Back up in his room, Jasper locked the door and started to unpack. He took the two rats out of his pocket and let them scamper about the place. Rags and Bags had spent all of their lives in prison and they weren’t in the least bit disappointed with Haverford-Snuffley Hall. Jasper’s room, with its flowery wallpaper and brass bed, was the height of luxury as far as they were concerned.
Jasper was just hanging the last of his clothes in the wardrobe when PING! The steel doors of the dumb-waiter opened.
‘Oh no!’
Inside there was a pot of tea, a cup and a plate with four cherry scones. But the scones were tiny! Never in all his life had Jasper seen such teeny-tiny scones. ‘’Snot fair!’ he shouted. ‘And I said I didn’t want tea, I want coffee!’
Suddenly something outrageous happened. The two rats leapt into the dumb-waiter and scoffed the four scones as quick as a wink: two each! Jasper couldn’t believe what he was seeing and he screeched in rage. Then he reached into the dumb-waiter and hauled Rags and Bags out by the tails.
‘Now you listen to me!’ he roared holding them upside down. ‘What did I say outside the prison? What did I say about being good?’
The rats sniggered and licked the last sweet crumbs off their snouts. They didn’t care a hoot what Jasper said. A fry-up and sugar-cubes for breakfast and now a snack of perfectly rat-sized scones mid-morning: nothing, but nothing was going to spoil their day.
Jasper opened his empty suitcase and dropped the two rats into it, slammed it closed and locked it. ‘I’ll show you who’s boss. You’ll stay there as a punishment until I let you out.’
Still Rags and Bags didn’t care. They were tired after their early start and all the excitement, and in no time at all they were both fast asleep with their tails curled around their back paws.
Jasper spent the rest of the morning wandering around Haverford-Snuffley Hall looking at all the portraits in gold frames, at the silver and the furniture. He thought how unfair it was that everything he saw belonged to a daft old coot with a bat hanging off her hat instead of belonging to him.
In the afternoon, Mrs Haverford-Snuffley took him round the garden to show him where he would be working. It took ages because it was extremely big, and before long Jasper was so bored he thought he would weep. It was hard work too, because he had to pretend to be an expert. Although she didn’t know it, Mrs Haverford-Snuffley knew far more about flowers and plants than he did. Jasper couldn’t tell his begonias from his Busy Lizzies, much less his nasturtiums from his narcissi. She would stand in front of a flower bed and say, ‘Now my gladioli are doing exceptionally well this year,’ and Jasper would agree and nod his head, hoping that he was looking at the right thing.
Late that night, up in his room, he let the rats out of the suitcase. He opened the top drawer of the dressing table and popped Rags and Bags into it. Then he took off his socks and gave the rats one each. They wriggled into them as if the socks were sleeping bags, pulled them up around themselves until only their heads were sticking out. Jasper took off his vest and rolled it up as a pillow for them. The vest was sweaty and manky but it was nothing compared to the socks. The rats liked it that way; they liked their bedding smelly and vile.
‘Night-night, lads,’ Jasper said. ‘Sweet dreams. And remember what I said: be good.’ In no time at all he was asleep and snoring, but Rags and Bags were wide awake and excited. Having slept all day in the suitcase they weren’t in the least bit tired.
‘Come on, Rags,’ Bags said, peeling off his sock sleeping-bag. ‘Let’s go and have some fun! Let’s explore our new home!’