Looking up from the pram, Alfred asked, “What book was that person looking for at this late hour?”
“I don’t have a clue!” replied Nanny.
“You were looking for a book here in the library too, Nanny.”
“Was I?”
“Yes! What was the name of it?”
“SHUSH!” shushed Nanny. “Or someone will hear us!”
With that she wheeled the pram out of the library and down one of the palace’s long sweeping corridors. The wonky wheel made it difficult to steer…
SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
…and Nanny kept on bashing the pram into the wall.
BONK!
“OW!” complained the boy.
“SHUSH!” shushed Nanny again. Louder this time. The SHUSH was so loud it was hardly a shush at all.
SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
Then she bashed the pram into the wall again.
BONK!
SQUEAK! SQUEAK! SQUEAK!
And again.
BONK!
Alfred grimaced. At this rate, he’d be lucky to get back to his bedroom alive.
Next, he heard the sound of something trundling.
Oh no, he thought. Not the Octobut! That’s the last thing they needed right now.
“Good morning, Archbishop!” the robot announced.
“Will you be quiet, you blasted thing!” hissed Nanny.
“I have warmed your socks, so they’re nice and toasty!”
The boy thought he could smell burning.
“Out of my way, you metal menace!” said the old lady.
CRASH!
Next, Alfred could feel the wheels of the pram BUMP over something.
CLANK!
Something metal.
He looked past Nanny and saw that the accident-prone robot had lost yet another one of its arms. The one with the little spoon attached for stirring tea was now lying twitching on the floor.
TWITCH!
TWITCH!
TWITCH!
Down to five arms, the Octobut could now be called a Quinquebut, but that just sounds silly.
“I will post your boiled egg on to you!” it called out after them.
“Shush!” shushed Nanny before pushing the prince’s head back into the pram. “Get down!”
As he was wheeled around the palace, Alfred listened intently. He was trying to work out from sounds around him where exactly he was. All of a sudden, he could feel the pram being heaved up the sweeping staircase that led all the way from the bottom of the palace to the top.
“Nanny! There must be hundreds of stairs!” he protested.
“Shush!” she shushed. “Someone might hear you!”
“We are never going to make it!”
“I said shush!”
SHUNT!
SHUNT!
SHUNT!
“Nanny, I’m scared you’re going to let go!”
“I will if you don’t shut up!”
SHUNT!
SHUNT!
SHUNT!
SHUNT!
Now they were halfway up the staircase.
All of a sudden, Alfred heard a voice.
“Nanny?” said the voice.
Not just any voice.
It was
the
Lord Protector’s
voice.
