Read Online Alice-Miranda in the Alps by Jacqueline Harvey - Free Book Online Page A

accented baby voice floated on the wind as she turned to face the man. ‘Vincenzo, when are you taking me shopping? You promised me diamonds.’
    â€˜Not now, Sancia,’ he hissed. ‘I am working.’
    She pouted her bee-stung lips at him. ‘But you are always working. I want to go shopping.’
    Millie and Alice-Miranda looked at one another and giggled.
    â€˜Vincenzo,’ Millie said, perfectly mimicking the woman’s Italian accent, ‘when are you going to buy me the world?’
    The girl hadn’t thought her voice would carry forward at all and was shocked when the woman swivelled her heavily made-up face to glare at her.
    â€˜Oops,’ she gulped and looked away, pretending to wave at some skiers down below.
    Alice-Miranda saw her father and Hamish reach the top of the lift and ski off to the left. ‘Daddy, wait for us,’ she called.
    The men were two chairs ahead of the girls, while Lucas and Jacinta were in the chair behind. Sep and Sloane had decided to start their ski lessons straight away. As the girls neared the top of the mountain, they pushed the bar up over their heads and wriggled forward on the seat, holding their poles together in front of them.
    â€˜Push,’ Millie said as their skis made contact with the snowy platform.
    The pair whizzed down the slope, and realised too late that Vincenzo and his whiny girlfriend had stopped to adjust their gear, right in the middle of the runway.
    â€˜Look out!’ Alice-Miranda shouted. She managed to avoid them but Millie wasn’t so lucky. With nowhere to go, the girl ran straight over the back of the man’s skis.
    â€˜What are you doing? These are brand-new,’ Vincenzo barked. ‘Children who cannot ski should not be allowed up here.’
    â€˜Sorry,’ Millie squeaked. If the stupid man hadn’t stopped where he did, it wouldn’t have happened. She sped over to her father, turning dramatically to send a powdery spray all over his legs.
    â€˜Look at you, Mill. When did you become such a good skier?’ Hamish said with a grin.
    Millie grimaced. ‘That’s not what the man over there said.’ As the others turned to see if they could spot Lucas and Jacinta, Millie leaned down and made a snowball. She patted it into shape, then promptly threw it at her father, whacking him on the nose.
    â€˜Right, you little monster, that’s it!’ Hamish declared, clicking his boots out of his skis and staking his poles into the snow. ‘Snowball fight!’
    Millie squealed as her father pelted a handful of snow in her direction. She ducked out of the way, leaving it to smack Lucas on the mouth.
    â€˜You call that a snowball, Hamish?’ Lucas said, wiping it off his face. I’ll show you a snowball.’ The boy grabbed a handful of snow and moulded it into a missile the size of a bowling ball.
    â€˜Look out, Alice-Miranda!’ Jacinta yelled as Hugh dumped a clump of snow on his daughter’s head.
    â€˜Daddy, I’m going to get you for that!’ The tiny child turned around and zoomed towards him on her skis, knocking him off his feet and into a deep snow-drift. Jacinta and Millie went in for the kill, hurtling snowballs as quickly as they could make them.
    â€˜Stop, stop!’ Hugh held his hands in the air. ‘I surrender!’
    Lucas had managed to cover Hamish in snow too. The man collapsed on his knees, his sides heaving with laughter. ‘Gosh, I haven’t had this much fun in years.’
    â€˜Me either,’ Hugh gasped as the girls and Lucas all fell about in the snow.
    Jacinta fanned out her arms and legs. ‘Look, I’m an angel,’ she said.
    â€˜You? An angel?’ Millie laughed.
    â€˜She’s my angel,’ Lucas whispered, and Jacinta felt her heart skip a beat.
    Millie’s jaw dropped in disbelief. ‘Did you really just say that?’
    â€˜What?’ Lucas said sheepishly.