Witch's Business by Diana Wynne Jones

Author:Diana Wynne Jones [Jones, Diana Wynne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

ELEVEN

Frankie and Jenny were leaning out of the Aunt’s bedroom window when they reached the Mill House. Jess noticed someone had stuck brown paper over the broken pane.

“There’s no one here,” said Frankie.

“They’ve both gone out,” said Jenny.

“Good,” said Vernon. “Open the door, then. It’s raining.”

Frankie and Jenny vanished from the window and, after much clattering, they were heard opening the door.

“We started looking,” Frankie said.

“You took so long,” said Jenny.

Vernon sighed. “I knew you would. But it doesn’t matter.”

Jess explained what Biddy had done to the gang, even though they were her own servants. Neither little girl was surprised.

“She hates everyone,” said Jenny calmly.

“And Buster deserves it,” said Frankie.

“Well,” said Jess, “not more than just enough to teach him a lesson. I hope she stops soon. What will happen to them if they’re covered with Things at school?”

Frankie chuckled. Jess thought she was rather unfeeling, but then, she had not seen Buster crying and Stafford with his knees in a clump of nettles.

“Start searching,” said Vernon. “Forget Buster. I still don’t trust him.”

They searched, and it did not go well. Vernon put his hand on a sticky wet picture, and Frank stuck that picture to the front of another picture while he was trying to help Vernon unstick. When he pulled the two pictures apart, they had got mixed. The milkman was spread all over a picture of Biddy’s hut.

“Perhaps,” he said, rather hopelessly, “we’ve invented a new kind of painting.”

“Milkmonger,” said Vernon. “Or Biddyman.”

Then Frankie upset a paint pot, and while Jess was helping her mop it up, she knocked a tube of red paint down, which Martin trod on. Martin slid right across the room, leaving a trail like a bloodstain, and then he fell down on top of it. Most of the bloodstain got on his clothes.

“Oh, dear!” said Jess. “She’ll know.”

“So will my mother,” said Martin.

Frankie fetched some turpentine and sponged him. Then she sponged the floor. While she did that, the others went on searching. They turned the whole room out, but there was no necklace. There was not so much as an earring.

“I don’t think they’re here after all,” said Jenny.

“They must be,” said Jess. “Or why did she try to stop us?”

Frank discovered he knew the answer to that. “She wouldn’t stop us at the right place,” he said. “That would be giving it away. She’d try to stop us before we got round to seeing where the right place must be—before we’ve searched all the wrong places.”

“I think you’re right,” said Frankie.

“That means it’s down at her hut,” said Jenny.

“Not necessarily,” said Martin.

“Why not?” said Vernon. “That’s where I’d put it. With magic to keep off thieves.”

“All the same,” said Martin, “I think we ought to search the roof here, to be on the safe side. Mr. Adams stopped Frankie, so it may be there.”

“And if Buster lets us know when Biddy’s out,” said Jess, “then we can look for the necklace when we get the tooth.”

So they searched the roof—or rather, the boys did.

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