[COMPLETED] Ellen and her twin brother, Aaron, are time-travellers. They don't know why they have this ability, they don't know how they got it and don't know how to control it. For now they just know they are stuck out of time.
With the help of fri...
'Please tell me your castle is a real one?' said Ellen, as they joined small groups of locals' traipsing between the market square and the castle. 'I mean a mediaeval castle and not the one we have, which is just a fancy mansion they use as a museum and art gallery.'
'Didn't you learn any local history at school?' asked Billy. 'The last old-fashioned castle was knocked down hundreds of years ago. I bet our mansion is the same as the one you have.'
'Shame,' said Ellen. 'You've got so many really amazing old buildings in Nottingham. It would have been nice to see the old castle too.'
'That's what Mason said,' said Aaron, to Marianne and Billy. 'He's this American kid at school who moved to England about seven years ago. His Dad got a job in the UK and when he told Mason and the rest of his family that they were moving to Nottingham they watched several Robin Hood movies. In every movie Nottingham castle was shown as looking "awesome and ancient", as Mason put it, so he was really pumped up to live here. He was devastated when he saw what the castle really looked like. It's not bad. It's just not an old-fashioned castle.'
'But then one of the teachers tricked him. She told Mason that to protect the castle from being attacked it was moved brick by brick to the Vale of Belvoir. So he spent most weekends that year hounding his parents to drive out to Belvoir Castle so he could visit what he believed was the real Nottingham Castle.'
Marianne was taken aback to hear that a teacher could knowingly lie to a child. Billy simply thought it a tremendously funny story. Not realising there really was a traditional-looking castle less than twenty miles east.
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The approach to the impressive castle gatehouse came so soon that both Aaron and Ellen hardly realised they had walked along the full length of Friar Lane without crossing the yet to be constructed dual carriageway. They only stopped once to briefly argue over who should carry the suitcase. It was already becoming a burden. Aaron, losing the argument, wished that it was a modern case with caster wheels and an extendable handle. It had neither.
A large group of people had gathered on the cobbled road at the foot of Castle Rock, upon which the museum was perched. The majority were eagerly facing towards a large object covered in a green shroud, planted in front of the ancient castle walls. Before the mysterious object, a small platform had been erected. On the left was a brass band and on the right a choir of around 20 to 30 smartly-dressed women. The ladies, in their Sunday best and fine hats, were entertaining the crowd with their second song accompanied by the brass band. A number of on-lookers were singing along to the rousing music. Some elderly men were attempting to sing along, but mostly moved their mouths pretending they knew the words and left the ladies in the crowd to drown them out.
The four teenagers weaved their way through the waiting crowd to get a better view and move further down the road in the direction they eventually intended to head.
