Jasper and the Green Marvel (9 page)

25 Georgiana Is Upset

‘Two notes? That’s odd,’ Georgiana said.

‘One was lying in the bottom of the letterbox,’ Rags replied, ‘and the other was up at the top, stuck in between the wood of the box and the wall itself. It was as if someone had posted it but instead of it dropping down as normal, it got stuck at the top.’

‘That’s odd,’ Georgiana said again.

They had all gathered in her room once more. Tonight it was quite brightly lit, because of the full moon shining and because of Georgiana’s own natural luminosity. She took the first note and unfolded it very carefully because the
paper was so old and fragile. ‘Read it aloud please,’ said Nelly.

‘My darl—’ Georgiana began, and then a look of surprise crossed her face. She said no more, but read the note silently to herself. The three animals watched her closely and saw her surprise change to dismay. ‘Oh no!’ she said at last. ‘This is terrible! Terrible!’ Tears welled up in her big green eyes and she started to cry.

What a racket she made! ‘BOO HOO HOO! WAAAAHH!’ Her wailing echoed around the room and grew louder as it bounced off the walls. Rags and Bags put their paws over their ears to block out the frightful noise. ‘WOOOOH! WAAAAHHH! BOO HOO HOO!’

‘Don’t, please, poor Georgiana,’ Nelly cried, fluttering around her head and trying to console her. ‘What’s the matter? Why are you upset?’

‘It’s this,’ said Georgiana, picking up the note and shaking it. ‘It’s terrible.’

‘What does it say?’ Nelly asked.

‘I don’t know if I can read it to you, it’s too upsetting.’

‘Oh go on! You have to tell us!’

The rats had sometimes thought that, although they liked the bat, it could be a nosy little creature, and they thought so now.

‘If I must, then,’ Georgiana said and she sighed, wiping the tears away from her extraordinary green eyes, and she smoothed out the note on her knee.

‘“My darling Georgiana,

‘“Be in the folly at midnight tonight. I will be there with two horses. I am more happy and excited than I can ever tell you. Soon we will be together forever. I love you with all my heart.” And then there are three kisses. BOO HOO HOO!’

Her voice had gone all strange and weepy the more she read, and by the time she got to the end of the message she was wailing again. But the animals were still mystified. Why
should such an affectionate note make her so unhappy? And what had horses got to do with anything? What did it all mean?

Bags pointed at the clock. ‘If you’re to be at the folly by midnight, you should leave now,’ he said, ‘or else you’re going to be late.’

‘But I’m already too late! Two hundred years too late!’

‘Georgiana, we don’t understand any of this,’ Rags said.

‘Very well then,’ she said, still holding the note tightly, ‘let me explain.’

26 Toby

‘I told you,’ she began, ‘about the man who gave me the emerald necklace because it was the same colour as my eyes, and about how he wanted to marry me.’

‘But you wouldn’t,’ Nelly said.

‘Because he was vain and proud,’ Bags added.

‘That’s right,’ said Georgiana. ‘You’ve remembered the story well. My parents were cross with me, because they thought I should marry for money, and that whether or not I loved the man didn’t matter. But to me, that was a horrible idea.

‘What I didn’t tell you,’ she went on, ‘was that shortly after that someone else also gave me a present. It was the boy who worked in the garden, here at the Hall. His name was Toby, and he gave me a red squirrel. He knew what had happened and he said he couldn’t buy me emeralds to match the colour of my eyes, because he had no money, so he caught and tamed a squirrel for me to keep as a pet. He said its fur was the same colour as my hair,’ and she shook her glossy red curls proudly as she said this.

‘It was the most endearing creature. It used to fall asleep in my arms, and when it awoke I fed it hazelnuts. I used to take it down to the folly when I went there to meet Toby. My parents were completely against my having anything to do with him because he worked in the garden and he wasn’t rich. It was so foolish of them. What really mattered was that he was the sweetest, kindest, most gentle man you could imagine. We used to have to meet
in secret. We’d leave little notes for each other in the letterbox, and then I’d sneak off and see him in the folly, at whatever time we had agreed. He used to play music for me there on the flute.’

When she said this, the rats looked at each other.

‘Sad music?’ Rags asked.

‘Why no, not at all,’ she replied. ‘It was the happiest, most joyful music. Even if you were feeling a little bit gloomy and glum, as soon as he started to play your spirit would lift and your heart would be flooded with joy. Oh, it was the sweetest music ever, as pure and delightful as the song of a bird. Those were the happiest moments of my life, sitting in the folly with the squirrel asleep in my arms, so soft and warm, while Toby played the flute.’

‘Did Toby have fair hair?’ Bags asked.

‘Yes,’ Georgiana replied absently, ‘cut in a square fringe. And I always thought his work clothes looked so nice, so soft and brown.’

Again the two rats looked at each other.

‘Oh, I loved him so much!’ Georgiana suddenly cried. ‘And when he asked me to marry him, of course I said yes. I knew my parents would never agree and so we decided to elope.’

‘What does that mean?’ Nelly asked.

‘It means running away together to get married in secret.’

‘Ooh, how romantic and exciting!’ the little bat gasped.

