by Lyn Gardner
“You’re being a fool!”
“Keep your voice down; walls have ears,” hissed the other person, and the voices dropped. Rose couldn’t hear any more of the exchange. She walked out of the room and stopped by the storeroom. She was very curious to know who was talking inside but she didn’t want to be caught eavesdropping. She was just about to turn the handle and fling open the door when Thomas appeared at the end of corridor and called out to her.
“Ah, Rosie! Be a dear and go and help wash the glasses at the bar ready for the rush this evening. Billy Proctor seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth for the last half an hour. I know you’ve been hard at it all afternoon and I would ask Lottie or Jem to lend a hand, but I can’t find them anywhere either.” Rose hesitated. She would love to know who was in the storeroom but Thomas was shooing her towards the bar. When she got a chance to double-back a few minutes later the storeroom door was ajar and the corridor outside was full of people, including Jem and Lottie. Lydia was talking in a low voice to Amy, and Gandini and Billy Proctor were in deep conversation.
“Hey, Billy,” said Rose. “Thomas is looking for you. You’re supposed to be on bar duty.” Billy coloured, and pushed his way past her towards the bar. Rose followed him, and said quietly, “By the way, I spotted you going into Holloway Prison last Wednesday afternoon.”
Billy’s voice was terse. “You are quite mistaken, Rose. I’ve never been anywhere near Holloway. It must have been someone else.”
“Oh,” said Rose sweetly. “And I thought you were visiting the Duchess.”
“Never heard of her,” said Billy. But Rose could see that he was clenching his knuckles so tightly they had turned quite white.
It was later that evening. Campion’s was brimming over with crowds eager to see Gandini’s return to the stage for the first time since the disappearance of the Doomstone. Rose and Rory peeped out from backstage into the Campion’s auditorium. Edward had just arrived, hotfoot from performing Hamlet at the Pall Mall. Lydia came up behind him and murmured something in his ear that made him smile. Amy, who seemed to follow Lydia around like a faithful but discontented lamb glued to the side of a negligent shepherdess, was looking on stonily. With every day that went by she looked more ill at ease and grumpy. Stratford-Mark was bringing up the rear and he seemed more mournful than ever. Rumours were swirling around town that he was facing ruin within weeks, and that the Pall Mall would have to be sold unless he could come up with money to pay his debts almost immediately. Rose had overheard Edward and Lydia talking about it only the previous day.
“He may be a bad businessman but he genuinely loves that theatre; it’s an obsession with him,” said Edward.
“Just as you are for me,” replied Lydia, looking deeply into Edward’s eyes. “Don’t worry about Stratford-Mark, Edward. I have every confidence he’ll find a way to save the Pall Mall. That kind of passion always finds a way. It can’t be thwarted.”
Now Edward was looking anxiously around in search of Effie. “Am I too late to see Effie before she goes on? I wanted to give her a little present to mark her debut,” said Edward, and he drew a small box out of his pocket and opened it. Inside nestled a small, perfect pearl, tied on a piece of black silk ribbon.
“She’s upstairs in Thomas’s office,” said Rose. “Apparently Gandini likes to be on his own just before a performance, so Thomas said that if Effie wanted to be somewhere quiet, she could sit in his office. Rory and I were just going up to check that she’s all right. We’ll go up together. The pearl’s beautiful, Edward.”
As they entered the study, Effie turned to face them. She was ash-pale and her eyes were panicked.
“I can’t do it, I can’t go on,” she said desperately. “I’ve forgotten everything Mr Gandini taught me. I’ll ruin everything. An’ everyone will laugh and say I’m just a little prigger who’s got above meself and thinks she can be somebody by becoming a magician’s assistant.”
Edward stepped forward and took her hand. “Effie,” he said gently. “It’ll be all right. I know it will. Every single night just before I go on stage I think I’ve forgotten every word that Hamlet says. Some nights my mind’s so blank that I can’t even remember what my first line is, and I get into a terrible funk. But once I get out on stage, everything I’m supposed to say and do comes back miraculously. It will for you too. I promise. You’re just suffering from stage fright. Everybody gets it. It’s just that some people – and that’s you and me – get it worse. But you will be fine.”
