Adhan smiles. “Yes.”
We’re happily walkingdown Main Street, holding hands, chatting and smiling to the townsfolk when I see the family coming out of the museum.
“There they are,” I say to Adhan. “Just by the museum.”
They are stood talking when the younger one sees me and hides behind his brothers.
“Safe to say, he’s still scared,” Adhan says.
“Yeah,” I answer with a sigh.
We stop in front of them, keeping a respectful distance.
“Hello, I’m Adhan Stone,” he says. “This is my partner, Ernest Turnball.”
None of them say anything, not that I blame them. I let go of Adhan’s hand and step forward. “I want to apologise for yesterday. It was never our intention to scare your brother. Sal and Nix told us about you visiting Shattered Glass and when Sal pointed out your brother, we thought we would chat to him.”
“Make a habit of talking to young boys, do you?” the brown haired man says in an angry tone.
I shake my head. “To be honest, we didn’t even give that fact a thought,” I lean a little to the side, to look at the young boy.“I’m truly sorry we scared you. Everyone has told us off and told us how out of order we were.”
“I wanted to make sure you were all alright, especially your brother,” Adhan says. “I also want to offer my apologies. We pride ourselves on being a safe town and to know members of my family caused you all distress is unacceptable.”
“Thank you for your apologies,” the man says.
“I know it won’t make up for scaring your brother, but would you like to join us for coffee and cake in the tearoom?” Adhan asks.
“Clarence and Callum make the best cakes,” I say with a small smile, hoping that will tempt them. “You can meet Mollyanne. You’ll like her, she looks like the evil witch from Snow White and she usually has an animal with her.”
“We met her yesterday and had some of their cakes. Enoch even fed Miles,” the dark haired man replies.
“She didn’t have Miles with her yesterday,” I say, confused.
“As we were leaving the fair we saw her standing by a post, she looked like she was having a funny turn. We offered to drive her home, but she asked us to take her to the tearoom. Miles came running in not long after,” the brown hair man tells us.
“Dammit, I knew she was doing too much,” Adhan said, suddenly looking worried.
I look at the two men and notice Molly’s magic on them. “She gave you protection charms.”
“She gave one to all of us.”
“Will you come and have coffee and cake with us?” Adhan asks again.
The brown haired man looks at the man with him and then the boys. “What do you think?”
“Okay,” the younger one, Enoch, says.
“Thank you, that would be nice,” the brown haired man said politely.
We makeour way to the bookshop and Adhan and I walk in first. The bell jingles, announcing our arrival. Alfred is behind the counter serving, he smiles at all of us as we make our way to the tearoom, where I see Molly is indeed seated at a table, this time she has her Crow on her shoulder.
“Mollyanne what happened yesterday, are you alright cuz?” I ask her in concern, walking over to her.
Molly cackles. “I was feeling my age young’un nothing to worry about, but I made some new friends,” she says looking behind us, smiling at the brothers.
“So we heard. Can we all join you?” Adhan ask.
“You can,” she says smiling.
