Rachel Tey - Tea in Pajamas

2018 Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited Text and illustrations Rachel Tey

First published in 2015 by Rachel Tey

This edition published in 2018 by Marshall Cavendish Editions An imprint of Marshall Cavendish International

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National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Name(s): Tey, Rachel, 1980- author.

Title: Tea in pajamas / Rachel Tey.

Description: Singapore : Marshall Cavendish Editions, 2018.

Identifier(s): OCN 1050083279 | eISBN 978 981 4841 15 3

Subject(s): LCSH: Hope--Juvenile fiction. | Girls--Juvenile fiction. | Magic --Juvenile fiction. | Art--Juvenile fiction. | Music--Juvenile fiction.

Classification: DDC S823--dc23

Printed in Singapore

Illustrations on front cover and inside pages by Joseph Tey

To
Ignacia

O n Wednesday afternoon at 3 oclock, Belle Marie sat down for tea. Except she had never been fond of tea. Instead, she fancied coffee, served from a teapot and drunk from a teacup. Into the delicious dark brew she added a spoonful of sugar and dribbled whirls of fresh milk. And though she liked the smell of her mothers freshly baked butter scones, Belle preferred the soft, flaky texture of croissants.

There was yet another important component of teatime she had to be in pajamas. If you thought it odd that at exactly 3 oclock every Wednesday, eleven-year-old, auburn-haired Belle from the tiny town of Michelmont would come home from school, change into night clothes and savor croissants and coffee at teatime, you shared the sentiments of her parents, Mr and Mrs Marie, and her older brother, ric. Unlike her, they were perfectly content with buttered raisin scones, washed down nicely with cups of Earl Grey. They also never wore pajamas in the afternoon or went about barefoot.

To all this, Belle paid little attention, for there were more pressing matters at hand. Unbeknownst to her family (and the rest of the world), a midweek tea session at home in sleepwear was no ordinary affair. It was the crucial step to unlocking the doors and stepping into a wondrous place of magic Belzerac.

7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Belle finished the last of her croissant and put down her teacup. She dusted the flaky pastry crumbs off her striped cotton pajamas and smoothed down her mane of ginger curls. Im ready now, she whispered, lets go.

It always happened quickly from that point. The last thing she remembered hearing was ric asking, Whats for tea?

Y ou have exactly one hour left! bellowed Monsieur DuPorc through the loudhailer. If you havent already started on your pie filling, now would be a good time! The talking pig was presiding over the days pie-making competition as both host and judge. He also happened to be the mayor of Belzerac. Monsieur DuPorc was certainly smartly dressed for the occasion. Clad in a powder blue suit, he would have looked very handsome were he not perspiring so profusely from the unrelenting heat of the afternoon sun.

Pie filling? Belle opened her eyes and saw that she was standing behind a table, alongside some familiar faces, and some others she was only seeing for the first time. Scattered haphazardly in front of her was a weighing scale, a mixing bowl, flour, sugar, salt, a single vanilla pod, butter cubes on a glass dish, a jug of milk, a lemon, and a large basket of whole pitted cherries in the most vivid of shade of red. She also saw that she had on a blue-and-white gingham apron over her pajamas, the same one donned by the other contestants around her.

Did she have enough time to finish? Belle took a moment to gather her thoughts. Her pie dough had been formed and rolled into two beige spheres she now had to flatten each ball into a disc, a job for the rolling pin she found clutched in her flour-specked hands. She did this quickly so she could move on to her filling. Into her mixing bowl went the sugar and a pinch of salt, followed by the cherries, seeds from the vanilla pod, and the juice of half the lemon. As she stirred the pretty ruby mixture with her wooden spoon and breathed in the syrupy scent of vanilla, she couldnt help but notice the empty table to her right where it looked as if another contestant should have been. Tess Brown read the name on the place card. Tess! Where could she be?

Tess and Belle were best friends and classmates in the same elementary school. They also lived in the same neighborhood, rode the school bus together and between them, there were no secrets. Their shared discovery of the extraordinary village of Belzerac via the passage of Tea in Pajamas laid the foundation for many a colorful and exciting experience away from their hometown of Michelmont an adventure they each swore never to embark on without the other. They had decided that at 3 oclock after school every Wednesday, they would change into their pajamas and sit for tea in their respective homes. And without fail, the girls would show up together in Belzerac. This Wednesday should not have been any different, but strangely, Tess was nowhere to be seen.