“No I won’t,” said Effie despairing. “I can’t even palm a coin. I’ve forgotten how. Look!” She took a coin in her hand, and as she tried to make it disappear her hands shook and she fumbled it, and the coin dropped to the ground. She picked it up, muttering to herself, and the same thing happened again. “See,” she cried. “I’ve forgotten everything. I’m stupid and useless. Just like everyone said I was at school.”
Amy bent and picked up the coin. “No, you’re not stupid, Effie, and you haven’t forgotten. I’ve heard you are very clever, a natural magician’s assistant. You can do it, I know you can. Look, I’ll show you,” she said, and she rotated the coin and put it in her left palm with her right hand and quickly curled her fingers. When she opened her palm the coin had gone. “Now you try,” she said kindly. “It’s easy. Don’t even try to think about it. Your fingers will just know what to do. They remember. Once they learn, the fingers never forget. I promise.”
Effie took the coin and did exactly as Amy had demonstrated.
“Oh, Amy,” she cried tearfully, “I can’t thank you enough. You should be Mr Gandini’s assistant, not me.” She looked to the door. “Hello, Inspector, have you come to see me be a magician’s assistant?”
Rose glanced over her shoulder. She hadn’t noticed the arrival of Inspector Cliff, who was leaning against the doorframe watching them all. She wondered how long he had been standing there and whether he had witnessed Amy’s expert magic demonstration. She also wondered where Amy had learned to do magic. It was almost as if they had just seen an entirely different Amy, confident and in control, from the one who crept after Lydia like a little ghost. She wondered which was the real Amy, and which the imposter.
The inspector smiled at Effie. “Effie, I’ve come to wish you—”
“No!” shouted Rose, Rory and Edward simultaneously.
“Don’t say it, Inspector,” screeched Rose. “Don’t you know it’s bad luck to wish anyone good luck just before they go on stage in a theatre or music hall?”
The inspector shook his head. “I had no idea.” He turned to Effie. “But I’m very much looking forward to seeing you and Gandini working together.” Then he turned to Amy. “You could be in a magic show yourself, Miss Hodgson. I had no idea you were so skilled.”
“I’m not really. I just picked a bit up when I was in—”
But Lydia spoke over her loudly and cut her off. “Look, Effie, Edward has a present for you.”
Edward gave Effie the box and when she opened it and saw the pearl, her eyes brimmed with tears.
“Oh, Eddie. It’s so lovely. I’ll be jest like a real lady. It’s much more beautiful than that stupid Doomstone.”
“It is,” said Rose. “And it doesn’t come with a curse attached either.”
“No,” said Edward. “It certainly doesn’t. In fact, I hope that it will bring you all the good fortune in the world, Effie. You deserve it.”
Thomas appeared at the door. “Effie, Gandini is asking for you. You must come downstairs. It’s almost time.”
The party started to walk downstairs, Edward stopping to talk to Jem, who was waiting for him at the bottom, looking anxious. The two men walked to a spot where they would have a little privacy.
Rose glanced back as they walked towards stage right and the two men were in deep conversation, worry etched on both their faces as Jem waved his hands around as if denying something.
“I feel as if I’m going to me execution,” whispered Effie,
and Rose wasn’t at all sure that she was joking. They met Gandini by the side of the stage. The magician had the demeanour of a recently deceased corpse that had been terrified to death. He was horribly pale, his forehead was slicked with sweat and his hands were visibly shaking. Rose and Thomas glanced at each other: Gandini was clearly suffering from something far worse than a bad oyster.
“Are you ready, little Effie?” he asked kindly, a tremble in his voice. “You are the best magician’s assistant that Gandini has ever had. We will go out there together and make your mother proud,” he said. A rivulet of sweat ran down the side of his face into his black beard.
“We will,” said Effie firmly and she smiled gently at the magician and took Gandini’s shaking hand, all her nerves apparently evaporated, and squeezed it.
“I can’t do it, I can’t go on,” said Gandini despairingly.
