Victory by Susan Cooper Read Free Book Online Page A

and twenty-eight people on board—and all their families, like us. The plane fell into the sea just off the coast of Spain.”
    Molly’s head whirls for a moment. “Into the sea?”
    â€œYou knew that,” Kate says.
    â€œNo I didn’t!” In her head Molly is back in the ocean after her fall from Carl’s boat, spluttering in the water.
    â€œWell . . . yes. Into the sea. But they didn’t have time to drown, they must all have been killed instantly by the fall.”
    There is strain on Kate’s face; she is not enjoying the remembering. Molly suddenly feels amazingly tired.
    â€œI have such a headache,” she says.
    Kate’s face changes and becomes familiar again; it is full of concern, and then understanding. “You’ve had quite a day, my love,” she says. “Here, give me a kiss. Then go and lie down for a bit.”
    So Molly does. She lies on her bed thinking about an airplane falling into the sea, and then knows nothing until much later, when Kate wakes her up with a bowl of soup and a slice of apple pie, all on a tray as if she were an invalid. She has slept right through supper. She eats her soup and pie and is still tired, so she puts on her pajamas and brushes her teeth.
    Russell comes up the stairs just as she is heading backinto her bedroom. “Hi, Moll,” he says. “Here’s your book.”
    He hands her the faded navy-blue Life of Nelson, which now looks much more battered than before. “Thanks,” Molly says. She sits down on her bed holding the book, looking down at its cover.
    Russell is hovering in the doorway. He says awkwardly, “I’m sorry about Jack. He shoots his mouth off. But I’ve known him since we were little kids, y’know?”
    Molly says, “I can’t believe I threw a book. ”
    Russell grins. “Good thing you’re a lousy shot.”
    Their two years of learning to be brother and sister are rescuing them. The awkwardness goes out of the air. Looking at her book, Molly can see that it has suffered greatly from becoming a missile; its binding is split, and when she opens the front cover it hangs loose, no longer joined to the rest of the book.
    But there is something else there that she has not seen before.
    â€œSee you tomorrow,” Russell says. He turns to go.
    Molly hasn’t heard him. “Look at this,” she says, peering.
    A new note in her voice makes Russell come into the room and look down over her shoulder. Inside the dangling front cover of The Life of Nelson is a piece of heavy paper which must always have been stuck to it, but which is now coming loose, and they can see that something is hidden underneath it. Molly sticks her finger underneath the edge of the paper, and it starts to tear.
    â€œWait a minute,” Russell says. “Use this.” He takes apenknife out of his pocket, opens the blade and hands it to her. Molly slips the blade under the page, and pushes it gently sideways. The ancient glue crackles and parts as the blade slides along, and the paper comes loose. At the back edge, it is still attached; they see that although it had been glued to the inside cover, it is the original first page of the book. And facing it, still stuck to the cover, is some brown paper folded over into a kind of loose envelope.
    Molly touches the brown paper with one finger, but does not open it. She peers at the cover. “There’s writing,” she says.
    Russell looks down at it, mildly interested. Below the folded paper there are some lines written on the cover in bold sprawling handwriting. Molly reads them aloud, slowly.
    â€œThis fragment of the great man’s life and death passed on to me by my grandmother at her death in eighteen eighty-nine,” she reads. She stops.
    â€œGo on,” Russell says.
    â€œThat’s all. Then a name, the man who wrote it, I suppose. Edward Austen.”
    â€œâ€˜Fragment of the great