Charlie Bone and the Red Knight

by Jenny Nimmo

  "You bet," said Charlie.

  Charlie and his mother stayed with the patient for another hour, and Charlie learned where his mother had been staying while her husband roamed the city as the Red Knight.

  "Do you remember the Hundred Heads' dinner?" asked Amy.

  How could Charlie forget? "It's when I found out about Mrs. Tilpin and the enchanter," he said.

  "There was a man in a blue turban."

  "Yes. He saw me and Billy hiding under the table, but he didn't give us away."

  "His name is Mr. Singh," said Amy. "He's Officer Singh's father and he let me stay in his house in the south. I wanted to stay with you, Charlie, but it would have looked suspicious if Lyell and I parted when we had only just been reunited. Mr. Singh is, of course, a descendant of the Red King."

  "Then so is Officer Singh!"

  A nurse came in with a tray of pills, and Charlie and his mother said good-bye to Lyell, promising to return the next day. On their way out they caught sight of Miss Ingledew leaving another ward. She looked rather flustered. Charlie ran up to Miss Ingledew, crying, "Where's my uncle? Have you seen him?" And then he remembered their disagreement and said hesitantly, "Or was it someone else you were visiting?"

  Miss Ingledew smiled. "It was Paton," she said. "He's not badly injured. He said something about leopards helping, which I didn't really understand. But there's been a bit of trouble with the lights. They've had to move him twice, but of course the same thing happened every time."

  Charlie tried to hide a grin behind his hand. "Was anyone hurt?"

  "Luckily, no," said Miss Ingledew. "But there was an awful mess. Glass everywhere. He's been put in a little room by himself, just inside the door. He'll be out tomorrow, to everyone's relief, I should imagine."

  Charlie didn't wait to hear any more. Pushing through the swinging doors, he found his uncle's room and flung his arms around the long thin man, who was scratching at a bandage that poked out of the top of his pajamas.

  "Blasted thing. Itches like mad," Paton complained when Charlie released his grip. "Hello, Charlie. Well done all around, I say. What a day, eh? We learned a few secrets at last. My word, your father's a dark horse."

  Charlie kept nodding. When he thought his uncle had finally said all he wanted, he asked, "Have you and Miss Ingledew... ?"

  "Made up our silly quarrel? Yes, we have. She was very kind. Blames herself, though it was all my fault, no doubt, rushing about the country, poking into family affairs." He gave a false sort of cough and added, "Being injured does wonders, when it comes to... er, relationships, you know. You look a bit the worse for wear yourself, Charlie." Paton gave another odd cough. "Ah, nurse is coming. Visitors out, Charlie. But before you go" -- he grabbed Charlie's hand -- "I want you to be the first to know..." His cheeks turned a healthy pink.

  "Know what?" asked Charlie.

  "Miss... er... Julia... uh..." Paton seemed to be having trouble with his throat today, though his wound was in his chest. Charlie waited patiently for the spasm to pass. "Yes. She... er... has agreed to marry me."

  "WOW!" yelled Charlie. "That's outstanding!"

  A nurse rushed toward him, calling, "Out, young man!"

  By the time Charlie and his mother got home, a great deal had happened at number nine. Grandma Bone had left, for one thing.

  "She's gone to live with her sisters," Maisie told them. "Though I don't know how long that will last."

  Alice Angel was putting her old house to rights. She had decided to sell her shop in Steppingstones and come back to live in her old home.

  On Sunday evening, people began to return to the city. They behaved as though they had just left for an ordinary weekend away. The pernicious fog that had covered their homes was considered a mere coincidence. No mention was made of the battle that had happened. It was an event that most people couldn't really take in. Everyone agreed that it was going to be a beautiful Easter. Daffodils and irises were already blooming in gardens, and the avenues were filled with fragrant cherry blossoms. A curious optimism pervaded the streets.

  The wild strangers that had invaded Piminy Street seemed to have vanished as mysteriously as they had arrived. Mrs. Kettle was now the only resident. She was sure that more congenial neighbors would arrive in time. Her great sword now hung back in its place on the wall of her blacksmith shop, and the blue boa once more roamed around the kettles -- now you saw him, now you didn't.

