Lindsey Kelk - Cinders and Sparks - Magic at Midnight

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019

Published in this ebook edition in 2019

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd,

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Text copyright © Lindsey Kelk 2019

Illustrations copyright © Pippa Curnick 2019

Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 2019

Lindsey Kelk and Pippa Curnick assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work respectively.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008292119

Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008292126

Version: 2019-04-29

For Karrahan, Edie and Ayse,

who are already magic

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2019 Published in this ebook edition in 2019 HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF The HarperCollins Children’s Books website address is www.harpercollins.co.uk Text copyright © Lindsey Kelk 2019 Illustrations copyright © Pippa Curnick 2019 Cover design copyright © HarperCollins Publishers 2019 Lindsey Kelk and Pippa Curnick assert the moral right to be identified as the author and illustrator of the work respectively. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook onscreen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins. Source ISBN: 9780008292119 Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008292126 Version: 2019-04-29

Dedication For Karrahan, Edie and Ayse, who are already magic

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Keep Reading …

About the Publisher

‘A long time ago, in a kingdom far, far away, there lived a girl. And, even though the girl was humble and poor, she was as kind as she was beautiful and, whenever she passed by, all the townsfolk would say she was—’

‘Incredibly boring?’

A young girl with messy hair and bright eyes stood in the doorway, yawning so hard her head almost fell right off her shoulders.

‘Good morning, Cinders.’ Margery, the storyteller and the girl’s stepmother, gave her a stern look. ‘Have you finished all your chores already?’

‘Yes,’ said Cinders.

‘You’ve chopped the wood?’

‘Yes,’ said Cinders.

‘You’ve fed the pigs?’

‘Yes,’ said Cinders.

‘Done all the dishes?’

Cinders looked back at the pile of plates, bowls and saucepans stacked up in the sink. She had not done all the dishes. She had not done any of the dishes.

‘Yes,’ said Cinders, swiftly stepping to the side to block her stepmother’s view of the kitchen. ‘May I go outside now?’

‘No,’ replied Margery, turning back to her book. ‘Ladies don’t play outside.’

‘Ladies stay inside and sit nicely,’ Cinders’s stepsister, Agnes, announced from her seat on the sofa. ‘Like us, listening to Mother reading. Ladies don’t ruin their dresses in the mud as you always do.’

‘I like reading but I like reading for myself, not listening to Margery,’ Cinders muttered, scratching at a stain on the hem of her dress. What had she spilled on it that was purple? ‘She doesn’t do all the voices. And I’d rather read outside, not cooped up in here. Sometimes it gets a bit muddy – I can’t help that.’

‘I wouldn’t mind reading outside,’ piped up Eleanor. ‘It’s a lovely day. Maybe I’d like it.’

‘You wouldn’t like it at all,’ Agnes informed her little sister. ‘There are bugs everywhere, and it would be no good at all for your complexion. You want to stay inside with me and Mother.’

‘Do I?’ Eleanor replied with a shrug. ‘If you say so …’

‘As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,’ Margery said, turning her back on Cinders, ‘there was a beautiful girl in a faraway kingdom and she was loved by everyone she met. She was good and truthful, and she never lied to her stepmother about finishing her chores when there was clearly a sink full of dishes waiting to be washed.’

Cinders sloped back into the kitchen, turned on the tap and stared out of the window. Not for the first time she wished the elves would make some kind of device for washing dishes instead of just useless things, like phones for playing games. A washy-dishy-thingy. Hmm. The name might need work.

Cinders sighed. Trust Eleanor to side with Agnes. They always ganged up against her. Before her father had remarried, she’d dreamed of having a loving mother and a sibling to play with, but instead she’d been saddled with Miserable Margery and the Terrible Twosome. Margery wasn’t so bad, but she thought about nothing but herself and how she looked and what people thought of her and her girls. She was always nagging Cinders, punishing her messiness and forgetfulness with chores, chores and more chores. It hadn’t been so bad when they’d first come to live in her pink cottage at the edge of the woods, but, as they’d got older, Cinders had realised her stepmother was always going to be bossy and boring, and that she and her stepsisters had absolutely nothing in common.