Somebody Stop Ivy Pocket Read Online Free PDF Page B

Well, apart from a slight tumble to the ground. A small amount of searing pain in my hip. And some rather salty language.
    When I got to my feet, the bustling crowd seemed to have stopped in their tracks. Some gasped in my direction – ogling me like there was something unusual about a girl leaping from a shop awning. Others pointed rudely and whispered. I scanned the crowd. No sign of the Lock. Had he been faster than me? Had he got away? I refused to believe it.
    Perhaps he had darted into one of the shops and was hiding there. Yes. I would search each one until –
    My eyes suddenly flew back towards a woman in a red andblack dress. But she wasn’t my target. What caught my attention was the flutter of a brown cloak from behind her.
    I pushed my way through the crowd. Shoved the woman in the red and black dress aside (she gave a startled cry and fell against an old man clutching a loaf of bread). And gazed hungrily into the void where she had been standing. There it was. Tiny. Long brown cloak. Face concealed by the shadow of that odious hood.
    A Lock.
    If I felt fear, it was no match for my wrath. It was the cold glint in my eyes. And the furious hammer of my heartbeat. The Lock moved towards me. Which is why I grabbed the loaf of bread from the old man and swung it – bashing the little devil on the side of its head. The hideous hooded henchman stumbled sideways and yelped. Cries flew out from the bystanders.
    ‘She hit him, she did!’
    ‘Horrid girl!’
    ‘Someone fetch the constable!’
    ‘Tell me where Rebecca is!’ I rushed towards the Lock. ‘Why were you chasing her through the woods? Where are you keeping her? Answer me, you pint-sized jackal!’
    ‘Leave him be!’ shouted the old man (though I’m certain he was just grumpy because his battered bread loaf was lying on the pavement).
    ‘I won’t!’ I shouted back. Those ninnies would thank me when I unmasked this monstrous little rogue. The creature swiftly found its feet and prepared to take off. I lunged without mercy. Grabbed his hood and threw it back in magnificently dramatic fashion.
    ‘See for yourselves!’ I cried, eyeballing the crowd. They would scream in horror when they saw the monster I had unmasked!
    Except that they didn’t. They just stared daggers at me. Shook their heads and tut-tutted as if I were the nastiest girl who ever lived. Why were they not running for their lives?
    I turned to look at my captive. What I saw was a rather well dressed dwarf. He had a thatch of wavy blond hair. A thick moustache. Dimpled chin. And he looked rather cross with me.
    ‘What’s the meaning of this?’ he thundered in a wondrously thick accent (German, I think). ‘I have traded coffee in some of the deadliest corners of the world and never have I been attacked in the street like this!’
    ‘Awfully sorry, dear,’ I said quickly. ‘I thought you were a vicious henchman from another world. But it turns out you’re just a very short coffee merchant with a fondness for hooded cloaks.’ I tried to pat him on the head but he slapped my hand away most unkindly. ‘No harm done, then?’
    He sneered at me (probably the German way of expressing complete forgiveness) – while the angry mob looked as if theywanted to tie me to a tree and throw rotten vegetables. It was time to make a hasty retreat. I apologised to the furious fellow again (I may have even curtsied), then took off down the street hoping they would not give chase.
    There was some agitated shouting in my wake – the old man demanded I buy him a new loaf of bread. The dwarf wanted my name and address. A rather shrill woman suggested I fall in a hole. But their voices dulled as I took a sharp left, vanishing into the back streets.
    I had destroyed a loaf of bread, a sandwich and very nearly an international coffee merchant. Not exactly a successful morning. As I slowed down, trying to catch my breath, the fear and excitement of my slightly violent frolic gave way to disappointment. I