Alice-Miranda at Sea

by Jacqueline Harvey

  ‘But then our papa . . .’ Alex sniffed.

  ‘Are you all right, Mr Alex?’ Alice-Miranda popped up and snatched a tissue from the box on Dr Lush’s desk and handed it to him.

  ‘One morning on his way to work, our papa suffered a massive heart attack,’ Dr Lush continued, ‘and passed away.’

  ‘Oh, that’s terrible.’ Alice-Miranda clasped her hands together tightly.

  ‘And we had no money, so our mother worked many hours, all day and half the night. She took in ironing and sewing and she looked after children and cooked, she wore herself out, but all the time she sang. She said that she was singing our father home,’ Alex spoke.

  ‘That’s so beautiful.’ Alice-Miranda looked up at the brothers, wide-eyed.

  ‘And then one day a man passing beneath the open window heard her singing. He was the director of the St Petersburg Opera and could recognise a great talent when he heard it,’ Alex explained.

  ‘Our mother, Maria Bella Lushkov, soon became the most celebrated star of the Russian opera, renowned across the world for her soprano voice,’ Dr Lush added.

  ‘Mama got sick a little while ago and on her deathbed, she asked that we take her home to Venice, where our grandfather had taught her to sing,’ Alex explained.

  ‘Well, of course you should do that,’ Alice-Miranda agreed. ‘But I don’t understand why you didn’t just take a flight and go to Venice.’

  ‘It’s because of her fame. She is a national treasure and the authorities would not allow such a thing. We had to steal her from the crypt and when I heard that the Octavia was heading for Venice and this was a top-secret cruise, I thought it was perfect. I got Alex a job in the band so we could do this together,’ Dr Lush added.

  ‘That’s a wonderful story,’ said Alice-Miranda. She walked over to the two men and patted each one on the hand.

  ‘Thank you for finding her,’ Alex smiled. ‘We appreciate it.’

  ‘Yes, thank you, Alice-Miranda. Perhaps I have been wrong about children,’ Dr Lush added. ‘Well, some children.’

  ‘I’m just glad that things have worked out,’ Alice-Miranda smiled at the brothers.

  Alice-Miranda met her friends as planned in the library right on 8 am. Her beaming smile gave Neville great comfort, as did her emphatic wink.

  ‘So, where did you disappear to this morning?’ Millie whispered as the children made their way to the breakfast room.

  ‘I’ll tell you all about it later,’ Alice-Miranda whispered back. ‘But everything is fine with Neville and Dr Lush. Dr Lush has his case and he said that as long as I can vouch for Neville he won’t tell anyone about him.’

  ‘That’s fantastic.’ Millie squeezed her friend’s hand.

  Jacinta caught up to them. ‘What are you two talking about?’

  ‘I was just saying that I think we should work out what we’re going to do today. We won’t be able to play much at all tomorrow.’

  ‘Why not?’ Jacinta asked.

  ‘Because it’s the wedding,’ Lucas reminded her. ‘Have you forgotten why we’re here? I was hoping you’d save me a dance.’ Lucas winked.

  All Jacinta could do was sigh.

  Alice-Miranda and Millie chuckled.

  Over the most delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, tropical fruits, tea and toast, the group decided that they would spend the morning playing some games on deck, probably take a swim (Neville didn’t mention that he didn’t have any trunks with him and would prefer to sit that one out) and then they’d take in a film in the theatrette. That night Lawrence and Charlotte were hosting a formal dinner in honour of Aunty Gee to thank her for allowing them to have the wedding on board the Octavia.

  Alice-Miranda made sure that Neville sat between her and Millie at breakfast and managed to deflect questions from the other children that meant disclosing any details about Neville and his family. It helped that Alice-Miranda had also told the group the night before that he was painfully shy and found talking quite an ordeal.

  The children had almost finished their meal when the room began to fill with adults busily laughing and recalling the previous evening’s festivities – particularly Shilly and Mrs Oliver’s spectacular dance moves. Alice-Miranda had greeted her parents, who were surprised to see her and the other children up and about so early. Millie had a quick catch-up with her mum and dad, but Ambrosia Headlington- Bear was nowhere to be seen. Charlotte and Lawrence arrived and were quickly surrounded by friends. Alice-Miranda was beginning to wonder if she would have any time at all with her aunt before the end of the cruise.

