Read Online The Magnificent Lizzie Brown and the Devil's Hound by Vicki Lockwood - Free Book Online Page B

Erin glanced at one another. “I hope you don’t have reason to eat those words, Lizzie,” Nora said seriously.
    â€œYou wouldn’t be the first proud girl brought low by mocking what you don’t understand,” added Erin.
    â€œAll right, you’re not coming! I get it!” Lizzie flung her hands up. “Anyone else scared of the Devil’s Hound?”
    Hari got to his feet. “Not me. But my animals are scared of something, that’s for sure. It’s probably just the weather . . .”
    â€œSo come,” Lizzie said.
    â€œLizzie, I can’t leave them. They’re too jumpy. They need me.”
    Whenever the circus had to move on, there was always a moment when the main pole of the big top was dropped. For an instant the tent walls would billow out as the roof fell in, and then the whole grand affair would crumple to the ground as the air rushed out of it. Lizzie felt just like that now as she let out a long sigh. “Is anyone going to join me?” she said. “I ain’t going to twist your arms. I’ll go alone if I have to.”
    â€œWhat do you reckon, Dru?” said Malachy. “We can’t let the young lady go exploring a spooky graveyard all on her own, can we?”
    â€œThat would not be gallant of us, I fear,” Dru said, shaking his head in mock sadness.
    â€œIt seems we are in agreement, my old friend.”
    â€œIt seems we are, mon camerade .” Dru and Malachy solemnly shook hands, and Lizzie had to laugh at their silliness.
    Malachy tossed his walking stick from one hand to the other. “I’d better bring this. The ground might be uneven, and you never know when someone might need a whack on the head.”
    â€œWould your pa be okay with you going?” Erin challenged him.
    Malachy’s eyes flashed. “No, and you ain’t going to tell him, Erin Sullivan. That goes for all of us. We’re a gang, right? So we keep quiet about what we get up to.”
    â€œUnless it’s an emergency,” Lizzie added.
    â€œWell, yeah,” admitted Malachy. “Obviously not then.”
    â€œPlease don’t go!” Nora begged them. “I know you think it’s all a big adventure, but what if something terrible happens to you? The Devil’s Hound is real. I know it is!”
    â€œWhat’s going to happen to us?” Malachy scoffed. “I don’t remember nothing in the Bible about the Devil having a hound!”
    â€œThere’s other books than the Bible,” Erin said darkly. Nora nudged her to shut up.
    Malachy took Lizzie’s arm, and they walked out of the tent together. “There’s nothing up in Kensal Green Cemetery but a lot of dead people, and the dead can’t hurt the living, can they?”
    â€œJust be careful,” Nora called after them. “Promise?”
    â€œI promise,” Lizzie said, smiling over her shoulder.
    * * *
    â€œHeck of a big moon tonight,” Lizzie said, glancing up at the sky. “We won’t even need a lantern.”
    Dru looked up and down the road, which was pitch dark, even beneath the bright full moon. “ C’est très romantique ,” he sighed. “A moonlight stroll through the beautiful English countryside.”
    â€œKnock it off!” Lizzie said with a laugh.
    â€œI worry about you sometimes, Dru,” Malachy said. His footsteps crunched on the gravelly road. “You don’t seem right in the head.”
    â€œWhat can I say?” said Dru. “We French speak as we feel.”
    The three friends kept up the playful chatter as they walked up the road toward the cemetery. Even though nobody said so, Lizzie knew that they were all talking to keep the silence at bay. If they stopped, the quiet would creep back in, and then they wouldn’t feel so brave.
    As they continued down the lonely road, Lizzie grew more and more aware of the sounds around her. Her own breathing began to