Rascal and the Wedding Read online

  For Judith – H.W.

  For Lauren and James – K.P.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  About the Author

  Copyright

  “Mum, look!” Lila raced into the kitchen, where Ellie and Max were eating breakfast before school. “It’s arrived!”

  “Is it the invitation?” Mum dropped the clingfilm she’d been wrapping round Ellie’s sandwiches, and seized the silvery envelope. “Oh, look, isn’t it pretty, with the little flowers woven into the paper…” She eased the envelope open very carefully.

  “Gorgeous,” Lila said admiringly.

  “What is it?” Max asked.

  Lila and Mum glared at him. “Auntie Gemma and Liam’s wedding invitation, of course!”

  Max shrugged. “But we’ve known about the wedding for ages. Why do we need an invitation? What are you getting so excited for?”

  Lila sighed, and Mum shook her head. “It’s important, Max. Auntie Gemma’s been waiting ages for these to arrive. They were a special order. You know she wants everything to be perfect for the wedding.”

  Max groaned. “Yes… You never stop going on about it. I’ll be glad when it’s over. Only another month of wedding, wedding, wedding…”

  “Can I see, Mum?” Ellie asked, leaning over to look at the pretty dark pink and silver card. “Ooh, it’s got all our names on. ‘Miss Ellie Thomas’.” She giggled. It sounded very posh. Then she frowned thoughtfully. “It doesn’t mention Rascal…”

  Lila rolled her eyes. “Ellie! You weren’t expecting Auntie Gemma to invite a dog to her smart wedding, were you?” Lila looked over at Rascal’s cushion. “Especially not that dog…”

  Ellie had to smile. Rascal was asleep on his back, with all four paws in the air. His paws twitched every so often, and as she watched he started running in his sleep, his little legs bicycling. “He’s lovely!” she told Lila firmly.

  “Yes, he’s a lovely little monster, Ellie! Rascal at a wedding! Just think about it!” Lila folded her arms and stared at Ellie.

  Ellie sighed. “I suppose so.” She had to admit that Lila was right. Wherever Rascal went, chaos always seemed to follow…

  “So when’s the wedding?” Jack asked.

  “The beginning of May,” Ellie explained. “Auntie Gemma wanted it to be springtime, but not too cold.”

  They were waiting for their dog-training class to start, and Ellie had just been telling Jack about the wedding – and how Rascal couldn’t go.

  “So is it a big smart do, then? Do you have to wear some pink frilly dress?”

  “It’s very smart. And I have to go and try on my bridesmaid’s dress next week.” Ellie made a face. “I’m looking forward to it, but Auntie Gemma didn’t know that dog training is on a Wednesday now, so I’m going to have to miss next week’s class.”

  Rascal and Jack’s huge Great Dane Hugo had been moved up to the intermediate dog-training classes, which were once a week on Wednesdays. The lessons were slightly more difficult, and some of the other dogs were very clever. There was a German shepherd called Frisky who Ellie thought had been given totally the wrong name. He wasn’t frisky at all – he was the best-behaved dog she’d ever seen. Ellie was convinced that if Dan, Frisky’s owner, told him to walk up and down the hall on his hind legs holding a dog biscuit between his teeth, he’d do the trick without even licking the biscuit. But Dan was very nice, and he’d told Ellie that Jack Russells were a nightmare to train, and she was doing really well with Rascal. Since Rascal had just shot in front of Dan and tripped him up, it was good of him to say so.

  Unfortunately, Amelia and her spaniel Goldie had moved up too, which meant she was still there to make mean comments about Rascal and Hugo all the time. She was waiting for the class to start too, sitting close to them with Goldie on her lap, and a superior look on her face. She had her hair drawn up into a ponytail with a feathery band round it, and she looked far too smart for dog training – she always did.

  “I was a pageboy at my cousin’s wedding when I was five,” Jack told Ellie. “I had to wear this awful blue velvet suit. It was a disaster.” He shuddered.

  “What happened?” Ellie said anxiously.

