A Little Princess Finds Her Voice

By Holly Webb

Return to the magic of Burnett's classic tale as a brand new character finds her voice and uncovers the truth.

Lottie dreams of leaving the strict care of Miss Minchin's boarding school, just like her friend Sara Crewe did years ago. But Lottie's mother is gone, and her father has found reasons not to visit her for the past two years. When he rejects an invitation to come visit for her eleventh birthday, Lottie's sure he's ashamed of her for some reason. To temper her heartbreak, Lottie plans a secret little rebellion that she knows he'll hate—she purchases a trinket from the Suffragettes with the birthday money he sent her.

But when Lottie learns more about the Suffragette's mission, she begins to see the world with new eyes. And as she follows the women's movement, Lottie discovers a secret about her missing mother that could change her world forever…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sourcebooks
• Release date: Oct 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781492639138

Holly Webb

Holly Webb started writing fiction almost by accident, when she was working as an editor. She wrote her first book on trains, and had to leave it on someone's desk with a note as she was too scared to say she'd written it. Since then, she's written many, many more and usually works on the sofa, which is much more comfortable than a train. She lives near Reading with her family and a cat.

Book preview

ALSO BY HOLLY WEBB

Return to the Secret Garden

THE ROSE SERIES

Rose

Rose and the Lost Princess

Rose and the Magician’s Mask

Rose and the Silver Ghost

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Books. Change. Lives.

Copyright © 2018 by Holly Webb

Cover and internal design © 2018 by Sourcebooks, Inc.

Cover artwork by Sara Gianassi

Internal design by Danielle McNaughton/Sourcebooks, Inc.

Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher, Sourcebooks, Inc.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Published by Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc.

P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410

[phone]

Fax: [phone]

sourcebooks.com

Originally published as The Princess and the Suffragette in 2017 in the United Kingdom by Scholastic Children’s Books, an imprint of Scholastic Ltd.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Webb, Holly, author.

Title: A little princess finds her voice / Holly Webb.

Description: Naperville, Illinois : Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, [2018] | Originally published in 2017 in the United Kingdom by Scholastic Children’s Books, an imprint of Scholastic Ltd. | Summary: When Baby Lottie learns of the Suffragette movement from her friend, Sara Crewe, she and a new maid at Miss Minchin’s school become involved in defiance of Lottie’s cold, distant father.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017045914 | (13 : alk. paper)

Subjects: | CYAC: Women’s rights--Fiction. | Women--Suffrage--Fiction. | Boarding schools--Fiction. | Schools--Fiction. | Fathers and daughters--Fiction. | London (England)--Social life and customs--19th century--Fiction. | Great Britain--History--Victoria, 1837-1901--Fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.W3687 Lit 2018 | DDC [Fic]--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017045914

Contents

Front Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Author’s Note

About the Author

Back Cover

For Tom, Robin, and Will—so proud that you are growing up and getting ready to vote.

Chapter One

One afternoon in June, a carriage rolled up to the door of a tall house in a quiet London square. The girl who climbed down the steps was dressed in the height of fashion, her dress heavily trimmed with lace. She was swathed in a rich fur wrap, and she stroked the fur smugly as she looked up at the house and the discreet brass plate by the front door.

Miss Minchin

Select Seminary for Young Ladies

I have come to visit Miss Jessie, the girl said to the sour-faced parlor maid who answered the door.

I’m sure I don’t know, miss, the parlor maid began. I’m not sure what Miss Minchin would say. Shall I take in your card to her?

Oh, for heaven’s sake, Mary, the girl snapped. It’s me, Miss Lavinia. Just show me into the schoolroom. And she tilted her head sideways so that the maid could see underneath her enormous hat.

The parlor maid peered at her, and her mouth turned down even further. I didn’t recognize you, miss, she said coldly, standing back to allow her in. I’ll show you to the schoolroom… As if you didn’t know exactly where it was, she added under her breath. She glanced behind her and smirked a little as she watched Lavinia primping in the mirror on the wall, adjusting her hat to show off her sharply pretty face and her elaborate piles of hair.

Miss Lavinia to see you, Miss Jessie. The maid threw open the schoolroom door and stepped back to allow Lavinia to swan graciously inside.

Lavinia!

Lavvie! Oh, you’ve come to visit!

Look at your dress, and, oh, Lavinia, the furs! Did your papa buy them for you?

The girls swarmed around her, cooing and stroking the luxurious brown fur and admiring the puffs of ostrich feathers on Lavinia’s extravagant hat.

Do you think she put on her very grandest things just to show off to all of us? muttered a younger girl, sitting in the deep window seat that looked out at the street. She looks ridiculous. That hat—she can’t even see out from under it without cracking her neck.

Shh, Lottie. She’ll hear you.

I don’t care if she does, Lottie retorted. It’s not as if she can do anything to us now, Ermengarde. Miss Minchin’s has been almost bearable since Lavinia left. Jessie isn’t nearly so bad without Lavinia here to egg her on. Lottie watched the others who were listening delightedly to Lavinia’s boasting, and she turned back to the window in disgust, watching the dusty, sunny street in front of the seminary.

