BooksBarbecue
Back The Winter Garden Save as PDF
Chapters (54)
  1. COVER
  2. About the Author
  3. ALSO BY ALEXANDRA BELL
  4. DEDICATION
  5. Prologue
  6. Part One
  7. CHAPTER ONE
  8. CHAPTER TWO
  9. CHAPTER THREE
  10. CHAPTER FOUR
  11. CHAPTER FIVE
  12. CHAPTER SIX
  13. CHAPTER SEVEN
  14. Part Two
  15. CHAPTER EIGHT
  16. CHAPTER NINE
  17. CHAPTER TEN
  18. CHAPTER ELEVEN
  19. CHAPTER TWELVE
  20. CHAPTER THIRTEEN
  21. CHAPTER FOURTEEN
  22. CHAPTER FIFTEEN
  23. CHAPTER SIXTEEN
  24. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
  25. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
  26. CHAPTER NINETEEN
  27. CHAPTER TWENTY
  28. CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
  29. CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
  30. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
  31. Part Three
  32. CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
  33. CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
  34. CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
  35. CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
  38. CHAPTER THIRTY
  39. CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
  40. CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
  41. CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
  42. CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
  43. CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
  44. CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
  45. CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
  46. CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
  47. CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
  48. CHAPTER FORTY
  49. CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
  50. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
  51. CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
  52. CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
  53. Acknowledgements
  54. THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Beatrice visited the magic garden every night for seven evenings in a row. Each time she would see different wonders and return with some new treasure – the tooth of a tree, or a tiger’s whisker, or a shining apple with black skin, dark and sweet as secrets. On the seventh night the Spider Queen tried to offer Beatrice a gift that she did not want and, without even waiting for the ice clock to chime, Beatrice practically fled back to the sanctuary of her bedroom.

On the eighth day her mother was carried from the house feet-first inside her coffin. After she had been safely laid in the ground, the servants started the clocks up once again and the mirrors were all uncovered.

Beatrice sat on her bed that night, dressed in her coat and boots, but the garden did not come. No clock chimed the thirteenth hour and her room did not fill with ice roses. When she went to the window she saw that the grounds remained unchanged – there was no luminous snow upon the summer-scorched lawn, no flicker of candlelight, no butterfly wings, no frog music, no sparkling tiger. The Winter Garden had vanished, taking its magic with it.

Beatrice took out the box hidden in her wardrobe, filled with the treasures she’d collected from the garden – all that remained to her now of its magic. She wondered whether she ought to have taken the Spider Queen’s final gift after all, but no. How could she? It was the last thing she had ever wanted to see, and she was glad it had gone forever. Finally her eye fell upon the black apple. Fruit contained seeds, from which new trees would grow. Could it be that she had managed to save a small piece of the magic after all?

Her hand tightened around it as hope flared in her chest. Her mother might be gone for good, but Beatrice promised herself that, whatever it took, she would see the garden again one day.

Penguin walking logo

Part One

CHAPTER ONE

June 1836

Seventeen years had passed since Beatrice last saw the magical Winter Garden. After her tongue had healed (as much as it was ever going to), she’d tried to speak of it a couple of times, but no one had ever believed her. Even the black apple trees did not convince her father, who insisted the strange seeds must have been dropped by passing birds flying in from abroad.