Author: Fleur Hitchcock
Category: Other
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CLIFFTOPPERS
The Stormy Point Adventure
The Thorn Island Adventure
For Lazlo and Ida
Ava unlocked the bike shed and hauled the bikes out into the soggy yard. It had rained all night, but now birds bounced through the puddles and chattered, and it felt as if, with the coming of the Easter holidays, spring could burst out at any second.
“Mine!” shouted her brother, Josh, grabbing the smallest bike before it fell.
“Mine,” echoed their cousin Chloe, catching the one with the painted flowers on it.
“And mine!” said Ava, leaping on to the biggest bike and pedalling like mad so that it wouldn’t fall over.
“Bella! Here!” shouted Josh as a white dog shot out of the shed in pursuit of a terrified rat. “Let’s go! I’m hungry.”
“Hang on, you lot, let me just check something,” Aiden, the second oldest of the four cousins, called from behind a large map of the Dragon Peninsula.
“Oh my god, Aiden,” said Ava. “We want to go have this picnic, like, today!”
“I’m only…” Aiden pushed his glasses up his nose and unfolded another piece of the map.
Chloe sighed.
Josh sighed theatrically.
Aiden ignored them, folded the map back into his backpack, picked up a black bike from the ground and brushed the cobwebs off it. He did an experimental circuit of the yard and pointed up the hill.
“Wait!” Grandma burst into the yard from the kitchen. “You’ve forgotten your lunch. Grandpa’s made cheese sandwiches for you, Chloe, and it’s tuna mayonnaise for the rest of you. Some fried chicken, Josh – and here’s emergency funds,” she said, handing a picnic bag to Aiden and money to Ava. “Don’t let Bella eat any chocolate, and we’ve got the Drake’s Bay Film Association here today, lots of very boring people, so no need to come back until the sun’s going to bed.”
“Thanks, Grandma,” shouted Chloe. “See you later.”
Grandma waved them off as Bella raced round the side of the farmhouse and joined Josh at the front.
As they climbed the hill away from the farm, the clouds parted and strong shafts of yellow sunlight broke through, shining down on to the lighthouse and the patchwork quilt of fields that surrounded Drake’s Bay and transforming the landscape. The tarmac dried instantly.
A second later, steam rose from the freshly washed fields, and Ava felt wonderfully free as she did every time they were allowed to come and stay here. She breathed in the fresh air and sensed the excitement start to build. It was always good at the farm. Somehow things always happened when all four cousins were together.
She stopped to strip off her waterproof and watched as the sunbeams turned the water in Drake’s Bay from grey to shimmering silver. She smiled. All this was a million miles away from her and Josh’s life in Birmingham, and she suspected from Aiden’s in London. And although Chloe had a garden, she didn’t have any brothers or sisters, or anyone to hang out with. All of them had busy parents, but their grandparents seemed to have all the time in the world.
It was heaven.
“Come on, sis. You’re taking ages!” Josh yelled over his shoulder.
Ava stood on her pedals and pushed the bike up the hill. Ahead of her the hedges became lower and the landscape flattened, and soon Ava was racing along, feeling the sun’s heat on her arms and legs and the spring breeze cooling her face.
“Left,” shouted Aiden.
They swung left, cycling almost in a line with Josh leading the way, and soon reached a T-junction with a big brown sign pointing right to Arrowhead Moor House and Gardens.
“Right!” yelled Josh, pedalling off towards the house.
Bella followed, strolling into the middle of the road and stopping to sniff the tarmac.
Just then a red open-top sports car shot over the brow of the hill.
“Bella!” screamed Aiden.
BEEP. Screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeech!
The car skidded to a halt, missing Bella by a dog’s length, and stopped just in front of Chloe’s front wheel.
“Hey!” shouted Josh. “You nearly—”
“Idiots!” shouted the woman behind the wheel. “Get that stupid dog off the road!”
