Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower Read Free Page A

it.
    ‘Yes! Thank you , Biddy,’ I yell, running across her wrist and onto her hand. I grab one end of the loose thread and hold onto it, waiting, ready.
    Then, the minute Biddy stops playing with it and drops the thread, I run to tie it to a strap on her backpack.
    Then, quick as a sunbeam, I run up Biddy’s arm, and burrow safely into her hair, to watch what happens next.
    The witch stands up, pursing her lips. Her eyes narrow as they glide over Biddy and Matilda and baby Ellen. Then she picks up her handbag and swings it over her shoulder. The string stretches between the backpack strap and the witch’s handbag.
    Zippp! The string unravels.
    The witch walks away.
    Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle! The red jewels and sequins rattle to the floor.
    The train stops. The carriage doors open.
    The witch steps out.
    I scramble up to the top of Biddy’s head to look out of the train window. I can see the witch! All the jewels on her bag are gone. The evilness is showing through.
    I’m jumping up and down. ‘Look, Biddy! Look!’ I yell, pulling Biddy’s fringe to make her turn her head around and look out the window. ‘We did it!’
    But Biddy doesn’t turn around, and now the train is moving again.
    ‘No!’ I yell. ‘Please wait a bit longer, train!’
    But it doesn’t, and I don’t see any more.
    Now the witch is gone, Mum lets Matilda climb down from her seat.
    ‘Piddy,’ Matilda squeals, seeing the jewels sparkling on the carriage floor.

    ‘Look, Mummy. Piddy,’ she says, and flops down on the floor to pick them up.
    Mum smiles and looks down, but when she sees the jewels, her eyes go all big and guilty. ‘Oh, Tilly, don’t touch,’ she says, jumping up quickly to stop Matilda playing with the jewels.
    I can tell Mum knows straightaway that the jewels came from the witch’s bag. She looks around in case the witch is still there, ready to pounce on Matilda. But the witch is gone.

    Then Mum sees the fine string stretched between the jewels to Biddy’s backpack. ‘Brigid Lucy?’ she says.
    ‘Yes, Mum?’ Biddy says quickly, taking her thumb out of her mouth and looking around.
    ‘Did you——?’ Mum begins.
    But then baby Ellen starts crying, so Mum has to pick her up and put her over her shoulder. And then Mum’s mouth is so busy going, ‘ Shhh! ’ that she forgets all about the string on Biddy’s backpack. She even lets Matilda collect a whole pile of beads and sequins from the floor.
    So me and Matilda and Biddy play and play and play with the jewels. We make piles, and lines, and all sorts of wonderful patterns on the seat.
    It is too much fun !



Chapter five
    the princess tower
    Biddy gets bored of playing with the glittery jewels after a while. She goes back to looking out of the window. I do, too, because playing with beads is really a little kid’s game. We watch the backs of millions of houses flicking past, with their brightly coloured walls, and their gardens, with plants and spiky weeds and flowers.
    Then …
    Wizz-bang-le-flab!
    There is a tower! An ancient stone tower, as tall as tall can be! It reaches up into the clouds, and it’s all covered with ancient green moss. Right at the tip of the tower, sitting on top of the rippling orange stone, is a cross.
    ‘ Wow! ’ Biddy says. ‘That’s a Princess Tower.’
    And she’s right. Of course the tower is a Princess Tower. What else could it be?
    ‘Mum! That’s where Rapunzel lives,’ Biddy says, jumping on the seat. ‘That’s where Rapunzel hangs down her hair,’ she continues, pointing to a tall slit-of-a-window that is cut into the sides of the Princess Tower.
    Mum says, ‘Will-you-sit-down-Brigid.’ And, ‘Don’t-put-your-shoes-on-the-seat.’
    ‘But, Mum, look!’ Biddy says. ‘It’s a real-life Princess Tower.’
    ‘Brigid Lucy!’ Mum says in a do-be-quiet whisper. ‘It’s not a Princess Tower. It’s a cathedral, where people go to pray and talk to God.’
    Which is the silliest thing we have ever heard. Of course