by Kaye Umansky
Nuisance looked round, and gave an anxious woof.
‘Why ask me where it’s gone?’ Magenta said to him. ‘I wasn’t here.’
She stood for a moment, thinking. If Elsie had moved the tower, why hadn’t she taken the dog? And why had she moved the tower? And where was Corbett? And what was the weird ice house doing here? Too many questions. Time for some answers.
‘Come on, dog,’ she said. ‘Let’s get to the bottom of it, shall we?’
With Nuisance trotting at her heels, Magenta marched over to the ice house. The reindeer lowered its big head and pointed its antlers.
‘Don’t even think about it, tree head! Stand still or I’ll zap you. I’ve got a wand up my sleeve.’
Spike stood still and watched Magenta hammer loudly on the door.
Now, while the tower has been disappearing and Magenta reappearing, a lot of things have been going on in the ice house too. So let’s go back even further to the time when Jack went inside the tower with Elsie and Corbett.
As ordered, Trev and Terry came out to collect the frozen victims of their father’s quick temper. Tracy didn’t help because she was still sulking in the bathroom.
One by one, Joey, Bill, Sylphine and Nuisance were lugged into the ice house and defrosted. Trev and Terry knew how to do this – their dad often lost his temper and left them to sort out his mess. Experience taught them to start at the feet, because there was always a row when the mouths got thawed. Joey and Sylphine did indeed have plenty to say, but things calmed down when Trev pointed out that he and his brother were hardly to blame for their dad’s finger-happy nature, which was true. Sensibly, nobody suggested tying anyone up. Nuisance wanted to go out and they let him.
It was at this point, outside in the moonlight, that the tower disappeared. But nobody noticed.
Terry made everyone a cup of tea. Apparently, the Frost children actually did Do Hot when their dad wasn’t around. Trev suggested a game of Snap, so he, his brother and Joey pulled up ice chairs to the ice table and started dealing out cards.
Tracy, hearing the sound of laughter and feeling left out, finally came out of the bathroom. With a cry of delight she spotted Sylphine and the girls fell into each other’s arms. They both went off to sit on Tracy’s ice bed and talk about hair. Card playing not being a wire basket interest, Bill floated off to join them and ended up on Tracy’s lap. As it was taking place in an ice house, it wasn’t exactly a cosy scene, but it wasn’t bad.
All of them gave a jump when they heard the fierce banging.
Trev shovelled the cards into his pocket and Terry went to answer the door.
‘Who are you and why are you parked here?’ Magenta’s voice demanded. ‘I see my tower has gone missing. What do you know about that, young man?’
‘Magenta!’ shouted Joey and Sylphine, leaping to their feet. They crowded in the doorway, along with Bill, who had shot off Tracy’s lap.
‘You’re back!’ whooped Joey.
‘Where have you been?’ squealed Sylphine. ‘We’ve all been so worried.’
‘Never mind that,’ said Magenta. ‘Where’s the tower?’
‘We don’t know,’ said Joey. ‘Elsie’s in there with Jack Frost and—’
‘What?’ snapped Magenta. ‘Jack Frost is here?’
‘Yes,’ said Sylphine. ‘He wants to steal the tower and run away in it because he’s wanted by the Magic Circle for questioning.’
‘I know,’ said Magenta. ‘We— I mean, the Circle has been trying to catch up with him for a while now. We— I mean, they thought they had him, which is why we— they all assembled to hear what he had to say in his defence and decide what to do, and then he slipped through our— ahem, their fingers again.’
‘Aha! You’re a member of the Magic Circle!’ said Joey. ‘Maureen said there was a witch representative. It’s you! It’s okay, we won’t say anything.’
‘Please don’t. What’s this house on runners thing and why is it here? Who are these extra people I don’t know?’
‘This is my friend Tracy,’ said Sylphine. ‘And these are her brothers, Trev and Terry.’
‘Jack’s children,’ said Joey. ‘Well, three of ’em. There are loads more at home.’
‘Sorry,’ said Trev and Terry hanging their heads. ‘About our Dad trying to nick yer place,’ went on Trev. ‘He’s been out of order lately.’
‘You can’t choose your family,’ said Magenta. ‘I should know. Look at my sister. Where’s Corbett?’
