First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2018
Published in this ebook edition in 2018
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Text copyright © Justine Windsor 2018
Illustrations copyright © Becka Moor 2018
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2018
Justine Windsor and Becka Moor assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work respectively.
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Source ISBN: 9780008183592
Ebook Edition © July 2018 ISBN: 9780008183608
Version: 2018-06-07
For Chas ’n’ Pheebs
Contents
Chapter One: A Ball of Magic
Chapter Two: The Boy in the Alley
Chapter Three: When Sparks Attack
Chapter Four: The Bloody Penny
Chapter Five: Lord Percy and the Custard Slice
Chapter Six: Hard Times Hall
Chapter Seven: The War of the Maids
Chapter Eight: Lord Grave’s Exploding Great-grandmother
Chapter Nine: Gormless Grave
Chapter Ten: Rogue Animation
Chapter Eleven: Lucy Tests Her Theory
Chapter Twelve: A Note From Beyond the Grave
Chapter Thirteen: Demons and Doors
Chapter Fourteen: Lord Grave No More
Chapter Fifteen: The Wall of Masks
Chapter Sixteen: Pawprints and Fingerprints
Chapter Seventeen: Valentina’s Chits
Chapter Eighteen: A Stranger in the Library
Chapter Nineteen: Lucy’s Boots
Chapter Twenty: Summoned
Chapter Twenty-One: Swallowing Magic
Chapter Twenty-Two: Caught in the Net
Chapter Twenty-Three: Chasing the Demon
Chapter Twenty-Four: Caruthers Attacks
Chapter Twenty-Five: The End of Hard Times Hall
Don’t Miss the First Two Adventures!
About the Publisher
Lucy Goodly dodged sideways. A flurry of sparks whizzed past, just missing her ear. Instead they hit the chimney breast behind her and sputtered out, leaving a faint smell of burning as well as a large scorch mark on Lady Tabitha Grave’s nose. Not the real Lady Tabitha Grave, but her portrait, which hung over the fireplace.
“Excellent!” said Lord Grave. “Your turn now. Concentrate. Create your own attack sparks and return fire!” Bathsheba, Lord Grave’s black panther, blinked her yellow eyes before slinking off behind one of the sofas, as though she understood what was about to happen.
Lucy narrowed her eyes and focused her thoughts on the spell in hand. As Lord Grave had instructed her earlier, she imagined all the warmth in her body rushing towards her fingers. As she did so, her fingertips grew hotter and hotter until they felt as though they would burst into flames. When she felt she couldn’t bear the heat a second longer, she raised her hand behind her head, and then, as if she was throwing an invisible ball, flung it forward. The orange-red sparks that were clustered around her fingers flew off like tiny flies and hurtled towards Lord Grave, who ducked. But he was a smidgeon too late and the sparks grazed the crown of his top hat. Lord Grave whipped it off and beat the sparks out before they could do too much damage. Lucy folded her arms and smiled in satisfaction.
“Impressive!” Lord Grave said. “Now, as I have just demonstrated, you might not always be able to get out of the path of an attack spark. And a magician skilled in this particular art might be able to create a spark that will track you if you try to flee from it. However, there is a technique that—”
There was a knock at the drawing-room door.
“Who is it?” Lord Grave called.
“It’s Violet, sir.”
“One moment!” Lord Grave put his hat back on. Then he hurried over to the window and opened it in order to dispel the smell of burning before calling Violet in.
“Please, sir. Mrs Crawley wants to know if you can spare Lucy for a while. She needs us to fetch some ingredients for the ball,” Violet said shyly. She was a small mousey-haired girl three or four years younger than Lucy, who was twelve. Caruthers, Violet’s knitted frog which she carried everywhere with her, was tucked into her apron pocket.
“Very well. Lucy has finished her … dusting, I think, so she’s free to go.”
“Thank you, sir. Oh my, look