Copper Read online

  ‘Yes. Aunt Ruby didn’t say we were going, only me!’

  ‘I can feel in my bones that this will be an important day,’ said Ralick.

  ‘I might believe you if you really had some bones,’ said Copper.

  Copper packed her bag and waited.

  She waited in the kitchen and she waited in her bedroom. She waited in the sitting room. Once she peeped outside into the gloomy grey afternoon, and thought she saw a figure lurking by the gate, but perhaps it was just the next door neighbour. She began to wonder if her aunt was ill. People did suddenly go peculiar, didn’t they? After all, she hadn’t seen these men. Perhaps they didn’t even really exist?

  Later, Copper took some food into Aunt Ruby. She couldn’t knock because of the tray in her hands, so she called out: ‘It’s me,’ and went straight in. As she went in, a large bird flew out through the window.

  At least, Copper thought it was a bird … she heard the waffle, waffle noise of wings flapping and thought she saw a brown feathery body briefly outlined in the window, but she wasn’t absolutely sure.

  ‘Oh! A bird!’

  ‘No, no, there wasn’t a bird. What an idea. In my studio? Copper, you have such an imagination. What sort was it? An eagle?’ she laughed. ‘Come and sit here.’

  Copper loved her aunt so she sat down and didn’t mention the bird again, but there was a feather on the window-sill which hadn’t been there before.

  ‘Copper,’ said her aunt, smiling firmly. ‘I’ve made up my mind. It is time for you to leave me. Time for you to go home.’

  ‘Go home? But this is my home.’

  ‘Yes, but your real home is in the Marble Mountains. That’s where you come from, where we both come from. Home is where this came from …’ And slipping her hand into one of the pockets of her apron, she brought out a tiny gold charm.

  ‘This is the last charm, Copper, the tenth and last charm. I suppose you’ve been hoping a long-lost relative sent it each year, haven’t you, and I’ve let you have your dreams, because … well, I had my reasons, Copper. I had all the charms here and …’

  ‘You had them here! Nobody sent them?’ Copper struggled to make sense of it. ‘And this is the last? I thought they’d go on for ever.’ She was aware of a cold, empty feeling in her tummy. ‘If they stop … well, then, I might stop.’

  ‘There were only ten charms. Maybe it’s because this is the last charm that things have started to happen. I don’t know. But you won’t stop. Dear girl, I think you are just beginning! Look at that golden charm, look at it! Isn’t it divine? Nobody ordinary could have made that and nobody ordinary could own it, believe me.’

  Copper turned the tiny charm over in her hand. ‘But I don’t want things to change,’ she whispered.

  ‘But all things do change,’ said Aunt Ruby, calmly. ‘Now, Copper, listen. Here is a train ticket to take you to the Marble Mountains. They’ll be expecting you.’

  Copper stared at her aunt. ‘Who will?’

  ‘Copper, I … OH!’ Aunt Ruby jumped as something banged outside and voices shouted across the street. ‘I’m so nervy … Where was I? … Take Ralick, of course, he’s important. Have you packed warm clothes? Good. The taxi’s waiting to take you to the station. Don’t get off the train until you reach the Mountains. I must stay here and try and put them off the scent. Then later if you ask me … if you can forgive me … I’ll come.’

  Copper hugged her aunt. ‘I can’t just go! I can’t leave school and all my friends and …’

  But I can, she thought. I can. I want to. I don’t care. The Marble Mountains. What do I care about school? Nothing, and I haven’t any friends, not really. I shall miss Aunt Ruby but she’ll find me again. And maybe I do have parents, a real family and maybe I’ll stop being all knotted up and tangled inside when I get there. I want to go!

  ‘There’s no time to lose. Here, don’t forget the bracelet,’ Aunt Ruby added, pressing it into Copper’s hand. ‘Don’t let it out of your sight, it’s very, very precious and they want it. But it’s yours. It was made for you. And, Copper, take this too, this lovely blue wool, I was going to give it to you for your birthday and it is your birthday! They’ll look after you in the Marble Mountains. Now, you must hurry!’

  Copper scurried to the door but Aunt Ruby caught her and held her for one last minute.

