Baby brother 4/9

Next morning she flew off to Lurbridge for her meeting with Sir George. She was still learning the words to Baby Brother as she went and had just got as far as: -

‘I’m writing a letter Grandma, to put in the post tonight, and ‘cause it’s very 'portant I’ve got to got it right.’

- when she suddenly realised that she’d just overtaken George and his cart half a mile before the road leading into the forest. She turned round and flew back. The cart had stopped and George got down and loaded her scooter onto the back, wedging it carefully in a space that he’d left among the planks of his load.

“I think you and your scooter are too well known even out here. It wouldn’t do to let them know that I’ve got a witch on board, if this idea works then perhaps we can stop any one else from being attacked in future.”

He gave her a smock and a floppy hat to put on to make her disguise even more complete, then she climbed up on the drivers seat beside him.

“Now we look a bit more like an ordinary carter and his helper, on their way to the village.”

Ten minutes after they’d entered the wood, the horse warned them of an ambush just ahead. Almost immediately an arrow whistled past Jennifer Jane’s face and stuck into George’s chest. To her great surprise he didn’t seem too bothered.

He pulled hard on the handbrake and locked it into place, before leaping to his feet. Then he took one step forward, jumped onto a board that had been fixed across the shafts just in front of him, then onto the horse’s back and pulled a string attached to the saddle. This pulled a pin from the harness where the shafts were attached and they fell to the road with a clatter. He drew his sword from its scabbard as the horse galloped off towards their attackers, leaving the cart standing in the middle of the road.

Jennifer Jane spotted the archer standing behind a bush preparing to fire another arrow and decided to deal with him first. She was too late to stop him shooting again, but using her T.K. she stopped the arrow in mid-air. As she did so, she suddenly realised that she could throw it back at him. It had rather more effect than she’d hoped. It stuck into his upper arm and put him out of the fight as an archer altogether.

Meanwhile two more men had burst out of the bushes on her side and were running towards the cart waving swords in the air and shouting loudly as they ran; she dealt with them by using her old standby, the extra large and sticky chocolate Swiss roll. Surprisingly, although they’d been knocked down by the impact, they got back to their feet and came on towards her. She didn’t waste any more time, but again using her TK skills, picked up a large plank from George’s load and threw it sideways, knocking both men down and out for the count.

Thankfully she was now free to see what had happened to Sir George. He and the horse were attacking the two remaining swordsmen, who had come out of the bushes on his side of the road and were putting up an extremely good fight. One of them was making a spirited defence against George, while the other kept trying to circle round and attack him from his undefended side. Another plank flew through the air and put him out of the battle, leaving George to concentrate on only one opponent. This man seized his opportunity and ran back into the bushes where the horse couldn’t follow.

One last plank, thrown with all the magic power at her command, brought him down just as he appeared to be getting away.

“That was a bit more like it,” said the horse triumphantly as he trotted back.