Magnificent Lizzie Brown and the Ghost Ship by Vicki Lockwood

Author:Vicki Lockwood
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Capstone Global Library
Published: 2015-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

Making things with her hands always made Lizzie feel better. Back in the days when she lived in Rat’s Castle, she’d made paper flowers from coloured streamers to sell from a tray on the street. She was as quick and neat as any seamstress, with nimble fingers that would have made her an excellent pickpocket if her life had taken a different direction.

Now she sat in her caravan and threaded the shells she’d collected onto black cord. With a gimlet she’d borrowed from one of the handymen, she’d made holes in them so the cockleshells would lie flat. Two identical necklaces steadily took shape.

‘My bonnie lies over the ocean,’ she sang as she worked. ‘My bonnie lies over the sea…’ Erin and Nora would love their bracelets, she knew. Maybe, if she had a few rich clients come for readings, she’d be able to buy a couple of beads of real Whitby jet and add them as spacers between the bigger shells. It might not be a whole jet necklace, but it ought to make Nora happy.

For all you know, Nora’s got Lady Susannah’s necklace stashed somewhere, whispered a nasty voice at the back of her mind. Maybe Nora and Hari stole it together…

Lizzie chatted nonsense to herself to keep the suspicious thoughts away. ‘“She sells seashells on the sea shore.” Well, that’s daft, innit? Who’s going to buy seashells on the sea shore? There’s loads of ’em lying about. Silly moo.’

She was proudly laying out the finished bracelets on her dressing table when the distant boom of a gong rang out from the show tent.

‘That’s the parade getting ready to start!’ she said in a panic. ‘Blimey, where’d the time go?’ She set off at a run towards the show tent, where lines of circus folk were already forming. Then, thinking again, she changed direction and ran to the tea tent. The parade would take hours, and she hadn’t eaten all day.

The tea-tent door flaps were usually pegged open, but now they were hanging down, blocking her path. Surely Ma Sullivan hadn’t closed up shop already? Lizzie wrestled her way through.

Ma Sullivan was there, and so were Nora and Erin, all bending over something. The twins bounced up like jackrabbits, grinning all over their faces, while Ma Sullivan rummaged around behind the counter. Lizzie saw she was shoving something out of sight.

‘Hello, Lizzie me love,’ Ma Sullivan said, standing up and wiping her brow. All three of them were grinning like toy monkeys. ‘Here for a quick bowl of stew before we leave?’

‘Please,’ Lizzie said, eyeing them suspiciously.

Nora and Erin watched her take her seat. Neither spoke. Lizzie’s thoughts were racing now. What could possibly be going on? All the Sullivans seemed to be acting shifty. There was one explanation, and she didn’t want to dwell on it, but she couldn’t help it. It came back to her, just like it had in her caravan.

She’d seen Nora fastening a jet necklace around her neck. Her visions were never wrong.

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