NEVERMORE - NEW!

Extract

CHAPTER FIVE: THE PUPPET ROOM

… Although the table was extensive enough to seat twenty or more diners, only three places were set: one at the head of the table, with a big carver chair, and one each side of that. The remainder of the table stretched, empty and shining, almost the length of the room.

Tizzie moved closer to look. Each place-setting had an array of silver cutlery, two crystal goblets, and a ruby-red napkin embellished with the letter E. It looked as if someone was expected to dinner; but she’d just come up from the kitchen, and no meal was being cooked there. The chairs were high-backed and of the same dark wood, with the letter E embroidered on the tapestry seats.

‘E for – what was that name?’ Tizzie wondered aloud. ‘Every-something?’

‘Evershall,’ Davy said. ‘Like ever shall be, the power and the glory, for ever and ever, Amen.’

His words sounded too loud in the quiet room. The air was hushed and silent, as if no one had disturbed it recently.

‘What’s all this ready for?’ Tizzie asked him. ‘Is someone coming?’

‘No,’ he answered. ‘It’s always like this. No one ever comes.’

‘It feels like the house is waiting.’

‘That’s because it is.’ Davy ran his finger along the carved top of a chair-back. ‘Always waiting.’

‘But your gran said they’d be home in a week or two! Lord Evershall and the family?’

Davy shrugged. ‘You’ll get used to that. It’s what they’re always saying. Always coming soon. Always in a week or two. It never gets any nearer. You’ll see.’

Orion Children's Books
ISBN 1842555472
Available from Amazon.co.uk

This page last updated 2 January, 2008