Caution: Witch In Progress Read Online Free Page A

she dreaded seeing the sky cloud over. That was the last time she loaned
Bat to anyone.
        Ma Grimthorpe was obviously impressed by the fact Gertie had got
a spell to work at all. Even though it wasn’t as she had intended. She told
Gertie she was about to teach her a simple Fire Spell.
        ‘This takes a lot of concentration,’ Ma explained to the
attentive girl. ‘But it is a very important spell. After all, how can we keep
warm and cook our food without a fire?’ she added, pointing to the great
cauldron hanging in the hearth.
        Gertie was delighted to be trusted with another spell,
especially such an important one. She gave her full attention to her mother.
Once Ma had shown Gertie what to do a few times, she doused the flames again.
She then left the proud girl in charge of relighting the fire. She made very
sure Gertie wouldn’t go anywhere near to it once lit. That would be dangerous.
Ma Grimthorpe trusted Gertie, who was a very sensible girl. She did however
leave Granny Grimthorpe to keep an eye on her, all the same.
        ‘You light the fire under the pot, Gertie,’ Ma instructed, ‘and
I’ll go to pick the toadstools and hemlock for our stew.’ Then, off she went
into the garden.
        Determined not to let her mother down, Gertie began
concentrating with all her might on the hearth. Not a flicker. She tried even
harder. Still not even a puff of smoke.
        The young apprentice witch tried looking away to give her eyes a
rest from staring under the black cauldron. She stared out through the window
at Mortella’s haystacks, then through the open door at Grothilde’s barn. All
the time, she kept the spell firmly in her mind so she couldn’t forget it.
        Focusing her attention back to the cauldron eventually, try as
she might, Gertie failed to make even one little spark. She would have been
happy with a feeble wisp of smoke. But there was nothing. At that moment, she
heard the shouts as Ma Grimthorpe rushed in, out of breath and red in the face.
        ‘Gertie, STOP!’ she shrieked.
        The shocked girl was led to the door by her gasping mother.
        ‘Oh dear. Did I do that?’ asked the bewildered little girl
innocently. She stared across at the smoke billowing from Mortella’s hay, and
the flames dancing merrily along the roof of Grothilde’s barn.
        ‘Well, it’s quite good that I made fire, isn’t it, Mummy?’
Gertie asked hopefully.
        Gertie knew her Ma couldn’t be angry with her for long. Like
everyone said, she was such a sweet child. They also said that was the problem.
Ma wanted Gertie to at least behave like a little devil sometimes. It was what
learning to be a witch was all about, she had been told. Gertie stared at her
mother with big blue eyes beginning to brim with tears.
        Ma Grimthorpe hugged the little girl to her. ‘One thing you must
always remember, dear,’ she insisted in a worried voice, ‘is never to let your
gaze wander when you are chanting spells. Oh yes, and one other thing,’ she
added as an afterthought, looking anxiously at the lines of witches hurriedly
passing buckets of water along to throw on the fires. ‘If anyone asks can you
do the Fire Spell, tell them no.’
        Gertie didn’t believe in telling lies. Even little white ones.
This time though, she saw the sense in what Ma said. The witches were having
awful trouble with Grothilde’s barn, because Grothilde herself was at the
throwing end of the line. As yet, she had failed to hit the barn once. She had
only succeeded in soaking the witches behind her, and an inquisitive seagull
flying low to get a better look.
        ‘All right, Mummy,’ Gertie agreed. ‘After all, it isn’t really a
lie, because I wasn’t able to light the fire under the cauldron.’
        Ma Grimthorpe sighed and shook her head.
     
        ‘Maybe it’s because she tries TOO hard,’ suggested Granny as she
sat rocking and knitting on that same night once