The Christmas of Adventure

©2015 June E.

Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann are excited at the prospect of spending their first Christmas together, but by Christmas Eve all their plans lie in ruins. Things get even worse when a severe snowstorm brings the country to a standstill and leaves Bill snowbound, hundreds of miles away. Forced to fend for themselves in Bill's remote moorland cottage, rumours abound of a strange and terrifying creature lurking in the woods nearby... and with a ruthless thief on the loose, striking at night and stealing birds from the local Sanctuary, the scene is set for a frightening and perilous adventure. Can they stop the thief before it's too late? Or will Kiki be the robber's next victim?

  1. 'Everything's going to be just perfect!'
  2. 'Bother! Christmas is completely ruined!'
  3. 'Really, can things get any worse!'
  4. 'This is the start of our next adventure!'
  5. 'Where on earth is Bill?'
  6. 'My goodness, what a gloomy place!'
  7. 'Nobody can ring us, and we can't ring anybody else...'
  8. 'Until then, we're on our own.'
  9. 'How frightfully wicked!'
  10. 'Them woods is no place for a bunch of children.'
  11. 'Not someone, something!'
  12. 'I know there was something there, and I'm going to prove it.'
  13. 'Fair broke his heart, it did, when those birds were taken.'
  14. 'I'm worried that she might just pine away and die.'
  15. 'Looks like I'm back just in the nick of time.'
  16. 'Oh no, the footprints are melting!'
  17. 'Shhhhhhhhhh! Or it will hear us!'
  18. 'Let us in, quick, it's after us!'
  19. 'I don't claim to have seen it – I did see it!'
  20. 'Now you'll have to eat your words, Philip Mannering.'
  21. 'You children have got some explaining to do, and no mistake.'
  22. 'I feel like a real detective!'
  23. 'Surely this gigantic fingerprint proves something?'
  24. 'A midnight stake out at the sanctuary – how thrilling!'
  25. 'Let's creep out and look for fingerprints.'
  26. 'Oh Bill, what if we're too late!'
  27. 'Don't ever ask me to visit Mrs Grouch again!'
  28. 'Anyone who tried would be cut to shreds!'
  29. 'Atishoo!'
  30. 'We can't be expected to sit on our hands all day, just because Dinah has a cold.'
  31. 'They're mine now, and I won't part with 'em.'
  32. '...a little bit of snow and mud won't hurt.'
  33. 'I know who the Midnight Man is!'
  34. '...now it's time for a taste of your own medicine.'
  35. '...now you're going to find out what it feels like to be a prisoner!'
  36. 'You simply never know!'