The Little Secret Read Online Free Page B

why not.”
    â€œYou like Jane, don’t you?”
    Lady Matilda smiled. “She’s perfect!”
    Jane was puzzled. Why were Staffa and her mother nodding at each other in that odd way? The strong smell of the Haw-haw tea was starting to make her a little dizzy. She was glad it was time to go home.
    Staffa went into the other room to fetch the cakes. Lady Matilda bent down towards Jane. “Next time you come, my dear child,” she said, “I’ll show you some pictures of ball dresses. And I might measure your head for a crown.”
    â€œA — what?” Now Jane knew she had to be crazy.
    â€œDon’t be alarmed, Jane. It’s just a little game I like to play! Just a game!”
    Staffa came back, holding a large shopping bag. Jane jumped up and stammered out her thanks. It was a relief to leave the hot, perfumed room.
    Jane and Staffa took the elevator downstairs. Outside the hotel entrance, the big car was waiting.
    â€œHere.” Staffa handed the bag to Jane.
    â€œOh, wow!” It was stuffed with the most glorious cakes — more than enough for even the greedy Boy Garden. “Staffa, thanks so much!”
    â€œI hope you won’t mind going in the car by yourself. The driver knows where to go.”
    â€œI don’t mind,” Jane said, though she did mind a bit — the muffled driver gave her the creeps.
    â€œDon’t try to talk to him,” Staffa said. “He can’t hear you unless you speak through the tube. Hope the boys like the cakes.”
    Suddenly, without warning, she gave Jane a quick hug and ran back into the hotel.
    Jane lay back against the soft leather seats of the fabulous car, feeling like a film star — wouldn’t the boys go crazy when they saw her getting out? This had been an incredible afternoon. Her head was spinning with all the wonderful things she had seen and heard — the gold spider, the painted box, the purple tea, the stories of castles and all-night parties. Staffa and her mother had said some very odd things, she thought. What was all that about Jane being “perfect”? And why did Lady Matilda want to measure her head for a crown?
    Jane decided not to tell her parents too much about the visit. She was afraid she would make Staffa’s mother sound absolutely crazy. They might stop her from going back, and she couldn’t bear that. She hadn’t seen nearly enough.

AN INVITATION
    Over the next few weeks — slightly to Jane’s surprise — she and Staffa gradually turned into real best friends. Staffa’s plan to build an army assault course took the Boy Garden by storm. Jane and Staffa and all the boys except little Ted worked on it every day after school, and most weekends, and the shabby paddock was soon a forest of ropes, ladders and oil-drum tunnels. Leonard the horse was moved into the next field, and watched them over the fence with polite interest.
    Jane had never had a close friend who was a girl, and as the weeks of the school year went by, she found that she liked Staffa more and more. The peculiar little creature spoke like a nutty old lady, and her clothes never did look normal, but she could race around the assault course like a monkey and she was great at thinking up dangerous games. All the boys thought she was a terrific laugh.
    Staffa was extremely generous. She gave them a real climbing net, to make a Wall of Death on the assault course. She gave Jane a three-pack of lovely flowered socks. She gave little Ted a toy fire engine, and her mysterious driver often bought bags of cakes and sweets.
    â€œYou mustn’t spend all this money on us, Staffa,” Jane’s mom said. “We don’t charge an entrance fee — we’ll be happy if you just bring yourself.”
    Staffa said, very seriously, “Please, Mrs. Hughes, grant me this indulgence. My mother and I have more money than we know what to do with. And it isn’t often used to