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"I know . .."

"And my ear is loose and my leg joints aren't what they were, but... I can still sing!"

And Ralick launched into "Happy Birthday."

Copper smiled and hugged him. "You darling, darling thingy!" she crooned. "Where would I be without you?"

"Cuddling thin air," said Ralick.

"Did you hear what Aunt Ruby said? About these men looking for us?" Copper asked him.
"I
don't know what she means—were we lost? Why's she so upset?"

"I expect we'll find out," said Ralick, "when Aunt Ruby's ready to tell us."

Since it was long past the time Copper should have set off for school, she dressed in her home clothes and had breakfast on her own. Then she tried to be useful and tidy up, but she couldn't concentrate and sat and knitted row upon row of loose, open stitches instead until her aunt called her into her studio.

Aunt Ruby was sitting at her desk. Piled around her were papers and timetables, notepads and pencils. She looked up at Copper without smiling.

"I'm still thinking," she said to Copper calmly. "A plan is forming. This has been a shock but we will recover." She took Copper's hand and squeezed it tightly. "Most of all— coward that I am—I'm frightened of what you'll find out, about me. . . . You might think I did things wrong. . . . You might be angry with me. But Copper—Copper, I love you as if you were my own dear daughter."

Copper looked out the window. The word
daughter
made her want to cry. She wasn't anyone's daughter.

"You couldn't ever be bad, Aunt Ruby. I love you and I'll always love you, no matter what you've done."

"Maybe," said Aunt Ruby grimly. "Maybe. In the meantime, pack a small bag with plenty of warm clothes. You may be going away."

Copper closed the door softly and went back to Ralick. "I may be going
away,"
she told him.

"Going away?"

"Yes. Aunt Ruby didn't say
we
were going, only
me!"

"I can feel in my bones that this will be an important day," said Ralick.

"I might believe you if you really had some bones," said Copper.

So Copper packed her bag and waited.

She waited in the kitchen and she waited in her bedroom. She waited in the sitting room. Once she peeped outside into the gloomy gray afternoon and thought she saw a figure lurking by the gate, but perhaps it was just the next-door neighbor. She began to wonder if her aunt was ill. People did suddenly go peculiar, didn't they? After all,
she
hadn't seen these men. Perhaps they didn't even really exist.

Later, Copper took some food in to Aunt Ruby. She couldn't knock because of the tray in her hands, so she called out, "It's me," and went straight in. As she went in, a large bird flew out through the window.

At least, Copper thought it was a bird. . . . She heard the
waffle, waffle
noise of wings flapping and thought she saw a brown feathery body briefly outlined in the window, but she wasn't absolutely sure.

"Oh! A bird!"

"No, no, there wasn't a bird. What an idea. In my
studio?
Copper, you have such an imagination. What sort was it? An eagle?" She laughed. "Come and sit here."

Copper loved her aunt so she sat down and didn't mention the bird again, but there was a feather on the windowsill that hadn't been there before.

"Copper," said her aunt, smiling firmly. "I've made up my mind. It is time for you to leave me. Time for you to go home."

"Go home? But this is my home."

"Your real home is in the Marble Mountains. That's where you come from, where we both come from. Home is where this came from." Slipping her hand into one of the pockets of her apron, she brought out a tiny gold charm.

"This is the last charm, Copper, the tenth and last charm. I suppose you've been hoping a long-lost relative sent it each year, haven't you, and I've let you have your dreams, because—well, I had my reasons, Copper. I had all the charms here and . . ."

"You had them
here!
Nobody sent them?" Copper struggled to make sense of it. "And this is the last? I thought they'd go on forever." She was aware of a cold, empty feeling in her tummy. "If they stop . . . well, then, I might stop."

"There were only ten charms. Maybe it's because this is the last charm that things have started to happen. I don't know. But you won't stop. Dear girl, I think you are just beginning! Look at that golden charm, look at it! Isn't it divine? Nobody ordinary could have made that and nobody ordinary could own it, believe me."

Copper turned the tiny charm over in her hand. "But I don't want things to change," she whispered.

"But all things
do
change." said Aunt Ruby calmly. "Now, Copper, listen. Here is a train ticket to take you to the Marble Mountains. They'll be expecting you."

Copper stared at her aunt. "Who will?"

"Copper, I ... OH!" Aunt Ruby jumped as something banged outside and voices shouted across the street. "I'm so nervy.... Where was I? Take Ralick, of course—he's important. Have you packed warm clothes? Good. The taxi's waiting to take you to the station. Don't get off the train until you reach the mountains. I must stay here and try to put them off the scent. Then later if you ask me ... if you can forgive me ... I'll come."

Copper hugged her aunt. "I can't just go! I can't leave school and all my friends and—"

But I can, she thought. I can. I want to. I don't care.
The Marble Mountains.
What do I care about school? Nothing, and I haven't any friends, not really. I shall miss Aunt Ruby, but she'll find me again. And maybe I do have parents, a real family, and maybe I'll stop being all knotted up and tangled inside when I get there. I want to go!

"There's no time to lose. Here, don't forget the bracelet," Aunt Ruby added, pressing it into Copper's hand. "Don't let it out of your sight. It's very, very precious and
they
want it. But it's yours. It was made for you. And, Copper, take this too, this lovely blue wool. I was going to give it to you for your birthday and it
is
your birthday! They'll look after you in the Marble Mountains. Now, you must hurry!"

Copper scurried to the door but Aunt Ruby caught her and held her for one last minute.

"If you ever meet a boy called Linden, yes,
Linden,
be nice to him, be kind to him for me.... I'll come when you're ready for me. Good-bye!"

