SEVEN: WHAT HAPPENED AT THE FRONT DOOR

Aunt Letty confronts Jadis, dismissing Uncle Andrew’s excuses and ordering the “shameless hussy” out. When Jadis tries to blast Aunt Letty, nothing happens; realizing her magic fails here, Jadis immediately asserts herself by seizing Aunt Letty and throwing her onto a mattress. The housemaid announces a waiting hansom, and Jadis compels Uncle Andrew to leave with her.

Digory finds Aunt Letty bruised but managing the house, then wrestles with how to remove Jadis from London without alarming his ill mother. He decides he must touch Jadis and use the yellow ring to draw her into the Wood between the Worlds, but lacks any way to find her. He keeps watch at the window.

Meanwhile, Polly is punished at home for returning late and muddy, confined to bed. A caller brings grapes for Digory’s mother, and Aunt Letty’s talk of needing fruit from the “land of youth” sparks in Digory a desperate hope: other worlds might hold a cure. He momentarily forgets his watch, then hears galloping.

Jadis arrives standing atop a speeding hansom, crashes it at the Ketterleys’ door, and lands astride the horse, further maddening it. Police, a furious shopkeeper claiming theft and a black eye, and crowds swarm the scene. Uncle Andrew, hat crushed over his face, is dragged from the wreck and questioned.

As Jadis cuts the horse free with a knife, Digory maneuvers for a chance to touch her despite the danger. The cabby, owner of the horse and cab, pushes forward to soothe “Strawberry,” urging Jadis to dismount. Jadis, imperious and unrepentant, declares herself Empress Jadis as the standoff intensifies.