‘Toby said he would leave a note for me in the letterbox, arranging a time. It was to be on a night such as this,’ and she nodded towards the window, ‘the night of a full moon. Well, I waited and waited and waited. I checked the box again and again, but there was no message. Toby and I never got married, and I never married anyone else. No one would have wanted me after that, because I became the saddest girl in the world. I couldn’t understand it, because I knew Toby loved me with all his heart. He had promised
he would leave me a note and he always kept his promises.’

‘And he did,’ Nelly said soothingly. ‘He did love you and he did leave you a note arranging to elope with you, just like he said he would.’

‘But it got stuck in the box and I never found it. He must have waited in the moonlight with the horses for hours for me. He must have thought that I had let him down, that I had changed my mind and decided not to marry him after all. Oh, it’s so upsetting to think of that. It’s terrible, I can’t bear it!’

Her eyes were filling up with tears again. To distract her Bags asked quickly, ‘And what about the squirrel? What happened to it?’

Georgiana’s face crumpled up and went red.

‘It ran away!’ she wailed. ‘The squirrel ran away, back into the woodland, and I never saw it again. BOO HOO HOO!’

And she started to cry again, much to the dismay of the animals, who hated the sound of her wailing.

‘There, there,’ said Rags, ‘don’t be so upset.’

‘Look, you’re forgetting about the other note,’ Nelly said, partly to give Georgiana something else to think about, and partly out of curiosity. ‘We still don’t know what that says.’

‘We’d better take a look at it, I suppose,’ the ghost said, sniffing and wiping her eyes. She picked up the little square of paper and unfolded it, smoothed it out on her knee. ‘I can’t imagine that it will be anything too exciting. It’s in my handwriting anyway, I can see that.’

‘It’ll be another clue about the Green Marvel. Time to get our thinking caps on,’ Bags said.

But it wasn’t a clue. It was something absolutely amazing, something none of them had expected, and when Georgiana read it for them they all gasped out loud.  

27 Treasure Seekers

‘The Green Marvel is hidden in the kitchen. Press the third tile to the left of the window hard three times and it will open a secret compartment. There is a small metal box in the compartment, and the Green Marvel is inside the metal box.’

They all sat there for a few moments, too stunned to speak. Could it really be as simple as that? Had it truly been in the kitchen all that time without anyone knowing? Georgiana seemed to think so, for once she got over her surprise she gave a little whoop of delight.

‘So off we go to the kitchen then, to find my necklace!’

They all left the room together, and made their way swiftly through the dark and silent house. Georgiana swept down the main staircase with the rats at her heels, trying their best not to get tangled in the hem of her billowing silk dress. Nelly fluttered along beside them. ‘This is so exciting!’ the little bat cried. ‘I thought things like this only ever happened in books.’

On and on they went, until finally they came to the kitchen door. They could see that there was a light on, but the rats knew from their last visit that Mrs Knuttmegg usually left a lamp burning throughout the night, so they thought nothing of it. They all crowded round Georgiana as she pushed the door open … and immediately they all got the shock of their lives!

There was Jasper. He was standing at the far side of the room and had his back to them, but he heard the door opening and turned around to see who it was. As he did so, Georgiana
walked straight through a cupboard and out the other side of it. From where she stood now in the shadows she could still see Jasper clearly. The rats slipped under a meat safe and Nelly roosted high up on a dresser, quite terrified, and hoping she wouldn’t be seen.

It was a near thing, but they were quick off the mark, and while Jasper heard strange noises – a rustle like silk, a scampering, scratching sound and a flutter high up in the room – he didn’t know what to make of it all, and he saw absolutely nothing.

‘Hmm, must be a draught,’ he muttered to himself, and he turned back to what he was doing.

Georgiana and the animals watched in dismay.

‘Now let me see … third tile to the left.’ He pressed it hard three times and the tile popped open. ‘So far, so good,’ Jasper said, as he put his hand into the hole in the wall. Holding his breath, he lifted out a little metal box, turned
around and placed it on the kitchen table. Slowly and carefully he opened it, lifted something out of it and held it up in the lamplight.

As he did so, there was a little yelp from the side of the cupboard, a gasp from the top of the dresser and two shrill squeaks from under the meat safe. But Jasper heard none of this. At that precise moment a brass band could have played the national anthem loud in his ear and followed it up with a party song as an encore and still Jasper would have heard nothing. He was completely absorbed and fascinated by what he had found.

And to tell the truth, who could blame him? For there, in his trembling hands, was a necklace. Oh, but such a necklace! It was made of emeralds set in gold, and all the stones were huge. There were square ones, and some were cut in the shape of a pear. Right in the middle was a rectangular stone, so enormous that it was impossible to imagine that anywhere in the world there might be a bigger emerald.
The beauty of those jewels, how can I describe them? They were a deep green colour: as green as a fresh bright leaf, as green as the ocean in a hidden cove, as green, yes indeed, as green as Georgiana’s extraordinary eyes. The emeralds glittered and sparkled in the light of the lamp.

So this was it.

This was the Green Marvel.

Jasper gave a little groan of selfishness and greed. ‘Mine,’ he murmured. ‘All mine.’

But just with that, something completely unexpected happened.