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    Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle
    Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle
    Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle
    Ebook82 pages53 minutes

    Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle

    By Karen Wallace

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    About this ebook

    Quagmire Castle is the much-loved, but totally dilapidated, home to a motley cast of humans and ghosts. When it comes to saving the Castle from demolition at the hands of the the gruesome bank manager, Gordon Grabbit, Aunt Tabitha's solution is to start knitting. Fortunately, her niece and nephew, Emily and Jack, are determined to preserve their beloved home. Meanwhile, upstairs in the attic, the whist-playing ghosts, Dudley and Delicia (together with their pet monkey, Powderball), can smell trouble, too. Soon, it's all hands to the pump (even if some of those hands are see-through) in an effort to save Quagmire Castle. And nobody could ever have predicted the chaos and hilarity that will ensue! This is a laugh-a-minute action adventure with as madcap a cast of characters as you're ever likely to meet. Another winner from the highly-acclaimed author of Something Slimy on Primrose Drive - which sold out in hardback virtually upon publication.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateDec 19, 2011
    ISBN9781408165874
    Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle
    Author

    Karen Wallace

    Karen Wallace is an award-winning author of children's books. Her first novel for older readers, Raspberries on the Yangtze (Simon & Schuster) was shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize. The first in her series for younger readers, The Crunchbone Castle Chronicles, published by A&C Black, was selected for the Summer Reading Challenge in 2006. The Goosepimple Bay Sagas was a World Book Day recommended read in 2008 and Li Fu's Great Aim was chosen for the recent Boys into Books promotion.

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      Book preview

      Quirky Times at Quagmire Castle - Karen Wallace

      To the incredible Carrie

      Contents

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      About the Author

      QUIRKY TIMES AT QUAGMIRE CASTLE

      Life couldn’t be worse for Jack and Emily.

      Quagmire Castle, their beloved,

      crumbling home, is going to be sold.

      Then they meet their long-lost ghostly

      ancestors, and everything changes

      overnight! Soon, it’s all hands to the

      pump to save Quagmire Castle –

      with hilarious results no one could

      ever have imagined!

      Chapter One

      Gordon Grabbit wrinkled his nose as if there was a bad smell in the air and stared at Quagmire Castle. He didn’t see wonderful turrets that needed a bit of patching here and there or a few stone windows whose leaded panes were broken. He didn’t notice that the front door was made out of carved oak with metal fastenings that were over four hundred years old. All Gordon Grabbit saw was a falling-down ruin that could do with a good bulldozing and a few direct hits with a wrecking ball. And Gordon Grabbit knew he was right. Because Gordon Grabbit was a bank manager and bank managers are always right. Especially where lending money is concerned.

      Too much money had already been lent to Tabitha Nightshade to look after Quagmire Castle and that was a state of affairs Gordon Grabbit didn’t approve of at all. Particularly because he hated anything old that took up space. You could fit fifty bungalows, each with a tiny garden and room for a two-car garage, if you knocked down the castle, filled in the lake and pulled out the maze and gardens. Gordon Grabbit’s palms began to sweat just thinking about it. He took a deep breath and walked up the gravel drive towards the huge carved-oak door.

      * * *

      Aunt Tabitha Nightshade climbed up the specially-made stepladder and eased herself on to the seat in front of her giant sewing machine. She bent her silver-haired head forwards as she pulled the purple thread from a huge spool in and out of the various loops and eyes and finally through the giant needle, and out the other side.

      Aunt Tabitha could only think straight when she was sewing so she had built an enormous machine that she could sit at for hours, sewing miles and miles of material together. Recently, she had so much thinking to do that every day echoed with the pounding of her sewing machine. And when Aunt Tabitha sewed all day, everyone at Quagmire Castle knew there was trouble afoot. She was just about to line up an extra-long piece of cloth when the front door knocker banged hard, twice.

      With a sigh, Aunt Tabitha climbed back down the stepladder, shut the door of her sewing room and walked into the front hall.

      * * *

      ‘Face it,’ said Gordon Grabbit, ten minutes later. ‘You’ve got no choice.’ He stuffed a piece of shortbread into his mouth and slurped a cup of tea at the same time. ‘You’ve got to sell.’

      Aunt Tabitha put her delicate porcelain teacup back on its saucer. ‘But, Mr Grabbit,’ she protested, ‘you don’t understand, Quagmire Castle has been in my family for five hundred years.’

      Gordon Grabbit wiped some crumbs off his trousers on to the floor. ‘Times change,’ he said nastily. ‘Some people get left behind.’

      He bit into another biscuit. ‘Anyway, bungalows are very attractive,’ he blurted, spraying more crumbs on the floor.

      Aunt Tabitha stared at the fat-faced bank manager whose eating habits were truly disgusting. ‘Are you suggesting I move to a bungalow?’

      ‘Of course not,’ said Gordon Grabbit, quickly. He had not expected the old lady to be so difficult. He opened his briefcase and put a piece of thick white paper on the table between them. SALE OF QUAGMIRE CASTLE was written on the top. ‘Unless you raise the money to pay back your loan by next week, the bank will sell Quagmire Castle and that’s final.’

      Aunt Tabitha looked down at the paper.

      ‘Would you like a pen?’ asked Gordon Grabbit eagerly.

      ‘Certainly not,’ replied Aunt Tabitha. She stood up and opened the door of her sitting room. ‘If you will excuse me, I have some sewing to do.’

      Gordon Grabbit fought back the irritation that prickled his greasy brush-cut hair. He decided to

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