Children of the Red King Book 06 Charlie Bone and The Beast

by Jenny Nimmo

  So Dagbert was allowed to stay in bed, an unheard of thing for a boy at Bloor's Academy.

  In his room in the west wing, Manfred Bloor was also in bed. He lay with his face to the wall, mumbling about ghostly warriors.

  Old Ezekiel wheeled himself to Manfred's door

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  and knocked. There was no answer. Finding the door locked, Ezekiel rattled the handle. "Were you successful?" he called. "Mission accomplished? Asa gone? Charlie Bone finished and little Billy abolished?"

  "Go away," snarled Manfred.

  "Failed then." His great-grandfather sighed and he gloomily wheeled himself away.

  Scrambled eggs were being served in the blue cafeteria. Charlie could never remember having had such a treat for a school breakfast. He stood at the end of the line, trying to keep his eyes open and yawning loudly.

  Cook gave Charlie an extra-large portion when he finally reached the counter. "I rushed out and bought the eggs myself," she said. "Why shouldn't you children have a decent breakfast for a change?"

  "Cook, you don't look worried anymore," Charlie observed.

  "I know I'm not alone." She gave him a mysterious smile and then pulled something out of her apron pocket. "I bumped into your grandma Maisie this

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  morning. What a bit of luck! She wondered how she was going to get this to you." Cook reached over the counter and handed Charlie a postcard.

  There was an exotic-looking stamp on the back and his father's handwriting. A few words about the journey and the weather and then, "One day we'll take you with us, Charlie, and you'll see these magnificent creatures for yourself."

  On the other side of the card, the huge tail of a humpback whale filled the sky above a vast glittering sea.

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  391 JENNY NIMMO

  I was born in Windsor, Berkshire, England, and educated at boarding schools in Kent and Surrey from the age of six until I was sixteen, when I ran away from school to become a drama student/assistant stage manager with Theater South East. I graduated and acted in repertory theater in various towns and cities.

  I left Britain to teach English to three Italian boys in Amalfi, Italy. On my return, I joined the BBC, first as a picture researcher, then assistant floor manager, studio manager (news), and finally director/adaptor with ]ackanory (a BBC storytelling program for children). I left the BBC to marry Welsh artist David Wynn-Millward and went to live in Wales in my husband's family home. We live in a very old converted water mill, and the river is constantly threatening to break in, which it has done several times in the past, most dramatically on my youngest child's first birthday. During the summer, we run a residential school of art, and I have to move my office, put down tools (typewriter and pencils), and don an apron and cook! We have three grown-up children, Myfanwy, Ianto, and Gwenhwyfar.