Heartwood Hotel Book 3

  Text copyright © 2018 by Kallie George

  Illustrations copyright © 2018 by Stephanie Graegin

  Cover design by Phil Caminiti

  Jacket art © 2018 by Stephanie Graegin

  Illustrations created in pencil

  All rights reserved. Published by Disney • Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. For information address Disney • Hyperion, 125 West End Avenue, New York, New York 10023.

  ISBN 978-1-4847-4738-4

  Visit www.DisneyBooks.com and www.HeartwoodHotel.com

  For Tiff

  —K.G.

  For Kristina and Kayley

  —S.G.

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  1: Mr. Heartwood Heads Off

  2: Cleaning and Clues

  3: Brumble Brings News

  4: The Spring Splash

  5: The Ruffled Robinsons

  6: The Cutest Egg Competition

  7: The Tiniest Talent Show

  8: The Best Blossom Contest

  9: Skim the Snail

  10: A Tiff with Tilly

  11: Mona’s Moment

  12: Darkness Descends

  13: Better Together

  14: Firefly Works

  15: Mona Mends

  16: The Heartwood Hop

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Kallie George

  About the Author

  There was a buzz in the air at the Heartwood Hotel. Mona the mouse could feel it in her whiskers. It was spring, and the guests, staff, and even the tree itself were beginning to buzz with activity. Buds were bursting on the branches, sap seeped from the bark, and the floors had a bounce to them. There was even a real buzz, too: from the bees, who had been hired to make honey for the guests.

  The only one who wasn’t full of energy was Mr. Heartwood, the hotel’s owner. Winter had been unusually eventful, and the great badger had been dragging his paws ever since. So, at last, with much encouragement from everyone, he was going to take a break and visit a friend.

  All the staff were gathered in the lobby to see him off. It was like check-out—a really grand one.

  Mona smoothed her maid’s apron, making sure to look presentable, and straightened the key around her neck.

  For once, Mr. Heartwood wasn’t wearing his own keys or his vest. Instead, he sported a cardigan and a cap. Beside him was his suitcase, made of a burl with roots for handles. Mona had seen all sorts of suitcases in the hotel, from tiny seeds to hollow branches. His was the biggest.

  But Mr. Heartwood wasn’t picking it up. He was still trying to run the hotel.

  “Is the spring cleaning…”

  “Sorted and started, Mr. Heartwood,” said Mrs. Higgins, the hedgehog head housekeeper.

  “And the food…”

  “Stocked and stored, Mr. Heartwood. We just got a shipment,” said Ms. Prickles, the porcupine cook.

  “What of bookings…”

  “We’re low so far this season—” started Mrs. Higgins.

  “But don’t worry,” interrupted Gilles, the front-desk lizard. He would be in charge while Mr. Heartwood was away. “The Hop is coming, and I have plans to spruce it up.”

  “What’s the Hop?” Mona whispered to Tilly.

  “A big party—sort of like the Acorn Festival,” Tilly the squirrel whispered back.

  Tilly was not only Mona’s best friend, but also the head maid, as well as the best grumper in the whole of the Heartwood. But lately she’d been grinning more than grumping, ever since she’d found Henry, her long-lost little brother.

  “I love parties!” said Henry loudly. Henry had a very loud voice.

  Mr. Heartwood didn’t seem bothered. He smiled fondly at the squirrel. “I almost forgot. Here.” Mr. Heartwood unclipped his suitcase and pulled out an acorn, handing it to Henry. “It’s a Heartwood seed to toss and play, while I am with a friend…” He paused, searching for a rhyme. Mr. Heartwood always rhymed.

  This time, though, Henry finished for him. “Thanks, Mr. Heartwood! Look!” he said to Mona and Tilly, extra loudly.

  “Sh!” said Tilly. “We can play later.”

  Mr. Heartwood closed his suitcase and continued, “And what of safety…”

  “No worries there, Mr. Heartwood,” said Tony, the security woodpecker.

  He winked at Mona.

