When the sun sets more than once a day and the world's diamonds are stolen, a small brave girl, struggling to belong, has secrets to discover.
Marigold leaves her lonely life to join extraordinary thieves, Bert and Bob. Who is their Mistress? What i...
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On the floor of the attic workshop at Blackmoor Hall, Whatnot strained in the grip of the grabber to turn and look at Jet.
'Perhaps if I had been stronger, it would never have come to this', he said. 'I might have stopped her madness.'
Jet glanced across the room at Lady Artifice. She looked all of her one hundred and eighty-nine years now. Frail and stooped, she was leaning heavily on a walking stick and scowling up at the skylight. No doubt hoping that the diamond light shooting through it would illuminate the return of her thieves. He glanced at the brass alarm clock that the grabbers fingers still held firmly in front of their faces. He saw Whatnot was looking at it too. 9.51am.
'It's too late', he said. 'For anything', he added miserably.
'Marigold could still mek it', Jet insisted. 'That girl's got gumption.'
Whatnot turned his head away from the dog.
Jet watched the seconds ticking away. He struggled to keep in a yelp of fear.
*
With a distressed squawk, a raven flew at Lolly as she tried to keep up with Archie. Its talons brushed against her scalp for a moment. She screamed. The bird took to the air again and circled the outer walls of the Tower - as if waiting for peace to return to its home. Shaking, Lolly steadied herself against a stone window frame. She noticed the ground was no longer shaking and pieces of wall were no longer hurling themselves at her. She also noticed her reflection in the window. She stopped in front of it. With a tut, she began to remove dirt and dust from her face and hair. Reaching into the pocket of her uniform, she felt for her strawberry lipstick.
A breathless Archie had paused by one of the corners of The White Tower. He looked back the way he'd come for Lolly. What was she doing staring into that window?
Lolly was too busy pouting as she applied her lipstick to notice the Beefeaters quietly creeping towards her. They positioned themselves in a semi-circle behind her. Archie thought about shouting to her. He knew that would attract attention to himself. What was the point in both of them getting captured? He should go. But he continued to watch the Beefeaters close in on his wife.
'Her accomplice', said a voice.
He turned around to see a determined looking woman and a thin man advancing towards him. The woman had brown hair that curled around the brim of her Beefeater hat. Archie couldn't help noticing how skinny the man's legs looked in his red tights.
'Grab him, Arthur', said the woman.
'With pleasure, Henrietta', the man responded. Skinny or not, the man's grip was firm on Archie's arm.
*
Marigold struggled as the long fingered hand pulled her up from the ground. She opened her mouth to shout. But then, as her hand felt a knee-cap that was impossibly high for the distance she'd been lifted, her fear was replaced by delight. It wasn't a sensation she'd experienced before.
