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

a hidden cove, green, yes, green as emeralds beyond price.
    ‘He told me that if I’d had blue eyes, he’d have given me sapphires.’
    ‘And I suppose if you’d had red eyes, he’d have offered you rubies,’ Rags suggested. Georgiana stared at him coldly for some moments and then said, ‘I’m not too sure if I like your new friends, Nelly.’
    ‘And did you marry him, Georgiana?’ the little bat asked quickly. ‘Did you marry the man who gave you the Green Marvel?’
    ‘Of course not! He was an absolute nitwit. He was silly and proud. He thought that just because he had pots of money and gave me emeralds I was certain to marry him. I doubtvery much if he tried the same trick with another girl. I think I taught him a good lesson when I took the necklace.’
    ‘But then you lost it,’ Bags said.
    ‘I did,’ she admitted. ‘I lost it. I don’t know where it is.’
    ‘Can’t you remember where you had it last?’ Rags asked.
    ‘Well, I do know that the last time I saw it was about two hundred years ago, Mister Smarty-Pants Rat, so I can hardly be blamed if I’ve forgotten, now can I? What I do know is that I hid it somewhere to keep it safe and I wrote this little note to remind me where it was, only now I can’t understand it.’
    From a small gold purse hanging at her side she took a slip of paper and unfolded it. ‘I’ll read it aloud to you.’
    ‘“Folly ’twould be
    To lose a jewel like me”.’
    She paused, and the three small animals waited for her to continue.
    ‘Well, go on then,’ Bags urged after a moment.
    ‘That’s it.’
    ‘That’s it? Nothing else?’
    Embarrassed, Georgiana shook her curls to say ‘No’ as the two rats stared at her in dismay.
    But Nelly was delighted. ‘It’s a kind of riddle,’ she cried. ‘Oh, I love things like this! Every morning Mrs Haverford-Snuffley does the crossword in the Woodford Trumpet and I do it too. I work out all the clues. I’m much quicker at it than Mrs Haverford-Snuffley, even though I’m reading it upside down,’ she added proudly. ‘Read it again, Georgiana.’ The ghost smoothed out the paper on her lap.
    “‘Folly ’twould be
    ‘To lose a jewel like me.” “Folly” means “stupidity”. So it’s saying “It would be stupid to lose a jewel like me.’”
    ‘Well, that’s really helpful, I must say,’ Bags remarked sarcastically.
    ‘But “folly” could also mean “a folly” – you know, the thing in the garden!’
    ‘Why, of course! Why did I not think of that? Gosh, Nelly, you’re so bright,’ Georgiana said admiringly. But now the rats were baffled.
    ‘Er, what thing in the garden? What do you mean? What’s a folly?’
    ‘In my day,’ the ghost said, ‘there was a fashion for putting little buildings in gardens for no real reason, just because they looked nice. Stone pillars, ruins, that kind of thing.’
    ‘Ruins? Isn’t a ruin what you get when a building falls down?’
    ‘Yes, but these were built as ruins in the first place.’
    The more she tried to explain, the more she baffled the rats. ‘Why on earth would anyone build a ruin?’
    ‘I don’t know. I can only tell you that it seemed like a good idea at the time.’
    ‘Our folly is exceptionally nice,’ Nelly said. ‘It’s not a ruin, it’s a small circular building like a temple, with stone seats in it.’
    ‘And is that where the Green Marvel is hidden?’
    Georgiana glanced down again at the note in her hand and then looked up at the animals, suddenly excited.
    ‘It sounds as if it must be!’

16 Jasper in the Garden
    The following morning, to Jasper’s great surprise, the rats were absolutely determined that they would go out into the garden with him. He would have much preferred that they stayed locked up in the room, because they had a habit of getting into mischief when they were out and about. But just as he was leaving the room they raced across the floor. They ran up his legs, like two squirrels climbing a tree, and