“Wasn’t me this time. So!” Mari shoutedback.

Neil whirled further round and stared accusingly at Howl.“How do, Neil?” Howl said pleasantly.

“Who is he?” the other boy asked.

“My no-good uncle,” Neil said. He glowered at Howl. Hewas dark, with thick eyebrows, and his glower was impressive.“What do you want? Put that plug back in.”

“There’s a welcome in the valleys!” said Howl.“I’ll put it back when I’ve asked you something andyou’ve answered.”

Neil sighed. “Uncle Howell, I’m in the middle of acomputer game.”

“A new one?” asked Howl.

Both the boys looked discontented. “No, it’s the one Ihad for Christmas,” Neil said. “You ought to know the waythey go on about wasting time and money on useless things. Theywon’t give me another till my birthday.”

“Then that’s easy,” said Howl. “Youwon’t mind stopping if you’ve done it before, andI’ll bribe you with a new one—”

“Really?” both boys said eagerly, and Neil added,“Can you make it another of those that nobody else hadgot?”

“Yes. But just take a look at this first and tell me what itis,” Howl said, and he held the shiny gray paper out in frontof Neil.

Both boys looked at it. Neil said, “It’s apoem,” in the way most people would say, “It’s adead rat.”

“It’s the one Miss Angorian set for last week’shomework,” said the other boy. “I remember‘wind’ and ‘finned’. It’s aboutsubmarines.”

While Sophie and Michael blinked at this new theory, wondering howthey had missed it, Neil exclaimed, “Hey! It’s mylong-lost homework. Where’d you find it? Was that funny writingthat turned up yours? Miss Angorian said it wasinteresting—lucky for me—and she took it home with her.”

“Thank you,” said Howl. “Where does shelive?”

“That flat over Mrs. Phillips’ tea shop. CardiffRoad,” said Neil. “When will you give me the newtape?”

“When you remember how the rest of the poem goes,”said Howl.

“That’s not fair!” said Neil. “Ican’t even remember the bit that was written down now.That’s just playing with a person’s feelings—!” Hestopped when Howl laughed, felt in one baggy pocket, and handed him aflat packet. “Thanks!” Neil said devoutly, andwithout more ado he whirled round to his magic boxes. Howl plantedthe bundle of roots back in the wall, grinning, and beckoned Michaeland Sophie out of the room. Both boys began a flurry of mysteriousactivity, into which Mari somehow squeezed herself, watching with herthumb in her mouth.

Howl hurried away to the pink-and-green stairs, but Michael andSophie both hung about near the door of the room, wondering what thewhole thing was about. Inside, Neil was reading aloud. “You arein an enchanted castle with four doors. Each opens on a differentdimension. In Dimension One the castle is moving constantly and mayarrive at a hazard at any time…”

Sophie wondered at the familiarity of this as she hobbled to thestairs. She found Michael standing halfway down, looking embarrassed.Howl was at the foot of the stairs having an argument with hissister.

“What do you mean, you’ve sold all my books?”she heard Howl saying. “I needed one of them particularly. Theyweren’t yours to sell.”

“Don’t keep interrupting!” Megan answered in alow, ferocious voice. “Listen now! I’ve told you beforeI’m not a storehouse for your property. You’re a disgraceto me and Gareth, lounging about in those clothes instead of buying aproper suit and looking respectable for once, taking up with riffraffand layabouts, bringing them to this house! Are you trying to bringme down to your level? You had all that education, and youdon’t even get a decent job, you just hang around, wasting allthat time at college, wasting all those sacrifices other people made,wasting your money…”

Megan would have been a match for Mrs. Fairfax. Her voice went onand on. Sophie began to understand how Howl had acquired the habit ofslithering out. Megan was the kind of person who made you want toback quietly out of the nearest door. Unfortunately, Howl was backedup against the stairs, and Sophie and Michael were bottled up behindhim.

“…never doing an honest day’s work, nevergetting a job I could be proud of, bringing shame on me and Gareth,coming here and spoiling Mari rotten,” Megan ground onremorselessly.

Sophie pushed Michael aside and stumped downstairs, looking asstately as she could manage. “Come, Howl,” she saidgrandly. “We really must be on our way. While we stand here,money is ticking away and your servants are probably selling the goldplate. So nice to meet you,” she said to Megan as she arrivedat the foot of the stairs, “but we must rush. Howl is such abusy man.”

Megan gulped a bit and stared at Sophie. Sophie gave her a statelynod and pushed Howl toward the wavy-glass front door. Michael’sface was bright red. Sophie saw that because Howl turned back to askMegan, “Is my old car still in the shed, or have you sold thattoo?”

“You’ve got the only set of keys,” Megananswered dourly.

That seemed to be the only goodbye. The front door slammed andHowl took them to a square white building at the end of the flatblack road. Howl did not say anything about Megan. He said, as heunlocked a wide door in the building, “I suppose the fierceEnglish teacher is bound to have a copy of that book.”

Sophie wished to forget the next bit. They rode in a carriagewithout horses that went at a terrifying speed, smelling and growlingand shaking as it tore down some of the steepest roads Sophie hadnever seen—roads so steep that she wondered why the houses liningthem did not slide into a heap at the bottom. She shut her eyes andclung to some of the pieces that had torn off the seats, and simplyhoped it would be over soon.

Luckily, it was. They arrived in a flatter road with housescrammed in on both sides, beside a large window filled with a whitecurtain and a notice that said: TEAS CLOSED. But, despite thisforbidding notice, when Howl pressed a button at a small door besidethe window, Miss Angorian opened the door. They all stared at her.For a fierce schoolteacher, Miss Angorian was astonishingly young andslender and good-looking. She had sheets of blue-black hair hanginground her olive-brown heart-shaped face, and enormous dark eyes. Theonly thing which suggested fierceness about her was the direct andclever way those enormous eyes looked and seemed to sum them up.

“I’ll take a small guess that you may be HowellJenkins,” Miss Angorian said to Howl. She had a low, melodiousvoice that was nevertheless rather amused and quite sure ofitself.

Howl was taken aback for an instant. Then his smile snapped on.And that, Sophie thought, was goodbye to the pleasant dreams ofLettie and Mrs. Fairfax. For Miss Angorian was exactly the kind oflady someone like Howl could be trusted to fall in love with on thespot. And not only Howl. Michael was staring admiringly too. Andthough all the houses around were apparently deserted, Sophie had nodoubt that they were full of people who all knew both Howl and MissAngorian and were watching with interest to see what would happen.She could feel their invisible eyes. Market Chipping was like thattoo.

“And you must be Miss Angorian,” said Howl.“I’m sorry to bother you, but I made a stupid mistakelast week and carried off my nephew’s English homework insteadof a rather important paper I had with me. I gather Neil gave it toyou as proof that he wasn’t shirking.”

“He did,” said Miss Angorian. “You’dbetter come in and collect it.”

Sophie was sure the invisible eyes in all the houses goggled andthe invisible necks craned as Howl and Michael and she trooped inthrough Miss Angorian’s door and up a flight of stairs to MissAngorian’s tiny, severe living room.

Miss Angorian said considerately to Sophie, “Won’t yousit down?”

Sophie was still shaking from that horseless carriage. She satdown gladly on one of the two chairs. It was not very comfortable.Miss Angorian’s room was not designed for comfort but forstudy. Though many of the things in it were strange, Sophieunderstood the walls of books, and the piles of paper on the table,and the folders stacked on the floor. She sat and watched Michaelstaring sheepishly and Howl turning on his charm.