clapped her hand to her mouth and hooted with laughter at me. “You’re wearing glasses,” she screeched. And so I was. I said I’d found them in the garden shed, and she believed me.
No-one ever saw the Black Queen again after that, or Rambo. Within days a TO LET sign went up outside Number 22. Mrs Watson told Gran over the fence that the Black Queen had gone, that no-one had seen her going. My father joked that maybe she’d just flown away on her broomstick.
“She certainly was a strange one,” my mother said. And that’s what everyone thought. I “kept mum”, as they say, and said nothing. It was our secret, Greg McInley’s and mine; and besides, I knew they wouldn’t believe me, not in a million years. Why should they? I had no proof.
A week later I answered the door to the postman. He had a parcel for us, he said. It was addressed to me. Somehow I knew at once that it was from
him
. I took it up to my room to unwrap it in private. It was his cardboard chess set. “
For my good friend Billy, with love from Greg McInley (and Rambo)
.” That was all it said, but it was enough. I was bursting to tell them. I came charging down the staircase and into the kitchen. I opened up the box and showed them. “That,” I declared proudly, “is Greg McInley’s chess set. He gave it to me.”
They laughed at me, of course. So I showed them the letter, and then told them the whole crazy story. From beginning to end. No-one said a word the whole way through, and after I’d finished they just gawped.
THE END
About the Author
Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s best-loved writers for children and has won many prizes, including the Whitbread Prize, the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Blue Peter Book Award. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Children’s Laureate, a role which took him all over the UK to promote literacy and reading, and in 2005 he was named the Booksellers Association Author of the Year. In 2007 he was writer in residence at the Savoy Hotel in London.
Also by Michael Morpurgo:
Tom’s Sausage Lion
The Last Wolf
Illustrated by Michael Foreman
The Silver Swan
Illustrated by Christian Birmingham
BLACK QUEEN
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 409 02574 0
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2012
Copyright © Michael Morpurgo, 2000
Illustrations copyright © Tony Ross, 2000
First Published in Great Britain
Young Corgi 9780552546454 2000
The right of Michael Morpurgo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.randomhousechildrens.co.uk
www.totallyrandombooks.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
No-one ever saw the Black Queen again after that, or Rambo. Within days a TO LET sign went up outside Number 22. Mrs Watson told Gran over the fence that the Black Queen had gone, that no-one had seen her going. My father joked that maybe she’d just flown away on her broomstick.
“She certainly was a strange one,” my mother said. And that’s what everyone thought. I “kept mum”, as they say, and said nothing. It was our secret, Greg McInley’s and mine; and besides, I knew they wouldn’t believe me, not in a million years. Why should they? I had no proof.
A week later I answered the door to the postman. He had a parcel for us, he said. It was addressed to me. Somehow I knew at once that it was from
him
. I took it up to my room to unwrap it in private. It was his cardboard chess set. “
For my good friend Billy, with love from Greg McInley (and Rambo)
.” That was all it said, but it was enough. I was bursting to tell them. I came charging down the staircase and into the kitchen. I opened up the box and showed them. “That,” I declared proudly, “is Greg McInley’s chess set. He gave it to me.”
They laughed at me, of course. So I showed them the letter, and then told them the whole crazy story. From beginning to end. No-one said a word the whole way through, and after I’d finished they just gawped.
THE END
About the Author
Michael Morpurgo is one of Britain’s best-loved writers for children and has won many prizes, including the Whitbread Prize, the Red House Children’s Book Award and the Blue Peter Book Award. From 2003 to 2005 he was the Children’s Laureate, a role which took him all over the UK to promote literacy and reading, and in 2005 he was named the Booksellers Association Author of the Year. In 2007 he was writer in residence at the Savoy Hotel in London.
Also by Michael Morpurgo:
Tom’s Sausage Lion
The Last Wolf
Illustrated by Michael Foreman
The Silver Swan
Illustrated by Christian Birmingham
BLACK QUEEN
AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 409 02574 0
Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,
an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK
A Random House Group Company
This ebook edition published 2012
Copyright © Michael Morpurgo, 2000
Illustrations copyright © Tony Ross, 2000
First Published in Great Britain
Young Corgi 9780552546454 2000
The right of Michael Morpurgo to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
RANDOM HOUSE CHILDREN’S PUBLISHERS UK
61–63 Uxbridge Road, London W5 5SA
www.randomhousechildrens.co.uk
www.totallyrandombooks.co.uk
www.randomhouse.co.uk
Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at:
www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm
THE RANDOM HOUSE GROUP Limited Reg. No. 954009
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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