Once in her nightgown she slipped under the comforter, which was soft and mossy green as a forest floor. The mattress contained not a single lump. Contented, she gazed up at the posts of her four-poster bed, each one tall and straight as a tree trunk. Why, it was almost as if she were sleeping outdoors, in a surprisingly cozy forest where friendly animals would keep her safe from harm.
Her thoughts grew dreamy . . . perhaps she, too, had been sent away for her own safety, by loving but frightened parents . . . parents who had only her best interests at heart and who had not forgotten her, not for a single moment. . . .
“My imagination is leaping wildly tonight! Yet family trees do sometimes bear unexpected fruit.” She roused herself just enough to blow out the candle on her bedside table. “Think of Old Timothy and Dr. Westminster. And Miss Mortimer and Agatha Swanburne, although I confess, I still cannot see a resemblance between them, at least judging from the portrait. And the Incorrigibles . . . and Lumawoo, too?”
She turned her pillow over and over until it suited her perfectly. “Are we? Could we be? But how? That is to say, what are the odds? And why was Edward Ashton so keen on my taking up genealogy as a hobby, anyway?”
The answers to these questions, like so many others, remained unknown, at least for the moment. But Penelope felt quite sure they would be discovered at some future date. “And truly, the future gets closer every day,” she told herself, “like a train approaching the station, whose whistle can be heard in the distance though the train itself is still many miles off. Whooo-whooo . . . I think I hear it now. . . .”
Thoughts of that ilk galloped through her brain for quite some time—ta-TUM, ta-TUM, ta-TUM, ta-TUM, ta-TUM—long after a tired governess ought to have been asleep.
About the Author
Maryrose Wood is the author of THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING, THE HIDDEN GALLERY, and THE UNSEEN GUEST—the first three books in this continuing series about the Incorrigible children and their governess. These books may be considered works of fiction, which is to say, the true bits and the untrue bits are so thoroughly mixed together that no one should be able to tell the difference. This process of fabrication is fully permitted under the terms of the author’s Poetic License, which is one of her most prized possessions.
Maryrose’s other qualifications for writing these tales include a scandalous stint as a professional thespian, many years as a private governess to two curious and occasionally rambunctious pupils, and whatever literary insights she may have gleaned from living in close proximity to a clever but disobedient dog. You can visit her online at www.maryrosewood.com.
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Praise for
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place
“It’s the best beginning since The Bad Beginning [by Lemony Snicket] and will leave readers howling for the next episode.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“How hearty and delicious. Smartly written with a middle-grade audience in mind, this is both fun and funny and sprinkled with dollops of wisdom (thank you, Agatha Swanburne). How will it all turn out? Appetites whetted.”
—ALA Booklist (starred review)
“With a Snicketesque affect, Wood’s narrative propels the drama. Pervasive humor and unanswered questions should have readers begging for more.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Jane Eyre meets Lemony Snicket in this smart, surprising satire of a nineteenth-century English governess story. Humorous antics and a climactic cliff-hanger ending will keep children turning pages and clamoring for the next volume, while more sophisticated readers will take away much more. Frequent plate-sized illustrations add wit and period flair.”
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Books by Maryrose Wood
THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE, BOOK 1: THE MYSTERIOUS HOWLING
THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE, BOOK 2: THE HIDDEN GALLERY
THE INCORRIGIBLE CHILDREN OF ASHTON PLACE, BOOK 3: THE UNSEEN GUEST
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Credits
Cover art © 2013 by Jon Klassen
Copyright
Balzer + Bray is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book 4: The Interrupted Tale
Text copyright © 2013 by Maryrose Wood
Illustrations copyright © 2013 by Eliza Wheeler
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.harpercollinschildrens.com
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ISBN 978-0-06-179122-2 (trade bdg.)
EPUB Edition OCTOBER 2013 ISBN 9780062202864
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FIRST EDITION
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