  “I was supposed to be walking behind my cousin carrying the rings, but she was walking really slowly, and I trod on the end of her dress … the long train bit. I tripped over and fell on top of the train, and my cousin ended up pulling me down the aisle on it. I kept hold of the rings, though,” Jack added.

  Ellie laughed, but she couldn’t help thinking, what if she did something awful like that?

  “You’re going to look dreadful in a bridesmaid’s dress.”

  Ellie looked up, her eyes widening.

  It was Amelia, of course, with a nasty smile on her face. “You’re the kind of person who always wears jeans, Ellie. You’ll just look a ratty mess.”

  Ellie glared at her, and then smiled. “Um, Amelia…”

  “What? You know I’m right, Ellie.”

  “Actually, it wasn’t about that. Did you know that Hugo’s eating your hairband?”

  Ellie had to admit it was quite nice going to a dog-training class where Rascal wasn’t the worst-behaved dog for once. Jack’s mum took Amelia’s hairband to the ladies and washed off the dog-slobber, but Ellie had a feeling it was never going to be the same again. It didn’t help that she and Jack kept looking at each other and cracking up all the way through the class.

  At least it made the lesson a bit less serious. Rascal was finding the intermediate level fairly difficult. Jo was trying to teach the dogs the same kind of things they’d learned in the beginners course, but they’d all got a bit more tricky. So they’d practise sit and stay, but now the dogs had to stay for more than two minutes.

  Rascal’s worst bit was the food manners training, when the dogs were supposed to ignore bowls of food, and not beg or jump up if their owners were holding a biscuit. For Rascal, ignoring a food bowl was torture. Frisky and Billy, a Lab who was almost as un-frisky as Frisky, sat gazing at the bowls with angelic expressions, and even Hugo managed not to eat anything, although he did keep standing up and looking hopefully at Jack.

  Meanwhile, Rascal had already wolfed down half his crunchies, and stared at Ellie as though she was mad when she took the bowl away.

  Ellie sighed. “Maybe you’ll be better when Max brings you next Wednesday,” she told Rascal. But she didn’t feel very hopeful.

  On Saturday morning, Auntie Gemma came round with Liam to talk about the wedding plans. She brought a huge folder with her full of pictures she’d cut out of magazines, and another with all the details about the church and the hotel where the reception was going to be held. She’d already got her wedding dress, but it was a secret – only Mum had been allowed to see it. Now they had to choose the bridesmaids’ dresses.

  And Max’s pageboy outfit. Ellie had told him Jack’s horror story about the velvet suit after dog training on Wednesday, and he was very anti the whole idea of dressing up. He glared at the folder as Auntie Gemma opened it up.

  “I’m not wearing anything like that!” Max said in disgust, as Auntie Gemma spread out some pictures across the table. He was staring at a photo of a cute, curlyhaired little boy in short satiny trousers and a shirt with a frilly collar.

  Lila picked it up. “Awww! I think you’d look lovely in that, Max!”

  “Never!” Max snarled.

  “Don’t worry, Max.” Liam patted him on the shoulder. “We were thinking that you’d wear something more like me and the ushers. A smart suit, that’s all.”

  “Really?” Max asked suspiciously. “You promise?”

  Auntie Gemma gave a little sigh, and Ellie had a feeling she’d liked the idea of Max in satiny trousers. Liam must have talked her out of it.

  “You’ll look about sixteen,” Liam promised Max. “Really cool.”

  “OK,” Max muttered. “As long as I don’t have to do anything embarrassing.”

  “Anyway, I’ve got something I know you’ll like,” Auntie Gemma told him, bringing out a cardboard box from her bag of wedding stuff. “Look! We went to the cake shop earlier and we’ve got samples for you to try.” She moved her folders on to the floor so that she could spread out the different pieces of cake. “There’s a fruit cake. A vanilla sponge.

  Chocolate – you liked that one best, didn’t you, Liam? I need you all to help me decide.”

  Max brightened up, and stuffed a large piece of the chocolate cake into his mouth. “Definitely this one!” he said, spitting crumbs. “Fantastic!”

