History Keepers 1: The Storm Begins Read Online Free PDF Page B

rising up to her full height to look him in the eye. ‘Tell me!’
    Jake listened intently.
    Jupitus took a deep breath. ‘Venice,’ he announced. Then added gravely, ‘1506.’
    Rose dropped her head into her hands.
    Jake’s mind reeled in confusion. What on earth could Jupitus have meant?
    Jupitus smiled thinly at Rose. ‘Welcome aboard.’ He looked at his watch. ‘We dine in thirty minutes.’ He climbed down the steps that led below decks. ‘And you’d better tell the boy who he is and what he’s doing here. He doesn’t believe a word I say. Stations, everybody,’ he ordered, and disappeared from sight.
    As the Escape picked up speed down the Thames, heading for Tower Bridge, Jake stared at his aunt. ‘Rose, what’s happening? I don’t understand – where are Mum and Dad?’
    Rose fumbled in her carpetbag, produced an old tissue and wiped her eyes. She looked around the ship. ‘I never thought I’d set foot on these creaky boards again. It’s been fifteen years.’
    ‘You know this ship?’ asked Jake in amazement.
    ‘Oh, yes – when I was just a little older than you, I spent a good deal of time looking out from this deck,’ she remembered. ‘My last trip was to Istanbul. Or Constantinople, as they called it then. A perilous voyage.’
    She looked up. The wind was howling and the rain was starting to fall with renewed vigour.
    ‘Let’s go inside and I’ll try and explain everything,’ said Rose. She led Jake below decks as, at the helm, Captain Macintyre guided the Escape up the Thames towards the sea.

5 D INNER AND A TOMIUM
    THE MAIN CABIN was a warm, comfortable space. The old timber floors were strewn with a patchwork of rugs. The sturdy oak tables, lopsided by time, were covered with sea charts and navigational instruments. On the walls there were paintings of old seafarers and stern-faced explorers. Jake would later discover that the Escape was a galleon from the seventeenth century, but in Victorian times it had been lovingly adapted to the ‘modern’ world and a steam engine had been set into its core.
    Rose led Jake over to sit on one of the sofas by the fire. She put down her carpetbag, arranged the bangles on her wrist, took a deep breath and began:
    ‘Many years ago, Jake, just before you were born, your parents made a choice. Until then, they had lived a – how can I put it? – an unusual life. It was a life of adventure and discovery and excitement.’ She paused for a moment, her eyes sparkling at the memory. ‘But it was also a life of great, great danger. When Philip was born they started to wonder whether they should continue in this perilous world. Your arrival three years later sealed the matter once and for all. They chose – and it was the most painful choice they would ever make – to lead a “normal” life. And I supported them by choosing the same.’
    Jake stared at his aunt, eyes narrowed in expectation of the next bombshell.
    ‘They kept a secret from you. But it can be kept no longer. A situation has forced our hand.’ Rose took a deep breath and proceeded in hushed tones. ‘You have an ability, Jake. A skill, you might call it. A power that very few others possess. You have had it – without even knowing – since you were born. Your parents have it; I have it; and everyone on this ship, to a greater or less degree, has it.’
    ‘An “ability”?’ was all Jake could manage.
    ‘First, tell me – did Jupitus use an instrument on your eyes?’
    ‘Yes, just after I arrived.’
    ‘And did you see shapes?’
    ‘Diamonds – I saw diamonds.’
    Rose gasped with excitement and clutched Jake’s hand. ‘Diamonds? Really? That’s wonderful news! Wonderful! Were they sharp? Well-defined?’
    ‘I think so, yes.’
    ‘Grade one, no doubt!’ Rose clapped her hands. ‘Like your parents, and me. It is not always in herited, you know. It is rare, so very rare.’
    ‘What does it mean?’
    At this point, Rose glanced round to check that no one was