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    A Packetful of Trouble
    A Packetful of Trouble
    A Packetful of Trouble
    Ebook115 pages2 hours

    A Packetful of Trouble

    By Margaret Bacon

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    About this ebook

    Who hasn't dreamed of a holiday free of grown-ups and rules? For the Packet children that dream suddenly comes true when their mother's friend Cynthia, who lives in the south of France, offers the family the use of two ancient caravans in a field near her house. Their mother has just got a job, so the problem of what they should do in the long summer holidays has been unexpectedly solved.

    There is ten-year-old Rose, who is dreamy, loves painting and is devoted to her guinea pig. There is her elder brother Simon, who likes machinery, conducting experiments and finds stick insects more interesting than guinea pigs. There is their bossy cousin Linda who is always quarrelling with Simon, and her sensible fourteen-year-old brother, James, who does his best to keep the peace.

    But there are problems: one is Rose's plump black and white guinea pig, Porky, which she doesn't want to leave behind. Then there is the sinister Mademoiselle Sourire employed to escort them to their destination by boat and sleeper. It is Rose, with a secret of her own to conceal, who first wonders if the mysterious French woman is all that she claims to be.

    The holiday is idyllic. After settling them in and showing them the shops, Cynthia and her husband Pierre are happy to let them look after themselves. So they revel in the warmth, in the smells of the herbs and lavender fields, in swimming in the lake, having picnics and above all in not being treated like children.

    It is a confusion over cases-which could happen to anyone really and their contact with Mademoiselle Sourire which turns this peaceful holiday into a great adventure, involving them in a struggle with an international gang of thieves and putting Rose in terrible danger.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMargaret Bacon
    Release dateDec 14, 2011
    ISBN9781465749338
    A Packetful of Trouble
    Author

    Margaret Bacon

    Margaret Bacon was brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, and educated at The Mount School, York and at Oxford. She taught history before her marriage to a Civil Engineer whose profession entailed much travel and frequent moves of house. Her first book, 'Journey to Guyana', was an account of two years spent in South America. Her subsequent books, including one children's novel, have all been fiction. She has two daughters and is now settled in Wiltshire.

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      Book preview

      A Packetful of Trouble - Margaret Bacon

      A PACKETFUL OF TROUBLE

      by

      MARGARET BACON

      Illustrated by

      Richard Tuckwell

      Copyright 2011 Margaret Bacon

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      I

      An Invitation

      The Packet family lived near Dover. If they had not, this story would have been different. Probably it would not have happened at all.

      This particular evening Rose Packet, who was ten, was sitting at one end of the table, painting. On the floor by her chair was a cardboard box. In it was her brown and white guinea pig, called Porky. Rose was having a lot of trouble with her picture; it was a seaside scene, but although the people and boats were all right, the sand did not look like sand and the sea was hopeless – it did not even look wet! It looked like a flat blue carpet.

      Rose’s brother Simon was sitting at the other end of the table doing his homework. He was only a year older than Rose but liked to think of himself as almost grown-up. He conducted experiments and built contraptions in the big untidy garden. He was pale and had black hair which stood out round his head like starched wool. He wore spectacles with steel frames and did not mind that the boys at school nicknamed him The Professor. He had a tortoise called Fortescue and a pair of green stick insects which spent their time crawling about in a tall glass jar on the dresser.

      Mr and Mrs Packet were sitting by the fire talking quietly.

      ‘I had a letter from Cynthia this morning,’ Mrs Packet was saying. ‘She married a Frenchman, you know, and lives in the South of France. There’s something in her letter which might solve our problem.’

      Rose and Simon knew what the problem was. Their mother had just started a job, which was all right in term time, but the problem was what would happen to the children during the long school holidays.

      ‘She has invited us all to go and stay there,’ Mother explained.

      Father looked alarmed. The idea of going away anywhere always horrified him. At least the idea of going anywhere except London, where he had a small printing business which he liked to go and visit whenever things got a bit difficult at home.

      ‘I’ll read you what she says,’ Mother went on, taking a letter out of an envelope. ‘Ah, here’s the part I want. She writes: It is lovely here. We are surrounded by pine forests and hills. There is even a lake nearby. I’m sure you would love it. Why don’t you all come and stay? In the field next to the garden we have two ancient caravans, a little field kitchen, and a tap. If you would like to borrow all these things we should be delighted to see you any time this summer...’

