Read Floods 6 for Free Online Page A

true professional, he didn’t let that stop him. He began his walk and was halfway across when the biggest thunderclap ever recorded in the whole of Europe exploded above his head. The roof split open and amassive bolt of lightning crashed through, looking for some metal. It found some – my beloved’s crown. He lit up like a firework, and the audience, thinking it was part of the act, cheered their heads off as my darling flew up into the air and came down headfirst into the bowl of custard, cooked to a crisp. As the storm died down, the theatre was filled with the smell of burnt custard and roast prince. I have never been able to eat either since.’

    â€˜Oh my goodness,’ said Mordonna.
    â€˜What happened to the boy who had the bowl of custard on his head?’ said Morbid.
    â€˜We never saw him again,’ said the Queen. ‘Though there are stories that his ghost appears in the Silly theatre every time there is a thunder storm.’
    â€˜Does my father know this story?’ Mordonna asked.
    â€˜Of course not, darling,’ said the Queen. ‘He is so stupid and so vain, he thinks it was his charm that won me over.’
    â€˜You’re kidding,’ said Mordonna.
    Winchflat couldn’t quite understand why, considering his grandmother was a powerful witch, she hadn’t just cast a spell to make the King nicer.
    â€˜Some things are just too damaged for magic to fix,’ said Queen Scratchrot, reading her grandson’s mind. ‘Believe me, I tried, but the best I could do was remove the ugly boils from his neck – and even that didn’t work properly. They didn’t so much go away as move down to his bottom. Still, it meantI didn’t have to look at them any more, because I can honestly say in all my years of marriage to the King, I never once saw his bottom.’
    â€˜Yeugh, Granny,’ said Betty.
    â€˜Too much information,’ said Mordonna with a shudder.
    â€˜So how did you actually meet him?’ asked Winchflat.
    â€˜He was standing outside the stage door of the theatre one night asking every single person who came out if they would marry him. His parents had kicked him out of Transylvania Waters and told him he couldn’t go back until he was married,’ the Queen explained. ‘Everyone else said no, of course, but when he asked me, I was so depressed over losing my sweetheart that I said, “Yeah, whatever,” and before I knew it I was being whisked away in a coach and we were married before we reached the border.’
    â€˜How awful,’ said Mordonna, who had married Nerlin for love and his incredible good looks.
    Everyone felt rather depressed after theQueen’s sad story, but fortunately by then it was time to go back to the hotel for dinner.
    It wasn’t until they were all sitting down in the dining room that they realised one of the children was missing.
    Satanella.
    â€˜Well, where is she?’ said Mordonna when Betty said she couldn’t find her. ‘She was on the beach with us, wasn’t she?’
    â€˜I don’t know where she is,’ said Betty when she came down from checking their rooms. ‘I’ve looked everywhere.’
    â€˜She’s probably playing with the baby Hulbert.’
    â€˜Claude,’ said Betty.
    â€˜Yes, that one,’ said Mordonna. ‘You know how they adore each other.’
    â€˜No, she’s not, that was the first place I checked. Claude’s having his bath. He managed to get an incredible amount of sand in all his chubby creases, not to mention quite a lot of seaweed up his nose.’
    â€˜OK, so let’s try to remember the last time we saw her,’ said the Queen.
    â€˜It was on the beach,’ said the twins. ‘We were throwing sticks in the sea for her.’
    â€˜She didn’t get washed away by that angry water, did she?’ said Nerlin, looking quite alarmed.
    â€˜Or eaten by a shark?’ said