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We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, a cozy romantasy by Sangu Mandanna, out from Berkley on July 15th. 我们很高兴分享来自 Sangu Mandanna 的《女巫的魔法旅馆经营指南》的节选，这是一本温馨的浪漫奇幻小说，将于 7 月 15 日由 Berkley 出版 th 。

Sera Swan used to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain. Then she resurrected her great-aunt Jasmine from the (very recently) dead, lost most of her magic, befriended a semi-villainous talking fox, and was exiled from her Guild. Now she (slightly reluctantly and just a bit grumpily) helps Jasmine run an enchanted inn in Lancashire, where she deals with her quirky guests’ shenanigans, tries to keep said talking fox in check, and longs for the future that seems lost to her. But then she finds out about an old spell that could hold the key to restoring her power… 塞拉·斯万曾经是英国最强大的女巫之一。然后她让已故的姑婆贾辛斯复活，失去了大部分魔法，与一只半恶棍的会说话的狐狸交了朋友，并被逐出了她的公会。现在她（有点不情愿，而且有点脾气暴躁）帮助贾辛斯在兰开夏经营一家魔法旅馆，在那里她处理古怪客人的恶作剧，试图控制那只会说话的狐狸，并渴望那个似乎已经失去的未来。但然后她发现了一个古老的咒语，这个咒语可能持有恢复她力量的关键……

Enter Luke Larsen, handsome and icy magical historian, who arrives on a dark winter evening and just might know how to unlock the spell’s secrets. Luke has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the madcap goings-on of the inn and is definitely not about to let a certain bewitching innkeeper past his walls, so no one is more surprised than he is when he agrees to help Sera with her spell. Worse, he might actually be thawing. 接下来是卢克·拉森，一位英俊而冷漠的魔法历史学家，他在一个黑暗的冬夜到来，可能知道如何解开咒语的秘密。卢克对卷入旅馆的疯狂活动毫无兴趣，而且绝对不打算让某个迷人的女店主突破他的防线，所以当他说服塞拉帮助她解咒语时，没有人比他更惊讶。更糟的是，他可能真的在融化。

Running an inn, reclaiming lost magic, and staying one step ahead of the watchful Guild is a lot for anyone, but Sera Swan is about to discover that she doesn’t have to do it alone…and that the weird, wonderful family she’s made might be the best magic of all. 经营客栈、夺回失落的魔法、并时刻提防着警惕的公会——这对任何人来说都已是重担，但塞拉·斯万即将发现，她不必独自承担这一切……而她所组建的这个古怪又奇妙的家庭，或许才是最好的魔法。

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If Luke were a different sort of person, perhaps he might have been able to settle into this rhythm. There was a part of him that wanted to, that wanted to believe it was possible for somebody’s life to be nothing but this: the work he loved, his sister tearing around a wild, overgrown garden in bare feet with a smudge of jam on her chin, hot cups of strong tea and scones that crumbled in his mouth, and fairy‑tale evenings by the fire with a book. 如果卢克是不同类型的人，或许他能够适应这种节奏。他内心有一部分渴望如此，渴望相信人生可以仅仅是这个样子：他热爱的工作，他妹妹赤脚在荒芜、杂草丛生的花园里奔跑，嘴角沾着果酱污渍，热腾腾的浓茶和在他口中碎裂的司康饼，以及围炉夜话时伴着书本的童话般时光。

But that, there, was the problem. Fairy-tale. Reality was traffic and steeples and old bookshops in Edinburgh. Reality was tedious meetings with Guild bureaucrats over whether the acquisition of a priceless book was really worth the funding. Reality was the question mark over Posy’s future, and his own, and the cold, secret fear that came late at night and made him wonder if maybe it wasn’t normal, really, to have nobody in your life you could say all of that to. 但问题就在于此。童话。现实是交通拥堵、尖塔林立、爱丁堡的旧书店。现实是与公会官僚们乏味的会议，讨论收购一本无价之书是否真的值得拨款。现实是波西未来的问号，以及他自己的，还有深夜里袭来的冰冷、隐秘的恐惧，让他开始怀疑，或许自己真的不正常，生命中真的没有可以倾诉这一切的人。

This place, this inn, which was every bit as batty as its ridiculous name promised, was not reality as Luke knew it. This was a place of fables and stories and peculiar magic, and such a place, he was certain, had no place in the real world. 这个地方，这家客栈，正如其荒诞的名字所承诺的那样，完全荒诞不经，但这并非卢克所认知的现实。这是一个充满寓言、故事和奇特魔法的地方，而他确信，这样的地方绝不可能存在于真实世界中。

