Lily (10 page)

‘L
ily, look! We did it. We’re here…’ Georgie was sitting up, staring around her in amazement. She climbed out of the boat, and stepped onto the sand, holding her damp skirts out in front of her as if they were a party dress. ‘It was too dark to see last night, and I was so tired. But now…’ She went dancing off up the sand, twirling and laughing like a mad thing.

Lily and Henrietta exchanged surprised glances. Lily hadn’t seen her sister like this in years – always she had been pale and worried-looking, scared that her spells weren’t working, and terrified their mother would find out. Now it was as if Georgie was the little sister, dancing to some gleeful music only she could hear.

‘We have to look after her…’ Lily murmured to Henrietta, following Georgie up the beach.

‘Mm.’ The little dog nodded. ‘Someone needs to. Really. Look at her!’

Georgie wandered back to them smiling dazedly, her damp blonde hair frizzing out like the floss silk trim on some of Mama’s dresses.

‘We look a sight,’ Lily said, suddenly glancing down at her damp, crumpled skirt, and salt-stained boots. ‘We should change before we set off.’

Georgie shook her head, seeming to come back to her senses again. ‘The bags got wet too, remember? All our clothes will be wet. I’ll do my best to dry us out as we walk. I remember a spell I found in the library. There was a handwritten book, something that one of the great-great-aunts had made. It was full of spells for things like that. Polishing furniture, and getting rid of ants in the kitchen. Mama said it was all nonsense, but I liked it.’

Lily nodded, and swallowed. ‘Should we go, then?’ she asked quietly.

Georgie turned to look back at the boat, and then across the water to the greyish lump that was the island in the dawn light.

‘I suppose we should.’

‘Isn’t it strange to be somewhere else,’ Lily whispered to her, and Georgie nodded.

‘I don’t know how to be, away from there,’ she murmured.

‘What you have to be is careful,’ Henrietta warned her. ‘If all magic is really outlawed now, you mustn’t let any slip. Make sure this clothes-drying spell doesn’t glitter, or anything silly like that.’

‘I’d forgotten,’ Georgie said, her eyes widening. Then she smiled, and said slyly, ‘You realise you’re going to have to keep quiet, don’t you?’

Henrietta looked horrified for a second, and then she glared at Georgie. ‘Of course I do.’ But Lily was almost certain she hadn’t thought of it. She set off up the beach, wanting to distract Henrietta before she said something unforgivable to her sister, which she thought the pug was quite capable of doing. Probably she would enjoy it.

A footpath ran along the top of the beach, leading to the village, which was only just starting to stir. The girls could hear a woman singing to herself as she lit her fire, the smoke spiralling delicately from the little chimney of her cottage.

‘We should get through the village quickly,’ Lily murmured, shaking herself. She wanted to stop and stare. It was all so strange. ‘They’ll know where we’ve come from. It won’t be long before Mama comes searching, it’s better no one sees us.’

‘Your mama might think you’re both drowned,’ Henrietta said, out of the corner of her mouth, after a quick glance from side to side.

Lily shook her head. ‘I think she’d have rescued us, wouldn’t she? Or perhaps she thought Georgie would save us somehow. After all, she needs us – one of us.’

‘Maybe she was too angry to think straight. Working the sea must have worn out her magic for a while.’ Georgie shivered, hurrying on between the cottages. ‘Which way is it to Lacefield?’

They were coming to a slightly wider track now, which met the footpath at right angles. ‘There’s a sign, look.’ Lily hurried on, and they stood looking up at the signpost. ‘Lacefield, three miles that way.’

Lily knew that all the supplies for the house came from the grocer’s at Lacefield, and that whenever anyone had visited – although Lily wasn’t sure she’d ever seen anyone apart from the family, and the yearly visits of the Queen’s Men – they had come by train to the station there. Eventually the train would wind its way through the countryside to Paddington station. London. Where they could hide out while they searched for their father.

‘Stay by the hedges,’ Henrietta muttered. ‘Then if we see anyone coming, we can crawl through and hide in the fields.’

