Archie Greene and the Magician's Secret Read Online Free PDF

He hadn’t even known he had cousins. He wondered again why Gran hadn’t mentioned them before and felt a tingle of anticipation that he’d be meeting them that very afternoon.
    Archie held up his own teacup and the little man chinked his cup against it.
    ‘Cheers!’ Old Zeb cried. ‘Welcome on board, Archie Greene! See you tomorrow.’

8
Houndstooth Road
    A rchie left the Aisle of White with his head in a spin. A lot of strange things had happened in the last few hours and he seemed to be at the centre of them all. Outside, it was starting to cloud over, but at least it wasn’t raining. At that moment, a solitary ray of sunlight found its way into the courtyard outside the bookshop and glinted off the shop sign like a smile.
    Archie followed the directions to his cousins’ house. Gran had said it was walking distance from the centre of Oxford, and sure enough, half an hour later, he arrived at 32 Houndstooth Road. It wasn’t hard to spot – it was the only purple house in the street. He pressed the doorbell. Archie’s heart was beating fast. He hadn’t realised quite how nervous, as well as excited, he was about meeting his relatives. What if they didn’t knowwho he was? Or what if they didn’t like him? He glanced anxiously at the door.
    Nothing happened. He waited for what he considered to be a reasonable amount of time – what Gran would call a polite amount of time – and then he rang again. Still nothing. What if no one was at home? Where would he stay? Perhaps this wasn’t the right address after all. Or maybe the Foxes had moved. He took a deep breath and gave a sharp knock on the door. He heard footsteps. Then the door shuddered open just enough for someone to peer out. Two dark eyes regarded Archie from inside the house.
    ‘No thanks, we don’t want any,’ the owner of the dark eyes said in an impudent voice. ‘And if you’re after money, forget it, we haven’t got any. Actually, we don’t even live here any more.’
    Archie looked into the dark eyes. They belonged to a boy a little younger than himself with brown tousled hair and freckles.
    ‘Excuse me,’ Archie said, in his politest voice, ‘I am looking for the Foxe family.’
    The boy looked shifty. He glanced over his shoulder. Archie got the impression that there was someone else lurking behind the door telling the boy what to say.
    ‘I’m a relative,’ Archie added. ‘Granny Greene sent me.’
    There was the rustling of clothes as someone who had been crouching down stood up. Then the door flew open and a woman appeared next to the boy. She beamed at Archie.
    ‘Granny Greene sent you?’ she cried.
    Archie nodded and took a step back in alarm. ‘Yes,’ he answered cautiously.
    The woman suddenly threw her arms around him and hugged him. ‘My dear boy, how wonderful to see you!’
    Archie gazed as she danced a little celebratory jig on the doorstep.
    ‘Don’t worry about Mum,’ the tousle-haired boy said. ‘She’s a bit mental, but you get used to her after a while. I’m Thistle by the way.’ He extended his hand to Archie and grinned.
    ‘I’m Archie,’ he replied, shaking the boy’s hand.
    ‘And I am Loretta,’ the woman announced, smiling. ‘Aunt Loretta to you!’
    Archie was aware that she was staring at him in a most peculiar way. He felt suddenly shy.
    ‘Well, well, well,’ she said, shaking her head as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. ‘You’re the absolute spit of your father when he was your age. I’ve got some photos of him I’ll show you later. Come in! Come in!’
    Loretta swept Archie and Thistle along a short hallway and into the kitchen.
    The first thing Archie noticed about the Foxe residence was that there was a preponderance of purple. The walls and woodwork were all painted in different shades of it. The second thing that occurred to him was that there were an awful lot of books. The walls were completely lined with bookcases from floor to ceiling. In fact, everywhere