Free The Unicorn Hunter by Che Golden Page A

smiled and could almost taste the sweetness on her tongue. Her stomach rumbled at the thought of a hot dinner.
    But as she walked around the corner of the wall to the square she saw a dog lying against the rough-cut stone, directly opposite her grandparents’ front door. It was huge and black and shaggy and no breed that she could name. It turned a massive square head to look at her and Maddy nearly tripped over her own feet as she looked into yellow eyes as big as headlights.
    It’s just a dog, it’s just a dog, it’s just a dog that shouldn’t be off the lead, just a dog
… she thought as her hands shook and the tip of her front-door key skittered and scratched the lock as she tried to guide it home. She was desperate to turn around and face the animal and her body was tense as she listened for the sound of a growl rumbling in its throat. But it stayed still and quiet and she nearly wept with relief as the key shot home and the door opened as she turned it.
    She should have kept walking. As the door swung open straight into her grandparents’ little sitting room, a woman in plaid with red hair that tumbled around her and brushed the floor looked up from her granda’s chair by the fire.
    The Queen of Autumn had come for a visit.

CHAPTER TEN
    Maddy stood frozen with shock in the doorway while Meabh smiled slyly at her. A few fallen leaves took advantage of the open doorway and scampered in around her ankles.
    â€˜Come in out of the weather, Maddy, for goodness sake, and close your mouth,’ fussed Granny, as she bustled out from the kitchen with a cup of tea in her hand. ‘Our guest will think you have no manners at all!’ Meabh smiled up at Granny as she took the saucer from her hand, wrapping her long thin fingers around the delicate china.
    â€˜Thank you so much,’ she purred, her teeth hard and white against her ruby-red lips.
    â€˜Will you have a bit of cake with that?’ asked Granny.
    â€˜I would love some,’ said Meabh graciously, and smiled as Granny bustled back out to the kitchen.
    Maddy looked over her shoulder at what wasobviously, now that she took a long hard look at him, the Pooka. She stepped carefully into the house and closed the front door behind her, before sliding into a chair at the square dining table in the centre of the room and glaring at Meabh.
    â€˜Who does my granny think you are?’ she asked, cringing inside as she heard her voice give a little wobble with fear.
    â€˜A missionary collecting for the starving babies in Africa, a cause I understand is close to her heart,’ said Meabh.
    A bark of laughter escaped Maddy’s throat before she could shut her lips against it. ‘She’s never going to believe that!’
    â€˜She’s glamoured,’ said Meabh. ‘She will see whatever I tell her to see and then she’ll forget I was ever here.’
    Granny came out from the kitchen with a slice of fruitcake on a plate.
    â€˜Can I have some?’ said Maddy, and she peered at Granny’s eyes when she looked in her direction. Her pupils were reduced to pinpoints.
    â€˜Not before your dinner, Maddy. You know the rules,’ said Granny.
    Not that glamoured, is she?
thought Maddy.
    â€˜Well, this all looks lovely,’ said Meabh as she glanced down at the untouched food and drink cradled in herwhite fingers. ‘But I really need to have a little chat with Maddy all by myself so would you mind leaving us alone for a little while?’
    â€˜Of course!’ said Granny, smiling away at Meabh like a loon. She walked back to the kitchen, shutting the door behind her without so much as a glance at Maddy.
    â€˜You’ll fry her brains, doing that to her,’ said Maddy.
    â€˜She’ll be fine,’ said Meabh, putting the tea and the plate on the corner of the table and pushing them away from her with the tips of her spindly fingers. They sat there in the silence, staring at each other.