Clementine Rose and the Surprise Visitor 1 by Jacqueline Harvey

door.
    ‘ Au revoir ,’ Odette called.
    ‘Goodbye,’ the children chorused as the little van sped off down the driveway.
    Lady Clarissa would gladly have kept Sophie and Jules for a week. Jules was a wonderful big brother to Sophie, and he and Clementine got along famously too.
    ‘Come on then, what would you all like for afternoon tea?’ Clarissa asked. ‘Your father has left me half the patisserie, I think.’

    ‘Chocolate brownie for me,’ Sophie said.
    ‘Chocolate eclair for me,’ Jules said.
    ‘Is there a meringue?’ Clementine was imagining the sweet tingly confection melt away in her mouth.
    ‘Several, I think,’ Clarissa nodded.
    ‘Yum! We need to have lots of energy if we’re going camping in the library,’ said Clementine.
    ‘Why?’ Sophie asked, her brown eyes wide.
    ‘Because we’re going on a safari,’ said Clementine, as if it was obvious. ‘Just like Grandpa did when he was young, except we’re not going to shoot the animals, we’ll just take some photographs.’
    Jules laughed. ‘So this is another adventure of yours, Clementine. Like last time when you said that all the people in the portraits on the walls had come to life and you told us about them.’ Sophie and Jules loved Clementine’s stories.
    Clementine nodded. The three children followed Lady Clarissa into the entrance hall and Lavender trotted along behind.
    ‘Do you remember when I told you about that lady up there?’ Clementine pointed at Aunt Violet’s portrait. ‘I said that her name was Grace and she was beautiful and kind.’
    Sophie and Jules nodded.
    ‘Well, that’s not her name.’
    Lady Clarissa disappeared into the hallway on her way to the kitchen.
    ‘What is her name?’ Sophie asked.
    ‘It’s Violet and she’s not beautiful. She’s snappy and cross, and she’s asleep upstairs,’ Clementine said.
    Sophie and Jules gasped.
    ‘But I thought she was dead, like your grandfather,’ Sophie said, her mouth gaping.
    ‘I thought so too, but she came on Friday,’ Clementine explained. ‘And I don’t think she likes me very much and she definitely doesn’t like Lavender. She has a sphynx that looks like a giant rat and this afternoon she said that she might like to have my bedroom. But she does wear nice clothes and she has some of the loveliest shoes I’ve ever seen and she didn’t tell on me last night about Mr Sparks’s hair.’
    ‘What happened to Mr Sparks’s hair?’ Sophie asked.
    ‘It’s complicated,’ Clementine replied. ‘I’ll tell you later.’
    ‘Maybe she just doesn’t know you very well yet,’ Jules suggested.
    ‘Maybe, but she really doesn’t like Uncle Digby,’ Clementine confirmed.
    ‘We should stay out of her way, then,’ Jules decided. ‘Your house is so big we shouldn’t have to see her at all.’
    The two girls nodded.
    ‘Come on, let’s get something to eat and then we can start building our tents.’ Clementine raced off towards the kitchen with Sophie, Jules and Lavender hot on her heels.

T he children had a wonderful afternoon setting up camp in the library. Lavender played hide and seek, running in and out from under the bedsheets that the girls were using to make their tents. Clementine convinced Uncle Digby to light a fire in the library hearth. She told him that a camp wasn’t ‘proper’ unless there was a camp fire and, besides, a chill breath of wind was swirling through the house, a sign of a storm to come. Late in the afternoon, Mrs Mogg appeared with a delivery of groceries for Lady Clarissa including a giant packet of marshmallows and some extra-long skewers.

    By half past five, when Lady Clarissa brought their tea, Clementine, Sophie and Jules had transformed a corner of the enormous library using sheets, pegs and various bits of furniture. Clementine and Sophie had set up their beds under the desk, with a sheet over the top. Jules had a much more elaborate tent. It hung from the gallery upstairs and draped over a padded bench seat,