My Secret Unicorn
My Secret Unicorn
Keeper of Magic
Lauren looked at the box. What was inside?
As she held it, a tingle of magic seemed to creep
over her fingers. Lauren was sure that whatever
was in the box was something about unicorns.
If only she could open it. But she had to wait.
How long for though? When would it be the
right time?
Books in the series
THE MAGIC SPELL
DREAMS COME TRUE
FLYING HIGH
STARLIGHT SURPRISE
STRONGER THAN MAGIC
A SPECIAL FRIEND
A WINTER WISH
A TOUCH OF MAGIC
SNOWY DREAMS
TWILIGHT MAGIC
FRIENDS FOREVER
RISING STAR
MOONLIGHT JOURNEY
KEEPER OF MAGIC
My Secret Unicorn
Keeper of Magic
Linda Chapman
Illustrated by Ann Kronheimer
PUFFIN
PUFFIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
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(a division of Penguin Books Ltd)
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
penguin.com
published 2007
1
Text copyright © Working Partners Ltd, 2007
Illustrations copyright © Ann Kronheimer, 2007
All rights reserved
The moral right of the author and illustrator has been asserted
Except in the United States of America, this book is subject to the condition
that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,or otherwise
circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other
than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition
being imposed on the subsequent purchaser
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
To Helen Levene, my Puffin editor,
for loving Lauren and Twilight as much as
I do and for sharing their adventures with
such skill and enthusiasm. Thank you.
CHAPTER
One
‘Higher, Twilight!’ Lauren laughed in delight as Twilight swooped over the treetops. His snowy-white neck was warm beneath her hands and his ears were pricked up. Happiness rushed through Lauren as the stars blurred around them. She felt as if she could go on flying forever. She loved having a unicorn of her own!
‘This is fun!’ Twilight said as he swooped down and jumped over the top branches of an oak tree. His mouth didn’t move but as long as Lauren was either touching him or holding a hair from his mane she could hear his voice in her head as clearly as if he had spoken. It was part of his unicorn magic. Most of the time, Twilight looked just like any other small grey pony, but when Lauren said the magic words of the Turning Spell, he changed into a beautiful unicorn with a glittering silver horn.
‘I wish I could tell Hannah about you, Twilight,’ Lauren said, thinking about her fourteen-year-old cousin who was coming to stay in a day’s time. Hannah lived a long way away so they didn’t get to see each other much but Hannah loved ponies and Lauren got on with her really well. Lauren knew Hannah would have loved to have seen Twilight as a unicorn but unicorn magic had to be kept secret from anyone who didn’t have a unicorn of their own.
‘I can’t wait to meet her,’ Twilight said. ‘What’s she like?’
‘Pony crazy,’ Lauren answered with a grin. ‘Mum has arranged for her to borrow a horse from Orchard Stables while she’s here so we’ll be able to go on long rides together.’ She patted Twilight. She couldn’t wait for Hannah to meet him, even if she would only see him when he was a pony. ‘We’d better go home now,’ she said. ‘It’s getting late.’
They flew back to Granger’s Farm where Lauren lived with her mum, dad, eight-year-old brother, Max, and Buddy, his Bernese mountain dog. Twilight’s paddock was tucked away around the back of the farm and could only be seen from Lauren’s bedroom window. Behind it towered the shadowy wooded slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Twilight landed lightly on the short winter grass. Lauren dismounted and was immediately aware of the chill of the air on her face. When she was on Twilight’s back, his unicorn magic meant that she never felt cold, but now she was on the ground, she could feel the damp in the November air.
‘I’ll put your rug on you tonight to keep you warm,’ she told him.
He nuzzled her. ‘Thank you.’
Lauren quickly said the magic words of the Undoing Spell that changed him back into a pony.
There was a flash and suddenly Twilight was standing there looking just like any other regular grey pony. His winter coat was long and fluffy and his mane and tail were slightly tangled but there was still a magical sparkle in his eyes.
Lauren fetched his waterproof New Zealand rug from the tack room and quickly rugged him up. ‘See you in the morning,’ she whispered.
Twilight rubbed his head against her.
Smiling happily, Lauren ran to the house. Her parents and Max were fast asleep. Reaching her room, Lauren changed quickly into her nightdress and looked out of her bedroom window. Twilight was standing by the fence.
‘’Night, Twilight,’ she said softly.
Twilight glanced up at the window, almost as if he had heard her. She smiled and then, closing the curtains, got into bed.
