Read Online Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret by Liz Kessler - Free Book Online Page A

to sound ridiculous and corny and stupid, but it sent shivers and tingles all the way up my arm. I glanced at him to see if he’d felt it too. He looked at me, but he didn’t move away. In fact, a moment later, he smiled shyly, then he opened up his fingers and took my hand in his.
    Which was pretty much the same moment that the woman’s face turned as gray as her hair.
    “Emily?” she whispered. She turned to her husband.
    He clutched her arm and took a step toward me. “It’s really you? Our Emily?” he said.
    I looked at Millie for some help.
    “About time, too!” she exclaimed with a broad smile.
    “It’s Mary Penelope’s friend Millie!” the man exclaimed. “Why, it must be, what — twelve years?”
    “About that,” she said. “Give or take a lifetime or so,” she added under her breath with a meaningful look in my direction.
    “Oh, my — Mary Penelope — is she here? Do you know where she is?” the woman burst out.
    “Er, look, does someone want to explain what’s going on here?” I said. “Or who these people are?”
    The woman reached out and put a hand up to my cheek. “Emily darling,” she said softly, “we’re your grandparents.”
    I stared at both of them. “My —”
    The man smiled at me. “It’s true,” he said. “We’re your grandparents.”
    “But why — how come — I mean, who —?”
    The woman laughed. “There was no competition at all, was there?” she said to Millie.
    Millie proudly shook her head. “I didn’t think a simple invitation would cut it, so I called in a favor to rent the cottage for a few days and set this little ruse up.”
    “But how did you find them?” I asked.
    “Well, we already had the town. I just did a bit of digging around on the Interweb.”
    “Internet,” I corrected gently.
    “Yes, exactly,” she went on. “And actually it wasn’t hard at all. In reality, these things tend not to be. Very often, the only obstacles in our path are the ones we place there in our own minds,” she said airily, throwing her cape over her shoulder for good measure.
    “So what did you do once you’d found out where they were?” I asked.
    Millie lowered her voice. “With the help of some spiritual knowledge, a little bit of mystical insight, a few carefully placed markers along the ley lines of the way, anything is possible,” she said dramatically.
    “She phoned us,” the woman said.
    Millie picked an invisible speck of dirt off her gown. “Well, yes, you could put it like that too, I suppose.”
    The woman went on. “She told us we’d won a weekend by the sea — for this weekend!”
    “Well, it worked, didn’t it?” Millie said.
    I stared at them a bit more. “So you really are my grandparents?” I asked. They nodded back at me with bright beaming smiles.
    I turned to Millie. “Come on — we have to go and tell Mom!” I looked at my watch. “It’s past twelve. She should be home for lunch by now.”
    The woman — Nan — clapped a hand over her mouth and reached out to take Granddad’s arm with her other hand. “Is this really happening?” she asked him. “Are we really going to see our daughter again?”
    He put his hand over hers. A lump in his throat was bobbing up and down, and it looked as though he was trying to speak. In the end he just squeezed her hand and nodded.
    “Hang on a sec.” Millie rummaged in her bag. “Where is it? I bought it especially for the occasion. I’m sure it’s here some — ah!” She pulled a small camera out of her bag. “Right, close together everyone. Say cheese!”
    Aaron and I stood awkwardly in front of my grandparents and tried to smile while Millie clicked away.
    “Lovely!” she said with a smile. “Right, come on, let’s go and tell Mary P. you’re here!”
    Closing the door behind them, the old couple followed Millie out of the cottage and up toward the pier. I walked along with Aaron. We were still holding hands. The tingling feeling still hadn’t gone away — and my