The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney Page B

the wood.
    ‘I know where she might be,’ said the big lad, scowling fiercely, ‘but you’d be stupid to go there.’
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘Didn’t you hear what she said?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows. ‘She said Bony Lizzie was her aunt.’
    ‘Who’s Bony Lizzie?’
    They looked at each other and shook their heads as if I were mad. Why was it that everyone seemed to have heard of her but me?
    ‘Lizzie and her grandmother spent a whole winter here before Gregory sorted them out. My dad’s always going on about them. They were just about the scariest witches there’ve ever been in these parts. They lived with something just as scary though. It looked like a man but it was really big, with too many teeth to fit into its mouth. That’s what my dad told me. He said that back then, during that long winter, people never went out after dark. Some spook you’ll be if you’ve never even heard of Bony Lizzie.’
    I didn’t like the sound of that one little bit. I realized I’d been really stupid. If only I’d told the Spook about my talk with Alice he’d have realized that Lizzie was back and would have done something about it.
    According to the big lad’s dad, Bony Lizzie had lived on a farm about three miles south-east of the Spook’s place. It had been deserted for years and nobody ever went there. So that was the most likely place she’d be staying now. That seemed about right to me, because it was in the direction that Alice had pointed.
    Just then a group of grim-faced people came out of the church. They turned the corner in a straggly line and headed up the hill towards the fells, the village priest in the lead. They were dressed in warm clothing and many of them were carrying walking sticks.
    ‘What’s all that about?’ I asked.
    ‘A child went missing last night,’ answered one of the lads, spitting onto the cobbles. ‘A three-year-old. They think he’s wandered off up there. Mind you, it’s not the first. Two days ago a baby went missing from a farm over on the Long Ridge. It was too young to walk, so it must have been carried off. They think it could be wolves. It was a bad winter and that sometimes brings them back.’
     
    The directions I was given turned out to be pretty good. Even allowing for going back to pick up Alice’s basket, it was less than an hour before Lizzie’s house came into view.
    At that point, in bright sunlight, I lifted the cloth and examined the last of the three cakes. It smelled bad but looked even worse. It seemed to have been made from small pieces of meat and bread, plus other things that I couldn’t identify. It was wet and very sticky and almost black. None of the ingredients had been cooked but just sort of pressed together. Then I noticed something even more horrible. There were tiny white things crawling on the cake which looked like maggots.
    I shuddered, covered it up with the cloth and went down the hill to the very neglected farm. Fences were broken, the barn was missing half its roof and there was no sign of any animals.
    One thing did worry me though. Smoke was coming from the farmhouse chimney. It meant that someone was at home and I began to worry about the thing with too many teeth to fit into its mouth.
    What had I expected? It was going to be difficult. How on earth could I manage to talk to Alice without being seen by the other members of her family?
    As I halted on the slope, trying to work out what to do next, my problem was solved for me. A slim, dark figure came out of the back door of the farmhouse and began to climb the hill directly towards me. It was Alice - but how had she known I was there? There were trees between the farmhouse and me, and the windows were facing in the wrong direction.
    Still, she wasn’t coming up the hill by chance. She walked straight up towards me and halted about five paces away.
    ‘What do you want?’ she hissed. ‘You’re stupid coming here. Lucky for you that those inside are asleep.’
    ‘I