“Yes, you can,” said Effie very calmly, her own nerves vanished as if she had been performing every single day of her life. “We can do this together, Mr Gandini. We’ll lean on each other.” There was a roll of cymbals and a puff of smoke on the stage. “Come,” said Effie, like a parent leading a frightened child, and she stepped out on to the stage pulling the reluctant Gandini behind her. Rose’s and Thomas’s eyes briefly met. The Great Wizard of the North suffered from the worst stage fright that they had ever seen. The start of every performance must be pure hell for him. Rose wondered how he could possibly go on performing when stepping on to a stage was clearly such agony.
12
The audience yelled with delight. Gandini had taken the red silk handkerchief handed to him by Effie and stuffed it into his curled fist. Then, when he opened his fist, the silk handkerchief had disappeared and instead there was an egg in his palm. Effie had immediately produced a second red silk handkerchief and placed it over Gandini’s hand containing the egg. Gandini passed his other hand over the handkerchief and Effie pulled away the red silk material to reveal a small fluffy chick. The audience gasped and burst into applause, drumming their feet so hard that Rose felt the gallery vibrate.
Within a few minutes of stepping on stage, all Gandini’s stage fright seemed to evaporate and he was in total control. Thomas relaxed. Rose and the others moved into the auditorium for a better view. Lydia and Edward were sitting at a table near the stage with Stratford-Mark, but Rose, Aurora, Thomas and Amy had gone upstairs to the gallery, where they had a good view of the stage and the front of the auditorium. Rose winked at Aurora. They were thrilled that Effie was doing brilliantly. She seemed remarkably assured. Anyone would have thought that she had been a magician’s assistant all her life.
Gandini and Effie were now doing a trick involving eggs and a bucket. They were going around the auditorium, and Gandini was plucking eggs from behind the ears of audience members. Gandini and Effie stopped in front of Inspector Cliff. Gandini reached behind the policeman’s neck and produced a fluffy yellow chick, and then another and another. The audience guffawed with pleasure. They all knew he was the policeman who so far had failed to solve the crime of the missing Doomstone.
“Look a bit ’arder, Gandini, an’ yer might find the Doomstone be’ind the peeler’s neck,” yelled one wag in the audience, and there were chortles of delighted laughter. Inspector Cliff was smiling too, but the smile was fixed, as if he knew that he was being made a fool of by being the focus of Gandini’s attention.
Effie and Gandini moved back to the centre of the stage for a coin trick. Knowing that everything was going so well for Effie, Rose allowed her gaze to wander. She had half an eye on what was happening on stage, and half an eye on the audience. Billy Proctor was delivering some drinks to Edward and Lydia. Edward’s hand was resting gently over Lydia’s. Rose gave a quick sidelong glance at Aurora. She wondered if her friend had noticed. She could see that Stratford-Mark had seen the gesture – his eyes were fixed upon that hand. Rose frowned. Was Stratford-Mark jealous? Did he too harbour feelings for the beautiful Lydia? But she wasn’t sure. The way he was looking sideways at his two stars, Edward and Lydia, suggested less unrequited love, more undisguised greed. Maybe, Rose wondered, he didn’t see them as people – just tickets sold at the box office.
Distracted by that little drama being played out on the table below, Rose looked quickly back at the stage, and as she did so she saw Gandini reach up his sleeve and remove a coin. She was surprised to see him being so sloppy. But she was astonished when the crowd burst into applause. Even Thomas and Aurora were applauding loudly. But surely everyone must have seen what she had seen? Gandini had flunked the trick. But clearly they hadn’t: they were all cheering wildly. She frowned. She suddenly thought back to what Effie had said about how closely related magic and prigging were, and how a pickpocket used misdirection so he or she could carry out their crime without anyone noticing what they were doing, including the person who was the mark. Could it be that everyone was looking so hard at what Gandini and Effie were doing, and trying to work out exactly how they were doing it, that they completely failed to notice what was going on under their noses? That perhaps you needed to look less hard to see the truth?
