Mystery at Silver Spires by Ann Bryant Read Free Book Online Page B

was so funny we all burst out laughing.
    Personally I couldn’t raise any enthusiasm for French or ICT that followed. All I could think about was seeing Silver after school. I still hadn’t told the others about him – I hadn’t even told Emily I’d been back – because I knew they’d all want to see him and it would frighten him off if loads of people suddenly appeared. No, it was best he got used to me first.
    â€œI’ve only just understood the thing about making adjectives agree with nouns,” Emily went on, “but now I’ve got to make verbs agree as well! Passé composé ? What’s that about?”
    Antonia was still laughing as she tried to explain. “Well it’s only certain verbs that have to agree.”
    Emily made herself go cross-eyed and we all laughed again.
    â€œRight, listen,” said Antonia, determined to get Emily to understand. “Suppose you want to say…er…‘Nadia went to see Mrs. Pridham’…”
    â€œWhich she did , by the way,” added Nicole, “but that’s got nothing to do with it.”
    â€œShh! I’m confused!” said Emily.
    â€œSorry,” said Nicole.
    â€œOkay, ‘Nadia went…’ is Nadia est allée and you have to put the extra e on allée because Nadia is a girl.”
    Half of me was listening to what Antonia was saying, but the other half of my mind couldn’t stop thinking about what Nicole had just said. Nadia was one of the Year Nines from the other room with the attic directly above them. I was probably being stupid. There were loads of reasons why Nadia might have gone to see Mrs. Pridham, but I just had to be sure.
    â€œSo Nadia…went to see Mrs. Pridham, did she?” I asked, doing my best to grin at Nicole as though I was joking about the number of times Antonia and Emily were repeating that sentence.
    â€œYes, the Year Nines heard that…noise again yesterday morning and it freaked them out a bit, but Mr. Monk’s going to investigate and if it’s a mouse or a rat he’ll probably put poison down or something. That’s what Nadia said anyway.”
    â€œWhat!” I couldn’t help the massive exclamation that came out of me. It made everyone turn to me with shock in their eyes – everyone except Emily, that is, who was looking at me in horror.
    My throat felt tight. Silver was starving. I’d only just got him to trust a human being and to take food from one. He’d think Mr. Monk was offering more and he wouldn’t be able to resist eating it. And then he’d die. And it would be my fault for encouraging him to trust humans in the first place. If only I could rush back to Forest Ash, race up to the loft and get rid of the poison right now. Except it might be too late already.
    The bell went as I was having that terrible thought, but it didn’t make me abandon the idea. So what if I was late for French? Madame Poulain was the least strict teacher at Silver Spires. I could make some excuse.
    â€œWe’d better go,” said Sasha, setting off in the direction of the language labs with Izzy. Nicole and Antonia followed behind, but I hung back with Emily, and began whispering to her urgently as soon as the others were out of earshot.
    â€œI’ve got to try and save Silver,” I said.
    She looked at me sharply, then her face softened. “Ah, you’ve named the cat. Bry, you mustn’t get attached. There’s no way he’s going to be able to stay in the boarding house.”
    I ignored that. “It might not be too late. Mr. Monk might not have got round to going up to the loft yet. Or Silver might not have gone in there.”
    â€œBut what will you do?”
    â€œI just want to check he’s okay. I’m going to go right now. Can you tell the others I left my ICT stuff behind by mistake.”
    â€œYou can’t just—”
    â€œHello, girls!” came a