A Night in the Manx Museum

by Michele McGrath

  “I know, but maybe you could come back again sometime. There’s so much else to see and do. There’re always new things. Do come.”

  “I will if I possibly can,” Ellen said and meant it with all her heart.

  Sophie took her mother’s hand and walked away, turning often to look back. Ellen stood at the cottage door with Mrs. Teare and waved until Sophie had climbed up into the cabinet and she could not see her any more.

  “Come and lie down on the bed, child, you’re worn out.” Mrs. Teare led her to the furthest side of the big double bed, made her lie down and covered her with a shawl.

  “You won’t have long to wait. The curator will be round to check that everything is well. Give him a little time to get clear and then follow. They should have the doors open by then and you can go home.”

  “I will. Thank you for everything.”

  Ellen tucked herself into a little ball and lay there looking at the ceiling and watching a small spider spinning its web in the far corner. She did feel tired after all the excitement and it was comfortable and warm. She started to doze and it was very difficult to keep her eyes from closing. She fought sleep for a while, because she knew she had to watch for the curator, but it was really too hard. After a while her eyes closed and she slipped into sleep.

  Chapter Nine: Going Home.

  Diane felt truly weary as she locked her car and opened the front door. It had been a long night. Just enough things had happened so that she had been kept going and had not been able to get her head down. Not enough had happened to make her forget her tiredness. She hated being on nights and she was longing to go to bed. The TV was on in the lounge as she opened the door.

  “Morning, Mum.” Danny was slumped on the settee, eating a bowl of cornflakes.

  “Morning, darling.” Diane dropped down beside him and kicked off her shoes. That felt so good.

  “Do you want a cuppa? The kettle’s just boiled.”

  “Lovely.”

  Danny was such a good boy in some things. If only he would not forget so much. The tea was hot and strong, just as she liked it. The warmth was making her sleepy.

  “Did you have a good night?”

  “A broken leg, three lacerations and someone who thought he was having a heart attack. Lord, I’m tired!”

  “Go to bed then.”

  “I will when I’ve seen Ellen. Where is she?”

  “Still in bed.”

  “Goodnight son.”

  “Goodnight.”

  Wearily, Diane climbed the stairs and made her way to her daughter’s room. She opened the door softly, in case the child was still asleep. She sometimes slept late in the holidays, when she did not have to get up for school. But the curtains were open and the bed was still made. For a moment, Diane wondered if Ellen had already got up, made her bed and gone out. But Danny would have said so. Both children always told her where they were going, they knew how much she worried. She stood still for a moment, absorbing the shock. Then, telling herself not to be silly, she checked the bathroom and the other bedrooms before running down the stairs, her tiredness forgotten.

  Danny, stretched full length on the coach, looked at her in amazement. “I thought you were going to bed, Mum?”

  “Danny, where is Ellen? She’s not in her room and her bed does not look as if it’s been slept in.”

  Diane could feel her voice becoming shrill and she ended on a scream. Danny jumped to his feet, as if he was on springs and Diane gripped his wrist. Fear made her stronger than usual and her hand tightened.

  “Get off, Mum, you’re hurting me. Have you looked in the other rooms?”

  “She’s not upstairs.”

  Quickly the two of them checked the rest of the house and the small garden.

  “What time did she get in last night?” Diane asked distractedly.

  “She was having tea with Megan; at least that’s what she told me. After that, I suppose.”

  “You suppose? You didn’t actually see her come in?” Diane’s voice rose again and Danny looked sheepish.

  “No. I had rugby practice until seven and then I had tea. I started to watch the telly, but it was boring and I fell asleep. It was midnight before I woke up and everything was quiet, so I got up and went to bed. ”

  “And you didn’t check that Ellen was in the house?”

  “No. I didn’t want to wake her. You know how lightly she sleeps.”

  “Danny, I left you in charge, I thought I could trust you and now I come home and I find that your sister’s not in the house and you have no idea where she is!”

  “I’m sorry, Mum. I didn’t think. It never occurred to me that she was not in her room asleep. What can we do?”

  For a moment, Danny looked just like a little boy in trouble and not the cool young man that he thought himself to be. Diane saw that he was on the verge of tears and she bit back her anger and her fear. It would not help to take her feelings out on Danny. The important thing was to find Ellen.

  “You search the house again, in case she is playing a game and hiding from us. I’ll ring Megan’s mum and see when she left there. ”

  Diane ran to the phone. Danny searched the house and the garden again. He looked in the shed and in all the cupboards, even the ones Ellen was too big now to squeeze into. But he could not find her. He was beginning to get angry himself. Ellen knew better than to give them such a fright. Then he felt sick. What if something terrible had happened to her? It would be his fault! If she was playing a trick though, he was going to murder her!

  Diane came towards him and her face was white. She swayed as if she was going to faint.

  “Mum what is it?” He was almost afraid to ask and he held onto her to stop her falling.

