Princess Mirror-Belle and Prince Precious Paws Page 3
“Don’t worry, bossyboots, we’re not going to have spag bol again.” Luke crumpled the shopping list and stuffed it into his pocket. “I’m going to make chicken vindaloo.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s this really hot curry.”
Ellen wasn’t sure that really hot curry would be the right sort of supper for Mum, who had just had her appendix out. But it was a relief that it wouldn’t be yet more spaghetti bolognese, which was what Dad had cooked just about every night of the week Mum had been in hospital. It used to be Ellen’s favourite food, but now she didn’t mind if she never ate it again.
Mum was coming home today; Dad had gone to fetch her from the hospital. He had warned Ellen and Luke that she would still be a bit weak after the operation and that they would have to be extra helpful. So Luke had agreed to do the shopping and cook the supper, and Ellen was going to make the bedroom look nice for Mum’s return.
Luke went out, slamming the front door, and Ellen took the cleaning things upstairs. She had decided to make Mum a “Welcome Home” card and pick some flowers from the garden. But first she really ought to do the boring housework-y things.
She straightened the duvet on the bed and then picked up the yellow duster.
Dust was such funny stuff, she thought to herself. No one actually sprinkled it on the furniture; it just appeared from nowhere. “And what is it exactly?” she wondered out loud as she began to dust Mum’s dressing table.
“What is what?” came a voice.
“Dust,” Ellen replied automatically, and then, “Mirror-Belle! It’s you!”
“Yes, though why you should be asking me questions about dust I have no idea. I’ve never even seen dust,” said Mirror-Belle in a superior voice.
There were three mirrors on Mum’s dressing table: a big one in the middle and, joined on to it, two smaller ones which slanted inwards. Mirror-Belle was leaning out of the middle mirror. “You seem to forget that I’m a princess, not a maid,” she said.
“Oh, no, you’re not,” came another voice, and Ellen was amazed to see a second Mirror-Belle – at least, that was what she looked like – sticking a hand out of the left-hand mirror and wagging a finger at the first Mirror-Belle. “You know very well that you’re a maid. You’re my maid.” She turned to Ellen and said, “She’s always disguising herself as me. Once, when we were on a journey to another kingdom, she made me swap clothes and horses with her, and when we got there she managed to kid everyone that she was the princess, so I was sent to feed the geese.”
“What a pack of lies,” said the first Mirror-Belle, who had slithered out of the mirror and was swinging her legs to the ground. “She’s got it the wrong way round. She’s the maid and I’m the one who had to feed the geese. But of course my sweet singing soon made everyone realize that I was the real princess.”
“You’ve got a voice like a crow,” said the second Mirror-Belle, beginning to slither out herself.
The first one tried to push her back, and Ellen cried, “Be careful or you’ll break the glass!”
“Stop this commotion at once!” came another voice. A third identical girl was reaching out from the right-hand mirror and had picked up Mum’s silver-backed hairbrush. “Now, you two lazybones, whose turn is it to brush my hair today?”
“Are you the real Mirror-Belle?” asked Ellen.
“Naturally – don’t you recognize me?” said the newest Mirror-Belle, but the other two said, “Nonsense,” and, “She’s Ethel, the kitchen maid.”
“Well, you all look exactly the same to me,” said Ellen. “And none of you looks specially like a princess. You don’t really look like maids either. At least, I suppose you have all got dusters, but you haven’t got caps and aprons. Really, you all look just like me.”
All three Mirror-Belles had a complicated explanation for this, but since they all talked at once Ellen couldn’t make out what the different explanations were, and she didn’t really care.
“I give up,” she said. “In any case, does it really matter who’s who?”
“Of course it does!” said all three mirror girls together.
This at least was something they were agreed on.
“I know!” said the first one. “You must give us a test, Ellen, to find out which is the true princess.”
“What sort of a test?” Ellen asked.
“Well, if you had a frog, you could see which of us could kiss it and turn it into a prince,” said the second girl.
“Or we could lie on the bed and see who could detect if there was a pea under the mattress,” suggested the third one. “Only a real princess could do that.”
