Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower Read Free

shake it nicely,’ Mum says.
    The witch snorts and tuts and rolls her eyes. Then she reaches into her handbag and pulls out her mobile phone, which has just started to ring.
    ‘Hello,’ she yells into the phone. ‘Yes! Sorry, I can’t hear you. There’s a child here making an awful racket . I’ll have to ring you back.’
    While all this is going on, I’m sitting up on top of Biddy’s head cracking up laughing because I know what Biddy’s thinking. Me and Biddy totally dislike people who are rude and nasty . We always work out ways to get them back.
    So I smile and wait.
    And wait.
    And wait. But Biddy doesn’t do anything.
    I crawl down her fringe and look into her eyes. She’s just staring out the window, ‘being-good’.
    ‘Biddy!’ I yell, pointing to the witch. ‘This witch is being mean!’
    Biddy’s eyes slide up to look at the witch from under her eyelashes. I can see she is thinking of ideas. Yes! But then she just shakes her head, puts her thumb in her mouth and looks out the window again.
    I hate it when Biddy does that! Mum does, too, because she thinks Biddy is ‘too-old-to-suck-her-thumb’. But I hate it because Biddy goes into her own little thumb-sucking world. And then she never does imagining, and never ever has any exciting ideas.
    ‘Biddy!’ I yell. ‘I know you promised to be good, but this is ridiculous!’
    But she can’t hear me, so she just ignores me.
    ‘Well, fine, then,’ I say. ‘If you are going to be good, I’ll just have to get back at the witch all by myself.’



Chapter four
    taking revenge
    But what can I do to get back at the witch? Mmmm! I’ll have to have a closer look.
    I slip off Biddy’s shoulder, and tiptoe down her arm to the edge of her sleeve. The witch’s sparkly red handbag is on the seat next to Biddy’s backpack. And what’s that? There is a piece of thread dangling down from under one of the red sequins. I bet that string ties all the jewels onto the bag.
    I wonder what would happen if someone pulled on that string? Would it unravel, so all the jewels and sequins fell off? Then, the witch’s handbag would be plain and boring.
    Everyone would be able to see the evilness inside it. And then they would know that lady is an evil witch. Yes! That would definitely get her back for being mean to children.
    All I have to do is tie the string from the witch’s bag to one of the straps on Biddy’s backpack. Okay. I creep further down Biddy’s arm, past her elbow, onto her wrist. Now all I have to do is jump onto Biddy’s backpack …
    I lift my arms and bend my knees.
    I say, ‘Ready? Get settie. Go! ’
    But I can’t jump.
    It’s not that I’m a sooky scaredy-cat chicken-heart or anything. I just don’t like leaving Biddy when we are away from her house. Because, what if we get separated? What if she gets lost and I can’t find her?
    I don’t want to be an all-alone, no-best-friend person. What if I never saw Biddy again in my whole entire life? That would be a disastrous catastrophe.



So, instead of jumping, I yell, ‘Biddy, you have got to help me.’
    But Biddy ignores me and keeps sucking her thumb.
    Now the train is slowing down. The witch is looking around, ready to get off at the next stop.
    ‘Biddy, look!’ I yell again. ‘If you don’t help me, that witch is going to get away with being mean to your little sister and every other kid in the whole wide world!’
    At that moment, Mum notices that Biddy is sucking her thumb.
    ‘Brigid,’ Mum says in her soft-but-angry voice. She motions for Biddy to take her thumb out of her mouth.
    Biddy doesn’t want to stop sucking her thumb. She takes it out of her mouth for just a moment. Then she turns around and cuddles up against the back of the seat, so Mum can’t see her face any more. Then she puts her thumb back into her mouth.



But, as she looks down at the seat, she notices the loose thread on the witch’s handbag.
    And she reaches down, picks it up and starts playing with