The Worst Witch to the Rescue (16 page)

‘Come in, Mildred,’ said Miss Cackle, beckoning her inside. ‘Take a seat.’

Mildred was the last to arrive. Miss Cackle and Miss Hardbroom were already seated on one side of the desk and Ethel was sitting bolt upright on the other, looking annoyed. Einstein, still invisible inside his shell, had been placed in Miss Cackle’s overflowing intray,
which made rather a comfortable nest for him.

‘Now then, girls,’ continued Miss Cackle. ‘Let’s try and get to the bottom of the extraordinary story which Mildred began last night. Mildred, would you like to tell Ethel what you said to us yesterday, when Miss Hardbroom brought you in from the storm?’

Ethel’s eyes had narrowed into slits, but Mildred took a deep breath and began.

‘I had to rescue Einstein – that’s my tortoise’s name – from the hollow pine, Ethel,’ she said firmly. ‘Your toad – you know, the one you used to demonstrate
my
spell, the spell you stole from me – well, your toad came with a message that you’d hidden Einstein up in the hollow pine tree and he asked me to go and get him. So I did. That’s all really.’

‘
All?
’ thundered Miss Hardbroom. ‘That sounds like a very long list of accusations to me, Mildred. Well, Ethel, what do you have to say?’

‘I’m stunned, Miss Hardbroom,’ exclaimed Ethel. ‘I don’t know
what
she’s talking about. I certainly didn’t go
anywhere
last night, I was fast asleep in bed, and I
never
stole her spell. Why on earth would I want to steal a spell from Mildred Hubble? You’d have to be mad to steal a spell from
her
. It’d probably turn you into a cockroach or something. I don’t know how to convince you, Miss Hardbroom – I definitely didn’t go out last night. If someone put him there, it certainly wasn’t me!’

There was silence for a few moments while everyone looked at each other, then Miss Cackle spoke.

‘Well, if you didn’t, Ethel,’ she asked, ‘who did?’

‘I think you’ll find that her name was Drusilla,’ said a small, rasping voice.

Everyone jumped as they saw that Einstein had emerged from his shell and was blundering through the papers to the edge of the in-tray.

‘Einstein!’ exclaimed Mildred joyfully. ‘You’ve come out! Are you all right?’

‘Yes, yes,’ said the little tortoise, stretching his long neck and all four legs one after the other. ‘Don’t fuss. I was just a bit upset last night and thought I’d take a
very
long nap. Now then, my friend, what would you like to know?’

‘Everything really,’ said Mildred. ‘From when you wandered out of my bedroom till I found you in the hollow tree.’

‘Was it you who rescued me?’ asked Einstein. ‘I wondered how I got back down here again. It was such a horrible night and I was so scared. Thank you
so
much. Well, let me think. Oh yes, I went for a walk and Drusilla found me and took me to Ethel’s room. Ethel was just bringing me back to you when she overhead you and your friends saying that I could talk, so she told Drusilla that she was going to hide me up in the pine until the speaking-spell ran out. She
was
going to give me back to you after that, I remember her saying.’

‘Can you remember anything else?’ asked Mildred hopefully. ‘Do you remember what Ethel and I talked about when we were sitting in that tree on our way to school?’

‘I
don’t
remember that,’ said Einstein. ‘But I
do
remember what she said to Drusilla in her bedroom. She said that
she knocked your bag down the tree on purpose and she borrowed your project and that she threw it into the kitchen bin after she’d copied it out – oh yes, and she said something about trying out a snake spell on your pot. She didn’t seem to want to go out on such an awful night, so she talked Drusilla into it instead. But it was Ethel’s idea, she made Drusilla do it. Anything else you’d like to know?’

own in the yard behind the kitchen, standing next to the huge bin, which had been turned on its side, Miss Cackle, Miss Hardbroom and Mildred watched as Ethel sifted through old bits of pie and custard and a mass of burnt porridge, still warm from the cauldron where the cooks were preparing breakfast.

‘Keep looking, Ethel,’ said Miss Hardbroom menacingly. ‘We’re going to turn over every old tea bag, every fish skin, until we find Mildred’s project.’

Ethel sat back on her heels, looking desperate.

‘It’s not
fair
, Miss Hardbroom,’ she said. ‘I don’t know how you can believe the word of a
tortoise
against mine.’