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    Jack Pepper at Towton
    Jack Pepper at Towton
    Jack Pepper at Towton
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    Jack Pepper at Towton

    By Martin Tarpey

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    About this ebook

    ‘Jack Pepper At Towton’ is an exciting contemporary adventure story for young people. This is the second story in the series following on from ‘Jack Pepper and the Whitby Treasure.’
    Jack, Grace, Emma, Ben and Lucy are 14 years old and in the same class at their comprehensive school in Leeds, Matthew is Jack’s younger cousin and is in his final year at primary school. They live near Towton battlefield, scene of the most terrible battle in the Wars of the Roses, which they are studying at school.
    Jack has the reputation of being able to find things and his friends think he can discover relics left from the Battle of Towton. Jack says he only finds things through chance or coincidence, but he accepts the challenge.
    The kids go exploring the battlefield at weekends and in saving the life of Matthew’s dog, they discover some remarkable original battlefield artefacts. They are already very rich from discovering Roman Treasure in their previous adventure at Whitby and in this story Jack makes an astonishing discovery about himself.
    This story tells of medieval warfare, archery, knights in armour and what happened in one of the most horrific battles in English history. Jack and his friends learn of the battle and see where 28,000 men perished in this terrible battle fought in a snowstorm in 1461.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMartin Tarpey
    Release dateNov 3, 2013
    ISBN9781310536113
    Jack Pepper at Towton

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      Book preview

      Jack Pepper at Towton - Martin Tarpey

      Jack Pepper at Towton

      Martin Tarpey

      Published by Martin Tarpey at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 Martin Tarpey

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, lease purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Table of Contents

      Chapter 1 - Past Glories

      Chapter 2 - Disaster

      Chapter 3 - D for Dog

      Chapter 4 - A Great Idea

      Chapter 5 - The Plot Thickens

      Chapter 6 - Time for Action

      Chapter 7 - Freedom

      Chapter 8 - The Right Place

      Chapter 9 - Action Sunday

      Chapter 10 - Life and Death

      Chapter 11 - The Treasure Tree

      Chapter 12 - The Reckoning

      Chapter 13 - Wildfire

      Chapter 14 - End Game

      Chapter 15 - Fate

      Chapter 1 Past Glories

      Jack Pepper leaned back in his chair and gave an enormous yawn that stretched down to his toes and back. He scratched his ginger head as the winter rain beat against the window and winked at Grace and Lucy across the classroom. Would this lesson ever end? No football today he thought.

      ‘I saw your tonsils then Jack Pepper, they’re pinker than they were yesterday,’ growled old Williams his history teacher, glaring at him. ‘Careful lad or you’ll dislocate your jaw tomorrow.’

      Jack grinned at his teacher’s joke, they never really get it do they, you know what I mean, they get kids to smile but not laugh. They try, but they’re not really on the same wavelength. Could do better!

      Jack drifted back into his daydream again about a medieval battle. He saw thousands of archers shooting hundreds of thousands of arrows from their longbows high into the morning sky. A great whistling sound filled the air as arrows rained down through the snow on the enemy. Knights in shining armour fought desperate battles round their flags and standards, their swords red with the morning’s work.

      It seemed a long time since last year when Jack and his four mates discovered the Whitby Treasure that made them very rich and famous. That fabulous gold chain and Roman eagle that Jack had found in the cliff rocks was now displayed in the Yorkshire Museum in York, along with the other jewels they recovered.

      Jack, Ben, Grace, Lucy and Matthew knew they were lucky to escape that adventure with their lives. Jack had saved Matthew from certain death when he climbed down the cliff onto the treacherous narrow ledge where the eight year old had fallen. The three kids had then tied their coat sleeves together and hauled them to safety.

      They had each become a millionaire and in the winter the families met advisers to make sure that money from the sale of the Treasure was properly invested. They spent money on holidays, clothes and gifts, but Jack said it was important that their fortunes were salted away until they were older.

      It was an amazing day when the Lord Mayor of York opened the new Museum display gallery for the Whitby Treasure. There were many special guests invited and television and radio programmes broadcast the news across the world.