  Ellie nibbled each of the different flavours. “Do we really have to choose just one? They’re all yummy.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that. If we have three layers in the cake, we could have more than one sort, I suppose,” Auntie Gemma said thoughtfully. “I’m sure I read something about that, in one of my magazines.” She reached down for her folder, and squealed with horror. “Rascal! You bad dog! Get off that!”

  Ellie gasped, and ran round the table to see what Rascal was doing. Perhaps Auntie Gemma’s folder smelled of food from being in the bag with the wedding cake samples, or maybe Rascal just liked the look of the pretty pink cover. It was now pretty, pink and
delicately chewed all round the edges. And Rascal had several cut-out pictures trailing from the corner of his mouth. He was wriggling back from Auntie Gemma, wagging his tail in a sorry sort of way.

  Ellie knew that guilty look well.

  “I’ll take him out into the garden for a run,” she said hurriedly, pulling the pictures out of his mouth, and passing them back to her aunt, who stuffed them into the folder crossly.

  “I’ll come with you!” Max said swiftly.

  Ellie shooed Rascal out, and glanced back into the kitchen, where Mum, Auntie Gemma and Lila were bent over the folders with their heads together.

  There was no way Rascal was going to the wedding now…

  “Make sure he does a wee before you go into the class. And don’t let him get too close to Goldie. Amelia won’t have forgiven me and Jack for the hairband incident yet, she’ll try and get you into trouble. And don’t—”

  “Ellie! It’s only dog training, I’m not robbing a bank. I think I can manage.” Max folded his arms and grinned.

  Ellie sighed. She still wished Auntie Gemma had chosen another day for the dress-fitting. But hopefully Rascal would behave. “Be good for Max, Rascal!” She crouched down to pat his ears, and Rascal licked her nose lavishly. “Uuurgh. Just do what Max says, OK?”

  Rascal looked from her to Max, and back again, and put his head on one side.

  Ellie tried not to laugh. It looked as though Rascal was saying, Really? Do I have to?

  “Are you ready, Ellie? Come on, we need to get going.” Mum looked her up and down. “You’d better go and get changed. Those jeans have got muddy paw prints all over them!”

  “But I’m only going to take them off and put dresses on,” Ellie tried to argue, but Mum was having none of it.

  “Run, Ellie! We’ll wait for you in the car.”

  “We’re going to be late,” Lila wailed. “And I want to have lots of time to try everything on!”

  Max rolled his eyes. Liam was sorting out his suit for the wedding, and he’d arranged to take Max into town nearer the time. Ellie was starting to think that Max had got lucky. Lila, Mum and Auntie Gemma in a shop full of posh frocks might be just too much.

  She dashed downstairs five minutes later in a denim skirt, hoping that Mum would think she looked OK. Max was trying to put Rascal’s lead on, to take him for a quick walk before training, but Rascal was leaping around his feet and barking like a dog who’d never been near a training class in his life.

  “Sit! Sit, Rascal! Ellie, help!” Max yelled.

  “Sorry! Got to dash! Lila’s going to kill me!” Ellie raced out to the car, where she could see Lila and Mum both looking impatient.

  The dress shop was in a street of smart boutiques. Auntie Gemma was standing outside, looking at her watch and frowning.

  “We’re not late, are we?” Mum asked.

  Auntie Gemma smiled. “Actually you’re exactly on time! I was only teasing you.”

  “Oh, wow…” Lila was staring at the window display. “Look at that gold bridesmaid’s dress… And the purple one…”

  “I know, they’re gorgeous. But we have to get pink, remember?” Auntie Gemma pointed out. She was very strict about her colour scheme.

  Lila nodded. “That’s OK. I love pink.”

  Ellie made a face behind her. Lila looked fab in pink – her red hair didn’t clash with it somehow, but Ellie’s did. Unless it was just the right shade of pink. She really didn’t want to end up in a babypink dress covered in frills…

  The shop assistant had seen them, and was waving them in with a huge smile. “Welcome to Wedding Belles! I’m Fiona. Now, I’ve laid out some possible bridesmaids’ dresses for you to have a look at,” she explained to Auntie Gemma.

