Poppy Pym and the Secret of Smuggler's Cove by Laura Wood

Author:Laura Wood [Laura Wood]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781407180182
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2017-05-04T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINETEEN

I took a deep breath and made my way over to Miss Susan who was talking quietly with Mr Grant. It went against all my detective instincts to share our findings with Miss Susan at this early stage, and then there was still the little, unresolved matter of her being my mother and all, but a girl was missing and I knew that finding her was the most important thing.

“Why are you hovering, Poppy?” Miss Susan said, slightly irritably.

“Oh!” I exclaimed, thrown by her stern tone. “Er, sorry, miss,” I said, “but I – I just need to, er…”

“Yes?” Miss Susan asked, her eyebrows raised.

“I need to talk to you about something,” I managed to squeak out. My voice sounded like a grumpy toddler’s.

Miss Susan’s face seemed to soften a bit. “Come on then,” she said with a sigh, “let’s go and have a cup of tea up at the castle. But first” – her eyes ran over my bedraggled form – “you had better go and clean up a bit. I will meet you in the entrance hall in ten minutes.”

I scampered up to the campsite, washed and changed into a pair of purple shorts and an orange T-shirt with a speed that would have impressed a cheetah at the top of his game. Nine and a half minutes later I was waiting for Miss Susan in the echoey entrance hall. Fuddling materialized silently through one of the doors and looked at me over the top of his glasses as if I was a sticky child waiting to mess up all of the furniture.

“Can I help you?” he said, in a voice that made it sound like he didn’t want to help me very much with anything – except leaving.

“I’m waiting for Miss Susan,” I said primly. “I’m meeting her here.”

“Hmph,” said Fuddling, evidently unimpressed by this response.

“So … I hear you’ve worked here for a long time?” I said, trying to make small talk.

“I suppose some people might call forty years a long time.” He sniffed.

“Wow,” I said blankly, casting around for something to say. “Forty years is a long time, isn’t it? Not that it’s that long, I mean. Not that you’re old.” I laughed awkwardly and my voice was getting a bit squeaky. “Because you’re not, obviously…” I trailed off. “You’re practically young – very, erm, spry…”

“Hmph,” Fuddling said again. Apparently he agreed that my small talk attempts weren’t going well. I was relieved when Stanley Goodwill wandered through, his nose in a book and his thinning hair sticking out in all directions. Fuddling melted away.

“Ah, hello!” Stanley said when he spotted me (or I should say, after he walked into me). “How’d you get on with that book?”

“Oh, it was brilliant! Thank you, Mr Goodwill,” I said with a winning smile. “So interesting! And so exciting to read a real account of the smuggler’s disappearance.”

“Not at all, not at all! Delighted!” He shook my hand. “It’s always a pleasure to share some of the history of this place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.