‘But what shall we do when we get to Lacefield?’ Georgie said worriedly. ‘We won’t be able to creep through a town without anyone seeing us. And at the station we’ll have to buy tickets, and ask about the trains. Someone might recognise us as the children from Merrythought House.’

‘Can you do a glamour yet?’ Lily asked her hopefully. She had read about glamours. They were a particular sort of spell designed to make people see one quite differently. It was quite technical, and all to do with confusing the way people’s eyes and minds connected things together.

‘I
think
I could, but only if I had time to sit and concentrate. And I might need some sort of amulet to help.’ Georgie sighed. ‘I didn’t pack anything like that. Mama would have noticed if I’d taken anything from the library. I only brought a few basic ingredients, and the books I had in my room. I waterproofed them,’ she added proudly.

Lily was just about to say that it would have helped if Georgie had waterproofed
all
the baggage, when Henrietta suddenly gave a meaningful sort of squeak, and nipped her ankle. Lily looked around wildly and realised with horror that an old man was walking towards them, leading a horse and cart. It was far too late to hide now.

‘Brazen it out,’ she muttered to Georgie, who looked as though she had been sentenced to death.

Georgie gulped, and nodded. She pasted a sickly sort of smile onto her face, stood up straighter, and nodded to the man as he and the horse plodded past.

Lily smiled too, but she was waiting for the man to stare, and demand to know where they had come from. They had been walking through deserted fields and patches of woodland – no more villages, or indeed any signs of life, apart from a few disinterested sheep. He was probably from the village by the beach, returning home after a trip to the market in Lacefield, perhaps. He would know that they weren’t village girls. Despite the salt stains, and the damp, and Lily’s dress being made for a girl at least two years younger than she was, they were clearly dressed as young ladies, even if they had sopping wet boots on. A village child probably wouldn’t have had boots at all, sopping or otherwise.

But although the man glanced at them curiously, all he did was tip his hat out of politeness, and venture a gruff, ‘Good morning, miss, and to you, miss.’

‘Good morning,’ Georgie told him, smiling more naturally, and Lily added, ‘Good morning to you.’

And they carried on, trying to turn round to see if he were staring after them, or whether he was setting off at a run to call the constable, and accuse them of being dangerous runaways.

‘He didn’t even look back,’ Henrietta whispered. She had been watching openly – after all, as far as he knew, she was only a dog.

Lily couldn’t help feeling a little insulted, although she knew that it was silly. He might have been at least a little interested in who they were.

‘I suppose we never, ever come off the island,’ she said quietly.

‘Thank goodness, or they might have recognised us,’ Georgie agreed.

‘I wonder who he thought we were, though,’ Lily went on.

Henrietta sniffed. ‘He was probably more worried about the price he got for his vegetables at the market than he was about two scruffy children.’

Lily opened her mouth to protest, and then shut it again as she looked at Georgie. Her sister was a sight, and she was sure that she looked just as bad. ‘Maybe we don’t need to worry about Lacefield and the station,’ was all she said. ‘Perhaps no one will care.’

‘What they’ll care about is the gold,’ Henrietta snapped. ‘And that it’s in the hands of two little ragamuffins. You’ll have to furbish yourselves up a bit, before you go flashing that purse around.’

‘What about the not-talking?’ Georgie said sweetly.

Henrietta gave a little low growl. ‘There’s no one to see me. Stop talking yourself, and get on with using those housekeeping spells you were boasting about. Get the wrinkles out of your dress, and your sister’s, and for heaven’s sake, girl, do something about your hair. Though I suppose at least it’s clean now, which it wasn’t when I first met you.’

Georgie flushed pink with crossness, which Lily noticed with surprise made her look much prettier. ‘I was under a spell!’ Georgie hissed.

‘Well, that’s your excuse,’ Henrietta retorted, her eyes snapping, and the curl of her tail looking very tight and warlike.

‘Can I help with the spell?’ Lily asked hopefully, wanting to distract Georgie and Henrietta from each other.

