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When Mo left her to go and fetch their bags froer wasn’t there either She even looked for hie house she opened there was no sign of hione to bed long ago, and Elinor had disappeared into her own bedroo bed She felt very lost in it, like a dwarf, as if she had shrunk Like Alice in Wonderland, she thought, patting the flowered bed linen Otherwise she liked the room It was full of books and pictures, and there was even a fireplace, although it looked as if no one had used it for at least a hundred years Meggie swung her legs out of bed again and went over to theOutside, night had fallen long ago, and when she pushed theshutters open a cool breeze blew on her face The only thing she could ravel forecourt in front of the house A larey and white pebbles Mo’s stripey van stood beside Elinor’s grey estate car like a zebra lost in a horse’s stable Meggie thought of the house they had left in such a hurry, and her room there, and school, where her desk would have been empty today She wasn’t sure whether she felt homesick or not
She left the shutters open when she went back to bed Mo had put her book-box beside her Wearily, she took a book out and tried to make herself a nice nest in its faht of that other book blurred the words, again and again Meggie saw the big initial letters before her – large, colourful letters surrounded by figures whose story she didn’t know because the book hadn’t had tier, she thought sleepily He must be here soers and she fell asleep
The sun woke her next ht before, but the sky was cloudless, and when Meggie leaned out of theshe could see the lake glea in the distance beyond the branches of the trees The roo only two doors further along, but Dustfinger had to ie had seen it when she was looking for hi but a narrow bed surrounded by crates of books towering up to the rafters
Mo was already sitting at the table with Elinor when Meggie caer wasn’t there ‘Oh, he’s had breakfast already,’ said Elinor sharply, when Meggie asked about hi It was sitting on the table and it spat atlike that I made it clear to your peculiar friend that flies are the only animals I’ll allohere near my kitchen table, and so he took the furry creature outside’
‘What do you want hi special I – I just wanted to ask hiie She hastily ate half a slice of bread, drank some of the horribly bitter cocoa Elinor had er behind the house, standing on a lawn of short, rather rough grass where a solitary deckchair stood next to a plaster angel There was no sign of Gwin A few birds were quarrelling a the red flowers of the rhododendron, and there stood Dustfinger looking lost to the world, and juggling Meggie tried to count the coloured balls – four, six, eight He plucked them out of the air so swiftly that itto catch them, casually, as if he didn’t even have to look Only when he spotted Meggie did a ball escape his fingers and roll at her feet Meggie picked it up and threw it back
‘Where did you learn to do that?’ she asked ‘It looked – well, wonderful’
Dustfinger ain ‘It’s how I earn s’
‘How can you earn a living that way?’
‘At markets and fairs At children’s birthday parties Did you ever go to one of those fairs where people pretend they’re still living in Medieval tiie nodded Yes, she had once been to a fair like that with Mo There had been wonderful things there, so strange that they ht have coht her a box decorated with brightly coloured stones, and a little fish old le in its hollow body that rang like a little bell when you shook it The air had sgie had watched a s a sword, and had hidden behind Mo’s back froer picked up his juggling balls and put therass behind hiie went over to it and looked inside She saw some bottles, some white cotton wool and a carton of er closed the bag
‘Sorry, trade secrets,’ he said ‘Your father’s given the book to this Elinor, hasn’t he?’
Meggie shrugged her shoulders