Royal Rabbits of London Page 8
It was a dark night full of stars. Shylo and Horatio had left the celebration party and crept outside to sit beneath the Weeping Willow. The odd taxi rumbled along the Mall, but otherwise it was quiet and peaceful in Green Park. The old buck and the young bunkin sat side by side on the grass, which was damp with dew and long beneath the tree where the tractor failed to mow. The air was thick with the scent of summer.
Shylo sighed wistfully, for whenever he snuck outside in the night and looked up at the stars he wondered whether his mother was seeing the same stars and whether she was thinking of him as he was thinking of her.
His heart was full of happiness. Why then was it also full of longing?
‘You did well, Shylo,’ murred Horatio, looking at his young friend with tenderness. ‘You had a difficult choice to make, between your friendship with Belle de Paw and your loyalty to the Royal Rabbits and the King and Queen, but you did the right thing. It all turned out well in the end.’
‘Why is life hard, Horatio?’ Shylo murmured, gazing up at the old buck, hoping for answers to the many questions that buzzed about his head like restless bees.
Horatio sighed and wondered how to answer in a way that the little rabbit would understand. ‘The only obstacle to success, Shylo, is fear,’ he said. ‘Fear that you’re not good enough. Fear that you will lack courage. Fear that you will not do your best.’
He put his arm round the little rabbit’s shoulders. ‘It’s all right to make mistakes, Shylo, as long as you learn from them. After all, everyone makes mistakes. You mustn’t be so hard on yourself.’
Shylo knew he was referring to him falling asleep on duty.
‘When you believe in yourself, you can move mountains.’
‘But how do I believe in myself?’ Shylo asked.
‘One can always do much more than one thinks. When you were told to go into Tiger Towers on your own, you did it without hesitation, didn’t you?’ Shylo nodded. ‘When you were talking to Amura, you somehow found the right things to say, didn’t you?’ Shylo nodded again. ‘When the Pack tried to catch you, you ran away, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, I did.’
‘That’s because you didn’t think, you just did. If you think too much, you let the fear in. You doubt yourself. You have to live in the now and not think about the future or the past. When you’re in the now, you somehow find the right thing to do. Sometimes, Shylo, you just have to be brave.’
Shylo thought about that and realized Horatio was right. When faced with danger, he had found ways to cope. He really was much braver than he knew.
‘If I could wave a magic wand and give you whatever your heart desired, what would it be?’ Horatio asked, even though he was sure he already knew the answer.
Shylo looked down at his paws, because he felt a little foolish.
‘You don’t have to be shy with me,’ Horatio said.
‘I’d like to see my mother,’ Shylo murred, and he felt an ache in his chest where his heart was.
‘And so you shall,’ murred Horatio. ‘I had a feeling you might be homesick, so I’ve been talking to Nelson and he agrees with me. It’s time you went home and visited your family.’
Shylo’s ears, which were flopping over his forehead, stiffened with excitement. ‘Truly?’ he exclaimed.
‘Truly,’ murred Horatio.
‘Does she know?’ Shylo asked, imagining his mother’s face when he turned up in the mouth of the Burrow.
‘It will be a surprise,’ said Horatio. ‘A wonderful surprise.’
‘What will she think when she sees me?’ Shylo wondered, embarrassed suddenly that he had said those words out loud.
‘She’ll be very proud,’ Horatio told him. ‘As am I.’
Shylo looked up at his old friend with shining eyes. ‘Truly?’ he said. He couldn’t believe that, after the mistake he’d made, Horatio was still proud of him.
‘Very proud, Shylo,’ said Horatio, drawing him close. ‘Very proud indeed.’
With our deepest thanks to Jane Griffiths, Kate Hindley, Jenny Richards, Jenny Glencross, Sheila Crowley, Luke Speed and Georgina Capel.
TOP TEN FACTS ABOUT DIAMONDS
1. Diamonds are precious stones, which are formed when carbon is compressed tightly together and heated to extreme temperatures of over a thousand degrees Celsius.
2. Diamonds are found deep inside the Earth, from 140 to 190 kilometres down.
3. Sometimes diamonds will find their way to the Earth’s surface through volcanic eruptions, but mostly people will have to dig or mine for them.
