Free Alice-Miranda to the Rescue by Jacqueline Harvey Page B

while she scurried to the staircase at the end of the building. Alice-Miranda was attempting to tighten Bonaparte’s girth strap but the pony was doing his best impersonation of a bloated beer belly and she could barely get it to the first notch.
    â€˜Breathe in, please,’ she begged, but Bony clearly didn’t feel like going anywhere this afternoon.
    Millie reached the upstairs landing and turned the handle. ‘That’s weird – the door’s locked,’ she said.
    â€˜Maybe Mr Charles decided it would be better not to leave it open,’ Alice-Miranda called back.
    Millie shrugged and thumped down the stairs.

    Inside the flat, Caprice held her breath. When she was convinced she could hear whoever it was walking away, she exhaled and carried on with her search for food. She opened the last cupboard door and came face to face with the twitching nose of a tiny brown fieldmouse.
    Caprice squealed, then clamped her hand over her mouth. The mouse took one look at her and scampered away.
    In the sitting room the pup had managed to free himself from the towels and padded out to the kitchenette. His wet nose touched Caprice’s leg and she leapt into the air.
    â€˜What are you doing in here?’ she berated the creature. ‘You’re supposed to be keeping warm by the heater.’
    The puppy looked up at her and began to whimper.
    â€˜I’ve already told you I don’t have anything more for you to eat. There’s nothing in here apart from disgusting mice. Hey, what’s that smell?’
    Caprice sniffed the air. She spun around to see white smoke rising from the pile of towels in front of the heater. A small flame flickered to life. Caprice froze and the puppy ran away into the bedroom.
    â€˜Come back!’ Caprice yelled, chasing after it as the flames licked the bottom of the curtains.

Bonaparte’s nostrils flared and he kicked up at his belly.
    â€˜What’s the matter with you, mister?’ Alice-Miranda said. She gave him a pat and tried again to tighten the strap. In the box next to him, Chops whinnied loudly.
    Millie opened her pony’s stall door and grabbed his reins. Chops’s eyes darted all over the place and he stomped on the ground. ‘Stop that,’ she said.
    â€˜I hope Bony hasn’t given himself another stomach-ache,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘There’s a lot ofsweet clover in the field at the moment and you know what a greedy-guts he is.’ Her pony was susceptible to bouts of colic, usually brought on by a visit to a vegetable patch and his particular predilection for cabbages, though he had been known to get sick on lush grass too.
    Buttercup was in the stall on the other side of Chops, pawing at the ground.
    â€˜They’re all a bit nuts this afternoon,’ Millie said. There were three more horses in the stables whinnying and thumping about.
    Alice-Miranda raised her nose into the air. ‘Can you smell smoke?’
    â€˜Maybe Charlie has a bonfire in the garden somewhere,’ Millie said.
    Alice-Miranda inhaled deeply. ‘No, it smells different to that.’
    Out of nowhere, a bloodcurdling scream echoed overhead. ‘Fire!’ a girl shouted. ‘Help!’
    â€˜There’s someone in the flat!’ Millie exclaimed. She immediately flew into action, pushing Chops back into his stall and slamming the door.
    Alice-Miranda left Bonaparte and fled upstairs with Millie right behind her. She tried the handle but it wouldn’t budge.
    â€˜Help me!’ the girl shrieked on the other side, pounding the door.
    Alice-Miranda’s eyes widened. ‘It’s Caprice,’ she gasped. She was about to race downstairs in search of a spare key when the door burst open and Caprice flew out, coughing and sputtering. A pall of thick smoke billowed onto the landing.
    Spotting a fire extinguisher outside the office, Millie shoved Caprice out of the way and dashed down to get