‘Right before the winter solstice.’
‘Not long before Rupert’s birthday,’ said Theodora, smiling. ‘Though, he’s only sixteen.’
Dot nodded again and sniffed.
‘Have you ever used magic before?’ asked Theodora.
‘No,’ said Dot.
‘Did anything strange happen when you were young?’
Crashing waves. Emily screaming. An otherworldly voice from the belly of the ocean.
‘You look sad, Dorothy.’
‘I’m quite fine,’ said Dot. She took up her tea; she was growing used to the bitterness. ‘Actually, there was an incident. I fell in the ocean. I – well, I almost drowned.’
‘Go on.’
Dot studied the tea cup. ‘When I was in the water, I heard a voice. It was in a strange language and I’ve hardly the imagination to come up with something like that, so I believe it was real. When I woke up on the sand, I felt like I was buzzing with magic. My body, however, was terribly fatigued. The weeks after were difficult. The feeling of magic left me, but my condition remained.’
‘You haven’t felt the magic since?’
Dot shook her head.
‘What’s your condition?’ asked the witch.
‘We never really found out,’ said Dot. ‘It’s fatigue, mostly. Dizziness, fogginess. My memory is shocking unless I’m recalling a subject I especially love. Some days I’m lively and I can run or dance and I feel utterly normal and then I do a little too much and I’ll be in bed for days. It’ll hit me as I’m climbing the stairs or washing dishes and, quite suddenly, I’m so tired I can’t walk. I collapse sometimes. The doctors never diagnosed me. One of them told me I was making it all up.’
Theodora nodded, and then asked, ‘How did you fall in the ocean?’
Dot looked away. She opened her mouth and closed it. She shook her head.
Theodora moved on. ‘How did you come by the medicine in the green bottles?’
‘My grandfather,’ said Dot, warming.
‘Is he a Magician?’
‘Goodness, no,’ said Dot. ‘He’s a biologist.’
‘A biologist?’
‘Well,’ said Dot, ‘he’s a fisherman, but he didn’t like hurting the fish, so after my grandmother died, he started studying. He still does the trawler work so he can save up the money for his expeditions. As I said, they moved here from Eyre before my father was born and there weren’t many options for him, I suppose.’
‘Do you mean to say,’ said Theodora, ‘that the man who taught you to make those tonics has no magical ability at all?’
‘He doesn’t have a licence.’
‘Neither do I,’ said Theodora. ‘Although, if he isn’t a Magician, that would explain the garlic.’ And off the witch went, scribbling in a notebook that she had tugged from her pocket. Dot watched her, enamoured. Then, a wave of melancholy crashed upon her.Soon, she would be on a train home. She would have to borrow money for the ticket. Her purse and half the contents of her bag had been lost to the river.
‘Theodora,’ said Dot. ‘You’ve lent me your clothes and a bed in your house, and I am incomprehensibly grateful, but I must ask for a final favour. I need to take the train home to Seafarthing and, well, as I mentioned, I haven’t any money but I promise that the moment I take my job back at the café, I will—’
‘Don’t be absurd,’ said Theodora.
‘No,’ said Dot, ‘I must insist on repaying—’
‘That’s not what I mean,’ said the witch. ‘The money is arbitrary because you aren’t going back to Seafarthing. You can’t very well be my apprentice from a thousand kilometres away, can you?’