  ‘Who’s that blond boy over there with your friends?’ Cecelia asked as she waved at the group sitting several tables away.

  ‘That’s Neville,’ Alice-Miranda replied.

  ‘Who does he belong to?’ she asked, then, she said, ‘Oh goodness, with hair that colour he must be Cousin Alfred’s youngest. Hasn’t he grown?’

  Alice-Miranda didn’t correct her mother.

  ‘We’ll see you later, Mummy.’ She kissed her mother’s cheek. ‘Bye, Daddy,’ Alice-Miranda gave her father a tight squeeze.

  As the children were leaving, Lady Sarah and Lord Robert arrived with their daughters Annie and Poppy in tow.

  ‘Good morning,’ Alice-Miranda greeted her cousins.

  ‘Hello there, young lady.’ Lord Robert offered a tight smile. ‘Lovely party last night, wasn’t it?’

  ‘Oh yes, lots of fun. That’s a gorgeous hat, Lady Sarah,’ Alice-Miranda commented, taking in the oversized black-and-white polka-dot panama.

  Sarah’s face was pinched into a grimace, ‘Thank you, sweetheart,’ she replied.

  ‘You know, you look different this morning.’ Alice-Miranda studied her mother’s cousin, trying to work it out. It couldn’t have been her hair. It was hidden beneath the hat. And she certainly hadn’t gained weight. And then it hit her like a lightning bolt. ‘I know. You’re not wearing any jewellery. Well, not much anyway.’

  Tears welled in Lady Sarah’s eyes.

  ‘Alice-Miranda’s right, Mummy,’ said Annie. She gazed up at her mother. ‘Where are your necklaces and your bangles?’

  ‘I decided to try a new look, that’s all.’ Lady Sarah wiped her forefinger across the corner of her eye.

  ‘Well, I think you look lovely, with or without your jewels,’ Alice-Miranda smiled.

  The Adamses moved inside. Alice-Miranda’s mind was ticking. Lady Sarah was always the most bejewelled of her relatives. Some days she wore an armful of gold bracelets and she was never shy of mixing her pearls with long gold chains or other expensive trinkets. Her mummy said that before the girls were even teenagers, her cousin Sarah had amassed an impressive collection of glitter. Everyone knew it was her thing. And now, apart from her gold watch, she was practically naked. Something about that picture was very wrong indeed.

  Millie and Neville exchanged looks as the group headed off to the Promenade Deck for some games. While the boys and Jacinta were organising the chess pieces on the giant board, Millie took the opportunity to have a quiet word with Alice-Miranda.

  ‘I heard what you said to Lady Sarah about her jewellery. Do you think that bag Neville found could have been hers?’

  ‘I’m not sure, but it does seem a very strange coincidence,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘But it’s not in the suite any more, so we can’t prove anything.’

  ‘If they’d been robbed, surely they would have reported it to Admiral Harding?’ Millie decided.

  ‘Yes, I’m sure they would have.’ Alice-Miranda nodded thoughtfully.

  ‘Come on,’ Sep called. ‘We’re going to play in teams. Neville, me and Millie against Alice-Miranda, Jacinta and Lucas.’

  ‘Coming!’ the girls chorused.

  The morning flew by. Neville proved to be a chess champion. He
knew all the moves and his team won the tournament three games to two. He still didn’t say much but he seemed to be enjoying himself. At least he hadn’t scurried back to his room.

  Just before 11 am, Charlotte arrived on deck.

  ‘Hello, miss.’ Charlotte had crept up behind her niece and covered her eyes.

  ‘Aunt Charlotte!’ The tiny child spun around and was immediately scooped into Charlotte’s arms. Alice-Miranda peppered her face with kisses in the usual way, before being deposited back onto the deck.

  ‘Hello, everyone,’ Charlotte greeted the rest of the group. ‘Lawrence and I have been rather busy entertaining everyone and realised that we’ve spent no time with you at all. So we’ve arranged something rather special.’ Charlotte was wide-eyed.

