The Scarlet Woman and the Love Spells
Joanna is a client and friend of a witch we know, Suzanne, and with Joanna’s permission and help, her love spell history is recounted here.
Joanna met Mark while she was temping in London in offices near Petticoat Lane. She decided to see if she could get a handbag cheaply at the market stalls one lunch hour and ended up finding a husband, the market stall-holder, as well as a very nice Spanish leather shoulder bag. The couple married after six months and moved into a terraced house in a neat and comfy part of London, where people could afford decent holidays abroad but scrimped to send their children to the private schools to which they aspired. They were happy, Mark did well on the stalls, he had the looks and banter to convince any housewife she'd got a bargain whatever his prices and Joanna's first pregnancy was doing well. She bloomed and enjoyed keeping their home and decorating a small nursery for the baby boy she wanted.
On giving birth Joanna became very ill, Mark's joy at holding his baby was overtaken by the horror of being told by a serious faced doctor that Joanna was suffering a complication and would mean she might have to stay in hospital for many weeks or perhaps months. An infection was affecting Joanna's brain and she would not be able to function normally until it had cleared up and her mind settled once more. The illness gave her delusions, she was a VIP, she needed the press to come to her bedside to listen to her thoughts, and where was the Queen, why hadn't she visited yet? Mark was heartbroken, where was Joanna, the woman he loved had vanished beneath the surreal nightmare of bizarre statements and bewildering requests.
Mark was devastated; he had a baby to care for and a wife who thought it ‘a servant’s child, take it away.’ Another couple with whom Mark and Joanna were good friends, offered to help Mark. The wife Lila visited daily to take care of the baby while Mark was at work until he got home. Lila was that dangerous combination for other wives, bored and impressively beautiful; she had that burnished flame glow of dark red hair, a true scarlet woman with sex appeal overload, a ministering angel in his time of need. Mark fell in love with Lila and she with him. Mark carried on visiting his wife in hospital like a dutiful husband, but got home early from work daily to take Lila to his bed.
Seven months later Joanna was released from hospital, healthy once more but unprepared for the changes she was to find in her comfy terraced world of baby’s toys and a doting husband. During that black and strange time, when her thoughts had become jumbled, she quickly saw so had her husbands' affections when she found she no longer shared a bedroom with Mark. She was assigned to the spare room.
Joanna and Mark tried to work things out, but Mark’s efforts were half hearted, Joanna saw that he could only see in her the sick woman she had been, though she was unaware that she had a rival with whom any women would struggle to compare. One day Joanna came home from shopping, dumped her shopping bags on the kitchen counter to find a note stuck on the fridge door that told her briefly and coolly that Mark had left with Lila. He left no forwarding address but he warned her he had emptied their bank account - her thoughts fired off in all directions and then it hit home - where was the baby? Joanna ran through the house weeping loudly and searching, till she found him asleep in his cot, safe.
Joanna had ten pounds left in her wallet, and not a penny more in the world. She wept until she felt dehydrated and forced a bottle of whiskey down herself, for 24 hours she didn’t sleep or eat but she did steadily finish that bottle in between caring for her baby, kissing its innocent forehead, crying for the troubles he was too young to know he had. Forty eight hours passed with Joanna staring at the ceiling above her bed blindly, not taking in anything but the thought that repeated like a stuck record, Mark didn’t love her anymore. She had placed the cot beside her so she didn’t have to get up to see to him, except for his feeds and changing. Then on the third morning since Mark’s departure Joanna thought clearly enough to know that she had no choice but to try and sort herself out, for the baby.
She scanned the papers for a job; hoping she had enough money for her fares for any interviews. Luckily she did have a full fridge of food and some friends gave her cash, but that was the only saving grace Joanna was left with, in her cold bed over the following weeks.
Mark's betrayal of their marriage, although half guessed at before, was too much to bear. And Joanna knew she had a few days to find a job before she ran out of food for both herself and the baby. She wasn't about to ask her family for help, they'd never liked Mark and had never shown an interest in her baby. ‘She’d made her bed she could lie in it,’ was the type of thing they would have said, if they had been told.
Five days later, Joanna moved heaven and earth and got the baby into a crèche and found a job, the pay wasn't good but it would do and one day during a tea break she read an advert in a newspaper:
'Suzanne gives tarot readings, psychic instruction and casts powerful love spells.'
