Free The Gargoyle Overhead by Philippa Dowding Page A

from its long, curly horn into a small pool at the unicorn’s feet. She hopped off the fence and waddled toward the unicorn. She could use a drink.
    She opened the little pouch at her side and pulled out a small jug, which she filled with water. She drank long, then wiped her mouth with her claw and looked around.
    There were statues everywhere. Three dwarf statues (on closer inspection, she found one had a badly broken nose recently fixed), a cherub with little wings, and a beautiful apple tree strangely bearing fruit in the middle of the summer. She flew heavily to a bough in the tree and decided to help herself. She picked a few apples and breathed in their scent, which was heavenly. She placed them in the pouch at her side for later.
    As she picked another apple and took an enormous bite, she noticed something odd. There was an empty stone pedestal beside the back fence. There was also a bench beside it, just as though friends sat and talked there all the time.
    Ambergine flew over for a closer look and stopped dead.
    A calico cat was eyeing her from the bushes near the empty pedestal. Ambergine didn’t particularly like cats, nor, in her experience, did cats particularly like her. Most of the time they ran away from her. Occasionally, a very brave cat might stand its ground and spit at her.
    But this cat did neither of these things. Instead, the cat walked over to Ambergine and rubbed itself against her legs.
    “Well, you are an odd creature,” said Ambergine surprised, reaching down and stroking the cat’s head with her claw. “Aren’t you supposed to be afraid of me?”
    But this cat was not afraid. In fact, when Ambergine hopped up onto the pedestal, the cat jumped up and sat in her lap. Ambergine was oddly comforted by the little cat purring in her lap. She stroked the cat’s fur for a while, quite comfortable.
    But suddenly the cat jumped down. The neighbour’s back door opened, and a man’s voice called, “Milly! Milly kitty! Time to come in! C’mere, kitty!”
    The little cat looked back up at Ambergine, whisked its tail, then trotted off to be let into the neighbour’s house.
    “How strange,” Ambergine thought. But that wasn’t all that seemed strange to her. It was beginning to dawn on her that this yard was special. There was something familiar and comforting about it.
    This yard had water, apples, an empty pedestal and a cat which wasn’t afraid of her.
    It would make a perfect place for a gargoyle to live.
    Just then a loud noise in the alley startled her. A man’s voice cursed in the dark.
    Ambergine streaked to the top of the apple tree. A man with a white straw hat, a big baggy jacket and thick glasses stood by the back fence, peering into the yard. He looked up at her in the tree.
    Ambergine shrieked and took off into the night. She flew as far and as fast as she could. She didn’t stop flying for hours, and when she finally collapsed from exhaustion on the roof of a tiny library, she had no idea where she was.
    Life is unfair sometimes. If she had flown just a few rooftops further, she would have come across one hundred and forty-eight orange-scented pumpkin candles burning low, late into the night.

Chapter Sixteen
    Gargoth and Cassandra
    The week with Cassandra went very slowly for Gargoth. He lay about on the rooftop of the store, being as polite as he could, drinking the lemonade and eating the apples which his kind host left out for him night after night. The only time he had spent with Katherine was the night before when they had gone to her soccer game.
    Each evening, Cassandra and Gargoth would light the beacon together, then they would sit silently while Cassandra worked on her knitting and Gargoth smoked his pipe and stared into the sky. Eventually Gargoth would get up and blow out the candles, and Cassandra would say goodnight then descend the stairs to her apartment at the back of the store.
    But it was odd without Katherine there. She was away all day, only to come home