The Worst Witch All at Sea
Page 5
Miss Hardbroom stood up at that point and looked out to where the three girls were standing. They all jumped and turned away.
‘Come on!’ said Maud. ‘Start swimming again. She probably heard every word.’
‘She certainly did, Maud Spell-body,’ hissed Miss Hardbroom’s voice from behind them. ‘So you’d better be careful what you say.’
The three friends spun round and there was Miss Hardbroom doing an elegant crawl behind them. She was now wearing a close-fitting mauve bathing-hat and a black knee- and
elbow-length swim-suit with a purple V set into the front. The whole transformation had taken place within the space of half a minute.
After Miss Hardbroom had joined them, no one felt inclined to splash about or have any more fun, and everyone was soon grimly swimming up and down in silent rows before sedately getting out and sitting on the beach, wrapped in their towels.
As the evening approached, Mildred didn’t have a chance to sneak the kippers across to Tabby, with the boat in full view of everyone. In fact, it was rather embarrassing, as the kippers were beginning to smell awful after a day of being crammed into Mildred’s shorts.
Mildred tried to hang back as everyone settled on to their broomsticks and began flying back to the castle in ones and twos. Unfortunately, Enid and Maud waited loyally as their friend took ages rolling up her swimming-costume in a towel, then purposely dropping it and rolling it up again and retying her plimsolls three times in a desperate attempt to be the last one left on the beach.
‘Come on, Mil!’ said Maud. ‘We’re having dinner as soon as we get back. Everything’ll have gone by the time you get your laces perfect.’
There was nothing for it but to go back to the castle, kippers and all, and return later when no one was looking. At least she could sneak some more food and perhaps some milk for Tabby.
n opportunity presented itself at dusk, as Form Two were having an hour of leisure before going to bed. Maud was darning a hole in the toe of a sock and Enid was reading a manual on broomstick water-skiing, while the rest of the girls were bustling about, similarly employed. No one seemed to notice as Mildred slunk out of the door and made her way to the cliff steps.
She was halfway down when, to her horror, a voice called out from behind, making her jump out of her skin. It was Ethel.
‘Hey, Mildred,’ she called. ‘Mind if I join you?’
‘Er – no,’ said Mildred. ‘Of course not.’
‘Where are you off to then?’ asked Ethel with an unpleasant smile. ‘It’s a
bit dangerous on these steps, so I thought you might need some assistance with whatever it is. You know how clumsy you are!’
Ethel managed to say all this in a light, sincere tone of voice. If you hadn’t known her, you would have thought she was genuinely concerned, instead of nosily trying to find out something secret.
‘I was just going for a stroll on the beach,’ Mildred improvised. ‘I’ve got a bit of a headache, that’s all.’
‘Then why didn’t you go to Miss Hardbroom?’ asked Ethel. ‘She’d have given you an aspirin or something. No, I think you’re up to something Mildred Hubble and I’m going to get Miss Hardbroom and tell her, before it’s too late and you get us all into trouble.’
They had reached the bottom of the steps by this time.
‘Look, Ethel,’ said Mildred. ‘If I tell you, will you promise not to let on? Even Maud and Enid don’t know.’
Ethel considered the matter. She felt quite pleased at being let in on a secret which even Mildred’s best friends didn’t know about.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I promise.’
‘OK…’ said Mildred, racking her brains for a good story. ‘You remember the story about the treasure out on Cat’s Head Rock? Well, I was going to go out there, on the boat, and have a little look around to see if I could find it. It’s a nice calm evening and it seemed a good idea. I thought the magician would be really pleased to have the treasure to buy things for the castle. I wasn’t going to go now, maybe a bit later when everyone’s asleep. I was just going to have a look to see if the boat’s seaworthy.’
Ethel stared at Mildred.
‘Well, I think it’s a dreadful idea,’ she said. ‘The magician told us not to use the boat, and you’d probably wreck it or something – anyway, there probably isn’t any treasure at all. I say, Mildred, you do smell awful. Don’t you think it would be more to the point if you went back to the castle and had a bath? You smell like a crate of rotting fish.’