  “Ellen did not have tea with them. Megan, who is a bit of a silly girl, said she thought she’d heard Ellen say something about going home. They’d been playing Hide and Seek in the Museum until it was closing time and they had to leave. When they could not find Ellen, they asked one of the curators. He said there was no one left inside, so they thought that she had gone without telling them. She’d been a bit cross because she was always the seeker. They all went home and they never thought about it until I asked.” Diane sank into a chair, her body beginning to shake.

  “What do we do now? Tell the police?”

  “We will have to, unless we can find her ourselves. They are sure to ask where we have searched. I want you to get on the phone and ring all her friends, in case she’s gone to one of their houses.” Diane picked up her keys. “I’ll drive towards the Museum and see if I can spot her. I’ll ask them when I get there. Someone may have seen her leave. If neither of us have any luck, we’ll call the police.” In spite of herself, she could hear the tremor in her voice.

  “Ring me if you find her.”

  “I will.” Diane drove slowly along the most likely route. Every so often she stopped to check behind a bush or a wall. Her tiredness had been replaced with a choking fear. She did not even want to admit to herself that she was looking for her little girl’s body. Why oh why had she not bought Ellen a mobile phone? She had thought that she was too young to need one! Diane drove through the Museum gates and parked. She took a deep breath to try and calm herself. She needed them to understand what she was saying. She ran through the doors and up to the receptionist.

  “Please help me,” she said, “my daughter did not come home last night and the last place we knew where she was, was here.”

  “Oh you poor dear!” The receptionist came out from behind her desk and gently led Diane to her own seat. “Sit here a moment, you’re shaking. I’ll get help.”

  A couple of minutes later, Diane was in the Manager’s office telling her tale to several staff. The Manager was friendly and helpful, but he was shaking his head. “I don’t think she can be still in the building. There are alarms on both floors and neither of them rang in the night. We will look for her, of course, but she would have to have stayed completely still from closing time unti
l this morning, or she would have set off the alarm system. Brian, John, get the others and make a thorough search, just in case.”

  The two men left and Diane could hear hurrying feet as others joined. A cup of tea was put into her hands, but she was shaking too much to hold it and she put it down quickly.

  The Manager lifted the telephone and was just saying, “Would you like me to ring the police for you?” when his walky-talky buzzed. “Excuse me,” he said and listened. Then he gave a huge smile, dropped the walky-talky and jumped to his feet. “They’ve found her,” he shouted, “she’s ok!”

  “Oh, thank God!” Diane felt faint and she shook her head to get rid of the sudden dizziness. Now was no time to pass out. “Where is she?”

  “Downstairs, in the cottage.”

  Diane never remembered running out of the Manager’s office and down the stairs. The first thing she remembered afterwards was kneeling beside the old bed, where Ellen was lying, tucked up in a cotton shawl and obviously only just woken up. Diane gathered her into her arms. The child was warm and she put her arms round her mother and hugged her.

  “Oh darling, what happened? You gave us such a terrible fright!”

  “I don’t really know.” Ellen looked round in bewilderment at her strange surroundings and the strange people standing round looking at her. “I had such a lovely time but it must have been a dream. It didn’t feel like a dream though. It felt so real. I couldn’t get out of here you see, unless I asked Monarch and I forgot.”

  “Monarch?”

  “The great deer. He goes for a run every evening.”

  The adults looked at each other and some of them were smiling.

  One of the curators said to another, “She mustn’t have moved all night. Either that or the alarms are on the blink.”

  Ellen looked at him and said, “Oh no, the alarms are working. I had to jump over them; Sophie showed me how to do it.”

  “Who’s Sophie?”

  “The girl in the red dress. She lives here. She looked after me and showed me where the alarms are,” she smiled at her mother, “they look like red beams across the floor.”

  Diane smiled with the others but she said, “You have given everybody a great deal of worry and trouble. Thank these men who found you. We must go home now and I must ring Danny, he doesn’t know I have found you.”

  Diane led her sleepy daughter up the stairs, thanked the Manager for his help and turned to go back to the car, when Ellen stopped. “Just a minute, Mum, I need to tell him something.” She turned back to the Manager and said, “Manannan says that his cloak has frayed on one of the seams and it is catching on things and Monarch, the great deer, says that the bolts on his platform are coming loose and it’s beginning to tip over. He does not want to fall on anybody.”

  The Manager looked at Diane and shook his head. “The things kids say!” he said. The events of the morning were the strangest he could ever remember happening in his life.

  Out of curiosity, when he had a free moment after lunch, he went to check the great deer’s platform and found that, indeed, the bolts were loose. The stand was open to the public and the little girl could easily have found out that out earlier in the day, when the children were playing. He would have to get it fixed.

  There was no way she could have got into the glass cabinet that held the cloak. It was always kept locked. Although he did not expect to find anything wrong, he decided to check. He opened the glass cabinet, climbed inside and examined the cloak. Sure enough, there was the frayed seam. He scratched his head in puzzlement.

  “How the Dickens could she get into a locked cabinet and find out about that?” he wondered.

