The Princess Rules Read online

  Florizella took him firmly by his soft ear, led him to the kennels and shut him up for the night.

  The next day she took him back to the Purple Forest again.

  She didn’t cry when she went to sleep that night. She was hoping he would be all right … but she was hoping a lot more that she’d seen the last of him.

  But that night, at about midnight: ‘Ki-yi-yi-yi-yi!’ The next day she took him away again!

  Five times Florizella took the wolf cub back to the Purple Forest. Five times he found his way home along the moonlit paths to sit under Florizella’s window and howl: ‘Ki-yi-yi-yi-yi!’

  On the sixth day, Florizella gave up. She sent a message to the Land of the Deep Lakes for Prince Bennett to come and tell her what she could do about the wolf cub who wouldn’t go home.

  When he arrived, Prince Bennett had A Plan.

  It was a really great plan with deception and hair dye.

  He took Florizella to Mrs Fitzherbert’s shop, which sold useful white-magic spells and speciality teas. Bennett looked carefully along the shelves and showed Florizellaa box.

  It read:

  ‘What do we do with that?’ Florizella asked.

  ‘We transform him,’ Bennett said mysteriously.

  As soon as they got back to the palace, they caught Samson – who thought it was all a new and exciting game – and washed him thoroughly. Then they smeared the dye all over him and left it on for half an hour. When they rinsed him clean, his coat was as golden as the royal crowns. They had left the dye on his tail a little bit too long – it was slightly green – but they thought no one would notice. They cleaned his teeth. They brushed him well. They even put a pink bow round his neck with a label that read:

  ‘Ewww!’ said Florizella.

  Even Bennett thought that might be going a bit far. But they agreed that nothing that might help with Samson’s transformation from wolf into lapdog should be left out.

  When he was looking as sweet and as tame as could be, they took him to the king and told him that they’d found this golden puppy and could Florizella possibly keep him?

  The king said yes.

  The king said it looked like a well-bred dog to him.

  The king said it might make a very useful guard dog around the palace.

  Florizella gulped down all the lies, and smiled and said, ‘Thank you,’ and hoped for the best.

  To Florizella’s surprise, Samson the wolf cub settled down very well to being a palace guard dog, and nobody ever thought that he’d had anything to do with the wolves.

  He even learned to bark during the day, and though he would howl when there was a full moon, the king slept heavily at nights and did not hear him.

  During the day, Samson would follow the king everywhere, sitting under the breakfast table, resting his chin on the king’s feet, sitting at his side in the royal office. He ignored the golden carp in the pond with an air of utter disdain. He pottered with the king among the roses and made a point of eating greenfly when the king was looking. The king loved him doing that.

  In the end, everyone accepted the big golden puppy as the palace dog. No one ever realised that under the dyed blond hair was a wild wolf.

  Every day when Florizella went riding, Samson went too, running alongside Jellybean. Some days Florizella rode beside the river, sometimes she went to the seaside. One day she was late home and took a shortcut through an especially wild part of a forest. She didn’t see a dark shadow on a low branch of a tree. Samson didn’t see it, either.

  Jellybean saw it … but too late!

  It was a black jaguar crouched low and silent, and as Florizella rode underneath the tree the jaguar crashed down on to Jellybean’s plump bottom. Jellybean neighed in terror and reared up, shaking the jaguar loose and dumping Florizella on the ground. In a second the horse had raced off. The jaguar took three swift steps after him, then swung round and started coming for Florizella instead!

  The jaguar’s green eyes flashed like jade. Florizella turned and ran as fast as she could for the nearest tree, jumping up to catch the lowest branch. Then she swarmed upwards, climbing like a monkey to get away from the jaguar.

  This was a good plan with one great flaw: jaguars can climb trees too. And they can climb rather better than princesses. With one smooth bound, the jaguar started up after her, its razor-sharp claws digging into the bark of the tree trunk. But just as it started up the tree, there was a great How-how-howl! of rage, and Samson raced towards the jaguar and leaped and bit, fastening his teeth on to its fat black tail.

  That gave Florizella the chance she needed. Up and up she went until she reached the small branches where the heavy jaguar could not follow her. Then she turned and screamed to Samson to fetch help from the palace. The wolf dropped the jaguar’s tail and the jaguar turned round, snarling and slashing at him, but Samson was too quick. He streaked away in the direction of the palace, howling, ‘Ki-yi-yi-yi-yi!’ as he went.

  Florizella gave a cheer in a rather scared voice when she saw Samson racing off. But then she fell silent. Down at the foot of the tree, the jaguar had realised that it could not climb up and get Florizella. But it did not go away. It settled down, eyed Florizella and licked its lips.

  At first Florizella thought how silly it was to sit there, tail curled round its paws like a big black cat.

  Then she thought how scary it was to sit there, waiting and waiting.

  And then she realised that the jaguar was a lot smarter than she’d thought. She was cold and tired and soon would not be able to hold tightly to the thin branch where she was clinging. And when that happened … she would drop out of the tree like a sweet little plum … straight into the open smiling jaws of the black jaguar.

  Florizella’s cold fingers tightened on the branch. She knew she would not be able to hold on forever.

  It all depended on Samson.

  Back at the royal palace no one took any notice of Samson when he came racing over the drawbridge. He howled and howled and whined, and people just called to him to be quiet. One of the royal guards checked that his water bowl was filled and then tried to catch him to shut him in the kennels.

  Samson ducked away and raced into the royal office where the queen was eating bread and honey. She really hated bread and honey, but it’s in the Queen’s Rules. Samson charged right up to her and barked.

  ‘Mmmdown! Mmood dog,’ the queen said through a sticky mouthful.

  Samson turned round and ran up to the king. He hurled himself into his lap and put his fat paddy paws on his shoulders and howled straight into his face.

  ‘It’s Florizella!’ said the king at once. ‘The dog’s speaking to me. He’s telling me something must have happened to Florizella! Undootedly!’

  Just at that moment a groom came running from the stable. ‘Princess Florizella’s pony has come home without her!’ he announced. ‘Again,’ he said, which was a bit unnecessary.

  ‘Mmmummon the guard!’ the queen started up.

  ‘Undootedly! Summon the guard!’ the king repeated more clearly.

  At once the royal guards came scrambling out of the guardroom and leaped on their horses. Samson dashed ahead of them along the twisty path through the woods, and they blew Tooroo! Tooroo! on their horns as they galloped.

  Florizella heard the sound of them coming and tightened her grip on the branch for a few moments more. The jaguar heard them too and leaped up towards Florizella’s dangling feet. For one dreadful moment, Florizella thought she could not pull her feet out of reach of those big black paws. Then the jaguar growled angrily at her, turned away and slunk off into the darkness.

  The guards halted and jumped off. They gathered round the tree, calling up to ask Florizella if she was all right. She said, ‘Yes,’ but then found she had frozen with fright. She couldn’t move.

  The topmost branches of the tree were too thin to hold anyone but a light girl like Florizella, so no one could climb up to her – and now she was too cold and scared to climb down. The