Extraits

The King looked up too.

“Good morning, Calcifer,” he said courteously. “Is there something you need?”

“Just exploring,” Calcifer answered in his small crackling voice. “I understand now why you might not want to sell these books.”

“Indeed,” said the King. “Tell me, do fire demons read much?”

“Not generally,” Calcifer replied. “Sophie read to me quite often. I like the kind of story with puzzles in, where you have to guess who did the murder. Have you any of those in here?”

“Probably not,” said the King.

In the course of this huge meal, Charmain parked the vase of hydrangeas on the trolley to be out of the way. When she next looked, they had vanished.

“I wonder where they went,” Peter said.

“You can sit on the trolley and find out,” Charmain suggested.

But Peter did not feel like going that far, to Charmain’s disappointment.

Ma mère dit que le linge sale se reproduit si on ne le lave pas.

Ma mère dit toujours que les difficultés aident à apprendre.

“It looks as if you’d been here for weeks.”

“It was like this when I came,” Charmain said coldly.

“What? Bubbles and all?” Peter said.

Charmain thought, I don’t think I like this boy.

“No,” she said. “That was me. I forgot I’d thrown my soap into the grate.”

“Ah,” Peter said. “I thought it looked like a spell that’s gone wrong.”