FOR THE NEXT FEW days Martha and Ivy talked a lot about the burned-out house and what had happened there, and for the next few days after that, they talked about going back. But before they got to the point of actually going, something else happened. Martha’s Grandmother Abbott sent money from Florida for all the Abbotts to fly down and spend Thanksgiving with her.
Of course it occurred to Martha that the whole controversy about her staying for a while with Grandmother in Florida might be renewed if she actually was there, right in Grandmother’s clutches. It was certainly a very great danger. And it had all happened so quickly that there was only one afternoon to discuss it with Ivy. She moaned to Ivy about her fear that she might have to stay.
“Well, don’t just sit there,” Ivy said. “Let’s do a spell again.”
“Again?” Martha said. “How?”
“With Josie. She saved you before.”
“I know but—she can’t give me the mumps again. I’ve already had them—on both sides.”
“I know. It wouldn’t be the same anyway, even if you could get mumps twice. Magic doesn’t do things the way you expect. If it did, it wouldn’t be magic.”
“I guess not. How do we do it this time?”
“Well, I’ll go home and get Josie. And you fix up the altar.” She called the last back over her shoulder as she started to run toward the trail.
“But how?” Martha called. “Wait. I don’t know how.”
Ivy stopped, but she didn’t come back. “You don’t need to know how. Just start doing it. You find out as you go along.”
When Ivy came back towing an out of breath Josie, Martha had made up an altar on the flat rock near Temple Tree. She had draped the rock first with the Mousehole Quilt, and then she had placed four sacred objects around the edges at the four points of the compass. There was the Crystal Globe to the South, the Golden Eye to the North, and East and West, Josie’s ivory wand and the silver bell.
“Very good, Ivy said when she saw the altar. She lifted Josie up and made her sit cross-legged in the center of the magic circle. Josie grinned happily. She loved ceremonies.
Ivy began by ringing the silver bell. Then Martha rang it, and finally Josie. While Josie went on ringing it long and hard, Ivy said, “We’ll need a chant. Let’s sit down like this and see if a good one will come to us. Keep on ringing the bell, Josie.” They sat down cross-legged and covered their eyes with their hands.
After a moment Martha said, “Maker of spells, hear our silver bell.”
Ivy nodded and shortly after added, “Ring a magic chain, to pull Martha home again.”
The chant was repeated over and over while Martha and Ivy walked backward around Josie and the altar. Next they breathed on the Golden Eye and held it to their hearts while they waved the magic wand. Finally they put the Golden Eye in one of Josie’s hands and the ivory wand in the other, and placed the Crystal Globe directly in front of her. “Now you look into the Globe while we sit here, and when you see that the spell is finished you can tell us.”
“Okay,” Josie said. Martha and Ivy sat down in front of the altar and covered their eyes, and in a very short time Josie said, “All finished.”
They looked up and Martha said, “Did the magic work? Is the spell going to work? Can you tell?”
She was really talking to Ivy, but Josie answered. She leaned forward until her nose almost touched the Globe and said, “Yes,” very definitely.
“Will Martha have to stay in Florida?” Ivy asked.
“No,” Josie said.
“How come?” Martha said. “Why won’t I have to stay?”
Josie leaned forward again and then sat up looking triumphant.
“Your mommy won’t let you,” she said.
Martha and Ivy had to giggle. It didn’t sound like a very magical reason. And it didn’t seem very likely, either. Martha’s mother had been all for the plan to send Martha away. It wouldn’t be like her to change her mind so completely.
So the Abbotts flew off to Florida, and almost right away Josie’s magic started working; although Martha didn’t realize at first that that was what it was. She didn’t blame herself very much, though. Nobody would recognize magic in two-toned shoes and a pinstriped suit.
The first thing Martha did notice that told her the magic was working was that her mother certainly was changing her mind. Suddenly she not only didn’t want Martha to stay in Florida, she didn’t even want Grandmother Abbott to stay. Usually Mrs. Abbott was not at all upset by her mother-in-law’s frequent visits to Florida, or to anyplace else. But this year she decided that that Grandmother just had to be in Rosewood for the holiday season. And Martha’s father seemed to agree. In fact they agreed so unusually well that they finally talked Grandmother into closing her apartment and coming back with them to Rosewood Hills.
Ivy had explained that magic worked in unexpected ways and she was certainly right. This time it was so unexpected that Martha might never have known just what was happening if she hadn’t overheard a conversation between Tom and Cath. The three of them were lying on the beach, and Martha was pretending to be asleep, with her face under a big sun hat.
“How come Mom keeps fussing at Gran to come home with us?” Tom asked idly as if he didn’t really expect an answer. But Cath knew why. You could always count on Cath to know a lot about almost anything you’d care to mention.
“You mean you don’t know?” Cath sounded incredulous that anyone could be so dense. “It’s because of that Mr. Millmore. He’s always hanging around, and Mother says he’s planning to marry Grandmother.”
Martha was amazed. Mr. Millmore was a young-old man with wavy silver hair and pin-striped suits who happened to be a neighbor of Grandmother’s in her new apartment. He had called on her two or three times while the rest of the Abbotts were there, and he was very helpful and friendly. But Martha had certainly not guessed that he was part of the magic.
Seen through the cracks in her straw sun hat, Tom looked as astounded as Martha felt.
“Marry her,” he said, and then after a silence, “Did he ask her or something?”
“Not that Mom knows of,” Cath said. “But she can tell that he’s going to as soon as we’re out of the way.”
“Oh yeah?” Tom said. “What do you know.” But then in a minute he laughed. “Well, why not let him?” he said. “He may not be great, but he’s bound to be better than all those garden clubs.”
Cath snorted. “Idiot,” she said. “What about the inheritance?”
Tom sobered. “Oh yeah,” he said. “I see what you mean.”
All the Abbotts knew about the inheritance. It was a large and powerful sum of money that Grandfather Abbott had left to Grandmother Abbott when he died. It was supposed to be left to the rest of the Abbotts someday. But not, of course, if it was left to somebody else.
Martha had thought that Mr. Millmore was rather nice, and she couldn’t help thinking that Tom was probably right about his being better than garden clubs. She’d been to a few with Grandmother, and she had reason to know. However, she also felt that she should just accept Mr. Millmore as a part of Josie’s magic and be glad that he had made it necessary for all the Abbotts to return to Rosewood Hills.
So Martha went back to Rosewood Manor Estates, number two Castle Court, where everybody seemed to go right on getting busier and busier according to mysteriously complicated and demanding sets of rules and patterns. All except Martha, of course, who never seemed to be able to find a set of rules that worked for her.
But she also went back to Bent Oaks Grove, where it didn’t matter if you didn’t know the rules because you could always make them up as you went along.
And then, only a few days after Christmas, the Carson family packed up and left with no warning, and Ivy was gone again.