The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss

Author:Clare Furniss [Furniss, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: Juvenile Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781471120299
Google: 0q9vAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00DX7ISQK
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2014-04-23T23:00:00+00:00

‘Don’t mind us,’ Granny bellows cheerily at me, vacuuming around my feet with The Rat on her hip as I sit on the sofa, pretending to read a book. ‘We’ll be done in a minute, won’t we, Rosie Posie?’

She’s only been here three weeks, but it feels like forever, or possibly longer. The house is hardly recognizable. Everything’s been scrubbed and bleached and polished to within an inch of its life. You can’t put a coffee cup down without her picking it up, tutting loudly and putting a coaster underneath it. The Rat sleeps through the night without a peep. She ‘just needed a bit of routine’ Granny keeps telling us, sounding very pleased with herself.

‘Then perhaps you could help me purée some pears for Rose’s lunch,’ she says, switching the vacuum cleaner off. ‘My little treasure’s getting hungry, aren’t you?’ The Rat smiles and gurgles at her. I seethe silently at her disloyalty.

‘Perhaps you could even try your hand at feeding her?’ Granny says. She buys mountains of organic fruit and veg which she turns into mush for The Rat, who dribbles it down her chin or splatters it all over the kitchen floor. The whole process is revolting enough to watch, let alone get involved in.

‘I can’t,’ I say quickly, getting up. ‘I’ve got things to do.’

But as I’m heading upstairs the doorbell rings.

‘Get that, will you, Pearl?’ Granny shouts.

I open the door and standing on the doorstep is Molly, looking tanned and blonder than ever.

‘Oh, Pearl!’ she says, hugging me. ‘How are you? It’s been so long, I just had to come round and see you as soon as I got back. I’ve really missed you.’

‘Oh yeah?’ I say, sceptical. ‘While you were on holiday in your boyfriend’s luxury apartment in Spain?’

‘It was brilliant,’ she says, smiling. ‘But yes, of course I missed you. I thought about you every day.’

We stand there for a moment.

‘Anyway,’ she says, ‘I can’t stay long. I’ve got to get back to look after the boys. I just wanted to see you and . . .’ She pauses. ‘I wondered if I might be able to say hello to the baby.’

‘Oh right.’ So that’s why she’s here.

I stand in the doorway, trying to think of a reason why she can’t come in, but of course Granny appears at that exact moment with Rose in her arms and says, ‘You must be Molly. Pearl’s told me so much about you.’ Which is true, because MI6 and the CIA could learn a lot from Granny’s interrogation techniques. She wears you down until you’d tell her anything just to make her go away.

‘She’s my granny,’ I explain in a resigned sort of way. But Molly’s not looking at me, or at Granny. She’s transfixed by The Rat.

‘Rose.’ She says it reverently. ‘Oh, Pearl. She’s perfect.’

‘Isn’t she just?’ says Granny, delighted to have found an ally. ‘Come in, Molly dear, and have a cup of tea so you can meet her properly. We were just about

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