My knees gave way beneath me and I sat down heavily on Eul’s bed.
“My mother is a black witch?”
Jolly took a break from his studies of Eul’s book. “Didn’t you know? You are exceptionally naïve, Wragg!”
“Well, she can be a bit tetchy at times, and I don’t understand half of what she says, but that’s normal with me and women…”
“Don’t be too hard on him, Jolly.” Barb, for once, was sympathetic. “She bewitched his father, she’s bewitched him.”
“Oh, yes… we need to be careful with our Wragg, Barb. Remember when Wragg senior sussed her? He was dead within 24 hours.”
This was too much. “My father died in an accident, he stepped out in front of a cart!”
Barb was looking at Jolly, but nevertheless I caught her message. “That was not tactful, Jolly. John truly believed that was an accident.”
“NOOOOOO!” My world was falling apart. I’d left our children in the care of the most evil witch the world had ever known. Sure, they were her grandchildren, but they were also Barb’s children. And now they were suggesting that she had effectively murdered my father. I put my head into my hands and sobbed.
Barb jumped onto my lap. “I’m sorry you had to find out like this. But you have to know.”
“Aha! Got it!” Jolly was triumphant. He produced a wand and pointed it at Barb. “Dirano cum Accretio!”
There was a puff of blue smoke, and I found myself with a nude woman sitting on my lap, which cheered me up considerably. Jolly, too, by the look of him.
“Oh, thank God for that!” sighed Barb. I heard her voice for the first time in a year.
I wrapped my arms around her. “Welcome back, Barb!”
“I never went anywhere!” She mumbled into my shoulder. Then she sat back, and slapped me hard across the face.
“Owww! What was that for?”
“’Barbie’,” she said. “What the hell were you thinking of? And this…” she slapped the other cheek, “is for ‘sweet cheeks’!”
I rubbed my cheeks. It had been fun, but I’d suspected I’d pay for it in the end.
Barb stood up, and I could admire her in all her naked glory. A year as a cat hadn’t harmed her good looks at all. I just wanted to get her into the nearest bed, and the one I was sitting on would do very nicely indeed. I began to wonder how I could lose Jolly (who may well also have been wondering how he could lose me) but Barb clearly had other things on her mind.
“I don’t suppose either of you two goons brought any clothes for me?”
I looked at Jolly, and he looked at me. “Um, no,” said Jolly. “Do you need clothes? You look great as you are! I must say, I was wondering if mine might be superfluous to requirements…”
I was dammed if I was minded to share Barb with Jolly, after a year without a woman’s touch. “They are, Jolly, but so is what’s inside them…”
“Gentlemen, please!” Barb was exasperated. “We need to rescue Eul, Kathy, and Missy! We have no time to lose!”
“There are some of Eul’s clothes in that cupboard,” admitted Jolly.
“Thank you.” Eul and Barb, in human form, were similar in height and weight, so Eul’s clothes fitted Barb well.
Watching her as she got dressed, I was struck by a thought. “That spell of yours, Jolly?”
“What about it?”
“Will it have worked on just Barb, or will the other three have changed back into women at the same time?”
Barb looked at Jolly, horror written on her face.
“Ohhhhhh SHIT!” she said.