Where was her life going? When would she ever leave this dreary little place high on the Lancashire fells? How would she get away? If only she had some idea of how her life would unfold, and some hope of when anything – anything at all – would happen to improve it. She could bear it if only she knew the end was in sight. Sometimes, on a shopping trip to Clitheroe or even very occasionally to Blackburn or Preston, she saw newspapers and a glimpse of a whole world of events that no one in Little Grindle even knew about – or worse, even cared about. It felt as if time had stopped decades ago in the village; it was certainly no place for a young woman of seventeen with her sights set on a new and entirely different sort of life.

‘Come on now, think!’ she chivvied herself aloud.

Gina hadn’t hung around for her mother’s return to learn the news about the gardening job at the Hall; she knew Ellen would be offered it. And Gina herself would be stuck with her father at the farm!

Miserable old sod. It’s a wonder Mum puts up with him. I wouldn’t. Nell’s always been his favourite and now I’ll be left to deal with him and his anger all day. As if I don’t already have to endure the worst of his shouting and snarling, and his lashing out.

She rubbed the top of her arm where there was a greenish bruise, then looked at the phial in the palm of her hand. That would have dealt with him if he’d found it and opened it … if the spell were real. Which, a part of her admitted, it probably wasn’t. They’d all be better off without him, and his misery and bad temper rising up like a storm cloud on a May day. Dora could marry Tom – they were well suited and obviously fond of each other – and then they’d all go to live at Tom’s cottage at the gate of Grindle Hall, and who knew what opportunities would come Gina’s way when she practically lived at the Hall? The Stellions sometimes had guests to stay: people who came from all over the north, maybe even from Manchester. Once there had been talk of some visitors from London!

Well, the stupid spell – and all the fantasies she’d dreamed up around it – didn’t look like it would get her to the Hall. She’d just have to think of something else. One thing was for certain: she was not going to stay in this little backwater for ever, working until she dropped, while her dreams of something better faded until they were all but forgotten. As she herself would be eventually if she stayed in the village. There had to be a way forward.