me as a woman before.’
‘No, but he has now, and if you carry on looking so pretty, he won’t be the only one, either. Honestly, if a bit of slap and a new hairstyle is all it takes, it just goes to show how shallow men are.’
‘To be fair, I hadn’t really seen Felix in any other light except brotherly before, but he’s quite handsome when you look at him objectively, isn’t he?’
‘Very,’ I said encouragingly, though actually ‘attractively homely’ would sum him up better. ‘Funnily enough, when you were telling me about the qualities you’d like your Mr Right to have, I suddenly realised that Felix had them all – isn’t that strange?’
‘Mmm…’ she said thoughtfully. ‘But I thought he had his eye on you, at one time?’
‘If he did, he doesn’t any more.’
‘I slept there last night, at Marked Pages,’ she said pensively.
‘What, with Felix?’
‘Not with Felix, I just fell asleep on the sofa, and he must have covered me up and left me to it. I let myself out really early this morning before he was awake and came home, and Mum hadn’t even noticed I was missing. I hadn’t had that much to drink, so I’m sure your chocolate had the weirdest effect on me!’
‘I think it might have had an odd effect on me too,’ I admitted.
‘It made me feel as though I’d drunk lots of champagne and everything was sparkling and magical – and I still do, a bit, this morning. Do you feel like that?’
‘No, it just made me understand everything clearly for the first time, probably a bit like when Raffy suddenly got God.’
‘Perhaps it has a different effect on different people?’ She broke off to yell, ‘Kimberly, get up and get right back on! No, you’re not in shock. Butterfly’s legs are only a foot long, you didn’t have that far to fall.’
‘Has she fallen off?’ I asked.
‘She slides off over his shoulder every time he stops, that’s why I put her on a Shetland. What were we saying?’
‘That you thought my chocolate gave you a champagne buzz.’
‘It was that Box B. You’d better be careful who you sell it to!’
‘I didn’t get all giggly and flirty.’
‘No, but you suddenly seemed to be getting on better with Raffy – I saw you feeding each other chocolate hearts! And you let him walk you home.’
‘A few yards across the road? Though actually, I invited him into the cottage because I needed to tell him something,’ I said and then I told her about the lost baby too, and her commands to her pupils to change legs or trot on became inextricably mixed with soft cries of: ‘Oh my goodness!’ and ‘Poor Chloe, but why on earth didn’t you tell me?’
‘You weren’t there, and by the time you got back I didn’t want to talk about it any more. But now the air’s well and truly cleared I feel better, though unfortunately I think Raffy’s gone the opposite way. He looked absolutely stricken and rushed off to the church to pray.’
‘Well, he’s a vicar, that’s how they deal with things.’
‘I suppose it is. And now we both know everything, I’ve forgiven him and can let the past go, just like you and Felix kept telling me to. But Raffy didn’t seem to understand that, because he said he would do his best to avoid me. And by the way, don’t tell Felix about the baby, will you? Zillah is the only other person who knows…I think. She might have told Grumps.’
‘I won’t tell him unless you say I can, though it would help him to understand, because we’ve both been puzzled about why you hadn’t got over it, when it was clearly more that Rachel’s fault than anyone else’s.’
‘Yes, my forgiveness doesn’t so far extend to her. I’m not sure it ever will.’
There was an anguished howl. ‘I’d better go,’ Poppy said resignedly. ‘Butterfly has got fed up and is standing on Kimberly’s foot, looking stubborn as a rock, and I don’t blame him.’
I told Grumps about the blind chocolate tasting trial and that Poppy was convinced the full spell gave the chocolate extra magical powers, and he said approvingly, ‘That girl’s not as stupid as I thought she was.’
‘She isn’t stupid at all,’ I replied indignantly. ‘She simply has an innocent, trusting nature, even though that’s pretty astonishing, considering Janey brought her up.’
‘Mmm. And you say the vicar was there last night, too?’
‘Yes, and I invited him back to the cottage afterwards. We’ve cleared the air between us, Grumps – there are no more secrets. I’ve put the past behind me.’
‘You have, have you?’ he said, with one of his sharper looks, confirming me in my belief that Zillah had long ago told him everything. Then to my surprise he added, ‘Good, good…I believe his punishment has already found him out, so now we can all concentrate on removing that carbuncle Mann-Drake from our midst.’
‘Zillah said we needed Raffy for that. He would be vital.’
‘He certainly has a part to play. As to the chocolate, perhaps you had better be careful when using the additional blessing,’ Grumps said thoughtfully. ‘Keep it for special recipients.’
‘Yes, I’d already decided to use only the Mayan bit for the Chocolate Wishes.’
Not, of course, that I thought my chocolate really did have magical properties, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
When I went into Marked Pages after posting my parcels, Felix asked me, slightly indignantly, what I had said to upset Raffy, because when he had seen him after morning prayers he’d been really down and almost morose.
‘Nothing! As far as I’m concerned, the past is now the past, the slate’s clean and he’s just the new vicar and nothing more. That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it? I’m ready to start again and be friends.’
‘Is that what you told him? So how come he seems to have gone into a tailspin?’
‘I can’t imagine,’ I said untruthfully.
‘Oh, no?’ he said sarcastically. ‘He said he now understood why you didn’t want to see him and he was going to keep out of your way as much as possible. And then he said he wished you all the happiness in the world with David. What did he mean by that? You haven’t got engaged again, have you?’
‘I keep telling everyone that I’m just friends with David, nothing more. Honestly, I don’t think you listen at all! In fact, although I love looking at houses, I think I’ve had enough of that now too and I haven’t really got the time anyway, because I get more and more chocolate orders every day.’
‘But David—’
‘Look, can we forget about him?’ I said wearily. ‘Let’s talk about you. Poppy says she spent the night here.’
He went pink. ‘She fell asleep on the sofa and it seemed a shame to wake her. But she left so early, I didn’t see her go. She got back all right?’
‘Yes, fine – I spoke to her this morning when she was giving a lesson.’
‘I have my first one this afternoon. I’m shutting up shop specially.’
‘Be prepared to eat your meals off the mantelpiece for the next few weeks,’ I advised him.
‘It’s not that bad, is it?’
‘Believe me, you’ll use muscles you never even knew you had. But it’ll give you a peachy bum.’
‘I already have one of those,’ he said with dignity.