Read Online Alice-Miranda to the Rescue by Jacqueline Harvey - Free Book Online Page B

especially for Farrah as Roberta didn’t want her to feel left out. The whole space looked rather like an upmarket beauty salon.
    Roberta took out a small pair of clippers and began to cut Citrine’s toenails with the utmost precision. Although the woman currently had six Afghans in her kennel, Citrine was her favourite, particularly having taken out Best in Show at last year’s Chudleigh’s. It was the first time one of her dogs had received the honour. Her hounds had won their division many times, of course, but Best in Show was the grand champion, the competition where all of the divisional winners went head to head.
    There had been whispers that she had only won because of Becca Finchley’s absence from the show that year. It was true Roberta had always felt miffed that the woman’s husband was a judge. Even though Sandon Finchley hadn’t overseen his wife’s categories, it just hadn’t seemed fair, really. But how people could suggest such cruel things, Roberta couldn’t understand. She’d won Best in Show because Citrine was magnificent and Roberta was the most dedicatedbreeder in the country and now she had her heart set on backing up with a second crown. On top of everything else that had happened to the Finchleys last year, while Becca was in hospital her dogs had been caught up in one of the largest kennel thefts in the country, so the poor woman hadn’t had a single dog to show even if she’d wanted to.
    Roberta picked up a toothbrush and some paste. ‘You love having your teeth brushed, don’t you?’ she said as she pressed the button and the hound opened her mouth. The device hummed away for a pre-programmed three minutes after which Citrine lapped some water from a ceramic dish the woman placed in front of her. Citrine was the daughter of Roberta’s first champion, Emerald, who now sat pride of place in a silver urn on the mantle above the fireplace in the master bedroom. The past year had been a roller-coaster in the Dankworth household. From the highs of Citrine winning Best in Show to the sudden death of Roberta’s beloved Emerald, the year couldn’t have been any starker in contrast.
    Emerald’s death had shattered Roberta, who had insisted on a full funeral and wake. It had been a dark time in the Dankworth household, quite literally with Roberta and the dogs wearing only blackfor months. Barry had begun to worry that his wife was never going to smile again and called in a grief counsellor to help her to process her emotions. It turned out they were all depressed – Roberta and the dogs. Things had taken an upward turn, though, when Roberta received the phone call from the producers of Dog Days , saying they were planning to feature her and her hounds in a special series. From that moment on, life had been full steam ahead again. It was fortunate that they had already purchased their new home, though the plans for the doghouse went from practical to palatial overnight. Barry had almost fainted when he got the bill for the fit-out, but there had been no point in arguing. If that was what his wife wanted, he knew he’d do himself no favours to deny her.
    â€˜Are you here, Roberta?’ Barry called as he pushed open the front door to the Poochie Palace. The place was laid out with a sitting room at the front, where the dogs could socialise and watch their television. There were also hundreds of photographs of Roberta and her children, mostly with them dressed in matching outfits. Adjacent to the room was a kitchen, complete with food-preparation area, two enormous refrigerators stocked with fillet steak, salmon and free-rangechicken, a sink and a dishwasher. Beyond that were six individual rooms containing oversized beds, pillows and fluffy duvets. Roberta had a bedroom for herself too, in case she needed to stay overnight. At the rear of the building was the grooming salon and a walk-in wardrobe for all the dogs’