by Gwyneth Rees
‘Yes, well you couldn’t have stuck it on very well . . . it was on the floor and I’d done plenty of worrying by the time I found it!’
‘Marietta, please don’t be cross with Stella,’ Ava begged, feeling terrible.
‘Yes,’ Lexi chipped in. ‘She was just helping us get Bonnie back to her mum.’
‘Speaking of which,’ Stella said swiftly, ‘I really ought to go and phone the police.’
‘Why don’t you leave that to us?’ Dad suggested, quickly looking up from his inspection of Bonnie.
‘Really? Well . . . if you’re sure . . .’ Stella sounded relieved. ‘I’d certainly like to get Lexi back to the circus as quickly as possible. I can take Ava back too if you want.’
‘That’s OK,’ Ava’s dad replied. ‘Ava can come back with us.’ He looked at his sister. ‘Marietta, how about you go and make that call now, while Ava and I stay here with Bonnie?’
Ava stood with her arms around Bonnie as they watched Stella and Lexi leave in the lorry. Marietta had already driven off ahead of them in the car.
‘It won’t be long now, Bonnie,’ Ava murmured, gently stroking the baby elephant on the front of her trunk.
As Dad came to stand in front of Bonnie again, the elephant greeted him with soft, trusting eyes. ‘Ava, lend me your tiara for a moment, will you?’ he said.
‘Why?’ Ava asked in surprise as she handed it over.
‘Watch.’ Her dad carefully placed the tiara on Bonnie’s head. Not only did Bonnie look extremely cute wearing it, but the tiara seemed to glow extra brightly all of a sudden.
‘She has the travelling gift,’ Dad said at once. As Ava stared at Bonnie in disbelief he added, ‘It’s not just humans who have it, you know. Remember Cindy . . .’
Ava was stunned. It was true that Ava’s pet cat, Cindy, had proved that cats could have the gift when she had travelled through a magic mirror to Cinderella-land. But Ava hadn’t thought before about other animals having it too.
‘So is that why Bonnie seems so relaxed with us?’ Ava eventually asked slowly. ‘Because she senses we have the same gift as her?’
‘Probably, though I think she also just senses that we’re on her side. Elephants are very intelligent, sensitive creatures – and not just the travelling ones.’
As he spoke, Bonnie reached up with her trunk and removed the tiara from her head, offering it back to Ava with a friendly grunt.
‘Thank you, Bonnie!’ Ava said with a giggle.
Her dad smiled and waited for Ava to put the tiara back on her own head before suddenly looking more serious. ‘Ava, I know how badly you want to reunite Bonnie with her mother, but I’d like to speak to the zoo’s owner first. I want to make sure we’re not moving her out of the frying pan into the fire so to speak.’
‘What do you mean?’ Ava asked in surprise.
‘Here.’ Dad pulled a folded sheet of newspaper and a pen-torch out of his pocket. ‘When Marietta came to tell me you had gone off with Stella to take an elephant back to Fancy’s Zoo, I remembered an article I’d read in the newspaper a couple of weeks ago. Luckily I still had it. Look.’ He shone his torch on the torn-out page so that Ava could read it.
DISAPPEARING ZOO OWNER TAKES SECRET TO THE GRAVE, the headline read. Mr Hugh Fancy, owner of the ill-fated Fancy’s Zoo and Elephant Sanctuary, has died at the age of 97. In the 1950s Fancy’s elephant sanctuary became famous after Mr Fancy and his entire collection of Indian elephants mysteriously vanished in the middle of the night. A full investigation took place at the time, including a detailed search of the zoo’s grounds, but the fate of Mr Fancy and his elephants was to become one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of the decade . . . Ava stopped reading and stared at her dad. ‘It’s the nineteen fifties now, isn’t it?’
He nodded. ‘Keep going. You can skip the next part with all the dates and details. Just read the paragraph at the end.’