‘In the tower with Elsie,’ said Joey.
‘And where is your fool of a father now?’ Magenta asked the boys.
‘In the tower, ma’am,’ mumbled Trev.
‘Tryin’ it out to see if it suits,’ muttered Terry.
‘Sorry,’ they both chorused.
‘He’ll be the one who’s sorry when the Magic Circle catches up with him. What will you three do then?’
‘Go back to Ma’s,’ said Terry. ‘Have a hot meal.’
‘Stay out of trouble,’ said his brother.
‘Ask Ma if I can have a sleepover at Sylphine’s,’ said Tracy. ‘She’s my best friend.’
At this point – as if there wasn’t already a lot going on – the tower reappeared in the clearing! The door opened and Elsie jumped out. Corbett flew behind her. He spotted Magenta immediately, let out a happy squawk, and flapped wildly to her shoulder.
‘Ouch,’ said Magenta. ‘Mind the claws, annoying bird!!’
‘I won’t say I’ve missed you,’ said Corbett, ‘but it’s good to have you back.’
Elsie ran into the arms of Joey and Sylphine and the three of them danced around, Nuisance barking at their heels and Bill doing happy rollovers in the air.
It was a great reunion, with everyone talking over each other, trying to explain what had been happening.
There were, of course, many gaps to be filled. Magenta wanted to know everything that had occurred while she was gone. Everyone wanted to know what had kept her away for so long. Now that the secret was out about her being a witch representative on the Magic Circle, there was no point in her keeping things from the others. Apparently, an emergency meeting had been called to decide what to do about Jack Frost, who had been running around freezing forests, towns and villages and trapping them in endless winters. As most meetings do, it took much longer than she thought, but at least the hotel she was staying at had good room service.
‘I wrote and told you to get Elsie to cover for me until I got back,’ she said to Corbett.
‘Never arrived. It was snowing. There was no post and I couldn’t get to her for five days.’
‘Well, that was hardly my fault, was it? And I wasn’t to know that Jack Frost had the cheek to come snooping around in the hopes of getting his hands on my tower.’
‘It’s not my fault either if you don’t have the common courtesy to leave me a note in the first place.’
And so it went on. It was good to see them back on the same comfortable bad terms.
Magenta was delighted to hear that Elsie kept her head and managed to strand Jack Frost on a tropical island. She would go and inform the Magic Circle, who would send someone to pick him up and bring him in for long overdue questioning.
‘Elsie,’ she said, ‘you did well. I think you can call yourself a fully-fledged witch now.’
Magenta didn’t often give away compliments. Elsie glowed with happiness.
After all the explanations, there was a celebration cake, provided by the magic larder. Then there were goodbyes, as Spike took the three Frosts back to their ma. Sylphine actually wept as the ice sledge pulled away. Nobody asked whether her tears were for Tracy or Spike.
And that brings us back to the three children and Corbett, sitting and chatting at the kitchen table, eating pancakes, watching the snow melt and Spring arrive. Magenta was upstairs having a lie-in.
After breakfast, Elsie walked home with Nuisance. It was time she went back to Smallbridge. Now that the snow was gone, the Emporium would o
pen again and her dad would need her help.
She hoped there would be more adventures to come. More magic. More excitement. More fun. After all, she was a fully-fledged witch now.
But all that lay ahead. There was no rush. Right now, she was strolling through the forest, eating a chocolate egg with Nuisance at her side.
She would just stop and pick a bunch of early Spring primroses . . .
Acknowledgements
The terrific team at Simon and Schuster, especially my lovely editor, Jane. Ashley, my talented illustrator, who has brought Elsie’s world to life. My good friend and fantastic literary agent, Caroline Sheldon. My always supportive husband Mo and daughter Ella. All my loyal readers, young and not so young. All the bookshops and libraries who buy this book. The cats who let me cuddle them whenever I get stuck.
First published in Great Britain in 2019 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY
Text Copyright © 2019 Kaye Umansky
Cover and interior illustrations Copyright © 2019 Ashley King
This book is copyright under the Berne Convention.
No reproduction without permission.
All rights reserved.
The right of Kaye Umansky and Ashley King to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
PB ISBN: 978-1-4711-7562-6
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4711-7563-3
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