‘Actually,’ said Mildred, ‘I sat on a kipper this morning and haven’t had time to wash my clothes. Perhaps you’re right about the plan to get the treasure. I think I’ll go back to the dorm and forget all about it.’
They set off on the long climb back up the steps, Ethel leading the way. While Ethel’s back was turned, Mildred took the kippers from her pocket and lobbed them on to the deck of the boat, meaning to come back after dark
and give them to Tabby in the shelter. The window was just too narrow for him to squeeze out, though Mildred had seen him looking out during the day. Amazingly, no one else had noticed, and any mewing had been drowned by the sound of the waves and seagulls and the shouts of the girls.
Miss Hardbroom looked out of her window at the perfect evening sky and decided to take a broomstick ride. She rarely felt quite so pleased with life as she did today. For some reason, the warm weather and the delights of sea-bathing had made her feel completely relaxed. Even the girls did not irritate her quite as much as usual – except for Mildred Hubble of course. Mildred would have irritated Miss Hardbroom whatever the weather was like. There was something about the girl that just got to Miss Hardbroom, like a scratchy label sewn into the neck of a dress. It even annoyed Miss Hardbroom that they were only invited on the holiday in the first place because of Mildred’s action in saving Mr Rowan-Webb from the pond. However, putting all irritation aside, Miss Hardbroom swirled her cape around her shoulders, commanded her broom to hover outside the window, and the cat, which was a particularly beautiful, smooth, black one with olive-green eyes, named Morgana, to sit on the end, and lowered herself on to it gracefully.
‘Away!’ she commanded. ‘To the cave.’
Mildred and Ethel had just reached the top of the steps and they both ducked as Miss Hardbroom zoomed over their heads, rather like one of those low-flying fighter planes that sometimes appear from nowhere when you’re out walking in the country. Miss Hardbroom did not see the two girls as she nosedived down the cliff-face and pulled up to a perfect landing next to the breakwater where the boat was tied.
A chilly breeze was coming from the sea and Miss Hardbroom wrapped her cloak around her as she put the broomstick into the cave to keep it from getting wet.
At once, Morgana sprang purposefully on to the breakwater and ran along to the boat. She had smelt the kippers and couldn’t wait to investigate. Miss Hardbroom was intrigued to see the cat disappear into the boat. She was even more intrigued when she heard a desperate yowling and saw the scruffy-looking Tabby madly trying to squeeze himself out of the few inches of open window in the shelter. Poor Tabby was frantic with hunger and the sight of Morgana eating his evening meal was too much to bear.
Miss Hardbroom climbed aboard the boat to investigate. She recognized Tabby immediately, and her eyebrows knitted together like storm-clouds as she made her way through the boat to the shelter. A slight breeze had come up and the boat was bobbing and swaying, making it difficult to keep her balance. Miss Hardbroom had forgotten her own cat, now crouched underneath one of the benches wolfing down the kippers as fast as possible.
The boat lurched and Miss Hardbroom unfortunately braced her foot on an unexpected piece of fish skin, which zipped her over backwards, banging her head on the seat as she fell. A shower of stars and exploding lights cascaded past her eyes as she lost consciousness. Then there was no sound, except for Tabby’s pitiful mewing, Morgana’s munching and the sea slapping at the sides of the boat.
‘What’s the matter, Mil?’ asked Maud. ‘You look so jumpy all the time.’
‘Nothing!’ exclaimed Mildred in a falsely bright voice. ‘Nothing at all!’
Ethel smiled secretly to herself. She had been a little worried in case Mildred actually did manage to take the boat to Cat’s Head Rock and find the treasure. The thought of everyone praising Mildred’s cleverness was just too upsetting for words. Of course, it was more likely that Mildred would sink the boat than find the treasure, but she might just do it.
Well, thought Ethel, there’s one sure-fire way to make sure she doesn’t get the chance.
