This proved to be more effective than any cross words; Terracotta’s face transformed instantly. “Oh, no, don’t cry, Altamira! I was just so cross with you because my room smells horrible, but I’m sorry! We can fix it! At least, Mika can fix it, can’t you, Mika?”

“I can,” Mika said at once, crouching down to Altamira’s eye level. “Why don’t you go wash off the worst of it, and then I’ll spell the colour away, okay?”

Once Altamira was gone, Terracotta looked at Jamie out of the corner of her eye and blew out a breath. “I know I shouldn’t have done it. I am sorry.”

“Are you?” Jamie asked shrewdly. “Or are you just saying you are because you think it’s what we want to hear?”

“I’m not terribly sorry right this minute,” Terracotta admitted, a little sheepishly. “I told her I didn’t steal that puzzle, but she wouldn’t believe me. But I went too far, and I know I’ll be sorry in a little while, so I didn’t see any harm in getting a head start on the apology part.”

Rosetta tried and failed to stifle a giggle. Even Jamie’s mouth twitched. Mika, biting her quivering lip, managed somehow to maintain a straight face. “That’s very efficient of you,” she choked out. “If nothing else, you’ve saved so much time.”

“Exactly,” said Terracotta, pleased.

“Come on,” Rosetta said to her, still giggling. “Let’s go make sure Altamira’s okay.”

As the two of them trotted out of the room, it struck Mika that she was alone with Jamie for the first time in days. He looked down at the tearstains on his jumper and gave her a wry look. “It was too much to hope we might have a day without some kind of dramatic upheaval, wasn’t it?”

“I’m sorry,” Mika said sheepishly. “I’ve been so determined to teach them that magic can be fun that I’ve obviously neglected the part where I teach them to be responsible with it.”

“They’re happier than they’ve been in a long time,” Jamie said, his voice low. “Don’t be sorry for that.”

“Jamie, if you—”

But it was impossible to say anything more because it was at that precise moment that the front door opened and Ian torpedoed in, shouting “Haaaaapppy Solstice!” so loudly, it was doubtful anyone in the county could have failed to hear him.

So Mika left the conversation with Jamie until later, and went upstairs to fix Altamira’s hair and spell away the stench in Terracotta’s bedroom.