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  About the Book

  What would you do if you woke up in a strange place? If your whole life changed in an instant and you had no idea what was going on?

  Twins Kensy and Max Grey’s lives are turned upside down when they are whisked off to London and discover their parents are missing. As the situation unfolds, so many things don’t add up: their strange new school, the bizarre grannies on their street, the coded messages they keep finding and the feeling that, all around them, adults are keeping secrets … Things can never go back to the way they were, but the twins are determined to uncover the truth!

  Contents

  Cover

  About the Book

  Title Page

  Cast of Characters

  Map of Alexandria

  Map of Millbank

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  A note on the Caesar cipher

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Books by Jacqueline Harvey

  Jacqueline Supports

  Want more Kensy and Max?

  Copyright Notice

  The Grey household

  Kensington Méribel Grey

  11-year-old twin

  Maxim Val d’Isère Grey

  11-year-old twin

  Anna Grey

  Kensy and Max’s mother

  Edward Grey

  Kensy and Max’s father

  Fitzgerald Williams

  Kensy and Max’s manny, best friend of Edward Grey

  Alexandria Estate

  Dame Cordelia Spencer

  Owner of Alexandria

  Wellington and Mackintosh

  Dame Spencer’s West Highland terriers

  Song

  Butler

  Mim

  Head gardener

  Chester

  Pet squirrel

  Shugs

  Gardener

  Mr O’Leary

  Gardener

  Ida Thornthwaite

  Cook

  Central London Free School Staff

  Magoo MacGregor

  Headmaster

  Daphne Potts

  Personal assistant to the headmaster

  Romilly Vanden Boom

  Science teacher

  Monty Reffell

  History teacher

  Willow Witherbee

  English teacher

  Cosette Verte

  Languages teacher

  Elliot Frizzle

  Art teacher

  Lottie Ziegler

  Mathematics teacher

  Gordon Nutting

  PE teacher

  Elva Trimm

  Head dinner lady

  Eric Lazenby

  Caretaker

  Students

  Autumn Lee, Harper Ballantine, Carlos Rodriguez, Sachin Varma, Yasmina Ahmed, Dante Moretti, Inez Dufour

  Kensy and Max’s friends

  Amelie Jagger

  Older girl

  Alfie

  Boy in Lower Sixth

  Lola Lemmler

  Unfriendly girl, especially to new students

  Misha Thornhill

  Lola’s friend

  Residents of Millbank

  Wanda Grigsby

  Owner of the corner shop in Ponsonby Place

  Derek Grigsby

  Wanda’s son

  Esme Brightside

  Friend of Wanda and Ivy

  Ivy Daggett

  Friend of Wanda and Esme

  Claudia

  Neighbour in Ponsonby Terrace

  Gary

  Manager of The Morpeth Arms

  Stephie

  Bar Attendant at The Morpeth Arms

  Other

  Sidney

  Butler

  For Ian

  Max woke with a start as the car crunched to a halt. He yawned and looked around at his sister, who was still asleep in the back seat. Her blanket had slipped down and she was drooling on the pillow that was wedged in the corner. She wouldn’t thank him for noticing.

  The boy peered out at the jewel box of stars in the clearing night sky. It had only stopped raining a little while ago. On the other side of the car, Max could see what looked to be a hotel. A dull glow shone from one of the windows high in the roofline. For a second, he glimpsed a face, but it was gone as soon as it had appeared. ‘Where are we, Fitz?’ Max asked.

  Fitz turned and gave him a weary smile. ‘This is Alexandria,’ he replied, as if that was supposed to mean something. ‘Be a good lad and take the daypacks with you, and mind the puddles. No one will thank you for tramping mud inside.’

  Fitz opened the driver’s door and hopped out of the Range Rover.

  Max stretched, yawning again, then reached over and gently shook his sister’s leg. ‘Kensy,’ he whispered, ‘we’re here.’

  The girl groaned and flopped her head against the pillow but didn’t wake up. It was to be expected given they’d just spent the past sixteen hours driving from Zermatt, near the Swiss–Italian border, across France and then to England.

  Fitz reappeared at the open driver’s window. ‘Don’t wake your sister unless you want your head bitten off,’ he warned with a wink.

  Kensy let out a grunty snore, as if to agree.

  Max heard footsteps on the gravel and looked up to see a tall man approaching. The fellow was wearing a red dressing-gown and matching slippers. His dark hair had retreated to the middle of his head and he sported large rimless glasses. Fitz walked towards him and the two shook hands.