4. Diamonds are the hardest substances that occur in nature. They are valued as gemstones because of their beauty, and used in jewellery, especially for engagement rings.
5. Because they are so hard, diamonds are also used in drills and other tools to cut through many hard materials.
6. The very first diamond ever given in an engagement ring was in 1477, when Archduke Maximilian of Austria have his true love, Mary of Burgundy, a gold ring with the letter ‘M’ in diamonds.
7. The word ‘diamond’ comes from the Greek ‘adamas’, which means ‘indestructible’.
8. Diamonds are measured in carats. The higher the carat the better the quality of diamond.
9. The largest diamond ever found is called the Cullinan diamond. It weighs a whopping 0.6kg, which is 3,106 carats.
10. The people of Ancient Greece and Rome believed that diamonds were the tears of the gods.
QUIZ:
Could you stop a thief
1. You’re in the garden with your friends and you notice the back door is open when you’re sure you shut it. Do you . . .
a) Shut it again and look around quickly for anything suspicious, then forget about it?
b) Assume it must have blown open in the wind and carry on playing?
c) Go and check inside to make sure no one got past you while you were distracted?
2. What is your ideal way to spend a weekend?
a) Reading detective books.
b) Playing at your best friend’s house.
c) Spying on the neighbours from your bedroom window to make sure no one is up to anything they shouldn’t be.
3. Your mum has made a delicious-looking chocolate cake but she says no one is allowed to touch it until after lunch. Do you . . .
a) Play in your room, but check regularly downstairs to make sure the cake is still there?
b) Wait until Mum’s talking to one of the neighbour’s outside, before helping yourself to a slice? She’ll never know it was you!
c) Guard the kitchen door to stop anyone getting anywhere near the cake?
4. Your sister tells you about her secret plan to sneak out at midnight to meet her boyfriend. Do you . . .
a) Tell Mum and Dad? Serves her right for taking the last biscuit yesterday.
b) Let her go and keep the secret?
c) Set your alarm for just before midnight, then hide in the dark and jump out at her as she’s creeping out?
5. Your friend tells you she thinks her brother is stealing from her secret sweet supply. Together you . . .
a) Hide the sweets to a better, more secret location.
b) Eat all the sweets so there is nothing left to steal.
c) Set your phones on ‘video’ mode and lie in wait to catch him in the act.
6. You get home to find that someone has moved all your things around and your room is suspiciously clean. Do you . . .
a) Write a large sign, which reads, ‘DO NOT TOUCH MY STUFF’ so this never happens again?
b) Ignore it – it’s lovely to come home to a nice clean room?
c) Set up a trip wire across your bedroom doorway so that whoever comes in falls over it? You’ll know who the sneaky intruder is when they tell you off about it!
Mostly As
You’re pretty observant and good at spotting suspicious activity, but you’re easily distracted — so be careful, one day a thief might just sneak past you!
Mostly Bs
Mostly Cs
Wow — you’re super alert and inventive, and always on the look-out for anything out of the ordinary. No thief is getting past you!
HOW TO SPOT A MINK OF THE KREMLIN
HOW TO GO UNDERCOVER
1. Carry a selection of accessories with you at all times – sunglasses, hat, newspaper, wig – so you can disguise yourself at a moment’s notice.
2. Make sure you have a large bag with lots of pockets to carry all your gear inside.
3. Wear dark or plain clothes to help you blend in.
4. Carry a notebook to help you keep track of clues and solve cases.
5. Having a partner can make going undercover much more fun – team up with a friend or a brother or sister and work together!
6. Good luck!
Other books in the same series
THE ROYAL RABBITS OF LONDON
THE ROYAL RABBITS OF LONDON: ESCAPE FROM THE TOWER
First published in Great Britain in 2018 by Simon and Schuster UK Ltd
A CBS COMPANY
Text Copyright © Simon Sebag Montefiore and Santa Montefiore 2018
Illustrations Copyright © Kate Hindley 2018
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HB ISBN: 978-1-4711-7147-5
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