  Ellie could see them, draped on a big purple sofa. They were very pink. And very frilly.

  “Your older bridesmaid would look lovely in something a little plainer, like this one.”

  She held up a smart dark pink dress, without a single frill, and Lila nodded admiringly. “And your little one…” Ellie scowled. She might be younger than Lila, but she wasn’t little. “Something like this…?” Fiona’s voice trailed off doubtfully. Ellie and her scowl didn’t really fit with the ruffly pastel pink dress she was holding out.

  “How about something a little simpler?” Mum said. “Lila, go and try that one on, while we look for a dress for Ellie.”

  And that was how it went on. Lila looked more perfect in every dress she tried, while Ellie looked like a grumpy person wrapped in frills. Even Fiona was getting tired after an hour of trying out different dresses. And Ellie felt terrible. She wasn’t trying to be difficult! But pink frilly dresses just didn’t suit her.

  “What about something like this?” Auntie Gemma said, for about the fifth time, waving a page cut out from one of her magazines. She got up from the sofa to pass it to Fiona. She and Mum had been sitting next to a huge pile of dresses that “didn’t quite work”, and as she stood up, a few pictures slipped out of her folder and fluttered to the floor.

  “Oooh! Now that could work!” Fiona pounced on one of the photos on the floor – which had a delicately nibbled edge.

  “Actually…” Auntie Gemma went pink. She was too embarrassed to admit that she hadn’t meant to say she liked that picture, it was just one that she’d stuffed back in the folder after Rascal had chewed it. But Fiona wasn’t listening anyway.

  “Yes, nice and plain, but with the detail all in the fabric… Lovely! I’ve got something just like it here.” She pulled a dress off the rack. “And it’s the right size, too!” She patted Ellie on the shoulder. “I think you’ll like this one, I promise.”

  Ellie eyed it doubtfully. At least it wasn’t frilly, but it was covered in flowers! She plodded back into the changing room, passing Lila in another perfect pink dress.

  She put on the dress, and looked at herself in the mirror, expecting it to be awful like the others. But actually, it wasn’t bad. Ellie took a deep, relieved breath, and twirled round. Nice! It had a fun swirly skirt, and a cool green bow round the waist. She shot out of the changing room. “Please can I have this one?”

  “Oh, Ellie, it’s lovely!” Mum said, sounding relieved.

  Auntie Gemma nodded. “I hadn’t meant to have green in the colour scheme, but it’s definitely better than the others…”

  Ellie twirled again in front of the big mirrors, holding out her skirts and smiling. Rascal had chosen her the perfect dress!

  “Rascal, no!” Ellie howled, as Rascal darted out into the middle of the aisle, leaping impossibly high to seize Auntie Gemma’s bouquet in his sharp little teeth. Ellie chased after him, and realized that every single person in the whole church was staring at her and pointing.

  She sat bolt upright, gasping, and opened her eyes. Thank goodness it was only a dream! At the end of her bed, Rascal looked up at her curiously, as though he was wondering what the matter was.

  “I think it’s probably a good thing you’re not coming to the wedding,” Ellie said shakily. The dream had left her feeling all wobbly.

  Rascal stood up, and marched along the bed to nestle next to her, with his head in her lap. He could tell when she was upset, even if he didn’t know why.

  Ellie sighed. It was stupid to be getting nervous about the wedding. It was still three whole weeks away. But she was having nightmares about it already! She was going to have to walk down the aisle of the church, and everyone was going to be staring at her. Only it wasn’t going to be because of her badly-behaved dog…

  She put on her school uniform slowly, admiring the dress hanging on the back of her wardrobe door. It really was beautiful. But what if she tripped up halfway down the aisle, like Jack had done? It would be awful if she fell flat on her face in front of everyone.

  Mum was in the middle of an urgent phone call with Auntie Gemma – something to do with whether to have salmon as part of the dinner at the wedding or not – so she didn’t notice that Ellie hardly ate any breakfast. She ended up running Ellie to school in the car, they were so late leaving.