“I haven’t got a frog,” said Ellen, “and I’ve only just made the bed. I don’t want you all messing it up again.” In any case, she had bad memories of pea-detection and frog-kissing. Mirror-Belle had tried these things out in a shop once and got them both into trouble.
Still, Ellen quite liked the idea of a test.
“I’ll think of something,” she told them. “But first, I must be able to tell you apart. Just stand still a minute.”
She took one of Mum’s lipsticks from a little drawer in the dressing table. She wrote a big L on the forehead of the Mirror-Belle who had come out of the left mirror. On the foreheads of the other two she wrote R and M, for right and middle.
“What is the test going to be?” they all kept clamouring.
“It’s a quiz,” said Ellen, “and I’m the quizmaster.”
She was enjoying herself. For once she was the one in charge, instead of being ordered about by Mirror-Belle. But it was going to be hard thinking up the questions.
“I’ll just put Mum’s lipstick back in the drawer,” she said, and that made her wonder what a princess would call her own mother. She wouldn’t say “Mum”, like an ordinary person, surely? But “Your Majesty” didn’t sound quite right either. This was something that a real princess would know the answer to, and would make a good quiz question.
“Question number one: what do you call your mother?”
They all answered at once, so Ellen made them take turns.
“Your Mumjesty,” said Mirror-Belle L.
“Queen Mother,” said Mirror-Belle R.
“O Most Royal Madam whom I Respect and Obey without Question,” said Mirror-Belle M.
Ellen couldn’t decide which of these sounded right, so she moved on to another question. A dog barking in the distance made her think about Mirror-Belle’s dog, Prince Precious Paws, and that gave her another idea.
“What would a real princess give to her dog for his birthday?” she asked.
This time she made them answer in a different order.
“A golden bone,” said Mirror-Belle R.
“How common! An emerald-studded collar would be a far more suitable gift,” said Mirror-Belle M.
“What’s so special about that?” asked Mirror-Belle L. “I’m planning to give Prince Precious Paws something magical – an invisible lead, which will make him invisible when I put it on him. In fact, I’ve brought one for your dog, Splodge, too. Here it is.” She reached out to Ellen as if she were handing her something.
The other two Mirror-Belles became very indignant at this.
“She’s an impostor!” cried Mirror-Belle R. “Besides, I’ve brought you a far better invisible present. It’s . . . um . . . a spoon that will change whatever you’re eating into your favourite food.”
Ellen didn’t really believe in the invisible spoon, but she pretended to take it and said, “I wish I’d had this when Dad was doing the cooking.”
“Invisible spoons are two a penny,” said Mirror-Belle M scornfully. “I’ve brought you . . . er . . . some invisible pyjamas. If you wear them at night, all your dreams will come true.”
All three Mirror-Belles were crowding round her, offering her more and more invisible things, and Ellen was losing the feeling of being the one in charge. The quiz seemed to have turned into a boasting session.
“And here’s an invisible
clock . . .” began Mirror-Belle M.
“Stop!” cried Ellen.
The invisible clock had reminded her that Mum would be back from hospital soon. She would never get the bedroom ready at this rate. Not on her own, anyway, and the three Mirror-Belles were so eager to prove that they were not maids they would never agree to help. Unless . . .
Suddenly, Ellen had an idea. “I’ve thought of a test,” she said. “I’ve just remembered that there is a . . . a sort of fairy imprisoned in the furniture in this room and only a true princess will be able to set her free.”
The Mirror-Belles started opening drawers, but Ellen stopped them.
“No, the fairy’s not in a drawer or cupboard. She’s in the actual wood of the furniture. You have to rub the wood to get her out.”
“Oh, a wood nymph, you mean,” said Mirror-Belle R. “Why didn’t you say so before?” and she immediately began to rub the dressing table with her duster.
“She might be in the mantelpiece . . . or in the wood of the bedside table,” suggested Ellen, and the other two Mirror-Belles set to work with their dusters.
They were all rubbing furiously. Soon there was not a speck of dust to be seen, and the furniture was shiny bright.
“You’ve all failed that test,” Ellen said. “The wood nymph doesn’t seem to realize that one of you is a princess.”
