Miranda and the Leprechaun

Miranda Gallagher is twelve years of age. She is an only child and lives with her parents on a dairy farm in South Australia. One day O’Leary, a seven hundred and thirty three year old leprechaun, appears before her. He tells her that he has been bound in service to the Gallagher family since one of her ancestors rescued him from a rock fall one hundred and fifty years ago.
O’Leary can take Miranda to any place or time in the past and bring her back one minute before they left. He is invisible to all but her and can give her the language of whichever place they are visiting. He can also move things kinetically, which, he explains is moving things when he is not near them.
Although O’Leary is bound to serve her Miranda does not want a slave and releases him from his promise. The leprechaun tells her in that case he will take her wherever she wishes because he chooses to, but only once a month for one year. This book covers the first four of Miranda’s journeys.
The first thing she asks for is to see Queen Elizabeth the First. O’Leary tells her to hold his hand and a moment later they are on the bank of the Thames outside the Tower of London. By her sudden appearance and strange clothes Miranda is thought to be a witch and is chased through the surrounding alley ways. O’Leary tries to use his powers to move some clothes that are drying in a garden towards them but cannot do so and she grabs some herself. They escape the mob that is chasing them but O’Leary has to admit that his powers have been drained by the effort required to carry them through time. He needs to sleep to recover and Miranda is left on her own.
The clothes that she took belonged to a boy and everyone who now meets her believes that she is a boy. A teenage lad asks her if she would like to go on board a galleon. He tells her that the commander is a good friend of his brother. As soon as she is aboard Miranda is thrust into the galley and made to work. The teenager is a member of the crew and gets sixpence for every ‘recruit’ he brings aboard. With Miranda aboard the galleon sets sail to join the English fleet which is about to fight the Spanish Armada.
The second adventure takes Miranda to Switzerland as she wishes to know whether William Tell really existed. She finds that he did but again is parted from O’Leary and finds herself in deadly danger when she and Tell are captured
The third journey is to Deadwood City in the days of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane and the fourth and final one in this book takes her to Choquequirao in the days of the Incas where she is mistaken for the daughter of the Sun god, Inti, who legend says has to be sacrificed.