This was followed by a telephone number. On a whim Joanna rang the number and a warm and friendly voice answered, ' Suzanne here, can I help you?' Joanna wasn't sure what to say, and blurted, 'Can I have an appointment please?'
This was arranged and the following Saturday, the baby strapped to her back, Joanna found herself entering a light and sunny flat across town, as Suzanne invited her in. Suzanne the witch was not what Joanna expected, she was young, in her early 30's, slim and pretty, blonde with the traditional English rose look about her fresh face. Suzanne invited her to sit on a comfy sofa in the pleasant, airy living room. Joanna didn't know where to begin and before ten minutes were over she had rushed through the whole story of her marriage, her illness and the fatal Lila. Suzanne took all this in quietly listening and asked Joanna what she really wanted, if she could have anything, take her life in any direction, what would it be? Joanna didn't have to think, she answered instantly, 'I want Mark back, for things to be as they were.' Suzanne smiled contemplatively, of course that’s what everyone wanted and told Joanna that this would take time, would cost x amount of pounds, did she wish to proceed? Joanna had no doubts, she knew how it sounded, she knew she sounded weak and stupid to want him back after all that, but love is never logical. Suzanne explained to her how her wish would be brought about, that a series of love spells would be cast. And all Joanna had to do was know he would be back and to carry on with her life as normal. Joanna thought that ironic, as there was nothing normal about her life now.
Over the following six weeks, Joanna kept herself busy as instructed by the coolly efficient Suzanne, accepting invitations for dinner with baby in tow, by pitying friends, working, and trying not to give in to despair that constantly sat on her shoulder wheedling itself into her thoughts. Then one day as she was glowering into the bathroom mirror, wondering whether to sheer off her long hair, who was there to please, she felt destructive towards herself, her anger internalised, the phone rang.
"Hello its Lila,” a cool voice said over a crackly line. Joanna's heart missed a beat, "What do you want?" Joanna answered coldly. "You have the house, we need the cash, either sell it or pay us our half,' Lila instructed threateningly. Joanna aired a few choice and colourful phrases into the receiver and slammed the phone down. Her heart was racing; Mark couldn't be so cruel, could he? He couldn't allow Lila to demand his wife and son were made homeless?
Joanna could not forget the phone call, but there was no other contact from them. The following weekend, just as she'd stepped out of the shower, there was a thump at the front door. Joanna went to answer, pulling the huge bath towel round her tightly and saw a familiar shape through the glass. She opened the door and stared, terrified, her heart pounding so loudly she couldn’t hear much else. Had he come to claim the house?
Mark pushed past Joanne and threw himself onto a sofa in the living room, "Jo, you look gorgeous," he told her. She glared; he certainly wasn't going to soft soap her out of her home. "Of course you're angry with me, you must hate me, I understand," he began. "I should never have let that evil woman into my life, and I certainly didn't ask her to ring you about the house, that was not my idea, I had nothing to do with it." Joanna stood her ground; arms crossed and continued to glare. "I don't love Lila, I just got carried away, like an illness,” he excused himself in quiet tones. He paused and looking shamefacedly at his feet, and said “I still feel the same about you. I know I never should have emptied the bank account, she cajoled me into it in that way of hers, I know it was a terrible thing to do, I regretted the whole thing as soon as we left I wanted to come back after a month, all this time I've wanted to come back - but I didn't know if you'd have me,” he hung his head.
"You're forgetting you abandoned our son!" Joanna yelled, tears in her eyes. "That was my other mistake, can you forgive me? That woman didn't want him, she didn't care, he was just irritating to her, she looked after him for her own reasons. Can I see him?" Joanna showed him to the sleeping infant, his eyes moistening, Mark picked up the warm bundle and hugged him gently, then looked imploringly into Joanna’s eyes.
It took a few months before Joanna and Mark managed to get back their equilibrium, the peace and renewing the love they'd shared but they did and considering all, surprisingly quickly. It took longer for Joanna to regain her trust in Mark, but to a great extent, she did. It's been ten years now, and Mark has not looked at another woman since he got scorched by the fiery Lila and found his temptation had an acrid taste. People often note about the couple, that Mark is always quick to do as Joanna wishes, as though he is forever in her debt.
Joanna's love spells worked well and she makes an annual pilgrimage to Suzanne' s home, and enjoys a drink a gossip and pays for an annual love spell to be recast, just in case.
Names have been changed to preserve identity.