Free Midsummer Magic by Julia Williams Page A

to organise.’
    Ant was having a whale of a time. Freddie Puck was fascinating company and Auberon Fanshawe a master of the discreet, or not-so-discreet, celeb story. Ant couldn’t believe his luck. Fancy meeting his boyhood heroes. No one, but no one would ever know how much time the young Ant had spent alone in his parents’ shed with a box of matches and a firelighter, trying out Auberon’s ‘How Do You Light The Burnt Match?’ trick. It was his little secret, but for the first time in his life he felt able to share it. They would understand. Freddie and Auberon were both good sports too, happy to have their photos taken with him, joking that their pictures would no doubt be all over Twitter and Facebook in an instant. Discreetly, when he thought they weren’t looking, Ant had done exactly that. He felt a little foolish when they caught him out, but it wasn’t every day you met your heroes …
    ‘So what’s your next project going to be?’ Ant asked.
    ‘Hush, hush, my boy,’ Auberon tapped his nose. ‘Early doors and all that. Let’s say my agent is in some … interesting discussions. And I have a few irons in the fire production-wise. I’m more in the production side of things now, with Freddie here.’
    Freddie gave Auberon a sly look.
    ‘You could always sign up for
A Dream
. I hear an old friend of ours is playing Titania soon.’
    Auberon blushed, and looked flustered. ‘I don’t think so,’ he said.
    ‘What about you, Freddie? Any chance we’ll be seeing
Illusions
back on our screens?’ asked Ant.
    ‘Possibly,’ said Freddie, ‘but actually, I’m down here researching a new project.’
    ‘Which is?’
    ‘Going to different locations in the UK, and trying to work out if the local myths have any grain of truth in them.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘Well, here it’s the Standing Stones,’ said Freddie. ‘Locally people claim to plight their troth at midnight, and fall in love for ever. I’m going to see whether by suggestion and hypnosis, we can actually make two people fall in love with one another.’
    ‘Right,’ said Ant. ‘Now
that’s
something I’d like to see. Because I don’t believe it can be done. Take me for instance. I’m not in the slightest bit suggestible.’
    ‘Really?’ said Freddie. ‘In my experience most people are a bit suggestible.’
    ‘Well, if you could say, make me fall in love with –
that
woman,’ said Ant, ‘then maybe I’d believe you.’ He pointed in the direction of Diana, then realised Diana had disappeared and he was pointing at Josie.
    ‘What, that pretty little girl?’ said Freddie. ‘Easy peasy.’
    ‘No, not her,’ Ant looked round wildly for Diana. ‘She’s marrying my best friend. The other one – she was here a minute ago, tall, large, redheaded, loud, thoroughly obnoxious. She must be round here somewhere. I can honestly tell you she is the last person on earth I would want to be with, and vice versa. If you could make
her
fall in love with me, then maybe I’d believe you.’
    ‘Are you a betting man?’ said Freddie with a smirk.
    ‘Okay,’ said Ant. ‘Tenner says it can’t be done.’
    ‘Twenty, that it can,’ said Freddie.
    He extended his hand to Ant.
    ‘You have a deal, my friend.’

Chapter Five
    ‘Well, that was exciting,’ said Ant, finally making his way over to where Harry and Josie were sitting. Auberon and Freddie, no doubt glad to be free of their most enthusiastic fan, had settled down with their drinks in the far corner. Harry felt guiltily relieved. Maybe Josie would calm down on the wedding chat for a bit. He had tried to be as fascinated about flowers as she was, but he found he just couldn’t do it. All he really wanted was to spend time alone with Josie and not have to mention weddings for a week.
    ‘You’ve come to join us at last,’ said Harry, ‘and save me from this endless talk of weddings.’
    He’d intended it as a joke, but a trace of irritation had entered his voice, and he could see