  As the men spoke in hushed tones, the boy slipped out of the car. The stars had disappeared again and fat drops of rain began splattering the driveway. Max quickly collected the packs from the back seat while the man in the dressing-gown retrieved their suitcases from the boot. Fitz swept Kensy into his arms and carried her through a stone portico to an open doorway.

  ‘Are we home?’ she murmured, burrowing into the man’s broad chest.

  ‘Yes, sweetheart,’ he replied. ‘We’re home.’

  Max felt a shiver run down his spine. He wondered why Fitz would lie. This wasn’t their home at all.

  The four of them entered the building into a dimly lit hallway. Without hesitation or instruction, Fitz turned and continued up a staircase to the right.

  That’s strange, Max thought. Fitz must have been here before.

  ‘Please go ahead, Master Maxim,’ the tall man said.

  Too tired to ask how the fellow knew his name, Max did as he was bid. The hypnotic thudding of their luggage being carried up the stairs made the boy feel as if he was almost sleepwalking. They followed Fitz down a long corridor and eventually came to a bedroom furnished with two queen-sized beds and a fireplace. Max’s skin tingled from the warmth of the crackling fire. He deposited the daypacks neatly by the door and shrugged off his jacket as the tall man set down their bags and drew the curtains.

&nb
sp; ‘Sweet dreams, Kens,’ Fitz whispered, tucking the girl under the covers.

  Without any urging at all, Max climbed into the other bed. He had so many questions, but right now he couldn’t muster a single word. The soft sheets and the thrum of driving rain against the window panes made it hard to resist the pull of sleep. He closed his eyes as Fitz and the tall man began talking. Max roused at the mention of his parents’ names followed by something rather alarming – something that couldn’t possibly be true. He tried hard to fight off the sandman to hear more, but seconds later Max too was fast asleep.

  Kensy scraped her hair into a ponytail and sat down at the end of the bed to put on her shoes. Somewhere in the building, a grandfather clock began to chime. She counted the bells in her head and was surprised to discover how late it was. She’d been up for ages and had attempted to wake Max a couple of times already, but it seemed the boy could sleep through an earthquake this morning.

  Unlike her brother, who was usually a light sleeper and early riser, Kensy only had two speeds – full tilt and out cold. The second she was awake, Kensy needed to get out there and be amongst it, wherever ‘it’ happened to be. Right at that moment the girl couldn’t wait a minute longer. She marched over to pull back the heavy brocade drapes, flooding the enormous room with sunlight.

  ‘No way!’ she breathed, her green eyes the size of dinner plates.

  Kensy quickly unlatched the window and swung it open, drinking in the view. Directly below her was a red gravel pathway and, beyond that, a gigantic fountain surrounded by low hedges laid out in a geometrical pattern. Trees resembling oversized lollipops stood in a line along the top terrace. On another level, accessed by one of at least three sets of stone steps, were flowerbeds still in bloom. Past the garden were rolling green fields dotted with frothy white sheep, and a shimmering river meandered through it all. Over to the right, Kensy could see a high stone wall and, to the left of the main drive, a thick woodland. She thought the scene looked more like a painting than real life and it was all just begging to be explored.

  ‘Okay, that’s it.’ Kensy shut the window, then slid across the polished timber floorboards and leapt onto her brother’s bed. ‘Max!’ she said, jumping up and down. ‘You have got to see this!’

  The boy rolled away and pulled the covers over his head.

  ‘This place is incredible! The garden – it’s gorgeous – not to mention that you could do laps in the bathtub. Mum would love it,’ Kensy prattled, her words tumbling out like a waterfall. ‘Anyway, you need to get up. I’m starving … and someone has locked us in our room.’

  Max resurfaced, pushing himself up against the cloud of pillows. ‘What do you mean we’re locked in?’ he yawned. The door was probably just stuck. His sister was prone to exaggeration and enjoyed nothing more than to imagine the most outlandish scenarios for which there was usually a perfectly rational explanation.

  ‘I mean exactly what I said,’ Kensy replied, continuing to jump. ‘The handle won’t budge. Seriously, who locks a door from the outside? What if there was a fire? I have half a mind to call the concierge and give them an earful. And where is Fitz? He never lets us sleep in this late. It’s after nine o’clock.’

  Max frowned and reached for his spectacles. His sister’s suitcase had already exploded halfway across the room. Although it came as no surprise, it still bothered him. Max hopped out of bed and sidestepped a pile of underwear, resisting the urge to tidy the mess. ‘I’m having a shower first, then I’ll deal with the locked door,’ he said, grabbing some clean clothes and his toiletries bag. ‘And can you not jump on my bed with your shoes on?’

