Read Online The Garden of Stars by Zoe Chamberlain - Free Book Online

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    Â â€˜See if you can find treasure too, Mummy?’ Rosie egged me on.
    Â I had to admit it was tempting to see if any other jewels lay further down the hole she’d made with her muddy hands. I fetched the shovel and dug a little deeper. Almost instantly I hit something hard. Carefully I used my hands to scrape away the dirt.
    Â â€˜What is it, Mummy?’
    Â The ‘treasure’ came up easily from the ground, and I pulled it up for a closer inspection.
    Â It was a skull. A miniature human skull. It must have been a child. I shuddered.
    Â â€˜Cool,’ said Rosie, reaching out to touch it.
    Â I slapped her hand, and quickly returned the skull to where I’d found it.
    Â â€˜Don’t you want to see if the rest of the skeleton is there, Mummy?’
    Â I felt my blood run cold, and knew I had to think fast. Should I call the police? No, it was probably best not to interfere. The skull looked old and discoloured, as if it had been buried long ago.
    Â â€˜Rosie, sometimes treasure is buried for a reason. If that’s the case then under no circumstances should it be disturbed. What we’ve just found is important and special. But it must only be seen and known about by us two. We were privileged to have been led to it. Now we must not take advantage of that by telling others. Do you understand? You’re not to tell anyone at school about this. It’s our little secret.’
    Â Rosie nodded solemnly: ‘Like where we came from?’
    Â â€˜Yes, like where we came from.’
    Â â€˜And my daddy?’
    Â â€˜Yes, and Daddy. Run in now and wash and brush your teeth. Scrub that dirt from under your fingernails. It’s time for your bed.’
    Â â€˜When will we see Daddy again?’
    Â â€˜Inside now, Rosie,’ I said, sternly, ‘it’s late and getting dark. Do as you are told at once.’
    Â Obediently she did as I asked, although I heard her grumbling as she made her way back into the house.
    Â As dusk fell around me, I looked down at the tiny skull again and wept. It felt like the salty water of my tears opened up an enormous void inside my chest that had been closed for so long. I wept for the mother of this baby, who had been forced to lay her to rest at such a young age. I wept for the baby, who had all her life ahead of her but had been cruelly taken away. I wept at what this revelation might mean to me and Rosie. Why was this in our garden? Why had the cat led us here? Was there something larger than that that had led us to Cherrystone Cottage, to Ivory Meadows in the first place? Would we ever get to return to London, to see our old friends again?
    Â I gently replaced the skull in the shallow grave where I had found it, covering it with earth once more. I put the silver trinket back into its rightful place, too. Then I cut some roses and placed them on top. At this, the cat leapt up and stood proudly amongst the flowers on top of the shrine. His eyes seemed to stare past me, deep into my soul. He seemed to be searching for something, something inside me that was too terrifying to be let out. He reminded me of a picture in an old storybook my mother used to read to me at night. It was about a cat which stood on top of a tombstone of a deceased woman whose soul had been possessed by the devil. My mother and her stories.
    Â By the time I stood up, it had gone quite dark around me. There was not a star in the sky and the moon was surrounded by an eerie mist. I ran back up to the house, and slammed the door shut behind me. My head, which had been aching all day, was now pounding.
    Â It wasn’t just that something wasn’t quite right. It was definitely that something was very wrong.
    Â The kettle hissed on the stove. Perhaps Rosie’s fairies weren’t all good after all.
    That evening, Rosie continued to ask too many questions, questions to which I had no answers. After she’d finally,