by Maeve Friel
“And she has invited us to visit her backstage, at the interval,” Miss Strega told Jessica as they took their seats in the Coven Garden theatre. They were right in the front row with a perfect view of the stage.
The lights went down. The curtain rose. As Heckitty Darling glided into the spotlight, the audience went mad, cheering and clapping. Heckitty unclasped the owl brooch at her throat, theatrically threw her cape over her shoulder and blew kisses to everyone. As she caught sight of Jessica and Miss Strega, she made a deep curtsey.
“Even when she was a witch-in-training, I knew she was going to be a star,” Miss Strega sighed and her chin bobbed up and down with emotion.
At the start of the show, Heckitty was the beautiful stepmother, with high heels that were as slender as needles and hair as black as ravens’ feathers, who asked,
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?”
But when she turned into the bad witch, she looked really scary. Her face was covered in boils. Her hair hung down to her shoulders in lanky greasy locks and she had a huge hump on her back. The first act ended when she persuaded Snow White to take a bite of the poisoned apple. There was a huge thunderclap. Snow White dropped silently to the floor. Heckitty Darling made a long chilling cackle which made Jessica’s hair stand on end and the curtain descended.
Jessica stood up at once. “Come on, Miss Strega, I can’t wait to see Miss Darling.”
But when they got backstage, they discovered that all was not well. There was a huddle of dwarfs standing at the door of Heckitty Darling’s dressing room.
Snow White was wringing her hands. “I didn’t trip her up deliberately. I just left the mop and bucket there …”
“And a very silly place it was to put a bucket, if I may say so!” declared Heckitty Darling, icily, from inside the room.
Miss Strega and Jessica pushed their way through the throng.
Heckitty Darling was sitting on the floor, in a puddle of water, groaning loudly, and rubbing her leg. “It’s broken. How can I possibly be ‘the fairest of them all’ with a leg in plaster. I can just see the headlines on the W3 homepage: Heckitty Darling Breaks Leg. Every witch on the web will cackle her head off.”
“There, there,” said Miss Strega soothingly. “I’m sure we can fix it.”
“Not in time for the second act,” Heckitty moaned and laid her wrist against her temple.
Miss Strega turned to Jessica, “What would Dr Krank do in these circumstances?”
“She might use her Withershins Ball and turn back the time so that Heckitty would not fall over the mop at all. Or she might give her a dose of General Purpose This-will-fix-it Brew and a spoonful of Cheery-ade.”
“That’s all well and good,” murmured Heckitty, “but Dr Krank is not here, is she?”
Jessica smiled sweetly. “No, but I’ve just finished my Spelling Lessons. I think I know a Spell that might work.”
Jessica knelt down on the floor beside Heckitty and took her wand from her pocket. As Doc and Bashful and all the rest of the dwarfs looked on, she chanted:
“When you’re feeling sort of broken,
Or bruised and out of sorts.
When your bones are acting funny,
And all your body hurts,
The Witch’s Wand is your only friend.”
Jessica’s wand began to quiver in her hand as she moved it slowly along Miss Darling’s leg. “Is it the knee? Not the knee. Is it the shinbone? The heelbone? The baby toe? The ankle?” At the last word, the wand trembled and glowed brightly. Jessica lightly tapped Heckitty’s ankle.
There was a loud click. Snow White and the dwarfs gasped.
“Very impressive!” Heckitty Darling exclaimed excitedly as Miss Strega and Jessica helped her to her feet. “Take a bow! You’ve fixed it!”
Jessica looked thrilled. “Wow, it worked!”
“Of course it worked!” said Miss Strega, beaming from ear to ear. “After all, I taught you! And now I think you deserve another reward – don’t you agree, my dear Miss Darling?”
Heckitty Darling pursed her lips and scrutinized Jessica from head to toe. “Indeed, I do, Miss Strega. And I know exactly what it ought to be. Would you both be so kind as to accompany me to the Wardrobe Department? We have just enough time before my curtain call.”
The Wardrobe Department was a warren of treasure-filled rooms in the basement. There were crinolines and Roman breastplates, pantomime horses and huge feathery hats. There were scarecrows and lions’ manes, Viking helmets and witches’ brooms. Miss Wigg, the wardrobe mistress, was ironing Snow White’s wedding dress. “Heckitty Darling! And Miss Strega! What can I do for you?”
“Actually,” said Miss Strega, “we’re here for Jessica, my witch-in-training. She needs a new cloak.”
“The special model, if possible,” Heckitty added.
“You may be in luck,” said Miss Wigg, tapping the side of her nose, for she too was a witch. She delved into a large wicker trunk and triumphantly pulled out a shiny black garment. “There we are,” she said, draping it over Jessica’s shoulders, “the Super-Duper De-Luxe Witch’s Cape. Guaranteed-Invisibility-When-You-Need-It. And it’s pure silk.”
“Cool!” said Jessica, twirling around the room and occasionally disappearing among the costumes. “Thank you. Thank you.”
“It’s so you!” sighed Heckitty Darling as Jessica suddenly reappeared beside the wicker trunk.
Miss Strega steered Jessica towards the door. “Do stop disappearing, sweetheart. We all must fly. Heckitty’s due back on stage in a few minutes and we must return to our seats.”
Miss Wigg picked up her iron again. “That’s a bright young trainee you have this year, Miss Strega. I suppose she’s due to start Charming soon.”
“Yes indeedy,” said Miss Strega as she mounted her broomstick. “But where the dickens is she? Has she disappeared again?”
“I’m afraid so,” said Miss Wigg. “Young witches never change, do they? Once they get their cloak of invisibility, they think they can just vanish into thin air.”
Jessica chuckled inside her Super-Duper Cape. “I wonder what Charming will be about?” she thought. “I hope it’s as much fun as Flying and Spelling.”
And she reappeared at Miss Strega’s side, ready for take-off.
If you enjoyed Witch-in-Training: Spelling Trouble, check out these other great Maeve Friel titles.
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Buy the ebook here
Also by the Author
Flying Lessons
Charming or What?
Brewing Up
Broomstick Battles
Witch Switch
Moonlight Mischief
The Last Task
Copyright
First published by HarperCollins Childrens Books in 2003
HarperCollins Childrens Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers
77–85 Fulham Palace Road
Hammersmith, London W6 8JB
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Text copyright © Maeve Friel 2003
Illustrations by Nathan Reed 2003
Maeve Friel asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-bo
oks
HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007133420
Ebook Edition © DECEMBER ISBN: 9780007571895
Version: 2014–01–07
About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor
Toronto, ON, M4W, 1A8, Canada
http://www.harpercollins.ca
New Zealand
HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited
P.O. Box 1
Auckland, New Zealand
http://www.harpercollins.co.nz
United Kingdom
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
77–85 Fulham Palace Road
London, W6 8JB, UK
http://www.harpercollins.co.uk
United States
HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022
http://www.harpercollins.com
