Goth Girl and the Pirate Queen: World Book Day Edition 2015
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‘Contestant number six!’ ‘I can’t bear the clippety-clop!’ declared Empress Anna Winter icily. Beau Peeps snapped shut his notebook in frustration.
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‘And finally, contestant number seven . . .’ ‘I love that tail!’ exclaimed the Siren Sesta. ‘Beautifully tailored,’ added Beau Peeps. ‘Love those deck slippers!’ trilled Empress Anna Winter. ‘What is that delicious-looking thing she’s
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holding?’ asked the Prince Regent. ‘I think we have a clear winner!’ boomed Beau Peeps as the other judges nodded in agreement. ‘The mermaid dress by Horatia Hornblow – worn so elegantly by Miss Goth!’ The ball-goers broke into wild applause, the dedicated followers of fashion noting down Horatia’s name in little black books, and the fashionable ladies jotting it on the back of their fans. Ada gathered up her fishtail and carefully descended the steps from the walkway. She approached the Prince Regent’s upholstered throne and gave a curtsy, her mermaid tail swishing as she did so. The Prince Regent reached into his waistcoat. Taking out a rolled tape measure, he unfurled it and placed it around Ada’s neck. ‘Please present the golden tape measure of fashionability to your dressmaker, Miss Goth,’ he said.
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‘I’d be honoured to.’ Ada smiled and shivered with pride. She held out the stick of rock. ‘And please accept this seaside confectionery with the compliments of Tall Nell of the Bolde Curiosity Shoppe.’ She glanced over her shoulder at the ball-goers. ‘You’ll find her shop on the Not-Quite-a-Palace pier – just ask for a stick of Brighton rock. It’s the very latest fashion!’
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The Prince Regent nibbled the end of the stick of rock, and his face creased into a delighted smile. ‘Delicious!’ he declared.
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Epilogue da was delighted to get back home to Ghastly-Gorm Hall. She had had a wonderful time in fashionable Brighton by the seaside, but she was missing her father, her governess Lucy and her friends in the Attic Club. After all, she had been away for a whole month. There had been picnic parties on the Downs, beach parties on the pebbles and supper parties in the enormous kitchen of the Brighton Pavilion. Horatia Hornblow’s frocks were the talk of the town and she even had to import naval uniforms from Switzerland to keep up with the demand. Meanwhile Tall Nell’s Brighton rock had become so popular that she expanded the Bolde Curiosity Shoppe into the other beach huts on the Not-Quite-a-Palace pier, which had been vacated by Lady Vivienne
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Dashwood and Jean-Paul Goatee when they had moved to Hove in a huff. ‘I’ve brought you each a stick of Brighton rock,’ Ada announced at the first meeting of the Attic Club since her return. She handed the rock around. ‘This tastes delicious!’ said Emily’s brother William, turning the same stripy colours as the Brighton rock.
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‘We’ve missed you, Ada,’ said her best friend, Emily Cabbage. ‘There’s lots to catch up on,’ said Kingsley the chimney caretaker. ‘I’ve oiled and polished your hobby-horse bicycle,’ added Arthur Halford the hobby-horse groom. ‘The best thing about holidays,’ said Ada, ‘is the feeling you get when you come back home!’ ‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ said Emily excitedly. ‘Some very interesting visitors* are coming to Ghastly-Gorm Hall . . .’
* If you want to find out who these visitors are you’ll have to wait for the next Goth Girl book!
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Look out for . . .
Coming soon!
And also by
For the first time in paperback!
Turn the page to read an exclusive extract from
Frank Cottrell Boyce is the award-winning author of Millions, Framed, Cosmic and the new Chitty Chitty Bang Bang novels. He is also a successful writer of film scripts and, along with Danny Boyle, devised the Opening Ceremony for the London 2012 Olympics. He lives in Merseyside with his family.
While the City Sleeps, an Unknown Hero Watches Over It from His Lonely Outpost on the Rooftops Every story has a hero. All you have to do is make sure it’s you. On my first night in Woolpit Royal Teaching Hospital, I thought my chance had come. The boy in the next bed sleepwalked. Hands straight down by his side, head held high, like a piece of spooky Playmobil he sleepwalked right up to the ward door, which is locked with a security code. I didn’t want to bother the night nurse, so I followed him. He typed some numbers into the keypad. The door opened and off he went along the empty hospital corridors, through a staff canteen – where I was distracted by cheese – and out of the fire door. I thought we’d walked on to the street. I’d forgotten we were twelve floors up.
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We were standing in the doorway of a kind of hut thing right up on the hospital roof. Miles below, the city twinkled like a massive Christmas tree. The boy did the spooky Playmobil right to the edge of the roof. One more step and SPLAT! he would be a splodge of jam on the pavement hundreds of feet below. I thought about shouting his name, but what if he woke up, got scared and fell? His name by the way was Tommy-Lee Komissky – though everyone called him ‘Grim Komissky’. And mine is Rory Rooney. We were in the same class at school. He was the biggest and meanest. I was the smallest and weakest. I could tell you stories about the times he squashed my sandwiches, the times he threw my bag off the back of the bus, the times he threw me off the bus. But I wasn’t thinking about that now. I was thinking – this is it, this is one hundred per cent my chance to be a hero. All I have to do is save his life.
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As long as he doesn’t take another step, it’ll be easy. There was a flash of lightning. He flinched. I blinked. There was a rumble of thunder. He took another step. Then Grim Komissky fell off the roof. The Next Thing I Knew . . . I saw him fall. I was standing in the doorway on the far side of the roof. There was nothing I could do to help him. But the next thing I knew . . . I was standing next to him.
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On the ground. Between a row of wheelie bins and a skip. I’d saved him. I looked up at the roof twelve storeys above us. How had we got from there to here? How? Well the truth is, I am astounding. And this is the story of how I became astounding.
Ada Goth is in the fashionable seaside town of Brighton for the World Frock Day Ball, where all the most fashionable people show off their fashionable dresses, but she has lost the money Lord Goth gave her to buy a gown. Ada must come up with a plan or she won’t be able to go to the ball after all. Can the mysterious stranger she meets at the beach save the day?
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