“Sorry, we’ll keep her on the lead,” said Aiden, his freckled face turning bright red. “But … perhaps … perhaps you were driving too fast, and perhaps…” He pointed to the mobile phone in her hand.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake!” Without another word the woman threw the phone on the passenger seat, wrenched the wheel round and whizzed off towards Arrowhead Moor House.
Dropping her bike, Chloe ran over to Bella and gave her a hug. “You naughty dog, you’re supposed to look when you cross the road. We nearly lost you.”
Bella responded by barking at the car as it disappeared over the horizon.
“What a…” started Chloe, unable to find the words to finish her sentence.
“Exactly,” said Ava.
Josh took a little red notebook from his pocket and wrote down the number plate of the car. Going too fast. Using mobile phone while driving. “Can we do the picnic now?” he said. “I’m starving.”
Aiden was happy to amble along at the back, half his mind thinking about the car that had just missed Bella – and actually Chloe – and wondering why anyone would want to drive so fast on the moor. There was nothing up here apart from nature and sunshine. It was far too beautiful to race around in a car. He stopped and stretched his arms wide, letting the others get well ahead of him before reaching for the handlebars and pedalling crazily to catch up.
The landscape changed from moorland to fields and then back to moorland. Hedges appeared and disappeared as they cycled higher. The sun hid behind a cloud and a steady mizzle started up again, just enough to be refreshing but not to soak him. His glasses misted over and he paused to wipe them clean. Above, he heard a bird singing, and he wondered if it was a lark. He had a feeling that they lived on moors. He was still thinking about larks when they cycled through a small wood and passed the Three Witches pub on their left.
It was a dark pub with tiny diamond-pane windows. A few run-down sheds collected around its untidy yard. It wasn’t welcoming at the best of times, and right now in the rain it actually looked sinister. A hand-painted sign advertising rooms hung over the door, but Aiden couldn’t imagine any tourists staying there on purpose. The beds would be lumpy and there would be cobwebs.
The others raced on ahead, but Aiden slowed. He needed to clean his glasses properly, so he was almost at a halt when he spotted the red open-top car parked alongside the pub. Resting his bike against a collapsing shed, he took off his glasses and wiped them carefully on his T-shirt. It gave him an excellent opportunity to take a really good look at the car.
He was thinking of wandering over to peer in when the door to the pub slammed open.
“So I expect absolute silence on your part,” said a woman to someone he couldn’t see.
It was her – the woman who’d nearly squished Bella. Now he could see her properly she looked very out of place, like someone who had just stepped out of a department store in New York. She wore red high heels and a shiny black mac pulled tight at the waist. Her hair was very black, dyed black, and she was now wearing dark glasses. Why would you wear dark glasses when it was raining?
“I’ll be back later. Take any messages,” she ordered.
He crouched by his bike and pretended to check the tyres, listening all the while. A second later, she revved the engine and the car shot past him into the lane. Tyres skidding, it headed towards Arrowhead Moor House.
He watched the spray behind the car disappear as it went down a dip in
the road. The woman was driving far too fast. No wonder she’d nearly hit them.
Thinking about strange behaviour and sports cars and women looking out of place in red high heels, Aiden climbed back on his bike and headed down the road, pushing his legs a little harder to catch up with the others. He knew he was approaching the house when the first cherry trees smothered in blossom began to line the road. Then there were neat barns and fields of tiny lambs, and finally huge terracotta pots jammed full of bold orange tulips. By the time he reached the others they were already in the queue for tickets.
“So, four of you? Who’s the oldest? Who’s got the money?” said the man behind the counter.
“She has,” said Josh, pointing at Ava. “She’s twelve, he’s eleven, and she –” he pointed at Chloe – “she’s only a bit older than me.”
“I’m nine,” said Chloe. “He’s eight.”
“Nearly nine,” said Josh.
“Ah. Out for a picnic, are you?” The man nodded at the bag Aiden was carrying.
“Yes, and we’re starving. Where can we eat our picnic?” asked Josh.