‘Isn’t it cold today?’ Jessica Parker, Lauren’s friend, said the next day as she and Lauren and Mel Cassidy got off the school bus.
Lauren nodded and pulled her coat closer around her. The sky was grey and full of rain clouds. She thought longingly of the long hot days of summer – the picnic rides, taking the ponies to the creek in the woods – and sighed. ‘I wish it could be summer all year round.’
‘Do you?’ Mel said in surprise. ‘But if it was then we wouldn’t have frosty mornings when it’s cold but the sun’s shining and we wouldn’t have snow.’
‘I guess,’ Lauren said. ‘And it’s fun going to indoor horse shows in the winter.’ She thought about her cousin, Hannah. ‘It never gets really cold in Florida, where Hannah lives.’
‘She’s arriving tomorrow afternoon, isn’t she?’ Jess said.
Lauren nodded. ‘She’s got a four-day weekend like we have with Monday and Friday off school. You’ll have to come round and meet her. I bet she’d really like to see Shadow and Sandy. She’s crazy about ponies.’ Shadow and Sandy were Mel and Jessica’s ponies.
‘Sounds like we’ll get on then,’ Jessica grinned.
‘Hey, I’ve had an idea!’ Mel exclaimed. ‘Why don’t we do a pony party to welcome her? We could get the ponies looking really great, make a banner and do food with a pony theme.’
‘Yeah!’ Lauren said, loving the idea. ‘It was Hannah’s birthday last week so we could make a cake too. I’m going to get her a present after school today.’
‘We could come over and get everything ready tomorrow morning before she arrives,’ Jessica suggested.
‘Cool!’ Lauren grinned round at her friends. This was going to be so much fun!
CHAPTER
Two
Mrs Foster picked Lauren up after school. ‘How was your day, honey?’ she asked as Lauren got into the car.
‘OK, thanks,’ Lauren said, dumping her school bag down by her feet. ‘I’ve got loads of homework though. I can’t believe the teachers have given us so much. We’ve only got two extra days at the weekend.’
‘You’d better get it done tonight before Hannah arrives tomorrow,’ her mum said. She began to drive to the shops. ‘Now, I thought we could buy her a book for her birthday. Shall we call in at Mrs Fontana’s bookshop?’
‘Oh yes,’ Lauren said eagerly. ‘I bet Mrs Fontana will suggest something good.’
Mrs Fontana was one of the few people in the world who knew about Twilight. She had once owned a secret unicorn too and when Lauren had first got Twilight, Mrs Fontana had given her an amazing old book called The Life of a Unicorn. It had lots of information about unicorns and the magic land they came from which was called Arcadia.
As Lauren thought about Mrs Fontana, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t seen her for a while. She began to work back in her head. It must be about six weeks since she’d last been into the bookshop or had met Mrs Fontana in the woods at night. Weird. When she had first got Twilight, they had always been searching Mrs Fontana out to ask her for advice on how to use his magic to best help people and other animals but now they seemed to be much better at working out how to use his magic themselves.
Looking out of the window, Lauren reflected on all the things she and Twilight had been up to since she had last seen Mrs Fontana. They hadn’t had any really big adventures, just a few small ones. A few weeks ago, Mel’s cat, Sparkle, had gone missing. Lauren and Twilight had used his seeing magic to look into a rock of rose quartz and had discovered that Sparkle was stuck in a tree in the woods. They had flown to rescue her and returned her safely. Then another night they had used Twilight’s ability to untangle things with his horn and had freed a young terrier dog they had found trapped in a bramble thicket with an injured leg. Twilight had used his magic to heal the dog’s leg and he had run home. Then, only the other night, they had helped Max by flying to fetch a school book that he’d left in his friend’s garden. They hadn’t needed to ask Mrs Fontana’s advice for any of those things.
Mrs Foster turned off the road and drove into a parking space in front of a row of shops. Mrs Fontana’s shop had a bow window with a brown and gold wooden sign above it that read: MRS FONTANA’S NEW AND SECOND-HAND BOOKS.
‘You go on ahead of me. I need to get some dog food and call in at the chemist,’ Mrs Foster said. ‘I’ll come and find you at Mrs Fontana’s when I’m done.’
‘OK.’ Lauren ran over to the bookshop.
As she pushed open the door, a bell tinkled and Mrs Fontana’s black-and-white
dog scampered across the faded rose-patterned carpet to meet her.