4. The Journey

That was how
Copper came to be on the train heading for the Marble Mountains, and she was knitting to get herself back together again.

Copper knitted without a pattern, which didn't matter, as she never finished anything. She knitted all the stitches there were, all jumbled up together, pearl, plain, cable, and she could put in loops and bobbles and different colored patterns
too.

"Click, click, click," muttered Ralick. "That noise could drive an ordinary cuddly toy crazy."

"Just as well you're not an ordinary cuddly toy then," said Copper. She stared at him. "I've just had an idea, Ralick. How do you fancy wearing a hat?"

"A hat? You mean a blue hat made by you?" asked Ralick, eyeing the wool suspiciously.

"Yes."

"I don't. Especially as it won't be finished."

"No, really, Ralick, this time I'll do it properly. Then I can hide the charm bracelet inside the hem."

"Blue's not my best color," said Ralick.

Copper patted his head. "You'll look as beautiful as ever."

And Copper did it. As the train rocketed through the countryside, she knitted her first complete garment.

"It's the first thing I've ever finished," she whispered, holding it up. "Don't you think that's amazing?" She slipped it onto Ralick's head. "I mean, all the knitting I've done—the gloves with no thumb and the sweaters with no sleeves— and all of a sudden I manage to finish a hat for you."

"Hmm," said Ralick.

"Well, I think it's great. It's an omen."

She took the bracelet out of her bag. It shimmered and glowed in the train lights so brightly that she quickly tucked it under the table.

"It's so bright!" she hissed.

"And you want me to put it round my head? It might interfere with my brain, like electricity."

Copper grinned. "It might make it work better."

"It works very well as it is, thank you."

"It is lovely, isn't it? Aunt Ruby told me I was four years old when she found me because there were four charms on it."

"I know, I know," said Ralick.

"But. . . ," wondered Copper, "but if I was lost, how does Aunt Ruby know where my real home is? And how did she know that having four charms meant I was four years old?

When I try to think back to before Aunt Ruby, I can't. Don't you remember anything?"

"No," said Ralick. "I'm only a cuddly toy."

"But a very special one," she reminded him. "These were the first four charms: a little dog, a heart and two babies that seem to be the same. Then for my fifth birthday I got this lovely bird, then I got the—the mountain! I'm going to the
mountains
now. A coincidence, d'you think? I've never seen a mountain on a charm bracelet before. It must mean something."

"And one of the babies could be you?" suggested Ralick.

"Yes! Why not? Then maybe I've got a sister somewhere? Or a brother? And, Ralick, this dog thing, this could be you!"

"Dog thing? I'm not a dog thing. A pedigree thing, please. Yes. It could be me. Immortalized in gold. Splendid . . . And when you were seven?"

"A coin, a funny one with a tree. I don't know what that could mean. Then a tree on its own and then that lovely miniature pair of knitting needles—well, I do a lot of knitting—and then finally, today's charm, which was this ... a hammer." Copper made a face.

"Just what every ten-year-old yearns for," said Ralick.

"Well, it is a lovely hammer," said Copper, staring at the tiny object. "Someone must have taken ages to make it. I'm certain each of those charms has a meaning, a special meaning for me."

Copper rolled the ribbed hem of the hat over the bracelet,
then sewed it down. She snuggled the hat down over Ralick's head, pulling his ears through two prepared holes, and tied it under his chin.

"I look like a proper ninny!" growled Ralick, looking at his reflection in the dark of the train window.

"You look as adorable as ever," said Copper brightly. "I'm so proud! The first knitting I've ever finished! It's a real accomplishment!"

"You're right there. You've accomplished making me look like a ninny," said Ralick.

Copper hugged him. "Ralick, I do love you."

The train journey lasted for hours. People got off, but nobody ever got on, and late in the night, Copper found she was the only person left on the train except for the friendly guard. "Last stop coming up in a few minutes," he called cheerily. "Better get your coat on, it's cold out there!"

At last the train wheezed and slithered to a standstill.

"And here we are, the end of the line," said the guard, lifting down Copper's bags. "I hope someone is meeting you, young lady?" he asked her, opening the train door and peering out into the dark.

"Yes," said Copper. "It's home."

"Well, it's a long way from mine," smiled the guard. "Goodbye now!"

Copper stepped outside into a snow-covered landscape. The platform, hedges and trees, station and walls were
knee-deep in a thick white crust. The train backed away, screeching and clanking, and suddenly Copper was alone.

Completely alone.

Blackness crept in all around her. The icy cold crawled over her hands and face and tiptoed up her spine, making her shiver and gasp. Her feet grew numb as they sank, with soft squeaks and crunching noises, into the snow.

In front of her was a large, dimly lit sign:
end of the line
—
marble mountains,
but apart from that there were no lights, no waiting room, people, cars or anything.

A few large, whirling snowflakes bumped gently against her cheeks and blurred in her eyes.

"Some people would be scared," she said to Ralick in a trembling voice.

"Some people are softies," said Ralick. "Not us."

Suddenly a distant soft howl quivered through the air. Copper yelped and squeezed Ralick. "What was that?"

Then another sound broke the silence, the sound of jingling metal and the muffled clip-clop of horses' hooves growing closer. Then two softly glowing yellow lights pierced the blackness, and Copper saw that they were hung on either side of a large old-fashioned sled. The sled, pulled by two massive horses snorting out clouds of steamy breath, glided round the bushes and stopped in a spray of snow.

"Copper! Copper Beech, is that you?" cried a voice from the sled, and a boy jumped down and ran toward her.

"Who else were you expecting at the end of the line in the dead of night?" said Copper, laughing with relief.