Clementine Rose and the Surprise Visitor 1 by Jacqueline Harvey Page B

matter how long she thought about it, her ears simply would not wiggle.
    ‘How do you do that, Uncle Digby?’ Clementine turned around and looked at Digby Pertwhistle as his rather large ears flapped like washing.
    ‘Years of practice,’ the old man replied.
    ‘But I practise every time I walk past this mirror,’ she said, ‘and no matter how hard I try, my ears don’t wiggle at all.’
    Digby looked at her and smiled. ‘You’re good at lots of other things, Clemmie.’
    ‘Like getting into trouble,’ Clementine replied. ‘I’m good at that.’
    Digby grinned at her. It was true that the child had a knack for getting into all sorts of scrapes, even when she wasn’t trying.
    ‘Clementine, are you up there?’ her mother called from the bottom of the stairs. ‘I’m going to see Mrs Mogg and collect the mail. Would you like to come?’
    ‘Yes, please,’ Clementine called back. ‘But I’m still in my pyjamas.’
    The telephone rang before Lady Clarissa could reply. She walked over to the hall table and picked up the receiver.
    ‘Good morning, Penberthy House, this is Clarissa,’ she said. ‘Oh, hello Odette, how are you?’
    On hearing that name, Clementine ran halfway down the staircase towards her mother.
    ‘Yes, of course we’d love to have Sophie and Jules. That’s fine. No, no guests on Sunday night. It’s no problem at all. We’ll see you then. Bye,’ Clarissa said and hung up.
    ‘Are Sophie and Jules coming?’ Clementine called. She was bouncing up and down on the spot like Tigger.
    ‘Yes, on Sunday. Pierre and Odette are going to look at a new van and its hours away. They’re going to stay in Downsfordvale for the night.’
    Clementine’s eyes lit up. Sophie was her best friend and Jules was Sophie’s brother, who was two years older.
    ‘I can’t wait!’ Clementine was already thinking about all the things they could do.
    ‘Well, you’d better run along and get dressed quick smart if you want to come with me to the village, Clemmie. We have some guests arriving this afternoon and I need to get back and make a start on dinner,’ her mother instructed.
    Clementine skittered back upstairs to the landing.
    ‘And I’d better get on and dust those bedrooms,’ said Digby. He turned from the mirror he was polishing and grinned at Clementine. ‘We don’t want our guests complaining about grubby rooms.’
    ‘No, that’s true. There are enough other things they can complain about,’ she replied. She was thinking of the previous weekend, when a lady called Mrs Pink ran screaming into the hallway saying there was a snake under her bed. Clementine was in her room on the third floor when she heard the commotion and suddenly remembered that she had been playing in that room the day she lost her giant rubber python. It seemed Mrs Pink had found it and wasn’t at all happy about it.
    Lady Clarissa had to give the woman three cups of tea and a promise of a reduced charge before she’d go back into the room. Clementine was sent to apologise to Mrs Pink, who spent ten minutes telling her off for being so careless with her things, and then the next hour complaining about her sore feet and her bad back and her creaky bones. Clementine had decided right there and then that getting old was not a very sensible thing to do.
    Now Clementine ran off to her bedroom. She had been sick with a cold all week and was looking forward to getting out of the house. And she couldn’t wait for Sophie and Jules to come on Sunday too.
    ‘There you are, Lavender.’ Clementine found her pet lying in the basket on the floor at the end of her bed. ‘We’re going to see Mrs Mogg.’
    Lavender looked up and grunted.
    Clementine thought for a moment about what she would wear and then got dressed as quickly as her fingers would allow. She snapped Lavender’s lead onto her collar and together the two of them hurried downstairs to meet her mother.
    ‘Oh, Clemmie, that looks lovely. A little overdressed for