1

A New Home

When Daniel was eight years old, his parents bought an aeroplane and set off to explore the world. They telephoned every evening to let him know exactly where they were.

But on the ninth evening, the telephone didn’t ring. Nor did it ring on the tenth or the eleventh evenings. So on the twelfth day a search party of famous explorers set off at once to find them. The explorers tramped through forests, climbed down into ravines, paddled up rivers and dived to the bottom of the deepest lakes. But they didn’t find so much as a scrap of clothing or the tiniest part of an aeroplane.

Daniel’s parents had vanished.

And Daniel, who had nowhere else to go, left the house he had grown up in and travelled all the way across the country to live with his Aunt Severe.

2

Aunt Severe

Aunt Severe wasn’t her real name, of course. It was actually Great Aunt Emily – Emily Florence Biddle-Smith. She was his mum’s aunt. But Aunt Severe was the name that popped into his head the moment he stepped down off the train and laid eyes on her at the station.

Daniel had only ever met his great aunt when he was a tiny little baby, so he didn’t remember her at all. All he had ever seen were photographs of her at home. In the photos, she was a smiling woman standing in a beautiful garden packed with masses of brightly coloured flowers. Nothing like the gloomy, grim-faced figure who stood there waiting for him with a sign in her hand with his name written on it.

She looked as if she’d never smiled in her life and didn’t like any colour except grey. It was the colour of the overcoat that covered her from her chin to her ankles and the colour of the floppy hat that stopped just above her eyes. It was even the colour of the knobbly walking stick she used to jab Daniel’s suitcase.

‘What’s in there?’ she demanded.

‘My clothes. And some books and toys.’

‘Stuff and nonsense!’ she harumphed. ‘There won’t be any time for stuff and nonsense in my house!’

Without another word, she led him across town to a street lined with tall trees and beautiful big houses. All except for one. Its walls were crumbling. Its windows were cracked. Tiles were missing from the roof and the front garden was full of weeds. This was Aunt Severe’s home and it was just as glum and gloomy inside as it was on the outside. Once the door slammed shut, she told him to empty his suitcase, then took all his books and toys and locked them away in the attic.

‘If you’re very good,’ she said, ‘I might let you have one book at weekends.’

‘But I always read at night!’ Daniel protested.

‘Nonsense!’ said Aunt Severe. ‘Night-time’s for sleeping.’

She took him to the kitchen and handed him a cold spinach sandwich and a glass of water.

‘I don’t really like spinach,’ he said.

‘It’s good for you and it’s all you’re getting!’ she replied.

When he was finished, Aunt Severe showed him to his bedroom.

‘I get up very early!’ she announced as he climbed into bed. ‘Very, very early!’

The door banged shut. The room was plunged into darkness. Feeling very sad and very, very lonely, Daniel drifted slowly off to sleep.