Almost bearable… Lottie had been at Miss Minchin’s since she was a spoiled baby of four. She had grown up in luxury, surrounded by Miss Minchin’s grand furnishings, taught French and literature and dancing by the most expensive teachers. She was a young lady through and through, just like Lavinia and the other girls.

She hated it. No one actually liked Miss Minchin’s…unless Lavinia had? Lottie glanced back at the crowd in the middle of the schoolroom and frowned. Lavinia had always been a bully…but she was a clever one. She seemed to know the most hurtful things to say at the very worst moments. As a favorite pupil of Miss Minchin’s, she was almost unstoppable—certainly Lottie would never dare to complain about Lavinia’s cruelty. She had ruled the schoolroom with her sharp tongue and sharper nails. Yes, perhaps Lavinia had enjoyed her time as queen of the seminary. She had learned from Miss Minchin herself, Lottie thought. Her cutting remarks were just the same sort of things Miss Minchin said about wrong sums or daydreaming or bitten nails.

The pupils at Miss Minchin’s knew quite well who the favorites were: Not the cleverest girls, but the richest ones. The ones who had families who would recommend the seminary and send more girls to be shut up and stifled in the tall, dark house.

The heat had yellowed the leaves on the trees early, and there wasn’t a breath of wind to move them, but Lottie still ached to be outside. Not in a slow, tortuous crocodile of polite little girls, but she wanted to be running around the square, chasing after a hoop or a ball, just like the children from the other houses in the square did sometimes. She sighed, and Ermengarde sighed too.

Perhaps Jessie hasn’t been so awful to you. Ermengarde stroked her cheek nervously with the fluffy end of her braid. But she never stops telling me how stupid I am, and Lavinia visiting is only going to make her worse.

Lavinia possibly heard her name… She certainly looked over at just the wrong moment, when Ermengarde was doing her very best impression of a frightened white rabbit, and Lottie had wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Lavinia, seated on one of the schoolroom chairs with her ankles graciously crossed, smiled at them at her grandest. Her expression was sweet and pitying—the smile of an adult faced with two silly girls. Is there something the matter, Lottie? she asked gently. You look quite ill. Perhaps you should go and see Miss Amelia and ask to be put to bed.

Lottie smiled back. I do have a little bit of a headache, she admitted. I’m afraid your necklace is making it worse. It’s just so glittery. Fake jewels are very bright, aren’t they?

Lavinia sucked in a breath. These are real diamonds, she snapped. "My papa gave them to me for my debutante ball. They are not fake! She managed to plaster her smile on again. Of course, a little girl like you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference." She whisked around and carried on talking to Jessie about her debutante dress and its eleven-foot train. She was telling the others about all the compliments she’d received, but there were red patches across the tops of her cheeks, and it was easy to see she was furious.

I don’t think her debutante ball can have been that much of a success if she has to come back to Miss Minchin’s and boast to Jessie and all of us, muttered Ermengarde. Doesn’t she have a huge horde of fashionable new friends now that she’s a debutante?

Ermie! Lottie nudged her admiringly. That was almost catty. Well done. Pity you said it to me instead of Lavinia, though.

Ermengarde shuddered. I can never think of anything to say when she’s actually in front of me, you know that. It’s one of the things I miss most about Sara—she knew how to put Lavinia in her place, every time.

Lottie watched thoughtfully as Lavinia showed off the absurd plumes of her hat. Except Sara was always so perfectly ladylike about it. She couldn’t bear to be as nasty as Lavinia because she was trying to behave like a princess, and a real princess wouldn’t lower herself to be rude, Lottie noted. Well, I don’t ever want to be a princess—imagine only ever talking to stuffy, idiotic princes! I’ll be as rude and common as anything if it gets a rise out of Lavinia. She giggled. She did mind about that necklace, didn’t she? Do you think it is real?

Ermengarde peered at it, trying not to be too obvious. I suppose so. Her parents are terribly rich. You were probably too little to remember, but Lavinia’s clothes were the nicest at the school…until Sara came. I think that’s why Lavinia always detested her. Lavinia loved being the one everyone admired, and Sara’s things were so beautiful, no one looked at Lavinia anymore.

I suppose you’re right. But even if those are real diamonds, it’s just showing off to wear a grand necklace like that to come and visit your old school. Where does she think she is, Buckingham Palace? And it’s far too warm to wear sables in June; it’s ridiculous. She’s put on her dressiest things just to make us all feel small. Lottie pouted, and turned away to watch the square again. It almost hurt to be cooped up in the stuffy schoolroom. It’s worked too, she whispered miserably to Ermengarde. I do feel small. I hate it here, Ermie. It makes me mean.

Only Lavinia and Jessie make you horrible, Ermengarde told her firmly. You’re nice to me…and most people aren’t. Ignore Lavinia, Lottie. She always was a beast, and growing up hasn’t made her any less of one.

I wish she weren’t so tall.

You’re getting taller.

"She and Jessie and all the older ones still think of me as Baby