Mildred decided to abandon Tabby’s dinner for the night. She couldn’t face another trip down the cliff, either by broomstick or on foot, so the best thing to do seemed to be to go to sleep and sneak out at the crack of dawn. She had completely forgotten the story she had made up to Ethel about the boat trip to Cat’s Head Rock. In fact, she had completely forgotten Ethel until she saw her come back into the dormitory with an ‘I-know-something-you-don’t-know’ look all over her face.
Ethel had obviously been out again. Her hair was windswept and she was wearing her cloak, which she folded neatly on top of her suitcase before she came and stood at the foot of Mildred’s mat.
‘I wouldn’t bother going on any trip if I were you,’ she announced.
‘What trip?’ asked Mildred, confused for a moment. ‘Oh yes! The trip to the rock. Yes – well, as I told you, I decided against it. You know best about these things, Ethel.’
‘Just in case you change your mind,’ said Ethel darkly, ‘why don’t you take a look out of the window.’
Mildred sprang to her feet and peered out into the darkening night.
Far below, in the deep shadow of the cove, she could just make out the shape of the boat, no longer attached to the breakwater, making its way steadily out into the open sea.
‘Ethel you – you –’ Words failed Mildred as she ran to the door, pulling on her cardigan and cloak over her pyjamas. ‘Why can’t you ever leave anything alone?’
‘Don’t make such a fuss, Mildred!’ said Ethel feeling a little embarrassed, as half the class was now propped up in their beds, listening. ‘It’s only a boat for goodness’ sake.’
Only a boat! thought Mildred, as she raced through the stone corridors and began the descent down the rickety steps. It says a lot for her desperation to rescue Tabby, that she didn’t stop to remember that she was afraid of the dark.
tanding at the edge of the waves with her eyes as wide open as possible, Mildred tried to gauge how far the boat had progressed. It certainly seemed a long way away, and the growing breeze was a little alarming, ruffling white crests on to the edge of the waves. Fortunately, a perfect full moon was rising above the horizon, casting a strong enough light to make Mildred less desperate about being out alone in the dark. There seemed to be nothing she could do. She couldn’t swim at all, not even the doggie-paddle. If only she had a broomstick.
Suddenly, there was a loud miaow from the cave. Mildred’s heart leapt — first in fright, then for joy as she thought that Tabby must have somehow got off the boat and be sheltering in the cave.
‘Tabby!’ she called as she ran to peer into the darkness, but the cat which pattered out to rub itself against her ankles was not a tabby, but a beautiful, sleek, black one. Mildred noticed the broomstick leaning against the wall just inside the cave as she bent down and picked up the cat.
‘Now who do you belong to?’ asked Mildred. ‘Hello? Is there anyone there?’ she called into the dark corners of the cave.
The complete stillness of the cave was her reply. The cat was now entwining itself round the broomstick, which Mildred caught as it toppled over sideways.
‘I know!’ she exclaimed, as an idea struck her. ‘Here’s your rescuer, Tabby! It won’t take a minute on this to zoom out to the boat and bring you back! Perhaps I could even bring back the boat and no one would be any the wiser.’
She did wonder who the broomstick and cat belonged to, but of course there was no reason to suppose that they were Miss Hardbroom’s. Poor Mildred would have been even more terrified if she had known that she was setting out on Miss Hardbroom’s best broomstick and that Miss Hardbroom herself was in the boat.
‘Drat that Ethel!’ she muttered as she pulled her cape around her shoulders. ‘I know she didn’t realize about Tabby, but it’s still an awful thing to do to unmoor a boat and just shove it out to sea – and I just know I’m bound to get the blame if it isn’t back at the breakwater by the morning. You stay here in this nice warm cave, little cat – I won’t be long.’
She pushed the cat firmly back into the cave as, to Mildred’s surprise, it tried to jump on to the back of the broomstick, which was hovering patiently in mid-air as she had commanded it.
‘Off we go then!’ said Mildred, climbing on and giving the stick a brisk tap, and they set off up the beach, skimming the waves like a hovercraft.
