“Of course. I have just the thing.”

  And so I found myself going back upstairs wearing an evening coat that had no doubt taken a turn on the fashion runway in Milan not so long ago. I fervently hoped that Ian didn’t know anything about fashion, for I had no way to explain the expensive coat.

  Sylvia called Gran in to see me in all my glory before my date and Gran clasped her hands to her bosom when she saw me. “Lucy, you’re so pretty tonight. Your young man will be proposing before you know it.”

  I laughed. “I’m not too worried about a proposal. I just hope he doesn’t get caught up in a case. He takes his work very seriously.” I air kissed both women, so as to preserve my face and then went back upstairs, through the dark shop and up again to my flat.

  I headed straight to a mirror and, while it would be too much to say I didn’t recognize myself, I definitely enjoyed a Cinderella moment. I wouldn’t go out like this every day, but I wasn’t going to wash away Sylvia’s efforts, either.

  The woman staring back at me looked sophisticated and definitely womanly. Sylvia had used silver and gray on my eyes, done something with my skin that made it glow, and the deep pink lipstick definitely made me look like a woman hoping to be kissed.

  Which was a good thing.

  My hair looked glamorous but not overdone. In fact, it was perfect. I looked like me, but a more polished, grown-up version of me.

  I couldn’t wait to see Ian’s expression when he saw me.

  He was picking me up at seven and, since he was usually punctual, I was ready a couple of minutes before. Seven came and went and by seven-fifteen, I started checking my phone for missed calls or texts.

  Nothing.

  By seven-thirty I was irked. I called and got voicemail. “Hi, Ian, It’s Lucy.” Great start. He’s a detective. He knows his name, and yours. “I’m wondering if we got our wires crossed. Was I supposed to meet you somewhere? I thought you were picking me up. Anyway, give me a call.”

  I hung up, then texted him.

  Ten minutes later he called, sounding harassed. “Lucy, so sorry. Something’s come up. I can’t stop. I’ll call you tomorrow.” And then he was gone.

  Chapter 9

  Something’s come up? That was his big excuse? I sat there, feeling foolish and then annoyed. Sure, I understood that he was a busy cop but he’d promised me and if he was going to cancel, couldn’t he have done it before I got fancied up?

  I was far too dolled up to sit home alone on a Saturday night. I had my pride. If Ian was too busy to take me out, I’d go out with a friend.

  Trouble was, I didn’t have many friends in Oxford. Gemma was back in London. Meri was out with Pete.

  Violet was on a date. In fact, everyone seemed to be on a date but me.

  I was contemplating walking down to the local pub on my own when my phone rang again. I hoped it was Ian with an explanation, or at least a better apology, but it was Scarlett calling.

  I was going to leave it, then thought perhaps she’d like to go to the pub with me. She’d seemed keen to be friends and, right now, I could use a friend.

  “Hello?”

  “Lucy, I’m so glad you’re there. It’s Scarlett.” Her voice was pitched low.

  “I know. I’m glad you called.” I could hear the noise of people laughing and talking in the background and thought she was probably already at the pub.

  “Look, I need to you to do me a favor.”

  I was not in the mood for favors. “I was just going—“

  “That detective from today asked me for dinner. I don't know why I said yes. I think I was hungry, and he is sort of sexy, but he’s brought me to this fancy place and he keeps trying to hold my hand.”

  I felt as though a bee had got stuck in my ear. I heard buzzing. I shook my head. “The detective from today asked you out?”

  “Yes. He’s got that dopey puppy look they get when they’re obsessed with you. I can’t stand it. Can you ring me in five and say you’re having an emergency? I’ll tell him I have to leave.”

  “Tell him you have to leave,” I repeated faintly.

  She dropped her voice. “Then maybe you and I can do something together.”

  Her words were clear and perfectly audible, she was used to projecting to the back of a theater after all, but I couldn’t make sense of them. “Wait. Back up. Who asked you for a date? Who are you having dinner with?”

  “I told you. The detective from today. Ian something or other.”

  “Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm?”

  “There’s no need to shout. I can hear you fine. Yes, that’s him.”

