Lucy the Poorly Puppy by Holly Webb Read Free Book Online

sweetie. But we have to be quiet, OK?”
    Sam put Lucy in his lap, and started to wave a piece of straw for her to chase. “I don’t think we can keep this little one quiet, though,” he said, as Lucy squeaked delightedly and growled at the straw.
    “They might not hear from out there. Oh, there’s Mum. She looks a bit worried,” Lauren said guiltily.
    Lauren’s mum went into the house, and obviously told the man she couldn’t find Lauren and Lucy, because he came out and got into his car.
    “I’m so sorry,” Lauren’s mum said.
    Lauren thought the man looked disappointed, but she was more worried about the anxious look on her mum’s face.
    The man handed Lauren’s mum a bit of paper. “Here’s my phone number, anyway. If you could give me a ring.” Then he drove off down the lane.
    Lucy growled at the straw again. Sam had stopped waving it about, and she was getting bored. She whined loudly, and tugged the hem of Lauren’s jeans with her teeth. She wanted them to play properly.
    “Should we come out, now he’s gone?” Sam asked. 
    Lauren wanted to, especially as she could hear her mum calling for her dad, who was working in the office at the back of the house. Now they’d both be searching for her. But she shook her head. “What if they just call the man to come back?” She nibbled her nails. “I think we have to give it a bit longer.”
    They could hear Lauren’s mum and dad going round the house shouting her name. Finally, Bella started whining. “I know, Bella,” Lauren whispered. “I’m hungry too.”
    “I’m starving,” Sam muttered, and then he gasped as he heard a different voice. “That’s my mum!”
    Sam’s mum came running into the yard carrying Molly. Molly was crying and calling, “Sam?” 
    Sam and Lauren exchanged a guilty glance.
    “I’m sorry, I’ll have to go out. Molly looks really upset…” Sam was getting to his feet. “You stay, I’ll say I wasn’t with you.”
    “It’s OK, I’m coming too,” Lauren told him. “And I promise you won’t get into trouble. I’ll say it was all my idea.” They crept over to the barn door, and peered out anxiously. Bella looked round their legs, unsure what was going on. Only Lucy was happy, and squeaked excitedly to see everyone.
    “Sam!”
    “Lauren!”
    “Didn’t you hear us calling you? We’ve been shouting for ages!” Lauren’s mum hugged her. “We had noidea where you were!”
    Molly struggled down from her mum’s arms and ran to hug Sam.
    “Were you in the barn the whole time?” Dad asked, looking from Lauren to Sam and back again.
    “Um, yes…” Lauren admitted.
    “So you were hiding on purpose,” Dad said.
    Lauren glanced worriedly at Sam, and then said, very fast, “That man had come to buy Lucy, and I didn’t want him to.”
    Mum blinked. “He was very nice. He already has one beagle, and wanted another. He was really disappointed when we couldn’t find you.”
    “Sam, I can’t believe you frightened us all like that,” his mum said crossly. 
    “I think we’d all better go inside,” Dad said firmly. “I want to understand what’s going on here.” He shooed Sam and Lauren and the two dogs into the kitchen, where Bella and Lucy went eagerly to their food bowls. “Sit down, you two. Right. Explain. What was wrong with that man that made you decide to do something so silly? He seemed like he’d be a really good owner.”
    “Nothing…” Lauren began haltingly.
    “It wasn’t him,” Sam put in. “We didn’t want anyone to have Lucy. Look.” He dug in his hoodie pocket and brought out the old pencil case he’d been keeping the money in.
    “Eighty-four pounds,” Lauren said proudly, as he emptied it on to the table.
    Dad frowned. “I don’t get it.” 
    “We were going to buy Lucy ourselves!” Lauren explained. “I really, really don’t want to sell her to some stranger! We thought a puppy probably costs about a hundred pounds, and we were so close to having it, and