“No,” said Percival. “I don’t rememberanything.”

Michael was suddenly seized with the most exciting idea. He leanedover Percival and asked, “Did you ever answer to the name ofJustin—or Your Royal Highness?”

Sophie snorted again. She knew this was ridiculous even beforePercival said, “No, the Witch called me Gaston, but thatisn’t my name.”

“Don’t crowd him, Michael,” said Howl.“And don’t make Sophie snort again. In the moodshe’s in, she’ll bring down the castle nexttime.”

Though that seemed to mean Howl was no longer angry, Sophie foundshe was angrier than ever. She stumped off into the shop, where shebanged about, shutting the shop and putting things away for thenight. She went to look at her daffodils. Something had gone horriblywrong with them. They were wet brown things trailing out of a bucketfull of the poisonous-smelling liquid she had ever come across.

“Oh, confound it all!” Sophie yelled.

“What’s all this, now?” said Howl, arriving inthe shop. He bent over the bucket and sniffed. “You seem tohave some rather efficient weed-killer here. How about trying it onthose weeds on the drive of the mansion?”

“I will,” said Sophie. “I feel like killingsomething!” She slammed around until she had found a wateringcan, and stumped through into the castle with the can and the bucket,where she hurled open the door, orange-down, onto the mansion drive.Percival looked up anxiously. They had given him the guitar, ratheras you gave a baby a rattle, and he was sitting making horribletwangings.

“You go with her, Percival,” Howl said. “Themood she’s in she’ll be killing all the treestoo.”

So Percival laid down the guitar and took the bucket carefully out of Sophie’s hand. Sophie stumped out into a golden summer evening at the end of the valley. Everyone had been much too busy up to now to pay much attention to the mansion. It was much grander than Sophie had realized. It had a weedy terrace with statues along the edge, and steps down to the drive. When Sophie looked back—on the pretext of telling Percival to hurry up—she saw the house was very big, with more statues along the roof, and rows of windows. But it was derelict. Green mildew ran down the peeling wall from every window. Many of the windows were broken, and the shutters that should have folded against the walls beside them were gray and blistered and hanging sideways.

“Huh!” said Sophie. “I think the least Howlcould do is to make the place look a bit more lived in. But no!He’s far too busy gadding off to Wales! Don’t just standthere, Percival! Pour some of that stuff into the can and then comealong behind me.

Percival meekly did as she said. He was no fun at all to bully.Sophie suspected that was why Howl had sent him with her. Shesnorted, and took her anger out on the weeds. Whatever the stuff wasthat killed the daffodils, it was strong. The weeds in the drive diedas soon as it touched them. So did the grass at the sides of thedrive, until Sophie calmed down a little, the evening calmed her. Thefresh air was blowing off the distant hills, and clumps of treesplanted at the sides of the drive rustled majestically in it.

Sophie weed-killed her way down a quarter of the drive. “Youremember a great deal more than you let on,” she accusedPercival while he refilled her can. “What did the Witch reallywant with you? Why did she bring you into the shop with her thattime?”

“She wanted to find out about Howl,” Percivalsaid.

“Howl?” said Sophie. “But you didn’t knowhim, did you?”

“No, but I must have known something. It had to do with thecurse she’d put on him,” Percival explained, “butI’ve no idea what it was. She took it, you see, after we cameto the shop. I feel bad about that. I was trying to stop her knowing,because a curse is an evil thing, and I did it by thinking aboutLettie. Lettie was just in my head. I don’t know how I knewher, because Lettie said she’d never seen me when I went toUpper Folding. But I knew all about her—enough so that when the Witchmade me tell her about Lettie, I said she kept a hat shop in MarketChipping. So the Witch went there to teach us both a lesson. And youwere there. She thought you were Lettie. I was horrified, because Ididn’t know Lettie had a sister.”

Sophie picked up the can and weed-killed generously, wishing theweeds were the Witch. “And she turned you into a dog straightafter that?”

“Just outside the town,” said Percival. “As soonas I’d let her know what she wanted, she opened the carriagedoor and said, ‘Off you run. I’ll call you when I needyou.’ And I ran, because I could feel some sort of spellfollowing me. It caught up with me just as I’d got to a farm,and the people there saw me change into a dog and thought I was awerewolf and tried to kill me. I had to bite one to get away. But Icouldn’t get rid of the stick, and it stuck in the hedge when Itried to get through.”

Sophie weed-killed her way down anther curve of the drive as shelistened. “Then you went to Mrs. Fairfax’s?”

“Yes, I was looking for Lettie. They were both very kind tome,” Percival said, “even though they’d never seenme before. And Wizard Howl kept visiting to court Lettie. Lettiedidn’t want him, and she asked me to bite him to get rid ofhim, until Howl suddenly began asking her about you and—”

Sophie narrowly missed weed-killing her shoes. Since the gravelwas smoking where the stuff met it, this was probably just as well.“What?”

“He said, ‘I know someone called Sophie who looks alittle like you.’ And Lettie said, ‘That’s mysister,’ without thinking,” Percival said. “And shegot terribly worried then, particularly as Howl went on asking abouther sister. Lettie said she could have bitten her tongue off. The dayyou came there, she was being nice to Howl in order to find out howhe knew you. Howl said you were an old woman. And Mrs. Fairfax saidshe’d seen you. Lettie cried and cried. She said,‘Something terrible has happened to Sophie! And the worst of itis she’ll think she’s safe from Howl. Sophie’s tookind herself to see how heartless Howl is!’ And she was soupset that I managed to turn into a man long enough to say I’dgo and keep an eye on you.”

Sophie spread weed-killer in a great, smoking arc. “BotherLettie! It’s very kind of her and I love her dearly for it.I’ve been quite as worried about her. But I do not needa watch dog!”

“Yes you do,” said Percival. “Or you did. Iarrived far too late.”

Sophie swung round, weed-killer and all. Percival had to leap intothe grass and run for his life behind the nearest tree. The grassdied in a long brown swathe behind him as he ran. “Curseeveryone!” Sophie cried out. “I’ve done with thelot of you!” She dumped the smoking watering can in the middleof the drive and marched off through the weeds toward the stonegateway. “Too late!” she muttered as she marched.“What nonsense! Howl’s not only heartless, he’s impossible! Besides,” she added, “I am an oldwoman.”

But she could not deny that something had been wrong ever sincethe moving castle moved, or even before that. And it seemed to tie upwith the way Sophie seemed to mysteriously unable to face either ofher sisters.

“And all the things I told the King are true!”she went on. She was going to march seven leagues on her own two feetand not come back. Show everyone! Who cared that poor Mrs.Pentstemmon had relied on Sophie to stop Howl from going to the bad!Sophie was a failure anyway. It came of being the eldest. And Mrs.Pentstemmon had thought Sophie was Howl’s loving old motheranyway. Hadn’t she? Or had she? Uneasily, Sophierealized that a lady whose trained eye could detect a charm sewn intoa suit could surely even more easily detect the stronger magic of theWitch’s spell.

“Oh, confound that gray-and-scarlet suit!” Sophiesaid. “I refuse to believe that I was the one that got caughtwith it!” The trouble was the blue-and-silver suit seemed tohave worked just the same. She stumped a few steps further.“Anyway,” she said with great relief, “Howldoesn’t like me!”