Free Alice Parker & the Curse of Fate by Nicola Palmer Page A

horse
nearest to her – a beautiful chestnut with a wild look in his
eyes.
    ‘ Sammy? No,’
replied Ingrid. ‘He is young. He is not ... how do you say
... safe to ride? Always he is lively and behaves bad!’
    ‘ Ah! You mean
he’s not broken in.’ Alice smiled to herself, determined
to ride that unruly horse.
    Thomas rolled his
eyes. ‘Great. I suppose you’re planning to do a spot of
horse whispering.’
    ‘ I shall enjoy
this!’ said Grandma cheerfully, nudging Alice.
    ‘ What? Going
in to town to look at televisions?’
    ‘ No! I’m
staying here to watch you ride and have a break from Brigitte.’
    *
    When Ingrid, Thomas
and Brigitte returned from the shops, Grandma was waiting in the
kitchen.
    ‘ Where’s
Alice?’ asked Thomas.
    ‘ Where do you
think?’ Grandma nodded towards the window.
    Sammy was walking
calmly around the yard, Alice sitting proudly on his back. When she
spotted everyone in the kitchen, she said something to Sammy in
hushed tones, who promptly sauntered over to the back door.
    ‘ This is
incredible!’ murmured Ingrid. ‘How did you ...’
    ‘ Alice is very
good with animals,’ interrupted Grandma. ‘She spoke to
him for a while and made friends with him. Then she asked Heinrich
to saddle him up. Sammy didn’t protest at all!’
    Ingrid stared at
Alice with an expression of wonder and confusion.
    ‘ Your sister
is very odd, Thomas,’ remarked Brigitte.
    Thomas did not
reply. He was already upstairs unpacking the new, even bigger
television he had chosen.
    ‘ Ach, diese
Familie!’ Brigitte grumbled to herself.
    *
    That evening they
all settled down in front of the new television. Thomas took control
of the remote, as if it belonged to him but fortunately Ingrid didn’t
mind. She had dug out a box of old photographs and was rummaging
through it to find some of Grandma and Brigitte when they were young.
    ‘ Guck mal!’
she called to them, chuckling at a photo in her hand.
    Brigitte turned her
nose up at the sight of the three of them wearing swimming costumes,
sitting next to a lake.
    ‘ Good grief!’
gasped Grandma. ‘The date’s on the back – 1959!
We were still at school!’
    ‘ Actually, I was not,’ Brigitte corrected her. ‘I was teaching then.’
    ‘ Blimey!’
whispered Thomas. ‘There’s an Ancient History lesson
going on over there!’
    Alice curled up with
the packet of cinnamon stars that he had bought for her in town.
Maxi and Morritz sat at her feet drooling, then squeezed themselves
between her and Thomas on the sofa. Alice had enjoyed her day and
had even managed to push Isabella out of her mind for a few hours.
Perhaps this trip to Germany wasn’t so bad after all!
    ‘ Careful!’
warned Thomas. ‘You almost look happy!’
    ‘ Happy but
tired,’ yawned Alice, resting her head on a cushion. ‘I
need sleep, not T.V.’
    ‘ Sleep then.
There’s nothing worth watching at the moment anyway. Even if
there was, I wouldn’t hear it over all that squawking!’
    Alice closed her
eyes and drifted off to sleep in spite of the shrieks of laughter
coming from Grandma and Ingrid. Brigitte didn’t seem quite as
enthusiastic about embarrassing photos. But then, thinking about it,
Alice couldn’t imagine her getting excited about anything.
    For a couple of
hours Alice dozed peacefully, her feet kept wonderfully warm by the
dogs. But she woke up with a start for no apparent reason. She sat
up and looked around the room.
    ‘ Hey, Thomas,
can you smell something?’
    ‘ Oh, you
haven’t, have you?’
    ‘ No! I’m
being serious. I think I can smell burning.’
    ‘ I can’t.’
    Alice continued to
sniff the air anxiously. After a moment the dogs jumped off the sofa
and ran to the door of the living room, barking in alarm.
    ‘ See? They
can smell it too! Something’s burning.’
    ‘ Oh, great!
Never a moment’s peace!’ moaned Thomas. ‘I suppose
you want me to go and take a look?’
    Alice nodded
anxiously. ‘Yes please. But be