‘I don’t understand, though,’ wailed Dora, looking tearful. ‘Gina can’t do magic, can she?’

‘No, love, of course not,’ said Betty. ‘No one can cast any kind of spell unless they have the gift, but Gina didn’t know that. If she thought she’d cast a spell and owt happened – nowt to do with the spell at all, but just summat that took place and that always was going to take place – she might think she’d brought it about, do you see? She could be getting into a right muddle in her head if she thought she had the power to make owt happen.’

Dora and Ellen looked at each other, aghast.

‘It’s not healthy to be thinking you are able to decide what happens in other folk’s lives,’ said Betty. ‘I was worried then that it might be fostering ill-wishing and envy.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Ellen. ‘It all sounds a bit mad, but if Gina’s got things all out of proportion, and if owt’s happened and she’s understood it all wrong, then there’s no knowing what she’s thinking. Mebbe it’s all led to her dealing in stolen goods and being on the run from the police.’

‘Oh, don’t, love,’ said Dora, rocking backwards and forwards on her chair, her hands to her mouth in distress. ‘What can we do to help her?’

‘I don’t know, Mum. We can’t help her until we find her.’

‘I’m just wondering … where might Gina have got the spell from?’ asked Betty.

‘Oh, I never thought. She couldn’t have made it up. She would have to have had some instructions,’ Ellen said. ‘How do you know all the old lore and the fortune-telling, Mrs Travers?’

‘It’s passed down from mother to daughter,’ said Betty with a smile. ‘But not everyone’s got the gift. In some families it just dies out and that’s why there are fewer “wise women” these days than in the days of yore.’

‘Well, Gina didn’t get any daft ideas about magic from me,’ said Dora crossly.

‘No, Dora, love, no one’s blaming you. I reckon she’s found some old documents or some such and has followed those, not realising that without the gift she’s harming no one but herself.’

‘Oh …’ Dora started to cry again. ‘I’m sorry, Betty, but I just can’t stop crying since Gina ran away.’

‘If Gina had some written instructions, I can only think they’d be in her room at the Hall,’ said Ellen. ‘I’ll go and see what I can find – anything at all that might help us know what she’s up to or where she might have gone – and if there is owt, we can decide between us what to do. What do you say, Mum?’

Dora gave a watery smile. ‘Yes, love, thank you.’

‘And we’ll get Uncle Tom in on this, too.’