Read Online Nanny Piggins and the Race to Power 8 by R. A. Spratt - Free Book Online Page A

pudding to the underside of a remote control aeroplane to see if you can catch it. I thought we could go and do it in the forest, so you get lots of practice climbing trees, hiding behind branches, and leaping out at things that are flying past.’
    ‘We’re not interested,’ said Peregrine.
    ‘Really?’ said Nanny Piggins. She turned to the children and Boris. ‘I’m not losing my touch, am I? This sticky date pudding smells seriously good to me.’
    Boris sniffed it. ‘It’s definitely seriously good. It’s taking all my willpower not to lick it.’
    ‘I saw you lick it on the walk over here,’ said Michael.
    ‘I know,’ said Boris, ‘which makes it even harder to resist licking it again.’
    ‘We don’t need your sticky date pudding or your cake or your desserts,’ said Thor. ‘We’ve got our own.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’ asked Nanny Piggins. ‘Have you learnt to be bakers? If so I must congratulate you. I will happily help you run away from the army so you can pursue a much more important career in baked goods.’
    ‘No, we just rang a bakery and got them to deliver all the types of cakes you’ve been tormenting us with,’ said Vincello, ‘then we sat up all night eating. We couldn’t eat another thing if we wanted to.’
    ‘But where did you get the cake from?’ asked Nanny Piggins.
    ‘A local place,’ said Thunder. ‘What was it called?’
    ‘I’ve got their business card,’ said Vincello. ‘It was Hans’ Bakery.’
    Nanny Piggins gasped. ‘The treachery! How could Hans do that to me?’
    ‘To be fair,’ said Samantha, ‘Hans didn’t know that you were secretly training an elite military unit in the woods.’
    ‘No, but he could have guessed,’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘Remind me to have a stern word with him when I see him next.’
    ‘Can you go now?’ asked Crevasse. ‘We’d like to have a lie-in.’
    ‘But the war games are in five days and you’re not ready!’ protested Nanny Piggins.
    ‘Are you kidding?!’ complained Vincello. ‘In the last week you’ve had us climb ropes, hike mountains, master taekwondo, crawl through mud, swim through a swamp and learn all the words and harmonies to HMS Pinafore . We’re the most thoroughly trained soldiers in the country.’
    ‘Yes, you know all the military techniques and the Gilbert and Sullivan harmonies,’ agreed Nanny Piggins, ‘but you don’t have the killer instincts.’
    ‘The Drill Sergeant said you’re not actually allowed to kill anybody,’ warned Derrick.
    ‘No, I mean the absolute determination to succeed at any cost,’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘Training is good, but an untrained enemy who is truly determined will beat skilled soldiers every time.’
    ‘You’re talking rubbish,’ said Peregrine.
    ‘I’ll prove it to you,’ said Nanny Piggins, ‘with one more training exercise.’
    All the men groaned.
    ‘It will be a simple one,’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘You will just have to defend the sweet shop in town.’
    ‘From who?’ asked Thunder.
    ‘All the neighbourhood children,’ said Nanny Piggins, ‘and one or two sweet-loving adults.’
    The men laughed.
    ‘Sounds like a piece of cake,’ said Bridge.
    ‘That expression has always baffled me,’ said Nanny Piggins, shaking her head. ‘There is nothing easy about a piece of cake. It certainly isn’t easy to make one properly. People are forever making terrible mistakes such as putting carrot in it or using low fat spread instead of butter.’
    ‘What happens if we do this?’ asked Vincello.
    ‘If you succeed,’ said Nanny Piggins, ‘and defend the sweet shop so not one sweet, lolly or chocolate is eaten between six and twelve on Saturday morning, I will go away and leave you all alone.’
    ‘Hurray!’ cheered the men.
    ‘But,’ said Nanny Piggins, ‘if I win, you have to do fifty push-ups, compose an opera about me and how I’m always right, bake me an enormous chocolate cake and always do everything the Drill Sergeant