. . . One winter’s morning, thirty years later, Mr Fancy reappeared in a hospital A & E department, apparently suffering from a total loss of memory. Sadly, throughout the rest of his long life he was unable to shed any light on the mystery of his missing elephants.
‘I don’t understand!’ Ava exclaimed. ‘What happened to all those elephants, and does this mean that if we leave Bonnie here then she’s going to disappear too?’
‘I’ve a pretty good idea what it means,’ her dad replied, ‘but I need to find out for sure. That’s why I’ve asked Marietta not to phone the police but to see if she can find Mr Fancy in the local phone book instead.’
It didn’t take long for Marietta to return with the news that Mr Hugh Fancy lived in a house within the zoo grounds and that he was coming to meet them at the gates just as soon as he was dressed. In fact she had barely finished telling them this when they spotted the flickering light of a torch a short distance away on the other side of the gates.
Mr Fancy turned out to be a man who looked about the same age as Ava’s dad. He wore round spectacles and had untidy dark hair and Ava thought he looked a bit like an eccentric professor. He unlocked the gates and shrieked with delight when he saw Bonnie – hugging her and kissing her and thanking everyone repeatedly. Apparently he suspected an ex-employee of organizing the theft, and since the man had left the area before the police could question him, the zoo owner had almost given up hope of ever seeing his baby elephant again.
If Mr Fancy thought it strange that Bonnie’s rescuers were all dressed in circus costumes he didn’t say so as he invited them inside and led them up the lane, shining his flashlight in front of them to show them the way. Bonnie was only too happy to be led along by Ava, clearly delighted to be home.
Dad and Mr Fancy walked slightly ahead to start off with, talking quietly together. Soon however they both turned around and Dad announced, ‘It’s just as I thought. Mr Fancy is a traveller like us and he has a magic mirror right here in the zoo grounds.’
‘These grounds and the mirror have been in my family for generations,’ Mr Fancy explained. ‘We have a small lake here and the mirror lies under the water in a shallow part, just at the edge. If a human – or an animal – with the travelling gift looks into the water at that spot they can be transported through the portal to the other side. But only if they’re wearing an item of magic clothing, of course, which is why it doesn’t happen to animals under normal circumstances.’
‘Tell them where your portal goes,’ Dad prompted him.
‘It leads to a very beautiful stretch of land in Northern India, which has been marked out as a wildlife sanctuary. Hunting is forbidden there and the elephants and other animals live together freely in the wild.’
‘Wow!’ Ava exclaimed.
‘My plan is to gather together as many elephants with the travelling gift as I can from circuses and other zoos,’ Mr Fancy continued. ‘When I have enough I shall set them free to live as one herd on the other side of the magic portal. Of course, all the details will need to be worked out very carefully first . . . what item of magic clothing they could reasonably wear . . . how I shall explain their disappearance afterwards . . . whether I should disappear with them for a little while until all the fuss dies down . . .’
‘Or for a long while . . .’ Ava murmured, but her dad put his finger to his lips to warn her that they mustn’t give away too much information about the future.
Ava stayed quiet after that, still curious about Mr Fancy’s mysteriously long disappearance, but happy that everything else was falling into place. For not only were Bonnie and her mother about to be reunited, but soon they would be living freely in the wild.
11
The moon was out and shining brightly as Mr Fancy showed Ava through a gate into a massive grassy enclosure full of bushes and trees. Opening on to it was the elephant house, from where four adult elephants had just emerged through a massive flap-like door. One of them was making trumpeting noises and pacing about in a very agitated sort of way.
‘Is that Bonnie’s mother?’ Ava whispered.
Mr Fancy nodded. ‘Yes, that’s Grace . . . She’s been beside herself since Bonnie was taken. Now . . . you should be fine here. Just stay well back and keep nice and quiet.’
Mr Fancy then went to fetch Bonnie, who was trumpeting excitedly as he released her into the enclosure through a larger gate a little further along from where he had positioned Ava.
