by Adele Abbott
“I—err—I—suppose I could try to find a hotel.” She gave me a puppy dog look. “I might still have enough money left.”
“You must stay with us.”
Had I really just said that?
“That’s incredibly generous.” She practically barged me out of the way on her way in. “This is a lovely place you have here. Kathy said you lived with a policeman?”
“Jack. That’s right. He has to work late tonight.”
“That’s lucky. It’ll give us time to catch up.”
Yay! “I guess so.”
“What shall I do with my case?”
“The spare bedroom is kind of full, and there’s no bed in there.”
“No problem. I can sleep on the sofa. You won’t know I’m here.” She took out a handkerchief, and blew her nose so loudly that Jack’s bowling trophy rocked on the mantelpiece.
“Would you mind if I took a shower, Jill?”
“Sure. Upstairs, second on the left.”
“When I come down, we can talk about old times.”
“Great!”
I waited until I heard the shower running, and then got on the phone.
“I’m going to kill you, Kathy!”
“Is that my loving sister?”
“How could you?”
“You’re going to have to give me more than that.”
“Rosy Glass!”
She laughed. “Oh dear. Did she call you?”
“No, she didn’t call me. She’s in my shower.”
Kathy could barely speak for laughing. “Are you joking?”
“Do I sound like I’m joking?”
“I’m sorry. I got a little carried away. After we’d been talking about her, I thought it would be funny to look her up. I had no idea she’d pay you a visit.”
“Well she did.”
“She probably won’t stay long.”
“Oh, is that right? She lives on the Isle of Skye. It took her all day to get here, and she has a suitcase with her.”
All I could hear was laughter.
“Kathy!”
“Sorry. Look, Pete’s just come in. I have to go.”
“Kathy wait!”
She’d hung up.
“I’m home!” Jack was back much earlier than I’d expected. “How was your day?” He gave me a kiss.
“Okay until a few minutes ago.”
“Why?”
Just then, Rosy walked across the landing, and started down the stairs.
“Who’s that?”
“That’s Rosy.”
“Who?”
“You must be Jack.” Rosy appeared in the doorway. “Pleased to meet you.”
Jack offered his hand; Rosy ignored it, and went in for the hug.
“Who is she?” he mouthed over her shoulder.
“Jack. This is Rosy Glass.”
Rosy pulled back. “We used to be penfriends, didn’t we Jill?”
“We certainly did. Kathy contacted Rosy, and told her where I live.”
“Did she?” Jack gave me a look. “That was nice of her.”
“Wasn’t it?” Rosy gushed. “Jill said I could sleep on the sofa.”
“Oh?” He looked at me for an explanation.
“Rosy has travelled all the way from the Isle of Skye.”
“That is a long way,” he said.
“Is it okay if I make a cup of tea?” Rosy was wiping her wet hair.
“Sure. Help yourself.”
As soon as she’d left the room, Jack turned to me. “What’s going on?”
“This is all Kathy’s fault. When we had our night in, we got talking about my old penfriend. The stupid idiot only went and tracked Rosy down, and emailed her.”
“What possessed her to travel all this way?”
“I don’t know, but I could hardly kick her out, could I?”
“How long will she be staying?”
“Not long. I hope.”
“I hope you don’t mind, Jill.” Rosy appeared at the door with a cup of tea in her hand. “I’ve just eaten the last two custard creams.”
“No, of course not,” I said, through clenched teeth.
“Oh, I’ve just remembered.” Rosy put down the tea, and opened her suitcase. “I bought you a present.”
“You really shouldn’t have.”
“I wanted to. I know how interested you used to be in these.”
“A ship in a bottle? How very nice.”
Chapter 15
“Shush! She’ll hear you,” I said, in a hushed voice.
It was the next morning. Jack and I had showered and dressed, but were still in the bedroom.
“How long do you think she’ll stay?” he said, in a whisper.
“I’ve no idea, but she’s brought a suitcase with her, so she must be expecting to be here for a while.”
“How come you’ve never talked about her before?”
“I’d forgotten all about her until Kathy mentioned her the other night. That sister of mine is so dead.”
“I’m starving.” Jack started for the door. “Are you coming down?”
I followed him down the stairs, half expecting to find Rosy fast asleep on the sofa. I would have to have a talk with her to try to find out how long she was planning to stay.
“Jack, Jill, I was going to leave you a note.” Rosy was dressed, and had her suitcase in her hand. Had she overheard us talking about her? “I’m really sorry, but I have to leave straight away.”
Yay and double yay! “How disappointing. You’ve only just arrived.”
“I know, and I feel terrible about this. You’ve both made me so welcome, but I’ve had a phone call—there’s an emergency at work.”
“Where do you work?” Jack asked.
“At the stick insect sanctuary.”
I laughed, but then realised she wasn’t joking. “Sorry, I was thinking about something Jack said just now. What’s wrong at the stick—err—at your work?”
“I left Lydia, my second in command, in charge while I came down here. Apparently, she put her back out while taking out the trash. There’s no one to look after the stickies.”
“Stickies?”
