Chapter 1

Clare and Geoff Sanders were at the kitchen table when Carole came downstairs and entered the kitchen. Geoff stood. “Come in, Carole. Did you sleep well?”

“Yes, I did, thank you. Theodore helped,” she smiled at Clare. “Please, you don’t have to stand for me, um, Mister Sanders.”

“It’s Geoff, and Clare has been working on my manners. I used to be...”

“A curmudgeon,” Clare put in with a smile. “A grumpy curmudgeon. But he’s changing. But come and sit down.” She stood. “We don’t have much special for breakfast. Geoff has to eat healthy...” she hesitated but decided not to begin talking about his healing. “So we have muesli. Porridge if you’d like it. Wholemeal bread, low fat spread, marmalade or jam or honey.”

Carole sat and Geoff did so too, and went back to his bowl of cereal. “I do like porridge sometimes,” Carole said, “but I think I’d like some toast, if I may?”

“Certainly!” Clare stood. “Do you like it thin and crisp or thick?” She reached in to a bread-bin and fetched out a long, brown, uncut loaf.

“Oh, thick would be lovely!”

Clare cut two slices – rather thicker, in fact, than a ‘thick-cut’ sliced loaf would be – and popped them in a toaster. “Light, medium, or well done?”

“Medium, please.”

“Tea? Coffee? Fruit juice? We have several different teas.”

“I ... don’t mind. I don’t want to put you out. I see a pot of coffee there – could I have a mug of that? Just with milk?”

“It’s not putting us out at all,” Clare promised, pouring coffee into a mug and adding semi-skimmed milk.

“You’re being very kind. I don’t know how to thank you.”

Clare put the mug of coffee next to her as the toast popped up. A plate, the toast in a rack, Flora (low fat spread), marmalade, jam and honey appeared on the table as Carole sipped her coffee.

“Carole, Kat helped ... but oh, it’s too long a story and you’d probably not believe it, at least until you get to know her better. But all the thanks we want is for you to get on your feet and be a whole person again. That’s going to take time. You’re welcome here as long as you need. You may like to go and stay with the Birds when Harry’s daughters go back to College.”

“I don’t understand...”

“Don’t worry about it for now. Just enjoy your breakfast. We’ve planned to meet everyone in the park shortly, and they’re all coming back here for lunch. You can stay with me, or go with Geoff to meet the others.”

Carole was busy with her toast, and didn’t respond immediately. She was torn between wanting to help her hostess, and wanting to meet Kat and her little daughter again. Especially her daughter.

Clare could see the conflict in her eyes. “Carole, everything’s under control here. I only offered that you stay in case you were uncomfortable with the idea of going out.”

Relief showed in the younger girl’s expression. “I think I’d like to go with your husband, if that’s really all right. The little girl – Aveleen? – she’s remarkable. When she came to me in the park...” suddenly, Carole put down the remains of her second slice of toast, buried her face in her hands, and was weeping.

Clare looked at her husband, who was clearly embarrassed and out of his depth. “Have you finished, Geoff? Okay. Take your coffee – and that glass of orange juice! And go and sit in the lounge.”

She drew a chair round next to the crying girl and wrapped an arm round her shoulders. Carole turned into the embrace and accepted the comfort offered by the motherly Clare.

Clare let her cry and, as Carole was calming down, retained the embrace. “Carole, you don’t understand yet, but Kat is very special. Her daughter Aibhilin,” she pronounced it Aveleen, as Carole just had, “has inherited similar gifts, though she’s still very young.”

“I felt so loved,” Carole sniffled. “I hadn’t felt loved for years. It was, it was ... almost too much.”

Clare chuckled. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, Babe!” in a pseudo-transatlantic-drawl. “Carole, how old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two. Why?”

“No particular reason. I just realised I know nothing about you. I trust Kat’s perception. For that matter, I trust Aibhilin’s ... intuition. Honestly. I am absolutely certain that between us, we can help you, um, become the person you were meant to be.” She released her. “Now. Have you had enough to eat, or would you like more?”

Carole straightened and looked at her half-eaten toast, “I think I’ll finish this, but that’ll be enough, thanks.”

Not too much later, Carole was walking, well wrapped up, with Geoff to the park.

“Clare said something about your diet?”

“I had a big heart attack. If it hadn’t been for Clare I wouldn’t have made it to the hospital. If it hadn’t been for Kat, with Penny and David, I’d be an invalid at best. As it is, I’m very well, but Clare’s a nurse, and she insists I live – and eat – well. All in all, though, my life is much better now.”

“Kat did something?”

“Carole, when Kat came to you in the park, how did it feel?”

“I felt ... overwhelmed with love. I mean, Aibhilin was so loving, and then Kat came and it was like, I dunno. Tripled? Quadrupled?”

