Their mother stared at them. “Gosh, that was a turnaround!” she exclaimed. “This morning you hated the idea. Well, I suppose we can spare you for a couple of days. Now come on in and have some dinner.”
Their mother led the way inside, but Tess paused on the doorstep and heard the faint whinny of a small white rocking horse from the cowshed.
“Goodnight, toys,” Tess said softly. “We’ll come back for you tomorrow.”
Then she turned and followed her family into the warm glow of the farmhouse.
*
Meanwhile, the toys in the factory were having a celebration. They weren’t just free of the evil teddies who’d made their lives such misery, but they could finally move around on their own too. It seemed fitting to have a party, with much music and laughter and dancing.
Hoggle had given them a record player, and a blue mermaid and a silver mermaid were taking it in turns to select new records.
The silver mermaid was fussing over a small red object. “What’s that?” the blue mermaid asked.
“This?” The silver mermaid looked up with a guilty expression. “Oh, it’s a teddy-bear heart.”
“What?” The blue mermaid was horrified. “Where did it come from?”
“One of the teddies gave it to me in the stream,” the silver mermaid said. “Just before he was rounded up.”
“You should have thrown it away!” the blue mermaid said.
“I was going to. But then … I found that I couldn’t. It’s so pretty.”
“It could be dangerous,” the blue mermaid told her. “Let me see it—”
But the silver mermaid pulled it away. “The teddy gave it to me, not you!” she said, sounding alarmed. “He said you might all be jealous and try to take it from me. He said there was only one way to keep it safe.”
And the silver mermaid stuffed the small heart straight into her mouth and swallowed it whole.
The blue mermaid gave a shout of dismay. “You shouldn’t have done that!”
“Ooh! Perhaps you’re right!” the silver mermaid replied. “It’s awfully strange to feel it beating in there.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “And there are all these odd thoughts in my head.”
“What kind of thoughts?” the blue mermaid demanded.
“Well, for a start,” the silver mermaid said, staring at her. “I never noticed how long our hair was before. Have you? I used to look at my hair and just think how pretty it was. But now when I look at it, all I can think is …”
“What?”
“That it’s long enough to strangle someone with!” the silver mermaid exclaimed with glee.
“Oh,” the blue mermaid said. “I really don’t think you should have swallowed that heart!”
Before the silver mermaid could reply, the door banged open. Hoggle cartwheeled into the room, barely containing his excitement.
“Well, well,” he said, rubbing his hands. “What incredible and extraordinary toys we are going to make here now that the last traces of bad magic are gone!”
The toys cheered and clapped. All except for the two mermaids who simply looked at one another. The silver mermaid knew she should speak up and tell Hoggle what had happened. But instead she found herself glaring at the blue mermaid and hissing out words in a frightening voice that hardly sounded like her own.
“Don’t even think about telling Hoggle about the heart!” she said to the blue mermaid. “You’ll be sorry if you do!”
The blue mermaid gave her a scared look and gulped. But she didn’t say a word and the silver mermaid breathed a sigh of relief.
She had got away with it.
Nobody suspected a thing.
Our books are tested for children and young people by children and young people.
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COPYRIGHT
First published in 2019 in Great Britain by
Barrington Stoke Ltd
18 Walker Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7LP
This ebook edition first published in 2020
www.barringtonstoke.co.uk
Text © 2019 Alex Bell
Illustrations © 2019 Nan Lawson
The moral right of Alex Bell and Nan Lawson to be identified as the author and illustrator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in any part in any form without the written permission of the publisher
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library upon request
eISBN: 978–1–78112–985–2
