A Spoonful of Sugar by Kerry Barrett Page A

followed her sobbing daughter into the room and we heard the lock click.
    ‘That’s never going to come out,’ Millicent said in a low voice. ‘Never in a million years.’
    ‘Really?’ I said, shocked. ‘Then what will she do?’
    Millicent grimaced.
    ‘Haircut,’ she said. ‘Quite a severe one, I imagine.’
    It seemed ridiculous that Amelia was suffering, when I could probably get rid of all the caramel with one twitch of my little finger. I turned to Harry, who’d come with us to the B&B. We’d left Portia drafting yet another press release with a definite glint in her eye, and Mum and Suky giving the contestants, Lizzie and Peter, cups of coffee to keep them occupied.
    ‘Harry,’ I started. She gave me a fierce look and I shut my mouth.
    ‘God,’ I said instead. ‘A haircut.’
    ‘I might just go and phone the hairdresser and get her to come here,’ Millicent added. ‘You sit in the lounge and I’ll be back in a mo.’
    Obediently, Harry and I filed through the door she’d opened for us and sat down. Millicent was English, but she loved Scotland and she’d decked out her B&B in tartan-trimmed glory. Tourists adored it, and the rest of us had grown to love it. Millicent was definitely one of a kind, but she was brilliant in an emergency – Harry had been right to call on her.
    We sank into the squishy red sofa.
    ‘Poor Amelia,’ I said, conveniently forgetting how much she’d been annoying me. ‘Can’t we do something to help?’
    Harry made a face.
    ‘Don’t see how,’ she said. ‘We’re being filmed all the time. Everyone saw how bad Amelia’s hair is – if it’s suddenly better it’ll look so strange. Plus the cameras are bound to pick something up.’
    ‘There aren’t any cameras here,’ I pointed out.
    ‘Millicent’s here,’ Harry said. ‘She’s worse than a hundred cameras. If she gets a whiff of something strange going on, we may as well turn everyone into frogs on live television.’
    I winced. I’d once had an unfortunate incident involving Millicent and a frog that I didn’t like remembering.
    ‘People here know though,’ I said. ‘They just don’t know they know.’
    Our family’s talents were kind of an unspoken secret that everyone in Claddach was in on. Though no one ever said the word witch, it was clear they knew they could call on us to help.
    Harry shrugged.
    ‘It’s not worth the risk, Ez,’ she said. ‘I’m not going to blow generations of secrets for the sake of some silly girl and a haircut.’
    ‘Woah,’ I said. ‘That’s a bit harsh.’
    Harry glared at me.
    ‘Don’t pretend to be all friendly now,’ she said. ‘I saw the way you were looking at her in the tent.’
    She had a point.
    ‘Fair enough,’ I said. ‘I just think it must be upsetting to have to cut all your hair off like that.’
    Harry wasn’t listening. She’d got up and was leaning out of the door, into the hall.
    ‘Shhh,’ she said. ‘I can hear Amelia and her mum arguing.
    I loved a good fight. I was there in a shot. Or at least as close to a shot as I could manage, given my size.
    ‘I can hear that they’re shouting at each other, but I can’t hear what they’re saying,’ I said, frustrated. ‘Do something, H.’
    Harry flicked her beautiful hair over one shoulder and like a conductor bringing in the clarinets, she lifted her hand, palm upwards as though she was turning up the volume on Amelia’s row. There was a slight shimmer in the room and suddenly we could hear every word.
    ‘Oh you’re good,’ I breathed.
    ‘Shhh,’ Harry said.
    I rolled my eyes, but I did as she said.
    ‘I’m phoning Daddy,’ Amelia was shrieking.
    ‘Oh, darling, I don’t think that’s necessary,’ her mum said.
    ‘Just because you can’t stand him moving on with his life and meeting someone new, it doesn’t mean I have to suffer,’ Amelia said.
    Harry made a face at me.
    ‘Ouch,’ she said. ‘Nasty.’
    ‘It was an accident,’ Amelia’s mum said soothingly.