Ellen took them down. The book had a worn red binding and looked very old and shabby. It struck her as odd that Gina should have a book at all; she’d never been known to borrow anything from the mobile library.

Tom was thinking along the same lines. ‘What’s it about?’ he asked. ‘I’m surprised to see Gina’s been reading.’

Ellen opened it to the title page and realised immediately this was exactly the kind of instruction book she had been talking about with Betty earlier. ‘It’s called A Booke of Spelles and Diverse Incantations for the Domestic Student of Witchcraft,’ said Ellen, hastily putting it down on the table as if it were burning her hand. ‘So Gina really did think she could cast spells! How on earth can she have decided she could do that, I wonder. I don’t even want to touch the thing.’

‘It’s only a book, Nell,’ said Tom, taking it up and flicking through, then reading a page or two. ‘It’s kind of like recipes, but the result is a spell rather than a cake or a loaf of bread.’

Ellen leaned over gingerly to take a look. ‘I wonder which one Gina tried.’

‘Or which ones. There are mebbe twenty here, although the old-style spelling makes them difficult to follow. I can’t think Gina used this regularly. It’d take a while to work out what it all means and to find the things to use.’

‘Betty might know summat about this kind of book.’

‘Or Mr Shepherd.’

‘Aye, I could take it to show him. I doubt there’s any clue as to where Gina has run away to, though.’

‘No,’ said Tom. ‘There’s nothing here at all, really. I wouldn’t show the book to your mum just yet, though, love. It’s a nasty old thing and she’d be right upset.’

‘I’ll keep it hidden from her, at least until I’ve found out more about it.’

‘Good girl.’

‘It’s sad,’ said Ellen, looking around. ‘I never thought of it before, but Gina had no friends. There’s no letters, no invitations to anything; she never joined in the things we liked to do in the village.’

‘Like your dad, then.’

Ellen gulped. ‘Yes, I keep coming back to that, Uncle Tom. Mrs Travers said that Gina is like Dad and I just wonder now whether she’s a bit mad, too. It’s scary, but … what kind of madness is this?’ She pointed to the strange book. ‘Who in their right mind would have a book of spells and think they could do anything worthwhile with them?’

‘Well, Gina did.’