Amanda Cadabra and The Strange Case of Lucy Penlowr by Holly Bell (best english novels for beginners .txt) 📕

exclaimed Amanda, gathering her familiar up into her arms and cuddling him, while he submitted in the spirit of martyrdom in a worthy cause. ‘My own Mr Fuffy-wuffy!’

‘Anyway. Happy about your new contract for working with the inspector, bian?’

‘Yes, I am Grandpa,’ Amanda replied with a smile.

‘You know what I think? You’ll have fun!’

‘Oh yes, undoubtedly,’ added Senara heartily.

‘Actually, I think I might,’ Amanda agreed. ‘Only ... I do wish he and Tempest got on a bit better.’

Grandpa reassured her,

‘Oh, Tempest just likes to make people a bit nervous. It’s just his way.’

‘I expect the owner of the Hound of Baskervilles said the same thing,’ Granny uttered acerbically.

‘Give it time, pet. But what was it you really called us here for?’

‘Two things actually. Why did you give your children such odd names: Skorna, Droggerys, Lughesven?’

‘We didn’t. They changed their names by deed poll at eighteen. Originally, Robert, Frances and Beatrix.’

‘I see. Thank you. The second thing ... well, it was that I had a nice time with Pasco and ... what I wanted to ask was ... what’s it like for people like the Cardiubarns and Flamgoynes and the Dowrkampyers when they transition to your plane?’

Grandpa chuckled.

‘Nothing at all like anyone would expect. But don’t you worry about that now.’

However, Amanda found herself quite unable to let go of her line of enquiry.

‘Is there a ... a hot place?’ she asked tentatively.

Granny rocked herself with laughter. Amanda waited patiently until Senara’s mirth subsided. She delicately dabbed at her eyes with a lace handkerchief.

‘Yes, dear,’ she finally replied, ‘we call it Jamaica. Exceptionally good food. We had dinner last Thursday with the great-grandparents of your John Bailey-Farrell,’ she added, referring to one of Sunken Madley’s two cricketing celebrities. ‘Delightful.’

‘Oh yes,’ agreed Grandpa ‘and I learned a new song, while we were there. It goes .... But look at the time.’

‘We must be off now,’ declared Granny. ‘Having lunch with the Freuds. Martha wants me to show her my trick with the cheese soufflé. She’s always telling Siggy not to look for significant patterns in the crust though; sometimes a soufflé is just a soufflé. Goodbye, dear!’

It was their final dinner, before setting off, with Hogarth and Lucy.

‘Well, Amanda, my dear niece, you have done it. All we hoped for and more. I knew, which is why I redecorated for Lucy’s return, that given the right impetus, you would tell us the end of the story and solve the mystery of Mordren Dowrkampyer’s end.’

‘I suppose then,’ Amanda replied thoughtfully, ‘in a sense, he was posthumously murdered by Agacine Flamgoyne.’

‘And that, had she but known it,’ speculated Trelawney, ‘would have made her die happy.’

‘Probably,’ agreed Amanda. She turned to Lucy. ‘I want you to know, that I understand what you — what Elodie — did and I would have done the same.’

‘You don’t understand,’ came the slightly forlorn reply. ‘I am a witch. They told me. My art has magic.’

‘I know.’

‘And a witch does not strike out.’

Amanda gasped. ‘What did you say?’

‘A ... A witch does not str —’

‘Who told you that? I mean, please tell me,’ Amanda begged breathlessly, ‘who taught you to say that, to believe that?’

‘The Charpentiers. Why?’

‘That’s the credo of the Cadabras! Why it was all that kept me —’

‘Oh? Really?’

Amanda had a moment of realisation. ‘The Cadabras ... yes, of course ... they must have been running the escape lines.’

‘I don’t know ... just a farmer, I think ... farmers ....’

‘The Cadabras are farmers,’ Amanda explained excitedly. ‘The Cadabras got you out and handed you to others in the family for safe-keeping. Lucy, what they taught you is the same thing Grandpa taught me: a witch does not strike out.’

‘Well ... I know one branch of the Charpentier family escaped to England during the Revolution and ... their name was changed, but I don't know what it was changed to. The Charpentiers always spoke as though they lost contact a long time ago.’

‘But what if they didn’t?’ Amanda asked excitedly. ‘And you said a lady who made hats paid for your upkeep.’

‘Yes, Madame Charpentier of Maison Chapeaux Charpentier.’

‘And that fits. Because at Grandpa’s funeral, there was this mysterious lady who came by, in the most beautiful hat I’d ever seen.’

Perran was suddenly there, perching on the arm of the sofa smiling down at her, gently clapping his hands. He nodded and disappeared. Amanda beamed. ‘You were brought up by my Grandpa’s relations. Well then, Lucy, this makes us practically family!’ That brought forth a smile.

‘Family ... yes. Yes, it does.’

‘And it means that it’s all right, you see,’ Amanda insisted earnestly, taking Lucy’s hands, ‘what happened. Because if the Cadabras had thought that what you did was terrible, they would never have helped you.’

‘Honestly?’ asked Elodie.

‘They knew you are a good person. And you are Elodie.’

Elodie looked just a little doubtful, but Hogarth nodded to her and Thomas too.

‘No question about it,’ stated Mike. ‘Very well. Enough of that part of the past. Where do we go from here, is the question.’

‘Surely,’ replied Trelawney, ‘we need to know about what was taken from Growan House, and the use, significance and location of each piece.’

‘And,’ added Amanda, ‘where was it taken from exactly? It seems that the swag the Flamgoynes took could only have come from the crypt, and they took it after my aunt-or-mother Cardiubarn, let’s say Skorna, looted the grimoire. If so, why didn’t she take it all?’

‘Either because The Grimoire was the only thing of value to the Cardiubarns, there was no time, or she didn’t see, or didn’t know that the other things were down there,’ suggested Trelawney.

‘Well,’ put in Elodie, ‘there was a cupboard at the bottom of the shelves. But I