Prologue

Officially, the area was called the Valley of the Shining Corn, but for years the people who lived there had called their sleepy, remote little village ‘Salisco’. No-one knew where the word had come from, but the villagers were happy to use it.

Walking down the central high street, one could smell the fresh bread and pastries from Carter’s Bakery, and marvel at the brightly coloured clothes in the Bailey’s shop. Their daughter, Harriet Bailey, could often be seen wandering aimlessly nearby. Harriet was thirteen, but many said she looked much older. She had dark brown eyes and long hair the kind of colour that couldn’t decide whether to be brown or blonde. The resulting appearance was quite odd, and also rather alarming, but that suited Harriet just fine.

The schoolhouse stood at the end of the road, and all of the children in the village attended. There was only one teacher because the class was so small. He was a tall, terrifying man called Mr Pitchley. He was bald, and many of the children delighted in this fact, and laughed behind his back. He also spat when he spoke, much to the distaste of the unfortunate child sat on the front row. The child in question was a twelve year old boy, with mousy brown hair and blue eyes. He was quite small for his age, and his name was Peter Wilson. At the start of this story, Pete was in the kitchen of his home, with his mother, Annie Marie.