So Luke did not settle. He waited, calmly, icily, resigned, for the fairy tale to end. 因此卢克没有定居。他平静地、冷漠地、认命地等待着童话的结束。

Funnily enough, the first disruption to the rhythm of those early days did nothing to dispel Luke’s certainty that the Batty Hole Inn was an incomprehensible departure from reality, good sense, and all things regular. 说来也怪，那些日子最初打破节奏的干扰，并没有消除卢克认定“疯洞客栈”是脱离现实、常识和一切常规的不可思议之地的信念。

He woke, blinking, groggy, to the sound of something going on outside. Posy was fast asleep in the other twin bed, having been awake and remarkably chirpy from the hours of two to six in the morning, but it sounded like everybody else was up and about. 他醒来时，眨着眼睛，昏昏沉沉，听到外面有动静。波西在另一张双床的另一侧熟睡，她在凌晨两点到六点之间曾醒来，而且异常活泼，但听起来好像其他人都已经起床活动了。

Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and swapping his sweatpants for jeans, Luke checked the time on his phone. Half past nine, which was frankly too early for mayhem at even the best of times. 揉着惺忪的睡眼，Luke 换上牛仔裤，看了看手机上的时间。九点半，说实话，就算是平时最混乱的时候，这个时间也太早了。

He descended two flights of creaky stairs, passed through the long hallway, and crossed the kitchen to the open back door, by which point the indistinct sounds had become shrieks and hollers of “Catch it!” and “Not that way! That way!” 他走下两段吱呀作响的楼梯，穿过长长的走廊，穿过厨房来到后门，这时那些模糊的声响已经变成了“抓住它！”和“不是那边！那边！”的尖叫和呼喊。

Jasmine stood at the edge of the stone patio, leaning on her cane, tutting gently to herself as Luke drew level with her. The garden looked like a meteor had hit it in the middle of the night. In fact, for a moment, Luke wondered if a meteor had hit it— what else could possibly have overturned half the earth, sent large clumps of grass flying in every direction, beheaded a few dozen wildflowers, decimated most of Matilda’s vegetables, and even apparently laid waste to Sera’s red wellies?—but then, at the heart of the disaster, he saw Matilda and Nicholas. 茉莉站在石砌露台的边缘，拄着拐杖，轻轻咂嘴自言自语。当卢克与她并肩而立时，花园看上去像是半夜被陨石袭击过。事实上，卢克一度怀疑是否真的有陨石撞击——还有什么能掀翻半个地面，把大片的草丛抛向四面八方，砍倒几十朵野花，几乎摧毁了玛蒂尔达的大部分蔬菜，甚至显然还毁掉了塞拉的红色雨靴？——但就在灾难的核心，他看到了玛蒂尔达和尼科拉斯。

Trying, and failing, to catch a goat. 试图抓住一只山羊，却失败了。

“I thought Rule One was no goats,” Luke remarked. “我原以为第一条规则是不准养山羊，”卢克说道。

Jasmine nodded. Luke wondered if her cheerful calm was an ominous indication that these things happened rather too often around here. 茉莉点了点头。卢克不禁怀疑，她那副欢快而镇定的样子，是否预示着这些事情在这里发生得实在太频繁了。

“Matilda,” Jasmine explained, “was of the view that if she borrowed a goat from the Medieval Fair, and showed Sera just how sweet and adorable it was, Sera would change her mind.” “Matilda，”Jasmine 解释道，“认为如果她从 medieval fair 借来一只山羊，向 Sera 展示它有多甜美可爱，Sera 就会改变主意。”

“Just how many goats did she borrow?” “她借了多少只山羊？”

Pressing her lips together like she was trying not to laugh, Jasmine said, “One.” 她抿着嘴唇，仿佛在努力忍住笑，贾丝敏说：“一个。”

Luke looked at the garden, and then looked at the small goat merrily eluding its would-be captors, and then looked at the garden again. “One goat did all this?” 卢克看着花园，又看着那只小山羊正欢快地躲避着想要抓住它的人，然后再次看向花园。“一只山羊就能干成这一切？”

“In just over an hour,” Jasmine confirmed. “仅仅在一个小时多一点的时间里，”茉莉亚确认道。

“Can’t see this changing Sera’s mind, can you?” Luke said wryly. “你觉得这能改变塞拉的念头吗？”卢克苦笑着问。

