The Star of Kazan

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For Rowan

C

ONTENTS

1   A Person is Found

2   The Golden City

3   The Sinking of the Medusa

4   White Horses

5   The Countess of Monte Cristo

6   The Star of Kazan

7   A Swallow Set Free

8   The Christmas Carp

9   The Giant Wheel

10  Happiness

11  Journey to Norrland

12  The House at Spittal

13  Lunch at the Hunting Lodge

14  Finding the Foal

15  Hector

16  Healing Waters

17  A Smell of Burning

18  Annika Breaks a Promise

19  Gypsies

20  The Godfather

21  The Eggharts are Disgusted

22  Hermann’s Honour

23  Beachcoming

24  Zed Rides

25  Annika’s Surprise

26  The Harp Arrives

27  The Uncle’s Story

28  Collecting Evidence

29  The Palace of Grossenfluss

30  Switzerland

31  Pupil Number 126

32  Ragnar Hairybreeks

33  The Rescue

34  Stefan Confesses

35  The Emptying School

36  Is She Coming?

37  The Riverside Hotel

38  The Letter

39  Rocco

40  Pauline’s Scrapbook

41  The Danube Steamer

42  Found Day

43  Hermann Changes His Mind

44  The Emperor’s Horse

C

HAPTER

O

NE

A P

ERSON IS

F

OUND

Ellie had gone into the church because of her feet. This is not the best reason for entering a church, but Ellie was plump and middle-aged and her feet were hurting her. They were hurting her badly.

It was a beautiful sunny day in June and Ellie and her friend Sigrid (who was as thin as Ellie was portly) had set out early from Vienna in the little train which took them to the mountains, so that they could climb up to the top of a peak called the Dorfelspitze.

They went to the mountains on the last Sunday of every month, which was their day off, changing their aprons for dirndls and filling their rucksacks with salami sandwiches and slices of plum cake, so that when they got to the top they could admire the view without getting hungry. It was how they refreshed their souls after the hard work they did all week, cleaning and cooking and shopping and scrubbing for the professors who employed them, and who were fussy about how things were done. Ellie was the cook and Sigrid was the housemaid and they had been friends for many years.

But on this particular Sunday, Ellie was wearing new boots, which is a silly thing to do when you are going on a long excursion. They were about halfway up the mountain when they came to a flower-filled meadow and on the far side of it, standing quite by itself, a small white church with an onion dome.

Ellie stopped.

‘You know, Sigrid, I think I’d like to say a prayer for my mother. I had a dream about her last night. Why don’t you go on and I’ll catch you up.’

Sigrid snorted.

‘I told you not to wear new boots.’

But she agreed to go ahead slowly, and Ellie crossed the wooden bridge over a little stream, and went into the church.

It was a lovely church – one of those places which look as though God might be about to give a marvellous party. There was a painted ceiling full of angels and golden stars and a picture of St Ursula holding out her arms, which made Ellie’s feet feel better straight away. The holy relic wasn’t something worrying like a toe bone or a withered hand but a lock of the saint’s hair in a glass dome decorated with pearls, and though the church stood all by itself away from the village, someone had put a bunch of fresh alpenroses in a vase at the Virgin’s feet.

Ellie slipped into a pew and loosened her shoelaces. She said a prayer for her mother, who had passed on many years ago . . . and closed her eyes.

She only slept for a few minutes. When she awoke the church was still empty, but she thought she had been woken by a noise of some sort. She looked round carefully, but she could find nothing. Then, peering over the edge of the pew, she saw, lying on the crimson carpet at the foot of the altar steps – a parcel.

It was about the size of a vegetable marrow – quite a large one – and Ellie’s first thought was that someone had left it there as a harvest offering. But harvest festivals happen in September not in June. And now, to Ellie’s amazement, the marrow made a noise. A small, mewing noise . . .

A kitten . . . a puppy?

Ellie did up her shoelaces and went over to look.

But it was worse than a kitten or a puppy.

‘Oh dear,’ said Ellie. ‘Oh dear, dear, dear!’