  Mrs. Kettle had offered Dagbert Endless a home, which he had joyfully accepted. He contemplated a long and happy life making beautiful iron objects. "Not necessarily weapons," he told Mrs. Kettle, "but maybe ceremonial swords and ornamental gates and stuff like that."

  "And iron kettles?" asked Mrs. Kettle.

  "Naturally," said Dagbert.

  Not one student attempted to go back to Bloor's Academy on Monday. Word had spread that it was not a good place to be right now.

  On Monday afternoon, Lyell Bone and Uncle Paton came home to Filbert Street. Cook took Grandma Bone's room temporarily. There was much to do, for Lyell and Amy wanted to move into their old house, Diamond Corner, as soon as possible. But before this happened, there was one more mystery to clear up. Maybelle's box.

  The next evening, Lyell took Charlie and his uncle up to the cathedral, where Lyell was still the official organist. They walked along the wide aisle and around the choir stalls to the great organ, its long pipes reaching right up to the vaulted dome. And Charlie wondered where his father could possibly have hidden the pearl-inlaid box. Lyell gave a mischievous smile and lifted the cushioned top of the organist's seat. In a neat compartment just beneath sat the box.

  "Well, I never," Uncle Paton exclaimed. "What a hiding place. Who would have guessed?" He lifted it out. "But without a key, how is it to be opened?"

  "We could force the lock," Lyell suggested, "but the pattern would be destroyed in the process."

  Charlie took the box from his uncle. He turned it over and studied the intricate patterns: tiny mother-of-pearl stars, birds, leaves, and flowers adorned the lid and the sides. He stared at the stars and found himself traveling very slowly, very gently into a candlelit room where a craftsman was pressing tiny pieces of mother-of-pearl into the back of the box.

  The man turned and looked at Charlie, holding up his finger. And Charlie gasped, for it was his old friend Skarpo the sorcerer and on his finger sat a small pearl cat.

  "Charlie!" His father was shaking his arm. "What is it? Where are you?"

  Charlie blinked. Skarpo had gone. "His finger," Charlie gasped. "His finger."

  Uncle Paton and his father stared at Charlie in concern.

  "It was a cat!" Charlie looked at the back of the box. He saw leaves and flowers, birds and stars, but no cat. He brought the box up close to his face. And then he saw it. There was a cat. Its ears poked from behind a star, its tail ran beneath a flower. Charlie gently pressed the slim tail. And the lid of the box clicked open.

  "Charlie! How extraordinary!" said Uncle Paton.

  "How clever!" said Lyell.

  Charlie kept his secret traveling to himself.

  Inside the box was not one will but many, beginning with Septimus Bloor's.

  He had left everything to Maybelle. There was also a will made by Maybelle when she feared her life was in danger. She had left her entire estate to her son, Daniel Raven. And then there was Daniel's will, leaving all he possessed to...

  "His daughter, Ita?" said Lyell. "Who on earth was she? I thought Daniel left everything to his son, Hugh, who gave the box to Billy's father to prove that he would inherit the Bloor estate if Septimus's true will could be found."

  "Which it has been," Paton agreed. "I want you both to come and look at something." He led them down to the front pew and they sat either side of him while he drew a folded paper from his pocket. "This is what I have discovered during my weeks of research," he said, flattening the paper on his knee.

  Charlie and his father bent their heads over the paper. There was nothing to see b
ut a vertical line of names, beginning with Daniel Raven's eldest child, Ita. Who, in 1899, had married a Simon Bone.

  "Bone!" said Charlie and his father.

  And there, beneath Ita and Simon, was the name of their son, Eamon, who had married a Clara Lyell. And beneath Clara and Eamon was the name of their son, Montague Bone, who had married Grizelda Yewbeam in 1961 and died the following year.

  "My father," said Lyell slowly.

  "Who left everything he owned to you," said Paton.

  They sat a while longer in the quiet cathedral, trying to take in this momentous news.

  "So Bloor's Academy belongs to you, Dad," said Charlie at last.

  His father frowned. "I suppose it does. But how do we prove it?"

  "Quite easily, I hope," said Uncle Paton. "I've made an appointment to see Judge Sage tomorrow morning."

  The following day, Lyell Bone and Paton Yewbeam took the box of papers to Lysander's father, Judge Sage.

