Alice-Miranda in Paris 7 Read Online Free PDF

lovely.’
    Inside, Harry Lipp craned his neck to see what was happening in the courtyard.
    The headmistress interrupted his thoughts. ‘Mr Lipp, would you like to explain the rehearsal schedule before I give the full details for tomorrow’s activities.’
    ‘What?’ he grunted.
    ‘The rehearsal schedule, Mr Lipp. That is your domain, isn’t it?’ Ophelia Grimm sometimes wondered what planet Harry Lipp had descended from. And as for his choice of clothing! It was a constant source of wonder to her. Here in Paris, where one tried one’s best to blend in and look as chic as the locals, she could only hope that Harry had left his brightest ensembles at home.
    Livinia Reedy and Alice-Miranda set off and, just as the child predicted, they were at the restaurant and back before Miss Grimm had finished outlining the next day’s tour.

Fabien Bouchard sat at the drawing board, tapping his pencil against the blank sheet of paper. Some days the ideas flowed like a river and others, such as today, there wasn’t even a trickle. A pile of unopened magazines sat stacked in the corner of the room. His uncle said that he should use them for inspiration but Fabien refused to look. The critics had said his first collection was wholly original. Fabien was scared that if he looked at what everyone else was doing he might be tempted, in difficult times, to follow their lead.
    Right now he was stuck. He hopped down from the chair and pulled a small suitcase out from under the bed. He lifted it onto the bedclothes and snapped the locks, revealing a set of sketchpads. Drawing had always been the one thing he was good at. Even when he was very young and struggled to learn to read, he could always draw.
    Then, a few years ago, he had started sketching dresses. He couldn’t even say why. They were just images that would come to him, often in dreams. After a while, he began to put them down on paper. It was his secret until one day Uncle Claude came to visit and saw them sitting on his desk. Everything changed after that. Sometimes Fabien wished he’d kept the drawings hidden. But it was much too late for regrets. And besides, he loved seeing his creations come to life, especially when sewn by his mother’s deft hands.
    Last year, Uncle Claude had brought Fabien across for the first ever showing of his designs. Then, a few months ago, Uncle Claude said that the business was getting too big for him to trek back and forth between Paris and Guernsey. It would be far easier for everyone if Fabien and his mother moved to the city, at least for the time being.
    After the quiet life he and his mother had led on the island in the middle of the English Channel, Fabien found the idea appealing. Fabien always knew that his mother struggled socially. He had never been allowed to bring friends home from school and she had always kept to herself in the village. Of course, it had been difficult for her because she had refused to learn more than a few words of English. She left the house only to go to the market and never made any friends. Fabien always thought she was just terribly shy. He hoped that moving to Paris would inspire her to get out more. Surely once she was back in France she would live a little, Fabien had thought.
    But as soon as they had arrived in Paris, Sybilla refused to leave the house at all. Claude had taken Fabien aside and told him that his mother was unwell. She suffered terribly with a condition called agoraphobia and she was getting worse. Uncle Claude said that even the thought of going outside would make her ill and, to make matters worse, a kind of paranoia had overcome her. She had told Claude she was terrified that if Fabien left the house alone, something awful would happen to him. Uncle Claude promised Fabien that he would get the best doctors. He told the boy that she would not take her medication so it was up to him to help and make sure that when his uncle was away, Fabien mixed the medicine into her food. But she could