"What shall we do today?" Christopher beamed at Millie, as they turned away from the largest window in the upstairs drawing room, where they'd been sitting on the window seat with their legs curled underneath them, watching the carriage trundle away again to the station with Bernard and Jason in it, ready to go home for Christmas. Elizabeth's parents had already come to fetch her home in their carriage, straight after breakfast. Millie was already looking forward to seeing them again in ten days, but also thrilled to have the full run of the Castle with Christopher and the cats for a while.
"I don't mind what we do today, but I'll tell you what we're doing this evening", she said. "We're going to steal away from the Castle and go to the circus".
Christopher looked sceptical. He had all but forgotten his rage and disappointment from the previous day, the only remnant being the way he glared at Gabriel with particularly ill-disguised resentment whenever they passed. He reflected that though he'd be glad enough to see a circus, he wasn't at all sure it would be worth another row and further punishment to ruin the rest of his hols.
"Millie, I've got a better idea if you want a nighttime adventure. We could go spirit travelling! I'm sure I can take you along with me, as I used to with Tacroy. Mordecai, I mean. We could go anywhere! Somewhere really warm, for example, you'd like that - we could swim in the sea!".
"I absolutely want to do that, Christopher", Millie said. It was odd that it hadn't occurred to them before, all the weeks of that long summer they'd had before Millie went to school and the other children arrived. She realised with a jolt that there wasn't really anything to stop her from going back to her own world on a visit. Or was there? How sufficiently had the use of Throgmorten's life fooled Asheth? Millie didn't know. It was hard to feel as though she had completely separated from the part of her which was the Living Asheth when that was the part to which she had always attributed her powers, and those were undimmed by the separation. And when she wasn't thinking about it at all, sometimes her Goddess arms appeared around her and she had to consciously stop them before one of her school mates or mistresses noticed. Didn't that mean that she was, on some level, still the Goddess, and the Goddess her? It was one of the things she'd most been looking forward to talking to Christopher about. But that was a matter for another moment.
"No, listen", she said, for Christopher was in full flight of eloquence, jumping around and describing the many places he would show her. "I absolutely want to go to everyone of those places - especially the one with the floating islands in the luminous lake, please - but not tonight." She explained to Christopher about her meeting with the trapeze girl and the continuing conviction she had that something ought to be done about her.
Christopher was thoughtful. Millie watched him, thinking how she liked him when he was thinking so hard that he forgot to think about the figure he was cutting.
"It sounds rotten for her, of course, and I've no doubt you're right and she's got lots of super magic", he said. "But, Millie, lots of people live with people who aren't terribly nice."
"I know".
"And surely if her magic's that strong then she'll have to realise it eventually, and then she can start using it to do whatever she wants with nobody to control her. I should think that will be rather nice, actually", he added.
"I know".
"Well, then. I mean, far be it from me to pass up an opportunity to break Gabriel's stupid rules, but I can't see the point."
"Nor can I, really", Millie admitted. "All those things are true, but I still want to go back. Perhaps it's only because when I was in a terrible mess someone saved me, even if I had to stick him in a wall first. Just come with me and see her, that's all."
"You saved yourself, silly!" Christopher laughed. "I didn't have any say in it. But very well, let's have this nighttime adventure of yours. How shall we manage it?"
The crept down to one of the downstairs toilets, the one near the small door out of the East Wing into the grounds, and which had been considered a good place to hang a framed map of the local area to which nobody had ever had cause to refer but which everybody thought might one day come in handy.
They eased it from its frame, conjured a replacement that looked sufficiently similar to re-hang and then pored over it shoulder to shoulder in the playroom, with the warm glow of conspiratorial endeavour.
"That's the field the circus is on, look" Mille pointed. "It's part of Becketts Farm. Of course yesterday we went by road, but there's a much more direct route as the crow flies over Fresham Forest, like this."
"We're not crows, but we can easily fly", Christopher pointed out. One of the first things they had done over the summer had been to contrive a way to bespell tea-trays and to race around the air on them, much to the consternation of all the castle staff who were charged with their safety and well-being. "But how do we make sure we don't lose our way over the forest? It'll be very dark and all forest looks the same, even if you're just skimming over the top of the trees."
"There may be some way we could adapt Mordecai's magnet spell - the one he used to draw me to him yesterday - and use it to draw us to a place", Millie mused. "I - oh rats, that's the gong for lunch. Let's see if we can get any pointers from Flavian or someone without making them suspicious while we have it."
They didn't at all succeed. Christopher was sitting next to Mordecai and brought up the subject of the magnet spell and its components. "Magic theory on the first day of your holidays, Christopher?" Flavian said jovially, overhearing. "You must be up to something!" This led into some light hearted teasing which was easily deflected, but it was impossible then to return to the subject without arousing suspicion. Millie and Christopher shrugged at each other. They'd just have to work it out on their own.
They did learn two valuable pieces of information, anyway- that tonight was the second and final night of the circus's time at Bowbridge, and it would be moving on in the morning, and that a large group of the castle staff would be going to the performance. It didn't sound as though any of the senior staff would be going, but the group would include a large quantity of secretarial and household staff, as well as most of the gardeners.
"I expect all the senior staff think they're far too serious and important," Christopher said scornfully as he and Millie walked back up the stairs after lunch. "Imagine Dr Simeon at a circus! Anyway, it's a bit of luck for us."
"Is it?" They'd already agreed that they'd illusion their beds to make it look as though they were sleeping in them before they went, which would deal with the problem of Mary coming to check that they were in bed at the right time.
"Yes, because listen. What about the spells around the grounds which make a mighty rumpus and alert Gabriel if we ever try to leave them? I was told about them when I first came here in no uncertain terms when I first arrived. I can break through anything that stops us leaving, but I've no idea at all how to turn those off and I wouldn't put it past Gabriel to use his strongest magic on them", said Christopher. "But the staff are going to go in the carriage, or as many of them that can fit - that's what Yolande said. If we hop on to that to get out of the grounds, I think it will stop the alarm from those spells sounding."
"Yes, I think it will too," said Millie, a smile spreading over her face. "I'd forgotten about the alarm but you're right, because we've been out in the carriage with servants without Gabriel or Rosalie or any of the important castle people before, haven't we, without the alarm going. The time we had to go into town to pick up my school uniform we just went with Annie, remember? And whenever we walked into the village to buy sweets over the summer, we were with a castle grown up each time we went through the gates. I'm sure Gabriel wasn't cancelling the alarm spell each time, he probably wasn't even there half the time!"
"Maybe it's not the carriage, then. It must be just being with any trustworthy castle grown up that does it. But either way, the carriage will be bursting with them! I'm beginning to think this is possible after all, you know".
"Of course it is!" said Millie. "Come on, let's work out this magnet spell".
