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‘A lovely place, isn’t it?’ Mo put his arie’s shoulders ‘I know you like stories about robbers See that ruined castle? A notorious robber band once lived there Iabout this lake’

Meggie just nodded and rested her head against his shoulder She was so tired that she felt quite dizzy, but for the first tiriie, stifling a yawn ‘Not behind that spiky gate?’

‘Actually, yes This is the entrance to her property Not very inviting, is it?’ Mo laughed and led Meggie across the road ‘Elinor is very proud of this gate She had it specially made It’s copied froarden?’iron bars

‘The Selfish Giant?’ Mo laughed ‘No, I think it was another story Although that one would suit Elinor pretty well’

Tall hedges grew on both sides of the gate, their thorny branches hiding any viehat lay beyond But even through the iron bars Meggie could see nothing proravel drive that soon disappeared between theer whispered in her ear

‘Yes, Elinor is quite rich,’ said Mo, drawing Meggie away froate ‘But she’ll probably end up poor as a church mouse because she spends so much money on books I think she’d sell her soul to the Devil without thinking twice if he offered her the right book for it’ He pushed the heavy gate open with a single ie in alarm ‘We can’t just drive in’ For there was a notice beside the door, still clearly legible even if soe:

PRIVATE PROPERTY

NO UNAUTHORISED ENTRY

Meggie didn’t think it sounded very inviting

Mo, however, only laughed ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, opening the gate wider ‘The only thing Elinor guards with a burglar alarh this gate She’s not what you’d call a nervous woman, and she doesn’t have er peered anxiously into the strange garden ‘That gate suggests at least three ferocious dogs toones, the size of calves’

But Mo just shook his head ‘Elinor hates dogs,’ he said, going back to the van ‘Right, get in’

Elinor’s grounds were ateway the drive curved, as if taking a deep breath before going on up the slope, then lost itself aether that their branchesit would never end when the trees suddenly receded, and the drive brought theravel and surrounded by carefully tended rose beds

A grey estate car stood on the gravel in front of a house that was bigger than the school Meggie had been attending for the last year She tried to count the s, but soon gave up It was a very beautiful house but looked just as uninviting as the iron gate Perhaps it was only the evening twilight that made the ochre-yellow of the plaster look so dirty And perhaps the green shutters were closed only because night was already falling over the surrounding ie would have bet her last book they were seldom open even in the daytihtly closed ie involuntarily reached for Mo’s hand as they approached it