The Charmed Children of Rookskill Castle Read Online Free Page A

of her lord’s former wives. And she wishes he would view her with sincere affection.
    Leonore is lonely and frightened, her only friends the birds she feeds from the sill of her high window overlooking the wild waste that stretches toward the sea, the birds that cackle and caw.
    The rooks.

6
    The Lady
    T HE CASTLE LOOMED out of the fog at the end of the winding lane, after what seemed an age. Kat sat up straight, and Peter let out a low whistle.
    It was much bigger than the picture had made it seem, a real castle with many turrets rising up through the gloom bit by bit, and it did look the sort of place that would house ghosts.
    And knights. To their left stood a half-ruined square keep topped by battlements; to their right, a high wall with turrets. The keep’s narrow windows slotted the wall like blank eyes, and Kat imagined someone aiming an arrow from one straight at her heart. The moat bed was a rocky trough of thorny weeds.
    As they crossed the bridge Kat shut her eyes at the bony rattles made by the wood straining beneath their weight, thenopened them as they passed beneath the gate arch, its rotting gate hovering overhead. They entered a broad court.
    A parapet led away from the keep to join a giant stone bulwark of a building. A portion of the roof of the parapet walk had fallen in, and the wall that circled the court to their right was a mass of fallen stones, but this part of the castle before them seemed newer and grand. The windows were like stretched-thin black eyes, and the castle was three stories tall with tight brickwork. A dead vine wound around the door frame like a thick rope and the whole was topped by a peaked slate roof poked through with narrow chimneys.
    A freshly hand-painted wooden sign was mounted on posts beside the entry: ROOKSKILL CASTLE CHILDREN’S ACADEMY .
    Gooseflesh crept up Kat’s arms. She’d tumbled headlong into a fairy tale, like Alice down the rabbit hole. The wagon pulled alongside the massive stone front and crawled to a stop. The horses chuffed as the wagon creaked and groaned, and it smelled damp and cold and faintly moldy.
    The giant lifted Amelie down and waited as Peter, Rob, and Kat scrambled to the ground. Kat found it hard to breathe. Even Robbie held his tongue. Peter leaned back as he looked up at the front of the castle, and Amelie tucked her hand into Kat’s.
    The giant said, “I’ll take your trunks round. They’ll be in your rooms.” And he clapped the horses with the reins and rattled off.
    â€œHe’s quite nice,” said Amelie. Kat looked down. Ame was gazing after the wagon. “That giant man.”
    Amelie was usually right, but Kat wondered if this time she didn’t have it wrong.
    â€œIt’s not what I expected,” murmured Peter.
    They stood in a cluster before the door—it was more than twice Peter’s height. Peter cleared his throat and was raising his hand to knock when the door opened.
    Kat had steeled herself for cobwebs and dust and an aging butler with a toothless leer, so the sight of a crackling fire in the hall and electric lights and Turkish carpets and cozy furnishings behind the plump, vacant-eyed maid in uniform was a huge relief.
    The maid was young and pretty. Kat glanced at Robbie, who was of an age to develop instant crushes, and his cheeks already glowed like the bed of a hot fire. The maid seemed to take no notice; she said, “I’m Marie. Her Ladyship asked me to show you in. I’ll take your coats.”
    The mist had been so thick that their coats were soaking. Marie bustled off with the dripping load in her arms.
    Robbie went straight to the fire, rubbing his hands. “Just as I thought. Scary on the outside, but that’s only to put off the enemy. All castles are like that,” he said. “Hello, what’s this?” He moved to a tea table set beside the fire. “Look! A pot of chocolate!” Rob set to pouring himself a cup at once. The