The Makers welcomed Cordelia, Goose and Sam back with delighted hearts and open arms. Uncle Tiberius sobbed so much that a flock of moths landed on his head, pulsing their wings in a comforting way.

Aunt Ariadne cradled Cordelia and Sam’s faces in her hands and said their names again and again, as if they were magic words.

Great-aunt Petronella had no time for an official greeting because she was crooning over the white spiders, which she was calling Lacemakers, as she was decorated with an entire gown of silvery spider silk, her armchair transformed into a frost-laced throne.

Mrs Bootmaker could be heard declaring that Goose and Ignatius would never be allowed out of her sight again. And Len was so glad to see Sam that he positively glowed and sunbeams shone from his fingers.

The Maker children – the Glovemakers, Watchmakers and Charity Cloakmaker – tore across the room to Cordelia, faces blazing with glee.

‘You’ve saved us from being sensible!’ they cried. ‘Making’s allowed again, thanks to you!’

‘Well,’ Cordelia admitted, ‘it was my fault it got banned in the first place.’

‘Sometimes you have to lose something to find it again,’ Hop Watchmaker said wisely.

Amid the happy scenes, there were some more difficult ones. Not all the Troublemakers were hugged joyfully by their families.

When Sir Piers was freed from the spiderweb, he stalked up to Thorn (Prospero following him closely to be sure he didn’t get near Witloof’s soul).

‘You are no daughter of mine,’ he spat at Thorn.

Then he turned and marched out of the room, leaving an icy trail in the air behind him.

Two other members of the Sensible Party marched after him: Lady de Sneer swept out, casting a withering glance at her daughter, Shelly; Doctor Leech did no more than raise an eyebrow at his son, Jim, before leaving.

However, the rest of the Sensible Party remained, shuffling their feet and glancing shyly – almost nervously – at the Troublemakers, who stood with bashful pride in the midst of the best trouble they had ever made.

Lord Carp, whose wild hair matched Never’s, shuffled up to his son.

‘Quintus, I’m quite beside myself with remorse,’ Lord Carp uttered. ‘I – I sent you away to keep you safe from scandal.’

‘The best way to keep me safe, Father,’ Never said firmly, ‘is to let me express who I am!’

Lord Carp launched into an apology, which Never put a stop to by flinging his arms around him.

‘I am so sorry I sent you to Miss Prim!’ Lord Carp snuffled into his son’s shoulder.

Meanwhile, Sir Giles hugged his son, Billy, and the Earl of Slough wept as he held Annie and Tabitha in his arms.

Cordelia saw Jim gallantly teaching some of Miss Prim’s now-liberated prisoners about the magic in their own fingertips, and Shelly sharing her shells with several awestruck children dressed in grey prison-stripes.

Cordelia picked her way across the flowery meadow towards Thorn.

‘Hello, Maker,’ said Cordelia.

‘I can be a Maker now,’ Thorn whispered. ‘Now it’s free … Now I’m free.’

‘You already are a Maker,’ Cordelia said, smiling at her. ‘Look at this very excellent change you’ve made.’

The quiet mewling of a creature met their ears and they turned to see the tiny Sea Dragon staring forlornly up at the plinth where the head of its mother lay.

‘I’m sorry your mother’s been taken away from you much too soon, but I’ll do my best to look after you,’ Thorn murmured, crouching down and holding out a hand.

The Sea Dragon sniffed her fingertips, seeming to approve of what it found. It clambered across Thorn’s shoulders and settled there, as though it was a long, white leathery scarf. If the scarf were magic, it would have been made of things to cause heart-gladness. Thorn glowed.

Not far away, Prince Hector swung on a Turbidus Vine.

‘WHEEEE!’ he squealed. ‘Finally, some fun!’

Princess Georgina rolled her eyes at the child.

‘He is a bit young for you,’ the king admitted to Georgina. ‘All right, betrothal’s off! You can marry the commoner!’

Sir Hugo, who had become entangled in a runaway shrub as it bounced across the room, could be heard rapturously celebrating his imminent marriage to Princess Georgina. The princess chased after him, dived into the shrub, and they rolled happily around the room together, giggling poetry at one another.

‘I quite like changing my mind – it’s fun!’ the king barked. ‘Let’s swap Tuesdays with Fridays and see how everyone likes that.’

‘Sooner or later, Daddy, we’ll have to involve the people in decisions like these.’ Princess Georgina’s voice tumbled past him from the rolling shrub. ‘And we need to release Master Ambrosius right away!’

Prospero found Cordelia amid the wild, silly magical party.

‘Hello, my little Troublemaker!’ He grinned, pulling her into a bear hug.

Delighted to be with her father again, she showed him how to ask the Turbidus Vines politely to take them up to the ceiling.

‘They’re very helpful if you ask them nicely,’ Cordelia told him.

He marvelled as the vines sprang them easily upwards. She plucked Sir Piers’s iron cabinet key down from the spiderweb as though she was picking fruit from a tree.

‘I’m going to turn this key into another bar for the cage, so that there’s no key and no keyhole,’ Prospero promised, tucking it into an inner pocket of his jacket. ‘That way, the cage can never be opened. And we’ll put it in a dark vault beneath the Tower of London, where nobody can reach it, to be extra safe.’

A plaintive honk called them back to the floor.

‘Who’s this?’ Prospero laughed, looking down at the bossy bird snuffling at him as he landed.

‘This is a dodo,’ Cordelia told her father. ‘I think he’d like to be taken back to his family on Soulhaven.’

Prospero nodded. ‘No need to leave through the window this time, via the chandelier,’ he said with a wink.

Cordelia remembered the last time she had caused trouble in public.

‘We still could leave via chandelier,’ she replied, smiling. ‘It’s much more fun than using doors.’