  Kensy fell back onto the duvet with an exasperated groan. Her brother always took forever to get ready, which was probably why he always looked as if he had stepped straight from the pages of a magazine, while Kensy mostly looked as if she’d been dragged through a bush backwards. It went without saying that Max took after their mother, who often gently suggested that her daughter should become better acquainted with a hairbrush.

  Kensy leapt up and consoled herself by hunting around the bedroom for a solution. She tried the two mahogany tallboys first, then the bedside cabinets, the fancy inlaid dressing table and, lastly, felt around every single floorboard to see if any of them were secret compartments in disguise. When she didn’t find what she was looking for, she barged into the bathroom as her brother was pulling on his shirt.

  ‘Haven’t you heard of knocking?’ he grumbled.

  ‘Since when do you care?’ Kensy opened the top drawer of the vanity. She rattled around among the cotton buds and bars of soap before locating her prize. ‘Excellent,’ she said, and charged back out the door.

  Max sighed and hung up his sister’s abandoned towel along with his own. He walked out of the bathroom to find Kensy crouching by the bedroom door. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked, slipping on his shoes.

  ‘What does it look like I’m doing, silly?’ Kensy replied, her face centimetres from the doorhandle. ‘I’m picking the lock, just the way Fitz taught us.’

  Max watched as his sister set to work, jiggling the pins inside the keyhole. He bent down to see if she was making any progress when, suddenly, there was a faint click.

  ‘Voila, little brother!’ Kensy grinned and turned the handle. ‘No need for applause, just a “Wow, you’re the smartest, most incredible girl I know” will do.’

  Max rolled his eyes. ‘And modest too.’

  As Kensy darted into the hallway, Max hung back and looked left and right.

  The passage played host to an array of antique furniture, with more side tables and mirrors than anyone would ever find useful as well as a grandfather clock in a burr walnut case. Max noticed a particularly tall lamp with a red shade that looked a lot like a skinny woman wearing an oversized hat. All was still but for the gentle swishing of the lampshade tassels. Max couldn’t help wondering if the object had swivelled around of its own accord. He scratched his head – perhaps his sister’s wild imagination was beginning to rub off on him. Clearly, the idea was preposterous.

  ‘Hurry up,’ Kensy called.

  Reluctantly, Max went after her. He had been keen to make further investigations of the lamp, but as always his sister got her way. Max kept to the centre of the wide Chinese carpet runner, which did nothing to mask the squeaky floorboards. The boy soon stopped again; a large dome sitting atop a cabinet had caught his attention. Kensy turned and walked back to see what he was gawping at this time.

  ‘Well, that’s disgusting,’ she said, eyeing the taxidermied weasel. It was sporting a look of unbridled glee and had a furry creature hanging limply from its mouth.

  Max leaned in. ‘I think it’s kind of interesting in a gross way. I’d love to know how they get the fur to shine like that.’

  ‘Eww,’ Kensy said, wrinkling her nose. She poked her tongue out at the beady-eyed beast and dashed off, as if the weasel might spring back to life.

  The building was bathed in silence apart from the sound of their footsteps and the ticking of the clock, which presently announced the half-hour.

  ‘Don’t you think it’s weird there are no numbers on the doors?’ Kensy asked, finally taking stock of their surroundings. ‘And it’s dead quiet – where are all the guests?’

  Max looked up and down the hallway. He’d had the same thought and had noticed there were no fire-extinguishers or exit signs either, which did seem odd for a public establishment. ‘Maybe it’s one of those exclusive lodges and it’s low season?’ the boy said.

  ‘Gee, if a hotel as good as this can’t get business, even in low season, then there wouldn’t be much hope for the ordinary ones around here,’ Kensy mused.

  They had reached a grand staircase that was at least eight feet wide and in possession of the most intricately carved balusters in the shape of lighthouses. Kensington ran her fingers around one of them.

  ‘We need to find Fitz,’ Max said. ‘I’ve got to talk to him about something.’

  ‘Yes, lik
e why we were locked in our room for a start,’ the girl said.

  Max shook his head. ‘Not just that. Last night I heard him talking to the fellow who carried our bags inside.’

  ‘So?’ Kensy said.

  ‘He mentioned something about Mum and Dad, except that he called them Anna and Ed.’ Max paused, unsure if he should tell his sister the rest.

  ‘Well, what did he say?’ Kensy asked. She had a knack for being able to tell when her brother was keeping something to himself.