The man looked over his glasses at Josh and smiled. “The picnic area is just round the back of the house, on the cobbles. And when you’re done, see if you can find the missing sheep. They were taken from here in the night.”
Josh pinched his brows together and took the entrance tickets that the man held out. “Sheep?” he said.
“Yup, from our farm buildings. Someone stole twenty pedigree ewes. All of them are about to lamb. There’s been quite a hoo-ha about them.”
Josh wrote this in his notebook.
“Are they worth a lot?” asked Chloe.
“Several thousand pounds apparently…” The man peered past Chloe at something on the far side of the room. “Is that your dog?”
In the minute they’d been standing there, Bella had found a packet of biscuits behind one of the counters and was already crunching through the packaging.
Josh opened his mouth to ask something else, but Ava took him by the elbow and Aiden grabbed Bella by the collar and they dragged them both out of the visitor centre.
“Here,” Ava said, handing Josh the picnic blanket. “Go and find us somewhere to eat.”
Full of Grandpa Edward’s almost-as-good-as-Grandpa-Winston’s jerk chicken, Josh left the others examining the rest of the picnic and headed off to explore and see if he could find anything out about the missing sheep. He was surprised that a bunch of pooey sheep were worth thousands, but that made the hunt more worthwhile. The sun shone, the air was fresh and Josh felt good. Skipping over the grass, he leaped a molehill and started jumping between the tussocks. Then he noticed that a herd of curious cows were following him. “Ooh!” he said, swerving to avoid them and racing towards the long iron fence that separated the deer park from the gardens. The cows sped up, tails swinging, breathing heavily through wet nostrils as they followed him over the lumpy grass.
Josh changed gear. He moved from lollop to sprint, bouncing across the turf, forcing his legs to go faster and faster.
The cows became more interested, and the first excited cow broke into a trot.
“Yow,” said Josh, leaping for the fence.
He made it over just as the whole herd shuffled into a stampede.
“Ha!” he shouted when he was safe on the other side.
He headed for the stream that he knew ran down from the house across the moor. Dodging round the walls of the garden, Josh ducked under a strand of wire and, balancing on tussocks, made his way towards the stile and the small coppice of trees that he knew surrounded the stream. It was a natural enclosure. It would be a fine place to hide sheep.
Cows’ hooves had made deep dark brown sucky holes in the turf, which joined together to make ponds and even lakes. He teetered on the edge of a particularly large pooey sea before launching himself across the few grassy islands that lay between him and the stile.
“Ah!” He grabbed at the wooden crossbeam and only lost the front of one trainer to the brown goo. “Yay!” he shouted as he got both feet on to the plank of the stile. He jumped over the fence, straight into a stream hidden under the long grass.
“Aaargh!” The water was freezing and Josh leaped out the other side, jumping over trailing ivy and scrambling up stones until he reached the edge of the clump of trees. He stopped to examine his feet. Sopping wet trainers with sopping wet socks. He sat on the ground to empty the water from his shoes and looked up to see a woman standing in another group of trees, slightly further away from the house, looking around her.
Josh paused, a shoe in his hand. She was definitely checking to see if anyone was watching.
Still holding his shoe, he backed into the trees, nestling under an overhanging branch and pulling his sweatshirt hood over his head. If he stayed really still, she probably wouldn’t see him.
She was tall, wearing a black mac and stupid red shiny shoes. Nearly everyone else here was wearing walking boots and green-coloured waterproofs, so she looked really out of place.
From under his hood Josh watched as she hooked a black holdall over a branch as if to keep it safe while she leaned over to inspect the mud on her shoes. The branch bowed under the weight. She remained looking at her shoe for the longest time, inspecting her other shoe too, and then stepped away, leaving the bag.
Instinctively Josh sprang up and raced over the lumpy grass. “Hey! Miss!” he shouted. “You’ve forgotten your bag!”
