Ruby Redfort Take Your Last Breath by Lauren Child

Author:Lauren Child
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780763663575
Publisher: Candlewick
Published: 2013-05-14T00:00:00+00:00

TWINFORD WAS AN OLD TOWN, now considered a city: one that continued to grow and sprawl desert-ward. Tall, sleek buildings appeared to the north side, but the center of town was carefully preserved and protected by the Twinford Historical Society. The buildings — old, beautiful, and full of history — attracted tourists from far-flung places as well as neighboring towns.

In the very middle of Twinford, just near the city museum and city bank, stood the city library. A magnificent and imposing piece of architecture that announced its importance in Latin, via the motto carved across the front: Ipsa scientia potestas est.

Ruby loved this place, and always had: so many books, so much knowledge to stuff your brain with — and the comforting sounds of the creaking floorboards and discreet whispers provided a certain intimacy. It was also open late into the evening, sometimes all night, and that suited Ruby very well indeed.

Ruby dumped her coat and satchel on one of the many chairs flanking the long wooden table that stretched almost the length of the library floor. Green-shaded reading lights illuminated the surface, giving the place a cozy glow: it was a nice place to study.

Ruby walked between the rows of hardback spines, all sitting in perfect order on the ancient-looking shelves of beautiful dark wood, handsomely crafted a hundred years ago. Some volumes had been waiting many, many months to be chosen; some would stand untouched from this year to the next. She chose with great care, methodically scanning the books, studying each one before adding it to her pile. Forty-five minutes later she had a stack of twenty-two, one on top of the other, sitting in front of her on the table.

Then she began reading. Book after book. She read about the time when sailors risked life and limb to sail the high seas, when the only way for people to move from country to country was by ship. The journeys that could take months, the passengers who died on the way.

As she read her way through the more ancient books, Ruby stumbled across various writings describing the wrecking of the Seahorse and the looting of the Twinford treasure. They tended to differ in detail, but most seemed to agree on two things.

One: That the Seahorse must in truth have been wrecked many miles to the north of the Sibling Islands; it was just not possible for the ship to have sailed into those waters at the spot the child, Martha Fairbank, described — it was far too dangerous, and the captain was experienced enough to know that.

Two: That pirates brought about the ship’s destruction by attacking the crew and setting the ship alight, and that most of the treasure must have sunk without a trace.

Yet no one believed the little girl’s tale about rubies and a sea monster — just a child’s wild imaginings. As for her mother being taken alive? This was the wishful thinking of a four-year-old girl who had lost everything.

Ruby didn’t feel she

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