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

mistake. Father Bob didn’t agree. He thought it was well deserved.
    ‘Who would have thought Aunt Violet and Pharaoh would be such a hit?’ said Digby. He winked at Clementine.
    ‘Do you think we could invite Queen Georgiana to tea?’ Clementine asked. ‘I like her a lot.’
    ‘Yes, the woman has impeccable judgement,’ Digby grinned.
    ‘I’m not sure that Aunt Violet would want that,’ Lady Clarissa replied. She glanced towards the cake table, where something caught her eye. ‘No, Pharaoh!’ she shouted and ran towards him.
    Aunt Violet and Father Bob looked up.
    Hiding behind a huge layered sponge in the middle of the table was Pharaoh. His tail flicked from side to side like a windscreen wiper as he licked the cream from between the cakes.
    Mrs Bottomley had been telling Astrid’s parents what a clever little tick their daughter was, when she heard the commotion too.
    She looked up, wondering if she was seeing things.
    ‘Why, you!’ Mrs Bottomley erupted. ‘I spent hours making that cake, you ugly brute.’ She raced towards the table and lunged at the cat. Pharaoh darted away and Mrs Bottomley landed sprawled out, face down in the middle of the sponge.
    Clementine’s eyes were like saucers as she watched her teacher lying on the table with her little brown legs kicking in the air.
    Aunt Violet threw her paper plate on the ground. Pharaoh raced in her direction. She quickly snatched him up but the evidence was all over his face.
    Mrs Bottomley rocked backward until her feet hit the ground and she slid off the table and onto her bottom. Large chunks of cake fell from her chest as she scrambled to her feet and sped towards Aunt Violet, who was clutching Pharaoh under her arm.

    ‘You, you horrid little beast!’ Mrs Bottomley pointed her finger at the cat. Although the teacher was trembling like a jelly, Clementine marvelled that her helmet of brown curls barely moved.
    ‘Someone must have let him out,’ stammered Aunt Violet. She was looking in the direction of Pharaoh’s cage and wondering which of those ghastly children had done it. Angus Archibald was standing beside the cage with Joshua, giggling behind his hands. ‘It was you,’ Aunt Violet hissed as she stalked towards the two boys.
    Angus pulled a face. ‘Was not.’
    ‘We didn’t do anything,’ Joshua said and started to laugh. He was looking at the bits of pink icing stuck to Mrs Bottomley’s face.
    ‘My grandson would never do any such thing,’ said Mrs Bottomley. She marched over to Aunt Violet. ‘I’m sure it was . . . Clementine and her naughty little friends!’
    Clementine frowned. She’d been standing beside Uncle Digby and her mother the whole time and Poppy and Sophie weren’t even there.
    Unfortunately for Mrs Bottomley, Angus had reached down to the ground just moments before and picked up the pin from the latch on the cage. He was still holding it in his hand. She saw it with her own eyes.
    ‘Oh!’ Mrs Bottomley gasped. Her bottom lip began to tremble. ‘Angus Archibald!’ she roared, and then started to cry.
    ‘But I didn’t do anything.’ Angus shook his head and then looked at the evidence in his hand. ‘It wasn’t me. I just found this on the ground.’
    Aunt Violet spun around and glared at the teacher. ‘Ha! If I were you, madam, I would be a little more careful about accusing my great-niece in future, especially when your grandson is quite clearly the troublemaker. And what on earth are you wearing? Perhaps no one has ever been kind enough to say so, but brown is definitely not your colour!’
    ‘How dare you?’ Ethel Bottomley poked her tongue out at Aunt Violet and scurried away. Lady Clarissa raced after her. She couldn’t believe what Aunt Violet had said, even if they might all have been thinking it. Angus and Joshua were wide eyed – at least for a second, until Aunt Violet got stuck into the pair of them. Once she had finished yelling, they both made a hasty exit, wiping their eyes as they