A Visitor at the Palace: The perfect feel-good royal romance to read this summer
When their dog goes missing during a day trip to London, the Walker family are forced to accept that they may never see Henry again. But as the family search for their beloved pet, the reality of what has happened to Henry never even crosses their minds: Henry has been mistaken for one of the Queen’s prized corgis.Swept into Buckingham Palace, Henry is about to discover how the other half of the dog world lives. Henry’s life with the Walkers is a long way from the world of china dog bowls of the corgi room.But Henry isn’t such an average dog either – and as he explores the palace, getting under the feet of royals and staff alike, this naughty dog will change the residents of Buckingham Palace’s lives in ways they could never have imagined …Heart-warming and irresistibly funny, HENRY: THE QUEEN’S CORGI is the perfect read for fans of A STREET CAT NAMED BOB and A PUG LIKE PERCY.
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A Visitor at the Palace
GEORGIE CRAWLEY
Published by AVON
A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Cover design © Alison Groom 2018
Cover photograph © Shutterstock.com
HarperCollinsPublishers asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008263133
Ebook Edition © October 2017 ISBN: 9780008263140
Version: 2018-04-27
For every family, and their pets, this Christmas
Table of Contents
The thing about humans is, they take an awful lot of looking after. Oh, I’m not saying that they’re not worth it. Just that, really, without us dogs, I don’t know what would happen to them.
Take my family, for example. The Walkers.
Ever since I arrived here as a puppy, it had always been the five of us. (Okay, six, if you include The Cat. I don’t, generally.) Jim, Amy, Jack, Claire and Me: Henry. (Fine, and Sookie. If you must.)
That is, until Bonfire Night, five weeks ago. (I remembered the date clearly, because it all happened in amongst the bangs and the flashes.) I was hiding under the chair in Jim and Amy’s bedroom (like any sane creature would be on Bonfire Night) so I saw Jim shoving clothes and things into his bag. And I heard Amy sobbing, asking Jim why.
Sometimes, I think maybe she didn’t understand what was going on any better than I did.
All I knew for sure was that Jim left that night, and he hasn’t really been back much since. This wasn’t like when he went out to work and I missed him, or even when they all went on holiday and left me at the kennels.
This was different. And I didn’t like it one bit.
After Jim had left, I’d curled up beside Amy as she cried herself to sleep on the bed. It was only after her sobs had subsided and I was sure that she was asleep that I risked jumping down to check on the others. Jack and Claire were both still outside, watching the fireworks from the nearby school field. I braved the noise and the lights to check that they were okay, then headed back in to my basket to have a think about what was happening – and how I could fix it.
It was then that Sookie had slinked out from behind the sofa and looked at me with that awful, superior gaze that all cats seem to have.
‘Well, that’s you done for,’ she’d said. I hadn’t understood, and she wasn’t willing to explain. But ever since, I’d been looking for clues, something to explain what was going on – and ideas on how to make things better.
The next morning, Amy had sat Jack and Claire down and explained things to them. I’d listened in, of course, but all I’d managed to understand was that Jim had gone away, and we all needed to help out and do our bit to keep things together.
Well. That was easy! I would be the most helpful dog they could ever wish for.
I started by checking in on Jack and Claire at bedtime. Sometimes, Claire would be crying when I stopped by her room, so I’d jump up on her bed and snuggle for a while, until she felt better, or fell asleep. (I wasn’t really supposed to go on the beds, but I figured these were special circumstances. Besides, Claire’s bed is really comfy.)
Next, I made a point of helping keep the place clean and tidy by eating up any scraps of food that found their way onto the floor. But then I decided that wasn’t helpful enough, so I started jumping up onto the kitchen chairs to clean off the plates that got left there after meals, sometimes. They were always very clean by the time I’d finished licking them.
Amy didn’t seem to appreciate this as much as I thought she would, and after a while, Jack started putting all the plates in the dishwasher as soon as they’d finished eating. So I started looking for other ways to help, instead.
One big worry I had was that there were a lot fewer walks for me. Jack would take me out to explore the park sometimes, but he usually met up with his mates and made me sit around on my lead while I waited for him to finish chatting. Claire was only allowed to take me as far as the local shop and back on her own, and I already knew all the scents along that route, so it was a bit boring. Also, sometimes Sookie followed us too – I always suspected that she was Claire’s favourite.
