Bestspinster Abbey.
CHAPTER 7.
Geranium gathered Roo and Miss G and cuddled them inside her frock coat. They were so happy to see her even though they were wailing. She took them both to the Chines Pagoda in the rose garden, sat them down and let Roo explain what had happened in his own good time. We were bailing the water out of the fishing boat for what seemed like hours gulped Roo. Teddy Bear was next to me and he told me he could see a shoal of mackerel swimming past. Teddy Bear said they were laughing at us! The next thing I knew was Teddy had jumped overboard - he wanted to capture the entire shoal for us. He’s not himself when he smells fish you know! Geranium scratched Roos‘ ears gently by way of encouragement. Grumpy Snoopy and I were steering the boat, there was nothing we could do to stop him! He got lost at sea, wailed Miss G! We all got the fishing boat to the shore but Teddy didn’t make it, cried Roo. He just had to go and chase those fish! Why? Oh! Tell me why?
Miss Namima Marple was striding around purposefully looking for clues. Everyone knew not to interrupt her when she had her large magnifying glass in her hands and wore her deerstalker hat. She’d interviewed Mariah Carey about the incident in the drawing room when there was a pervasive smell of cigarette smoke which nearly killed her. She‘d been out to the hayloft to interview Monty and Marmalade. Sherlock had been out to tell them the bad news and the three of them were huddled together on the uppermost beam having their own private little wail. They had witnessed Mr Marrow when he was up to no good. Miss Namima Marple had seen for herself the large wooden box of sprats to catch the mackerel which had been stolen. She and Oops had dumped it in the Ha Ha. She deduced that had the bait not been stolen Teddy Bear would have had no need to dive into the sea to single-doggedly bring in a shoal of fish for his pals. She had interviewed Django the Dalmatian who had described the hole in the bottom of the fishing boat which let the water in and threatened the lives of all fur babies on board. He described how hard the fur babies had had to work to bail the water out until they got back to shore. Having collated all the available evidence and information Miss Namima Marple reached the inevitable conclusion that Mr Marrow, for his own hideous reasons had systematically planned to completely ruin the wedding - for everyone! He must now be found, captured and brought to justice. Miss Namima was just the award winning detective to ensure this happened. She ran off to find Miss Midnight and Oops to tell them what she had deduced.
Having first ensured that Miss Canthus was happy to keep her kind eye on Mrs Bonnet Bennet who was comforting the distraught Gem; Miss Midnight beckoned Oops to join her outside. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’ asked Miss Midnight? ‘Absolutely!‘ chimed Oops. The pair of them joined hands and ran like the wind to the Belvedere, where the pre-loved Tardis had been parked. In no time at all they had taken up their usual positions (after Miss Midnight carried out the inevitable tinker with the splange flange and the dynamic thrift-de-mister on the recalculated altitude pinion.) Miss Midnight skilfully set the co-ordinates for Bestspinster Abbey - six days ago! The pre-loved Tardis quite literally fired itself up and then switched itself off in seconds. They opened the Tardis door and as the mist cleared there they were, same place but six days earlier. ‘I mean, the wonder of modern day modes of transport is incredible‘, opined Oops - Especially in emergencies...
The pair didn’t waste anytime. They both carefully draped their invisibility cloaks over each other and they were off to view events of the previous week. They watched carefully as the preparations for the wedding unfolded. It was fascinating. Yes, there was Carson last Monday choosing the wine they would need for the wedding at the weekend. He’d set aside the murkier bottles of red which might need to be carefully decanted. There was Mr Marrow, in his attic bedroom admiring a small water colour painting he had made of Mariah Carey. He placed it back carefully in it‘s secret drawer. No one must know of his plan to kidnap her and hold her to ransom until someone paid him enough money to buy Bestminster Abbey and take over as Lord and Master. His most longed for ambition was to sack that Mr Carson. He was all set to go ahead this weekend once he had got rid of the wedding guests by whatever means he could. He was prepared to go to any lengths necessary to take advantage of the superstar’s visit. He was never going to get this opportunity again. He knew if he created a catastrophe no one would notice if Miss Carey went missing. Miss Midnight and Oops had almost seen enough! They fast forwarded to the day of the fishing trip and there was Marrow in the early morning down at the harbour, drilling a hole in the bottom of the fishing boat which would cause such problems later for the fur babies. What a despicable man he was! Miss Midnight and Oops narrowed their eyes, pursed their lips and waited by the main gates as they went back a few days earlier as the postman dragged a large wooden box marked Fish Bait for Teddy! Yes, there was Marrow, ready to steal the bait box which would eventually cause so many problems! Just as Marrow reached to take the box from the postman he was flung into the air by some invisible force and dragged to a police box which seemed to have appeared next to the Belvedere. Agghhhhh! He screamed! Help me someone! What’s going on? The next thing he knew was that he’d been tied up with some rope (conveniently left lying around on the floor) and could feel himself spinning into the air. The 2 friends, now visible to anyone who would care to look, high fived each other! Never had the Kalahari Dessert looked more appropriate for a flying visit to drop off some unwanted cargo...
