Grown Enchantress (Book #2, Young Witch Series)

Chapter 4

After that, things went much better. Madeline spent the year, after a furiously worded letter to her parents, which Jessamine thought was funny, returned saying that Jessamine had the right to do whatever she liked to Madeline in terms of magical training, and that they would hate to hear that their daughter had been so misbehaved as to be hung out a window, she spent her time after that doing whatever she was told.

Jessamine thought that this quiet spell just after the letter arrived was too goo to last, and she was right. About three months after the letter, she woke up to find that everything in the house was black. Pitch black. Instead of storming down to Madeline's rooms and giving the girl a hiding, which she desperately needed, Jessamine put on the appearance of clam and went around to every room, from the servant's quarters in the attics, to the very bottom cellar, and returned the rooms to their normal colours.

She was impressed and awed at Madeline's determination, since she had to have used her power a lot to achieve her goal. Too much, as it turned out, since Jessamine found her passed out on the floor of the last cellar, the room only slightly dimmer than it was supposed to be. Madeline spent a week in bed, and new appreciation of Jessamine, who could turn back the rooms are look hardly put out, let alone tired.

After a year scrubbing for the servants, it was time to learn how to cook. Madeline had mixed successes with that, and if she was feeling resentful about having to cook, it showed. Anyone who ate what she cooked when she was feeling like that, adopted a feeling of resentment for the rest of the day, until that meal the following day for many of the dishes. Jessamine herself was immune, as was Thomas, but Madeline wasn't, and tried hard to work on her cooking, especially since Jessamine felt the learning would stick if she was in this mood and had her riding lessons only on those days. Madeline learned how to feel better at cooking after that.

After a few months of cooking, and her skills at peeling and dicing vegetables were coming along nicely, Jessamine took Madeline out of the kitchen, and into the ballroom, and handed her a broom.

Madeline sighed, "Do I have to sweep this all before dinner?" She asked sadly.

"Yes." Jessamine said, smiling down at her. "But, you're going to use magic to do it."

"You're finally going to teach me how to use magic?" Madeline said in excitement. She was so excited that she dropped her broom.

"Yes." Jessamine said, watching as the red-faced Madeline retrieved her broom. "Now, here's how to do it; Magic needs willpower and concentration. Focus." And she turned and left the ballroom, leaving a confused Madeline standing there, holding her broom.

"Well, if that's all it is." Madeline shrugged, and concentrated on the broom sweeping, and let go.

The broom fell over with a clatter.

Madeline tried again and again, only to have the broom fall over each time she let it go. She was at it for hours, before she finally heard no clatter as she let it go. She looked up in surprise, and the broom clattered to the floor. Trying again, she found she could get it to stay there, but as soon as she told it to move, it would fall over.

"I see you're getting there." Jessamine said, almost at her elbow.

Madeline yelped and spun around, knocking the upright broom over herself. "When did you get in here?"

"I never left." Jessamine said, raising and eyebrow.

"I can get it to stand upright!" Madeline said, collecting the broom and showing off to Jessamine.

"Congratulations." Jessamine said, giving a small clap. "Now you need to get it to sweep."

"But Jessamine." Madeline wined, "I'm tired."

"I'm sure you are. Give it another hour, then you can go change for dinner." Jessamine said, appearing to glide over the floor to the doorway, "We have guests coming."

"Who's coming?" Madeline asked, curious.

"Your parents. They're coming to collect you so you can go home for the summer months. I expect you to be back by September." Jessamine said, before quietly shutting the door behind her.

Walking down to the dining room that night, Madeline and Jessamine were wearing their best. Well, Jessamine was, Madeline had had much of her possessions sent home the day after she arrived, and had to do with one of her old dresses, made for a ball just before she was sent to Devall Hall.

"Hello Your Majesties." Jessamine said, entering the room and going into a deep curtsy.

"Mother, father." Madeline said, curtsying as well to her parents.

"Rise, both of you." The king said, coming forward to hug his daughter, "I trust you had a good year?"

"It got better, father." Madeline said, looking up at him. She was startled to find that now at fourteen, she was getting almost as tall her his shoulders. He was one of the tallest men she knew, including Thomas, and she didn't want to get taller than her father.

"Has she been behaving well?" the queen asked from next to Jessamine, and Thomas. Madeline was startled to see. He had a way of just appearing, something that had never been explained to her. He was nice enough, but tended to stay out of her way, leaving her teaching and lessons to Jessamine. He preferred to be outdoors, talking to the tenants, and making sure that things on the land were going well.

"She has." Jessamine answered, "After that first letter, she has behaved quite well." Madeline blushed, remembering the black rooms incident.

"Well, let us start the celebrations!" The king cried. Almost instantly, servants appeared, carrying trays of food and setting them down. Each of them settled around the table, and began to eat.

Madeline kept looking around, wondering where the rest of the entourage was that usually travelled with her parents, and indeed, herself, but it was just them alone in the dining room.

"Just water please." Jessamine said, refusing the wine that had been poured into her cup.

"No wine tonight?" The king asked, holding up his own glass, "Is there something wrong with it?" He had already had a glass of it.

"Nothing at all, Your Majesty." Jessamine said smoothly, taking a sip of her water. "Wine just doesn't sit right with me at the moment."

"Are you feeling unwell, my dear?" The queen asked.

"No, merely pregnant." Jessamine said, a smile on her lips.