“That’s what I call the stick insects.”
“Of course.” I was barely holding it together. “It’s a pity you have to leave so soon.”
“Do you have the number of a local taxi firm?”
“No need to call a taxi. Jack will run you to the station, won’t you?”
“Of course. I’ll just get some breakfast first.”
“My train leaves in twenty minutes,” Rosy said.
“In that case, you’d better go now, Jack.” I gave him a loving smile.
He gave me a snarl in return.
“I hope I’ll be able to get down here again sometime,” Rosy managed, through her tears.
“Me too. Next time, though, give me a call first.”
“Or you could come up to Skye? I’d love to show you around the sanctuary.”
“Sounds great. You’d better hurry or you’ll miss your train.”
Rosy headed out of the door.
“See you tonight, sugar pie.” I blew Jack a kiss on his way out. “I’m just going to get my breakfast.”
***
I’d had a phone call from F For Print, to say that my order was ready.
“Are these okay?” Fred held one up.
“Oh yes. They’re just perfect. Thanks.”
As soon as I was out of the shop, I magicked myself over to Candlefield. It was early, and there was hardly anyone about, which was ideal for my purposes. There was no time to lose. I had a lot of ground to cover.
“Jill?” Amber looked surprised to see me when I rolled into Cuppy C an hour later. “You look bushed. Are you okay?”
“Never better. A cup of tea and two slices of toast, please.”
“What? No muffin?”
“I do eat other things.”
“Really? I’ve never seen you.”
“Ar
e you excited about London, Jill?” Pearl had come through from the cake shop.
“I haven’t really had the chance to think much about it. I’ve been really busy.”
“Us too, haven’t we, Amber?”
“Run off our feet.”
I suspected that my idea of ‘being busy’, and the twins’ idea of ‘being busy’, were miles apart.
“It’s my interview on Candle TV this morning.” I grimaced.
“Rather you than me.” Amber put two slices of bread in the toaster.
“Yeah. She’s horrible, that Eileen whatshername.”
“Eclair? She doesn’t scare me.”
“What are they going to ask you?” Pearl said.
“They sent me a list of questions.” I took the sheet of paper out of my bag, and handed it to Pearl.
“Have you planned your answers?”
“No. I started to, but figured it would be obvious that I had, so I plan on winging it.”
Amber took the list of questions from her sister. “This looks like some kind of witch hunt.”
“It’ll be fine. It’s not like I have anything to hide, is it?” In truth, I wasn’t feeling anywhere near as confident or relaxed as I was trying to appear. Given a choice, I would have declined to take part in the interview, but I knew that would solve nothing. They would just continue to pursue me relentlessly.
“How dare you?” Miles Best came charging into the shop. He was red in the face, and unless I was very much mistaken, he was not happy about something.
Snigger!
“Morning, Miles.” I flashed him a smile. “Cup of tea?”
“I don’t want a drink. What do you think you’re playing at, Jill?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You know very well.” He half unrolled the poster he had in his hand. “I’m talking about this.”
Amber and Pearl both giggled.
“I can’t see it all.” I snatched it from his hand, and unrolled it fully. “Oh dear.” I laughed.
It was impossible to tell if Miles’ red face was caused by anger or embarrassment—probably both.
“Give me that!” He tried to snatch it back, but I was too quick for him.
The poster showed the cartoon-like body of an overweight naked man, standing with his back to the viewer. The man, who had Miles Best’s face, was looking over his shoulder. All in all, it was not a pretty sight.
“Looks like you need to cut back on the muffins.” Pearl managed through tears of laughter.
“You should probably think about working out more.” Amber too was in hysterics.
“You’ve stuck my head on this body!” Miles pointed an accusing finger at me.
“Me?” Cue little Miss Innocent. “I don’t know anything about it.”
“That is not my body!” He insisted.
“There’s one easy way to prove it. Show us your bum, Miles.”
He was practically foaming at the mouth. “I’ll get you for this! All of you!”
And with that, he stormed out of the shop.
“Too funny!” Amber said.
“Where did you put the poster?” Pearl was still struggling to get her breath.
“On the wall outside Best Cakes.” I grinned. “And on every other flat surface I could find around Candlefield market place.”
***
Despite my show of bravado in front of the twins, I was really nervous about the TV interview.
“This way, Jill.” The chatty, smiling production assistant had told me her name, but it hadn’t registered. “You’ve just got time for makeup.”
“Makeup? Don’t I look okay?” I’d spent twice as much time as usual putting on my makeup that morning, in preparation for the interview.
“You look fine, but we just need to make sure you don’t ‘glow’ on camera. It will only take a minute.” She led the way into a small dressing room where a young male wizard was waiting, makeup brush in hand.
He took one look at me, and then turned to the production assistant. “What am I supposed to do with this, Ginny? I’ve told you before I need at least twenty minutes.”
“I’m sorry, Seb, but she only just got here. You’ve got five minutes.”
“I’ll do what I can.” He sighed deeply. “But I can’t work miracles.”
By now, what little confidence I’d had, had ebbed away.
