Mumbersons and The Blood Secret, The Read Online Free Page A

didn’t notice. ‘I’ll have to take the car.’ He looked at his knife, wondering where the butter had gone. ‘What am I going to do about you? You can’t stay here by yourself. Maybe Mrs Khafoops...’
    ‘Dad, my grandparents are here. They’ll look after me.’
    ‘ Them? Look after you?’ Jerry’s face turned red - it seemed to be a day for his face to change colour. Mrs Mumberson had walked into the kitchen, yawning and stretching, as he spoke. She headed straight to the kettle.
    ‘You don’t even know them,’ muttered Jerry. ‘It’d be like being with strangers.’
    ‘This’ll give me a chance to know them.’
    His grandmother leaned against the bench, enjoying the morning sunshine on her back. She was trying to push her hair into some sort of order. ‘What’s going on, Gerard?’
    ‘Don’t....!’ He sighed. ‘I’ve just heard from Madeleine. My wife. She insists I see her immediately. It’s vital, she says. Life and death. I’ll have to take the day off work. There’s Billy to...’
    ‘Get going,’ interrupted his mother. ‘We’ll look after Billy. It’ll make a great change from hammering rocks.’ She pulled Billy towards her. And held onto him. ‘Bring your wife back with you, Gerard. I want to meet her.’
    ‘That won’t be happening.’ He rushed out of the kitchen to get himself organised.
    Mrs Mumberson made herself a cup of tea. ‘Billy’ she said, ‘what do you want for breakfast?’
    Billy shrugged. He usually got his own breakfast. ‘Eggs on toast?’
    ‘I’m sure I can do better than that,’ said his grandmother. She checked out the pantry.
    Half an hour later Billy ran to school feeling more full than he had in a long time, and not just with food. He had his grandparents in the house. His mother wanted to see his father. His father was driving three hundred kilometres to meet up with her. Maybe they’d get together again. Maybe she wanted to come home. It made his brain dizzy, though in a better way than when the barber cut his ear yesterday.
    Olivia appeared from nowhere, as she always did. ‘What’s wrong with you?’ she asked. ‘You look different.’ Stevedore trailed along behind. He wasn’t allowed to go to school, of course, so he made himself inconspicuous throughout the day until school was over.
    ‘It’s gone crazy at my house. Dad’s Mum and Dad - my grandparents! They turned up out of the blue last night.’
     
    ‘Were they overseas?’ asked Olivia, keeping up comfortably with Billy’s pace.
     
    ‘It was weird. They said they’d been prisoners in a diamond mine. It was owned by a witch...’
     
    ‘A witch! I wonder if she can do real magic.’ Olivia beamed with enthusiasm.
     
    ‘Not now she can’t. She died.’
     
    ‘I’d love to meet someone who could do real magic.’
     
    They’d reached the school gates. The headmistress was ringing the bell for the first class. ‘You’re late, William Mumberson,’ she said, loud enough for most of the school to hear.
     
    Billy couldn’t concentrate during the day. If he wasn’t thinking about his Mum and Dad, he was thinking about his grandparents. Or the diamond mine. Or the witch - he was glad she was dead. He wasn’t sure he wanted to meet someone who could do real magic. His father always scoffed if he talked about magic. He said there was no such thing; it was no more real than the sleight of hand or conjuring tricks they saw on TV.
     
    But perhaps there were people who could do it?
     
    Olivia chattered about Billy’s grandparents and the witch at morning break, and at lunch time, and as soon as school was finished. Billy wished she’d stop so he could think more about them for himself. As usual she followed him home. He paused at the gate, wondering how he could politely tell her not to come in. He wanted to have his grandparents to himself for a while, but Stevedore nudged the gate open with his nose, and Olivia followed him up the path. Oh, well, she’d have to meet his