Free Jasper and the Green Marvel by Deirdre Madden Page B

and held him tightly so that he couldn’t wriggle out of her grasp. She lifted his hands up to eye level so that they could both inspect them.
    Jasper had beautiful hands. They were soft and white with not a mark on them. His fingernails were short, and perfectly clean. ‘So you’re telling me, mister,’ she cried, ‘that those are gardener’s hands? That you’ve been digging and planting and weeding with these lily-white paws for years on end? Potting things? Pruning? Planting bulbs? Don’t make me laugh.’ But she did laugh: ‘HA!’
    Jasper knew he’d been rumbled.
    Mrs Knuttmegg let go of his wrists and grabbed him by his jacket again. ‘Let me tell you this about Mrs Haverford-Snuffley. There’s not a kinder, more gentle and generoussoul in all the world. She took me in when I was down on my luck, when I had nothing. I couldn’t begin to tell you how good she’s been to me. She’s kind to dumb animals too. And because of all that, see, I watch out for her. If she has a fault it’s that she can be too trusting, too nice. She doesn’t know a villain when she sees one. She thinks everybody’s as sweet and thoughtful as she is herself. But I’m not like that, oh no!’
    ‘I didn’t think you were,’ Jasper said brazenly. ‘As soon as I met you I knew you were a tough, suspicious old biddy who could see only the bad in people.’
    ‘And there’s plenty of bad to see in you,’ Mrs Knuttmegg shot back immediately. ‘If I knew what you were up to, I’d have you run out of here tomorrow.’ She let go of his jacket again.
    ‘I’m going back to my kitchen now,’ she said, ‘but I’ll be keeping a close eye on you, mister. I’ll be watching every move you make.’ She bent down and picked up the carrot she haddropped earlier, then swiftly hauled five more out of the ground.
    ‘Gardener, indeed,’ she said as she shook the soil from the vegetables. ‘Doesn’t even know what a compost heap is. Carrot bush. HA!’
    And with that she turned her back on Jasper and stumped off towards the house again. 

23 Sing Your Heart Out!
    While all of this was happening, Rags and Bags had sneaked off again, and were well on their way down the garden even before Mrs Knuttmegg had grabbed Jasper by his jacket.
    ‘Well, here’s the wall Georgiana talked about,’ Rags said.
    ‘And here’s the wooden door. But where’s the letterbox? I don’t see it.’
    ‘It must be hidden under all that ivy. I bet there wasn’t as much of it in Georgiana’s day.’
    They decided that one of them would climb up and look for the letterbox while the other one stayed on the ground, and they weretalking about this when Rags suddenly heard something. It was the distant notes of a flute.
    ‘Oh no! It’s that music again!’ The sad, melancholy air grew louder and louder, and once again the rats began to feel very unhappy.
    ‘I can’t bear this, I don’t want it,’ Rags cried. ‘What shall we do?’
    ‘We’ll sing a happy song,’ Bags wailed miserably. ‘Drown it out.’
    ‘Do we know any happy songs?’ asked Rags, who was already beginning to sob.
    ‘“Happy Birthday.” What about that?’ Even in jail, all the prisoners would always sing for a birthday boy, and so Rags and Bags knew this song well.
    ‘That’s a good idea,’ said Rags, who was weeping now, and full of a terrible grief. ‘But who will we sing it for? Whose name will we put in?’
    ‘Georgiana’s,’ Bags replied, as the tears rolled down his snout. The sad music was very loud and close now, as if the flute player wasperhaps standing only on the other side of the wall. ‘Join in with me, Rags, and be as loud and as cheerful as you can. Sing your heart out! One … two … three …’
    ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
    ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
    ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGIANA!
    ‘HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!’
    And with that, the most extraordinary thing happened.
    The music stopped!
    It stopped immediately, all at once, in the middle of the melody, as