Read Online Clementine Rose and the Treasure Box 6 by Jacqueline Harvey - Free Book Online

they’re music boxes. The smallest one was mine when I was little. I kept all my precious things inside. I’d forgotten about it. I don’t know where the others came from.’
    Lady Clarissa pulled out the box that belonged to her. She opened the lid and a beautiful ballerina sprang up on a platform.
    Clementine gasped. ‘Does she dance?’
    Her mother turned the box around and found a little winder. She gave it a crank and put the box on the dresser. Music began to play and the tiny dancer started to twirl.
    â€˜Mummy, she’s lovely,’ Clementine said. ‘Can I keep her?’
    Lady Clarissa nodded. She reached in and pulled out a slightly larger box. This time whenshe lifted the lid, the ballerina was broken and the lining torn.

    â€˜I think this one can go out,’ she said, and placed it in the box with the cutlery.
    The last box was almost twice the size of the others. Inside, the ballerina was tatty and no longer twirled. Clarissa was about to put it in with the goods for the fete when the telephone rang.
    â€˜I’ll get it, Clarissa,’ Digby called from the other end of the room.
    â€˜No, don’t you run. I’ll go.’ Clarissa put the music box on the floor and dashed as quickly as she could to the telephone in the hall on the third floor. She didn’t like the old man rushing. A health scare earlier in the year had landed him in hospital and given them all a nasty fright.
    Clementine stared at her twirling ballerina. When the music stopped she wound the spring again and again, listening to the same tune chiming over and over.
    Her mother returned and began to help Uncle Digby move several side tables.
    â€˜Clemmie, why don’t you take that and show Aunt Violet,’ she suggested.
    â€˜Okay, Mummy.’
    Uncle Digby grinned. ‘Thank you, Clarissa,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t think I want to hear that tune ever again.’
    Clementine didn’t see the little creature crawl its way into the largest box, which her mother had left sitting open on the floor. And over the din of the chimes, she didn’t hear the scraping noise that had startled her earlier. Clementine picked up her new treasure and spun around, almost tripping over the box on the floor. She kicked the lid with her foot and it snapped shut.
    Clementine put her precious music box on the dresser and picked up the other one from the floor. ‘You’re supposed to be in there.’ She deposited it into the cardboard box for the fete.
    â€˜See you later,’ she said to her mother and Uncle Digby as she sped downstairs to find Aunt Violet.
    â€˜You know your aunt won’t thank you for sending Clementine in her direction,’ Uncle Digby smiled.
    Lady Clarissa grinned. ‘No, I’m sure to hear about it later, although I think we might have sent Clemmie on a wild goose chase. I’ve just remembered that Aunt Violet’s gone to visit Mrs Bottomley. Let’s just get this done and we can go and have a cup of tea.’

Clementine woke up just as the clock in the hall struck seven. She rushed to the window. The afternoon before, some men had put up a stripy blue marquee on the front lawn for Mrs Mogg’s cafe. In the dim morning light, Clementine could see Father Bob and Mr Mogg moving trestle tables with Mrs Tribble directing them.
    Clementine ran to the wardrobe and pulled out her favourite red dress and matching shoes. She quickly got dressed and brushedher hair, pinning it back with a red bow.
    Lavender was making snuffly grunts in her basket at the end of the bed. Clementine decided to let the little pig sleep. She needed her to look her best for the photographs.
    Clementine, Araminta and the twins had spent the previous afternoon finding the perfect backdrop for Lavender’s photo booth. They had tossed up between the rose garden out the front and the fountain around the back of the house. It was Lady Clarissa who decided that it