The White Horse of Zennor by Michael Morpurgo Page A

back on the kitchen table. She spread the wings open.
    â€˜It’s one of my ravens,’ she said, almost in a whisper. There was a tremor in her voice. ‘Jasper I think it is. Yes it is Jasper, full of gunshot – poor old thing.’
    â€˜Jasper?’ Kate said.
    â€˜I give them all names,’ Miss Marney said, walking slowly past her to put the kettle on the stove. She rolled back her sleeves and washed her hands carefully. ‘Every bird, every creature on the moor. They are all my friends. I know every one of them – even the ones you take away.’
    â€˜You’ve seen me?’ Kate was angry at the thought of it. ‘You’ve been watching me?’
    Miss Marney smiled for the first time – she had very few teeth.
    â€˜An old lady can look out of her window, can’t she?’ she said. ‘Course I’ve been watching you, been watchingyou for years. After all you come up here more than anyone else and you always have a good look at my house, don’t you?’
    â€˜But I don’t hurt them,’ Kate protested. ‘I don’t hurt the animals, I just keep them at home and look after them. They’re for my collection, for my zoo that I’ve got in my greenhouse. D’you mind, Miss Marney?’
    â€˜No, not if you look after them,’ Miss Marney said. ‘Is Jasper for your collection as well, or did you just want to get a look inside the house and see if the old witch is as mad as everyone says?’
    Kate was not quick enough to deny it. Miss Marney always seemed to be one step ahead of her and Kate was not used to that.
    â€˜I’ll look after Jasper,’ said Miss Marney. ‘He’ll be fine with me. You can come back tomorrow to pick him up if he’s well enough and then you can look after him until he gets better. Would you like to do that? It’ll be a month or two before he’s fit to fly again. But you must let him go when he’s better. He won’t want to be shut up in a cage for the rest of his life.’
    â€˜Do you think he’ll live?’ Kate asked. ‘He looks soweak, and he must have lost a lot of blood.’
    â€˜Oh he’ll live, child,’ Miss Marney said bustling her towards the door. ‘Jasper will live. I have my ways you know. There’s not a lot I can’t cure if I put my mind to it. Now off you go Kate, and come back tomorrow.’
    â€˜But how do you know my name, Miss Marney?’ Kate asked, turning by the front door and facing the old lady.
    Mad Miss Marney began to chortle and then broke into her witchy cackle.
    â€˜Thought you’d want to know that,’ she said. ‘I’m not the only one that talks to herself around here. I’ve heard you talking to yourself up here in the mist. You should be more careful. Voices carry a long way up on the moor. “Kate Trelochie,” you said one day, only a few weeks back I remember. “Kate Trelochie, you’re a genius, a genuine genius. Who else do you know who is only ten years old and has a zoo of her very own?” So you see we are two of a kind you and I. We are mad as hatters Kate. We love all God’s creatures and we love this place with a passion no-one else would understand. You are the first person I’ve had in my house for fifty years and more.’ She seemed anxious all of a sudden and leant closer toKate. ‘You won’t tell anyone you’ve met me will you?’ Kate shook her head vigorously. ‘I don’t like people. Don’t understand them, and they don’t understand me. It’s our secret then, just between the two of us.’
    â€˜Course, Miss Marney,’ said Kate, and the old lady patted her on the head and went indoors.
    It was a difficult promise to keep that evening with the zoo open as usual and all her friends around her. She longed to tell them all about Miss Marney and her amazing house of books, and she would have done