‘Hi, Walter,’ Lauren said, leaning down to tickle him under the chin. She straightened up and looked around. There were the usual piles of books everywhere and comfy chairs to sit on, but there was no sign of Mrs Fontana. Breathing in the familiar smell of blackcurrants that always seemed to hang in the air of the bookshop, Lauren made her way down to the children and young adult section.
As she reached it, she heard the sound of coughing. Mrs Fontana came out from the storeroom at the back of the shop. Not noticing Lauren, she leaned on a bookshelf and drew in a painful breath before coughing again. Lauren felt very worried. The old lady’s face was very pale and her wrinkles looked much deeper than normal. She had lost weight and her hand, holding on to the bookshelf, trembled.
‘Mrs Fontana?’ Lauren said.
Mrs Fontana looked round. Seeing Lauren, she quickly straightened up and smiled. ‘Lauren! I didn’t realize you were here. I didn’t hear the shop bell go. What a lovely surprise.’
‘I came to buy a book for my cousin,’ Lauren said. She frowned. ‘Mum told me you haven’t been well.’
‘I’m fine, my dear,’ Mrs Fontana replied, stifling a cough. ‘Just feeling my age a bit.’
‘If you’re ill, why don’t we get Twilight to heal you?’ Lauren said. Twilight’s horn had magical healing properties. ‘Or we could get some water from the Waterfall of Stars?’ she asked. ‘Maybe if you had some of that you might feel better?’ A little while ago, she and Twilight had collected some precious magical water from a waterfall just outside Arcadia. They had used it to make Shadow better when he’d been ill.
‘No,’ Mrs Fontana said. She looked at Lauren, her blue eyes wise but sad. ‘Lauren, I cannot be helped by unicorn magic. I am ill because I’m old. That is all. There is nothing you can do to help.’
Lauren stared at her. ‘We must be able to.’
Mrs Fontana came over and took her hands. ‘Not this time. Time passes. People get older.’ Her voice softened. ‘That’s just the way things are, Lauren. You must use Twilight’s magic to help people and animals who really need your help, not waste it fighting a battle that can’t be won.’
Lauren looked at her. She couldn’t believe she and Twilight couldn’t help Mrs Fontana feel better.
Mrs Fontana squeezed her hands. ‘I have something for you. Wait here.’
She walked slowly into the storeroom and a few minutes later returned with a wooden box. Its edges were trimmed with faded gold and it had a lock with a small golden key in it. Lauren looked at it in surprise.
‘This is for you.’ Mrs Fontana placed it in Lauren’s hands. As she did so, the lock seemed to click faintly. Curiously, Lauren went to turn the key. What was inside?
‘No, my dear!’ Mrs Fontana said quickly. ‘Don’t open it yet.’
‘You mean to wait until I get home?’ Lauren said, puzzled.
Mrs Fontana shook her head, and for a moment her blue eyes seemed to twinkle with the same sparkle they always had. ‘You must open it when the time is right,’ she said mysteriously.
‘But when will that be?’ Lauren asked.
‘You will know, my dear. You’ll know,’ Mrs Fontana replied. She looked at the box. ‘Look after it for me,’ she said softly.
Lauren glanced down. The box was heavy. She was longing to know what was inside it.
‘Now,’ Mrs Fontana said, her voice becoming brisk. ‘You said you want a book for your cousin? This is the one who likes horses, is it?’
Lauren nodded and for the next five minutes, Mrs Fontana showed her different books. Lauren had just chosen one on preparing horses for shows, when the shop door opened and Mrs Foster came in.
‘Hello,’ she smiled as she walked towards them. ‘How are you, Mrs Fontana?’
‘Not too bad, thank you,’ the old lady replied.
‘Have you chosen a book, Lauren?’ Mrs Foster asked.
‘Yes, this one.’ Lauren picked up the book and the chest.
‘What have you got there?’ Mrs Foster asked, looking curiously at the chest.
‘It’s just something I’ve given her,’ Mrs Fontana put in quickly. ‘There are a few bits and pieces inside I think she might like.’
‘Well, that’s very kind of you, Mrs Fontana,’ Mrs Foster said.
Mrs Fontana smiled at Lauren. ‘My pleasure. I’m sure I’m putting them in the right hands.’ She walked slowly over to the till and rang up the book.
Just then the door opened and a woman in her thirties came in. She had short brown hair and a slightly anxious expression. When she saw Mrs Fontana at the till, she frowned and hurried over.