Victoria Leigh and the missing pancakes

Victoria Leigh never used to like going to bed,

“But Mummy, I want to play with my toys!” she would say.

But since Mummy had told her about the Wishing Tree and all the adventures she could have, Victoria Leigh found it much easier to go to bed.

That night, she snuggled under the duvet and watched her glow in the dark stars overhead and then all of a sudden, she heard a very polite voice say:

“Good evening Miss Victoria”

Victoria Leigh sat up and leant forward to see who was speaking. All her toys were at the end of her bed, Daisy Dog, Rufus the Rabbit and Lemon Bear. Who had spoken?

All of a sudden Rufus Rabbit hopped forward.

He cleared his throat,

“Ahem, I said GOOD EVENING Miss Victoria!” he said again, he had an extremely posh accent

“Oh hello Rufus!” exclaimed Victoria Leigh “I didn’t see you there!”

“Would you like to visit the Wishing Tree?” asked Rufus

“Oh yes please” said Victoria Leigh

“Well, take my paw” said Rufus. Victoria Leigh held out her hand and grasped his paw and then they were flying through the air surrounded by beautiful colourful clouds, pink, yellow, blue, red and purple.

Within seconds they had landed in the big green field in front of the enormous Wishing Tree with its beautiful green leaves and hundreds of long twisted branches.

“Who has come to visit me” asked the Wishing Tree in a deep voice

“Wishing tree, wishing tree I bring Victoria Leigh to visit thee” said Rufus in his most polite voice.

“What is it you wish for Victoria Leigh” boomed the Wishing Tree

“Well, I have always thought it would be nice to go to Buckingham Palace and meet the Queen” said Victoria Leigh

“Done!” said the Wishing Tree and just then the field disappeared and Victoria Leigh and Rufus found themselves inside  Buckingham Palace . They were in a huge corridor with rich red carpet and big oil paintings on the walls and there were gold chandeliers everywhere.

“What do you mean you CANT FIND the pancakes!” 

The man’s loud voice came wafting up the stairs in front of Victoria Leigh and Rufus.

“HOW DO YOU LOSE PANCAKES?” he shouted again, he was clearly not happy.

“I am very sorry chef” replied what sounded like a young boy’s voice.

“You better sort this out Simpkins or your fired!” roared the other man and Victoria Leigh heard loud footsteps moving away followed by the SLAM of a door.

“Let’s go and investigate” whispered Victoria Leigh to Rufus

They tiptoed down the stairs and at the end there was a white door with a silver plaque on it that said KITCHEN.

Inside was the biggest kitchen Victoria Leigh had ever seen! It had long silver worktops, a HUGE silver fridge and lots of silver shelves stacked with jars of cooking ingredients with things like ‘Pepper’ and ‘Plain Flour’ written on them.  

Just then she heard a sniff from the corner of the room.

Victoria Leigh and Rufus tiptoed quietly over and peered around a big silver shelf. There, sitting on the floor, was a young boy in a white apron. His face was all red and blotchy and he was crying.

“What’s wrong?” asked Victoria Leigh

The boy looked up, “Who are you and what are you doing in here?” he asked.

“My name is Victoria Leigh and this is my friend Rufus” she said, pointing at the rabbit.

“You can’t be in here” said the boy looking over his shoulder with a frightened expression

“I am in enough trouble already today.”

“We heard a man shouting at you” said Victoria Leigh, “what happened?”

The boy hung his head. “The Queen loves to have pancakes for breakfast and I made her some. They were the best pancakes I had ever made. I left them on the counter while I went to go and get some maple syrup to go with them, but when I came back they were GONE!” he sniffed loudly.

“That’s terrible” said Victoria Leigh “Who took them?”

“I have no idea” sniffed the boy “but if I don’t find them soon the Chef says he will fire me!”

“We can’t let that happen!” said Victoria Leigh, “What’s your name?”

“Simpkins” said the boy, “Jimmy Simpkins”

“Well Jimmy, we will help you find those pancakes if it’s the last thing we do!” and both Victoria Leigh and Rufus gave a determined nod. The pair started prowling round the kitchen looking on every shelf and under every cupboard but no pancakes could be found.

“Oh dear” said Victoria Leigh a while later “I don’t know where they could be, we have looked everywhere!”

“Wait a minute” said Rufus, who was staring at the floor.

“What is it?” said Victoria Leigh

“I think I might have found something” replied Rufus and he began to hop away towards the door at the far end of the kitchen.

“Where are you going?” asked Jimmy

“Crumbs!” cried Rufus as he began to hop faster towards the door. “I see a trail of pancake crumbs!”

Rufus hopped and hopped while Victoria Leigh and Jimmy ran after him. They got to the door and Victoria Leigh slowly pushed it open and stepped through it into the garden.

She looked around, taking in the beautiful flowers and trees but she was interrupted by a loud munching sound. Behind the door, his mouth FULL of pancake was one of the Queen’s Corgi dogs!

“You stole the pancakes!”Victoria Leigh cried

The Corgi looked at her but kept on eating. “Well we won’t be able to give those ones to the Queen” she said to Rufus and Jimmy.

Jimmy looked sad, “then I will be fired” he said.

“No you won’t” replied Victoria Leigh, “I help my mum make pancakes all the time at home. We will help you!”

“You will?” said Jimmy, smiling a big smile

“Absolutely” said Rufus

The three set about mixing eggs, milk and flour into a batter and cooking up the best pancakes anyone had ever made. When they were finished Jimmy said, “I don’t know how to thank you”.

“Well”, replied Victoria Leigh “you could let me come with you to give them to the Queen”

“Of course!” said Jimmy.

They put the pancakes on a silver tray and walked upstairs to an enormous dining room with a huge long table in the centre, big enough to sit 100 people. Sitting at the table reading the newspaper was the Queen.

“Excuse me Ma’am” said Jimmy nervously “I have brought your morning pancakes”

The Queen looked up from the paper.

“Thank you” she said “Please come and put them here. Who is that you have brought with you?” she asked Jimmy.

“My name is Victoria Leigh” said Victoria Leigh in a clear voice “and I was just helping Jimmy with your pancakes.”

The Queen smiled, “ Oh really? Why was that?” she asked, so Victoria Leigh and Jimmy told the Queen all about the missing pancakes and how it was one of her Corgi’s who had taken them. The Queen thought it was all very funny.

Then Victoria Leigh and Rufus said goodbye to Jimmy and the Queen and walked outside Buckingham Palace into the garden.

“I am afraid it’s time to go already” said Rufus

“Oh no!” said Victoria Leigh, “I wanted to see the rest of Buckingham Palace. “ she said in a sad voice.

Never mind, she thought, at least I got to meet the Queen! She took Rufus’ paw in her hand and once again they were flying through beautiful coloured clouds and then all of a sudden, it was black.

Victoria Leigh was back in bed. She could feel her duvet, and she could see her glowing stars over her head.

When she looked at the end of her bed, there was Rufus sat with Daisy Dog and Lemon Bear just like before.

“Goodnight Rufus” she whispered before snuggling back under the covers and drifting off to sleep.