Free Clementine Rose and the Pet Day Disaster 2 by Jacqueline Harvey

creatures. It’s dangerous for sure.’
    Several of the parents charged forward. One of them grabbed a blanket from a toddler who was sitting with his mother. The little boy began to wail.
    From the back of the hall, Aunt Violet caught sight of the commotion and gasped. Clementine did too. Lavender grunted.
    ‘Pharaoh! My baby!’ Aunt Violet exclaimed. ‘How on earth did you get here?’ The old woman rushed down the centre of the hall, sending children scattering this way and that. She elbowed the men who were racing towards the stage.
    ‘Get away from him,’ Aunt Violet roared. ‘Do not lay a hand on my baby or I’ll . . .’
    ‘Ah!’ yelled one of the men as he caught sight of Aunt Violet’s angry face. She was far more petrifying than the creature on the stage.
    A little girl began to cry. ‘Mummy,’ she sobbed, ‘there’s a witch.’
    ‘No, that’s just Aunt Violet. She always looks like that,’ Clementine called in her great-aunt’s defence.
    Aunt Violet reached the stage and pushed her way to the middle, where she scooped the cat into her arms. He looked at her and hissed.
    ‘What are you all looking at?’ she challenged the audience, who were now staring wide-eyed at the terrifying woman and her equally terrifying pet.
    ‘What is that?’ a lady called from the back row.
    ‘He’s a sphynx, you ridiculous woman. Everyone knows that,’ Aunt Violet hissed.
    The audience members looked at one another and shrugged.
    ‘He’s lovely. You just have to get to know him, that’s all,’ Clementine announced.
    ‘He’s ugly, did you say?’ a man shouted.
    As always, Queen Georgiana knew just how to break the tension.
    ‘I see we have a last-minute entrant,’ she said, nodding at Aunt Violet and then turning to face the audience, who laughed loudly.
    Digby Pertwhistle leaned over to Lady Clarissa and whispered in her ear. ‘It looks like she’ll finally get her wish.’
    Clarissa nodded, although she was feeling a little sorry for Aunt Violet.
    ‘To meet the Queen,’ Digby said.
    ‘Oh,’ Clarissa nodded.
    ‘I wonder how Pharaoh got here,’ Clementine said to Poppy and Sophie, who were sitting either side of her.
    ‘I don’t know, but your Aunt Violet doesn’t look very happy,’ Sophie replied.
    ‘Aunt Violet never looks very happy,’ Clementine said.
    Aunt Violet stood on the stage, staring at the audience and wondering what they were giggling about. The cat hissed at her again. Aunt Violet sneered and hissed back at him. The audience hooted with laughter and so did Queen Georgiana.
    In her light grey suit and oversized sunglasses, Aunt Violet bore more than a passing resemblance to Pharaoh.
    ‘I think we have our winner,’ Her Majesty declared. She took the blue rosette from the tray Mrs Marmalade was carrying behind her. ‘Excuse me, dear, do you know that lady’s name?’ Queen Georgiana whispered to Miss Critchley, who shook her head.
    ‘But we’re not . . .’ Violet began to protest. ‘You couldn’t possibly think . . .’
    ‘And the winner of the Pet Most Like its Owner goes to –’ Queen Georgiana turned towards Aunt Violet and looked at the cat. ‘Well, what’s his name?’
    Violet gulped. ‘Pharaoh,’ she whispered.
    ‘And the winner is Pharaoh and his owner,’ Queen Georgiana announced. The audience went wild.

‘That was fun.’ Clementine beamed at her mother and Uncle Digby as they ate their morning tea outside. ‘I’m so proud of Lavender and Pharaoh and Aunt Violet too.’
    Her great-aunt did not feel the same way at all. She had been standing behind a tree, quietly nibbling a piece of Pierre’s delicious chocolate cake and doing her best to stay out of sight. But she’d been cornered by Father Bob, who’d come to collect Adrian, his dribbly bulldog. He was congratulating her loudly on the win with Pharaoh, who was now safely locked away in a spare cat cage that Miss Critchley had found. Violet was protesting that it was all just a ridiculous