The woman swung her gaze towards him and for a second she looked as if she was going to run. Her expression went from bewildered to furious to fake happy.
Josh narrowed his eyes. The woman from the speeding car.
“On the tree, there…” Josh pointed at the little group of trees and the black zipped bag dangling from the branch.
“Oh! Goodness me,” said the woman, her funny, trilling laugh dancing over the meadow. “How silly of me and how helpful of you.”
She took a couple of paces back and yanked the bag from the branch before striding, as much as she could stride in her silly shoes, back towards Arrowhead Moor House.
“Eeew,” said Chloe, picking at a huge lump of chocolate icing that had dripped from her slice of cake on to her jeans. “I’m going to have to go and wash this off.”
A moment later, Josh came squelching back towards them, waving his arms.
“Oh my god, Josh. You’ve been so long that Chloe’s wandered off. What happened?” said his sister crossly.
Out of breath, Josh threw himself on to the bench. “Got to tell you … that woman,” he puffed. “Behaving like…” He pulled the corners of his mouth down and widened his eyes.
“Is that s’posed to be scary?” asked Ava.
“Weird. Hey!” He pointed at Grandpa’s chocolate cake. “Can I have a bit of that?” Aiden handed him a chunk. “She hung a really huge heavy bag in a tree in the middle of nowhere. Maybe she’s the sheep thief.”
“What woman?” asked Ava, moving the cake out of Bella and Josh’s reach.
“The one that ran us over,” said Josh, biting into the cake so hard that the buttercream filling squidged out of the far side.
“Hang on – you’ve just seen her?” asked Aiden.
Josh nodded.
“That’s weird because I saw her too. On the way here. She was at the Three Witches on the moor. Talking to someone – telling them to keep quiet.”
“Definitely the same woman?” asked Ava.
Both the boys nodded.
“I’d know her anywhere,” said Josh. “She was like Mrs Andrews – the PE teacher with sticky-out teeth and nail varnish.”
“Uh?” said Ava.
“Oh, you know, all shiny and bags and make-up and stuff.” Josh waved his arms around, vaguely describing big hair. “And high heels – very high heels.”
“How long ago?”
“Oh.” Josh shook his head from side to side. “Minutes – I took a shortcut, but she took the path, still carrying the bag.”
>
“Do you think she was doing something … criminal?” asked Aiden.
“I dunno,” said Josh. “But it was a really odd place to leave a bag.”
“There must be something important inside it,” said Ava, suddenly finding her brother interesting rather than irritating, “that someone else wants.”
Aiden dropped Bella’s lead to stand on the bench and scour the car park. “There it is – her car. It’s over in the shady bit by the gift shop.”
“So she’s still here, somewhere,” said Ava.
“I’m going to go and look in the car,” said Josh, stuffing a second slab of cake into his mouth.
“No! Josh – don’t! Wait!” shouted Ava, but he was already running towards the car park followed by Bella, her lead bouncing behind her. “Watch out for Bella, idiot!” she shouted across the people milling through the courtyard. A woman turned round and stared, and Ava suddenly found her sandwich very interesting.
Chloe wandered the gardens, searching for the toilets. A sign with a cup and saucer on it sent her past an old red telephone box and along a path that was completely overhung with wet grasses and big white daisies.
There was no way she was going to wade through it, but if she could just squeeze through the gap at the back of the telephone box… Just then, she heard muffled talking.
“I’m here,” said a woman’s voice. “Yes, at the Arrowhead Moor House phone box. No mobile phone signal in this hideous wilderness.”
Chloe froze, listening.
“No, this wretched boy tried to give it back to me. Yes, I know – so I’ve still got it.”
Chloe peered through the side of the box. Red shoes. And that voice. It was the woman who’d nearly run them over earlier, wasn’t it? In the red car?
“So what do you want to do about it?” snapped the woman.
The end of Chloe’s nose began to itch. Oh no, not hay fever, not already. She pressed her finger against her top lip like Grandpa had taught her to stop the sneeze.