The Mystery of the Clock Tower

By Sandra Maggs

This is it! The final book, and the one which explains everything.

Bess Hooper finally learns the truth. As this mystery unfolds, the origin of the time travel gift is revealed. Another riddle is solved in the process and clears up more than one question.
Without Eloise by her side, life is difficult, but not impossible and Bess learns to cope without her best friend, all the time questioning where she is.
Chased through time, Bess gets the fright of her life and after a short stay in hospital, she comes to the conclusion that there is only one answer, and that is to return the legacy, but will she?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sandra Maggs
• Release date: Dec 5, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463578872

Sandra Maggs

I was born in a library and raised on literature. From a young age I wrote my own stories and read them to anyone who would listen. After years of hard work and determination, I'm finally dabbling in the world of Indie Publishing and I love it! My favourite genre is fantasy, but I'll give anything a shot.

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The Mystery of the Clock Tower

Copywrite 2019 Sandra Maggs

Published by Sandra Maggs at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favourite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Index

Part One – The Tower

Part Two – The Nine of Wands

Tom

Eloise

Maisy

Calliope

Ellen Holdsworthy

Holland

Clancy

Grace

Part Three – The Empress

Part Four – A New Beginning

About the Author

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Other Books by Sandra Maggs

Part One

The Tower

Three tarot cards rested on the bed before her. Each had its own value and each told a story significant to her situation. The past, the present, and of course, the future. Sitting cross legged, Bess Hooper tipped out the runes from the bag they were kept in. There were twenty five of the round grey pebbles in all. She picked up the self-stone. Cool and smooth to the touch, there was something reassuring about the rune. Flicking through the book that was supposed to help her with the stones, Bess decided that even if she read it from cover to cover, she still wouldn’t understand them properly and perhaps the purchase was just a waste of money. There were poems about Odin and references to Norse mythology that didn’t interest her. It all seemed very patriarchal which she found odd, because all of the people Bess knew with unusual gifts were female. Only someone who was truly involved in this stuff would be able to help her with the runes and she didn’t want to continuously bug Calliope. The woman had a business to run and the constant interference wouldn’t help sales. Although, she had never told Bess to go away.

Everything that had happened over the past year or so made her smile as one by one the memories ran through her mind. The ghosts, the crimes, the boys and the kissing. She had made new friends, but lost Eloise along the way. That was the most troubling incident in the excitement that had contributed to the predicament she now found herself in.

Clancy returned to her home, Wicklow Hall in Willow Valley. School would start in just over three weeks, and even though Eloise hadn’t returned yet, Holland had announced she would be heading back to Cornwall to start the new school year. Upset by the sudden abandonment she felt, Bess knew it wasn’t on purpose and if the girls had been able to stay and see it through to the very end, they would have. But it added to the awful recent discovery. When her brother Tom had worked it all out, she had gone from being a teenage, time-travelling sleuth, to a villain in just over a year, and although Bess hadn’t contributed to the original crime, here she was in the possession of something that belonged to someone else.

Scooping up the runes, she returned them to the bag. Pulling the drawstrings to close the top, Bess put away the pebbles and the book and sat staring at the three cards before her. They were a clue to her quest and that was to find the very beginning of her dilemma. Recent events had led to the realisation that, not only had one of her ancestors stolen the ability to travel through time and somehow passed it along, the inventor was on some sort of mission to get even and coming to get her. Frightened by the thought that the woman might actually succeed made it difficult to sleep and she found spending time alone in her room was just as disturbing. Bess hadn’t crept into her parents’ bed since she was four, but there were nights when she wished she could.

Now as she grew tired from the worry that seemed to haunt her every waking moment, Bess put the cards on the nightstand and turned off the lamp. The dull sound of the television downstairs tiptoed softy into her room providing company. As the electronic lullaby began to comfort her, slowly her eyes drooped and, although she tried to fight the bad thoughts, the last thing that ran through her mind was, Once upon a time there was a clock tower……

********

Charlotte, bring those parts over here.

Lottie Carmichael picked up the box on command. It was heavy and her back ached with the constant lifting. Short with a slightly thickened waistline, she found physical labour tiresome and would much rather be sitting by a fire sipping tea. Grumbling to herself, she did as she was told. Apprentice to a clockmaker, every day became more arduous and although she tried to get everything done, she lacked the motivation to finish tasks completely. Dreaming of a better life, Lottie almost tripped as she carted the box of bits and pieces across the small room of the old clock tower. The hem on the long skirt she wore was coming down and catching her foot was a reminder. She would have to put a few stitches in it tonight.

The clock maker was relentless in her pursuit so the work became more demanding. The business had been passed along by family members, that was the only reason Alice Brown had been allowed to enter the profession. Employment of this type was scarce, especially for