Little Lion Read Online Free PDF Page A

the Ming vase!”
    â€œYou think that really matters?” Felix said.
    Maisie nodded. “Absolutely. There were two pieces missing from that vase. I have one, and I bet Great-Aunt Maisie had the other one. That’s what she kept in that secret compartment. Thorne probably took it so he could continue to time travel.”
    â€œThat’s great, Maisie,” Felix said. “But where is your shard?”
    Maisie’s face fell. “That’s the only problem,” she admitted. “I had it in the pocket of my fleece vest. But it wasn’t there when I got dressed this morning.”
    â€œYou’re sure?” Felix asked.
    â€œYeah. I was going to take it out and put it in my jewelry box, but it was gone.”
    Now it was Felix’s turn to get excited. “Mom did the laundry!” he said, already moving up the driveway to the door. “It must have fallen out in the washing machine!”
    â€œYes!” Maisie said, remembering.
    She ran fast enough to reach the door before him. By the time he got halfway up the stairs, she had already gone into the apartment and was opening the laundry room door.
    â€œNot here!” Maisie said when Felix ran in the laundry room, panting.
    â€œDid you check the dryer?” he said. Without waiting for an answer, he opened the dryer door and looked inside, running his hands around it as he did.
    â€œNothing,” he said.
    â€œFirst you go visit Great-Aunt Maisie on your own. Now you want to do the laundry? You are definitely up to something,” their mother said, stopping at the door.
    â€œNo, no,” Maisie said so quickly that their mother narrowed her eyes even more suspiciously.
    â€œI just lost something.”
    â€œIn here?” their mother said.
    â€œIt was in my fleece pocket. I think it fell out in the wash,” Maisie told her.
    Their mother shrugged and moved the strap of her briefcase to her other shoulder.
    â€œI emptied pockets into there,” she said, pointing to a jelly jar on the shelf beside the detergent.
    Maisie resisted the urge to frantically look inside the jar. She didn’t want to raise their mother’s curiosity even more.
    â€œGreat,” she said, trying not to sound too enthusiastic.
    Felix nodded.
    â€œOkay,” their mother said, studying their faces. “Well, I need to get back to the office for a couple of hours and finish this deposition. How about we get pizza when I get home?”
    â€œGreat,” Maisie said again.
    Their mother kissed them each good-bye on the top of their heads. Maisie and Felix stepped out of the laundry room to watch her walk through the kitchen and out the door. They waited until the door closed and they could no longer hear her heels against the floor.
    Maisie grabbed the jelly jar from the shelf.
    â€œHere it is!” she said triumphantly, holding the shard up for Felix to see. “Let’s go!”
    â€œWait!” Felix said.
    He went to the kitchen and checked the big bulletin board on the wall there. Beside the school lunch menu and a pizza delivery flyer under a yellow pushpin, he found the big preservation society calendar with the schedule for tours of Elm Medona marked in red. None were scheduled for that afternoon.
    â€œPhew!” he said.
    $  $  $  $  $
    Felix and Maisie went back down the dumbwaiter, into the basement Kitchen, up the stairs that led to the Dining Room, and then out into the Grand Ballroom and up the Grand Staircase.
    â€œThank you,” Felix whispered as they ran past the photograph of Great-Aunt Maisie.
    Then he paused.
    â€œMaisie?” he said. “Maybe Great-Aunt Maisie’s shard is somewhere in the house. Maybe it’s in her old room. Or even in Thorne’s.”
    â€œWhat if it is?” Maisie said. “All we need is ours.”
    Felix hesitated. “I know,” he said. “But she seemed so happy when she thought it was in that