      ‘It’s out of the question, of course,’ Father interrupted.

      ‘Well, yes,’ Mother agreed. ‘For me.’

      ‘You’re not suggesting that I should take the children? I can’t – I’ll be needed in London several times in August.’

      Mother laughed. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I was thinking that Rose and Simon might go. I mean if we could make some arrangement for somebody to take them there.’

      Rose and Simon both stared at their parents.

      ‘Oh, please, Dad,’ Simon said, and his voice was very hoarse. ‘You must let us go.’

      Rose was gazing into space; she was imagining two little gypsy caravans in a meadow, she was dreaming of hills and pine forests.

      ‘It would be ever so good for us,’ Simon went on passionately. ‘Think of the education of it. Now Rose learns French and...’

      ‘Do you learn French?’ Father asked her.

      Rose came out of her dream.

      ‘I don’t know,’ she said.

      Simon glared at her. Sometimes he had a great desire to hit his sister: silly, dreamy thing.

      He bent over her. ‘Don’t you see?’ he hissed in her ear. ‘We’ve got to make them want us to go.’

      ‘But I don’t think I do want to go,’ Rose said in surprise. ‘I mean, what about Porky?’

      Simon looked with dislike at the plump brown and white form in the cardboard box. Porky looked up at him for a moment but did not stop chewing the carrot which he was holding down with one paw. Somehow he managed to convey the impression that Simon was less important than a carrot.

      ‘Look, Rose,’ Simon said. ‘I’d have to leave my stick insects, but I’m not fussing.’

      ‘Oh, but they’re different.’

      ‘They’re not. They’re animals, just as much as guinea pigs are. They’re jolly intelligent too and...’

      ‘Yes, but they’re not cuddly!’

      ‘Oh, girls!’ Simon said furiously and went out of the room, banging the door behind him.

      Rose looked after him with mild surprise and then went back to her painting.

      ‘You really must pack up now,’ Mother told her. ‘And put Porky back in the cage for the night.’

      Rose cleared away her painting things and picked up Porky.

      ‘I did just wonder,’ Mrs Packet said to her husband, after Rose had gone out, ‘if the cousins might be interested in going with Simon and Rose.’

      ‘You mean Linda and James?’

      Mother nodded.

      The other Packets, their cousins, lived at the far side of the town. Felicity was still a toddler but Linda was the same age as Rose. James, the eldest, was fourteen.

      ‘James is very capable,’ Mother said. ‘And I know he speaks good French. His mother said that he managed very well on that exchange last year; he stayed with a family in Paris, you know. The boys could have one caravan and the girls the other.’

      ‘And Cynthia would keep an eye on them, you mean?’ Father asked. He was getting quite keen on this holiday, now that he was sure that he would not be expected to go.

      ‘Oh, I’m sure she would. It’s just the travelling that’s difficult.’

      ‘You could discuss it with Claire,’ Father said. Claire was the other Packets’ mother. ‘She’s very good at organizing things.’

      ‘Well, yes; they’re coming over tomorrow afternoon for Porky’s birthday party. I’ll ask her about it and...’

      ‘What did you say is happening tomorrow afternoon?’

      ‘Porky’s birthday party. Rose’s guinea pig is a year old. She’s invited her cousins, two rabbits and two other guinea pigs to tea. Oh, and a puppy.’

      ‘Actually, I think I’ll have to go to London tomorrow,’ Father said hastily.

      The children were allowed to read for a while in bed. Simon was reading a history book, and Rose was reading a book about guinea pigs and hamsters.

      ‘What are plantains, Simon?’ she called across the corridor. ‘It says in my book they are good for guinea pigs.’

      ‘They’re weeds. They contain vitamin C, I should think.’

      ‘What’s that?’

      ‘Like in spinach.’

      ‘I think I’ll give Porky some for his birthday tea.’

      ‘But you’ve got masses of stuff already.’

      ‘Yes, but he always likes a little something extra. He’s a very hungry sort of guinea pig.’

      ‘All guinea

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