  “And he’s taken you to a fancy restaurant? And he’s got the dopey lovesick puppy look?” I needed to be absolutely certain.

  “Yes. You’ve got to help me.”

  I smiled. Grimly. “I’ll be glad to rescue you from that annoying dopey puppy. Delighted, in fact.”

  If I hadn’t been seething with a combination of hurt, anger and disbelief, I might have wondered why she didn’t call one of her actual friends. Why was she calling me?

  But I was in no state to think clearly. Instead, I waited the five minutes and then I called Scarlett. I said I was Polly and that I’d just broken up with my boyfriend and I was distraught. Scarlett did the rest. I asked her where she was and when she mentioned the restaurant I nearly wept. I’d have loved a romantic dinner there.

  I had enough sense to leave the designer coat behind. Instead, I slipped on my regular wool coat over my dress. I grabbed the car keys and got into Gran’s old Ford. Then I drove to the restaurant. It was a couple of miles out of town. I’d read about it in a magazine. It had a Michelin star, or maybe two. It could have a whole firmament full of stars and I wouldn’t be eating there anytime soon.

  When I pulled up out front of what must once have been a stately home, Scarlett was waiting, looking impatient. Ian was with her. Even as I drove toward them I could see that he was pleading with her. The guy who could barely manage to peel himself away from his desk for me had stood me up to make a fool of himself over a college student.

  I pulled up beside them and leaned over and opened the door. Brilliant detective that he was, Ian didn’t even notice. I could hear him. “Scarlett, please, tell me what I’ve done. I’ll fix it. I only want to be with you.”

  Oh, magic words to my ears. “Get in, Scarlett,” I all but snarled.

  Ian glanced at me then, seeming irritated at the interruption. Then he saw me and his eyes widened. “Lucy. What are you doing here?”

  “I might ask you the same question.” I said. I wished Sylvia could see me. No actress could have delivered the line with more withering scorn. Ian looked guilty and confused and, Scarlett was right, like a lovesick puppy.

  She got into the car and slammed the passenger door shut.

  I peeled away so fast gravel shot up. Ian took a few jogging steps after us. “Scarlett, Lucy, wait.”

  I slowed down enough to open my window. He jogged closer and I stuck my hand out the window and flipped him the bird.

  Chapter 10

  “Thank you for rescuing me,” Scarlett said as soon as we’d pulled onto the road leading back to Oxford. I accepted that she was a drama student and so inclined to turn everyday events into high tragedy, but she’d been on a date with the man who’d rejected me to be with her. If anyone should be acting out, it was me.

  I wasn’t in the mood for drama, however. I was too mad. And a bit guilty. It was the potion. Of course it was the potion but I couldn't believe a previous commitment didn’t override the effects of water and a few herbs.

  Anyway, if he was going to fall in love instantly with anyone, shouldn’t it have been Alice? That was her blood and hair he’d been drinking. Why choose Scarlett?

  Not her fault, I reminded myself as the actress stretched out her long legs in the cramped passenger seat and looked over at me, a smile in her eyes. “Where shall we go?”

  No wonder men fell for her like bowling pins. She really was beautiful. “Do you have any ideas?”

  She put her head back against the headrest. “What about a quiet night in?”

  I appreciated that Scarlett had experienced a stressful day and evening, but I’d spent more than an hour being made up and primped. And I was wearing heels. I was going out if I had to go alone. “I thought maybe we’d go to a pub,” I said. “I’m wearing a dress.”

  She chuckled, looking at me closely. “Of course you are. And you look amazing. We can go to The Bear Inn. Some of the theater crowd will be there. It will be crowded, but fun.”

  “Perfect.” And when Sylvia asked me if I’d enjoyed my evening, I could lie and say it had been fantastic. With luck she wouldn’t pry and find out I’d been stood up by my date. It was a faint hope, but at least if I could tell her I’d gone to a pub I wouldn’t sound quite so pathetic.

  Would I?

