The Midnight Foxes

The Midnight Foxes
Sarah Lean

Meet animal lover, Tiger Days! A brand-new young fiction series about animals, friendship and adventure by bestselling author Sarah Lean.Beautiful black-and-white illustrations throughout.When nine-year-old Tiger Days stays with her grandmother at Willowgate House she never knows what might happen… new friends to meet, animals to rescue and problems to solve!Tiger returns to Willowgate and discovers that a mysterious tunnel has appeared under the shed and someone – or something – has been burying eggs in the garden…Tiger and her friend Tom decides to become detectives – determined to crack the case!.At Willowgate House, no day is ever dull for Tiger!

Copyright (#ulink_ad47eed3-ba48-5e77-b939-d1ae0cc499fe)

First published in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books in 2016

HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd,

1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

The HarperCollins website address is: www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Text © Sarah Lean 2016

Illustrations © Anna Currey 2016

Cover illustration © Simon Mendes

Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers 2016

Sarah Lean asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of the work.

Anna Currey asserts the moral right to be identified as the illustrator of the work.

A catalogue copy for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008165734

Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008165741

Version: 2016-08-09

For Sophie

Contents

Cover (#u679cc4a0-3113-5c28-badd-8962b86cd9a5)

Title Page (#ub1252ca0-cf09-5b77-b442-5d7e88297d06)

Copyright (#u7e593f70-02d3-5261-a979-2a212dc66dc0)

Dedication (#ufd38d5b5-0bea-55fe-80e3-7b1711526740)

Map (#u5de7f84f-872d-5809-80ec-55acad0c5caa)

Chapter 1: Where is Holly? (#u73c219fb-6568-5c52-baf8-d75a655c64a8)

Chapter 2: A Strange Discovery (#ua53eeddb-2217-522b-aa23-f9b1711924ca)

Chapter 3: Who is Twinkle? (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 4: Case Closed (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 5: Rules of Being a Fox (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 6: From Up on the Roof (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 7: The Real Discovery (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 8: Rare Friendships (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Also by Sarah Lean (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Map (#ulink_6b3e7f46-dd6e-5130-b36a-11930f908d46)

(#ulink_2eb6ca3a-28c9-5dc1-a3ae-7436c3ce1dd0)

Tiger Days loved tigers. She often wore tiger-print pyjamas, socks and slippers and used to spend all her time indoors drawing pictures of tigers. Ever since she’d been to stay with her grandmother, May Days, at her new house, Tiger was beginning to be more adventurous. May Days used to live on a wildlife reserve in Africa but now lived in a large old house in the countryside, called Willowgate House. Even now, she sometimes looked after animals that were in need of helping hands. There were lots of repairs to be made at Willowgate, and while the house was being fixed up, May Days and Tiger slept in a tent in the great, unexplored garden.

It was spring, warm and bright, and Tiger was on her way to visit her grandmother but there was a long journey in the car first. Tiger was eager to arrive and see May Days again, as there was still so much to find out about each other.

Excitement swirled in Tiger’s tummy with his grandfather next door. Tiger was also looking forward to seeing Holly Days – a white cat who had made her home at Willowgate even before May Days had moved in. She was the kind of cat that did as she pleased and Tiger thought of Holly as belonging to the house, rather than to anyone in particular. Holly had a mind of her own and was quite in charge of herself, but Tiger and the cat had become firm friends during Tiger’s last stay.

The car pulled up at the end of the drive, where Tiger had last seen Holly. Obviously Holly wasn’t still sitting there, but when Tiger jumped out of the car to open the gate she looked around, hoping the cat was nearby. There was no sign of Holly, but May Days was already jogging down the drive to greet them. Tiger smiled and ran to meet her grandmother, while Dad drove up the drive.

“May Days!” said Tiger as the two of them flung their arms round each other.

“I’m so happy to see you all over again,” said May Days, planting a big kiss on Tiger’s cheek. The garden smelled of new grass and warm breezes and Tiger hoped she’d find everything else just as before.

In the kitchen, Mr Days had lots to talk about with his mother over gallons of tea, which Tiger didn’t mind too much as she was now desperate to find the cat.

“Where’s Holly?” she said.

“That cat is still a bit of a mystery,” May Days said. “Why don’t you go and see if you can find her?”

Holly was not in any of the rooms downstairs, or hiding in any of the chimneys, or behind any doors. She wasn’t upstairs in the bath, or in the bedrooms, or inside the cupboard with the lift in the wall where Tiger had first discovered her. Outside, Holly was not in the porch, nor sitting on the windowsills, nor in the tent.

Tiger called and called but no blossom-white cat came padding through the garden. Tiger anxiously went to her grandmother with empty news and worrying fears.