Mom looked around as though wondering where everybody was. “And where’s this soon to be son-in-law of mine? I can’t wait to give him a big hug and a kiss.”
“He had meetings this afternoon. I’m not sure where he is right now.”
“We thought we’d go to the pub up the street for dinner. You will come along with us?”
“Of course.” I was definitely hungry. And now that I’d recovered from my initial shock, it was nice to see my parents.
It was an easy walk from the shop up to the pub, so we left by the front door, and I locked up. Meri hung back to walk with me. In her soft voice, she said, “I am very happy for you. If you would like me to stay as your handmaid, I would be honored.”
This was the thing about Meri. Even though she’d been in the modern world for over a year now, she quickly defaulted to her former position as a servant. Still, I was genuinely touched.
“I appreciate that so much. But my mom and dad need you on the dig. You know more about the history than anyone alive.”
“Because it is not history to me. I lived in that time.”
“I know. But you don’t really want to come back to England, do you?”
“For you, Lucy, I would brave anything. I owe you my life.”
I shook my head. I’d tried and tried to get through to her about this point. “You don’t owe me anything. We’re sister witches. It’s a shared bond.”
“Know this,” she said, her eyes huge and dark and so serious. “I’m yours to command at any time.”
“And I appreciate that so much.” And so hoped I never would have to take her up on it. Meri had been through enough.
“He’s a good man, the one you marry,” she said. “Even if he is a creature of the dark.”
“And we don’t ever say that to Mom and Dad, right?”
I’d finally done something right in my mother’s eyes, marrying the perfect guy. I didn’t want to spoil it all by her discovering he was a vampire.
Meri laughed. “As you moderns would say, my lips are sealed.”
She looked much better than the last time I’d seen her. She was getting used to life in this crazy world. Also, she seemed to be very comfortable in Pete’s company. “Speaking of romance, how’s it going with Pete?”
She giggled and blushed. “I like him very much. Even though he does not take his craft as seriously as I do, he makes me laugh.”
Pete had that jokey, Aussie bloke way about him, but I’d seen him take his craft very seriously. He was one of the reasons that Meri was alive today.
Dinner was actually a lot of fun. Pete was funny and entertaining as always. And Mom and Dad were still riding on the high of having so successfully surprised me. They caught me up on the news of their dig, and then Mom said, “But enough about us. Tell me all your plans for the wedding. And tell me I’m in time for your hen party? In fact, I’m hoping to help organize it. I’ve got plenty of ideas.”
She looked so thrilled at the idea of a hen party that I didn’t want to tell her I’d begged Violet not to have one. I’d been disturbed too many nights by boisterous groups of hens partying around Oxford at night. However, I didn’t feel like having an argument with my mother right this minute. She and Violet could sort it out later.
And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, my dad said, “And Pete, we must see about Rafe’s bachelor party.”
“Dad, I really don’t think he’s having one.”
My father looked shocked. “Then it’s a good thing we came here.” He turned to my mom. “You were right after all, my dear. Why, a man must have a bachelor party. It’s a rite of passage.”
“Too right,” Pete said.
Suddenly, eloping became very appealing.
I quietly sent an emergency text to Rafe. I was powerless against these people who had either birthed me, offered to be my handmaiden or, in the case of Pete, helped save my mother’s life. I needed someone who could shut down his bachelor party without offending anyone. Or, at least, if he offended them, then I didn’t have to.
My text read, “Mayday. Mayday. Parents arrived unexpectedly. Dad wants to throw you a bachelor party. Rescue me. We’re at the Bishop’s Mitre.”
Then, having decided there wasn’t much else I could do to avert wedding disasters, I perused the menu. Okay, I knew the menu backwards and forwards, but at least reading it one more time gave me a second to find my balance. Taking my cue, everyone else paused and started reading the menu too.
“Lucy, what’s good here?” my mother asked.
“Mom. You’ve eaten here. The menu hasn’t changed very much.”
My father jumped in before we could start bickering. “I for one long for some good British cooking. The food on the archaeological dig frankly often tastes like something we’ve dug up.”
Well, there was an image to put me off my food. Not really. I told everyone in a loud, bright voice that I would have the fish and chips. I’ve often found that the minute one person gets decisive, everybody else jumps on board. Sure enough, my dad nodded, removed his spectacles and said, “And I’m for the sausage and mash.” He gazed around fondly at the rest of us as though we were new students in one of his study groups. “No matter how far one travels, one always longs for one’s native cuisine.”
Dad had been a student here in Oxford. It was how he and my mother met—he the young American grad student, she the British student who shared his enthusiasm for archaeology.
Pete shut his menu next. “There’s a hamburger that’ll do me nicely.”
Mother said she was torn between shepherd’s pie and soup and salad. Meri stared at the