  Mona’s whiskers straightened proudly. She might be a maid, but she had also saved the hotel, twice now, from wolves in the fall and hunger in the winter.

  “Good. There’s nothing to fear, not with all of you…” Mr. Heartwood struggled for a rhyme again. He usually had no trouble rhyming.

  “There, there,” said Ms. Prickles. “You best be off. You’re not yourself at all. You really do need a rest.”

  “Indeed,” said Mr. Heartwood. “Though my friend often has big plans of his own.” He adjusted his cap and picked up his suitcase. “Remember: ‘Sleep in safety, eat in earnest, and…’”

  “‘Be happy at the Heartwood!’” everyone chorused.

  “Happiest!” said Gilles, turning a slightly brighter shade of green. “I will make sure of it.”

  Me too, thought Mona. “Good—” she started.

  But Henry was faster. “Good-bye, Mr. Heartwood! GOOD-BYE!”

  Through the open door, Mona watched Mr. Heartwood disappear into Fernwood Forest. He won’t be gone long, she thought. What could possibly happen?

  Of course, this was the Heartwood Hotel, and you never knew what a season might bring.

  “Bring that honey! And be quick! Be sharp! Be in line!” buzzed Captain Ruby, who preferred “captain” to “queen.” “You know the rules.” Mona heard the squadron of bees now, flying down the stairs to the kitchen.

  No matter the rules, Ruby and her bees had gotten everything sticky. Their honey was delicious, but the mess it made added to the already long list of spring cleaning.

  Which Mona and Tilly were supposed to be doing now that Mr. Heartwood had left. But Tilly had other plans.

  “This way,” she said, leading Mona away from the stairs and down a hall.

  “What about cleaning the storage room?” asked Mona.

  “This will only take a moment. Trust me—it’s worth it.” Tilly grinned.

  They had arrived at the end of the hall. The squirrel pointed up.

  “I don’t see anything,” said Mona.

  “Look closer,” said Tilly.

  There on the hall ceiling, like a tiny star, hung a golden drop. The drop slipped, fell, and—drip—landed in a bowl. The bowl was filled with honey.

  “It’s coming from the hive, above. There’s a crack in the floor,” said Tilly. “I put the bowl there,” she added.

  “Should we tell Mrs. Higgins? Or Gilles? They could get the carpenter ants to fix it,” started Mona.

  “Fix it?” cried Tilly. “Who wants to fix it?!”

  She produced two pine needles from her apron pocket and handed one to Mona to swirl in the bowl. The honey stuck to it in a glob.

  The honey was sweet and delicious, and Mona had to agree when Tilly licked her lips and said, “This is the way it should be. Honey’s for eating, not cleaning.”

  “How did you find this?”

  “I didn’t. It was—”

  “Me!” At that moment, down the hall burst none other than Henry, his tail almost as big as his body.

  Tilly gave him an extra-big grin.

  “I’m always finding good things like that,” Henry said. “I’ve practically discove
red EVERY secret room and passageway. It’s my nose. I’ve got the BEST nose, you know,” he bragged. “I smelled that you were here. Is it time for a break? Can we play? You promised.”

  “Not yet,” said Tilly.

  “Go on,” said Mona, feeling generous. “I can finish up the storage room.”

  Mona watched as they bounded down the stairs together, one big red tail, one little, both equally bristly.

  If any of Mona’s family had been alive, she’d be taking a break with them, too. She didn’t mind doing a little extra work for her friend.

  But when Mona opened the last of the storage-room doors, she gulped. It wasn’t a little extra cleaning. It was a lot!

  The room was huge and a mess, stuffed with books, boxes, and even a bed! There was a teetering stack of umbrellas made of woven reeds, a big dusty box of holly berry decorations, and an ancient trunk labeled ODDS AND ENDS.

  Luckily, Mona felt up to the task—with the honey humming through her. She briskly swept the room with her dandelion broom, tidying as she went. She still couldn’t dust with her tail like Tilly, but she’d been practicing straightening things with it, and she was getting better and better.

