The Morrow Secrets Read Free Page A

prepared to enter the sisters’ rooms. Tentatively he pressed his ear to the crack in the door. He could hear the sisters’ muffled conversation and wondered whether he should put a note under their door instead. Moisture slavered down his stubbly chin with the weight of indecision as he wrung his hands and hopped about. Oh dear, he was in such a quandary. What if they didn’t notice the message? Then he would get into worse trouble. Biting his sinewy lips and grumbling away to himself at the sisters’ impending crossness, he knocked softly and waited.
Inside the conversation stopped dead.
    ‘Oh bother, who’s that?’ Sybilla moaned, screwing up her flustered face.
‘Is someone there?’ asked Edwina crossly, ‘we are only just finishing our work,’ she barked, trying to deter the intruder.
Marlin shuffled, knocked again, and the two sisters bristled with annoyance.
‘Well, disturber of our peace. Speak to me. Who is it?’ demanded Sybilla.
Marlin peered round the door and slithered into the sitting room, making his body as low as possible. In the circular tower room, eight full-length windows opened onto a balcony overgrown with purple-flowered creepers. Every surface of the sisters’ apartment was covered with books and papers, fabrics and half-completed weaves which Marlin knew he must avoid touching at all costs. He hovered nervously, wringing his hands, prepared for the worst.
Sybilla Patch was precariously balanced on top of an extremely long ladder. She was transferring her fabrics from the hanging rack into the compartments in her material archive. The colours were incredible. Twilight lavender, sunglow orange, wild strawberry, peach puff and razzle-dazzle rose. Sybilla snapped her eyes at the shrove, climbed down the ladder and knelt to meet Marlin at eye level.
‘What do you want? Speak to me since you have troubled us so wickedly!’ she said sharply into the shrove’s weaselly face.
‘May it please you, my lady, the...’
Edwina stamped her foot and the shrove jerked backwards.
‘Spit it out, shrove creature, spit it out!’ hissed Edwina.
She snagged his collar and twisted him round to face her. ‘Come here you wretched bug. Well what do you want?’
‘Ooooooh, errrrh,’ squealed Marlin as he tried to protect his ears. ‘Please my lady, the Grand Morrow wishes to see you for tea. At four o’clock. In her sitting room,’ he cried, the words spluttering out of his wet, slimy mouth.
Edwina twisted his collar tight so that he struggled to catch his breath. ‘Bother!’ What does SHE want? I suppose you know all the details. I bet you’ve been ear-wigging haven’t you? Little spy! What do you know, Marlin? Tell us quickly, you verminous rat!’ she hurled the words in his face.
But Marlin knew that worse treatment was to come. Maybe a tweaked ear or a nip from their sharp nails, and he was not waiting around for that. He had done as he was asked so he deftly wriggled out of Edwina’s grasp and dodged backwards out of the room, past the rolled satins and damasks, and fled down the staircase with Edwina screaming after him.
‘Get back here, worm, get back into my presence at once, do you HEAR ME!’ she screamed, stamping her feet in quick succession like a petulant child
But Marlin was by this time already two flights below. The sisters had a wicked temper and Marlin needed a nip of berry juice and a rest by a cool wall in order to restore himself. Later as he snoozed in his lair he soothed himself with an abundance of wicked thoughts. They would all get their comeuppance in time, he would make certain of that.
*
    To say that the sisters were peeved by Agatha’s summons was a gross understatement. They sat on their balcony like two over-wrought hens, intermittently cluck-clucking at each other, trying to imagine what their elder sister wanted. It was an outrage! This was their sanctuary, their special place and they despised visitors! The interruption had soured what had otherwise been a