Horatio Talbot & the Secret of the Crinkleberry Tree

By Melissa Nourse

A loving father disappears without a trace in the middle of the night. It is then left to Horatio, his young son, to take over the care of a very special tree, which produces a most unusual fruit – a crinkleberry. Once this berry is harvested, more mysterious events take place, which begin to explain why his father vanished in the first place. But can Horatio, and his new magical friend, Farildah, solve the secret of the crinkleberry tree in time? And even if they do, will they then be able to find a way to help his father return?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Sep 16, 2015
• ISBN: 9781483436968

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NOURSE

Copyright © 2015 Melissa Jane Nourse.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3697-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-3696-8 (e)

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 08/19/2015

CONTENTS

Chapter 1   The Disappearance Of Harald Talbot

Chapter 2   The Crinkleberry Tree

Chapter 3   New Friends

Chapter 4   Plans In The Attic

Chapter 5   Plans In Action

Chapter 6   Spying On Main Street

Chapter 7   The Traitor

Chapter 8   Nazlo’s Arrival

About The Author

For Jacinto, Mikaeli and Miko –

And other believers in magic.

‘And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.’

-Roald Dahl, The Minpins

CHAPTER 1

The Disappearance of Harald Talbot

H oratio Talbot would always remember the details of that night clearly. The night when his neat and tidy childhood came unstitched and was never the same again. Later in life, he would remember how he had lay neatly tucked up in bed that evening, a fire glowing in the grate, whilst a wild winter storm raged on outside their cottage. In the dark, the rain pounded on the iron roof and pelted against the windows, but inside was as warm as toast. He remembered snuggling into his lanky father who had been reading him a bedtime story. His father had been stretched out beside him with one skinny leg crossed over the other; his large red socks coming to rest against the wooden bed-end. Horatio imagined his own tangled auburn ringlets spreading out against the plump white pillow. It was 1926 and Horatio was nearly 7 years old. Horatio did not know that this would be the last night he would see his father for quite a while – years, in fact. Instead, as his face rested against the soft sleeve of his father’s cardigan, he was merely wondering why his father was the only man who wore bright red socks in their small village of Stone End.

In those days, Stone End was little more than a handful of houses clinging to the edge of a mountain on the far side of the world. It was a place nestled in the upper reaches of Pinkstone Peak; a jagged mountain of pinkish granite on the east coast of Tasmania - itself an island stranded off the rugged southern coast of Australia. Being a neighbor of Antarctica, it was then not surprising that it was frequently blasted by the frosty winds from the Southern Pole. On this night, a gale had whipped and roared around the house. The wind howled with fury - rattling the windows in their solid sandstone walls, howling down the chimney and tearing leaves from their tender branches. As the rain lashed the roof, a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky. His father stopped reading for a moment and turned to the window, a thoughtful look in his eyes. A perfect storm, he murmured. Horatio snuggled in even closer and fell asleep halfway through the adventures of a boy called Aladdin.

In the morning, Horatio awoke and pushed off the heavy blankets to find the small household in chaos. He could hear raised voices in the living room across the hall. He crawled out of bed and stumbled to the open doorway. His tearful mother was pacing up and down the room, her hands shaking, whilst Mrs. Cockles, the housekeeper, was pulling her coat and hat back on, even though she had just arrived to work. Horatio soon discovered that sometime between midnight and dawn, his father had vanished into the night.

Horatio was standing barefoot beside his mother, the cold floorboards chilling his feet, when he realized there was a strange weight around his neck. He looked down to discover a large oval locket made of gold suspended from an equally heavy gold chain around his neck. As he lifted the locket in his hand, its cool weight was heavy in his warm palm. He knew instantly that it was a locket made