  Copyright © 2012 by Michèle McGrath

  All rights reserved

  No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the author.

  All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  My books are fiction set in history.

  Written in English (UK)

  Published by Riverscourt Publishing

  Thank you for reading my story. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please consider leaving a review on Amazon or the site where you bought it from.

  I send out new and exclusive stories to my email list. If you wish to join, please sign up on my website http://www.michelemcgrath.co.uk

  About Michèle McGrath

  Award winning author, Michele McGrath, was born on the beautiful Isle of Man in the middle of the Irish Sea. She has lived in California, Liverpool, France and Lancashire before returning home. Living in Paris and Grenoble taught her to make a mean ratatouille and she learned the hula in Hawaii.

  Michele is a qualified swimming teacher and manager, writing self help books on these subjects. Although she writes in many genres, her real loves are historical romance and fantasy. She has won numerous writing competitions, had second places and been short-listed many times. She has had tens of thousands of sales and downloads.

  **Visit her blog at http://www.michelemcgrath.co.uk/blog

  **Follow Michele on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/michele.mcgrath.books. She loves to chat with readers.

  **Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/benvoirrey

  What others are saying about Michele's books:

  "From the very first and magical sentence, I was hooked on this novel."

  Eddie on Kindle, reviewing Manannan's Magic.

  “Set in post-revolutionary France, Duval and the Infernal Machine captures the atmosphere of suspicion and intrigue that reigned in Paris at the time. The author does a splendid job of immersing the reader into the darker corners of the city." Simon on Kindle reviewing Duval and the Infernal Machine.

  “I have been terrified of the water ever since nearly drowning in Lake Michigan. My wife has tried to teach me to float - with no success - for 40 years. The techniques outlined in this book are easy to follow. Maybe finally, after all these years, I'll be able to swim and NOT be afraid of the water. Thanks Michele, wish you lived in the States so I could get private lessons." Steven on Kindle reviewing Learn to Swim, even if you are terrified."

  “An intriguing and haunting short story, which the author says is based upon a real wartime experience. The fitting and satisfying ending will stay with me for a long time. An excellent story."

  Gunnar on Kindle reviewing Five Lamps.

  “Beautiful! Just 12 short pages, but it left me in tears. The author has such a delicate, lovely way with words that the sentences and sentiments were whispered over the pages. I will save this on my kindle to read again."

  Tina on Kindle reviewing The Carpenter's Bench.

  Books by Michèle McGrath

  Easy Business Skills:

  Easy Business Skills Box set

  Easy Self Confidence

  Easy Time Management

  Easy Assertiveness

  Easy Communication Skills

  Easy Presentation Skills

  Swimming:

  Learn to Swim even if you are Terrified

  *Amazon Bestseller*

  Teach your Child to Swim: The Easy Way.

  *Amazon International Bestseller*

  Novels:

  The Manannan Series (Historical Fantasy)

  Manannan’s Magic: Manannan McLir flees from a blood feud in Ireland and finds a tragic love with a young Celtic girl, Renny. Betrayal, a Viking invasion and a narrow escape all feature in this novel.

  Niamh of the Golden Hair: Niamh is captured by Viking raiders and unexpectedly falls in love with her captor. When he is badly injured, she must find her father, Manannan, who may be able to cure his wound.

  Emer’s Quest: Emer, Manannan’s granddaughter, dreams that her father will be shipwrecked. She rides after him to prevent him leaving but she is too late. She persuades friends to follow him. On her journey she meets Atli, a trader who offers to rescue her father i
f she will marry one of his sons. Unfortunately his son Hari does not want her.

  Manannan Trilogy:Box Set

  Ghost Diaries Series (Paranormal Romance)

  Gigi’s Guardian: A romp through an unusual sort of Heaven and Swinging Sixties London. Ariane helps Gigi choose the right man to marry, after many trials and tribulations. A comedy romance with serious overtones.

  Duval Series (Napoleon’s Police)

  Duval and the Infernal Machine 1800: Rookie police agent, Alain Duval investigates the attempted assassination on Napoleon Bonaparte. The book features romance, terror and an unexpected ending.

  Duval and the Empress’s Crown 1804: Police Agent Alain Duval is tasked with finding the crown but time is very short and his suspects many. Present when the crown disappeared are Napoleon's sisters, Princess Elisa, Princess Pauline and Princess Caroline. Are they involved or merely witnesses? Aided by his wife Eugenie and his friends Lefebvre and Fournier, Duval sets out to unravel the mystery.

  Duval and the Italian Opera Singer 1805: Carla Cortini arrives in Paris claiming that her son is Napoleon’s child. She relates the story to Duval and enquiries seem to confirm that it is true. When Duval goes to tell her and take her to the Emperor, he discovers that the mother and son have been kidnapped.

  Duval at Waterloo 1815: The last Duval book. Duval travels to Paris and gets caught up in the preparations for Napoleon’s last battle.

  Napoleon’s Police: Box set of the first three Duval books published.