An hour later, Grizz was still shouting at me – and Wormella was still throwing up in the kitchen sink.
‘I didn’t do anything wrong!’ I protested for the tenth time.
Grizz tightened her thin fingers around Charlie’s neck. Charlie struggled and let out a strangled miaow.
‘And I suppose poisoning your aunts and sneaking off isn’t wrong?’ said Grizz. ‘Did your walk take you in the direction of St Munchin’s, by any chance?’
‘N-no,’ I said. ‘I went in the opposite direction.’
‘Liar! How dare you tell me such a pack of lies!’ screamed Grizz.
Charlie yowled in pain.
‘Please let Charlie go!’ I said. ‘It’s not his fault!’
‘Where did you find that sleeping potion?’ said Grizz.
‘From that smelly old book you keep in the cellar,’ I said. ‘And I made the potion myself in your smelly old kitchen! It was easy!’
Wormella gasped.
‘Her potion worked, sister!’ she said. ‘None of ours ever do! Do you think she could do … other things?’
Grizz’s eyes narrowed to grey slits. She pushed her face close to mine.
‘Are you hiding something, girl?’ she said. ‘What else happened in the cellar?’
‘Nothing,’ I said. I was becoming an expert liar.
Grizz stared at me for a moment and then shook her head.
‘No, no, Wormella,’ she said. ‘She may be able to cook a potion or two, but that’s it. The gift of sorcery is not given to freckly little girls. It is given only to mature, clever women, like me, I mean, us.’
I itched to tell Grizz exactly what I knew – that I was a natural-born witch, and that I had only just begun to explore my powers. But it was safer to keep quiet.
‘Listen to me, girl,’ Grizz continued. ‘You will never run away again. You will never touch my precious book again. You will stay here and work for me until you die, just like Wormella.’
‘And if I don’t?’ I said.
‘And if you don’t,’ said Grizz. ‘It won’t only be this mangy moggy that suffers …’
I glanced at Wormella’s bowed head under its frilly cap. Tears were splashing onto her plump hands.
‘Anna, dear,’ she whispered. ‘Please do your training like a good girl. Otherwise … otherwise Grizz gets cross with me, too.’
‘Now get digging in the garden, both of you,’ said Grizz.
‘Yes, sister,’ said Wormella.
My shoulders slumped. It was no good. I couldn’t save Wormella, I couldn’t save Charlie and I couldn’t save myself. Grizz was too strong for me.
‘Yes, Grizz,’ I whispered.
What sort of witch was I, when I didn’t even know how to use my powers to defeat Grizz? I dragged myself through the kitchen door and out into the chilly garden.
Grizz kept me hard at work for the next three days – and kept poor little Charlie in a cage in the kitchen to make sure I did as I was told.
One evening, Mary knocked on the back door. Grizz shot me an evil look, and opened the door a tiny crack.
‘Yes?’ Grizz said.
‘Can Anna come out to play?’ Mary asked. Her voice was wobbly with nerves.
‘No!’ Grizz snapped. ‘Clear off!’
And she slammed the door in Mary’s face.
On the fourth day, I was cutting the guts out of a lizard and staring out of the kitchen window at the grey rain. There was a knock at the front door.
‘That had better not be that little friend of yours again!’ said Grizz.
Wormella trotted to the front of the house and peeked through a window.
‘It’s a big woman in a blue suit, dear,’ she said.
I felt the sweat break out on the back of my neck, as Grizz’s eyes bored into me.
Mrs Winkle was here! Maybe Mrs Winkle could force the aunts to send me to school! Maybe I could beg Mrs Winkle to take me away right now!
‘Let her in, Wormella,’ said Grizz, still staring at me.
While Wormella opened the front door, Grizz darted over to me, grabbed me by the cheek and pulled me towards the back door.
‘Ow!’ I shouted. ‘Where are you taking me this time?’
‘No time to get you upstairs,’ said Grizz. ‘Out you go.’
Grizz dragged me to the garden shed.
‘No! Please, no!’ I shouted. ‘Don’t lock me up again!’
Grizz pushed me though the door, and I toppled onto a heap of old broomsticks. By the time I had struggled to my feet, the key was already turning in the lock.