London Pride Read Online Free PDF Page A

with five Yeoman Warders guarding her.
    â€˜There you are,’ her father said, when they’d crossed the Green and tramped through the arch into the Casemates.‘Off you go. There’s a good girl. Kiss your old Dad goodnight.’
    She kissed him happily. They were in sight of her front door. Almost home. She only had to run a few steps and she’d be safe.
    â€˜Night night. Sleep tight. Pray the Lord the bugs don’t bite,’ Uncle Charlie said, waving as they all marched back through the archway.
    Silly old thing, Peggy thought. We don’t have bugs in
our
house. Just as if Mum would allow
that
. But she smiled at him politely as she waved goodbye. Then she turned to run home.
    And the Bully boys were standing right in front of her.
    â€˜They gone?’ Sam said, squinting in the poor light.
    She was so frightened she couldn’t answer.
    â€˜Still on the Green,’ Fred said, peering round the corner of the archway.
    â€˜We’ll go the other way,’ Sam decided. ‘Come on.’
    And he was off along the Casemates at a loping trot, with Fred beside him.
    What can I do? Peggy thought. If I made a bolt for it and ran home they might….
    â€˜Come
on
!’ Fred hissed back at her. ‘D’yer wan’ us to be caught?’
    â€˜No,’ she said, finding her voice. But perhaps she did. If they were caught, they couldn’t….
    â€˜Well then!’
    â€˜It’s just…’
    â€˜Shut up and run,’ Sam said, loping back to her and threatening her with his face.
    â€˜And look sharp about it,’ Fred said, equally fierce, pulling her by the hand and dragging her along.
    So she had to follow them. There was nothing else she could do when they were bullying her so. She knew there must be an excuse, a reason for not going, something she could say to stop them, but her heart was banging like a side-drum and she couldn’t think of anything. They were running along the inner wall towards the Salt Tower before she’d recovered from the shock of their sudden appearance, and by then her mind was jammed shut and incapable of any independent thought at all.
    Despite the moon it was hideously dark, and below them the space between the wall and the White Tower was completely empty except for ghostly shadows and the eerie whispering of the plane trees. Sam had the key in his hand and was thrusting it into the black void of the doorway, making a scraping, grinding noise that sounded very loud and alarming out there in the night air.
    But nobody heard it except them and the door opened just a little too easily.
    â€˜Come on,’ Sam whispered. And they all went in.
    It was dank and smelly and horribly silent. And when the door shut behind them with a reverberating clang the darkness was total. Oh please God, Peggy prayed, speaking instinctively to her protective deity, don’t let there be ghosts please, don’t let anything happen. And she backed until her hands were touching the chill stones of the wall.
    The twins set about their evening’s enjoyment immediately, making ‘ghostly’ wailing noises, and lunging at anything they could sense moving in the darkness.
    â€˜Look behind yer! Ooooooh! Ooooooh!’
    â€˜You don’t sound like ghosts a bit,’ Peggy said into the darkness, alarmed but trying to be scornful. ‘You sound like owls.’
    â€˜Look beside yer!’ Sam’s voice warned on a note of rising hysteria.
    She turned despite herself, her skin prickling, for there was something moving and breathing right next to her. And the next minute there was suddenly light in the darkness, and there was Fred, leaning against the wall with an electric torch held underneath his chin. The odd angle of the light made his face look just like a skull, all grinningteeth and huge nostrils and glinting eyes set deep in awful black sockets.
    â€˜Don’t!’ she said.
    He grinned at her more vilely than