“Thank you for that excellent contribution!” Matilda wailed from halfway down the garden. “Now get over here and help us catch this dratted creature! We have maybe half an hour to corral this menace, return him to the Fair, and fix this mess before Sera gets back from the supermarket and murders us all!” “谢谢你那出色的贡献！”玛蒂尔达从花园下方喊道。“现在过来帮我们抓住这个该死的生物！我们大概还有半小时时间围住这个威胁，把它送回集市，并处理好这摊子事，在塞拉从超市回来把我们全杀光之前！”

“I don’t see why she’d murder me,” Luke pointed out. “我不明白她为什么要杀我，”卢克指出。

“She’s not going to murder anybody,” Jasmine said in a wounded tone of voice. “She’ll be a little cross that the garden has been completely destroyed, and who could possibly blame her, but it’s not like she’s a terrifying dragon who’ll gobble everybody up.” “她不会去杀任何人，”茉莉亚带着受伤的语气说道。“她会为花园被完全摧毁而有点生气，谁又能责怪她呢，但她又不是那种会吞掉所有人的恐怖龙。”

“You’d deserve it if she did gobble you up,” Nicholas said to Matilda, deeply disapproving. “How could you? That you’d even dream of causing Lady Sera the slightest anguish—” “要是她吞了你，你才活该，”尼古拉斯对玛蒂尔达说道，语气中充满了强烈的不满。“你怎么能这样？你甚至敢梦想给塞拉女爵造成哪怕一丝一毫的痛苦——”

“I would never, you sweet, ridiculous, lovestruck puppy!” Matilda shot back. “Not on purpose!” “我绝对不会，你这个甜蜜的、可笑的、恋爱冲昏头脑的小狗！”玛蒂尔达反击道。“不是故意的！”

“Lovestruck?” Nicholas was appalled. “I’m not in love with her! I am a loyal knight! I would no more make advances on my lady than I would cut off a single lock of her glorious hair!” “恋爱冲昏头脑？”尼古拉斯感到震惊。“我并不爱她！我是一个忠诚的骑士！我绝不会对我的女爵做出任何越轨的行为，就像我绝不会剪掉她一根荣耀的头发一样！”

“Does he say these things to Sera?” Luke asked Jasmine with interest. “他会对塞拉说这些话吗？”卢克带着兴趣问茉莉。

“He does,” said Jasmine. “他会。”茉莉说。

“Are you sure? He seems to still be alive.” “你确定吗？他似乎还活着。”

“Don’t you start,” Jasmine said reproachfully. “别开始，”贾丝敏责备道。

Luke relented. “How’s she really going to feel about this?” 卢克妥协了。“她真的会怎么想这个呢？”

Jasmine gave him a long, searching look before saying, “She’ll never say it, but she loves this house. Every creaky stair, every crumbling brick, every bit of dirt under our feet. We all know it. You don’t really think Matilda’s panicking because she’s afraid of Sera’s wrath, do you?” At Luke’s furrowed brow, she explained, “You see, what’s going to happen is Sera will come home, and she’ll glower, and she’ll compete with Matilda to see which of them can be more dramatic, and then she’ll put this mess to rights even if it takes weeks, but the whole time, what she’ll actually be is quietly, devastatingly upset.” 茉莉香凝视着他，久久才说：“她永远不会说，但她爱这栋房子。每一级吱呀作响的楼梯，每一块剥落的砖块，我们脚下每一寸泥土。我们都知道。你真的以为玛蒂尔达是因为害怕塞拉的怒火而惊慌失措吗？”看到卢克皱起的眉头，她解释道：“你看，接下来会发生的是，塞拉会回家，她会瞪眼，她会和玛蒂尔达竞争，看谁更戏剧化，然后她会收拾这个乱摊子，即使要花几周时间，但整个过程中，她实际上会非常、非常失落。”

Luke had never heard a word as understated as upset hold so much weight, but somehow, in this woman’s gentle, dignified voice, and in the honest, tender simplicity of her answer, it felt weightier than almost anything else. 卢克从未听过“失落”这个词如此含蓄，却承载了如此沉重的分量，但不知何故，在这位女士温柔而庄重的声音中，在她回答的真诚、朴素的简单中，它感觉比几乎所有事情都更沉重。

Resigned, Luke heard himself say, “Matilda, maybe you and Nicholas ought to go to the Fair and bring the goat’s owner back with you. Trying to catch it yourselves obviously isn’t working.” 卢克无奈地听到自己说：“玛蒂尔达，也许你和尼古拉斯应该去集市，把山羊的主人带回来。显然你们自己抓它是不行的。”

