Alice in Time Read Online Free PDF Page B

might have got away with it but of course I’d forgotten about Rory and his big mouth.
    ‘We got lost and then we got wet and had to run and then we had to hide from some bad people and we never saw the wedding. We just went to the pub instead.’
    Thanks, Rory. Now Mum’s going to think that Dad is totally incompetent and if I’m not careful she might not let him look after us at weekends. Not that we’ve been to see him much lately. He’s had so much work on.
    ‘It wasn’t a big deal,’ I say airily. ‘The taxi driver didn’t know that the registry office had been moved to the town hall, that’s all. If I’d had a phone I could have rung Dad, and he could have come and got us.’ I’ve definitely scored a point there, I think.
    ‘No he couldn’t, silly. He was getting married,’ Rory points out.
    ‘Whatever.’ I shrug and go into the kitchen.
    I still can’t believe we missed Dad’s wedding. He finally finds a lovely woman that he wants to spend the rest of his life with and we miss the big moment. Suddenly I feel like crying. I flop down into a chair and rest my head on the table and think about what an awful day it’s been. My peace is soon shattered when Mum and Rory come into the kitchen.
    ‘I’m hungry,’ wails Rory, ‘I want something to eat.’
    ‘What did you have for tea?’ she asks us. There’s a silence while I think. We haven’t had anything to eat since lunchtime, which seems an awfully long time ago now.
    ‘We didn’t have anything,’ pipes up Rory.
    Mum gives me The Look.
    ‘It’s not my fault. We’ve only just got home.’
    ‘No we haven’t. We’ve been home ages. I built a den but Alice ruined it and buried me under a pile of books and stuff. I could hardly breathe. I thought I was going to die.’ Rory is always exaggerating and tries to make me look bad whenever he can.
    ‘That is such a lie.’ I take a swipe at him across the table because I know that Mum always believes him over me.
    ‘Stop it, you two,’ says Mum. ‘I’m too tired for this. I’m going to make us some scrambled egg on toast and then we’ll all go to bed.’
    While she shuffles around the kitchen, Rory tells her all about the day and I can tell by the way she is bashing the eggs to death in the jug that she doesn’t really want to hear about Dad’s wedding. Well, it’s her fault for throwing him out. In fact, the thought of that makes me so cross I decide to chip in.
    ‘They had the reception in a really lovely pub,’ I tell her.
    ‘Oh,’ says Mum, ‘which one was that?’
    ‘I can’t remember what it was called,’ I say.
    ‘I can,’ says Rory, ‘it was called the King’s Head. I remember because Terry told me that there used to be a picture outside of a king who had his head chopped off. But Terry said people complained because it was too gory. There was blood and stuff coming out of it —’ He would have carried on if Mum hadn’t interrupted.
    ‘The King’s Head! What, the one in the middle of town?’
    I don’t say anything, because I don’t want Dad to look bad, but it’s too late.
    ‘He actually had a wedding reception in there?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Rory. ‘It was great. We watched the racing and I played on the fruit machine.’
    Mum’s lips are pursed up again, but she just sighs and gives me that look again. As if it was my fault! I’ve had enough. I get up so quickly that my chair falls over. I don’t care, I leave it where it is and shout, ‘It was a lovely wedding and Dad lookedso handsome and Trish was really happy and everyone had a brilliant time,’ then I flounce out of the kitchen and run up to my bedroom.
    When I’m alone I start crying, I don’t know why. I pick up the pink dress that I left in a heap on the floor but instead of putting it in the laundry basket I stuff it into the wastepaper bin – but only after I’ve blown my nose on it. Then I crawl into bed and pull the duvet right up over my head and try to imagine that I’m somewhere