CHAPTER 8.
When the two friends got back to the house having completed their very gratifying secret mission, it was quite a different story! There was such a hubbub of activity and laughter as almost 50 guests sat down to a wedding breakfast of fresh mackerel fillets caught by the groom and his pals the day before. ‘It’s amazing what happens when you can turn back time to get a better result isn’t it!’ observed Oops, to no-one in particular. Everyone talked about the gargantuan catch of an entire shoal of mackerel made by the ‘fishermen’ yesterday and how many journeys poor Klaudio had to make to get so many fish back to Bestspinster in his hay cart. Klaudio had been invited to the wedding breakfast but fish just weren’t his thing. He preferred a nice bag of oats in his stable, where he could have a leisurely lie down later and read the Racing Times. Anyway, he needed to plait blue and yellow ribbons into his mane so that he looked his smartest when they brought the glass coach out later for him to take the bride to her wedding ceremony at Bestspinster Abbey Chapel.
All the fur babies went for a good long nap after the wedding breakfast. The hours between 12.30 am and 2 pm were taken up with frantic blue and yellow ribbon tying and getting ready. Mrs Bonnet Bennet ended up with queues outside her door. Everyone had come to see the vision that was her in her cornflower blue silk. Even Carson developed severe eye twitching when he beheld this vision. Harvey and Bruiser had delivered a wonderful bouquet of yellow peace roses for the MOB to carry. All cameras were on recording the vision of loveliness this created.
Teddy Bear was having a chat with his best dog Kaiser. They were having a reminisce about what a great fishing trip they’d had yesterday. Ralph, Jasper and Marley were having a play fight and stealing each other’s blue and yellow ribbons and Jax was trying hard to get his fringe to stick up so he could see a bit better. He didn’t want to miss a thing - not today. Nero was standing guard at Teddy’s door just in case Gem came for a sneaky peek at her groom. Nero loved the responsibility of guarding. It helped him stop thinking of his ball which was his most favourite thing in the world. Drattit! Now he was thinking of his ball again..! Smokey wanted to change his yellow ribbon for a blue one and went off to find someone who would. It had been Smokey’s job to unlock the chapel that morning to let Harvey and Bruiser in to arrange all the flowers. It was supposed to be done yesterday but Smokey could not quite remember why the plans had changed. Marley had been in touch a little earlier with the Officiate for the wedding, Yu Crane. Apparently he was already flying and would be there bang on the dot of 3pm to marry Teddy and Gem. Yu Crane had specifically asked Marley to make sure no one thought he was a stork when they saw him flying over. He was not too keen on babies and therefore never carried them and everyone knew Cranes were the king of all birds NOT storks!
Gem and her coterie of bridesmaids were all sitting in an excited huddle in Lady Myrtle’s dressing room. Gem had had an Alka-sausage to calm her nerves and settle her tummy. She looked soooo beautiful in her white veil, the Midnight tiara and blue and yellow ribbons. She hoped her TeddyBear would think she looked nice. Her dear Mama had arrived with all her friends and Teddy Bear’s Mama and the room was buzzing with excitement, until it was time for everyone to leave for the chapel. This left just Gem and her dear Mama. Mrs Bonnet Bennet had never felt prouder of her beautiful girl and it was all she could do to contain herself. But, contain herself she did as she walked Gem down the main staircase into the glass coach pulled by Klaudio.
to be continued…
so sorry to hear that.
. If I sit down I nod off.
If only I got promoted this much in real life! 
My fave characters are Ben and Kate.