Once again, all three Mirror-Belles started on explanations for this, but Ellen interrupted them. “I’ve thought of a different test,” she said. “Well, it’s more of a quest than a test. Down in the garden there is a talking flower. But it will only talk if it’s picked and put into a vase of water by a true princess.”
The three girls ran to the bedroom door, eager to be downstairs and out in the garden. Ellen was suddenly afraid that they would pick every single flower, so she called out after them, “The flower will only talk if the princess picks no more than five flowers altogether.”
While the Mirror-Belles picked the flowers, Ellen filled a vase with water and put it on Mum’s gleaming bedside table. She was just making a start on her “Welcome Home” card when the Mirror-Belles charged back into the room and thrust their flowers into the vase. The flowers looked very pretty but they were completely silent.
“I expect the magic flower is too shy to talk to me when there are two maids in the room,” said one of the Mirror-Belles, and the other two said, “To me, you mean.”
Just then Ellen heard the front door bang. Help! Was Dad back with Mum already? The room did look really nice now, but how was she going to get rid of the three Mirror-Belles? She was sure Mum wouldn’t want them all in her bedroom when she was trying to rest.
“I’m back!” came Luke’s voice.
Of course – she should have recognized the way he slammed the door. Still, Mum would be back any minute now.
“Give us another test, Ellen,” the Mirror-Belles were demanding, and suddenly Ellen knew what to do.
“All right,” she said, “but this one is really difficult. You’ve given me all these invisible presents, which is very nice of you, but I’m sure that only a real princess would know how to make herself invisible.”
As Ellen closed her eyes and counted to a hundred, she remembered the very first time she had ever met Mirror-Belle. That time, Mirror-Belle had tricked her by blindfolding her with toilet paper and then disappearing into the bathroom mirror. This time, it was Ellen who was tricking Mirror-Belle. She felt a bit guilty and wondered where she had learned to make up so many stories. But of course she knew the answer really – it was from Mirror-Belle.
As she had hoped, when she got to a hundred and opened her eyes, the room was empty. She was very careful indeed not to steal a glance at the mirrors on the dressing table, in case the mirror princesses (or maids) reappeared. Instead, she lay on her tummy on the floor and carried on with the “Welcome Home” card.
She had just finished it when she heard the front door opening again.
Ellen jumped to her feet and ran downstairs into the arms of the person she most wanted to see in the whole world.
“Come and look at your bedroom, Mum!” she said.
“Don’t tire her out,” said Dad, but Mum laughed and let herself be tugged upstairs by Ellen.
She admired the card and the flowers and the neatly made bed. “And what shining surfaces!” she said. “I never knew you were so good at housework, Ellen! It’s a real treat to come home to this.”
Ellen wished that Mirror-Belle could hear. She was the one who deserved most of the praise.
“I wanted you to have a nice treat to come home to,” she muttered to Mum.
Mum hugged her again and said, “Do you know what the biggest treat is? Seeing you!”
A strong spicy smell was wafting into the room.
“That smells even better than spaghetti bolognese,” said Mum, and together they went downstairs.
Books by Julia Donaldson
The Princess Mirror-Belle series (illustrated by Lydia Monks)
Princess Mirror-Belle
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Party Hoppers
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes
Princess Mirror-Belle and Prince Precious Paws
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Flying Horse
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Sea Monster’s Cave
Poetry
Crazy Mayonnaisy Mum
Wriggle and Roar
Shuffle and Squelch
Poems to Perform (anthology)
Plays
Play Time
Plays to Read (a series for schools)
Picture books with Lydia Monks
Sharing a Shell
The Princess and the Wizard
What the Ladybird Heard
The Rhyming Rabbit
The Singing Mermaid
Sugarlump and the Unicorn
Princess Mirror-Belle and the Dragon Pox
What the Ladybird Heard Next
These stories first published 2005 in Princess Mirror-Belle and the Magic Shoes by Macmillan Children’s Books
This edition published 2015 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2015 by Macmillan Children’s Books
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-4472-9559-4
Text copyright © Julia Donaldson 2005
Illustrations copyright © Lydia Monks 2005, 2015
The right of Julia Donaldson and Lydia Monks to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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