Page 22 of A Witch in Notting Hill

He laughed, or rather exhaled a little harder than usual out of his nose, extending his hand to Willow. “What brings you in?”

I explained the situation with Willow’s gran and our hunt forRewind: A Manual for Counter Magic, mentioning that Fergus from the South Bank Book Market had sent us in his direction.

“How is that old bastard?”

“Old and a bastard,” I said with a laugh. “But doing well. Sends his regards.”

“No he doesn’t.”

“No.” I smiled. “He doesn’t.”

“But because I likeyou, I’ll give you both a hand, hm?”

“Thank you, sir,” Willow said.

“Don’t call me sir. What do I look like, an old man?” She pressed her lips together, whether fighting back a laugh or dying from embarrassment, I couldn’t tell. “Fetch me that ledger there, would you?” He pointed to a book—not unlike Fergus’s—buried under a stack of paperwork on a nearby writing desk.

I pulled it from the stack, careful not to disturb anything else on the desk. There was definitely a method to his madness, and I’d be damned if I was the one to disrupt it. Willow watched me, seemingly holding her breath, which I found impossibly endearing.

“Feel free to look around,” I said to her as I handed over the ledger. “If you’re interested in this kind of thing, there’s some good stuff in here. Just—”

“Don’t touch anything.” She rolled her eyes. “I know.”

She slipped back into the main room, and I returned my attention to Bromley as he flipped through the pages, muttering to himself and peering over the rim of his glasses. “There it is,” he said eventually, jabbing the page with two fingers. If only he’d known how much he and Fergus were alike. Though if I pointed it out, I was certain I’d be forcibly removed from the shop, so I said nothing. “Looks like I sold it to an auctioneer a year ago. Over in Islington there.”

Of course he did.And I was sure the auctioneer sold it to a client, and the client gave it to a friend, and the friend shipped it overseas to someone who buried it in the yard. He scribbled the name and address of the woman on a napkin and pressed it into my hand. “Should be able to find her there. So long as you get past security. Third floor, office with the green door hanging sideways from the hinges. Unless she’s had the good sense to fix it, but I doubt that. Givehermy regards, will you?”

He wiggled his eyebrows in a way that suggested he wanted me to give her more than his regards, and the thought made me nauseated. “Thanks, Bromley. Much appreciated.” The moment I turned to leave, I heard a crash from near the doorway, and my nausea doubled.

“What the hell was that?” Bromley started to get up from his chair, galvanized by his irritation, and I had no choice but to jump in.

“I think I might have left the door open,” I said. “Must have been a gust of wind. I’ll take care of it. And I’ll, er, purchase whatever that was. Do send an invoice to the shop, will you? We’ll be getting out of your hair now. Willow? Let’s be going.”

I ducked into the front room to find Willow, white and still as a statue, standing over a pile of marble shards that might have once been a bust of Medusa. Hopefully it wasn’t haunted.

“What the hell happened?” I whispered, grabbing her by the arm and pulling her toward the door. “What happened to not touching anything?”

“I didn’t, I swear!”

“Then how did the bust end up in a million pieces on the floor?”

“It just fell!”

“Things don’t just fall, do they?”

“In places like this they do,” she argued, raising her voice as we made it out the front door and onto the street. The doorslammed behind us, but not before we heard Bromley muttering a slew of obscenities and cursing those “damn Americans” as he picked up the pieces.

I didn’t want to laugh. Really, I didn’t. But she looked so horrified and adorable I had no choice.

“This isn’t funny,” she moaned, letting her head roll back on her shoulders. “I swear it wasn’t me.”

“Must have been magic,” I teased, laughing harder when she shoved me.

“You’re the worst.”

“If I was the worst, would I have this?” I waved the napkin in her face, pulling it back when she went to grab for it.

“What is that?”