Chapter 48

The thing with love potion is that the effect wears off after a while. Michelle has to take a new dose with increasingly shorter intervals, and she has almost no potion left now even if she has tried her best to ration it. As Jacob didn’t like her very much to start with, he starts wondering about why he keeps seeing her. Each time he goes to meet her he is determined to break it off.



But Michelle is always there before him and makes sure that she takes a little sip of potion just before he arrives.



So as soon as they meet, Jacobs feels his reluctance melt away and be replaced by desire.



But one day, Jacob catches a glimpse of Michelle hiding a mysterious shimmering bottle in her purse and as he once again gets the impression that his free will seizes to exist the moment he gets near Michelle, he gets very suspicious. Passion delays him acting on it right away – but afterwards, when Michelle is in the shower, he takes a look in her purse and finds the bottle. Already at the mere sight of it, one can tell it has MAGIC spelled all over it, and as he unscrews the cork and sniffs the content, he feels his thoughts get hazy and lustful. No doubt – this is some kind of witchcraft!



This time, as all the times before, Michelle makes sure that he leaves before her – but this time he hides behind the corner, waiting for her to leave. He intends to follow her home and perhaps see something that can give him more information.



But it is impossible to follow her – and unnecessary – her departure leaves no doubt about the fact that she is a witch. What a horror! What shall he do? If it seemed impossible to break free earlier, it now also seems quite dangerous. You don’t want incur the wrath of a witch.



He needs to research the matter, and he remembers that he found some old books about witchcraft in the attic when he and his father first moved in with Catherine and Betty. He found them very amusing at that time, but now he realizes that these things are real. Hopefully he can find some useful advice in one of them.



The day after, Michelle is hosting a big business lunch in Bluewater together with her husband, and Jacobs therefore knows for sure that he will have the big house to himself. He finds the books in the attic, just where he remembered seeing them and sure enough he finds some very useful information. It appears that the herb Vervain is very useful against all kind of witchcraft that targets the heart and the mind. If one makes sure to always wear a twig close to the heart, it shields the wearer from getting influenced.



He is sure he has seen Vervain somewhere on the property, so he goes out and begins to search for it. The garden is neglected and overgrown with high grass and weeds, but it doesn’t take him long to find the plant. What a relief!! But it remains to be seen if it really works ...



The next day when he goes to see Michelle as agreed, he wears a stalk Vervain in the pocket of his jeans. Like so many times before, he is determined on his way there to end the affair with Michelle– but this time his thoughts don’t get clouded when he meets her. He is very careful though not to make her angry and carefully considers every word he says to her. He tells her that he has had a wonderful time with her, but the fact that she is married makes him worried. For both their sake it would be safest to end this before her husband starts to suspect anything.
Michelle has been aware of Jacobs' reluctance from the start, and it isn’t that flattering really that their time together hasn’t influenced him otherwise, even if it makes her feel very powerful that she can force him to do what she wants totally against his own free will. But she needs the love potion to do that and she is fully aware of the effect wearing off. Now she simply thinks that the potion has ceased to work altogether. Well, to be honest, she is getting a little tired of Jacob and it could be time for a change.Even find a man that would fall a little more for her. So she says. “Fine. Go! You were starting to get a little boring anyway”.



Jacobs is very relieved that she has let him off the hook so easily, but he hurries to grasp his new freedom - a freedom he took for granted before he was unlucky enough to encounter a witch. Now when his mind is no longer under a spell, he finds his thoughts immediately going to Marianne. He shouldn’t have let her think that he wasn’t interested. He was, but she tried so hard all the time – she never gave him any time to respond. So he tried to cool it down a bit, to give him a chance to make a move of his own. Well, after the experience with Michelle, it seems strange to him that he could ever have found Marianne too pushy. She is a sweet and very attractive girl but perhaps a little too eager. He hasn’t seen her for quite a while now and he wonders if she could still be interested, but he phones her the same day and asks her if she would like to go the pub with him. She sounds very surprised to hear from him at all and the question about going out together makes her totally stunned at first, but she says yes in the end. When they meet he makes sure to show her just how much he cares and she can feel that he really means it. She has prayed and wished for him to feel the same way for her as she does for him, and just when she had given up hope it came true. Miracles do happen.



Miracle is a word that comes to Ingmar’s mind as well as his nephew Alex calls him and tells him that he has become a father! To twins!



He and Patricia now have a son and a daughter together; Julian and Judith.




