The Jade Boy Read Online Free

it seemed to wind itself into a vapoury form with a head and limbs.
    The smoky figure began to glow with an eerie green light.
    “Shield your eyes, Jem.
Now!
”
    The dark boy shouted the instruction just as the shining figure billowed and grew so tall that it appeared to reach the stone arches of the ceiling. There was a blinding flash, a plaintive musical sound and the scent of violets.
    “At last! I thought you were never going to set me down, Tolly!”
    The voice belonged to girl. A small, but very cross girl.
    She was standing on the table – in exactly the spot where the beetle had been.
    Jem’s first instinct was to run. This was witchcraft – and he wanted no part of it. He pulled his arm roughly from the dark boy’s grip, but the boy caught hold of his wrist and held tight. Jem was wiry, but the other boy was surprisingly strong.
    “Jem, wait. We mean you no harm,” he said aloud.
    Jem stared up at the girl in disbelief.
    She looked down at him, frowned and darted ananxious look at the dark boy. He nodded and Cleo chirruped. Then the girl smiled. Jem noticed that she had a little gap between her front teeth. She was wearing a ragged green dress that would once have been fine and expensive but was now shabby. It was obviously too small for her. Her eyes were a brilliant shade of emerald green and shone with a peculiar intensity that made Jem want to look away, and then look back again immediately.
    But the most unusual and unsettling thing about the girl on the table, quite apart from the fact that she had appeared from nowhere, was that her thick waist-length hair was pure white and gleamed like moonlight. Jem had never seen anyone like her before.
    “You were so interested in those pies, Tolly, I thought you’d forgotten me. Well, aren’t you going to help me down?”
    Tolly released his grip on Jem’s wrist, then took the girl’s hand and helped her jump from the table. She still sounded cross, but Jem noticed that Tolly was grinning at her.
    The girl straightened her skirts and turned to look closely at Jem.
    “So this is the one?”
    Tolly nodded. “I am certain he is the boy the master has been seeking. He is called Jem
Green
.”
    The girl’s eyes widened and she took a step towards Jem.
    “So the boy of jade is a kitchen lad?” she murmured, scanning his face and frowning. Then she reached for a pie.
    This was too much.
    “Look,” Jem blurted out. “I don’t know who you are or what’s going on here, but at any moment now Pig Face is going to come back downstairs and then we’ll all be in big trouble. I– I…” he faltered as Cleo jumped to his shoulder and started to stroke his ear.
    The girl took a crumbly bite from the pie and then held out a flake of golden pastry to the monkey. Cleo gripped it in her tiny paw and started to nibble.
    “It’s all right, Jem. Ann is my friend,” Tolly said. “She has taken a great risk coming here to Ludlow House today to find you.”
    Ann shot Tolly an odd look.
    “You’re speaking aloud to him. Is it safe?”
    Tolly nodded. “I… that is to say,
we
know he can be trusted. Cleo’s never wrong, is she?”
    Ann stared intently at the dark boy then sheoffered Jem her hand and dipped her head. “Then that is good enough for me. I am Lady Ann Metcalf, ward to Count Cazalon.”
    The girl stared at him expectantly. After a moment he took her hand and, feeling slightly self-conscious, he gave a shallow formal bow.
    When he looked up again her eyes were closed. She gripped his hand more firmly and then began to speak in a rush.
    “This house is not your home, Master Green. You are loved, but not protected. You have a place here, but you do not fit it. You live in shadow. Your mother is a good woman, but she is ashamed of her sin… she is ashamed of
you
. Your father—”
    “Enough!” Jem bellowed the word and wrenched his hand from Ann’s grasp.
    All the blood drained from his face as he stood rigidly in front of the girl, clenching his