  The pub had a fun atmosphere, was full of students, and Detective Inspector Ian Chisholm was very unlikely to turn up here. I might be a little overdressed but frankly I didn't care. Better to be overdressed and out somewhere than sitting home watching television with my cat.

  Naturally, Scarlett knew a number of the people there. Miles and Jeremy were standing with Will and Polly and several other people who had been at the meeting earlier and presumably were helping in some way with the production. When he saw me, Jeremy Booth looked behind me as though searching for someone. Then he asked, “Did your friend Alice come with you?”

  When I said she wasn’t with us, Jeremy and Miles both began vying for Scarlett’s attention. If I'd thought this through I'd have suggested we go somewhere where neither of us was known. It wasn't that I resented Scarlett getting so much male attention, but I felt raw and vulnerable. I knew it was the potion making Ian act crazy, and there was an ironic justice in me being punished this way for messing with people’s love lives but still, I had my female vanity, and it was hurting.

  Sitting in the corner watching yet more men ignore me in favor of Scarlett did not sound like the best way to spend my Saturday night. However, even as Miles and Jeremy both made room for Scarlett to sit beside them, she was waving them away. "There's room for two here, Lucy," she said, pushing a humorous looking guy down a hard bench to make more room. She settled me beside him and then said, "What can I get you?"

  I was about to protest that she didn't have to buy me a drink when she said, "No, never mind, I know exactly what you want." She walked rapidly toward the bar and I think every single one of us at the table watched her go with various expressions ranging from blind infatuation to jealousy and, in my case, worry about what she was going to bring me to drink.

  She returned with two sparkling drinks. When I raised my eyebrows she said, "Champagne cocktails. I think they suit the occasion, don't you?" I didn't normally drink champagne cocktails, but then I didn't normally get stood up, either. Perhaps she was right and this was exactly what I needed. I’d parked the car back home and we’d walked over, so I wasn’t worried about drinking and driving. We clinked glasses and settled side-by-side.

  The evening wasn't a roaring success, at least not for me, but I tried to act like I was having a good time. Scarlett turned out to be much nicer than I had believed her to be. She ignored the guys and spent all her time talking to me, telling me funny stories about school and asking me all about myself.

  The guy she’d made move turned out to be called Liam and he was playing Puck in Dream. Liam tried to hit on me but Scarlett glared at him. "Can't you see we’re having a discussion here?" She asked him, opening her eyes wide. To my amusement, he muttered an apology and moved to sit beside a girl I think was named Lucinda who was working on costumes.

  About eleven I felt the cool chill down the back of my neck that suggested Rafe Crosyer was near. I glanced around and, sure enough, he was watching me from across the way. He had a glass of dark red wine in his hand but I thought it was a prop rather than that he was really here to drink.

  I told Scarlett I needed to use the ladies room and left the table. Rafe made his way in the same direction and when I was out of sight I turned to him, "What are you doing here?"

  His wintry eyes lightened. "I might ask you the same question."

  Of all the people to witness my humiliation, did it have to be him? There was definitely a vampire-to-human attraction between us but we’d always been too sensible to act on it. There could be no happily-ever-after with me and a vampire and I was vain enough that I didn't fancy growing old and decrepit while my partner remained eternally thirty-five. Nor, frankly, did I fancy becoming a vampire. So, Rafe and I remained something more than friends, and left the rest unexplored.

  He said, "You look lovely tonight, by the way. You did all this for your date?"

  I raised my hands in the air dramatically. And yes, I'd even painted my fingernails so there were ten flashes of red as I gestured. "It's that love potion. It's all gone terribly, terribly badly. All the wrong people are falling in love with each other. It was supposed to make Charlie fall in love with Alice. But, instead, Charlie seems to be in love with Polly, she's an actor in A Midsummer Night’s Dream that Cardinal College is putting on."

  It wasn't easy to surprise someone who’d been around for six hundred years. I think both of us pretty much thought he'd seen everything, heard everything and probably experienced just about everything. I had the dubious satisfaction of knowing I had managed to surprise him thoroughly. His eyebrows rose and an involuntary laugh shook his frame. "Wait. Stop. I thought you were going to ask Margaret Twig to help you. A novice like you shouldn't be messing about with love potions, not without supervision."