Bonnie’s mother immediately turned towards her baby and let out a piercing cry of recognition. The two elephants launched themselves at one other to meet in the middle of the compound in a kerfuffle of noise and obvious emotion. In the moonlight Ava could see Bonnie’s mother touching her repeatedly with the end of her trunk as Bonnie cuddled up to her, full of shrieks and joyful snorts as her world suddenly became a safe and familiar place again. The other elephants came trotting over to join in the welcome, and Ava watched as Bonnie was gently nudged underneath her mother’s body, disappearing from view behind a protective fence of grown-up elephant legs.
Mr Fancy was smiling and rubbing tears from his eyes as he came over to stand with Ava. Ava was smiling too, grateful that Bonnie’s ordeal was finally over. But there was still one thing she wanted to ask before they rejoined the others.
‘Mr Fancy, do you think you could be happy if you had to stay on the other side of your portal for a really long time? Actually live there instead of here, I mean?’
He looked puzzled. ‘Oh, yes . . . in some ways I much prefer India to England. But why do you want to know?’
‘Oh, no reason,’ Ava replied quickly. But she couldn’t help grinning and feeling pleased that she had asked.
By the time Ava’s dad had driven them all the way back to the circus it was midafternoon.
‘I’ll go and tell Tony we’ve brought back his car,’ Marietta said. ‘I’ll probably stay and chat to him for a while, so don’t wait for me.’
Ava and her dad headed for Stella’s caravan and on the way they met Stella walking towards the big top with Lexi.
‘Ava, this morning I got a telegram from my mum!’ Lexi greeted her happily. ‘My dad’s going to be OK! He’s finally started to respond to his treatment and the doctors say he should make a full recovery!’
‘Oh, that’s wonderful!’ Ava burst out, giving Lexi a hug.
‘Thank goodness,’ Ava’s dad said, smiling too.
‘Mum says he’s probably going to be moved out of intensive care tomorrow and then I can go and see him,’ Lexi said. ‘I can’t wait to see Mum again as well!’ Almost without pausing to breathe she continued, ‘How did it go with Bonnie? I bet she was really happy to see her mum again too, wasn’t she?’
Ava nodded, wishing she could tell her friend all about the zoo’s magic mirror and Mr Fancy’s future plans for Bonnie and the other elephants. Instead she described in detail the scene where the mother and baby had been reunited, while Lexi and Stella listened avidly.
‘Are Max and Val still here?’ Dad asked when Ava had finished.
‘Yes, unfortunately,’ Lexi said, pulling a face.
‘But they’re leaving tomorrow,’ Stella added quickly. ‘According to Val they’re off to join another circus where they’ll be better appreciated! Dulcie and Gemma didn’t want to go with them at first, but they changed their minds after Tony told them he won’t work with them on the trapeze any more. He doesn’t trust them after that stunt they pulled on Ava yesterday.’
‘What stunt?’ Dad asked at once, and Ava realized that Marietta couldn’t have told him yet what had happened.
‘They were trying to scare off Marietta and they decided to use Ava to do it,’ Stella said.
‘Use Ava how?’ Dad demanded.
Fortunately his attention was temporarily diverted as Gemma and Dulcie came into view. For a moment Ava wondered if they were coming to apologize and she hoped they wouldn’t say too much in front of her dad.
But of course she needn’t have worried. As usual the twins were only thinking about themselves.
‘Isn’t it wonderful? Dulcie and I are to be the stars in our family’s new act!’ Gemma boasted. ‘Dad says we’re going to bring the act some much-needed glamour.’
‘Yes, and our new career in the Impalement Arts will be far more exciting than swinging about on that boring old trapeze with Tony,’ Dulcie added haughtily.
Lexi was grinning. ‘The Impalement Arts? Isn’t that just a fancy way of saying knife-throwing?’
‘Certainly not!’ Dulcie responded sharply. ‘The Impalement Arts can involve the throwing of axes, daggers, machetes, arrows, tomahawks—’
‘OK, girls, I think we get it,’ Stella broke in. ‘I presume you’re going to be The Target Twins now then, since we all know that neither of you can throw for toffee!’
