Emily's Dream by Jacqueline Pearce Read Free Book Online Page A

between the table and the nearby plush chair. She listened to make sure no one was coming, then she bent down and looked under the chair. The cigarette case was still there. She moved it slightly, so that it would be visible to anyone reaching down to pick up the needlework. Then she left the room and hurried to join the others leaving for school.
    â€œYou’ll never guess,” said Lizzie when Emily and the others arrived home after school. “Dede was dusting in the drawing room this morning, and what do you think she found?”
    â€œWhat?” Emily asked, though her heart was pounding.
    â€œWhy, Mr. Piddington’s cigarette case,” Lizzie announced, sounding as pleased as if she had found it herself. “It was right under his feet all along.”
    Emily and Dick exchanged a quick look.
    â€œOh, I am glad for Mr. Piddington,” Alice said. “He must be pleased it’s been found.”
    â€œYes,” Lizzie said. “But he would have been more pleased if it had been found before he went out and bought another.”
    Emily felt a stab of guilt. But she was distracted when Dick suddenly pulled away from them and hurried up the stairs, clutching his stomach. Alice and Lizzie paid no attention, but Emily was concerned. Was he ill?
    She caught up to him at the landing at the top of the stairs.
    â€œDick, are you all right?” she whispered, reaching out to touch his arm.
    Dick turned to her, and as his eyes met hers, his face split into a laughing grin.
    â€œPoor Mr. Piddington!” he whispered with a puffing exhalation of breath.

 15 
Close Call
    The next day, Emily walked back to the house after another happy ride with Johnny. As she opened the side door, she caught a flash of something small and yellow moving through the air in the middle of the kitchen.
    â€œQuick Emily, shut the door!” Alice cried. “Your canary is out.”
    Emily ducked into the kitchen and shut the door behind her. She looked around quickly and saw the canary flap against the window above the sink. Then, as Alice lunged toward him with her hands open, he flew up out of reach and back across the kitchen into the breakfast room.
    â€œStop chasing him,” Emily commanded. “He’ll never settle if he’s scared.”
    Emily followed the bird into the breakfast room, trying to move calmly, so that she wouldn’t frighten him further. Inside her chest, her heart was jumping. What if she had let the canary out when she opened the door to come in? What if he’d flown away and been lost?
    â€œI’ll close the door to the hall and get his cage,” Emily told Alice. “If we can keep him in this room, and he calms down, he might just fly back into the cage.”
    Emily slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind her. She sprinted down the hall and started up the stairs to her bedroom. Dede stuck her head out of the drawing room.
    â€œSlow down, Emily,” she hissed.
    Emily ignored her sister, hitched up her skirt and took the stairs two at a time. She skidded to a stop in the middle of the bedroom floor. Where was the birdcage?
    Emily began to clatter back down the stairs, but Dede stood near the bottom ofthe stairs, hands on her hips, her mouth a thin angry line. Emily slowed.
    â€œIt’s my canary,” she told Dede, hoping Dede would understand the urgency of the situation. “He got out, and I’m trying to find his cage.”
    â€œThe cage is in the sitting room,” Dede said grimly. “Perhaps if you kept better track of where you left your creature in the first place, he wouldn’t have gotten out.”
    Emily didn’t bother to argue with Dede. She hurried to the sitting room and found the cage sitting on the table by the window. What did it matter where she left the bird, as long as he was in his cage and the cage door was shut? She always left the cage door closed securely. The only way the canary could