Charlie Bone and the Red Knight. Jenny Nimmo

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      The dog grunted a couple of times and then waddled away through the arch.

      ‘How are you going to keep that promise, Charlie?’ said Gabriel. ‘Billy doesn’t even want to come back.’

      ‘He will.’ Charlie looked pointedly at Gabriel. ‘You wanted to tell me something, Gabe.’

      Gabriel grimaced. ‘I said you, Charlie, not everyone.’

      ‘We’re not everyone, Gabe.’ Olivia dug her elbow into his side. ‘Or is it just very, very private?’

      Gabriel shifted uneasily on the cold stone bench. ‘Not private exactly. I mean, I suppose it concerns you as much as anyone, being endowed.’

      ‘Come on, Gabe. I can’t bear the suspense,’ said Lysander.

      Gabriel stared at his hands rather than meeting anyone’s eye. ‘It’s about the Red Knight,’ he muttered.

      No one spoke. It was as if Gabriel had dropped a spell into the chilly air. He looked up and saw that they were taking him very seriously.

      ‘What about him?’ asked Charlie with a catch in his voice.

      ‘I think you’re the only one who’s seen him,’ said Gabriel, playing for time.

      ‘I’ve seen him,’ Olivia said quietly.

      ‘Oh, yes. I forgot.’ Gabriel had seldom seen such an earnest expression on Olivia’s face. It was encouraging. ‘As you know,’ he continued, ‘my family inherited the Red King’s cloak. It was kept in a chest under my parents’ bed and, as I told you before, the cloak disappeared just before the knight was seen.’

      Charlie nodded. ‘He was on the iron bridge, and he saved Liv and me from drowning. He’s saved my life twice now.’

      ‘The cloak was billowing all around him, like a great red cloud,’ Olivia said, elegantly demonstrating with her arms, ‘but we couldn’t see his face because of the helmet and the visor. We thought it might be the Red King himself, or his ghost.’

      ‘No,’ said Gabriel. ‘It wasn’t. I’ve thought and thought about it. I’ve gone over it in my mind, trying to remember every little detail –’

      ‘Buck up, Gabe,’ said Fidelio. ‘Some of the others are leaving the grounds. It’s nearly the end of break.’

      Fidelio’s interruption flustered Gabriel. He frowned with concentration while the others waited for him to continue.

      ‘It was one morning,’ Gabriel began, ‘very early, still night really, because the moon was up. Something woke me, I don’t know what. I went to the window to see if a fox had crept in and got one of our chickens. And I saw this figure in our yard in the moonlight. He was wearing a navy duffel coat with the hood up, so I couldn’t see his face. The funny thing was my dad was down there, talking to him in a very low voice, almost whispering really. And then my dad handed the man a parcel. Quite a big parcel, tied up with string. And then the man left. He crossed our yard and when he reached the gate, he gave my dad a wave, and then he was gone. And the next day I found that the cloak had disappeared, and I thought it must have been the man in the duffel coat who took it. And if my dad gave it to him, he must have trusted him.’

      ‘Or he was under some kind of spell,’ muttered Charlie.

      ‘It might not have been the king’s cloak, Gabe,’ said Lysander, standing up and rubbing his cold bottom. ‘I mean, we know your dad writes thrillers. It could have been a manuscript or a load of books.’

      Gabriel shook his head. ‘It was the cloak.’

      ‘What makes you so sure?’ asked Lysander.

      ‘Because the horse was there,’ said Gabriel, ‘the white mare: Queen Berenice. She was standing just beyond the hedge, waiting for the man, whoever he was.’

      The others stared at him for a moment, and then Lysander said, ‘Come on, we’d better get going.’

      They left the castle courtyard and began to run across the grass towards the school door. Just before they stepped into the hall, Charlie said, ‘Did you ask your dad about the stranger, Gabe?’

      ‘He told me I’d been dreaming,’ Gabriel said.

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