Dulcie and Gemma glared furiously at Stella before stalking off.
‘Those two have always taken themselves far too seriously,’ Stella said as she watched them go. She turned to Ava and her dad. ‘Well . . . are you going to stay and watch the show this evening?’
Ava’s dad shook his head. ‘I’m afraid we really must be getting home now.’
‘Oh, but you’ll come and see us again soon, won’t you, Ava?’ Lexi asked anxiously.
Ava looked up at her dad, who nodded. ‘I’ll bring you here myself next time, Ava. Then I can make sure you don’t get into any trouble!’
As Stella leaned forward to give Ava a goodbye kiss she said, ‘Don’t forget your butterfly wings, will you. They’re in my caravan. And while you’re there you should go and see how pretty you look in my dressing-table mirror.’ And she gave Ava a little wink.
Ava kept thinking about that wink all the way to the caravan.
‘Dad, Stella can’t know about the magic mirror, can she?’ she asked when she was seated in front of Stella’s dressing table looking at her own reflection in the glass.
‘Of course she knows,’ Dad answered matter-of-factly, helping her on with her wings. ‘It would be difficult not to, with us lot coming and going all the time, don’t you think?’
Ava was shocked. ‘But . . . but she never said anything! Are you sure she knows?’
‘Pretty sure, yes.’ He gestured with a grin at the bulky dressing table and mirror, which looked so out of place among Stella’s other cheerful fifties furnishings. ‘I mean, why else would she keep this ugly great thing in her caravan?’
‘Oh!’ Ava exclaimed, seeing what he meant, and suddenly she was full of questions. But there was no time to ask them, because the mirror was starting to glow and she knew she must keep looking into it, concentrating only on her own reflection, if the magic was to transport her home.
There are hundreds of beautiful dresses in every colour of the rainbow — sewn with magic thread. Take a look, try one on — and wait for the magic to whisk you away on an amazing adventure!
Ava is looking for her cat when she finds Marietta’s mysterious shop. She tries on a perfectly fitting gold and emerald princess dress and whizzes through a secret mirror — to fairytale land! Will she get there in time to be a bridesmaid at Cinderella’s wedding?
There are hundreds of beautiful dresses in every colour of the rainbow — sewn with magic thread. Take a look, try one on — and wait for the magic to whisk you away on an amazing adventure!
Ava has just discovered the enchantment of Marietta’s special dressing-up shop. Now she can’t wait to try on a twinkling tutu with matching ballet slippers and pirouette back to Victorian times. Once there she finds she has an important part to play in making a girl’s ballerina dreams come true!
A selected list of titles available from Macmillan Children’s Books
The prices shown below are correct at the time of going to press. However, Macmillan Publishers reserves the right to show new retail prices on covers, which may differ from those previously advertised.
* * *
Gwyneth Rees
The Magic Princess Dress
978-0-330-46113-9
£4.99
The Twinkling Tutu
&
nbsp; 978-0-330-46116-0
£4.99
Mermaid Magic
978-0-330-42632-9
£5.99
Fairy Dust
978-0-330-41554-5
£5.99
Fairy Treasure
978-0-330-43730-1
£5.99
Fairy Dreams
978-0-330-43476-8
£5.99
Fairy Gold
978-0-330-43938-1
£5.99
Fairy Rescue
978-0-330-43971-8
£5.99
Fairy Secrets
978-0-330-44215-2
£5.99
Cosmo and the Magic Sneeze
978-0-330-43729-5
£5.99
Cosmo and the Great Witch Escape
978-0-330-43733-2
£5.99
Cosmo and the Secret Spell
978-0-330-44216-9
£4.99
Something Secret
978-0-330-46404-8
£5.99
* * *
All Pan Macmillan titles can be ordered from our website, www.panmacmillan.com, or from your local bookshop and are also available by post from:
Bookpost, PO Box 29, Douglas, Isle of Man IM99 1BQ
Credit cards accepted. For details:
