Colin.
Last night, she’d picked up the phone to call her mother (and then put it down) at least a half a dozen times. She desperately wanted to explore the idea of magic, dreams and premonitions but her mother would eat it up. She’d be too excited actually to help Sibyl make any sense of it and Sibyl desperately needed it to make sense.
Since she couldn’t ask Mags and she couldn’t look in the phonebook under “witch” or “magic” or “clairvoyants” to get a professional opinion, she was on her own.
This all so prayed on her mind, Sibyl was considering coming clean with Colin, telling him about her nightmare and all the dreams since.
But if she did, he’d leave her. He’d think she’d gone around the bend. Even though she had the feeling he liked being with her (and definitely knew he liked being in bed with her), she wasn’t certain (indeed she was quite uncertain) that was strong enough to withstand her admitting to him she thought she had magical powers.
She shouldn’t worry about him leaving her, but she did. Especially after how he’d treated her yesterday in that strange, sweet way.
And that was all there was to it. She couldn’t deny it and she couldn’t lie to herself about it although she really wanted to.
She had months with him and she decided she was going to hold on to them and then…
Well she’d worry about life after Colin when it happened.
“Hey Billie,” Jemma was at the door of her office, “come out here for a second.”
Her friend’s eyes were dancing and Sibyl smiled despite her unhappy thoughts.
“What is it?” she asked, following Jem into the Day Centre.
“Just come into the Day Centre, I’ll be back,” Jemma walked behind the huge tables that were all shoved together in the middle of the room. The oldies sat around the tables to have their lunch and then lounged the hours after in conversation. Jem waved at the people who called out a greeting to her, gave Sibyl a gesture that told her to wait and sidled through the sliding doors.