Murder Is Bad Manners by Robin Stevens

Author:Robin Stevens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers

We sat up, and Minny felt our foreheads and looked down our throats with that flat stick nurses always have. Then she told us we seemed far better today.

It was Saturday. At Deepdean, we have lessons on Saturday morning—really, we do—but luckily Minny did not let us out of the infirmary until the morning was halfway through. Daisy managed to wrangle us a perfectly heavenly infirmary breakfast before we went too—three slices of toast instead of two, strawberry jam instead of marmalade, and a mug of cocoa, and we were let out of the infirmary just in time for bunbreak. It was almost enough to make me forget what had happened the night before.

Almost, but not quite.

“Oh!” Beanie squealed when she saw us, moving back so we could slip into the cookie queue. “I was so worried!”

“She was sure you were dying,” said Kitty, putting an arm around Beanie’s shoulder.

“I was not!”

“Good work, getting out of Latin like that,” said Lavinia as she pushed the shrimp in front of her out of the way. “Some people have all the luck.”

“We missed etiquette, though,” said Daisy regretfully. “Oh, I wish those shrimps would hurry up! I’m starving.”

Once we had collected our cookies—only raisin on Saturdays, which I think is hardly worth it, though Daisy loves them—Daisy and I shook off the rest of the eighth grade and went in search of Jones, to make certain that our nighttime quest had gone undetected and to return the borrowed keys. We found him out by the flower beds, telling off one of the gardeners.

“Hello, Miss Daisy—and . . . ah,” he said when he caught sight of us. “Feeling better today?”

“Nothing ever gets past you, Jones,” said Daisy in her best admiring voice. “However did you know we were ill?”

“Who do you think mopped up after you? Nasty mess you made. Feels like I’ve been cleaning up messes all week, though, so yours wasn’t so much of a bother.”

“Oh, have you?” asked Daisy. She sounded terribly sympathetic, but I could feel her arm tense up next to mine. Had we left dirty footprints behind us?

Jones huffed down his nose. “Indeed. Those smashed windows were the worst of it, but all week I’ve been finding little things out of place. This morning I come in and everything’s a mess in the New Wing, the gym cupboard’s all untidy, and these flower beds have been turned over. Look at them! All scratched up and the flowers ruined. We only put the new winter beds in on Monday too. If it is those shrimps, they need a good talking to.”

“Poor Jones,” said Daisy. “How awful for you. Here, look, you’ve dropped your keys.”

“It is awful,” said Jones forcefully, taking them from her without even looking. I admired Daisy’s cunning all over again. “Not that anyone else thinks of me. I complained to Miss Griffin again this morning and she told me it was nothing to worry about. Nothing! I ask you.”

The bell rang as he said that, and we had to run.

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