### Clue: This bed's horrid', says Violet Elizabeth, as story intensifies (3,4,8)
### Answer: THE PLOT THICKENS 
 ### Explanation: Definition: story intensifies
 [THE PLOT](this bed/this area of ground in a garden where plants and flowers are grown) + THICKENS(how Violet Elizabeth, the lisping character in the series of children's books featuring schoolboy William Brown, would say "sickens"/…'s horrid/is horrid).