The Rally 3/11

“Please Ma’am,” said a rather breathless apprentice, “I’ve been sent from the front of the house to tell you that the Bell’s sailing boat with Jennifer Jane and her neighbour, are just mooring at the end of the lawn!”

“Thank you Madeline,” replied Abigail, “I suppose I’d better get along there and see what she’s up to this time!”

Jennifer Jane and Eve were already halfway to the door of the Home, as Abigail came out to meet them.
“Eve says it’s possible to calculate the origin of a door if you know where it opened!”

“True, “said Abigail, “I suppose that Georgina told her, although what use it’s going to be any of us I don’t know. I daresay you’re going to tell me though!”

Jennifer Jane repeated the story about the running race with the witch in her own world, at the time when Moggy had come through.

“I was at home practising my latest spell, when Moggy told me that it was a favourite of a witch called Morwenna that he used to live with. I think her mother might be the witch I raced against. I know roughly where the door opened in our woods and I’m sure you could calculate where it came from, then if it was the witch George killed we can be pretty sure that Georgina’s real name must be Morwenna!”

Abigail smiled as Jennifer Jane stopped for breath. “I suppose it’s a possibility, it’s certainly worth trying. I’ll teach you the formula and you can work out the sums.”

She laughed out loud as she saw the look on Jennifer Jane’s face. It was obvious that arithmetic wasn’t her favourite subject.

“I’m afraid Eve can’t be included in the lesson,” she continued, “until the council has come to a decision about what we’re going to do with her. Until then she must stay with the amount of knowledge that she has, although the suggestion may very well turn out to be a point in her favour!”

Eve was sent of to the refectory with another witch, while Abigail took Jennifer Jane downstairs to her private room in the basement.

She began looking along one of the rows of notebooks she’d made during her lectures as an apprentice. Several large volumes had been placed on one of the shelves which lined one wall.

“Now then doors, activation of, use of; ah here we are calculations for. I haven’t looked at these old notes ever since I was an apprentice myself. We don’t use doors very often these days, as you well know. If only I’d remembered this we could have saved a lot of time looking for you when Esmerelda used a door and you got lost in another world!”

Although the formula was fairly complicated and depended on angles as well as position, Jennifer Jane could see that it wouldn’t be too difficult to work out the answer if Abigail would allow her to go home and use a calculator.

“Right then, let’s collect Eve and we’ll all go back to your world in Dave’s lugger. I only hope for your sake he hasn’t wanted to use it himself today!”