  ‘If you ever meet a boy called Linden, yes, Linden, be nice to him, be kind to him for me … I’ll come when you’re ready for me. Goodbye!’

  4

  The Journey

  So that was how Copper came to be on the train heading for the Marble Mountains and she was knitting to get herself back together again.

  Copper knitted without a pattern, which didn’t matter as she never finished anything. She knitted all the stitches there were, all jumbled up together, pearl, plain, cable, and she could put in loops and bobbles and different coloured patterns too.

  ‘Click, click, click,’ muttered Ralick, ‘that noise could drive an ordinary cuddly toy crazy.’

  ‘Just as well you’re not an ordinary cuddly toy then,’ said Copper. She stared at him. ‘I’ve just had an idea, Ralick. How do you fancy wearing a hat?’

  ‘A hat? You mean a blue hat made by you?’ asked Ralick eyeing the wool suspiciously.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I don’t. Specially as it won’t be finished.’

  ‘No really, Ralick, this time I’ll do it properly. Then I could knit the charm bracelet into it and hide it.’

  ‘Blue’s not my best colour,’ said Ralick.

  Copper patted his head. ‘You’ll look beautiful as ever.’

  And Copper did it. As the train rocketed through the countryside, she knitted her first complete garment.

  ‘It’s the first thing I’ve ever finished,’ she whispered holding it up. ‘Don’t you think that’s amazing?’ She slipped it onto Ralick’s head. ‘I mean all the knitting I’ve done, the gloves with no thumb and the jumpers with no sleeves and all of a sudden I manage to finish a hat for you.’

  ‘Humm,’ said Ralick.

  ‘Well, I think it’s great. It’s an omen.’

  She took the bracelet out of her bag and for a moment it shimmered and glowed in the train lights so brightly that she quickly tucked it under the table.

  ‘It’s so bright!’ she hissed.

  ‘And you want me to put it round my head? It might interfere with my brain, like electricity.’

  Copper grinned. ‘It might make it work better.’

  ‘It works very well as it is, thank you.’

  ‘It is lovely, isn’t it? Aunt Ruby told me I was four years old when she found me because there were four charms on it.’

  ‘I know, I know,’ said Ralick.

  ‘But …’ wondered Copper, ‘but, if I was lost, how does Aunt Ruby know where my real home is? And how did she know that having four charms meant I was four years old? When I try and think back to before Aunt Ruby, you know, I can’t. Don’t you remember anything?’

  ‘No,’ said Ralick. ‘I’m only a cuddly toy.’

  ‘But a very special one,’ she reminded him. ‘These were the first four charms: a little dog, a heart and two babies which seem to be the same. Then for my fifth birthday I got this lovely bird, then I got the … mountain! I’m going to the mountains now. A coincidence, d’you think? I’ve never seen a mountain on a charm bracelet before, it must mean something.’

  ‘And one of the babies could be you?’ suggested Ralick.

  ‘Yes! Why not? Then maybe I’ve got a sister somewhere? Or a brother? And, Ralick, this dog-thing, this could be you!’

  ‘Dog-thing? I’m not a dog-thing. A pedigree thing, please. Yes. It could be me. Immortalised in gold. Splendid … And when you were seven?’

  ‘A coin, a funny one with a tree on I think. I don’t know what that could mean. Then a tree on its own and then that lovely miniature pair of knitting needles – well I do a lot of knitting, and then finally today’s charm which was this … a hammer.’ Co
pper made a face.

  ‘Just what every ten-year-old yearns for,’ said Ralick.

  ‘Well, it is a lovely hammer,’ said Copper, staring at the tiny object. ‘Someone must have taken ages to make it. I’m certain each of those charms has a meaning, a special meaning for me.’

  She took one last look at the bracelet, then sewed it into the band of Ralick’s hat. She snuggled the hat down over his head pulling his ears through two prepared holes, and tied it under his chin.

  ‘I look like a proper ninny!’ growled Ralick, looking at his reflection in the dark of the train window.

  ‘You look as adorable as ever,’ said Copper, brightly. ‘I’m so proud! The first knitting I’ve ever finished! It’s a real accomplishment!’

  ‘You’re right there. You’ve accomplished making me look like a ninny,’ said Ralick.

