The Rescue Princesses #2: Wishing Pearl Read Free Page A

Come down to the beach right now,” she whispered, speaking straight into the jewel.
    The sapphire glowed deep blue for a second. Then Jaminta’s voice came through. “We hear you, Clarabel. We’re on our way.”

    Clarabel turned back to Prince Samuel, who stood by his hole like a puppy guarding a bone. A rolled-up piece of paper poked out from his pocket. He patted it now and then as if he was checking to make sure it was still there. His face glowered as the three other princesses came dashing down the beach toward him.
    They arrived, breathless, their faces flushed.
    “How did we do?” panted Lulu.
    Jaminta checked her watch. “Two and a half minutes. Great practice, everyone.”
    “Thanks for calling us, Clarabel,” said Emily. “We’d just finished the flower garlands.”
    “This isn’t a practice,” Clarabel told them. “Just look at what Samuel’s digging up.”
    Emily, Jaminta, and Lulu peered into the hole.
    “Turtle eggs!” cried Emily. “You can’t dig those up. They might die.”
    Samuel pouted. “I don’t care about the turtles and I don’t care about the eggs. I don’t want them, anyway. But you can’t stop me from digging here.”
    Clarabel put her hands on her hips. “There are four of us now, so we’ll get you out of the way. We can each lift an arm or a leg. Ready, princesses?” She stared at Samuel, her blue eyes unblinking.
    Prince Samuel groaned in annoyance. “How did you three get here so quickly, anyway?”
    “Wouldn’t you like to know,” said Lulu, smoothing back her curls.
    Samuel cast one more look into the hole, picked up his shovel, and flounced away up the beach.
    The princesses quickly began to cover the eggs with sand.
    “I told him this was the wildlife zone, but he wouldn’t listen,” said Clarabel. “He doesn’t care about anything except himself.”
    “I bet he’ll go back and tell his mom we were mean to him,” said Lulu.
    “I think he’s up to something,” said Clarabel. “He said he wasn’t interested in those turtle eggs and he looked like he really meant it. So why was he digging a hole?”
    Jaminta’s brown eyes turned thoughtful. “If he’s hiding something, then we need to find out what it is.”
    An idea sparked in Clarabel’s head. “I’ve got some binoculars in my suitcase. They could be useful for seeing what Samuel is up to. Let’s go get them from my room.”
    Having carefully covered up all the eggs, the princesses scrambled over the sand dunes and through the back gate to the palace garden. As they ran across the sloping lawn, Clarabel got tired and fell behind the other princesses.
    “Hurry up, Clarabel,” called Emily, urging her on.
    “I’m trying,” panted Clarabel, her legs aching.
    She clutched the round pearl in her hand. She could hardly wait to tell the others about the dolphin and how he’d found the pearl for her, but she wanted to save it until they were upstairs in private.
    They stopped at the door and brushed the sand off their bright summer dresses. Then they tiptoed through the wide hallway, its floor decorated with a beautiful ocean mosaic.
    They reached the bottom of the grand staircase just as Queen Trudy of Leepland came down it. The princesses all curtsied to her, just as they’d been taught to do for every king and queen.
    “Where did you all go after breakfast?” snapped Queen Trudy. “I needed you to knit some special tea cozies for the royal teapots.”
    “Sorry, Your Majesty!” Emily curtsied deeply to hide her smile.
    The queen sniffed and walked on, before pausing in front of Clarabel and looking her up and down. Her eyes were as hard as stone.
    “Princess Clarabel, you look disgraceful!” She stared down a nose so sharp you could have sliced cheese with it. “I hear you’ve been pestering my poor Samuel, upsetting him while he was quietly playing on the beach. Princesses! You’re more like noisy animals!”
    “We were trying to stop him from digging up turtle eggs,”