Casper Candlewacks in the Time Travelling Toaster Read Online Free PDF Page B

We’ve… made a few changes.”
    Chrys snorted. “You can say that again.”
    This made no sense. Casper recognised the same old black stone manor house, crumbling and crooked, a holey slate roof and withered stone tower climbing wearily towards the clouds. But now from two sides shot an enormous perimeter fence rimmed with barbed wire, behind which Casper could see three long, depressing concrete warehouses belching black smoke from sooty chimneys, and two gigantic watchtowers stretching higher than the house. The warehouses were enormous, cutting through most of what was Kobb Wood, meeting the perimeter fence again as the hill began. To Casper’s left, along Long Lost Drive, came a bubbling torrent of water down a wide concrete channel where the road had been. The channel bent left as it reached the drive of Blight Manor, narrowed and then swallowed the gurgling water underground just as it approached the perimeter fence.
    This was Blight Manor, yet it wasn’t Blight Manor. This was Corne-on-the-Kobb, yet it really wasn’t . A pigeon landed on Lamp’s head, ragged and wiry. Its eyes glinted black as it watched Casper, chipped beak cocked sideways.
    “Briar, sorry, but… where are we?”
    “Aha,” Briar chuckled, turning to look Casper straight in the eyes. His nose wrinkled, his lips curled into the patronising grin only given by a teenager in a suit. “I think the question you meant to ask, Casper Candlewacks, was ‘ When are we?’.”
    Lamp looked at his watch.
    When. That one word sent a shiver of understanding down Casper’s spine. When are we? Not the twenty-first century, that’s for sure. But that meant… The Time Toaster… Had it worked after all?
    “And if I did ask that question…” Casper’s voice fluttered like a butterfly with wind. “What would the answer be?”
    “Why,” smiled Briar, “the year of our lady 2112, November, just before lunchtime.”
    “Lunchtime?” Lamp’s ears pricked up. “That’s my best time of all!”

“Master bedroom.” Briar Blight swept into a luxurious velvet-clad room, complete with a four-poster bed.
    But Casper had hardly noticed. The future ,he kept saying to himself. We’re in the future. He touched surfaces as he passed to see if they felt the same as in the present. Generally, they did. Leather felt a bit softer.
    Lamp didn’t seem to mind much that he was in the future, as long as he was getting lunch. Anemonie’s jaw hadn’t closed since she stepped inside the grand palace that she’d known as her home for the last twelve years, but which had never had so much as a carpet for furniture.
    The tour was carried out with grandeur, pride and a little script that Briar kept hidden in the palm of his hand. “This room comes equipped with walk-in wardrobe, en-suite bathroom, en-suite television and twenty-four-hour en-suite maid service.” When Briar pulled out a TV remote from his pocket and pressed the buttons for channel 114, a hatch in the ceiling flipped open and a blonde-haired woman about the age of Casper’s mum tumbled out and landed on the floor.

    “Cool!” breathed Anemonie, closing her jaw for the first time, and only because she was dribbling. “Still, mine’s better.”
    The woman leapt to her feet and curtseyed. “Sorry m’lord. Came as fast as I could, m’lord.” She curtseyed again.
    “Maid, our guests need refreshment. I want cream tea for five in viewing gallery two.”
    “Yes, m’lord; sorry m’lord,” gasped the woman, curtseying like crazy and brushing down her crumpled clothes.
    “Well? Don’t just stand there. Get to it, woman!”
    “Yes, m’lord!” She curtseyed, dashed to the door, curtseyed again, closed the door as she left and then came in one more time to curtsey before slamming the door and sprinting away down the corridor.
    “Who’s that, then, and why did she do all that bouncing?” asked Lamp.
    “She’s staff,” said Briar dismissively. “I assume you don’t have any of your