  Copper hugged him. ‘Ralick,’ she crooned. ‘I do love you.’

  The train journey lasted for hours. People got off, but nobody ever got on and late in the night, Copper found she was the only person left on the train except for the friendly guard. ‘Last stop coming up in a few minutes,’ he called cheerily. ‘Better get your coat on, it’s cold out there!’

  At last the train wheezed and slithered to a standstill.

  ‘And here we are, the end of the line,’ said the guard, lifting down Copper’s bags. ‘I hope someone is meeting you, young lady?’ he asked her, opening the train door and peering out into the dark.

  ‘Yes,’ said Copper. ‘It’s home.’

  ‘Well it’s a long way from mine,’ smiled the guard. ‘Goodbye now!’

  Copper stepped outside into a snow-covered landscape. The platform, hedges and trees, station and walls were knee-deep in a thick white crust.

  The train backed away, screeching and clanking and suddenly Copper was alone.

  Completely alone.

  Blackness crept in all around her. The cold sneaked into her hands and face and tiptoed up her spine until she shivered and gasped. Her feet went slowly numb as they sank, with soft squeaks and crunching noises, into the snow.

  In front of her was a large, dimly-lit notice: END OF THE LINE – MARBLE MOUNTAINS, but apart from that there were no lights, no waiting room, people or cars or anything.

  A few large, whirling snowflakes bumped gently against her cheeks and blurred in her eyes.

  ‘Some people would be scared,’ she said to Ralick in a trembling voice.

  ‘Some people are softies,’ said Ralick. ‘Not us.’

  Suddenly a distant soft howl quivered through the air. Copper yelped and squeezed Ralick tightly. ‘What was that?’

  Then another sound broke the silence, the sound of jingling metal and the muffled clip-clop of horses’ hooves growing closer. Then two softly glowing yellow lights pierced the blackness and Copper saw they were hung on either side of a large old-fashioned sledge. The sledge, pulled by two massive horses snorting out clouds of steamy breath, glided round the bushes and stopped in a spray of snow.

  ‘Copper! Copper Beech, is that you?’ cried a voice from the sledge and a boy jumped down and ran towards her.

  ‘Who else were you expecting at the end of the line in the dead of night?’ said Copper, laughing with relief.

  ‘It is you!’ cried the boy. ‘You sound like Copper should sound. I’m Questrid,’ he added, peering into her eyes intently. ‘I’ve come to take you back to Spindle House. Welcome home!’

  PART TWO

  The Marble Mountains

  5

  Spindle House

  Questrid wore so many layers of different green and red clothes, he looked like a well-filled salad sandwich. He had a striped scarf wound round and round his neck, over his chin and up to his ears and on top of it all was a large hat and at the bottom of it all, big waterproof boots. Beneath his hat, two golden-brown eyes gleamed like honey.

  ‘In you get,’ he said, helping Copper into the sledge and covering her with blankets and fur rugs. ‘Cold? Sorry I was late.’ Then he jumped in beside her and flicking the reins at the horses, turned the sledge out of the station and into the blackness.

  Copper guessed Questrid was about twelve or thirteen, but he was so lanky and half-hidden by his clothes, she wasn’t sure. He kept looking at her thoughtfully, as if she were a rare, bizarre creature, then grinning as if he found her very amusing.

  Copper found it amusing too. She realised she was smiling and that her insides were singing happily.

  I’ve never even set eyes on this Questrid before, she thought, but I like him, I like him like an old friend. And I’ve never been in a sledge before; never been to the Marble Mountains before, but I love it. It’s like I’ve done it all my life. It feels just right.

  She didn’t want to spoil the moment by asking questions, so she snuggled into her seat and watched the broad backs of the two horses rhythmically rising and falling as they cantered down the road, their manes streaming up and down over their gleaming necks.

  It was too dark for Copper to see anything other than vague black shapes in the blackness, but it didn’t bother Questrid and the horses, they knew their way home. They whooshed over the snow, the sledge runners making a hard knife-cutting sound, the horses’ hooves pounding.

