The Heart Collector by Melinda Salisbury

Author:Melinda Salisbury
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic UK
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Mully No-Hands

Once upon a time, in a land of gold and glory, a baby boy was born to a beautiful woman, and a wealthy man. His parents called him Mulgreen Grey.

Little Mulgreen Grey inherited his mother’s breathtaking good looks; as a baby, the people of the village he lived in would often stop to coo at how lovely he was. With golden skin, a shock of hair the colour of a raven’s wing, and eyes that could only be described as azure, he was everything his mother had wanted in a child, the perfect match for her own fair countenance, her double in almost every way.

As if that wasn’t enough to be getting on with, Mulgreen would one day inherit his father’s fortune, which, in a land already known for its prosperity, was notable. If he chose, he would never have to work a day in his life; he’d earn more in a month by simply leaving the money alone than most of his peers would earn in a year.

Sometimes life is unfair like that.

Mulgreen grew up in a grand house, in a village some ten miles from the capital of the realm, with velvet on the walls and real beeswax candles in the holders. There was meat on the shining oak dining table five nights a week, and fresh fish on a Friday. Breakfast was soft steaming rolls, fresh cheeses and meats, tureens of mackerel in a rich tomato sauce, slivers of chocolate, and eggs cooked in cream. He had his own horse, and his own dog, his own run of white rabbits, and even briefly his own parakeet. He had his own suite of rooms, his own pianoforte, his own little garden, complete with his own tiny brook, where he caught his very own newts and frogs. His every wish was granted, his desires never thwarted.

It spoilt him. In the true sense of the word, his upbringing soured him, ruined him, left him as hollow inside as a thousand-year-old yew tree.

A combination of beauty, wealth, and indulgence had Mulgreen Grey believing that if he wanted it, he would have it, and – more than that – that it was his right to have it. When he slapped the other children, or pinched them, and snatched their cakes, or toys, his parents laughed and called him boisterous, proud of his determination.

“Now there’s a lad who knows what he wants and isn’t afraid to take it,” they said, ignoring the dark looks the parents of the children he’d harmed threw their way.

“Isn’t he ambitious?” they’d cry. “He’ll reach for what he wants and hold tightly to it.”

Soon Mulgreen was the only child not invited to the birthday parties of his classmates, the only child who didn’t receive a wintermas card, or a harvest basket. If he joined a game of kick-a-ball the game would end abruptly; if the children had to split into pairs, they’d grasp each other’s hands with a haste that left Mulgreen in no doubt as to their feelings towards him.

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