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Contents ( 57)
  1. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
  2. Dedication
  3. Contents
  4. Chapter One
  5. IN WHICH SOPHIE TALKS TO HATS
  6. Chapter Two
  7. IN WHICH SOPHIE IS COMPELLED TO SEEK HER FORTUNE
  8. Chapter Three
  9. IN WHICH SOPHIE ENTERS INTO A CASTLE AND A BARGAIN
  10. Chapter Four
  11. IN WHICH SOPHIE DISCOVERS SEVERAL STRANGE THINGS
  12. Chapter Five
  13. WHICH IS FAR TOO FULL OF WASHING
  14. Chapter Six
  15. IN WHICH HOWL EXPRESSES HIS FEELINGS WITH GREEN SLIME
  16. Chapter Seven
  17. IN WHICH A SCARECROW PREVENTS SOPHIE FROM LEAVING THE CASTLE
  18. Chapter Eight
  19. IN WHICH SOPHIE LEAVES THE CASTLE IN SEVERAL DIRECTIONS AT ONCE
  20. Chapter Nine
  21. IN WHICH MICHAEL HAS TROUBLE WITH A SPELL
  22. Chapter Ten
  23. IN WHICH CALCIFER PROMISES SOPHIE A HINT
  24. Chapter Eleven
  25. IN WHICH HOWL GOES TO A STRANGE COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF A SPELL
  26. Chapter Twelve
  27. IN WHICH SOPHIE BECOMES HOWL’S OLD MOTHER
  28. Chapter Thirteen
  29. IN WHICH SOPHIE BLACKENS HOWL’S NAME
  30. Chapter Fourteen
  31. IN WHICH A ROYAL WIZARD CATCHES A COLD
  32. Chapter Fifteen
  33. IN WHICH HOWL GOES TO A FUNERAL IN DISGUISE
  34. Chapter Sixteen
  35. IN WHICH THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF WITCHCRAFT
  36. Chapter Seventeen
  37. IN WHICH THE MOVING CASTLE MOVES HOUSE
  38. Chapter Eighteen
  39. IN WHICH THE SCARECROW AND MISS ANGORIAN REAPPEAR
  40. Chapter Nineteen
  41. IN WHICH SOPHIE EXPRESSES HER FEELINGS WITH WEED-KILLER
  42. Chapter Twenty
  43. IN WHICH SOPHIE FINDS FURTHER DIFFICULTIES IN LEAVING THE CASTLE
  44. Chapter Twenty-One
  45. IN WHICH A CONTRACT IS CONCLUDED BEFORE WITNESSES
  46. HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
  47. Read on for an excerpt from The Merlin Conspiracy
  48. I
  49. ONE
  50. Read on for an excerpt from Dark Lord of Derkholm
  51. ONE
  52. Read on for an excerpt from Archer’s Goon
  53. Chapter One
  54. About the Author
  55. Credits
  56. Copyright
  57. About the Publisher

“Oh, no,” said Howl. “That’s not playing the game. That would spoil all the fun.”

Sophie’s sympathy shrank again. A game, was it? “Don’t you ever give a thought for the poor girl?” she snapped.

Howl finished the milk and gazed into the mug with a sentimental smile. “I think of her all the time,” he said. “Lovely, lovely Lettie Hatter.”

Sophie’s sympathy went for good, with a sharp bang. A good deal of anxiety took its place. Oh, Martha! she thought. You have been busy! So it wasn’t anyone in Cesari’s you were talking about!

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Chapter Seven

IN WHICH A SCARECROW PREVENTS SOPHIE FROM LEAVING THE CASTLE

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Only a particularly bad attack of aches and pains prevented Sophie from setting out for Market Chipping that evening. But the drizzle in Porthaven had got into her bones. She lay in her cubbyhole and ached and worried about Martha. It might not be so bad, she thought. She only had to tell Martha that the suitor she was not sure about was none other than Wizard Howl. That would scare Martha off. And she would tell Martha that the way to scare Howl off was to announce that she was in love with him, and then perhaps to threaten him with aunts.

Sophie was still creaking when she got up next morning. “Curse the Witch of the Waste!” she muttered to her stick as she got it out, ready to leave. She could hear Howl singing in the bathroom as if he had never had a tantrum in his life. She tiptoed to the door as fast as she could hobble.

Howl of course came out of the bathroom before she reached it. Sophie looked at him sourly. He was all spruce and dashing, scented gently with apple blossom. The sunlight from the window dazzled off his gray-and-scarlet suit and made a faintly pink halo of his hair.

“I think my hair looks rather good this color,” he said.

“Do you indeed?” grumped Sophie.

“It goes with this suit,” said Howl. “You have quite a touch with your needle, don’t you? You’ve given the suit more style somehow.”

“Huh!” said Sophie.

Howl stopped with his hand on the knob above the door. “Aches and pains troubling you?” he said. “Or has something annoyed you?”

“Annoyed?” said Sophie. “Why should I be annoyed? Someone only filled the castle with rotten aspic, and deafened everyone in Porthaven, and scared Calcifer to a cinder, and broke a few hundred hearts. Why should that annoy me?”

Howl laughed. “I apologize,” he said, turning the knob to red-down. “The King wants to see me today. I shall probably be kicking my heels in the Palace until evening, but I can do something for your rheumatism when I get back. Don’t forget to tell Michael I left that spell for him on the bench.” He smiled sunnily at Sophie and stepped out among the spires of Kingsbury.