This was a day that everyone in Horsmarlonerpool had being looking forward to for weeks.
Everyone had it in their diaries in big letters - ‘The Ball at the Palace’.
Since Helen and Jensen had returned from the Skylands with news that Prince Barnaby and Princess Agnetha had invited the whole town to a ball, everyone had been making new clothes and practicing their dancing. Nobody, aside from Lord and Lady Devonroe, had ever been to a royal palace before - let alone a proper, official ball.
Maggie always looked forward to visiting her Uncle Nathanial. Not only did he always give the best birthday and Christmas presents ever, but even when it wasn’t your birthday or Christmas, even if - like today - it was just a normal weekend, Uncle Nathanial always managed to be a little bit nuts, and a little bit magical.
Maggie loved him coming to visit her house, of course, but the thing she looked forward to the most was when she was invited down to his cottage - in the countryside, out past Lomberstack Mountain.
When Kaolin and Olive arrived at Half Hitch school one Friday morning they went to Mrs Kipper’s classroom as normal but found all their friends standing outside the locked door.
“What’s the matter, why can’t we go inside?” asked Kaolin.
“We don’t know where Mrs Kipper is!” replied Mateo.
“Someone said she’s gone on holiday to another planet,” said Alexis, excitedly.
“Another planet?” said Olive. “But how?”
Vaila was looking forward to her birthday more than any birthday she’d had before. Because whilst her present was normally a surprise - this year she knew exactly what she was getting and it was the only thing she wanted in the world.
She was getting not one kitten, but two.
Because she knew what she was getting, and because she knew that there was one boy kitten and one girl kitten, she had already named them before they arrived. They were to be called: Pearl and Ocean.
Jennifer was in Mr Bloom’s class at Half Hitch Elementary. The classroom was the same size as Mrs Kipper’s next door, and everyone sat with their tables in a big circle so everyone could look at each other.
Mr Bloom, who Jennifer thought was a wonderful teacher, normally stood in the middle of this circle. He had a wonderful voice, and everyone enjoyed listening to him and asking questions. The only time he’d stop with his lesson is when the green speaker in the far high corner of the classroom crackled in to life - because this was the speaker that Mrs Perrinpeas, the headmistress, would use for special announcements.
Nolan and Sebastian would often go over to play at each other’s houses, but if he was being honest; Nolan preferred going to Sebastian’s house the most. Because in his garden, Sebastian had the most incredible treehouse - easily the best that Nolan ever seen.
If you looked from the back door of the house, it looked quite small and simple. Just a ladder going up into a square wooden hut in the lower branches of the large oak tree. But once you’d climbed up into that, there was another passage leading off the far wall of the room which led to a higher room at the back of the tree. And from there, you could climb up through the ceiling into a wooden shaft - with slats on the inside for your hands and feet to grip onto - into another higher room right in the middle of the enormous oak. And from there, a rope ladder took you up to an open platform near the top of the tree which was SO high that you could look over Sebastian’s house in one direction, and far, far over the fields towards the Meadows in the other direction.
Because the Skylands were so much further to the north than Horsmarlonerpool, at least a three hour express train journey, the summer days were very long, and the winter days were very short.
In fact, the days right in the middle of summer were so long that it was still light until nearly midnight, and then only dark for three and a half hours before the sun would come up again.
And the people of the Skylands knew that they were so lucky to have these special summer days, that on mid-summer’s night, they celebrated it in the most wonderful way possible. Captain Hercule would fly into the town of Marbleglow in his gigantic zeppelin - a floating airship as long as a skyscraper is tall - a huge balloon-like structure the shape of a marrow. And below it, a large set of rooms and cabins for people to ride in.
Theo, Scarlett and James were all in Mr Wiggins’ class at Bluesky school in Marbleglow - the main town in the Skylands, far to the north of Horsmarlonerpool.
One Tuesday morning, Mr Wiggins had a special announcement to make - tomorrow, the whole of their year were going on a special school trip to the White Tunnels.
The class looked at each other with a mixture of excitement and nervousness. The White Tunnels were mysterious places that began in a large cave in the rocks on the outskirts of town. But nobody knew where they went, or how far they went. Nobody had ever been brave enough to explore them fully.
There are many little streets in the Old Town of Horsmarlonerpool, some of them are quite busy with shoppers and people going about their business, and others are quieter and peaceful. Some are quite wide, like Pepperpot Street and Candlesmoke Lane, whilst others are thin and twisty with barely enough room for people to pass.
On the corner where one of the smaller streets - Tinker’s Lane - meets one of the larger streets - Cherrypie Street - is a very old red phone box that doesn’t look like it’s been used for years.
Lord and Lady Devonroe were eating breakfast in the morning room at Castle Earnose. They always ate the same thing - two boiled eggs each that the castle chickens had laid that morning in the garden, and three slices of smashberry jam on toast.
Often, they’d invite two friends to join them, and today Helen and Jensen (who were both regular visitors to the castle because they were friends with Lord and Lady D) had got up nice and early to come and join them.
