AJ couldn’t see much as Ingleby guided him out of the tavern.
‘Just keep walking,’ Ingleby said quietly. ‘Don’t turn round. Face the future.’
If there was still earth under his feet AJ couldn’t feel it as he locked Jobey’s door. Some journeys, no matter how short they might be, are harder than others. Never again in AJ’s life would he make one as painful as the one he made that night.
He was halfway home before he realised the key was in his pocket.
Acknowledgements
A huge thank you to Jacky Bateman for her untiring patience and her inspiration in my foggiest moments. She is a trusted light.
I am grateful to Charles Henty, the Secondary of London, who showed me round the Old Bailey and to Jeffrey Freeman for introducing me to James Shortall, the Senior Clerk at 29 Bedford Row. James took time out of his very busy schedule to talk to me and to assure me that someone like AJ would stand a chance being given an interview at such prestigious chambers.
Finally I want to thank a ghost. George Edinger left me his library and a love of history. He believed the past was alive in the present and the present is all that is absent from the past.
ALSO BY SALLY GARDNER
Maggot Moon
Tinder
The Double Shadow
The Red Necklace
The Silver Blade
I, Coriander
Wings & Co
Sally Gardner
Sally Gardner is a multi-award-winning novelist whose work has been translated into more than twenty-two languages. Her novel MAGGOT MOON (Hot Key Books) won both the Costa Children’s Book Prize and the Carnegie Medal 2013. Sally’s genre-defying novel THE DOUBLE SHADOW (Orion) received great critical acclaim and was also longlisted for the Carnegie Medal 2013. THE RED NECKLACE (shortlisted for 2007 Guardian Book Prize) and THE SILVER BLADE are set during the French Revolution, the film rights for which have been purchased by Dominic West. Sally also won the 2005 Nestlé Children’s Book Prize for her debut novel I, CORIANDER. She is currently writing the popular WINGS & CO Fairy Detective Agency Series (Orion) for 7–11-year-olds – hailed as ‘Agatha Christie for kids’ – and has recently released her latest Young Adult fiction novel, which is a modern gothic tale called TINDER, illustrated by David Roberts (Orion). Follow Sally at www.sallygardner.net or on Twitter: @TheSallyGardner
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First published in Great Britain in 2015 by Hot Key Books
Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT
Text copyright © Sally Gardner 2015
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0110-7
This eBook was produced using Atomik ePublisher
www.hotkeybooks.com
Hot Key Books is part of the Bonnier Publishing Group
www.bonnierpublishing.com
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