Mystery of the Night Watchers by A.M. Howell

Author:A.M. Howell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Usborne Publishing Ltd

At midday, the blinds to the apothecary shop remained drawn and a tomb-like quietness had settled over Cupola House. Nancy and Violet sat at the kitchen table. Nancy’s breakfast crumpet was untouched and her sister’s was only half eaten.

Violet’s cheeks were tear-stained. “I want Mother,” she sniffed. “And Father. I want him too. I don’t want to stay in this silly old house. I want to go home.”

Home. They had only been away for four days, but it suddenly seemed so very far away. Nancy wished she could view their home through the telescope in the cupola, across the fields and rivers and valleys, past the industrial mills and canals until she could see their town house with its familiar yellow curtains, the scent of wood polish and Monty the dog.

There was a gentle rap, rap, rap at the back door. Nancy looked up and saw a reedy figure behind the obscured glass. Burch. She pushed her chair back, knocking it over with a thump in her hurry. Unlocking the door, she swung it open. “You’re not at school?” she cried.

“It’s lunchtime and I snuck out. Has your ma been arrested? For that’s what I heard said in the schoolyard.”

Nancy nodded, a rush of angry tears filling her eyes. She blinked them back. She would not cry, not in front of Violet or her new friend.

“I don’t believe it,” said Burch, giving Nancy a firm look. “Why would she try to burn down the mayor’s house?” He came in and sat at the kitchen table next to Violet. His slender fingers drummed on the wood.

Nancy shook her head. “She didn’t,” she said, locking the door and slumping into a seat opposite them. “Mother said it was a case of mistaken identity, but how can that be?”

“Mother doesn’t like the mayor one small bit,” said Violet slowly. She threw them a nervous look and chewed on her already ragged thumbnail.

The clatter of a handcart being pushed along the street cobbles above rumbled into the kitchen. A wood pigeon cooed on a nearby chimney pot.

“What do you mean?” asked Nancy, leaning forward.

Tears filled Violet’s eyes.

“Anything you know that could help your ma is a good thing,” said Burch kindly.

“Mother said…she said…” Violet stuttered.

“Come on,” said Burch, giving her an encouraging smile.

“It was when we played hide-and-seek,” Violet said, looking at Nancy.

Nancy nodded. “I found you in the cupola.”

Violet rubbed her pink nose and sniffed. “At first I hid behind the curtains on the landing near Mother’s bedroom. She came out of her room and was talking to herself…she said…she said she wished the mayor had never graced this earth. Doesn’t that mean she wished he was…dead?”

Nancy sat back in her chair, a sliver of cold arching up her back. This must explain why Violet had been behaving oddly the past few days whenever the mayor was mentioned.

“Do you think Mother did try to burn the mayor’s house down?” asked Violet in a small voice. “They found one of her handkerchiefs.”

Nancy shook her head, while wondering if she really could have done such a thing.

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