I am not Jill Murphy, none of these characters belong to me,except Lilith (who makes a later appearance.)
Chapter 1
Mildred gazed at the beautiful view from her window. The fast moving river looked so inviting on this especially warm spring day, last time she was here she had to tie her broom as well as Miss Hardbroom's broom to Algernon's boat to keep it from going overboard with Tabby and the unconscious HB onboard. She as well as Maud and Enid were few of the lucky ones during that last blast of a winter storm. The weight of the wet snow on the aging castle's roof caused a portion of it to cave in leaving a small wing of the castle inhabitable. They needed a place to stay while Mr Blossom fixed the damage and Algernon had graciously opened his manor once again to them. The only thing wrong with the picture was that Miss Hardbroom was also put out by the snow's weight as well as Ethel and Drusilla. The six of them had to live with each other for the next week, if they didn't kill each other first.
The trip hadn't gone as smoothly as planned right from the start. First Mildred had tripped over Ethel's bag and knocked her down, accidentally of course. Then Ethel gave Mildred a frightful spell of sneezing in the middle of her flight causing her to weave all over the place on her broomstick causing her to almost fall off, until HB noticed and made Ethel reverse the spell. Now Mildred could tell that Ethel was seething with anger as Mildred and her friends got first pick of the beds, naturally they picked the ones near the window. HB stood to see what beds they picked to make sure no one tried to take the others beds after the initial pick, she was trying her very best to nip any fights before they would even begin.
"Come on Millie." Maud said noticing the steely look Ethel shot towards them, "Lets go outside and see how cold the river is." Mildred followed her friends past Ethel and Drusilla. HB had disappeared before them and was out of ear shot, Ethel seized the chance, "Why not go for a long swim Mildred, maybe if I'm lucky you won't come back."
"No one is that lucky Ethel." Drusilla chimed.
"See if you can try to grow up a little while we are here." Enid said as she strolled past them. Ethel watched fuming as the trio left.
Once they were comfortably beside the river the girls kicked off their shoes and soaked their feet in the cool water, it was still too cold to go swimming but they enjoyed the refreshing icy waters, especially since HB made them walk the rest of the way after Ethel's sneezing spell on Mildred.
"How can she walk in those heels in that muck?" Maud asked to no one in particular.
"My boots were caked with muck after all that walking my feet felt like they weighed a hundred pounds." Mildred complained as she rubbed life back into her tired feet.
"It doesn't matter now, here we are in this paradise away from that stuffy school and no lessons for a week!" Enid splashed her friends with a swift kick in the water.
"We may be away from the rest of the school, Enid, but that doesn't mean your on vacation," The girls turned and looked up at HB standing right behind them looking displeased, "I should think the water is still far too cold, I will not have three girls ill in their beds for a week." Mildred and Maud pulled their feet out of the water then started to dry them off with the hem of their skirts, HB sighed impatiently and materialized a towel for each girl. Enid left her feet a second longer before pulling them out and drying them off. Once the girls had replaced their footwear HB disappeared in her personal cloud of purple smoke.
"What do you suppose we do now?" Mildred asked her friends. Maud shrugged, "We could go for a walk." She suggested.
"Oh Maud we spent all day walking, if I walk any more my feet will fall off!" Enid protested.
"Let's just go unpack the rest of our things before it's time to eat." Mildred suggested. The others agreed and they made their way towards the manor.