'She's a dreadful, dreadful girl,' said Carmelita, and she sipped daintily from her goblet as if to take away the bad taste.
'You should see her hair,' said Josie to Katie. 'It makes me feel sick! It's all wild and curly and all over the place! Eeuwww!'
She didn't seem to realise that both Nicola and Shimlara had wild curly hair and were sitting right in front of her.
'I love curly hair,' said Katie casually. 'I always wished I had it.'
Josie choked on her food.
'Topaz is the daughter of a marshmallow miner and grew up in a nearby village,' said Enrico, ignoring his daughter, who was now gasping for air and being slapped on the back by her brother. 'By all accounts, she comes from a perfectly normal family. No one can explain why she has become so . . . disagreeable.'
'What has this Topaz girl done?' asked Sean curiously. Nicola could see that his plate was completely empty. How had he managed to eat all that so quickly?
'Topaz has nearly brought this planet to a standstill!' boomed Enrico, slamming his fist on the table so hard they all had to steady their goblets.
'My apologies,' he said. His voice became smooth and charming again. 'It's just that I'm so proud of Shobble and everything it stands for. Let me explain. You would know that our planet's slogan is: Never a moment's trouble on our pretty planet of Shobble. That has been true for centuries. We have mined for marshmallow, drilled for chocolate and exported ShobbleChoc all around the galaxy. The planet has thrived and the people have been happy and contented. And yet on the way here, I believe you witnessed a shocking explosion?'
'That's right,' said Nicola.
'Well, that was the work of Topaz,' said Enrico, looking grim. 'She and her nasty little associates spend their days sabotaging the equipment in the mines and the chocolate fields. Days are lost as the equipment is repaired. Freshly mined marshmallow solidifies. Newly drilled chocolate turns to sugar. As a result, there is now a severe shortage of ShobbleChoc. We are losing sales. Our loyal customers throughout the galaxy are turning to inferior products. This can't go on!'
'No,' said Nicola. 'I see.' She was thinking that this Topaz girl seemed even scarier than Princess Petronella had sounded when they first heard about her plans to destroy Earth. (Although once they got to know the Princess they found she wasn't actually scary, just a little . . . misguided.) Presumably Enrico was going to ask them to convince Topaz to stop being a troublemaker. It might be difficult.
'But, er, why?' asked Tyler politely.
'Why what?' asked Enrico.
'Why is this Topaz sabotaging all the equipment? She's not just doing it for fun, is she?'
'Oh.' Enrico waved an impatient hand. 'She wants the miners and the drillers and the factory workers to be paid. Can you imagine? Can you think of anything more ridiculous?'
Everyone in the Space Brigade looked at each other, confused. Nicola wondered if she'd missed something. Surely she'd misunderstood.
'You don't mean that everyone works for free?' said Nicola, laughing slightly, so that Enrico would know she was joking.
'Well of course that's what I mean,' said Enrico. 'They have never been paid. They've never expected to be paid! It's not in their nature to be greedy. The people of Shobble are lovely, sweet people who have always been proud to work for their planet, creating the best chocolate in the galaxy.'
'Oh!' Nicola thought she understood now. 'Do you mean you don't charge for ShobbleChoc? You just give it away to all the other planets?'
Enrico looked at her as if she'd made a bad joke. 'Well, of course people have to pay for ShobbleChoc. People are prepared to pay a premium price for a premium chocolate.'
'We charge twenty gold coins plus shipping for one bar of ShobbleChoc,' said Joseph proudly.
'Five hundred gold coins for a box,' said Josie.
Nicola felt like she was in a maths class where nothing the teacher said made any sense whatsoever. If they were making all this money from the chocolate, then why weren't the workers paid? She looked at Greta. Greta was good at maths. Maybe she understood.
Unfortunately Greta was scratching the side of her head as if she didn't understan
d a word either.
It was Sean who spoke next. 'So who gets all the money then?'
'We do, of course.' Carmelita turned her head slightly so that her diamonds glinted in the candlelight. 'You've no idea what it costs to maintain a house of this size.'
'Our family doesn't get all the gold,' said Enrico. 'Although naturally we get the bulk of it, as I'm in charge of running the planet, which is a huge and exhausting responsibility. Obviously nobody expects me to work for free. There are other people, such as the Head of Price Negotiation and the International Customer Relationships Director, who are also rewarded for their very important work.'
'Let me guess . . .' said Katie. There was a hint of steel in her voice that Nicola had never heard before. 'The only people who get paid on this planet are "hairities"?'