  There was something satisfying about spring cleaning. Like putting on her perfectly pressed apron, the one that Tilly had made for her, with the heart. And something exciting, too, about going through old and new rooms that Mona had never seen before. It was less like cleaning and more like secret-finding.

  Just as she thought that, she spied something.

  Along one wall was a large bookshelf lined with birch-bark volumes, each with a heart on its spine. What could these be? Mona wondered.

  Curious, she leaned her broom against the shelf and stood on tiptoe to pull one out.

  The book was heavy for a mouse to lift. She nearly toppled over from its weight, but with difficulty she managed to carry it over and put it down, as carefully as she could, on the bed. When she opened the birch-bark cover, the pages were curled with age, but she could still read the entry.

  We were so pleased to celebrate our wedding here. Apologies for the smell. We were simply both so nervous. But everything went according to plan. We look forward to returning for anniversaries henceforth.

  —The Sudsburys

  Mona knew the Sudsburys. She had prepared the honeymoon suite for the skunks when they were at the hotel in the fall, for their tenth wedding anniversary.

  And now she knew what these books were, too.

  The guest books! There was always one in the lobby for guests to fill out. She’d never thought about what happened to them once they were full. The guest books were where guests recorded their experiences at the hotel. She turned the page, wondering what other entries might say. The next one was a little hard to make out because of the spelling.

  I am sory I ate the dornob. It wuz a gud mushroom but mummy sed no. I will lissen nex time. I promiss.

  —Sally the skwirl

  Mona giggled. Then she thought of Henry and sighed. Sally reminded her of Tilly’s brother. Henry wouldn’t eat a doorknob—he wasn’t that young—but he was always getting in the way. She flipped a few pages forward.

  What a humongous disaster! My doorknob was eaten, and my room smelled like skunks. Clearly living by “Protect and Respect,” not by “Tooth and Claw,” isn’t working at this hotel. If it hadn’t been for the delicious nectar parfait, I would have left.

  —Hyacinth the hummingbird

  Mona’s whiskers drooped. Poor Hyacinth. At least the food had helped. And pleased the next guest, too…or so it seemed.

  Seedcakes warm, soufflés hot, You’ll be with me in my thoughts.

  —Q

  How mysterious. Mona wondered how many mysteries these books held, how many stories—all the way back to the hotel’s beginning.

  All the way back to…her parents!

  Her parents had stayed for many months at the Heartwood. Although they had helped out, they hadn’t been staff. They had been guests! Guests who might have written something in a guest book!

  She didn’t know much about them, only that her mother had baked seedcakes as buttery as Ms. Prickles’s, and her father had carved the heart on the Heartwood Hotel’s front door. Of course, that was long ago, before she was born, before they had lost their lives in a storm. Mona didn’t have any brothers or sisters, only them. She’d always wanted to know more. Maybe this was her chance.

  But then she glanced up at the books.

  There were so many. Hundreds of little hearts, in row after row, filling the bookshelf. Some looked newer, some older. Where should Mona start?

  It would take her forever to read them all. Unless she had help.

  Tilly! Tilly could help her read them.

  And so, after struggling to put the book back up on the shelf, Mona hurried out to find her friend and share her discovery. This was one time cleaning could wait.

  After all, secrets were better shared, and friends were the best to share them with.

  The Heartwood Hotel door was a bit of a secret itself, with a lock that was carved like a heart that you pressed to open. It was hard to find on purpose, for safety. Every time Mona went in and out of the hotel, she thought of her dad. Finding a guest-book entry written by her parents would be even more special.

  Mona stepped outside, but Tilly was too busy playing with Henry to notice her.

  “Catch!” Tilly called to him.

  Tilly and Henry were in front of the hotel, where the Heartwood grounds met the forest, partially hidden by one of the tree’s huge roots. Mona could just see their ears and the tips of their tails, dancing back and forth.

  “Good one!” shouted Tilly. An acorn ball soared up in the air and disappeared again.

