The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

Author:Helen Peters [Helen Peters]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780857630667
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2012-05-26T16:00:00+00:00

Tuesday morning, nine thirty. Hannah flicked back through the photographs on the camera. They looked good. Really good.

Her heart fluttered with excitement. Imagine the look on Dad’s face when she presented him with the biggest cheque he’d ever seen in his life! How happy he would be when all his problems were solved forever.

She slipped the camera into her coat pocket and looked around the theatre. It was still exactly as they’d left it when the fire broke out. Lottie had brought all the costumes back but she’d clearly been in a state of shock, because she’d just dumped them in a heap on the queen’s bed. They stank of smoke.

Hannah began the calming, satisfying work of putting the theatre in order. She smoothed out the creases in the costumes and hung them back on the rail. She replaced the jewellery in the middle drawer of the chest and the props on the props table. She opened up the Book at the Props page to check against her list that everything was present.

The front-of-house door slid open and a shaft of morning sun fell across the floor. Once again, Hannah felt how wrong it was that the queen’s bedroom had a bare concrete floor.

“Hannah?” said Lottie.

Hannah looked up. Lottie sounded nervous.

“Hannah, we’ve got a problem. A really big problem.”

Hannah’s blood ran cold. Another problem?

Lottie’s words tumbled out in a breathless torrent. “The judge just phoned to ask directions to the farm for Saturday and she sounded really nice but she wanted to know where to park and I couldn’t tell her to park at the end of the track and walk because if she walked all the way down the track and then saw there was loads of space to park in the yard she’d think we were really rude. And I couldn’t tell her it was a secret because what if it’s against the rules to have a secret theatre, so I said to park in the farmyard but what if your dad sees her and finds out?”

Hannah stared at Lottie. Her mind was completely blank. What with everything else that was swirling around in there at the moment, the possibility of Dad discovering the theatre hadn’t even occurred to her. And she couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

She swung round as the stage door was shoved open and the Beans burst in.

“Whoa, that was close,” said Jo. “We’re going to have to be really careful. Dad and Adam are just down there feeding the pigs.”

Adam was an agricultural student. He had done work experience on the farm last year, and he had enjoyed it so much that now he came up nearly every weekend to help Dad.

“Shut the door, quick,” said Hannah.

A giant ball of wool squeezed through the doorway.

“Jo, I told you, no animals in the theatre this week. We’ve got to be professional.”

“Jasper’s not an animal, he’s my friend,” said Jo, hugging his fat woolly neck.

Lottie was checking the state of the costumes. “So what are we going to do about the judge?”

“Jasper, get off the stage!” said Hannah.

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