The Worst Witch All at Sea (6 page)

Mildred wondered if she ought to confess to Maud that she couldn’t swim but it was so depressing constantly being hopeless at everything. She longed to say to everyone, ‘Oh yes, I’m brilliant at such and such. Let me help you,’ instead of spending her whole life desperately trying to memorize spells in the library and ending up in Miss Cackle’s study explaining for the hundredth time why everything had gone wrong.

Also brewing in the back of Mildred’s mind was a plan to kidnap (or catnap) Tabby from the kitchen and smuggle him away on the holiday with them. Even if she got into the most awful trouble on their return, she felt it would be worth it to spend a whole week with her much-loved pet, and she really did want to enjoy the holiday, particularly as it was a result of one thing that she had actually done right – saving Mr Rowan-Webb, the kindly old magician, from a lifetime of frog-dom.

‘Are you
up
to something, Mil?’ asked Enid one evening at dinner.

‘Yes,’ said Maud. ‘You’ve got that far-away, vague sort of look you get when you’re thinking up some scheme or other.’

‘What?’ asked Mildred vaguely, glancing up from a ghastly-looking plate of grey stew with a slab of yellow cabbage in the middle.

‘I
told
you,’ said Enid. ‘She’s
up
to something.’

‘No I’m not,’ said Mildred. ‘And I’m really starting to look forward to the holiday now. I think we’re all going to have a very exciting time.’

‘Not too exciting, Mildred,’ said Maud uneasily. ‘We don’t want any trouble, do we?’

But Mildred wasn’t listening. She was busily working out the finer details of her plan to snatch Tabby twenty minutes before take-off on their broomsticks for the flight to Grim Cove.

uck was on Mildred’s side for once. Miss Cackle announced that the journey to the magician’s castle would begin at dawn. Each girl would have a packed breakfast to eat halfway through the journey, which would be ready and stowed away in their suitcase the night before. Miss Cackle also announced that, as it was a fairly long flight, lasting two hours, all pupils’ cats would be transported in cat-baskets to save any accidents with sleepy or nervous cats falling off into the tree-tops below.

This meant that firstly the kitchen staff would not be up and about and secondly there would be a conveniently dark cat-basket in which to hide Tabby.

Mildred did consider telling Maud and Enid of her plan, but she knew that they would be so anxious on her behalf that it would only worry them, so she decided against it.

The morning of the holiday dawned. Mildred had been up and dressed for two hours, hoping that Ebony would be back early from his night out hunting, as he was sometimes out until long after dawn. Thankfully, on this occasion, he was back twenty minutes before the first blush of morning light stole across the cloudy, grey sky.

Mildred seized the elegant black creature as he positioned himself ready to spring from the window-ledge on to

the top of the wardrobe. She bundled him into the cat-basket and crept out into the deserted corridor.

There was a dim night-lantern burning at the end of each corridor and at the head of each staircase, so she was easily able to make her way to the kitchen, once her eyes had adjusted to the gloomy light.

The kitchen looked strange with no one in it, all the pots and pans hanging on their hooks and no fires burning in the cooking ranges. The only sign of life was the pattering of dozens of tiny feet as mice swarmed all over the tables and worktops looking for leftover crumbs. Obviously Tabby was no use whatsoever in his new job.

‘Tabby,’ called Mildred softly. A shiver ran down her spine as she peered around into all the dark corners, huge creepy-looking cauldrons and storage cupboards with doors half-open as if someone might be lurking inside.

‘Tab!’ she called again. ‘It’s me. It’s Mildred, I’ve come to fetch you.’

One of the cupboard doors creaked open and Mildred screamed, her heart banging in her ears with fright.

An answering ‘Miaow!’ set her mind at rest as Tabby came pattering softly to greet her, a half-eaten kipper dangling out of his mouth. The little cat was so delighted to see his mistress that he dropped the kipper and leaped into her arms, where there was much miaowing and cuddling, and even weeping from Mildred.

Tabby settled contentedly around Mildred’s neck as if to say, ‘Now where
have
you been all this time?’ and Mildred bent down and unlatched the cat-basket.

Ebony stalked out looking rather annoyed at being shoved into the basket and then unceremoniously plonked out on to the cold, stone kitchen floor.

‘Off you go, Eb,’ whispered Mildred. ‘I’m taking Tabby for a little holiday, so you can stand in for him while he’s away. Oh, Tabby, they’re all going to go
mad
when they find out. Perhaps they won’t notice, with a bit of luck. Still
I
don’t care. It’s worth
anything
to have you back, even for a week. Come on, you’ll have to go into the basket or we’ll be found out before we even get there.’

Tabby didn’t mind going into the basket at all. Mildred could hear him purring like a car-engine as she headed for the kitchen door. As she heaved it open, several mice skittered out from beneath the large table and dived past into the corridor, pursued by Ebony.

Mildred giggled, ‘Oh, Tabby,’ she said, scratching his head fondly through the wicker bars.

‘You’re such a hopeless case. I
have
missed you.’