Read Groosham Grange for Free Online Page B

David filed the knowledge away, puzzled that he hadn’t yet seen either of them. He quickly looked about him. The other pupils had already left the library ahead of him. He was alone in the passage. Pretending to tie up his shoelace, he knelt beside the door.
    “…settled in very well, I think.” David recognized the voice at once. There could be no mistaking the dusty syllables of Mr Kilgraw. “The girl was a touch difficult in her modelling class, but I suppose that’s only to be expected.”
    “But they all signed?” This was a high-pitched, half-strangled voice. David could imagine someone inside the room, struggling with a tie that was tied too tight.
    “There was no problem, Mr Teagle.” Mr Kilgraw laughed, a curiously melancholy sound. “Jeffrey – the boy with the stutter – came in last. He brought his own pencil. And two bottles of ink! In the end I had to hypnotize him, I’m afraid. After that, it was easy.”
    “You think this Jeffrey is going to be difficult?” This voice was the softest of the three. The second headmaster didn’t speak so much as whisper.
    “No, Mr Fitch,” Mr Kilgraw replied. “If anything, he’ll be the easiest. No. The one I’m worried about is Eliot.”
    “What’s wrong with him?”
    “I don’t know for sure, Mr Teagle. But he has a certain strength, an independence…”
    “That’s just what we need.”
    “Of course. But even so…”
    David was desperate to hear more of the conversation but just then Mrs Windergast appeared, walking towards the library. Seeing him, she stopped and blinked, her eyes flickering behind the half-glasses.
    “Is there anything the matter, David?” she asked.
    “No.” David pointed feebly at his shoes. “I was just tying my lace.”
    “Very wise of you, my dear.” She smiled at him. “We don’t want you tripping over and breaking something, do we? But perhaps this isn’t the place to do it – right outside the headmasters’ study. Because somebody might think you were eavesdropping and that wouldn’t be a very good impression to give in your first week, would it?”
    “No,” David agreed. He straightened up. “I’m sorry, Mrs Windergast.”
    He moved away as quickly as he could. The matron brushed past him and went into the headmasters’ study. David would have given his right arm to have heard what they were saying now. But if he was found outside the door a second time, they would probably take it.
    Instead he went in search of Jeffrey and Jill. He found them outside the staff room. Jill was examining the pigeon holes, each one labelled with the name of one of the teachers.
    “Have you seen Monsieur Leloup’s pigeon hole?” she asked, seeing him.
    “What about it?”
    “It’s got a pigeon in it.” She pointed at it, grimacing. The bird was obviously dead. “It looks like some wild animal got it.”
    “What’s it doing there?” David asked.
    “You’ll have to ask Monsieur Leloup,” Jill said.
    “If he ever sh-sh-shows up,” Jeffrey added.
    Together they walked back down the corridor. One side was lined with lockers. The other opened into classrooms. A couple of boys passed them, making their way up to the dormitories. There was almost an hour until the bell went, but it seemed that most of the pupils of Groosham Grange had already gone to bed. As ever, the silence in the school would have been better suited to a museum or a monastery. In the entire day, David hadn’t heard a door slam or a desk bang. What was going on at Groosham Grange?
    They found an empty classroom and went into it. David hadn’t been in this room yet and looked around him curiously. The walls were covered with posters showing various animals – inside and out. Instead of a desk, the teacher had a long marble slab which was covered with scientific apparatus: a burner, a small metal cauldron and various bottles of chemicals. At the far end, a white rat cowered in a cage and two toads stared unhappily out of a glass tank. The