Mr Montague turned to Mrs Montague and shook his head. “The poor girl’s rotted her brain.”
“Thank you for babysitting, anyway,” said Mrs Montague, taking a twenty-pound note out of her purse. But Tracy just yelped with fear and ran out of the front door, leaving Mrs Montague holding the note and looking very confused.
She pursed her lips and turned to Maud. “I’m still angry with you for leaving the house without permission, but it’s very sweet that you wanted to share our moment of theatrical triumph. Now please go to bed.”
Mr and Mrs Montague headed for the kitchen.
“Thanks for helping,” Maud said to her friends. “All three of you.”
“Don’t mention it,” said Isabel.
“I guess it was sort of fun,” said Penelope.
Paprika yawned. “I’m ready for bed.”
Together, they crept upstairs to the bedroom.
On the pink half of the carpet, Milly and her Primrose Towers friends were fast asleep with their pyjamas and eye masks on.
Maybe Milly tidied up, thought Maud. If so, it was the nicest thing her sister had ever done for her. The only nice thing, in fact. But stranger things had happened. Even Penelope had been helpful earlier on.
Maud placed Violet carefully back into her cage and slotted it under the bed. Penelope, Isabel and Paprika settled into their sleeping bags on the floor.
“We’ll have to get you a new cage tomorrow,” she whispered to Quentin. “You can sleep on my pillow tonight.”
Maud lay down on the bed, resting her head on the pillow. Quentin curled up next to her ear and thanked her with a sleepy squeak. He was obviously exhausted by his traumatic night, and Maud was feeling very tired, too.
Ouch! There was something hard underneath the pillow.
Maud sat up and pulled out the portrait of her great-aunt Ethel. Weird – she was sure she’d put it in her drawer. Perhaps Milly and her friends had been snooping?
Maud was about to put the picture back, when it tingled in her hand. She gasped and almost dropped it when her great-aunt gave her a wave from inside the frame.
“Wow,” said Maud. “Was it you who tidied up?”
Great-aunt Ethel winked.
“Is that why you put the picture under my pillow – to let me know?”
The ghost nodded.
“Monstrous!” said Maud. “Tidying up must have taken hours!”
She slipped out of bed to put the picture back in her drawer. “Thank you,” she whispered to her great-aunt.
Maud stepped over her snoozing friends and got back into bed.
“Not bad for my first monster sleepover,” she said to herself, as she drifted off to sleep.
Monstrous Maud: Freaky Sleepover Page 6