Alice-Miranda at the Palace 11 Read Online Free PDF

ten to one, and Her Majesty does not appreciate tardiness.’
    â€˜Thank you, Mr Langley,’ Cecelia said. She turned back and grimaced at the girls, before following him out the door.
    â€˜Goodbye, Mr Langley, we’ll see you soon,’ Alice-Miranda called out, and Millie gave a wave, but the man did not respond.
    â€˜Someone got out on the wrong side of the bed,’ Millie remarked as she ran her fingers along the top of a cherry-wood writing desk. ‘He reminds me of Mr Winterstone from the Octavia but with better hair. Well, not really better, just more hair – except that he obviously dyes it. I think grey would look much better than that purple-black colour.’
    Alice-Miranda grinned. ‘Please don’t tell him that. Remember what happened when Jacinta asked Mr Winterstone about his hair? The poor manlooked as if he’d never recover,’ she said. ‘And Mr Winterstone turned out to be lovely in the end.’
    â€˜Well, I think Mr Langley takes his job way too seriously. He could smile once in a while. I mean, if I lived here, my face would be aching from smiling so much. That other butler – the under one – seemed a lot more friendly. Anyway, bags this bed.’ Millie executed a high scissor kick, landing on the mattress with a bounce. She laid back on the pillow with her hands behind her head, gazing at the intricate ceiling detail. ‘I still can’t believe we’re really here,’ she sighed.
    â€˜It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?’ Alice-Miranda sat on the edge of her own bed and looked around the suite.
    There was a sharp knock on the door. Alice-Miranda leapt up to open it.
    â€˜That’s strange,’ she said, finding no one there. She poked her head into the empty corridor. Just as she closed the door there was another sharp rap. She opened it again.
    Millie hopped off her bed and walked over. ‘Who is it?’
    â€˜No one.’ Alice-Miranda closed the door and frowned.
    Millie’s eyes widened. ‘Maybe it’s a … ghost.’
    â€˜Millie, you know there are no such –’ Alice-Miranda was interrupted by another knock on the door.
    â€˜Hey, it sounds like it’s coming from in there.’ Millie pointed and ran to the dressing-room. Alice-Miranda followed her.
    The room had built-in drawers on either side and a circular gold velvet love seat which occupied the centre of the floor. In the middle of the far wall sat a large wardrobe. Millie wrenched open the door and discovered a small bolted door behind the hanging rail. It didn’t even come halfway up the back of the cupboard and looked as if it had been built for a child.
    Alice-Miranda peered over Millie’s shoulder.
    â€˜What do you think? Narnia?’ Millie turned and looked at Alice-Miranda before she slid back the lock.
    Suddenly, the door burst open and Jacinta tumbled through, almost sending Millie flying.
    Alice-Miranda giggled. ‘Well, at least it’s not a ghost or the White Witch.’
    Sloane poked her head through the opening and crawled into the wardrobe, falling out mostungracefully onto the lemon-coloured carpet. ‘Oh, that’s disappointing,’ she sighed. ‘It’s just you two.’
    â€˜Believe me, we were hoping for something more interesting too,’ Millie retorted.
    Alice-Miranda bent down to help the girl up. ‘How long have you been here?’ she asked them.
    â€˜About an hour,’ Jacinta replied. ‘Mummy was so excited, we left as soon as we finished breakfast.’
    â€˜Come and have a look at our room,’ Alice-Miranda said, beckoning the girls to follow.
    The girls walked out of the dressing-room and into the bedroom.
    â€˜It’s exactly the same as ours, just the other way around, and ours has roses all over it instead of daffodils,’ Jacinta said.
    â€˜And there’s lots of pink instead of yellow,’ Sloane added. ‘It