The full grown oak 1/9

Jennifer Jane was finding it hard to sleep! She was still trying to think of anyone who might want to stop her from visiting the alternate world.

She was almost convinced that it was Malcolm again, but Abigail had been so sure that only very strong magic could possibly give him back his wizard’s memories and who was going to do that? She went through all the possibilities once again.

The goblins in Happy Valley certainly didn’t like her, but she’d made some enquiries and no one knew of an escape.

The villagers on the south coast hadn’t been very pleased, when she’d accidentally made the local rabbits grow as quickly as their crops. But she was quite sure that was all forgotten by now.

Then suddenly she sat bolt upright in bed, Eroin’s dad! Perhaps the elf boy had at last persuaded his father to get his revenge. Certainly the elf could move about without being seen if he wanted and could well have left the message in her canoe.

She made up her mind at last; tomorrow she’d go to Lurbridge and ask if anyone had seen him about. After all that was the place where the last attempt had been made to discredit her, using the water behind the dam as a threat to the whole village.

Her last thought before dropping off to sleep, was one of gratitude to Esmerelda for being kind enough to understand her problem.

Two days ago she’d made a terrible mess of the cauldron at the back of the shop. She’d been worrying about her troubles and only had half her mind on the job in hand. The whole of the potion she’d been making had set like concrete and Esme had to send her over to the Witches’ Home to ask for a spell to get rid of the result.

“You ain’t got your mind on the job, have you?” Esmerelda had said, once Jennifer Jane had stopped apologising and the cauldron was fit for use again. “You take all the time off you want and get yourself sorted out, then come back and we’ll carry on with your lessons from where you left off.”