      The school ordered a fleet of buses to bring all the children in the school to the opening and Jack insisted that the cost should be paid from the Treasure Trove money; everybody thought that this was a brilliant idea. Old Williams said the school wanted to show how proud they all were of their children. Jack and his friends had made the school world famous.

      The kids enjoyed the ceremony and the expensive sandwich lunch provided for them all and they looked around the Museum in the afternoon. Jack said that it was better than being in school all day!

      ‘Jack Pepper, are you still day dreaming lad?’ The teacher’s voice cracked like a whip across the room. ‘Thinking of past glories eh? Well you’ve a right to be proud. But forget what you did and concentrate on what you’re doing now.’

      Old Williams was a hard task master thought Ben as Lucy looked at the chipped varnish on her nails. Grace was puzzled as to why Jack still seemed tired even though he had given up his milk round. She smiled at Emma, a new girl who had just joined the class since her family had moved into the area; old Williams had asked Grace to look after her until she settled in. Emma was a very friendly, popular girl who fitted in extremely well with her new friends; she had just moved from Cheshire.

      ‘We’re starting on a new topic Jack, the Wars of the Roses, when England had two kings. You’ll find this very exciting.’ Jack groaned. Whenever a teacher said something was going to be interesting, it usually turned out to be very boring. It was what they all said he thought, one of the tricks they use to get the kids going. They’re trained to say it at college, or wherever they come from. Old Williams saw that Jack was unimpressed.

      ‘All right then Jack. I’ll say a word, a simple word, a magic word. I have heard about your cycle rides round a local medieval battlefield, so you will know what I mean. This word will make you keen to start our new topic. The class looked dumbfounded. Magic word, what was old Williams on about? Had he flipped his lid? What was going on?

      Everyone looked at Jack. He was always good fun and you never knew what he was going to do next. He smiled at the girls and shrugged his shoulders at Ben. But the class wanted to know the magic word, the word that would get Jack going again. The teacher was enjoying the atmosphere that had crept over the class.

      ‘Jack! Will you tell them the magic word?’ The class were spell bound. Jack smiled confidently at Grace but Lucy wasn’t interested in the silly game that Old Williams was playing. You could have heard a pin drop.

      ‘Right Jack, we’ve played around long enough, let’s have it. Tell them the word!’

      Everybody looked at Jack who suddenly hesitated. Grace saw a furrow cross his brow, his eyes looked troubled, he caught his breath. Lucy thought that he wasn’t going to reply, but Ben knew that he would.

      Old Williams could feel the moment slipping away. There was something going on here, something he didn’t understand. What had he missed? What had spooked Jack Pepper? In a softer, gentler tone he urged the lad to reply.

      ‘Come on Jack, spit it out. Tell us the magic word?’

      Jack paused. He remembered how he felt coldness in his heart before they went to Whitby, that sense of dread, that fear of the unknown, something mysterious. He had that same feeling as he looked at Grace and heard himself say in a loud, clear voice.

      ’Towton. The magic word is Towton.’

      Chapter 2 Disaster

      After school they all went straight round to Jack’s house for tea. They did this every Monday night; it was a ritual that they all looked forward to. Monday night was Jack’s night they used to say and they always ordered a meal from a local restaurant. Jack asked them if they wanted to eat a Chinese takeaway, but Lucy said they should try Indian food tonight for a change. Grace found the menu card, asked what they all wanted; she then rang up the local restaurant and placed the order.

      They all liked spicy food but Matthew preferred Italian; he liked pizza, pasta and chocolate ice cream best. Jack said that English fish and chips were his favourite food and always would be. Lucy put the plates in the oven to warm while Jack set the table and poured the orange juice.

      They used the house as if they all lived here; it’s what the two Peppers wanted, they had become like one big happy family since the Whitby adventure. Grace always ordered an extra serving of chicken tikka massala, to keep warm for Phil Pepper for when he came in from work at the printers. All the kids liked Jack’s dad with his free and easy manner.

      Phil worked part-time at the ‘The Volunteer’ pub in the evenings, so Jack was usually on his own at nights. Jack didn’t mind, but he once told Grace that he missed his mother who had left years ago to live with someone else. Phil felt guilty that he hadn’t tried harder to stop his wife leaving him, so he welcomed Jack’s friends using the house freely. He didn’t like Jack always being on his own. Jack loved

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