Teddy & Co. by Cynthia Voigt

Author:Cynthia Voigt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-11-01T04:00:00+00:00

Then Umpah rushed up, going so fast that Teddy was in danger of bouncing off the wagon. “Whoop! Whee!” Teddy called. “Faster!” Then he saw Clara. “Oh,” he said. “Oh my. Look, Umpah, look! Do you see her?”

Umpah, too, saw the large white chair and the big doll seated on it. He stopped in his tracks, which stopped the wagon, too, in its tracks. Umpah came to stand beside Teddy, staring just as hard.

Prinny told them, “This is Clara.”

Clara inclined her head graciously at them.

“Clara, meet Teddy,” said Prinny, trotting over to the red wagon. “And Umpah.”

Clara inclined her head graciously at them again.

“Where’s Sid?” asked Prinny.

Without taking his eyes off Clara, Teddy whispered, “He went to find Peng.”

Mr. B stood up then, and stretched. He adjusted his ruff and bowed to Clara. “I am Mr. B.”

After that, nobody said anything. Nobody said anything for a very long time, until all of Teddy’s questions burst out of him. “Where did you come from?” he asked. “How did you get here? Did you swim? Is that real gold thread in your dress? Why are you here? Who are you?”

“I’m Clara,” the doll said again, smiling down at them all. “I’m here to be your queen.”

Peng waddled up just in time to hear this, with Sid following behind. Peng looked over his shoulder at the Sea, as if expecting to see a boat out on the water, as if hoping that Clara was about to pack up her chair and her umbrella and go away. “I don’t know about that,” he said, in a voice filled with warnings and doubts.

“And yes, this is real gold thread,” Clara told Teddy.

“Your gold thread shines,” Prinny said. She turned to Zia to point out, “We don’t have a queen.”

“I’ve never met a queen,” Umpah said.

“Now you have,” Clara told her graciously.

“What does a queen do?” asked Teddy.

“I rule,” Clara explained. “I sit on my throne and I rule over you.”

“All right, but what does that actually mean?” Teddy insisted, because he also had never met a queen before, or been ruled over, at least as far as he knew.

“It means you are my court and you obey me.”

“I don’t know about that at all,” said Peng.

Clara paid no attention to him. “It means that each one of you will have a special job to do for me, a job with a title.” She thought for a few seconds, then added, “It means all of you will want to make sure I’m as comfortable as I can be. For example, I need a palace, and you can build me one.”

She waited while they thought about this. Sid went to be beside Teddy’s wagon, to see Clara from the other side.

After a little while, Zia asked, “You mean a house of your own?”

“I mean a palace. A palace is much grander than a house, much larger and more beautiful. Until the palace has been built, my throne will be placed out here under the royal umbrella,” Clara announced.

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