Dark Spell by Gill Arbuthnott Read Free Book Online Page A

looking in the least bit cornered, but Callie was itching to go, and after giving her dad a brief chance to say hello she dragged Josh away.
    “At least that’s over,” she said grimly as she shut the gate behind them.
    “You make it sound like some sort of torture,” Josh laughed.
    “It was for me.”
    They started to walk down the beach road.
    “Dunno why. They seem okay.”
    “It’s just they – well, Mum really – always want to know what I’m doing, and why I’m not hanging out with other people. And she disapproves of some of the stuff I do and just goes on and on about it.”
    Josh couldn’t imagine Callie doing anything much that a parent would disapprove of.
    “What sort of stuff?”
    Oh, just the usual sort of witchy stuff: conjuring lights, talking through water, casting the net to protect things. I did mention I’m a witch, didn’t I?
    “Just stuff. Never mind – it’s too good a day to waste it talking about parents.”
    ***
    The waves were as good as Callie had predicted and they spent a couple of hours messing about in the surf before hunger pulled them back to the beach and the picnic lunch they’d brought.
    “Okay,” said Josh, round a mouthful of sandwich. “You were right. I’d have been frozen without the wetsuit. You never know, I could have been the first person in Scotland to get sunstroke and hypothermia simultaneously if it wasn’t for you.”
    “Told you so,” Callie said with a triumphant smirk as she rummaged in the bag for a drink. “You just need to learn to accept that I’m always right.”
    “What did you do to your wrist?” Josh asked, pointing to the mark on Callie’s arm.
    “Dunno. Nothing,” she said, quickly pulling the sleeve of her sweatshirt down to cover it and forcing herself to be calm so that the tingling in her fingers would go.
    Josh grabbed the can out of her hand, shook it and tore back the ring-pull so that it squirted in her face.
    Callie shrieked. “Right, you… you… This is war.” And she chased him back into the waves.
    ***
    “Let me drop off the wetsuits and I’ll walk up with you,” said Callie. “I’ve got to go over to The Smithy.”
    Callie disappeared into her house without asking Josh in, so he leaned against the wall and tried to pull his fingers through his salt-stiff hair. He wondered why she was so neurotic about her parents. They seemed okay: not especially embarrassing, no more so than his own mother.
    The sound of the front door slamming cut across his thoughts and Callie reappeared beside him.
    ***
    There were three cars parked outside The Smithy when they reached it.
    “They must have visitors,” said Josh.
    “It’s just Rose’s friends,” said Callie.
    Another few steps and he could see over the gate and into the garden, where Rose, Bessie and anothertwo elderly ladies sat in deckchairs sunning themselves like cats around a table laden with tea and cakes. Luath sprawled on the grass nearby looking like a melted dog.
    “Pour me another cuppa, would you, Bessie?” one of them said.
    Josh realised he must have been out in the sun for too long because he thought, for a fraction of a second, that Bessie had waved a finger and the teapot had floated up into the air on its own. He blinked hard and when he opened his eyes again, Bessie was holding the pot quite normally and waving to him and Callie.
    “They’re expecting you?”
    “Yes. They’re… sort of… tutoring me.”
    Josh blew out a breath. “During the holidays? That’s a bit heavy. What are they tutoring you in?”
    There was a very long pause.
    “Local… historical stuff.” Callie opened the gate. “Look, I’ve got to go. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
    “Okay. Bye.” Josh took one last long look at the group in the garden then turned towards East Neuk Cottages.
Local history
? Josh had no idea what was going on, but he was sure it wasn’t that.
    “You should have brought him in to meet Isobel and Barbara, dear,” said Bessie. “He