  He was known as one of the wisest and most open-minded members of the judiciary, and it didn't take him long to declare that Lyell Bone was the indisputable heir to Septimus Bloor's fortune. He would have to take the matter to court, of course, but the judge thought Lyell stood an excellent chance of winning his case.

  "We'll have to warn the present owners of Bloor's Academy," Uncle Paton wryly remarked.

  Charlie wanted to accompany his father and uncle on their visit to the Bloors, but Lyell was reluctant to let him. "All the recent woes of this city have come from that family," Lyell said, laying a hand on his son's shoulder. "It's the seat of evil, Charlie, and there's no knowing what they will do when they discover that Septimus's will has been found."

  "Please!" begged Charlie. "I want to be there. After all, I was the one who opened the box."

  Lyell laughed. "So you were. All right. You've won me over, Charlie, but please do everything I say."

  Charlie made a solemn promise and in the late afternoon, before the streetlights had come on, Uncle Paton, Charlie, and his father made their way up to the academy. They were approaching the square when a black car drove out. It stopped a moment before turning onto High Street, and Charlie saw Weedon at the wheel. Beside him sat his wife, and in the back was the unmistakable figure of Norton Cross in his elephant jacket. Beside him was a hunched figure veiled in black. Charlie didn't see the fourth passenger until the car was driving away from them. A small white face looked out of the back window and then hastily bobbed out of sight.

  "Joshua," muttered Charlie.

  "And his mother, most likely," said Paton. "They're all leaving."

  "Rats and a sinking ship come to mind," said Lyell drily.

  Weedon hadn't even bothered to close the academy doors behind him. The three visitors stepped into the shadowy hall without bothering to knock.

  And for the last time in his life, Charlie shivered in the cold wickedness that seemed to pervade the building. It was truly a seat of evil, and the prime cause of all that evil was sitting in his wheelchair, staring down at them from the landing at the top of the staircase. It was almost as if he had been waiting for them.

  "I suppose you've come to gloat," he shouted. "But you haven't won yet. You've finished off Count Harken, but I'm still here and I'm not budging."

  "We have the will, Ezekiel," said Lyell. "The true will. It's all over for you."

  "Never!" screeched the old man.

  "I'm afraid, Ezekiel," said Uncle Paton, "you'll have to spend your last days in a nice home for the elderly."

  "NO! I won't. I'm staying put!" Ezekiel began to giggle uncontrollably. "Manfred's going to make sure of that. If you make another move, he's going to burn the place down, and you wouldn't want that, would you, now?"

  At these words Manfred walked out of the shadow behind the stairs. He held his hands in the air, every finger blazing like a torch. "Don't come any closer," he warned. The awful power of his ancestor Borlath, the Red King's eldest son, had at last materialized in Manfred.

  Lyell took a brave step toward Manfred.

  "Dad, no!" cried Charlie, staring at the flames leaping from Manfred's fingers.

  "Woooo!" shrilled Manfred, and the flames leaped higher. "Scaredy-cats!"

  What happened next was so astounding, Charlie could hardly believe his eyes. For old Ezekiel came flying down the stairs. The wheels of his chair hit the treads once, twice, and then he was in the air. Too shocked to move, Manfred could only stare at the airborne thing in horror. When it landed on him, he emitted a single high-pitched scream that would echo in Charlie's head for years to come.

  Old Ezekiel rolled out of his chair, gave a long gurgle, and fell silent. The flames, smoldering on a hand that protruded from the tangled heap, spluttered and died.

  The three visitors were momentarily too shocked to speak, and then Paton murmured, "How on earth?"

  Charlie had seen the culprit, or rather their savior, depending on how you looked at it. A short, fat dog stood at the top of the stairs, wagging his meager tail. "Blessed!" cried Charlie. "Dog of the day!"

  Paton brought out his cell phone and began to call for an ambulance. While he was doing this, Charlie noticed a solitary figure standing by the door to the west wing. Dr. Bloor moved toward the dreadful pile of wood and bones. It was difficult to read his expression, but he didn't touch either of the bodies.

  "It was the dog," said Lyell. "He must have pushed the chair."

  "I knew he would do that one day," Dr. Bloor said bleakly. He looked up at Blessed, still happily wagging his tail. "I gather you've found the will."

  "We have," said Lyell.

  Dr. Bloor gave a huge sigh. "I won't give you any trouble," he said. "There's no point now. I'll go and pack."

