The corridor was empty. Alice-Miranda followed her friend as they tiptoed along the softly lit hall to Jacinta’s door. Other doors were opening, and it wasn’t long before there were at least ten other girls headed to the same place.

“Password?” Jacinta’s voice murmured on the other side of the door.

“Dead,” Millie replied, louder than she had intended.

“That’s not it,” Jacinta whispered back.

“No, but that’s what you’ll be if you don’t hurry up and let us in,” Millie threatened.

Jacinta giggled and opened the door.

The stream of visitors poured into the room, finding themselves comfortable spots on Jacinta’s bed and the spare bed that was to be Sloane Sykes’s as of tomorrow. Alice-Miranda and Millie sat cross-legged on the Persian rug in the middle of the timber floor and Alice-Miranda offered the fudge tin around.

Just as the group got settled there was a shuffling sound outside the room, followed by a booming voice.

“Jacinta Headlington-Bear, turn off that light, or I will be in to turn it off for you,” Mrs. Howard instructed. The girls froze. Jacinta had left her bedside lamp on so everyone could see their way in.

“Just doing it now, Howie,” Jacinta called back.

The girls remained silent until they heard the house mistress’s footsteps on the stairs at the end of the hall.

“That was close,” Susannah whispered as the group let out a collective breath.

Jacinta grabbed her flashlight from the bedside table, held it under her chin and flicked on the switch, doing her best impression of a ghost. “Welcome to Grimthorpe Hoooooouse.” Everyone giggled.

“So what do we want to talk about?” Danika asked. Now that she was officially Head Prefect she thought she had better take the lead. “What did everyone do over vacation?”

Ivory, Shelby and Ashima all complained about having to stay at home and being totally bored.

“Well, I saw Alethea,” Susannah began. “She was walking out of Highton’s in the city with her mother and she almost knocked me over.”

“Please, can we talk about more pleasant things?” Lizzy replied as she glanced at Shelby and Danika. The three girls had once been Alethea’s best friends until they realized how incredibly horrid she was.

Alethea Goldsworthy had been Head Prefect at the beginning of the year, until it was revealed that she was a cheat and a liar, and she had consequently left the school in a terrible hurry. She had treated Alice-Miranda especially badly.

“Well, I feel sorry for her,” said Alice-Miranda.

Millie turned to her. “Why? She’s totally evil. And after what she did to you, she deserved everything she got.”

“I’m sure she’s not mean and awful all the time,” Alice-Miranda replied.

“You’re too nice, Alice-Miranda, that’s your problem,” said Ivory, smiling at her little friend.

“No, I’m not.” Alice-Miranda shook her head.

“No, she’s really not,” Jacinta agreed. “You should have seen what she did to Mr. Blu–” Millie and Alice-Miranda shot Jacinta a stare that would halt a river of lava. “Oh, never mind.”

Danika practically pounced on Jacinta. “What were you about to say?”

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Jacinta lied. “Umm, does anyone know where that secret passage is off the science room?”

The girls shook their heads.

“Don’t you remember Alethea saying that she’d found a secret passage but she was the only one allowed to go there?” Jacinta continued.

“Knowing Alethea, she was probably just showing off,” Lizzy said. “But we should look for it. You never know—maybe she was telling the truth for once in her life.”

“O-o-o-o-h-a-a-a-h.” Alice-Miranda yawned and rubbed her eyes. “Sorry, I’m really tired. I might go to bed.”

“No!” Jacinta wailed. “It’s too early. I know, let’s tell ghost stories.”

Millie clasped her hands together. “I love ghost stories.”

“No, not ghost stories,” said Madeline, shaking her head. “I think we should tell Alice-Miranda a true story—about the witch in the woods.”

“A witch in the woods?” Alice-Miranda frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I suppose we never got around to telling you about her last term because there were too many other things going on,” Madeline began. “But now you need to know.”

“Definitely … yes … for sure,” the other girls chorused, nodding their heads.

“But I don’t believe in witches.” Alice-Miranda smiled. “They’re only in fairy stories.”

“Well, you should believe this—because it’s absolutely true.” Susannah wriggled forward to the edge of the bed. “Come and sit up here next to me.” She patted the bedspread.

The youngest child stood up and moved in beside Susannah and Ashima on the bed. Millie stayed on the floor looking up at the storyteller.

“All right, you’d better start at the beginning,” Alice-Miranda directed.

“Well.” Susannah lowered her voice. “In the woods not far from here, there’s a witch. She lives on her own in a gigantic house overgrown with vines and hidden by the forest. There’s no one there except her and about a hundred cats, all meowing and calling and scratching and fighting.”

The girls began to shift uncomfortably. Alice-Miranda’s brown eyes were wide.

“Have you seen her?” Alice-Miranda asked. “I mean, anyone could make that up. Some of the children who live at Highton Mill, the village near our place, probably tell the same stories about Granny Bert—and she’s not scary at all.”

“I disagree! She’s mad,” Jacinta disputed.

Madeline leaned over and took the flashlight from Jacinta, and held it under her chin. “This witch is tall, possibly the tallest woman you’ll ever meet, and she has enormous hands like a man and she wears the same black clothes every day and her teeth, well, the ones she has, are rotten and crooked and there’s a fang …”

The girls were now on the edge of the bed leaning in toward the storyteller.

“But the worst thing is her face,” Madeline whispered. “It’s …” Madeline grabbed her cheeks and pulled one up and one down, splaying the flesh between her fingers.

At that same moment, a branch scratched against the window outside and the room erupted into squeals, which continued for at least a minute.

“Quiet, everyone, shush,” Alice-Miranda commanded, trying to quell the fuss. “Mrs. Howard will—”

Without warning Jacinta’s bedroom door flew open.

“Mrs. Howard will what, young lady?” The house mistress panted. “What a ruckus.”

There in the doorway, in an orange chenille bathrobe with a floral shower cap perched atop her head, stood Mrs. Howard. Her gaze moved from one girl to the next until it came to rest on Jacinta.

“Jacinta Headlington-Bear, was this your idea?”

Jacinta gulped, looked up and nodded slowly.

“Well, tomorrow we’ll talk about what you can do to make it up to me. I was about to hop into the bath when I heard such a racket that would wake the dead. I’ve run all the way from the flat upstairs thinking there was a prowler or the like. And it’s just you and your silly ‘midnight meetings’ at nine o’clock. Off to bed, girls, NOW!”

The party began to break up. No one dared to say a word, except Alice-Miranda.

“Mrs. Howard, please don’t blame Jacinta. No one made us come, and apparently it’s a bit of a tradition to have a meeting on the first night back. Well, except last term, but that doesn’t matter. Please don’t be cross. I promise we will make it up to you tomorrow. What about we bring you something extra special for your tea? I can ask Mrs. Smith if she can make your favorite. It’s apple-cinnamon bun, isn’t it? Is that what you’d like?”

Howie did her best to maintain her furrowed brow, but in the end she could barely restrain the smile that was spreading across her face.

“Oh, dear girl, wherever did you come from?” She shook her head. “Now, off to bed quickly. And no more of this, all right?”

The girls nodded in unison and scampered off to their rooms.

Within a very short time, all that could be heard was the sound of Jacinta’s snoring, competing with some rather loud snorts from the flat upstairs.