A Witch In Winter (20 page)

Shock paralyzed me for a moment then, trying not to let my reactions show in my voice, I said carefully, ‘I see.’

‘Do you?’ He peered at me over his glasses. There was a slight suspicion in his face. Had I betrayed my feelings somehow? I gulped against my suddenly racing heart, and tried to speak coolly.

‘And what would they want in return, your friends?’

‘In return?’

‘For all this help and tuition.’

He spread his hands, the picture of deprecation. ‘No return, Anna. Apart, that is, from the privilege of helping to form a young and brilliant mind. Does the teacher ask for return, other than the knowledge that his pupil progresses?’

His words reeked with falseness, every instinct I possessed was screaming
There must be a catch!
but I kept my face neutral and asked, ‘May I think it over?’

‘Of course.’ If he was disappointed or vexed, he didn’t show it. ‘Perhaps you could give me your answer on Monday?’

‘I can walk from here.’ I said, evading the question, as he started up the motor. ‘Thank you very much for the lift Mr Brereton.’

‘Not at all.’ He inclined his head in a quaint, old fashioned gesture. ‘Well, until Monday, my dear.’

‘Until Monday,’ I echoed, and watched his car bump up the chalky track.

By the time I got home I’d left three messages on Emmaline’s phone, plus a text, and as I opened the front door I heard the landline going.

‘Anna?’ Emmaline said, as I picked up the phone.

‘Yes, did you get my messages?’

‘Yes, all forty-five of them.’

I mentally stuck out my tongue at her, but there were more important things at stake than Emmaline’s sarcasm.

‘Listen, the Ealdwitan—’

‘I know,’ she cut in. { s0000 ‘Don’t talk about it on the phone. Can you come here?’

‘OK. I’ll see if I can get Dad to give me a lift.’

‘You need to learn how to drive, woman,’ Emmaline said severely. Then she hung up.

She was waiting for me in the passage when Dad dropped me off, her face grim.

‘How did you know?’ I gasped, chasing after her as she took the stairs two at a time. She looked over her shoulder at me.

‘What do you mean?’

‘You said,’ I panted, ‘when I mentioned the Ealdwitan on the phone, you said, “I know”.’

‘Oh.’ Emmaline shrugged. ‘Part of my, you know. My “power”.’ She managed to put the words in ironic quote marks with her tone. ‘I see things. It’s not like Sienna, I can’t control it very well or ask specific questions. I just get flashes sometimes.’

‘Of the future?’

‘More often the present, or else just a second or two in the future. It’s not very useful – I never see anything helpful like an exam paper.’ Then she shook her head with impatience. ‘Look, anyway, this is more important. What did he say? I only caught a glimpse.’

I relayed the conversation and she frowned.

‘Well, I’m not altogether surprised he’s one of them – Mr Brereton, I mean. I’ve always thought he was deeply creepy. He’s half the reason I took Philosophy instead of History. Leather elbow patches just seemed like someone trying a bit too hard to act the part of a History teacher.’

‘What do you think he wants?’ I asked. Emmaline’s brow furrowed.

‘I don’t know. Sienna saw that they were thinking about contacting you and Mum was worried because she thought you’d be getting a telling off about Seth but this – well, it’s weird, to be honest. It almost sounds like they’re trying to
recruit
you.’

‘Recruit me? But why on earth would they want me?’ I said, astonished.

‘I’m not sure. They tend to want people with very specific powers, from what I’ve heard. They must think you have something that would be useful to them. Are you
sure
you’ve not got some secret ability you’ve never noticed?’

‘Apart from my beauty and charm, you mean?’ Hey, I could be sarcastic too. Emmaline rolled her eyes.

‘Well it can’t be your rapier wit. Come on, Anna, this is serious. What are you going to tell Mr Brereton? You should be bricking it about Monday, {bouhe not cracking jokes.’

‘I
am
bricking it about Monday. Why do you think I’m here? What am I going to say?’