  The freezing air whipped against Copper’s cheeks and seemed to seep right into her head and freeze her mind. The noise of the clinking metal on the harness, thundering hooves and the whoosh, whoosh of the sledge runners lulled her into a mindless trance, so that very soon, much against her wishes, she drifted off to sleep.

  She woke just as the sledge was slithering to a standstill.

  ‘Spindle House,’ said Questrid. ‘Home.’

  Copper peered out from the blankets and saw there was some sort of a building beside them, lighted windows and two huge carved wooden doors. Looking up into the dark, she could only vaguely make out the rest of the house, but it seemed in her sleepy state to look like a strange spiky tree. Then the doors opened, there was light and Questrid was ushering her into a warm, circular hall. There were more bright lights and a very big silvery dog came lumbering over to greet her. Copper shrieked and hid behind Questrid.

  ‘It’s only Silver,’ said Questrid. ‘She’s gentle as a lamb.’

  A short woman, smiling so much she could hardly speak, came over and taking Copper by the hand, led her gently into the hall.

  ‘Welcome, dear, welcome home,’ she said. It was too much for Copper: she burst into tears.

  ‘I never cry,’ she sobbed. ‘I’m usually brave, it’s just that …’

  ‘You don’t have to say anything. I know. Of course it’s too much. And it’s late, come on, my dear, come on with me. I’m Oriole. I’ll look after you.’

  She led Copper up the spiral wooden staircase and helped her into a small bed with stiff old-fashioned sheets. She tucked her in, muttered more endearments and then went softly away.

  Copper lay for some minutes staring into the dark, wondering about it all, then she closed her eyes, too exhausted to think. But just before sleep completely overtook her, it seemed that someone crept stealthily into the room and stood beside her, staring at her … but she was so nearly asleep, perhaps it was a dream.

  6

  The First Day

  When Copper woke the next morning, everything that had happened the day before came flooding back to her.

  She lay very still for a few minutes without opening her eyes, aware that the sheets against her skin were different from the ones at home, that the pillow was fluffier and even that the room smelt different.

  ‘Chirp, chirrup, chip, chip, chirrup!’

  It was a bird. That’s what had woken her. She opened her eyes, squinting at the intense white light and saw there was a thrush perched on the back of the chair beside her. The bird was so close that Copper could see its tongue wobbling and its throat vibrating.

  ‘Chirrup, chirrup!’

  Copper sat up very slowly. The thrush went on singing and looking at her with its soft br
own eyes for a whole minute, before it sprang up and flew out of the window.

  On a tray beside the bed, was a cup of hot chocolate and a warm cinnamon bun which Copper quickly demolished. Then she lay back against the big pillows. She wanted the moment to last for ever.

  Her room was the most extraordinary room she’d ever seen.

  It was all wooden: the floor, ceiling, walls and all the furniture were made of wood. Her small wooden bed had two short posts at the bottom and two taller ones at the top, and every inch was carved with plants, animals and knobbly faces. The chair was carved with flowers and bees. The large mirror-fronted wardrobe had two trees carved on it with branches interlacing above the doors.

  The floorboards creaked gently under her and were warm against her skin despite the sharp cold of the air as she went to peer out of the small window.

  It was magnificent. She could see for miles and miles and for miles and miles there was nothing but snow: glistening white and yellow in the sun, purple and violet in the shadows. There were no other houses or buildings in sight, only trees and rocks. In the distance were icy blue peaks of faraway glaciers and mountains. The air was fresh and clean like toothpaste.

  ‘Brilliant,’ she said.

  ‘It looks very wet and cold to me,’ said Ralick gloomily. ‘Can’t think what you find so … Gulp!’

  Copper suddenly leaped on him squeezing him so hard, he choked on his words.

  ‘Ssh!’ she held her finger to her lips. ‘Listen. There’s someone outside the door.’

  There was a small shuffling noise and boards creaked, the soft sound of clothes brushing against a wall.

  ‘Someone’s spying on us,’ she hissed and she bounded to the door, and yanked at the handle but the door latch was stiff and she fumbled with it, shaking it crossly. How dare anyone spy on her!

  She snatched the door open at last and leaped outside.

  The corridor was empty.

  ‘But there was someone there,’ Copper said, furiously. ‘Spying on us, listening to us.’