“Did you wonder how she came to be there?”

“I ... I just thought one of the others had called her.”

“No – Aibhilin called her.”

“The little girl? How?!”

“I’ll just say Kat has ... abilities, and so does Aibhilin. I think the little girl may be even stronger than her mother.”

“You’re being, um, circumspect.”

He chuckled. “Indeed. Kat will talk to you and explain things.”

At the park, they walked toward the playground which at that point was empty.

“Not here yet,” Geoff said and looked at his watch. “We could go and get a drink at the Cafe, but it’s not long since breakfast. Or we could walk towards the other entrance and see if we meet them.”

“That sounds best,” Carole agreed, actually looking forward to seeing the little girl again.

As it happened, Aibhilin, with the whole family; Harry, Kat, Naomi and Rebecca, had been delayed leaving the house. Carole and Geoff got halfway to the gate when Aibhilin saw them. She pulled at Naomi, who was holding her hand as she walked, and broke into a trot. A couple of yards from Carole and Geoff, Naomi released Aibhilin’s hand, or did she pull away?

“Ca’ole!”

“Aibhilin!”

“Ca’ole be’er.”

“Yes, I am, thank you.”

“Swings!” the little girl announced, holding up a hand for Carole to take.

It was bitter-sweet for Carole to lift the little girl into the toddler swing and push her and she had to blink away the tears which welled up in her eyes. Much sooner than usual, Aibhilin lifted her arms to Carole. “Hug?”

The contact calmed Carole and she happily pushed the roundabout when Aibhilin wanted that. A break for a snack – hot chocolate and biscuits – during which nobody commented on Carole’s clearly emotional state, or Aibhilin’s continued monopolising of her. When they walked back to the Sanders’, it was Carole who was expected to give the tired toddler a piggy-back ride.

Clare had prepared a savoury casserole of beef, forgiving of timing, and it was only necessary to cook the vegetables she’d prepared earlier before putting the whole meal on the table. It was only after the meal – the dessert was strawberry cheesecake – and coffee, that Kat asked Carole to have a private chat with her in Geoff’s study.

Aibhilin refused to be detached from Carole for her afternoon nap, and Kat wasn’t about to have that battle right then. Besides, it was quite likely that the little one would be a key to Carole’s healing. They settled in the small room, Aibhilin on Carole’s lap.

“Well,” Kat began with a deep breath. “Carole. I’m not going to grill you now. I just need to be clear about myself and my family.”

She saw anxiety on Carole’s face, and chuckled. “Don’t worry! Please! We want to help you. I think you’d agree you need help?”

“Yeah ... of course.”

“Well, we will – as far as you’ll let us. The thing is ... I’m a witch. A seventh child of a seventh child through at least ten generations. And my little daughter obviously has similar powers.” Kat saw mixed emotions crossing Carole’s face. “Oh, Harry didn’t believe me at first, either. I’m going to do for you what I did for him. A small demonstration of just one of my abilities. Is that okay?”

“I ... I suppose so...”

Kat stood and, somehow, instead of a young woman, there was a little pile of clothes, which was moving. Carole couldn’t stop a small squeak escaping her lips. A large, long-haired, ginger cat with a white bib and white paws emerged from the heap and wound round her ankles, then leapt lightly into her lap. The little girl stroked the animal with remarkable gentleness, then the cat stretched up and licked Carole’s cheek. The roughness of the tongue was unmistakable. But then, the cat hopped down and somehow became Kat again, but a naked Kat.

“Oh...” Carole couldn’t get her head to work properly. What emerged from her mouth was, “You’re beautiful!”

Kat chuckled. “Thank you! Harry thinks so. I’m probably overweight, but Harry likes me as I am. Are you convinced I have unusual abilities, at least?”

“Well, of course! Seeing is believing.”

Kat began to dress. “Normally, getting married, having sex...” Kat carefully didn’t expand on that, “would have meant I lost most of my powers. But Harry ... let’s just say Harry and I have a unique bond. While he has no, ah, abilities like mine, I can draw on him for strength. Anyway. I wanted to be quite straight with you. We – all of us – will help you. You can have a place to live, we can sort out your finances, perhaps get you a job and somewhere to live when you’re ready. We’ll do that anyway. But there’s something in you which needs to be healed. You may prefer to go to someone else for that. Witchcraft doesn’t have a good reputation, I know. Once, I would have been referred to as a wise-woman, perhaps, or a white witch. I refuse to use my abilities for, ah, immoral purposes. That’s how I came to be with Harry, actually. But if you’re not happy with, um, what I do, there’s quite a good church not too far away where you can get the sort of emotional help you need.”