Page 21 of The Vanishing Bookstore
‘Mrs Pitcher, thank you. Is everything okay?’
The woman was staring at the cat. ‘Yes, she’s fine. I tried to check but the cat didn’t let me go up to the very top again. I’m sorry but I wasn’t arguing with it.’
‘That’s fine, it’s okay, Hades was there too. Thank you for coming over.’
Mrs Pitcher was staring at Dora, and she didn’t know if it was her tattoos, nose piercing or just general curiosity.
‘Forgive my manners,’ Sephy said hastily. ‘This is my niece, Dora, and my sister Lenny; they’ve flown in from London.’
‘London, I’ve always wanted to go there, it looks so exciting on all the TV shows.’
Dora smiled. ‘You should, it’s great, lots to do.’
Lenny nodded. ‘It’s a busy place, a lot more exciting than Salem.’
Mrs Pitcher looked at Lenny. ‘Most places are a lot more exciting than here, except for this month when it turns into a full-on circus show. But, you know, it keeps the town busy and brings the money in. Are you here for Halloween?’
Dora looked at Lenny. Halloween was three weeks away. As far as she was aware she wasn’t going to be away from her little shop for that long.
‘It depends,’ Lenny replied. ‘I’m not sure whether it will be warm enough for dancing naked in the forest under the full moon and sacrificing a child.’
Mrs Pitcher gasped. Sephy glared at Lenny then took the woman’s arm.
‘Forgive my sister, she has the worst sense of humour. I think she’s lived in the UK far too long.’
Mrs Pitcher glanced back at Lenny, who was now studying the jars on the dresser. As they walked past Dora noticed the cat hiss and reach out a paw, all of its claws extended. Sephy pulled the woman out of the cat’s reach, turning to wave a finger at it.Sephy ushered the woman out of the door then closed it, letting out a sigh of relief.
‘You know better, Ophelia. How are we ever going to have nice neighbours if you insist on attacking them every chance you get?’
The cat jumped off the bottom step and made her way over to sniff first Dora and then Lenny’s leg. She barely gave Dora a passing sniff but when she rubbed her nose against Lenny she dropped to the floor, lying on her belly purring loudly. Lenny grinned and bent down to stroke the cat’s tummy.
‘I thought you had forgotten me, my old friend. It’s good to see you too.’
‘Ahh, that’s more like it. She’s missed you as much as Hades has missed Dora.’
‘I like that she’s getting feistier in her old age, a bit like me.’
Sephy laughed. ‘A bit, you’ve been grouchy since you could talk.’
‘And you’ve been sweetness and light. We can’t all be as happy as you, it’s just not possible.’
An overwhelming feeling of sickness and tiredness washed over Dora again, and she pulled out a chair to sit down. She put her arms on the table and laid her head on top of them.
‘Forgive me, Dora, in all my excitement I forgot that you needed the anti-homesickness tea.’
Sephy filled a pan with water and lit the gas ring for it to boil. Lenny shook her head.
‘You can take the girl out of the sixteen hundreds but you can’t take the sixteen hundreds out of the girl. Where is your kettle?’
‘This is my kettle.’
‘No, it’s not, you have an electric one. I bought you it.’
‘It’s in the box somewhere, you know I prefer to boil my water this way.’
‘Well, you better find it because I am not waiting around for a pan of water to boil every time I need a hot drink.’
Sephy tutted but carried on. Dora watched fascinated as her aunt took a jar filled with all sorts of herbs from the middle of the shelf and put two heaped teaspoons into a small tea pot, then she tipped the pan of boiling water into it and stirred. Taking a clear glass teacup, she picked a tea strainer out of the drawer and poured the liquid through it, adding a spoonful of honey before passing the mug to Dora.
