Not Just a Witch

‘I’ve come with a message from a friend of yours. A Miss Hecate Tenbury-Smith.’

‘Heckie!’ Dora’s round little eyes lit up. ‘How is she? Tell me about her, please. Oh, I have missed her so!’

For it was true, Dora had not meant to annoy Heckie. Though she had moved back to Wellbridge, hoping to make it up with her friend, she had not dared to go and see her. Suppose Heckie snubbed her? Then she had read about Max Swinton in the paper and become very upset. A man like that shouldn’t be allowed to exist, she thought, and when Swinton took a stroll in the park, she’d been ready for him. It had been hard work dragging him to the right spot, mounting him properly, but she’d done it and been proud of her handiwork. In the old days she’d have gone straight to Heckie and shown her what she’d done.

So now she waited eagerly for what Mr Knacksap had to say.

‘I’m afraid your friend is absolutely furious with you. In fact you can hardly call Miss Tenbury-Smith your friend. She never wants to see you again.’

‘Oh, oh!’ Poor Dora put her hand to her mouth and her eyes widened in sorrow and dismay. ‘But why? Why?’

‘She’s very angry with you about Mr Swinton’s statue. She was going to change him into a tiger and everything was prepared. But it isn’t just that. She feels very bitter about the hat and everything. She sent me to tell you that she never wants to set eyes on you again.’

Poor Dora! She was a solid, well-built woman, but she just seemed to shrink as Mr Knacksap spoke. He went on telling lies for another ten minutes and then he went back to Heckie.

Heckie was waiting for him, her pop eyes bright with hope.

‘I’m afraid it’s no good, dear,’ he said. ‘Dora Mayberry never wants to see you again as long as she lives. I won’t repeat some of the things she said about you, but they were quite terrible.’

Heckie turned pale with disappointment. She had come down to meet the furrier in the street because the dragworm was at home, and now she leant against a lamp-post, almost as though she might faint.

‘Don’t be sad, my little prettikins,’ said Mr Knacksap, taking her hand. ‘Your Li-Li will look after you.’

The horrible man’s plan was clear now in his head. He’d been excited at the idea of having one tiger skin to sell, but this . . . If he pulled it off, he’d be the richest furrier in the world!

And he would pull it off. He had one witch in his power. Now he would get the other one too.

And then . . .!

Chapter Fifteen

Mr Knacksap now began to court Heckie seriously. He came to see her on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays, and on those days Daniel came at tea time to take the dragworm for a walk. He brought her red roses which he stole from the garden of the blind lady, and plain chocolates with hard centres because they were her favourites.

And one afternoon, sitting on the sofa in her cosy flat, he told her that he wanted to change his life.

‘I’m tired of living in town among the fumes and the dust,’ said Mr Knacksap. ‘I want to go and live in the country where the air is clear. In the Lake District, where there are mountains and heather and . . . er . . . lakes. I want to milk cows!’ said Mr Knacksap, waving his hand.

‘Sheep, dear,’ said Heckie. ‘It’s sheep you have in hill country.’

Mr Knacksap frowned. He did not like to be interrupted and was not quite sure if he wanted to milk sheep.

‘Chickens too!’ he cried. ‘I want to get up at daybreak and look for brown eggs in the straw!’

He fished in the pocket of his jacket and showed Heckie a picture. It was of a pretty whitewashed cottage with a porch, standing in the shelter of a high hill. A stream ran through the garden, with alder trees along its banks, and a dovecote covered in honeysuckle stood by the gate.

‘Oh, Li-Li, what a pretty place!’

‘It’s called Paradise Cottage,’ said Mr Knacksap. ‘And what I want more than anything in the world is to live there.’

Heckie was silent. When you love somebody it is sad to think that they may go and live a long way away, but she tried to be brave. ‘If that’s what you want, you must do it, Li-Li. But, oh, I shall miss you.’

Mr Knacksap seized Heckie’s hand. ‘No, no, dearest Hecate – you don’t understand! I want you to come with me. I want us to live there together! I am asking you to marry me!’

In the staffroom of Wellbridge Junior School, they were once again talking about Daniel Trent.

‘He’s looking thoroughly peaky again,’ said the deputy head. ‘Just when he seemed so much brighter. I wonder if I ought to have a word with those professors?’

But it wasn’t the fault of Daniel’s parents that he was unhappy. They did what they had always done. It was Heckie’s engagement that had made Daniel so wretched. If she’d just been going to marry Mr Knacksap, it would have been bad enough, but she was going to live miles and miles away in the Lake District. And so soon! Mr Knacksap wanted to have the wedding before the end of the month.