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Troubador Publishing Ltd - Barbara Roberston

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77 pages

English

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It's the first day of the summer holidays and Harriet, Jake and Mathew are off to see their grandmother in the coastal village of Ormsthorpe. They're looking forward to spending their days cliff-climbing and exploring the rock pools on the beach. But then one stormy night, when the moon is full, something very strange happens. They are transported to an ancient village, where they meet Olaf and Sigrid. Their new friends explain that their own children have been kidnapped and enslaved by terrifying Viking raiders. Olaf and Sigrid need their help to rescue them. But first, they must come up with a planJoin Harriet, Jake and Mathew as they disguise themselves as Vikings, sail the stormy seas by longboat and embark on a dangerous undercover mission in this exciting time travel adventure.

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Children's

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	15 juin 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781838596347
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0100€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

VIKING VENTURES

Copyright © 2020 Barbara Roberston
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
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For my family
Contents
1. Arriving
2. A Stormy Night
3. A Time Change
4. Becoming Vikings
5. The Voyage Begins
6. At Sea
7. The Storm
8. An Overnight Stop
9. Seals and Seabirds
10. Arriving at the Settlement
11. Finding the Children
12. Remembering
13. Life at the Settlement
14. Beginning the Rescue
15. The Plan
16. The Skald Arrives with the Visiting Vikings
17. Into Action
18. The Raiders’ Feast
19. Contact
20. Sabotaging the Boats
21. The Departure
22. The Forest at Night
23. The Skald
24. Leaving the Forest
25. The Voyage Back
26. Ormsthorpe at Last

1
Arriving
There was only one more day of school before the summer holidays began. Mathew, Jake and Harriet were looking forward to visiting their grandmother. The children and their parents lived close to London, but Grandmother Pilkington’s home was in a small, secluded village above the estuary of the River Riddle in the north of England.
It was a wonderful place to visit. There were several cottages around the beach where the boats of fishermen were drawn up. The children loved to watch the fishermen empty the lobster pots and bring in catches of crabs after a day’s fishing. The beach was wide and sandy and rarely crowded. Sometimes, on stormy days, the waves pounded onto the beach and the little boats bobbed in the turbulent waves. On calmer days the waves lapped gently onto the shore.
Grandmother’s house was on the road above the narrow creek where the river ran into the sea. Cliff View Cottage was one of four grey stone houses built at the top of the steeply wooded bank on the far side of the narrow country road that led to the village of Ormsthorpe. Facing the house on the opposite side of the road were three enormous boulders. The cliff from this point was very steep and sloped down to the river.
For Harriet, who was eleven, Ormsthorpe meant long relaxing days by the sea. She loved to read and swim. Sometimes she would climb with Mathew along the steep path that led to the lighthouse at the top of the cliffs. From there they could watch the different ships that passed on the distant horizon. Sometimes there were cruise ships, more often fishing boats or an occasional sailing boat or ferry.
Mathew was six years old with light brown hair and he was looking forward to spending much of his holiday wading in the shallow water, catching shrimps and building sandcastles.
Nine-year-old Jake liked to watch the fishermen and help them whenever he could. Sometimes they would allow him to accompany them if the weather was fine and the sea calm. Dressed in his jeans and wellington boots with a thick sweater, he felt like a real fisherman as he sat amongst the nets and lobster pots while the fishing boat ploughed through the waves.
The children were able to ride their bikes or walk into the village, which only had two shops, a garage and a country inn. But most of all they liked to walk to the beach and spend their days exploring the rock pools or watching the wading birds who came to search for food in the wide expanse of sand and pools that were left when the tide was low. Sometimes they saw black and white oyster catchers with their flat orange beaks walking through the shallow waters at low tide. Once they even saw a ringed plover running along the sand then stopping suddenly to peck for his food. He was a dumpy little bird with black and white markings on his throat and chest.

