City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

but the humiliation he’d doled out to Julie, even if it was in the past, was making it hard for me to smile at him.

‘It’s quite extraordinary what you’ve all achieved,’ he said. ‘You should be very proud of yourselves. You don’t have strangers visiting the city any more and yet you still have a working hotel. With clean sheets.’

I wondered what he’d been expecting. Urine-stained linen, perhaps? ‘Yes. Timmons has always done an excellent job of maintaining the hotel. If only his head office knew.’

‘Oh, have no fear on that score. I will make sure they are informed. The Chief Executive of Travotel will listen to me.’

The assured self-confidence in his voice made me want to gag. ‘You have a lot of friends in high places.’

He nodded. ‘Most certainly.’ He met my eyes. ‘I’m Fab Barrett. It might sound cocky but I don’t believe in modesty for modesty’s sake. I’ve worked hard to get where I am. It’s because of that, in fact, that I’m in a position to help all of you out.’

Monroe strode up, placing a possessive arm round my waist. I made more of it than I should have done, leaning into him. ‘How are you going to help us?’ I asked. With any luck, this was where Fab would tell us that he’d leave immediately with his guards and hazmat suits and tent in tow, arrange for supplies to be sent in to us and then never darken our door again. Given what I knew of Julie, it would probably be his safest option.

‘I’m leaving straight away,’ he said.

My insides did a happy little dance. And we all lived happily ever after. ‘Are you? That’s a shame.’

‘Oh, don’t worry, Charley,’ he said. ‘I’ll be back soon enough.’

Damn it.

Monroe raised his eyebrows. ‘Oh?’

Fab’s expression grew serious. ‘You’ve all been very kind. And I meant it when I said that you’ve done a fantastic job with your community. You’re doing everything you can to make this enclave sustainable for the future – but we all know it’s not enough. Even with rationing, your supplies are running out at a tremendous pace. Before coming here I’d thought that I would sweep you all up and rescue you by taking you out of Manchester. Now I know that you don’t want to leave but, if you don’t get what you need, starvation will eventually force you out. I don’t want that to happen. I’m on your side and I’m going to help you. I will get hold of the immediate supplies you require.’ He reached out and patted me on the shoulder. ‘You’ll never have to worry again.’

I breathed out. Regardless of how he’d treated Julie, and some of his stranger comments over the last day or two, he was giving us what we wanted. No: he was giving us what we needed. I should be feeling happier – but I couldn’t shake off my feelings of mistrust.

‘That’s so very generous,’ I said. ‘You’re fab, Fab.’

He smiled in acknowledgment. ‘I do what I can.’

I scratched my head. ‘But won’t you be placed in quarantine when you leave? And prevented from returning?’

He gestured at himself. ‘I told you before. The suits mean that we’re safe.’ He laughed. ‘Although I have to admit that I’ll be glad when I can take it off for good. We’ve been able to strip down when we’re in the tent, but that’s only for a few hours. These things are remarkably cumbersome. Still,’ he smiled sadly, ‘it means we’ve been protected from the magic. I wish I could say the same for all of you.’

I tried not to tense too obviously but it wasn’t easy. I was absolutely certain that he was talking out his arse about the long-term effects of the magic; it was making us stronger, not weaker. Any idiot could see that. Maybe that was it; maybe what bugged me about him was that he was simply an idiot. I couldn’t blame him for that. Not really.

Fab continued. ‘I heard that there was a rat issue. Thank goodness you were able to help out. That could have been nasty.’ He smiled again. ‘I also heard that it was that soap actress, Julie Chivers, who was attacked. I wondered if she was here. She’s been missing since the Plague began and a lot of people on the outside have been worried about her. I met her once, in fact. She’s a lovely lady. A bit self-obsessed, perhaps, and prone to tall tales and exaggeration. But nice, nonetheless.’

‘I couldn’t say,’ I said, itching to slap him hard. ‘I don’t know her very well.’

‘I don’t suppose there’s much call for famous actresses in Manchester these days.’ Fab’s expression was benign. Bastard. ‘In any case, I shouldn’t be gone for long. Two days, or perhaps three at the most. It will depend on how much time it takes to get the supplies together.’

‘We’re very grateful for everything that you’re doing.’ Monroe said before nudging me.

I coughed. ‘Yes. Very grateful. Thank you so much.’

Fab bowed. ‘It’s the very least I can do.’

‘I’m not sure that I’ve seen you this angry since the days of Albert the psychotic manipulator,’ Monroe remarked.

‘When we first met,’ I told him, ‘you were arrogant and wankerish.’

Monroe pulled away. ‘Wankerish?’

I nodded my head. ‘It’s a word.’

‘Says who?’

‘Me.’ I tucked a stray blue curl behind my ear. ‘You were arrogant and wankerish. But you weren’t nasty.’

Monroe’s face was a mask. ‘What exactly are you getting at, Charlotte?’

‘Fab was nasty to Julie. Unnecessarily nasty.’ I told him what had happened between them.

‘That was a horrible thing to do,’ he agreed. ‘But you can’t take a snapshot of one moment in a person’s life and judge them from it. If you do, Julie is the person who almost ended the entire world. I’m the person who led a werewolf pack to their death.’ He hesitated.

I filled in the gap for him. ‘I’m the person whose little brother burned to death while I was kissing