Unfortunately Mildred had forgotten Miss Hardbroom’s warning about the broomstick not working if it was
damp, and instead of rising above the water she ploughed straight into it.
There was enough air trapped under Mildred’s cloak to hold her up
amid the waves, giving her time to remember how Ethel had come to grief during the broomstick water-skiing because she didn’t hold it high above the water. It was very hard not to panic, but Mildred managed to tread water well enough to stop herself sinking. She grabbed the broomstick and held it as far up in the air as she could.
‘Fly! Please fly!’ she gasped. ‘Off we go, nice broom, beautiful broom. Please.’
Perhaps it was the flattery that did
it, despite the broomstick being completely waterlogged. Very jerkily it rose above the waves pulling Mildred out of the sea, water cascading from her clothes.
‘Stop!’ Mildred shouted rather suddenly as she realized that they were now ten feet in the air and rising. It had been difficult to tell how far they had risen because the moon had disappeared completely behind a sinister-looking black cloud, and the night was suddenly very dark.
Mildred could hardly believe that she had got into quite such a dreadful situation. Hanging by both arms from a broomstick is extremely difficult, even when your clothes are not twice as heavy with water. Mildred realized that there was only a limited amount of time that she could hold on, so she had only one hope and that was to find the boat and literally drop into it.
From her vantage point in mid-air she frantically peered all around into the pitch dark and tried to see where it was.
To her great surprise, the broomstick
suddenly gave a little twitch and set off in a most determined manner, as if it really knew where it was going. In fact, it did know where it was going. Magic broomsticks are very curious things. If they are owned by one person for a very long time (and Miss Hardbroom had kept this particular one for twenty-five years), they develop a strange kind of intuition about their owners. In the same way that a dog will stand at the front door and wag its tail when its master is getting off a bus at the end of the street, a broomstick can sometimes sense that its owner is nearby, and if the owner is in trouble, the sense is even more acute.
The broomstick flew on grimly until it stopped, just as suddenly, and hovered. Mildred felt desperate.
‘Go on, broom!’ she said. ‘You were doing really well.’
But the broomstick didn’t budge. Mildred’s arms and fingers were almost numb with cold and pain from hanging on. She began to cry as she imagined the horror of being alone, unable to swim in the dar
kest of dark nights. It really was all her worst fears come true. Slowly her fingers loosened their grip; she let go completely and fell through the black night air towards the waiting sea.
nstead of plunging into the soft, cold waves that she was expecting, Mildred landed with a jarring half on something very hard, and half on something firm, but soft. She felt around and realized, partly from the rocking motion and partly from the feel of the planks, that it was a boat. She couldn’t believe her luck when a loud miaowing began a few yards to her left.
‘It’s Tabby!’ she gasped, feeling completely hysterical with relief. Fortunately, she remembered the broomstick, although now it had found its owner, it would have hovered patiently above the boat till someone came to the rescue.
‘Down, broom!’ called Mildred. ‘Down here and rest!’
As it landed neatly next to her, Mildred flung her arms around it and gave it a hug.
‘You brilliant, wonderful, magic broom!’ she said. ‘Thanks a million, billion, trillion!’ But the broomstick just stayed stiffly in her arms, like any old broom you might have found in a backyard somewhere, and when she let it go it clattered to the deck, waiting for its next command. They’re curious things, broomsticks.
Mildred got up to feel her way to the cabin and tripped over the soft thing she had half landed on. She put out her arms to try to ascertain what it was, and was appalled when her fingers closed around a cold, bony hand. Mildred leapt back in horror,
wondering if perhaps she was having some awful nightmare that might go away if only she could wake up.
With marvellous timing, the moon reappeared from the scudding clouds for a brief moment and revealed various things to the petrified young witch. The first was the astonishing sight of Miss Hardbroom, apparently fast asleep on the floor of the boat. The second was dear old Tabby, still trying to scrabble his way out of the impossibly small opening in the window, and the third was the terrifying sight of Cat’s Head Rock, looming like a gigantic sea monster only a few feet away.