Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden Page B

going to be late.’
    ‘But I’m already too late! Two hundred years too late!’
    ‘Georgiana, we don’t understand any of this,’ Rags said.
    ‘Very well then,’ she said, still holding the note tightly, ‘let me explain.’

26 Toby
    ‘I told you,’ she began, ‘about the man who gave me the emerald necklace because it was the same colour as my eyes, and about how he wanted to marry me.’
    ‘But you wouldn’t,’ Nelly said.
    ‘Because he was vain and proud,’ Bags added.
    ‘That’s right,’ said Georgiana. ‘You’ve remembered the story well. My parents were cross with me, because they thought I should marry for money, and that whether or not I loved the man didn’t matter. But to me, that was a horrible idea.
    ‘What I didn’t tell you,’ she went on, ‘was that shortly after that someone else also gave me a present. It was the boy who worked in the garden, here at the Hall. His name was Toby, and he gave me a red squirrel. He knew what had happened and he said he couldn’t buy me emeralds to match the colour of my eyes, because he had no money, so he caught and tamed a squirrel for me to keep as a pet. He said its fur was the same colour as my hair,’ and she shook her glossy red curls proudly as she said this.
    ‘It was the most endearing creature. It used to fall asleep in my arms, and when it awoke I fed it hazelnuts. I used to take it down to the folly when I went there to meet Toby. My parents were completely against my having anything to do with him because he worked in the garden and he wasn’t rich. It was so foolish of them. What really mattered was that he was the sweetest, kindest, most gentle man you could imagine. We used to have to meetin secret. We’d leave little notes for each other in the letterbox, and then I’d sneak off and see him in the folly, at whatever time we had agreed. He used to play music for me there on the flute.’
    When she said this, the rats looked at each other.
    ‘Sad music?’ Rags asked.
    ‘Why no, not at all,’ she replied. ‘It was the happiest, most joyful music. Even if you were feeling a little bit gloomy and glum, as soon as he started to play your spirit would lift and your heart would be flooded with joy. Oh, it was the sweetest music ever, as pure and delightful as the song of a bird. Those were the happiest moments of my life, sitting in the folly with the squirrel asleep in my arms, so soft and warm, while Toby played the flute.’
    ‘Did Toby have fair hair?’ Bags asked.
    ‘Yes,’ Georgiana replied absently, ‘cut in a square fringe. And I always thought his work clothes looked so nice, so soft and brown.’
    Again the two rats looked at each other.
    ‘Oh, I loved him so much!’ Georgiana suddenly cried. ‘And when he asked me to marry him, of course I said yes. I knew my parents would never agree and so we decided to elope.’
    ‘What does that mean?’ Nelly asked.
    ‘It means running away together to get married in secret.’
    ‘Ooh, how romantic and exciting!’ the little bat gasped.
    ‘Toby said he would leave a note for me in the letterbox, arranging a time. It was to be on a night such as this,’ and she nodded towards the window, ‘the night of a full moon. Well, I waited and waited and waited. I checked the box again and again, but there was no message. Toby and I never got married, and I never married anyone else. No one would have wanted me after that, because I became the saddest girl in the world. I couldn’t understand it, because I knew Toby loved me with all his heart. He had promisedhe would leave me a note and he always kept his promises.’
    ‘And he did,’ Nelly said soothingly. ‘He did love you and he did leave you a note arranging to elope with you, just like he said he would.’
    ‘But it got stuck in the box and I never found it. He must have waited in the moonlight with the horses for hours for me. He must have thought that I had let him down, that I had changed my mind and decided not