On the last day of July the family loaded their bags into the car and set off. It was a long journey, away from the rows of houses that lined the streets of the busy suburbs, away from the cars that were parked end to end along the streets, and out of the city onto the motorway. Finally, they came to the winding road which led to Ormsthorpe. Grandmother and her two golden spaniels, Monty and Miranda, were waiting for them to arrive. They were all tired and very hungry and enjoyed a hot, delicious roast chicken dinner that Grandmother had cooked.
It was late and a visit to the beach would have to wait until the next day. So they all went upstairs to the bedrooms that Grandmother had prepared for them and were soon fast asleep. Harriet had the room that had been her mother’s when she was a child. The boys slept in Grandfather’s old study. On the walls there were ancient maps and photographs of the places where he had worked so many years ago.
When they woke the next morning a wonderful breakfast was waiting. Grandmother had baked some bread and there were fresh farm eggs with ham as well. The family enjoyed a delicious hearty breakfast. Mother and Father were planning to drive home later in the day as they were going to a conference in three days’ time and Dad had to prepare his speech.
The children were going to spend two weeks in Ormsthorpe with Grandmother. But before their parents departed the whole family headed down to the beach. The seagulls were diving and screaming as the fishermen unloaded their catch. It was low tide. Mum and Dad wanted to have a swim, so they all enjoyed jumping in the waves and playing in the rock pools before climbing back along the road that led to Cliff View Cottage, to finish unpacking and to see Mum and Dad on their way.
The children waved goodbye and went in the house. They were looking forward to another day on the beach… tomorrow.
2
A Stormy Night
Cliff View Cottage, where Grandmother Pilkington lived with her two dogs, was sheltered from the stormy winds that sometimes howled and rampaged the plants and trees in the garden by several large boulders opposite the house. Old grey stone walls surrounded the garden and separated it from her neighbour’s home.
Grandmother’s house was the last of the four houses on the road at the top of the steep ridge which sloped up from the River Riddle. A sign hung by her gate read Cliff View Cottage. A wooden bower covered with white roses adorned the path from the gate to the front door, creating a tunnel of sweet scented flowers. Clematis trailed over the grey stone walls of the house framing the door in soft mauve blooms.
Mrs Pilkington was tall with light brown hair which she wore tied back from her face. Her cheeks were weather-beaten from the sun and the wind that blew in from the sea. On market days she drove a rather ancient red Mini into town. She kept the little car in the shed that served as a garage. The children loved to spend their summer holidays with their grandmother. It was perfect to spend relaxing days exploring the beach, searching for crabs and sea anemones in the rock pools and climbing the cliffs at the side of the bay. Their parents did not always stay with them as Grandmother enjoyed looking after the children. She would accompany them to the beach. The three children knew some of the fishermen and would occasionally go out on a fishing trip with them. Or they could climb the cliffs where mossy plants grew and walk to the old lighthouse that overlooked the bay.
The house was interesting too. Grandmother collected antique figures. Amongst her collections were porcelain figures of ladies in long flowing dresses and soldiers on horseback. They were all more than a hundred years old. She would drive in her little car to auctions and would sometimes bid for items, or she would rummage at car boot sales and search for unusual curios. Before Grandfather had died she had lived in many different parts of the world as he had worked for an oil company. So she had pottery bowls and figures from Africa, Singapore and South America. There were also old maps of different countries as well as some of English counties. The spelling on some of the old manuscripts was very strange.
On the mantelshelf in the living room Grandmother kept her collection of character jugs. Harriet particularly liked to look at these and on rainy days she would carefully take them one by one and put them on the table. Each one was in the shape of a different character. One of her favourites was the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland . She liked to imagine how the figures might have lived if they were alive and she made up stories about them. The boys liked to examine the old telescopes and model ships that Grandfather had made. There were lots of old books too, children’s annuals and story books that had belonged to their mother when she was a child.
That evening a fierce westerly wind started to blow. Stormy gusts battered the trees on the bank that led down to the river. Leaves and twigs were blown off and the sound of the waves crashing on to the shore was accompanied by the howling and whining of the wind. The sky grew dark and clouds scudded rapidly through the sky obscuring the oran