Read A Kestrel for a Knave for Free Online Page A

gutters, and on the road the traffic was jammed honking in two straight lines. Billy screwed the form up and dropped it onto a grate. It bounced on the bars, then fell between them. He squeezed between a car and a bus and jogged down the centre line of the road. Car drivers with their arms resting on window ledges, looked up at him as he passed. The vehicles at the head of one line began to move. Billy slipped back on to the pavement before the reaction in the chain could reach him.
    He looked in at the window display, then walked through the open doorway and crossed to a rack of paperbacks. Walking round the rack, and revolving it in the opposite direction, he examined the room as it flickered by between the books and the wire struts. All four walls were lined with books. Disposed around the room were racks and stands of paperbacks, and in the centre was a table with a till and piles of books on it. There were three assistants, two girls and a man. Several people were browsing, and one young man was buying. The shop was as quiet as the library.
    He started in one corner, and, working from the top shelf, down, up, down, moved along the sections, scanning the categories, which were printed on white cards and stuck on the edges of the shelves: CRAFTS… DICTIONARIES… DEVOTIONAL… FICTION… GARDENING… HISTORY… MOTORING… NATURE – ANIMALS, one shelf, two shelves, BIRDS, birds, birds.
A Falconer
’
s Handbook
. Billy reached up. The book was clamped tight in the middle of the shelf. He pressed the top of the spine and tilted ittowards him, catching it as it fell. He opened it and flicked through it back to front, pausing at the pictures and diagrams. A sparrowhawk stared up from the glossy paper of the dust jacket. Billy glanced round. The man and one of the girls were serving. The other girl was shelving books with her back to him. Everyone else had their heads down. Billy turned his back on them and slipped the book inside his jacket. The man and the girl continued to serve. The other girl continued to shelve. Billy continued round the walls, to the door, and out into the arcade.
    ‘What’s tha want that for when tha can’t read?’
    Jud reached over Billy’s shoulder and snatched the book out of his hands. Billy jumped up from the kitchen step and ran after him into the living-room.
    ‘Giz it back! Come here!’
    Jud held him off, tilting his head and trying to read the title at arm’s length as the book flapped open and shut.
    ‘Falconry! What’s thar know about falconry?’
    ‘Giz it back.’
    Jud pushed him back on to the settee, then started to examine the book at leisure.
    ‘
A Falconer
’
s Handbook
. Where’s tha got this from?’
    ‘I’ve lent it.’
    ‘Nicked it, more like. Where’s tha got it from?’
    ‘A shop in town.’
    ‘Tha must be crackers.’
    ‘How’s tha mean?’
    ‘Nicking books.’
    He looked at a picture, then slapped it shut.
    ‘I could understand it if it wa’ money, but chuff me, not a book.’
    He skimmed it hard across the room. The covers flapped open and when Billy grabbed at it, he bent and scuffled the pages back.
    ‘Look what tha’s done now! I’m trying to look after this book.’
    He smoothed the bent pages, then shut the covers and squeezed them tight.
    ‘Anybody’d think it wa’ a treasure tha’d got.’
    ‘It’s smashing! I’ve been reading it all afternoon, I’m nearly half-way through already.’
    ‘An’ what better off will tha be when tha’s read it?’
    ‘A lot, ’cos I’m goin’ to get a young kestrel an’ train it.’
    ‘Train it! Tha couldn’t train a flea!’
    He laughed out, mouth open, head back, more a roar than a laugh.
    ‘Anyroad, where tha goin’ to get a kestrel from?’
    ‘I know a nest.’
    ‘Tha doesn’t.’
    ‘All right then, I don’t.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘I’m not telling.’
    ‘I said where?’
    He rushed over to the settee and jumped astride Billy, pushing his face into the cushions and forcing one arm up