The House of Puzzles Read Online Free PDF Page B

Ruby,’ she said
in her best teacher’s voice.
    ‘Huh?’
    ‘I said, ‘good morning’. It is polite to respond in kind.’
    Gerald looked at her blankly. His excitement of a few moments before had evaporated.
‘Uh, good morning,’ he mumbled.
    ‘Better,’ Ruby said. ‘As for Alex—’
    ‘Oh, so you’re best friends with him now, are you?’
    Ruby took a long sip of tea then fixed Gerald with a penetrating stare. ‘Maybe not
best friends,’ she said. ‘But friendly, anyway.’
    ‘What’s happened? Last night you sounded like you wanted to break his legs,’ Gerald
said. ‘And that went double for his buddies, Millicent and Gretchen.’
    Ruby dipped a spoon into her porridge and blew across the bowl. ‘Oh, don’t worry
about Millie and Bletchen,’ she said. ‘I’m still gunning for them. That stupid Hello
Kitty creature and her friend can sleep uneasy knowing that.’
    ‘What about Baranov?’ Gerald said. ‘He was well out of order with what he said about
Professor McElderry. And about you. How come you’re all smiley-smiley with him today?’
    Ruby put down her spoon. ‘Because Alex had the decency to come up to me this morning
and apologise for his behaviour last night,’ she said. ‘He was sorry that he’d got
off on the wrong foot with me and wanted to start over. I may have misjudged him.’
    Gerald choked on his bacon. ‘Misjudge Alex Baranov! You can misjudge a basketball
shot or a golf swing, or even Sam’s ability to think about anything other than food,
but you can not misjudge people like Alex Baranov. It is just not possible. What
you see is what you get and what you get is one hundred per cent jerk.’
    ‘And you made up your mind on that from one interaction last night?’ Ruby said.
    Gerald simmered. ‘I’ve met his type before.’
    Felicity leaned over and bopped Gerald on the point of his nose with her finger.
‘I do believe you are jealous,’ she said.
    The fork slipped from Gerald’s fingers and clattered to the tabletop. ‘Jealous?’
he said, with a little too much force. ‘Me? That’s ridiculous.’
    Felicity flicked a long plait over her shoulder and arched an eyebrow at Gerald.
‘Oh, come off it,’ she said. ‘You don’t seriously think we’ve forgotten about the
Christmas Eve snog you two had at the chalet in California? If those bandits hadn’t
attacked we would have had to throw a bucket of water over you.’
    This time it was Ruby’s turn to glow red and sputter out a protest. ‘Snogging? Gerald?
Who saw what now?’
    Felicity returned to her breakfast. ‘Oh yes,’ she said. ‘There’s nothing going on
here.’
    Gerald struggled to think of something to say. He panicked, turned to Ruby and blurted
out, ‘There once was a girl named Valentine…’
    Ruby looked at him as if he had gone insane. ‘What are you going on about?’
    Gerald opened his mouth but what came out sounded like a gagging goldfish. He was
saved by Kobe Abraham, who wandered past and dropped an envelope onto the table in
front of Gerald, narrowly missing the lake of tomato sauce on his plate.
    ‘Mail call,’ Kobe said. ‘Someone thinks you’re worth writing to.’
    Ruby nodded at the copy of the Economist that Kobe had tucked under his arm. ‘Keeping
up with world events, Kobe?’
    Kobe flashed her a smile. ‘You’re either in the loop or in the soup,’ he said with
a finger to the side of his nose.
    ‘I thought Rice Crispies said there was no contact with the outside world while we’re
at camp,’ Sam said.
    Kobe peeled the wrapper from his magazine. ‘It also pays to have sources in the right
places,’ he said. ‘And it looks like Gerald is one who does.’ He brandished another
envelope. ‘And he’s not the only one, as it happens.’
    Ruby tilted her head to the side. ‘Who else?’
    Kobe tapped his nose again. ‘Ah, that would be telling, toots. Cheerio.’ He turned
and wandered deeper into the dining hall.
    Ruby and Felicity looked at each other.