  "Thank you," said Lyell.

  The Easter holiday arrived and Paton Yewbeam and Julia Ingledew were married in a small church at the edge of the city. It was packed to the door; there were even people singing outside under the cherry blossoms. After the ceremony the newly-weds went to live in candlelit harmony above the bookstore. Emma was very happy with the new arrangements.

  Billy Raven was unaware that he had almost been the heir to the Bloor fortune. While Charlie and his parents were packing up their belongings in number nine, Billy stayed with Benjamin. But after a few days of being chased around the house by Runner Bean, Rembrandt said that he couldn't stand another day in the place. So Billy went up to the Silks' home in the Heights. He enjoyed talking to the Silks' many pets, but Gabriel's sisters kept complaining that they needed more room, even though Mr. and Mrs. Onimous had moved back to the Pets' Cafe. Fidelio Gunn's house was Billy's next temporary home. The Gunns were such a large family, they decided that one more child would hardly make any difference and they asked the social services to start drawing up some adoption papers.

  It was difficult to tell if Billy was happy with this arrangement. He smiled at the appropriate time and nodded his head when he was required to. But was he happy? He had taken to visiting the cathedral when Lyell Bone was practicing the organ. He would sit himself in a pew behind one of the great pillars, close his eyes, and listen. But his presence didn't go unnoticed.

  One day Lyell called to Billy and asked if he would like to learn how to play the organ.

  Billy crept shyly out of his hiding place and approached the great organ. Lyell helped him to place his fingers in the right places, and Billy was thrilled by the sound that came from the tall pipes. After the lesson they walked out of the cathedral together. It had begun to rain. It was only a light spring shower but enough to make them stop in the porch for a while.

  As they watched the rain bouncing on the shiny cobblestones, Lyell put a hand on Billy's shoulder and said, "Would you like to come and live with us?"

  Billy frowned. He took off his new glasses and rubbed the lenses with his thumb. "How long for?" he asked.

  Lyell smiled. "Forever."

  Billy replaced his glasses and stared straight ahead. He could hardly believe what he had heard. He felt
breathless, his throat closed up, and he wondered if he was going to die.

  Worried by Billy's silence, Lyell said, "I would do my best to be a good father."

  In a small, choked voice, Billy asked, "What about Charlie?"

  "It was his idea," said Lyell. "And Amy and I thought, well, we thought we'd really like another son." Lyell peered down at Billy's rigid face. "So how about it?"

  Billy couldn't believe it. The kindest, bravest man in all the world had just offered him life with a family he loved. Speechless, he clasped his arms around Lyell's waist and clung to him.

  "I'll take that as a yes," said Lyell.

  "There's just one thing," said Billy in a whisper, and he reached into his pocket. He felt that his life depended on Lyell's answer. "What about my rat?"

  Lyell took the proffered glossy black creature into his hands. "I'm particularly fond of rats," he said. "Welcome, Rembrandt."

  "Many thanks," squeaked Rembrandt.

  A week after the Easter holidays, Bloor's Academy opened under new management. It also had a new name. The Bone Academy. Dr. Saltweather's appointment as headmaster proved to be very popular, and Señor Alvaro replaced him as Head of Music. A few of the staff left -- old Mr. Paltry and Mr. Pope among them. They were considered no great loss. Cook moved back into her old apartment beneath the kitchen, but this time she said her closet door would always be open to children in need of cocoa and sympathy. Blessed spent most of his days lying beside her stove, and Dr. Saltweather visited her often.

  Cook brought her friend, Maisie Jones, back to the academy with her. Maisie spent her weekends with her family, of course, but every weekday she was queen of the green cafeteria in place of grumpy Bertha Weedon. It took only a few days of the new regime for every student to declare that the Bone Academy was the best and happiest school for miles.

  * * *

  Today the city is a very different place. It has a permanently springlike atmosphere. The three number thirteens in Darkly Wynd are deserted. No one knows where the four sisters and Eric have gone. The Loom family have left the city, and the Brankos' shop and cafe lie empty. Not so the Pets' Cafe. It reopened with a grand party. So many animals attended, there was scarcely any room for their owners. Gabriel arrived with enough gerbils for everyone, even Dagbert. Lysander came with his parrot, Homer, plus his girlfriend, Lauren, and her parrot, Cassandra.