Read Online Nanny Piggins and the Wicked Plan by R. A. Spratt - Free Book Online

Nanny Piggins. (She did not really mean this. But watching the girls rubbing sticks together was making her very bored.)
    ‘Should I run down to the service station and get them some petrol to help start their fires?’ suggested Boris, because he was a very kind and helpful bear.
    ‘I think they’re meant to be able to do it without petrol,’ said Samantha.
    ‘At this rate, the only way they are going to start a fire is if one of them gets struck by lightning,’ saidNanny Piggins, looking at her watch.
    ‘I don’t think that’s very likely,’ said Boris sadly, looking up at the sky. ‘There aren’t any clouds about.’
    ‘All right, that’s enough of fire lighting,’ said Barn Owl. ‘You’ve all done jolly well. Melinda’s sticks are really quite warm. I’m sure we’ll have a roaring fire when we try again next week. Now let’s go inside and play games.’
    ‘Ooh, games! I like games!’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘I do hope we play something good, like Laser Tag or Lava Floor.’
    Sadly Nanny Piggins was, yet again, disappointed. Barn Owl’s idea of ‘a jolly game’ involved breaking up into teams and seeing who was fastest at passing a beanbag from one end of the room to the other.
    ‘I don’t see the point of this game at all,’ said Nanny Piggins as she flung her beanbag to Boris with the speed and accuracy of a major league baseball pitcher. ‘No-one ever needs a beanbag with any degree of urgency? It’s totally pointless. It’s not helping us find the thief at –’
    Nanny Piggins froze mid-rant because she had just spotted something shocking on the wall.
    ‘Aaaaggghhh!’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘What’s wrong?’ asked Samantha.
    ‘It’s not a wasp, is it?’ said Boris as he curled himself into a ball on the floor.
    ‘That woman!!!’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘What woman?’ asked Samantha.
    Nanny Piggins was temporarily at a loss for words, so she just pointed. Samantha and Boris looked in the direction of Nanny Piggins’ outstretched trotter. And sure enough, there on the wall was an enlarged black and white photograph of a stern-looking old woman.
    ‘I knew an evil mastermind had to be behind the biscuit theft, but I never could have imagined it was her!’ declared Nanny Piggins.
    ‘Who is it?’ asked Samantha.
    ‘That is our beloved patron, the founder of the Buzzy Bees – Lady Marigold Pickford,’ said Barn Owl, who had just joined them and was now smiling fondly at the photograph.
    As Barn Owl drifted away to oversee the beanbag race in another part of the room, Nanny Piggins huddled together with Samantha and Boris. ‘She founded the Buzzy Bees?! I didn’t know her wickedness extended that far!’
    ‘But how do you know Lady Marigold Pickford?’ asked Samantha, burning with curiosity.
    ‘Great-Great-Granny Piggins looked after Lady Marigold Pickford’s children. She was their nanny,’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘No way!’ said Boris. ‘Get out! That’s, like, totally surprising.’ (Boris was getting very good at pretending to be a young girl.)
    ‘Lady Marigold Pickford was unspeakably cruel,’ continued Nanny Piggins. ‘She would force her children to get out of bed at six am.’
    ‘No!’ gasped Samantha.
    ‘Every morning!’ continued Nanny Piggins. ‘And that’s not all. She forced them to do physical exercise.’
    Now Samantha and Boris both gasped.
    ‘Even when it was raining?’ asked Boris.
    ‘Even when there was something good on TV?’ asked Samantha.
    ‘Even if it was raining and there was something good on television,’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘The witch!’ cried Boris.
    ‘Lady Marigold Pickford must have stolen Great-Great-Granny Piggins’ biscuit recipe while Great-Great-Granny was working for her,’ said Nanny Piggins.
    ‘Was she really that wicked?’ asked Samantha.
    ‘Oh yes,’ said Nanny Piggins. ‘Great-Great-Granny Piggins would often collapse from exhaustion because Lady Marigold Pickford would allow no cake in the