“Sounds good to me.”
“Right then.” I put my handbag down. “I’d better go and see what madam is up to.”
Florence was lying on her bed, looking through my book of spells. “Mummy, there are so many spells in here.”
“You shouldn’t be looking at that by yourself. I told you I was going to pick out some spells for you over the weekend.”
“I want to learn the ‘thunderbolt’ spell.”
“Definitely not.”
“Aww! Why not? It looks fun.”
“Because it’s very dangerous. You could hurt yourself or someone else.”
“But I’d be careful.”
“No, Florence. Give me the book, please.”
“But Mummy.”
“Give me the book now. Magic isn’t a game. It’s very serious.”
“Okay.” Reluctantly, she handed it to me.
“I’ll pick out some suitable spells over the weekend, and we’ll start to learn them on Monday.”
***
Jack and I had arranged to pick up Kathy and Peter from their house. Normally, whenever we collected them, they’d keep a look out for us, and by the time we pulled up outside their house, would already be on their way down the drive. Today, though, there was no sign of them.
“Are we early?” Jack checked his watch.
“No, we’re dead on time. I’ll go and see what they’re up to. You wait here.”
Even before I reached the door, I could hear raised voices coming from inside: Kathy and Peter were going at it hammer and tongs. When she answered the door, she was red in the face and clearly not a happy bunny.
“Sorry about this, Jill. You’d better come in. I won’t be a minute.”
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s Pete. He isn’t coming.”
“Is he alright?”
“I’m fine.” Peter came out of the kitchen. “I’m sorry I can’t make it, Jill, but I had a phone call a couple of hours ago from someone wanting a quotation for a big job. I have to have it ready first thing in the morning, so I need to stay in and get it done.”
“He should have told them they’d have to wait for their quotation,” Kathy said.
“We’ve been over this,” Peter snapped. “Business is really quiet at the moment. I can’t afford to turn my nose up at this kind of job.”
Just then, Lizzie came out of the lounge with two other young girls about the same age.
“Hi, Auntie Jill.”
“I thought you and Mikey would be with your grandparents tonight.”
“We were supposed to be, but then Dad changed his mind about going to the play, so he said we could stay here. These are my friends, Rosemary and Lucinda.”
Those two had stolen my names!
“I’m very pleased to meet you both.”
“Look at our charm bracelets.”
All three of them held out their hands.
“They’re lovely. You’ve got a lot of charms on yours, Rosemary.”
“Six,” she said, proudly.
“I’ve got four,” Lucinda said.
“I’ve still only got two.” Lizzie sighed.
“Yes, Lizzie,” Kathy chimed in. “But you’ve only just had your bracelet. How long have you had yours, Rosemary?”
“Two months.”
“See, Lizzie, by the time you’ve had yours that long, you’ll have as many charms as Rosemary.”
“No, I won’t because she’ll have even more by then.”
Touché.
I took a closer look at the small charms, which all appeared to be strange little creatures.
“What exactly are these?”
“Elves,” Lucinda said.
“All of them?”
“Yes, Jill, that’s the whole point.” Kathy rolled her eyes at me. “That’s why they’re called elf charms and the shop is called Elf-Charming.”
“No two are the same,” Rosemary said. “Every charm has an elf in a different pose.”
“Considering how much they charge for them, I should think so too.” Kathy shook her head. “You’d think for that kind of money they could have given them all different expressions too, but they all look the same. Anyway, come on, Jill, we’d better get going.”
“Hold on a minute, Kathy. Girls, do you think I could get a photo of your charm bracelets?”
“What do you want that for?” Kathy shot me a puzzled look. “You’re not thinking of buying one for Florence, are you?”
“No, I might get one for myself,” I lied. “I’m quite partial to an elf.”
The girls were only too keen to allow me to photograph their bracelets. I made sure to get a shot of each of the charms.
I thanked the girls, and then joined Kathy in the back seat of the car.
“Isn’t Pete coming?” Jack said.
“No, he has to work.” Kathy rolled her eyes.
“I wish I’d come up with that excuse,” I said.
“You’ll enjoy the play,” Kathy insisted.
“I very much doubt that.”
In common with every other amateur dramatic production I’d been pressganged into seeing, it was awful. The acting was abysmal, the scenery fell over twice, and the leading lady kept forgetting her lines and had to be prompted from the wings. The leading man, who had at least learned his part, had a dodgy false moustache and beard. There was something about him that looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.
The interval came as a blessed relief until I discovered there were no refreshments to be had.
“Surely, they could have at least provided ice cream,” I moaned.
“The freezer is on the blink, apparently,” Kathy said. “What do you think of the play so far? It’s good, isn’t it? Much better than last year’s.”
“Thank goodness I didn’t see last year’s, then.”
“Come on, Jill, it isn’t all that bad.”
“How much longer does it go on for?”
“Another hour, I would think.”
I turned to Jack. “If I fall asleep, give me a nudge, would you?”
With only ten long minutes to go, the play was building to its climax. The leading man and lady had just had a big argument after he’d told her