‘We can’t make up your mind for you.’ Her face was serious now. ‘You have to decide that for yourself. All I can say is, I wouldn’t be in your shoes for a lot.’

‘Great, thanks, Emmaline. Very constructive. I know you can’t tell me what to say – but you can tell me about
them
. Can’t you?’

‘Not really, no. I’ve never met any of them. Well, apart from Mr Brereton, as we now know.’ ‘Well what about Abe?’

‘What about him?’

‘He’s met them, hasn’t he?’

‘He doesn’t talk about it.’

‘What – ever?’

‘Not really, no.’

‘But this is an emergency – I’m not wanting to gossip about their taste in wallpaper for goodness’ sake.’

Emmaline sighed.

‘OK, I’ll text him. But don’t be surprised if he’s washing his hair.’

While she was tapping at her phone Maya came up the stairs, yawning and stretching.

‘Oooo, another day grinds to an end. Is something going on? The hives were full of something or other but I didn’t have time to check on them. I’ll go down in a sec when I’ve had a cup of tea.’ Then she saw me over Emmaline’s shoulder and looked mildly surprised. ‘Hello, Anna. I didn’t know you were here.’

‘Hello, Maya,’ I said. My worries must have shown in my face because she sat beside me with a concerned look.

‘What’s happened?’

‘Anna’s received the black spot,’ Emmaline said, still tapping.

‘What?’

‘Mr Brereton at school is one of the Ealdwitan,’ I said miserably, ‘and he’s trying to
groom
me. Or something.’

I repeated the conversation for the second time. Maya sat down heavily and put her hand to her head.

‘I knew I should have listened to the bees, if only that blasted woman had bought her herbs a bit quicker. Well. What are you going to say?’

t c"#00000I don’t know. That’s why I came here.’

‘What do you think they want with her, Ma?’ Emmaline asked. ‘Is it her power?’

‘I don’t know.’ Maya looked worried. ‘It could be but somehow … I don’t know. I doubt it could be only that – it’s a bit too crude for the way they normally work. They’ve got power enough of their own. Perhaps something in your background, Anna?’

‘But what?’ I asked desperately. Maya only spread her hands in mute sympathy. I put my head in my own hands and groaned. ‘They want an answer on Monday. What am I going to say?’

‘We can’t tell you, Anna.’ Her face was full of sympathetic concern. ‘I wish I had the answers but I don’t. There’s a lot about the Ealdwitan that isn’t pretty – all the spying and closed ranks and secrecy. But you can’t police a community like ours without doing some unpleasant things – many would say they’re just doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances. All I know is I’d rather be under their radar and, failing that, I’d prefer to be on their good side. It’s very cold being on the wrong side of the Ealdwitan.’

‘She wants to talk to Abe.’ Emmaline closed her phone. Maya looked thoughtful.

‘It’s not a bad idea. Just remember, Anna, he’s got his own agenda.’

Emmaline’s phone bleeped and she glanced down.

‘He’s coming.’ She sounded surprised.

It was nearly seven when Abe finally turned up. Maya was cooking supper, Emmaline was chopping salad, and I was looking at my watch worrying about Dad. Then we heard the door downstairs slam and someone shouted up from the foot of the stairs, ‘It’s only me.’

‘Hi Abe,’ Maya called down. There were feet on the stairs and Abe’s hand came round the door and rapped on the wood.

‘Knock, knock.’

‘Come in, you fool,’ Emmaline grumbled.

‘Hello, my second favourite sister-in-law. Hello Maya, Anna.’

‘Can you stop for supper?’ Maya asked. Abe shook his head.

‘No, sorry. I’m just passing through. I only came by to give Anna the benefit of my jaundiced opinion en route.’

‘Are you staying, Anna?’ Maya paused with a fistful of spaghetti over the pot.

I shook my head.

‘No, I’d love t { Iad.o but Dad’ll have made supper. I’m already late.’

‘Tell you what,’ Abe said. ‘I’ll drop you. It’s not out of my way and we can talk on the way. Are you ready to leave?’

