The Witch’s Daughter Read Online Free PDF

did exactly what you told me—put some of this stuff on my pillow and a few dabs on my heart. Well, quite a lot actually. Yesterday and today. I thought maybe it was a love potion, you know, something to make Michael fancy me.’
    ‘What?!’
    ‘Obviously it wasn’t. I see that now. It was something so much better! How did you know? About Sarah-I’m-So-Perfect-Howard? I didn’t tell you she’d been bullying me. I never mentioned what she did to my coat, or what she wrote on my locker, or the gross dead frog in my bag, did I? Suppose I might have said something about her teasing me about Michael. Not that she’s the only one who does it, but she’s the worst. Cow. The others copy her. But not anymore!’ She started waving the bottle about again.
    I shook my head, ‘I’m sorry, Tegan, I don’t understand a word of what you’re saying. I gave you bergamot oil. It helps build confidence and strengthen resolve. That is all.’
    She ignored me.
    ‘Glandular fever! Genius or what?’ She all but jumped up and down. ‘She’ll be off school for weeks, months even. Maybe the rest of this term and half the summer. You have no idea how much I’ve prayed for something like this to happen. But I never really thought … and then you came along. The answer to my prayers.’ She gazed at me, the most admiring and adoring expression I have had aimed in my direction for decades. My mouth felt curiously dry as I forced myself to speak. This was going to take some undoing.
    ‘Tegan, what do you think it was that I gave you?’
    ‘Dunno exactly, just something to get rid of Sarah Howard.’ She shrugged.
    ‘A magic potion?’
    ‘Well, yes.’
    ‘And why do you think I would have something like that?’ I watched her search for the answer somewhere around her feet. ‘Tegan?’ I persisted.
    ‘Sounds sort of silly now, saying it out loud, but, well, because you’re a witch, aren’t you?’
    She could not have imagined the impact her words had on me. I was relieved she was momentarily unable to meet my eye, for she would have found fear there. How could she have seen so much when I saw so little? I had dangerously underestimated the girl. The rain had become heavy again now, and the two of us stood, a few feet and several hundred years apart, the sound of the raindrops loud in the charged silence. Slowly Tegan looked up and I saw wonderment on her face. It was of the variety only ever found in those young enough to yet have minds as open as the oceans and hearts longing to have proof of magic. If only she knew what proof stood before her.
    ‘Come inside,’ I said, and together we went into the kitchen. I bade her sit at the table while I fetched parsnip soup from the stove. I handed her a mugful, and she cupped it in her hands, never taking her eyes off me.
    ‘Watch out for the leg of toad,’ I warned.
    Her eyes widened for an instant, then she laughed and the tension in the room evaporated with the steam of the broth.
    ‘What do you know of witches?’ I asked.
    ‘Oh, usual stuff. They make potions out of herbs. Cast spooky spells. That sort of thing. I know there are lots out there nowadays, well, lots who call themselves witches. It’s all the New Age rage, isn’t it? But I bet there aren’t many like you. Not many that can actually do stuff.’
    She blew into her mug.
    I opened the fire door of the stove and pushed in another log. The soft wood cuttings from our work of the previous week were sappy and unseasoned and spat crossly but gave out a reasonable heat. I pulled my chair closer and gestured to Tegan to do the same as I rearranged the cushions behind me for more comfort.
    ‘What time is your mother expecting you?’
    ‘She’s not. I mean, she’s on nights. She won’t be home till morning.’
    Not for the first time I was struck by the solitary nature of the young girl’s life. It seemed cruel. Not deliberately neglectful but cruel nonetheless. I closed my eyes for a moment and did my utmost to