She sat quite still, hardly daring to breathe. She’d known her mother and Tom got on well, and were friendly and agreeable in each other’s company, whereas with Dora and Philip the relationship was always marred by tension, and by Philip’s violent temper and black moods. But to hear this! Tom’s hopes were what Gina herself had dreamed up when she’d cast the spell to get rid of Philip: Dora and Tom would live happily at the Lodge, and there would be room for her and Ellen, too. Now Gina lived at the Hall, but her mother and sister were stuck at the cottage with Philip casting a black cloud of misery over their lives, not to mention resorting to violence against them if he felt especially out of sorts.

Well, she’d keep quiet about what she’d learned – for the time being. If Dora and Tom didn’t bring this about themselves, Gina might reveal what she had heard in her own time, when the moment was right, and spur them on their way to a future together. That would serve her father right!

Gina grinned as she imagined for a few moments life after her father had been completely abandoned by her mother. She’d never have to go back to the cottage and find him there again, because Mum and Nell would be at the Lodge with Tom. She herself would just avoid him if she saw him heading her way. She wouldn’t have to feel the force of his slap if she answered back, nor have to endure the joy being sucked out of every home situation, nor see Mum and Nell subdued and tense, tiptoeing round him to avoid his sulks or, worse, his fists. Sometimes she’d speed past the Lodge in a big shiny car – she hadn’t decided whose car it was yet – and see, in the soft light of the uncurtained window, Mum and Uncle Tom sitting together, smiling companionably, in the little sitting room. Then, one morning, Dad would turn up at the back door of Grindle Hall, a broken man without Mum, repentant of his past harshness to his wife and daughters, begging for a job – anything, even scrubbing the floors – and Gina would say, ‘There’s nothing here for the likes of you. I hear they want someone to pick taters at Fellside Farm. Try there, and don’t bother us here again.’ And Mum and Nell and Uncle Tom would all be standing there laughing …

Gina pulled herself out of her reverie to listen again.

Dora said she must go, then Tom said something Gina couldn’t hear, and there was the crunch of gravel as one or both of them walked away.