Her eyes flicked around the auditorium. She started. The man with the handlebar moustache who had spoken to her and Rory and Effie was in the audience again. He was much more soberly dressed – no sign of the peacock-blue waistcoat – but it was unmistakeably him. His tie offered a vivid flash of blue, and he was wearing a diamond tiepin that caught the light. Rose reckoned the Tanner Street boys would be eyeing up that tiepin. The man was next to Billy at the side of the auditorium, and there was something about the way they were standing side by side, and the way Billy whispered something in his ear, that made her think that they had a long-standing familiarity. She frowned. Campion’s brought people of all backgrounds and classes together, but even so, you wouldn’t expect a barman and a gentleman to be on such easy terms with each other. She decided she would race down the stairs at the end of the act and try to alert the inspector to the man’s presence, and while she was about it, maybe she would have a word with him about Billy.
She was about to turn her eyes back to the stage when she saw Edward look towards the place where Billy and the man from the Pall Mall were standing together. The man gave Edward an understated thumbs-up, and Edward gave an almost imperceptible nod. Rose was disconcerted. It was almost as if some kind of signal was passing between the two men.
Her mind racing, she glanced back at the stage where the dove trick, now famed because of its association with the theft of the Doomstone, was once again being performed to the delight of the audience. Gandini had shown the audience the table before placing his fez upon it, and once again he was telling the audience to count the doves as they flew out of the upturned fez. Everyone’s attention was focused firmly on the fez and the doves, which this time, to the evident pleasure of the audience, were not just white but all the colours of the rainbow. Although Rose was captivated by the doves she was also looking around the audience. She was not the only one. Her gaze met that of Inspector Cliff, and his eyes lingered on her for a second. She wondered whether Inspector Cliff was quite the fool that everyone took him for. Maybe in his own way he was as much of a magician as Gandini, skilled at seeming to be a little bit incompetent and unthreatening, when all the time he was building up a bigger picture, and a case against whoever had stolen the Doomstone. But that meant he must think that somebody connected with Campion’s was responsible for its theft.
She glanced back at the fez and the table and, once again, perhaps because she was thinking about the inspector, she thought she saw something she shouldn’t have seen: a tiny flicker of movement in the cloth covering the table. Gandini and Effie must have found a way of secreting the box of doves under the table after Gandini had shown it to the audience to demonstrate that there was no trickery involved. It was the only explanation. The final dove flew out of the fez to tumultuous applause and the birds flew in a circle around Gandini’s head. It was the end of the act. Gandini an
d Effie took a bow before running off stage together. The audience continued to cheer loudly, drumming their feet on the wooden boards, making a sound like rolling thunder. But Gandini and Effie did not return. Rose frowned. Her heart began to beat faster. Why hadn’t they come back? Was something wrong? She saw an anxious furrow in Thomas’s brow.
But then, suddenly, there was a tiny puff of smoke from the fez and then another and another. The crowd fell silent again. Then a lop-eared rabbit suddenly poked its nose out of the hat and looked around, as if astonished to find itself on stage. The rabbit struggled out of the hat and on to the table. It sat for a second blinking as if with surprise, before jumping down off the table and hopping off stage. Only then did Gandini return to the most astonishing laughter and applause. He beckoned off stage and Effie joined him, holding the rabbit in her arms. Gandini put an arm around her shoulder and smiled broadly. Rose looked down into the auditorium: the man from the Pall Mall had disappeared as if he had been magicked away. Rose rushed down the stairs and pushed her way through the crowds to the door. She could see the man at the far end of the alley just getting into a hansom, and called out, but it had already pulled away. She turned, defeated, and as she went to go back towards Campion’s she was surprised to see Lydia standing by the entrance, all alone, fanning herself. There were tears in her beautiful eyes. She rubbed them away in a manner that reminded Rose of a small angry child and tried to smile brightly at Rose.
“Lydia! Is everything all right? Can I get Edward for you?” asked Rose.
Lydia gave her a watery smile and shook her head. “No. I’m just being silly. I was overcome with emotion watching little Effie and Gandini doing their act together. They work in such harmony together.”
