The Secret of Zanzibar (24 page)
Read The Secret of Zanzibar Online
Authors: Frances Watts
Alice, Alex and Tibby Rose were still in the back garden picking fruit.
âThere you are,' Alice called as Alistair made his way through the tangle of weeds and flowers to join them. âI was just telling Tibby Rose that I wasn't really surprised to learn that we're not triplets after all.'
âYou weren't?' said Alistair, who thought he had probably never been so surprised in his life as he was by the news that his brother and sister were actually his cousins.
Alice shook her head. âIf you were really my brother, I'd find you annoying â like Alex.'
âHey!' Alex protested through a mouthful of blackberries.
âBut Alistair's
my
brother and he doesn't annoy me,' said Tibby Rose.
âWait till you get to know him better,' Alice advised. âYou'll see what I mean.'
âIt's amazing to think that we're standing here now because we set out to rescue our brother from the Sourians, only to find out that he's not even our brother,' Alex said.
âAnd you didn't rescue me from the Sourians,' Alistair reminded him. âTibby and I rescued you.'
âAnd then we all rescued Gerander,' said Alex with a satisfied nod, as if it had been easy. âIt's a shame, though, that I'll never be king.' He sounded wistful.
âYou wouldn't have been anyway,' Alice told him. âIt would have been Alistair.'
âOr Tibby Rose could have been queen,' Alistair pointed out.
âDad says he can't remember which of us was born first,' said Tibby Rose.
âAnyhow, it's better this way, with everyone free to decide who they want their leader to be,' said Alistair.
âFree to travel wherever we like,' said Tibby Rose dreamily.
âFree to go to school,' said Alice.
Alex threw a handful of blackberries at her.
Alistair looked at the buckets, which were now full of
blackberries, and then at his hands, which were stained purple.
âI'm going to the river to wash,' he declared.
âGood idea,' said Alex, who had been set upon by Alice and Tibby Rose and whose entire body was now smeared with berry-mush. He slung a purple arm around Alistair's shoulder. âEven if you're not my brother, I'm still glad you're my brother,' he said.
âFree to know our friends and families,' said Alistair to himself as he thought how lucky he was to be both a twin
and
a triplet. âFree to know ourselves.'
And he walked through the garden gate and across the path to the river bank, where the Winns flowed free.
Thank you to everyone at ABC Books/HarperCollins â especially my lovely publisher, Tegan Morrison, for her energy and enthusiasm; the talented Mel Maxwell, editor extraordinaire; and the perspicacious Kate O'Donnell. And to David Francis, for the illustrations ⦠and everything.
F
RANCES
W
ATTS
worked as an editor for ten years before writing her bestselling picture book
Kisses for Daddy
(illustrated by David Legge). Other books include the award-winning
Parsley Rabbit's Book about Books
,
Captain Crabclaw's Crew
(both illustrated by David Legge),
A Rat in a Stripy Sock
(illustrated by David Francis) and
Goodnight, Mice!
(illustrated by Judy Watson). Frances has also written a series of chapter books about two unlikely superheroes, Extraordinary Ernie and Marvellous Maud (illustrated by Judy Watson) and the Sword Girl series (illustrated by Gregory Rogers). Her books have been published in twenty countries. Frances lives in Sydney and divides her time between writing and editing.
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First published in Australia in 2012
This edition published in 2012
by HarperCollins
Publishers
Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
harpercollins.com.au
Text copyright © Frances Watts 2012
Illustrations copyright © David Francis 2012
The rights of Frances Watts and David Francis to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work have been asserted by them in accordance with the
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000
.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the
Copyright Act 1968
, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Watts, Frances.
The secret of Zanzibar / Frances Watts; illustrator, David Francis.
ISBN: 978 0 7333 3065 0 (hbk.)
ISBN: 978 0 7304 9935 0 (epub)
Series: Watts, Frances. Gerander trilogy; bk 3.
For primary school age.
Francis, David.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
A823.4
Original cover design by Priscilla Nielsen, adapted by HarperCollins Design Studio
Internal design by Ingrid Kwong
Cover and internal illustrations by David Francis