Over the next few days, Ella settled in to life at Harebell Castle. She got used to sharing a bunk bed with Summer in their room in Seahorse Tower and she even liked the school dinners, which always finished with a large helping of pudding!
With the help of Rebecca, who looked after the pet barn, she had learned all about taking care of baby rabbits. She knew what food Daisy needed and how often to clean her out. The princesses were meant to check on their pets every morning and night. It wasn’t easy as school life was very busy and Molly, the dark-haired captain, seemed to think of lots of jobs for Ella and her friends to do.
Ella liked her new teachers too. The only one who made her nervous was Lady Eggley, the Royal Skills teacher, who had perfectly smooth hair and eyes as sharp as needles. At first, Ella had liked going into the magnificent Throne Room for her lessons. The shelves were full of silver trophies, and the golden throne gleamed as if it was polished every day. But Lady Eggley swooped down on Ella every time she made a little mistake, telling Ella that her curtsies were terrible and her tiara always wonky.
Ella began to dread the Royal Skills lessons and talked to the others about it back in Seahorse Tower.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Lottie. “Lady Eggley is a right royal fusspot.”
“I’ve heard that she’s madly keen on eating carrots and always keeps some in her bedroom,” said Rosalind. “Maybe her name should be Lady Carroty instead of Lady Eggley.”
Ella giggled, feeling a little better.
Summer put down her reading book and climbed off the top bunk. “Now we’re all together, why don’t we go down to the pet barn and see the animals? You can check on your rabbit, Ella, and we can look at the other baby bunnies too.”
The door swung open and Molly stood there, smiling meanly. “Oh good! You’re all here. I need you to help with some chores.”
“But we were just going down to check on our pets,” protested Ella. “We don’t want Rebecca to think we’re not looking after them properly.”
“No, Rebecca wouldn’t be pleased if you didn’t take care of your rabbit,” said Molly, with a spiteful look in her eye. “But first, all the rooms in the tower need dusting and the corridor needs sweeping. Hurry up now!” And she slammed the door.
“Every time we try to go to the pet barn, she invents a job for us,” said Lottie. “I haven’t seen Strawberry for three days. If this carries on, Rebecca will have to report us to Miss Goldwin for not looking after our animals. We might not even be allowed to keep our pets any more. We have to get away from Molly!”
“I wish her room wasn’t right at the start of the corridor,” said Summer. “No one can leave the tower without her seeing.”
Rosalind folded her arms. “We can beat her easily. All we need are some ninja moves.”
“Some what?” said Ella, surprised.
Rosalind put her hand over her mouth. “Oops!”
Lottie rolled her eyes. “You’ve said it now, Rosalind! I think we should tell you our secret anyway, Ella. You’re one of us now.”
Ella turned pink. “Thanks, Lottie!”
“Let’s explain later. We don’t want Molly hearing,” said Summer.
So, after dinner, they found an empty classroom downstairs instead of returning to Seahorse Tower. Rosalind took out her torch. “Don’t switch the lights on. We don’t want anyone to know we’re in here.”
Ella felt a swooping in her stomach. Now she would find out what the secret was!
“First of all you have to promise not to tell anyone about this,” said Lottie.
Ella nodded quickly. “I won’t tell.”
Rosalind took a deep breath. “You see, we’re the Rescue Princesses and we rescue animals in danger.”
“I was the first one to set up the club,” said Lottie. “Well, it was my sister, Emily, actually. She rescued some deer in Mistberg Forest with the help of her friends. But when she left to go to school, I took over.”
“That’s when I joined,” added Rosalind. “It was me, Lottie, Amina and Isabella. You haven’t met Amina and Isabella because they’re not coming here till next term.”
“Then I met everyone in the springtime,” said Summer. “We rescued a snow leopard with the help of a princess called Maya.”
“So you’ll be the twelfth Rescue Princess,” said Lottie. “But the number isn’t really important. The point is we help animals, no matter how dangerous it is, and we have magic jewels that help us and we know ninja moves too! We even have a book about ninja moves hidden upstairs.”
“Wow!” Ella stared at them all. “That is so cool.”
“So would you like to join?” said Lottie.
“Yes, please!” Ella beamed. “It sounds very exciting.”
“Good! So tomorrow we’ll use our ninja moves to get past Molly,” said Lottie, pushing back her red curls. “We’ll wait till lessons are finished and then sneak out before she can stop us.”
“Oh, one more thing!” said Rosalind. “I made a few more rings in the holidays just in case we needed them and yours is a yellow diamond.” She dropped a ring with a beautiful yellow jewel into Ella’s hand. “Pressing the jewel lets us talk to each other.”
“Thank you!” Ella slid the ring on to her finger and pressed the diamond. The jewel lit up instantly and the rings on her friends’ hands shone brightly too. Lottie had a ruby ring, Rosalind had a deep-blue sapphire and Summer’s jewel was a beautiful purple amethyst.
The princesses were still admiring their magical rings when the door creaked open. Ella swung round and was dazzled when someone switched on the light.
“Hey! What’s going on?” said a voice.
The girls leapt up. Lottie and Summer stuffed their hands behind their backs to hide their glowing rings. Ella tripped over a chair and grabbed hold of a table to stop herself falling over.
“You should have knocked,” snapped Rosalind. “You made us jump.”
Ella got her balance back and turned round, worried that Molly had found them.
There were five girls standing in the doorway and thankfully none of them was Molly. The girl at the front had long red curls and looked familiar somehow.
“Emily!” said Lottie.
The girl with the red curls grinned. “Hi, little sis! Sorry we made you jump. We heard voices and wondered what was going on. What were you doing in the dark?”
“We’re inviting a new girl into the Rescue Princesses,” said Lottie. “It’s OK!” she told the others. “These are the old members of the gang. This is Lulu, Clarabel, Jaminta, Freya and my sister Emily. They all belong to Coral Tower.”
The older princesses smiled. “We heard you’d carried on the Rescue Princesses and had lots of adventures,” said a girl with black hair and lion-like eyes. “Well done!”
“Thanks, Lulu,” said Lottie. “Actually, we’re organising a mission right now.” And she told the older girls about the problem with Molly and what had happened in the pet barn.
“Molly’s being so unfair,” added Rosalind. “So we’re going to use our ninja moves to get out of Seahorse Tower and away from her! Otherwise we can’t look after our pets properly.”
Emily looked a bit worried. “Well, be careful when you’re sneaking around! I’ve heard that this castle has hidden doors and secret passages!”
“That’s right,” nodded Lulu. “After all, this place was a proper castle in the olden days before it became a school!”
“I wish we could find some of the secret places,” said Lottie. “Then we could hide from Molly and her endless list of chores!”
“Do take care, little sis,” Emily said to Lottie. “You have such a way of getting into trouble.”
“Oh, don’t worry!” said Lottie. “We’re not babies. We know exactly what to do!”