Nobody went out alone, particularly, at night. So when, a few months after that, a tall black castle suddenly appeared on the hills above Market Chipping, blowing clouds of black smoke from its four tall, thin turrets, everybody was fairly sure that the Witch had moved out of the Waste again and was about to terrorize the country the way she used to fifty years ago. And it seemed that Wizard Suliman had not only failed to deal with the Witch: he had got himself killed by her. It was said that the Witch had threatened the life of the King's daughter and that the King had commanded his personal magician, Wizard Suliman, to go into the Waste and deal with the Witch. About this time everyone began talking of the Witch of the Waste again. There was one deep rose outfit she made for Lettie, the May Day before this story really starts, which Fanny said looked as if it had come from the most expensive shop in Kingsbury. As time went on, she made clothes for her sisters too. Then Sophie would have to drag them apart and mend their clothes. "Why should Martha have the best of it just because she was born the youngest? I shall marry a prince, so there!" To which Martha always retorted that she would end up disgustingly rich without having to marry anybody. Lettie was by no means resigned to being the one who, next to Sophie, was bound to be the least successful. There was a certain amount of screaming and hair-pulling between those younger two.
Since Fanny was always busy in the shop, Sophie was the one who looked after the younger two.
It was a disappointment to her, but she was still happy enough, looking after her sisters and grooming Martha to seek her fortune when the time came. She read a great deal, and very soon realized how little chance she had of an interesting future. Hatter was proud of his three daughters and sent them all to the best school in town. Fanny treated all three girls with the same kindness and did not favor Martha in the least. This ought to have made Sophie and Lettie into Ugly Sisters, but in fact all three girls grew up very pretty indeed, though Lettie was the one everyone said was most beautiful. Fanny shortly gave birth to the third sister, Martha. True, her own mother died when Sophie was just two years old and her sister Lettie was one year old, and their father married his youngest shop assistant, a pretty blonde girl called Fanny. Her parents were well to do and kept a ladies' hat shop in the prosperous town of Market Chipping. She was not even the child of a poor woodcutter, which might have given her some chance of success. Sophie Hatter was the eldest of three sisters. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes. Jones, Diana Wynne - Howl's Moving Castle.txt Howl's Moving Castle By Diana Wynne Jones 1: in which Sophie talks to hats In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three.
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