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First published in Great Britain 2014
by Egmont UK Limited, The Yellow Building,
1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Text copyright © 2014 Jane Hardstaff
Chapter illustrations © 2014 Joe McLaren
The moral rights of the author and illustrator have been asserted
First e-book edition 2013
ISBN 978 1 4052 6828 8
eISBN 978 1 7803 1388 7
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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For Mum and Dad
CONTENTS
19 The Queen and the Little Swan
She’d never get used to beheadings. No matter what Pa said.
Peering through the arrow-slit window, Moss tried to catch a glimpse of the fields beyond Tower Hill. All she could see were people. Crazy people. Spilling out of the city. Scrabbling up the hill for the best view of the scaffold. Laughing and shouting and fighting. Madder than a sack of badgers. She could hear their cries, carried high on the wind, all the way up to the Tower.
‘Get your stinking carcass off my spot!’
‘Son-of-a-pikestaff, I ain’t goin nowhere!’
‘What are you? Dumb as a stump? Move your bum, I said! I’ve been camping here all night!’
‘Then camp on this, coloppe-breath!’
She shook her head in disgust. Execution Days brought a frenzied crowd to Tower Hill. The more they got, the more they wanted. Like a dog with worms.
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