“Go there?” Matilda’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Why? The man must have a phone.” “去那里？”玛蒂尔达怀疑地眯起眼睛。“为什么？那个人一定有手机。”

“And risk him saying he can’t get away until lunchtime?” Luke replied without missing a beat. “Like you said, we have maybe half an hour before Sera gets home. If you get going right now, you might just be able to get rid of the goat before she sees it. I’ll see what I can do about sorting out the mess here.” “那要是他说到中午之前走不了怎么办？”卢克不假思索地回答。“就像你说的，我们大概还有半小时左右等塞拉回来。如果你现在就动身，或许能在她看到山羊之前把它处理掉。我会看看能不能把这里的乱摊子收拾一下。”

“I shall be honoured to be of service to you in that endeavour, sir,” said Nicholas. “You’ll need a strong pair of arms and a devoted, unwavering heart.” “我很荣幸能为您效劳，先生，”尼古拉斯说道。“您需要一双强壮的臂膀和一颗忠诚不渝、坚定不移的心。”

“Matilda doesn’t know her way around the Fair like you do, dearest,” Jasmine said at once. “If we want to be quick, you’d better go with her.” “玛蒂尔达不像你这么熟悉集市，亲爱的，”贾辛马上一本正经地说。“如果我们想快点，你最好跟她一起去。”

Giving Luke a look of deep gratitude, Jasmine whisked Matilda and Nicholas away, ferrying them herself out to the car to prevent either from doubling back at a most inconvenient moment. 贾辛深情地望着卢克，感激之情溢于言表，她带着玛蒂尔达和尼古拉斯离开了，亲自将他们送到车上，以免他们在最不方便的时候折返。

Luke got to work. 卢克开始工作了。

First, the goat. 首先，是那只山羊。

His magic was a library of old books, the rustle of its pages a constant, comforting hum of background noise in his mind. The spines of spellbooks cracked open when he wanted to cast a spell, pages turning until the spell he needed was at his fingertips, and the spell he needed right now was one that would lull an animal to sleep. 他的魔法就像一个旧书库，书页的沙沙声在他脑海中持续不断地发出一种令人安心的背景噪音。当他想施展魔法时，咒语书的书脊会自动裂开，书页翻动，直到他需要的那一页魔法出现在指尖，而他现在需要的魔法，正是能让动物入睡的那种。

It was a tricky spell, particularly for somebody like Luke, who, on top of having a completely ordinary amount of magic, tended not to mess about with spells that affected living things. Take the goat, for example. The sleepy spell was supposed to conjure lavender and lullabies and other soporific sorts of things, but as the fingers of one of Luke’s hands moved in the air, almost like he was playing notes on an invisible piano, the goat wasn’t having it. Like a toddler rebelling at the first sign of drowsiness, determined to put bedtime off as long as possible, the goat bucked and baaed and, outraged, tried to chew at the knee of Luke’s jeans. 这是一个棘手的咒语，尤其对于卢克来说，他不仅魔法平平无奇，还倾向于不随便使用影响生物的咒语。以那只山羊为例。困倦咒本该召唤薰衣草和摇篮曲以及其他助眠的东西，但卢克一只手的指尖在空中移动，几乎像是在弹奏一架看不见的钢琴，那只山羊却并不买账。就像一个刚显出困意就反抗的幼儿，决心把睡觉的时间拖得尽可能长，那只山羊蹦跳着、咩咩叫着，愤怒地试图啃咬卢克牛仔裤的膝盖。

Luke refused to relent, even with one very soggy knee, and bit by bit, the infernal creature was bested. 卢克毫不退让，即使一条膝盖已经湿透，他也一点点地战胜了这个该死的生物。

Once the goat was drooling blissfully on an undamaged patch of grass not far from the disgusted chickens, Luke moved on to his next spell. It was a much easier one, and also a much more tedious one, but frankly, Luke felt like he could do with a bit of tedium right about now. The spell was the one witches usually used when they wanted to summon their coat from across the room or, say, arrest the fall of a child who insisted on jumping off balconies, but on this particular occasion, Luke needed to use it to restore many, many clumps of grass and ravaged lumps of earth to their rightful places. 当那头山羊正满足地舔舐着附近一块完好的青草，而那群厌恶的鸡群则在一旁时，卢克便转向了他的下一个咒语。这个咒语要简单得多，但也枯燥得多，不过坦白说，卢克此刻正觉得有点儿枯燥正合适。这个咒语通常是女巫们召唤从房间另一头飞来的斗篷时使用的，或者，比如说，阻止一个坚持从阳台上跳下来的孩子摔落，但在这次特别的情况下，卢克需要用它来恢复许多许多的草丛和被破坏的土块，让它们回到它们本应所在的位置。

