Brigid Lucy and the Princess Tower Read Free Page B

it is a Princess Tower. That shows grown-ups don’t know everything. But it is no use trying to convince them, especially when you are trying to be good.



So me and Biddy watch the Princess Tower getting closer and closer and bigger and bigger . Until it is so close, we have to press our faces against the coolness of the window to see the pointy tip of the cross.
    But then we have to stop looking, because Mum is calling us.
    Mum packs Ellen into the pram, and tells Matilda to ‘hold-on-tight’. Then she tells Biddy to ‘concentrate’, and ‘no-daydreaming’, and to ‘stay-close-all-the-time’.
    We’re getting off the train.
    Biddy does try to concentrate, she really does. She walks right beside Mum all the way through the station and out onto the street. She ‘hangs-on-tight-to-the-pram’. She doesn’t suck her thumb or daydream. She can’t! Mum is carrying Matilda and walking very fast. Her high heels sing, ‘ Hur-ry, quick-ly, do-not-stop ’. Biddy has to run to keep up.
    But then, right in front of us, the traffic lights flash red, and call out, ‘Tick! Tick! Tick! ’ Which means, in robot language, ‘Stop! Be safe! Do not cross!’
    This is the first time me and Biddy have had a chance to look for the Princess Tower since we got off the train.
    There it is! Right there, on the other side of the road. Not the way Mum is heading. The other way. Across the road.
    I so wish we could go that way!
    ‘Mum, look!’ Biddy says. ‘There’s the Princess Tower.’
    But Mum can’t hear her. She is too busy looking at her watch. ‘Come on, quickly,’ she tells the traffic-light robot. ‘We’re late. We’re in a hurry .’ She is being very impatient.
    Me and Biddy don’t care that the lights are taking simply ages. We love looking at the Princess Tower. It’s got all these white curves around the doors, and wonderful coloured glass sparkling in the windows.
    But then a horrible grown-up person goes and stands right in front of us. We can’t see! So Biddy leans right over sideways, trying to look around him. But then another grown-up person just comes and blocks our way. And then so does another, until there are heaps of people crowded all around us. We can’t see anything! We are going to miss out on looking at the Princess Tower altogether if we don’t get in front of them.
    So Biddy lets go of Ellen’s pram, just for a second. And then she slips between the people, to the edge of the road, where we can see clearly again.
    The Princess Tower is standing tall and magnificent, rising up out of the street, right up to the sky. It has great wooden doors and there is a sign out the front that says ‘ W-E-L-C-O-M-E ’.
    WELCOME! We’ve got to go in! We’ll probably never, ever, ever get another chance.



Biddy wants to go in, too, and she does try to tell Mum. ‘Mum,’ she calls behind her, ‘we can go in! It says “Welcome”. We’re allowed.’
    But, at that exact moment, the robot lights go green and say, ‘ Tick-tick-tick-tick ,’ very fast. They are telling everyone to, ‘Walk quickly! Walk quickly!’
    And all the people behind Biddy surge forwards. They take us with them across the stripy lines, and we leave Matilda and Ellen and Mum behind.



Chapter six
    the great hall
    I don’t tell Biddy to run away to the Princess Tower. I really don’t. And she doesn’t tell herself, either. Both of us know we should stop, and yell out to Mum. To tell her there has been a mistake. That she should come and get us.
    But we know Mum will be angry . And we don’t want to make her even later for her very-important-appointment. And neither of us has ever been in a Princess Tower before. Never in our whole entire lives.
    So we don’t call out to Mum. We just keep crossing the road, until we are standing on the other side, just outside the Princess Tower.
    When Mum’s robot light goes green, she hurries off down the street. ‘ Quick-ly-quick-ly-don’t-be-late ,’ say her high heels. She