Georgie turned and scowled at her. ‘No!’ Then she huffed and turned her back pointedly on Henrietta. ‘Oh, very well, I suppose so. We need something to straighten out. The grass stems will do, can you pick a handful?’

She pointed at the faded brownish grasses at the foot of the hedge, and Lily, uncertainly, plucked a few stems. She had no idea how this was going to have anything to do with her crumpled dress.

‘Scrunch them up a bit in your hands,’ Georgie commanded. ‘I suppose there really isn’t anyone coming, is there?’ she added worriedly. ‘Perhaps just for this bit we ought to hide over by those trees. I can’t guarantee it won’t shimmer.’

There was a little clump of trees further on, and they scuttled towards it, hurrying into the shadowy dimness, and sighing gratefully. It was still only very early, but the sun was beating down hard already.

‘Here, spread them out on my lap,’ Georgie explained, sitting down on a fallen tree. ‘Then listen, and you say it too. I hope I can remember it properly.’

Henrietta sniffed, but she had jumped up onto the tree too, and was sitting next to Georgie and staring interestedly at the grasses.

Georgie began to tease the crumpled stems through her fingers, humming in a low tone which Lily hoped didn’t mean she had forgotten the words. Then she began to chant, slowly and sweetly,

‘
Threads weave and ribbons coil,

Silks press, linens boil,

Stitch and sponge, irons from the fire,

Clean and straighten my attire
. You too, Lily!’ she hissed, twitching the grass stems straight in her lap. She glared crossly as Henrietta leaned over and seized a piece of grass in her teeth, pulling it to lie neatly with the others. ‘Say it again!’

Together they repeated the spell, until all the grasses were lying in smart rows.

‘Very impressive. Stand up,’ Henrietta said, sitting down on the fallen tree now, her collar gleaming. It even had little golden studs on the pink leather, which Lily was certain hadn’t been there before. ‘Oh, much better! Even your hair,’ she added to Georgie, with her head thoughtfully on one side.

Lily agreed with her. Even though Georgie was scowling, her hair was hanging in pretty waves, and her yellow muslin frock was spotless, its frills sharp-edged, as if they’d been ironed by a lady’s maid. Lily twisted, trying to see herself, and then gasped in sudden realisation. The unpleasant tightness round her middle – which she’d been used to for months – had gone. Her dress actually fitted her. ‘You made it bigger!’ she told Georgie admiringly.

‘
We
did.’ Georgie nodded. ‘I’m sure my spells work better when you say them too, Lily. Look, even your boots are polished.’

Lily pointed one toe out in front of her, admiring the mirror-like gloss. They were quite as good as Mr Francis’s Sunday uniform boots, and he had been in the Seventh Hussars, as he never failed to remind everyone in the servants’ hall.

‘We look as though we might be able to afford our railway fares, I think,’ she said happily. ‘The bags look smarter too, not so scuffed. Now we just have to keep ourselves clean all the way to the town.’

‘I’ve driven this way with Arabel,’ Henrietta said, nosing out between the trees. ‘I recognise it now. It isn’t far.’ She trotted out onto the lane, and looked back at the girls impatiently. ‘Well, come along!’

Lacefield was not a large town. But for two girls who had lived secluded on an island their whole lives, it seemed enormous, and frighteningly busy.

Lily slipped her hand into Georgie’s and stared as a smart carriage rumbled by, drawn by two glossy chestnut horses. There was a coat of arms painted on the door panel – the carriage must belong to some grand family in a big house nearby. Horses were awfully large, she decided, stepping a little further back from the roadway. She hadn’t expected them to be that big, somehow. But so shiny, and the way the harness jingled! She felt like laughing out loud from pure excitement, and she couldn’t help skipping, just a little.

‘We’ll have to ask someone where the station is,’ she murmured.

Henrietta gave a tiny nod. Now that there were people all around, she was obviously trying very hard to be discreet.

‘We could ask him,’ Georgie suggested, pointing to a bored-looking boy sweeping the street outside a greengrocer’s shop, although he was more leaning on the broom than actually sweeping with it. He stared at them curiously as they came closer.