“This is wonderful news!” Ingmar exclaims. “When can I come and visit?” As Alex is like a son to Ingmar, it now feels like he has become a grandfather.



The subject “Alex and Patricia” is something he never discusses with Stella, which has felt increasingly more painful to him ever since they announced that they were expecting a child together. Now when the twins are there and Ingmar is so happy about being a "grandfather", he feels very sad that he can’t share this with his wife.
Stella is of course fully aware of that – and it feels equally sad to her, but the fact that Patricia had an affair with Stella’s former husband Morty and that she has a daughter with him, is something that can’t easily be forgotten.



Still, when Ingmar visits Alex and Patricia, they are all aware of the fact that Stella chooses not to come with him.



Meanwhile Stefan has managed to show Nellie how hard he is prepared to work to make their marriage last, and she has noticed how much he in fact has changed. She can’t suppress her feelings for him any longer and longs to get close to him again. They feel that they need a little alone time together, so Nellie visits him in their apartment in Bluewater. She and the children are still living with her mother and even if Nellie wants to share a bed with her husband again, she is reluctant about moving back. She does not want to get back to the life they used to have, but one thing at a time. Marion’s feelings for Stefan have become a lot warmer. She has not failed to notice how hard he is trying to save his marriage and how deeply he cares for her daughter.
It feels a little strange to Nellie to see their old apartment again. It seems a long time ago that she moved away. So much has happened since. Stefan is clearly nervous and very anxious that she will approve of how things look. He must have made a real effort because everything is spotless. Nellie has no illusions about him keeping this up week after week with the children making a new mess every day, but now he has shown that he can if he tries. It is wonderful that he tries so hard – but it would be even more wonderful if he got up from that chair and kissed her.



When it comes to lovemaking, Stefan has no problem reading her mind and he sure gets up in a hurry. One thing is certain: The sweet loving feels even sweeter now after all this time apart.



The following morning at breakfast (after almost no sleep at all – but who cares), Stefan says to Nellie:
“Oh, I forgot! I intended to tell you yesterday, but – well ... there suddenly were other things on my mind ... Anyway – your old position at the school is free again. The music teacher submitted his resignation yesterday. He has gotten an offer from some posh school in the big city. I am sure you could have the position back!”
“That is great news!” says Nellie. “But will we get it to work? The children are of course old enough for kindergarten, but this apartment is far too small for us now. There is a lot to consider, I must talk it over with my mother.”



To Nellie’s surprise Marion immediately tells her that she thinks she has the solution.
“I told you that I would help you to get your career back, remember? You should submit your application the school as soon as possible, there is no time to lose! ” But she doesn’t want to tell exactly how she plans to solve everything. “I’ll talk to you both over dinner tonight, if that is ok with you.”
Nellie decides that she will rely on faith and believe that they will find a way to make things function if she gets back to her work in Bluewater, so she submits her application the very same day, and the reaction from the headmaster makes her believe that she has indeed a good chance of getting her old job back.
In the afternoon she goes back to Riverblossom Hills together with Stefan, and Marion tells them her plan.
“This house is far too big for one person, it is meant for a family. I don’t think it is a good idea that should wait for me to pass away before you inherit it when it is now that you need it. I want you and Stefan to have the house now, and I will move to the Widow’s Cottage on the other side of the road, just as my mother in law did when your father married me. And you don’t have to worry about childcare. It would be a joy for me to see to them while you are at work. But I won’t do any cleaning!” And at those words she throws a stern look in Stefan’s direction.



This a wonderful offer of course, and it indeed solves all their problems. Already the following week Stefan has moved in with Nellie and the children again and the apartment in Bluewater is emptied.



Nellie also gets the job she was hoping for, so now she and Stefan are working at the same school again – just like they did when they first met, so they can take the car together to work.



Marion finds the cottage very cosy and even if she lives just on the other side of the road, she does not interfere – very much – with their life. She just makes sure that Stefan knows that she will keep an eye on him and see to that he treats her daughter right. It makes Stefan feel supervised of course and it does bother him, but he also realizes that he might need that pressure if he doesn’t want to fall back into old habits. And anyway – you are supposed to find your mother in law somewhat annoying, aren’t you? He’ll survive. The main thing is that he still has his family. He came awfully close to losing them.
But just in case, they also pay for a professional cleaner to come by once a week. With two salaries now, they can afford it, and it feels like money well spent.