Serafina and the Black Cloak. Robert Beatty

      

      First published in the USA in 2015 by Disney•Hyperion,

      an imprint of Disney Book Group

      First published in Great Britain 2016

      by Egmont UK Limited

      The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN

      Copyright © 2015 Robert Beatty

      The moral rights of the author and illustrators have been asserted

      First e-book edition 2016

      ISBN 978 1 4052 8378 6

      eISBN 978 1 7803 1750 2

       www.egmont.co.uk

      A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library

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      To my wife, Jennifer, who helped shape

       this story from the beginning,

      and to our girls

       – Camille, Genevieve, and Elizabeth –

       who will always be our first and

       most important audience

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

1

2

3

4

       5

       6

       7

       8

       9

       10

       11

       12

       13

       14

       15

       16

       17

       18

       19

       20

       21

       22

       23

       24

       25

       26

       27

       28

       29

       30

       31

       Acknowledgements

       Biltmore Estate

      Asheville, North Carolina

       1899

      Serafina opened her eyes and scanned the darkened workshop, looking for any rats stupid enough to come into her territory while she slept. She knew they were out there, just beyond her nightly range, crawling in the cracks and shadows of the great house’s sprawling basement, keen to steal whatever they could from the kitchens and storerooms. She had spent most of the day napping in her favourite out-of-the-way places, but it was here, curled up on the old mattress behind the rusty boiler in the protection of the workshop, that she felt most at home. Hammers, wrenches and gears hung down from the rough-hewn beams, and the familiar smell of machinery oil filled the air. Her first thought as she looked around her and listened out into the reaching darkness was that it felt like a