The Deptford Mice 2: The Crystal Prison Read Free Page B

was your mousebrass that toppled him.’
    ‘What shall I tell her then?’ asked Audrey nervously. Thomas whirled round. ‘Why the truth, lass, and nothing but that! Don’t go addin’ bits or leavin’ stuff out, or your ears’ll ring for weeks after. It’s plain speaking in the Starwife’s dreys and chambers – and that only when you’re spoken to.’
    ‘Have you seen her then Mr Triton?’ pressed Audrey, desperate to know as much as possible about the strange personage she was about to meet.
    ‘That I have,’ he replied cautiously. ‘When I first came and settled round here I was summoned to meet her.’ Thomas grew grave and added, ‘There were matters which I needed to talk to her about.’ He stroked his white whiskers and cleared his throat. ‘I’ve been hurled around by tempests on angry, foaming seas and nearly got drowned twice, but I don’t mind telling you that I’ve never been so skittish as when I went to her dreys. And I was shakin’ even worse when I came out of them!’
    Twit whistled softly. He couldn’t imagine sturdy Thomas being afraid of anything. What a creature this Starwife must be! ‘What did she do to you, Thomas?’ he asked wide-eyed.
    ‘Well I went in there, knees-a-knockin’. I’d heard many a strange tale of the Greenwich Starwife, and only an idiot would go into her chambers unabashed. Well, down some tunnels I was took and there behind a fancy curtain was the Starwife. Oh, she saw right through me, knew everything about me – what I’d done, what I hoped to do – uncanny that was. I think I made a right tomfool of myself in front of her. She weren’t impressed with her new neighbour at all. Still, I came away feeling better, but I ain’t clapped eyes on her since.’
    ‘And this morning you got a message from her about me,’ added Audrey.
    ‘Yes, that surprised me no end.’ Thomas paused and looked at Audrey. ‘In fact, it’s so rare an occurrence that I’d be careful, if I were you, Miss Brown.’
    Audrey was worried. She imagined the Starwife to be as bad as the rats. Her thoughts must have showed plainly on her face, for Thomas added, ‘Oh she won’t eat you, but the Starwife has motives of her own. She never does nothing for nothing. Sometimes she can be as subtle as Jupiter himself, and that’s what I’m puzzled about. So I say again just watch yourself.’
    ‘You don’t encourage me, Mr Triton. I’m not sure if I’m looking forward to this. I’d rather go back to the Skirtings.’
    ‘Too late for that, miss. Here we are now.’
    They had come to the end of the sewer journey and a small passage lay before them, at the end of which bright sunlight streamed through the holes in a grate.
    Thomas led them down it and they followed him to the outside world.
    The mice stood outside Greenwich Park. Before them the green lawns stretched away up to the Observatory hill. The sweet scent of freshly mown grass tingled their noses.
    Twit breathed it in deeply. ‘Oh,’ he sighed, ‘that do lighten me heart.’
    The fieldmouse leapt into the mounds of drying grass cuttings. Gurgling with delight he burrowed down into the soft damp darkness where the fragrances tugged at his memories and visions of home swam before him. Snug in the grass cave Twit’s tiny eyes sparkled. The city was no place for him – he belonged to the open fields where corn swayed high above and ripened slowly in the sun until it burned with golden splendour.
    The grass rustled above his head and the harsh dazzle of midday broke around him.
    ‘Come on matey!’ laughed Thomas parting the cuttings. ‘Not far to the Starwife now.’
    Twit scrambled out of the mound wiping his forehead with a clump of the sweetest, dampest grass. Audrey smiled at him as he rubbed it into his hair.
    ‘Luvverly,’ he exclaimed, ‘I feel bright and breezy now.’ She had to agree: the fresh clean scent of the grass cleansed her nose of the smell of the sickroom.
    ‘We better catch up with Mr