  Mona was just heading around the root when what Tilly said made her pause. “I’ve missed playing ball,” Tilly continued. “There’s no one like you to play with, Henry.”

  There’s me, thought Mona.

  Mona stepped out into the open.

  “Catch!” Henry cried when he saw her.

  Mona tried to, but the acorn ball was really big. It soared over her, hit the root, and rolled back, past Henry and off into the forest.

  “You’d better go get that, Henry,” said Tilly, shaking her head. She turned to Mona. “You’re done already? That was fast!”

  “Actually, no,” said Mona. “But I want to tell you something.”

  “There’s something I wanted to talk to you about, too…” started Tilly.

  But before either of them could say anything, there was a sharp cry. “BZZT, ATTACK!”

  Captain Ruby’s orders caused Mona and Tilly to jump—and Henry, too. He came running back without his acorn and hid behind his sister.

  A buzzing formation of bees zigzagged above them, away from the Heartwood, right up to a giant black shape. A bear!

  Not just any bear. Mona knew at once who this was: Brumble, a friend of the Heartwood. Even though he’d spent the last few months sleeping, not eating, it looked like he’d grown larger. His mountain of black fur seemed to have doubled, perhaps because it was sticking up here and there, in need of a good brush.

  “Stop! Captain Ruby, stop!” Mona cried. Tilly and Henry had backed against the root, too scared to do anything.

  Brumble raised a front paw, looking more confused than angry. The bees split into two V formations, and Mona worried they were about to swarm.

  “STOP!” Mona cried again, running closer. But Captain Ruby wasn’t listening. Mona had to do something, before someone got hurt. What would a captain say? How did a captain say stop? “HALT!” she yelled.

  It worked. Captain Ruby spun around midair to face Mona. “Miss Mouse, you must retreat! It’s a bear!”

  “And a friend!” said Mona.

  Brumble, noticing Mona, put his paw down. “Friend,” he said.

  “Friend?” The captain looked astonished. “Bears aren’t friends!”

  “This one is,” said Mona. “He helped save the hotel f
rom the wolves in the fall.”

  “Did I?” Brumble asked in his gravelly voice. He didn’t have the best memory. “Ah…yes.” He smiled. “That’s right. I’ve come to thank you for that honey you left for me, Mona. And to return this.”

  In his other paw, Mona now noticed he had a round pot, with HH carved on it. The Heartwood had left the pot filled with honey outside his den, as a thank-you for his help.

  Captain Ruby looked taken aback. “So this is the bear I’ve heard stories of? My apologies, sir.”

  “Aw, shucks,” said Brumble. “No sting, no need for a sorry.”

  “Very well, then,” said the captain, “we’ll be on our way. We have a leak to fix.”

  “There goes our drip,” Mona heard Tilly grumble.

  With that, Captain Ruby and her squadron gave a salute and flew back to their hive, in the huge hollow knot halfway up the tree.

  “Gosh,” said Brumble, “they fly quick. I’m just glad I found the right place. I thought I had come to the other hotel.”

  “There’s only one hotel in Fernwood, Brumble,” said Mona, gently. “The Heartwood.”

  Brumble rubbed his nose. “Not anymore. There’s a new hotel opening up. A splashy one.”

  “There is?” asked Mona.

  “There isn’t?” Brumble said.

  Now Mona was as confused as he was.

  “I heard it from some birds,” said the bear. “I’m pretty sure I did. My memory IS better after my hibernation. But…”

  GRRRR! There was a loud rumble. “Excuse me,” said Brumble. “That’s my stomach.”

  Suddenly he spotted an acorn—Henry’s ball—near his paw. He licked it up and gave it a test crunch.

  “Hey!” Henry cried, though he didn’t budge from his place behind Tilly. “My toy! It was my present from Mr. Heartwood.”

  “Ooops!” said Brumble. He spat it out. The acorn was cracked.

  “That’s okay,” said Mona. Actually, she was a little glad. Now she wouldn’t have to deal with flying acorns anymore. But she was still confused. What was Brumble talking about? A new hotel?