Becky cradled Arrow close as she walked back across the field. At the gate that opened onto the farmyard, she paused.

“We’ll sneak in through the back door. I don’t really want to bump into Mrs. Kelly,” she said to Arrow. “Uh-oh!” she whispered, quickly ducking behind the gate as the farmhouse door opened and the housekeeper appeared.

Becky didn’t want to have to answer awkward questions if she was caught with Arrow, so she crouched out of sight until Mrs. Kelly went off toward the henhouse.

“Phew! That was close!” Becky slipped through the gate and, cuddling Arrow close, sprinted across the yard and slipped around to the back of the farmhouse.

She looked down at her new friend as she walked across the lawn. Arrow was so cute. He had stretched up to lie full-length against her chest, and his eyes were closed contentedly as she stroked his pale fur. It was the softest thing she had ever touched.

“Oh!” Becky felt something very big and wet flap against her face.

A bed sheet! She hadn’t been looking where she was going and had stumbled into a line of clean laundry. A gust of wind made a corner of the sheet flick over Becky’s shoulder with a cracking sound.

Arrow gave a squeal of terror and tried to leap out of her arms.

“It’s okay, Arrow, it’s only a sheet!”

But the terrified magic bunny didn’t seem to be listening. He kicked out with his back legs, accidentally scratching Becky’s chest through her T-shirt.

Becky winced at the stinging soreness, but she made herself ignore it as she struggled to keep hold of her tiny friend without squeezing him too hard. She was worried that he’d hurt himself if he jumped to the ground from such a height. But her sneakers slipped on the damp grass and Becky felt herself tumbling forward. Stretching out one hand, she grabbed at the nearest sheet to save herself.

Snap! Snap! Snap! Clothes pegs pinged off the line as Becky collapsed into a heap of wet washing.

“Ooof!” She managed to twist around and land on her back, keeping Arrow safe in her cupped hands. Becky lay there for a moment, too stunned to move. She could feel Arrow’s rapid heartbeat against her palm.

“Are you okay?” Becky asked him worriedly.

“I am fine. You saved me. Thank you!” Arrow moved up to nudge her chin gently with his little wet nose.

Relief washed through Becky. She’d only had Arrow for a short time, but she already loved her magical friend to pieces and couldn’t bear to think of him being hurt.

She struggled to get free of the clinging damp material.

“Oh!” As Becky finally managed to stand up, the stinging came back. Now that the excitement was over, the claw marks Arrow had made in his panic were starting to hurt horribly.

Arrow laid his ears flat with concern. “You are hurt, Becky. Let me help you!”

Becky saw Arrow’s key start to pulse with light and felt a warm tingling sensation down her spine. He twitched his little pink nose and a fountain of crystal dust appeared, shimmering with a thousand tiny rainbows.

To Becky’s amazement, the magical dust spread all over the front of her T-shirt, before seeming to sink into it and disappear. The scratch marks turned cold and then stopped hurting completely as if they’d never been there at all.

When Becky peered down inside her T-shirt to check, there wasn’t a single mark to be seen.

“Cool! Thanks, Arrow. I’m fine now. Come on. Let’s get you inside before—”

“My laundry!” boomed a furious voice. “What have you done, you silly girl?”

Becky froze in terror. She slowly turned to see Mrs. Kelly standing in the kitchen doorway. She was staring at Becky’s feet.

Becky looked down, too, horrified to see that she was standing on a heap of trampled muddy sheets. She had been so worried about Arrow that she hadn’t given a thought to the laundry.

“I am in so much trouble!” Becky groaned, expecting a double scolding. She was still holding the fluffy bunny, who was now tucked safely under one arm. Mrs. Kelly seemed the sort who wouldn’t allow animals into the house.

“Just look at those sheets!” The housekeeper marched into the garden with a face like thunder. Becky leaped backward in alarm, leaving another perfect muddy footprint on a clean bit of sheet.

“It was an…um…accident,” she burbled lamely. “Sorry.”

“A likely story!” Mrs. Kelly looked as if steam might come out of her ears at any moment. “Help me pick up these sheets and bring them into the house. It will all have to be done again. I have to go down the lane to Buttercup Farm, so since you’re the one who made them all muddy, you’re going to be the one to wash them!”

For some reason, Mrs. Kelly hadn’t mentioned Arrow. It was almost as if she couldn’t see him.

“Me! Do laundry? But I’ve never—” Becky began and then stopped as Mrs. Kelly gave her a stern look. “Fine. Will you show me how the washing machine works?”

“That’s better. Follow me.”

The moment the housekeeper’s back was turned, Becky quickly hid Arrow under her T-shirt. She sighed. This was terrible. The last thing she’d expected to be doing on the first day of her farm vacation was washing sheets!