Free The Witches of Cambridge by Menna van Praag Page B

thoroughly stamped on, wouldn’t you say?”
    Kat nods, ceasing her shredding of the unfortunate croissant.
    “But I am learning,” Héloïse continues, “that hiding my heart away from the world—for risk of further stamping—is to give up on life. I’m afraid I cannot recommend it.”
    Kat nods, taking the older woman’s hand and squeezing it. “I’m sorry. And I’m glad you’re back. We missed you.”

    “Yes,” Héloïse says softly, “me too.”
    Amandine takes her mother’s free hand and Kat’s. The three women sit together, holding one another tight and falling into silence again.
    —
    Ten sleepless nights later, Cosima still slips into unconsciousness only at dawn, then wakes an hour later. And, for one blissful moment, she forgets. She still thinks Tommy is sleeping beside her, still believes in true love, still has an unbroken heart. And then, in the next terrible moment, she remembers.
    Every morning Kat visits, bringing treats and things she hopes will help to heal her sister. She force-feeds Cosima chocolate brownies for breakfast, baked to her own special recipe: a pinch of powdered Michaelmas daisy for farewell, two pinches of dried magnolia for dignity, three drops of jasmine for separation, and celandine for joys to come. This, along with four drops of witch hazel in her glass of warm milk, ensures Cosima’s relatively easy recovery. Of course, Kat isn’t a miracle worker and broken hearts will only fully heal when their owners finally want to forgive and forget, but incredibly, on the eleventh morning Kat is able to persuade Cosima to return to the café.
    And, when Cosima is again holding a bag of sugar and a jar of dried daisy petals over a fresh, warm batch of sour cherry and chocolate cupcakes, she makes two vows: she will never give her heart to a man again and she will take her destiny into her own hands.
    In six months she’ll turn thirty and Cosima knows that a woman’s fertility drops drastically after that fateful birthday. The clock is ticking. Now that she’s lost Tommy and sworn off true love, she needs to find a man who shares her dream of parenthood. She’s given up on the idea of being loved; she’s no longer looking for Prince Charming, she’s just looking for a man who’s happy to impregnate her, a man who wants to be a father. Given what Kat told her all those years ago, Cosima understands the enormous risks of such a venture, which is why she’s being extra stringent in her standards. She needs to find the best possible father for her baby, to compensate for the worst-case scenario that she won’t survive to be its mother, just as her own mother didn’t for her. And since she’s failed to find and keep romantic love by natural means, Cosima decides that morning to settle for platonic love by magical means instead.
    —

    Cosima stands at her oak-topped counter, absorbing the scent of a batch of walnut and stilton bread she’s just pulled out of her oven. As she sniffs the air, Cosima contemplates her plan. She’s decided to add a deeper dimension to her baking spells, putting a pinch of dried honeysuckle and purple rose petals into everything—savory and sweet—in order to help find a suitable father for her child. The spell won’t change a man’s desire, only highlight it for Cosima to see. It’ll make spotting a potential candidate much easier; then she can better pick the one she wants before asking him to sit down and discuss the details. The spell will also highlight those with the necessary credentials, so she doesn’t waste precious months on someone who wants a child but sadly can’t help create one. In her wildest dreams, she might still be hoping for the whole package— love and a baby—but she’s quite happy to settle for a confirmed bachelor who wants a child but not a wife.
    As the milky early morning sun slips in through her kitchen windows, Cosima plucks the blossoms off her yellow squash and begins to make her way through today’s