Seb did his thing, and then Ginny grabbed my arm, and led me through to the studio where I was told to sit on the red leather couch. Behind the three cameras, which were pointed straight at me, was a gaggle of technicians and cameramen, all talking in hushed voices. I was relieved to see there wasn’t going to be a live studio audience.
“Attention studio!” A voice came through the speakers. “We go live in ten. To your positions, please. Opening credits roll. Good luck, everyone.”
From nowhere, Eclair appeared, and took a seat next to me on the sofa.
“Good morning, everyone,” she said into the camera. “Welcome to this very special edition of Candle Investigates. My guest this morning is someone who will already be known to many in the sup community, particularly to the witches. Jill Gooder was raised in the human world, and was apparently oblivious to the fact that she was a witch. Since joining the sup community, her rise to fame has been nothing short of amazing. Today, I hope to get answers to some of the questions that we all have.” Eclair turned around to face me. “Jill, welcome. Thank you for joining us this morning.”
Like I had a choice. “My pleasure.”
“If I may, I’d like to start with an incident that has recently come to light. I understand that you were invited to give a talk at Candlefield Academy of Supernatural Studies?”
“That’s right, Ecla—err—Eileen. I was asked to talk about what it’s like to live in the human world.”
“A great honour, I’m sure. I understand that while you were there, something happened to one of the young pupils. Maybe you could tell the viewers about that?”
“A pouchfeeder breached the walls and grabbed a young boy named Tommy. Fortunately, we were able to stop the creature taking the boy back to its nest.”
“I believe you played a major part in thwarting the creature’s escape?”
“I helped.”
“Jill, you’re being far too modest. From what I’ve heard, the creature would have got away with the boy if you hadn’t intercepted it by using a secret passageway. Isn’t that true?”
I nodded.
“The question is, Jill: How did you know about that passageway when no one else at the school was aware of its existence?”
“I don’t know. I just did.”
She turned to the camera. “You just did?” Then back to me. “That’s not really an answer, is it, Jill?”
“I don’t know what else I can tell you. That’s the truth.”
“I see. Maybe we should move onto another issue of interest to our viewers. How did you get inside Magna Mondale’s sealed room? That room had been sealed for ages, and many witches had tried to gain access before you. And yet you, a mere level two witch at the time, managed to get inside.”
“I simply focussed all my energy on making the door open.”
“And it did? Just like that? And yet numerous level six witches before you had tried, but failed. Don’t you find that rather strange?”
“Very. I don’t know why I succeeded.”
“Really?” She looked again into the camera, sighed, and then turned back to me. “Perhaps the most interesting part of your journey so far is the twenty plus years that you lived in the human world. Are we really supposed to believe that during all of that time you didn’t realise you were a witch?”
“It’s true. My birth mother told me on her deathbed. Until then, I had no idea.”
“I see. So, you’re saying that when this dying woman, who you’d never seen since the day you were born, told you that you were a witch, you simply accepted it?”
“No. I didn’t. At
the time, I thought she’d said it as an insult.”
“You thought that being called a witch was an insult?”
“You have to remember I thought I was a human. Humans sometimes call a woman a witch if they want to insult her.”
“We’ll have to take your word for that. But, even though you initially thought it was an insult, you eventually accepted that you were indeed a sup?”
“Yes, because I realised that I was able to perform spells. I could hardly deny who I was after that, could I?”
“Okay. We’re nearly out of time. Can you explain how someone, who for over twenty years didn’t even know she was a witch, has managed to progress up the levels quicker than any other witch in living memory?”
“I don’t know. I did put a lot of effort into learning the spells.”
“A lot of effort? Of course, that would explain it. I’m sure no one else has thought of doing that.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“Let me sum up what you’ve told us this morning. You don’t know how you knew about the secret passageway at CASS, you don’t know how you got into Magna Mondale’s sealed room, and you don’t know how you progressed through the levels quicker than any other witch. You don’t know much of anything, do you, Jill?”
Before I could respond, she turned to the camera. “So, viewers, there you have it. What are we to make of Jill Gooder? That’s for you to decide. Thank you for watching this morning. I’ll see you the same time tomorrow.”
The voice came through the speakers again, “That’s it, everyone. Great job, Eileen.”
Eclair turned to me, all smiles. “Thanks, Jill. I thought that went really well.”
And with that, she disappeared backstage.
Chapter 16
My head was still spinning when I got out of the TV studio. I’d been naive to think I could handle Eclair so easily. She was a pro, and had ambushed me in the most spectacular style.
And yet, it wasn’t Eclair or the interview that was causing my head to spin. It was the reality of what she had said. The interview had crystallised my own thoughts, and they could be summed up in three words. The same three words that Eclair had used at the end of the interview: I didn’t know.
There was so much about my own life that I didn’t know or understand. I had often worried that Jack was in the dark about a large part of my life, but the truth was, so was I. How had I known about the passageway at CASS? How had I been able to get into Magna Mondale’s sealed room? How had I progressed so quickly up the levels? How had I lived as a human for so many years without realising I was a witch?