  "What are you? My father?" I stared at him. "Of course we got Margaret Twig to help us. I didn't want anything to do with it. The love potion was Violet's idea. But, Alice seemed so sad and her longing was so real, that I thought perhaps we could help her."

  Now Rafe looked puzzled. "You're not suggesting that Margaret Twig messed up the potion?"

  "No. I don't know. I think Alice messed it all up. She had very specific instructions. She was to slip a little of the potion to Charlie and make sure that she was the first person he saw after he drank it."

  "Sounds simple enough."

  I was pleased he understood. "You'd think so, wouldn't you?"

  I was starting to feel unreasonably annoyed. I hadn't made any mistakes with the potion but somehow I knew that Margaret Twig was going to blame me. Even Rafe seemed rather accusatory. "She brought the potion in a flask to the first meeting of the cast and crew of Midsummer Night's Dream."

  He was gazing at me intently. "Why on earth would she do that?"

  Who knew what had gone on inside Alice's head? "She told me that she can't get Charlie's nose out of a book when they’re in the shop. It's true enough, I've seen him. Even when she brings him his tea and the fresh cakes she bakes him every day, he just eats and drinks and keeps on reading. So, she thought that in the rehearsal hall she could slip some potion into his coffee and get him to look at her since obviously he wouldn't be in the bookshop and he wouldn't have a book in front of him."

  "And yet, her plan went awry. How astonishing."

  Truer words were never spoken. I nodded. "Because she transferred the potion to a silver flask, a couple of the actors thought she’d brought alcohol into the room. Naturally, being boys, they each took a sip and then some fool tossed the rest of it into the communal coffee urn.”

  Slowly, he said, "That can't have ended well."

  My hands waved about again. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. Charlie didn't fall in love with Alice, he seems to be infatuated with Polly. And the guy playing Lysander and the one playing Demetrius are now both in love with Scarlett."

  He began to chuckle. "Don't tell me, she plays Hermia?"

  I rolled my eyes. "I'm sure if Shakespeare were still alive he could write A Midsummer Night's Dream Two and it would be a big hit. Yes, she plays Hermia. I saw her take a sip of Charlie's doctored coffee. But I don't think she fell in love with him. I'm so confused." This was the hardest part to tell. "Then Ian arrived in the middle of the rehearsal and helped himself to coffee."

  "Oh my, you're not telling me our noble Detective Inspector is afflicted with love-madness too?"

  "That's exactly what I'm telling you. He's in love with Scarlett as well. That's why he stood me up. He took her to my beautiful dinner."

  Rafe reached out and touched my bare shoulder. His touch was cool but oddly comforting. "I'm sorry."

  I nodded.

  "You know it's only the potion. It’s a spell that makes people temporarily love addled."

  I smiled slightly. Such a quaint term but very fitting. "I know. My pride is still stung, though."

  "As it should be."

  "So the whole thing is a mess. And as for Scarlett, half the cast and crew are now in love with her and I can't tell who she's in love with."

  He chuckled softly. "My poor, sweet innocent. If Scarlett is that young woman who's been sitting beside you all evening, then Scarlett is in love with you."

  I sucked in a sharp breath and slapped my hand over my mouth as the obvious truth of his words sank in. "Of course. How could I have been so stupid? I tried to stop her from drinking Charlie's coffee and it was me she looked at after she drank it. And instead of looking at Alice, Charlie looked at Scarlett and then Polly, but I think he ended up fixated on Polly."

  He looked more amused than ever. “Oh, what fools these mortals be.”

  Chapter 11

  “It’s a complete disaster,” I said to Margaret Twig the next day. Her eyes widened as I recounted the mess the potion had made. “Jeremy’s in love with Alice. Miles is in love with Scarlett and Charlie, who was supposed to fall in love with Alice, is crazy about a girl named Polly.”

  “Good heavens,” Margaret said, her eyes crinkled in what I thought was amusement but might simply have been confusion. “And what about Scarlett? Is she in love with one of the actors?”