The Castle on Deadman's Island (17 page)
Read The Castle on Deadman's Island Online
Authors: Curtis Parkinson
Tags: #Fiction, #General, #Castles, #Social Issues, #Detective and Mystery Stories, #Inheritance and Succession, #Mystery Stories, #Juvenile Fiction, #Mystery & Detective, #Mysteries & Detective Stories, #Mystery and Detective Stories, #Royalty, #Architecture, #Historical, #Missing Persons, #Adolescence, #Medieval, #History
She shook her head. “Hard to believe, both of them in one night. People in Riverview are saying it's the curse of the castle again. I suppose nobody will ever know what really happened.”
“Actually,” Graham began. “Neil and Crescent and I â”
“Your friend Neil is here? And Crescent too? Lovely girl. How nice, the three of you together on a camping trip. But what a coincidence! Here you are, camping right across from my castle â I guess I can call it my castle now that I'm the only one left. You must come over and I'll give you a tour. It's an intriguing place. You'll love it. And bring your friends â they'll enjoy seeing it too.”
Graham sighed. “I'm sure they will, Aunt Etta.”
“Well, I must be on my way,” Henrietta said. She leapt back in her boat and cranked the outboard into life. “I'm so glad I ran into you, Graham,” she shouted over the roar of the motor.
“I'm glad you did, too,” Graham shouted back. “In fact, you'll never know how glad I am.”
“Now what do you suppose he meant by that?” Henrietta said to herself, as she opened the throttle wide and shot off. “Lovely boy young Graham, and very bright. He's certainly different, though. For a moment there, I thought he was going to cry. Perhaps he's homesick. I do hope he comes over to see me.”
Graham stared after the speeding runabout until it turned into the boathouse on Deadman's and disappeared. When the sound of the outboard died away, he had to keep telling himself that the brief encounter
with his aunt hadn't been a figment of his imagination.
Neil and Daniel came down to the dock. “We heard voices,” Neil said, looking around. “Was someone here?”
Graham turned to them. “To quote the messenger in the last act of
Macbeth,
when he saw the trees of Birnam Wood move, âGracious my lord, I should report that which I say I saw, but know not how to do it.'”
“Huh?
You feeling all right, Graham?” Daniel said.
Graham smiled. “I'm great, thanks, and this calls for a celebration. Let's go toast some marshmallows for breakfast and I'll tell you all about it.”
The End
Though there are several actual castles in the Thou sand Islands, the castle in this story is fictional, as is Dead man's Island, on which it is set, and nearby Lovesick Island. There is a Deadman's Bay and a Love sick Lake in Southern Ontario, and the author has taken the liberty of borrowing their singular names.
Copyright © 2009 by Curtis Parkinson
Published in Canada by Tundra Books,
75 Sherbourne Street, Toronto, Ontario M5A 2P9
Published in the United States by Tundra Books of Northern New York,
P.O. Box 1030, Plattsburgh, New York 12901
Library of Congress Control Number: 2008903010
All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the publisher â or, in case of photocopying or other reprographic copying, a licence from the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency â is an infringement of the copyright law.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Parkinson, Curtis
     The castle on Deadman's Island / Curtis Parkinson.
eISBN: 978-1-77049-077-2
    I. Title.
PS8581.A76234C34 2009Â Â jC813â².54Â Â C2008-902057-X
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP) and that of the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Media Development Corporation's Ontario Book Initiative. We further acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program.
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