Matilda, Nicholas, and the goat’s exasperated owner arrived just as he was finishing up. Matilda grabbed Luke’s face in her hands and planted a smacker of a kiss on his forehead, Nicholas goggled at the repaired garden in awe, and the owner of the goat retrieved the goat, muttering, “Don’t see what all the fuss was about, everything looks fine to me,” as he departed. Matilda、Nicholas 和那头山羊的恼怒主人正好在他收拾完毕的时候赶到。Matilda 用手捧住 Luke 的脸，在他额头上印下一个响亮的吻，Nicholas 敬畏地望着修复后的花园，而山羊的主人则捡起山羊，边走边嘟囔：“不明白这么大的 fuss 是怎么回事，在我看来一切都很正常。”

After that, the only thing left for Luke to do was to salvage what he could in Matilda’s vegetable patch. Jasmine convinced Matilda and Nicholas to go inside for a restorative cup of tea so that Luke could have a few more minutes unobserved. He didn’t have quite enough magic to revive beheaded wildflowers or regrow partly digested vegetables, but he took stock of what had survived (one pumpkin, a handful of pepper plants, and three artichokes, all of which probably had Sera’s magic to thank for their resilience in the face of the goat’s onslaught) and tidied up the rest of the patch. 之后，卢克唯一能做的就是抢救马蒂尔达菜园里还能救的东西。茉莉香说服了马蒂尔达和尼科拉斯进去喝杯恢复精神的茶，这样卢克就能有几个不被打扰的分钟。他魔力不够强，无法复活被砍头的野花或让部分被啃食的蔬菜重新生长，但他清点了幸存下来的东西（一个南瓜、一把辣椒植物和三个洋蓟，它们能在山羊的攻击下顽强存活，大概都要感谢塞拉的魔力），并整理了菜园的其余部分。

“It’s adorable that anybody thinks anything happens in this house that I don’t know about,” a voice said behind him. “真可爱，居然有人以为这房子里发生什么我不知道的事，”一个声音在他身后说。

He stood, turning. Sera was studying the garden. Luke had a feeling she could see every seam and stitch of his magic. 他站起身，转过身。塞拉正在研究花园。卢克有种感觉，她能看透他魔力的每一道缝隙和每一针线。

She looked intrigued. “Was it a goat?” 她看起来很感兴趣。“是山羊吗？”

He cracked a smile. “Of course it was a goat.” 他咧嘴一笑。“当然是一只山羊。”

She was quiet for a moment. Then, pushing her windblown hair behind one ear, she turned to look at him. “You fixed it.” 她安静了一会儿。然后，她把被风吹乱的头发拨到耳后，转过头看着他。“你修好了。”

“I fixed what I could. You’ll need new wellies.” “我修了我能修的。你需要买双新雨靴。”

“You didn’t have to do that.” “你不必这么做的。”

“No,” Luke agreed. “是的，”卢克同意。

She smiled, a proper smile, one that reached all the way into her eyes. “Thank you.” 她笑了，一个真正的微笑，一直到达她的眼底。“谢谢你。”

It felt essential, somehow, that Luke look away. He nodded at the house. “Are you going to tell them you know?” 不知为何，卢克似乎觉得有必要移开目光。他朝房子点了点头。“你打算告诉他们你知道吗？”

“No, I think I’ll take that one to my grave.” “不，我想我会把那一个带到我的坟墓里去。”

As she stomped across the overgrown grass back to the house, Luke thought he was beginning to understand. Matilda’s despair over the goat she’d so optimistically brought home for a visit. Nicholas’s chivalrous outrage. Jasmine saying quietly, devastatingly upset. Sera choosing to pretend not to know. It seemed at first glance like ridiculous theatre, unnecessary and a bit silly, but at the heart of it, weren’t they just a handful of people trying to be good to one another? 当她踩着荒草回到房子时，卢克开始明白了一些。玛蒂尔达对那只她满怀希望带回家作客的山羊的绝望。尼古拉斯的骑士般的愤怒。茉莉亚轻声说出的话，那毁灭性的心绪。塞拉选择假装不知道。乍一看，这似乎是荒诞的戏剧，不必要且有点傻，但核心上，他们不只是一群试图善待彼此的人吗？

It was the first thing about the inn that made sense to him. 这是他理解的第一件事，关于那家旅馆。

It would probably be the last thing too. 也可能是最后一件事。