I nodded. ‘Thanks for all the advice, Maya. See you Monday, Emmaline.’

‘Goodbye,’ said Maya.

‘And good luck,’ Emmaline added drily. ‘Let me know what to expect on Monday …’

I nodded again and made my way down the stairs behind Abe.

Abe’s car was parked around the corner: a disreputable thing, too old even to have seatbelts. I raised an eyebrow at the state of it and he shrugged.

‘What? You’re a witch – if there’s a crash you’ll take care of yourself.’

‘First of all, I don’t know the first thing about how to do any magic. And second, I thought that word wasn’t polite?’

‘What word – witch? Neither are a lot of the other words I use, but I don’t let it stop me.’ He opened the car door and bowed. ‘Your chariot, milady.’

I got in. He put the car into gear with a dreadful crunch, and we set off. Given Emmaline’s dark hints about Abe’s sensitivity towards the Ealdwitan I didn’t quite know how to bring the subject up, but he introduced it quite baldly as soon as the car pulled away from the kerb.

‘So you wanted to talk to me about the Ealdwitan?’

‘Yes. Did Emmaline explain?’

‘She said that some old guy at your school had thrown off his false beard and fake leather elbow patches and revealed himself as spy-master general, recruiting for his dark army of minions.’

‘More or less. They want an answer by Monday.’

He snorted.

‘Typically high-handed. And have they said what will happen if you give the wrong response?’

‘What is the wrong response?’

‘Well “no”, obviously. They’ve bothered to approach you, they must want you onside. Whether they trust you or just want you where they can see you, I’m not sure. But they obviously know something.’ He looked at me sideways in an appraising way that contained a new note of interest. ‘Any idea what they’re after?’

‘None!’ I said, feeling the desperation rise again. ‘Literally none! Emmaline kept asking me that – { meidtall they said was I had “a brilliant mind”.’

‘Hmm. Very original,’ Abe said with a twisted smile. ‘And do you? Have a brilliant mind, I mean.’

‘No one else seems to think so.’

‘Well, you must be reasonably powerful, given what you’ve accomplished without any training. But if they want brute force there’re plenty of other people out there who could supply it. What makes them so interested in you?’ He pondered the question for a moment as we waited at the traffic lights, then shrugged and seemed to dismiss it from his mind.

‘So what brought you to their attention?’ I asked, more as a way to divert the conversation from my less-than-brilliant mind. His face darkened and from a clear sky hail suddenly spattered the windscreen. Then he seemed to bring himself under control with an effort and the evening sun appeared again through the clouds.

‘Oh, usual nonsense. Betting on the weather, among other things.’

‘Betting on the weather?’

‘Mmm, you know you can bet on things like snow falling on Broadcasting House on Christmas Day – all that crap. Well, I did a series of, er, rather successful bets. Spectacularly successful, some of them were.’ He grinned wolfishly. ‘Anyway, my form was a bit
too
good, so the bookmakers got a little suspicious. Which brought the Ealdwitan down on me. As you may have already heard, as far as they’re concerned the first, second and third commandment is Thou Shalt Not Get Found Out. The fourth is Thou Shalt Not Draw Attention to Thyself.’

‘And where does Thou Shalt Not Kill come in?’ I asked, in a low voice, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.

‘I doubt it even makes the list,’ Abe said, looking grim.

‘What happened? With the Ealdwitan, I mean.’

‘Fine.’ Abe said. I blinked.

‘Sorry, you were fine?’

‘No,
a
fine. I got fined.’

It was not the answer I’d been expecting. Somehow I’d expected the rack, or amputation of a minor extremity at least.

‘Huh! Well, that doesn’t sound so bad,’ I said thoughtlessly. Abe’s face went hard.

‘It was bad enough,’ he said coldly, and I felt the subject invisibly closed. Then he smiled, ‘So what do you think of old Sienna, Maya and Emmaline, then?’

‘They’re really nice. Although I’m not sure “old” is quite the word I’d use to describe them.’