Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden Read Free Book Online Page A

andshe was wearing a dark blue silk dress. But she didn’t come through the door. She came straight through the wall. And with that Rags and Bags realised that she was a …
    ‘GHOST! AAARRRRGH! IT’S A GHOST! HELP! AAARGGHHH! GHOST! GHOST!’
    And in exactly the same moment that they saw Georgiana, she saw them. She pulled her long dress up around her shins and jumped on to a chair.
    ‘RATS! AAAAARRGH! HELP! HELP! RATS! AAAAARRRRGH!’
    Rags and Bags ran to the far side of the room and clung to each other in terror. Georgiana’s face had gone bright red from all the screaming. But when all three of them stopped to draw breath, they could hear the sound of Nelly laughing.
    ‘I never heard such a fuss in my life,’ she cried. ‘There’s nothing for anybody to be frightened about. Georgiana, get down fromthat chair and let me introduce you. Rags and Bags, come out of that corner into the middle of the room.’
    Very cautiously they did as Nelly commanded. ‘These are my new best friends,’ the bat said. ‘They wanted to meet you.’
    ‘But they’re rats,’ Georgiana insisted.
    ‘And you’re a ghost,’ Bags said. Georgiana shrugged her shoulders, so much as to say, Well, there’s nothing I can do about that, is there? But she was a polite, well-brought-up girl so she said, ‘How d’you do?’ and she gave them a nod of the head. ‘You’ll excuse me if I don’t shake your … paws.’
    ‘Not at all! Not at all!’ The rats had no wish to be touched by a ghost. They were very much regretting that they had agreed to meet her. They knew about ghosts because when they were living in the jail, there had been one particular prisoner who used to tell ghost stories to the other inmates, to pass the time on the long dark winter evenings. The ratshad used to hide under the chairs and listen in. They’d enjoyed every minute of it; they’d loved the thrill of a good fright.
    But Georgiana wasn’t quite what they’d have expected in a ghost. For one thing, she wasn’t transparent. In spite of being able to walk through walls, she looked as solid as Jasper did. The rats also made the mistake of thinking she was pretty because she was a ghost. Having been born and brought up in a men’s prison, Rags and Bags had actually seen very few women. Of those that they did know, including Mrs Haverford-Snuffley, Mrs Knuttmegg and the café woman in the greasy pinny, none of them were great beauties. Georgiana, on the other hand, was loveliness itself. Her beauty was enhanced by a pearly light that surrounded her and that further gently illuminated the room. The rats guessed that this must have something to do with being a ghost, and although they found it spooky, they also thought there was something quite attractive about it.
    ‘I’ll sit here,’ Georgiana said, settling herself on the sofa in her billowing silk dress, ‘and why don’t you, Nelly my love, hang off the back of that chair over there, where I can see you? As for you pair,’ she said to the rats, ‘you can go there.’ She pointed out to Rags and Bags a velvet footstool near to where she was sitting. ‘Not too close, mind.’ She pushed the stool away a bit with her toe, which pleased them, because they had no more desire to sit right beside her than she had to sit beside them.
    ‘Rags and Bags are looking for the Green Marvel,’ Nelly said.
    ‘Oh, if only I knew where it was!’ she cried. ‘I still can’t believe I was so foolish. My necklace! My wonderful emerald necklace!’
    ‘I never thought to ask you this before, but where did you get it from?’
    ‘It was a present, Nelly dear,’ Georgiana said. ‘There was a very rich man who wanted to marry me and he gave it to me. He saidthat it matched my eyes. And it did, you know. Look here!’
    Quite suddenly and unexpectedly she bent down to where the rats were sitting, and opened her eyes wide. They were indeed green – but of such a green! Green as a fresh bright leaf, green as the ocean in