Read The Truth About Verity Sparks for Free Online Page B

Louisette’s.” He turned to me and smiled. “And here, you’ve found my favourite pipe.” As I said before, he had a lovely smile.
    “Judith, rescue her,” said Mrs Morcom, and threw her turban at her brother.
    “Rescue her?” He looked quite puzzled. “Why does she need to be rescued?”
    “Would you like to rest, dear?” asked Miss Plush.
    “Yes please, miss.” So she took me up to my room, and the rest of the day passed in a dream, sitting in an armchair by a cosy fire and having supper on a tray, and ended in the softest, warmest bed this side of heaven. I went to sleep without a worry in the world about evil designs.

    The next morning Etty said, quite casual, that I was to come down to breakfast with the family.
    I couldn’t work it out. Ladies and gentlemen don’t usually have much to do with the likes of me. Servants and shopgirls and apprentices were on one side of the fence, and they were on the other. Still, my whole world had already been turned topsy-turvy. What was one more thing?
    Mrs Morcom had breakfast in her room, and Miss Judith only ate eggs and toast, but both Mr Plushes ate ham and kidneys and sausages and fish all full of whiskery bones, as well as the eggs and toast. Amy, a late riser like her mistress, joined us in time for scraps and a dish of milky tea. They all drank a lot of tea, and then read their newspapers (even Miss Judith) and their letters. There was a pile of letters, and though Miss Judith said gently, “Oh, Papa.” Mr Plush senior opened them all with his eggy knife.
    “Aha!” he said, leaving one large envelope intact and waving it around.
    “What is it, Father?” asked young Mr Plush.
    “It’s our invoice to Lady Throttle, SP. It’s got ‘Return to sender’ written on it. Very quick off the mark, isn’t she?”
    Perhaps it wasn’t my business. But perhaps it was, considering as how it involved Lady Throttle. “Invoice, sir?” I asked. “Is that like the bill, sir?”
    “Indeed it is, Miss Sparks.” He put it back in the pile. “Perhaps, my dear, you could address me as ‘Professor’? You know, I really do prefer it.” He beamed his beautiful smile at me. “We are a very informal household. No need for ‘Miss Plush’, is there?”
    Miss Plush – I mean, Judith – smiled and shook her head. “You could also call Saddington here SP, as we all do. It’s a lot shorter.”
    I looked from one to the other. An informal household, he called it. Bloomin’ mad, I called it. “Professor” was all right, for it sounded respectful, but how could I – Verity Sparks – address a lady and gentleman as “Judith” and “SP”?
    Brother and sister smiled encouragingly.
    “Please do,” said young Mr Plush.
    Orders is orders after all, I thought. “You’d better call me Verity, then, SP, sir,” I said. For some reason, they all laughed.
    “Professor, sir, was Lady Throttle going to pay you to find the diamond?” I persisted.
    “She was.”
    “And now you’ve lost money on that job?”
    “Yes,” said the Professor, seeming quite unconcerned. “I suppose we have.” Just then the door opened and Etty came in.
    “Mr Opie is here, sir,” she said. “He says he’s sorry to make such an early call, but he has something important to tell you.”
    I pricked up my ears. Opie? Wasn’t it a Mr Opie who’d helped SP to rescue me?
    “Ask him to come in right away, please, Etty,” said the Professor. “Important information. So soon. Splendid.”
    The Professor sat back, all smiles, to wait for his visitor, but Judith had gone rather red in the face. She pushed back her chair suddenly and got to her feet.
    “Excuse me,” she said, so quiet it was almost a whisper, and left the room. I wondered if perhaps she’d been took ill, but if either gentleman even noticed, they didn’t seem concerned. A couple of seconds later, in walked the handsomest young man I’d ever clapped eyes on. He wasn’t as tall as SP, but more strongly built, and he had