Star polishing 9/11

Several loud bangs woke her the next morning. She sat up with a start and then relaxed as she realised where she was. Work for her didn’t start at seven o’clock this morning!

The noises were being made as the crew got the Black Cat under way and prepared for sea. It must be later than she thought if the bricks had been unloaded already. She went to the galley where the cook gave her a late breakfast. Then she went up on deck.

Jonah greeted her as she put her head out of the companionway. “Come up on deck if you want but please keep out of the way of the crew. We’ll be having to beat up the Welsh coast in an hour or so and we’ll be furling the topsails to go under fore and aft canvas only”

Jennifer Jane did as she was asked. It was very pleasant standing on the deck in the sunshine watching the coast slide past. She made sure of being out of the way by going below again, as the schooner turned north and began the long beat up towards her next port of call.

Then in the afternoon, she suddenly spotted something strange on the coast. She asked Jonah if she could borrow his telescope and looked at the shore carefully. It didn’t seem possible, but she was almost certain that Esmerelda’s cottage was standing on the shore two hundred yards or so from the high water mark on the beach. It was the only building for miles around and by coincidence there were only two people on the nearby beach itself.

She studied them closely through the glass as the Black Cat drew nearer. Esmerelda was sitting in a deck chair knitting, while Dulcibella had a knotted handkerchief on her head to protect her from the sun. She was paddling in the sea just in front of the most magnificent sandcastle Jennifer Jane had ever seen.

She ran over to Jonah and asked if she could be put ashore. “It’s Esmerelda and Dulcibella over there and I’d love to talk to them. If I’m on the beach at the same time tomorrow would you be able to stop and pick me up again?”

Jonah laughed. “You’re a case you are! One minute you want to get home as soon as you can and the next you want me to drop you off in the middle of nowhere, because you think you recognise someone.”

He gave the necessary orders and the schooner turned into the wind and hove to. A dinghy was lowered and one of the crew rowed her ashore.

“If you’re not here on time tomorrow we won’t stop,” called Jonah, “you’ll have to make your own way home, although I can get a message to the Witches’ Home if you like, to tell them where you are.”

Jennifer Jane waved her thanks and turned towards the two witches who were watching the comings and goings with great interest. The Black Cat’s sails filled and she slowly moved away from the shore again as she continued her voyage.

“Told you so,” said Esmerelda, as Jennifer Jane walked towards her, “it’s that Jennifer kid from the Gate.”

“I hope you don’t mind me coming over, I was sure it was you, I recognised your cottage from quite a long way away.”

“Oh you did, did you!” said Esmerelda, “and how did you know it as ours may I ask?”

Jennifer Jane explained how she’d wandered along the new path from Tornak’s cave and had arrived just in time to see the cottage disappear.

“Tasmin had told me that you lived somewhere along that way, so when the cottage disappeared by magic I knew it had to be yours. What a lovely sandcastle,” she said, rapidly changing the subject.

The castle was very much larger than any Jennifer Jane or her dad had ever made. The outer walls were about twenty feet long on each side of a square. They weren’t very tall and enclosed a miniature village, complete with a small church. Then there was a much higher inner wall with towers at each corner, surrounded by a moat.

A gateway in the wall could be reached by crossing a bridge and this lead to the castle proper. This was very impressive, with thick walls and battlements. It had been built in a square shape roughly two feet on each side, while exactly in the middle, was a well dug deeply in the sand, with a set of steps leading down to the water.

“Good innit?” said Esme who’d got out of her chair and come to stand beside Jennifer Jane. She took what appeared to be an old iced lolly stick from her pocket and made a few minor repairs where the battlements were beginning to crumble.

“Do you do any of it by magic, or does the tide wash it away when it comes in?”

“Magic doesn’t work here kid, you should have found that out by now."

“Well if you don’t mind me asking, how did your cottage get here?”

Esmerelda grinned. “That’s quite a long story. If your mates have marooned you until tomorrow, you’d better come and stay the night and I’ll tell you all about it. Come along Dulce, early tea today, we’ve got a visitor.”

“Yers ‘sright.”