  ‘What is it?’ Millie demanded.

  ‘It’s a surprise,’ Charlotte replied, raising her eyebrows. ‘So you’ll just have to wait.’

  She instructed the children to follow her. Neville thought he might slip away back to his suite but Alice-Miranda convinced him to stick with the group.

  Charlotte led the way towards the rear of the ship. She descended a staircase which passed through several floors, including the Gallery Deck, right to the bottom. Alice-Miranda realised they must have been at the very back of the engine room. Her aunt pushed open a huge metal door and the children found themselves in a kind of dock area.

  ‘There’s a hole in the ship!’ Jacinta exclaimed. ‘Are we sinking?’

  Neville gulped. He’d come this far only to have the Titanic moment he’d been dreading after all.

  ‘No, of course we’re not sinking. The Octavia has its own internal dock where the mail boat comes in and where we get to take that baby out,’ Charlotte pointed at a rubber boat with six rows of seats and a huge engine on the back, bobbing alongside the ship.

  ‘Hello, you lot.’ In his seat beside the driver, Lawrence was grinning from ear to ear. ‘Come on, what are you waiting for?’

  A row of orange life jackets hung along the wall. The children took no time at all getting them on, then hopped into the boat and buckled up. Apparently Aunty Gee had decided a little while ago that she needed something for the younger guests to entertain themselves with and so this little jet boat had been a recent addition. There was another smaller speedboat hanging on a rigging inside the dock too.

  The outboard motor sputtered into life and a plume of smoke rose up from the rear of the boat as the driver revved the engine. Lawrence turned around and waved. ‘Okay everyone, hold on!’

  Jacinta had a vice-like grip on the bar in front of her. ‘Is this sa-a-a-afe?’ her voice drifted on the breeze as the boat roared away from the ship, thumping over the small waves. Her question was drowned out by the children’s hysterical laughter.

  When the driver held his right hand aloft and made a circle in the air, the boat suddenly spun a full 360 degrees.

  Water sprayed all over the passengers but Jacinta seemed to be sitting in the worst possible spot. She was wet through.

  ‘Argh! I’m drowned,’ Jacinta squealed.

  ‘This is the best,’ Millie yelled above the noise.

  Neville got the hiccups.

  Alice-Miranda was sitting beside him. ‘You poor thing,’ she laughed. Neville just smiled, then hiccupped again.

  The boat sped around the ship, its outboard motor buzzing like a baritone bee. The noise had garnered some attention from the passengers and when Cecelia and Hugh spotted the children, they waved madly from the upper deck.

  Aunty Gee and Granny Valentina were taking an early lunch in the smaller dining room and could see the boat zipping to and fro.

  ‘That does look good fun.’ Granny Valentina took a sip of tea.

  ‘Yes, what’s say you and I give it a go tomorrow morning, dear?’ Aunty Gee arched her left eyebrow.

  ‘But ma’am, if I may,’ Mrs Marmalade began. ‘I don’t think that’s a very sensible idea.’

  ‘Oh, Mrs Marmalade, sensible is terribly over-rated – wouldn’t you agree, Valentina?’ Aunty Gee winked.

  Mrs Marmalade excused herself from the luncheon table and scurried away to find Dalton to see if he couldn’t talk sense into Her Majesty.

  Half an hour later, after the jet boat had made more 360-degree turns than anyone could remember and the laughter had dulled from squeals and shrieks to giggles, the boat motored slowly back to the retractable pontoon beside the ship. The children were all trembling from laughter and exhilaration.

  ‘That was awesome, Dad.’ Lucas couldn’t stop smiling as he and his father walked side by side back into the cavernous dock area.

  ‘Thanks . . . that was amazing . . . fantastic . . . the best,’ the children chorused.

  ‘Our pleasure,’ Charlotte smiled. ‘We hoped you’d enjoy it.’

  ‘What are you doing after lunch?’ Lawrence asked the group once they were all safely back inside the ship.

  ‘I’m going to the movies,’ Jacinta declared. ‘I heard there’s a fantastic new film screening called Paris, starring some rather handsome fellow. I think his name’s Lawrence Ridley,’ she finished with a wink.

  The children laughed.

  Neville hadn’t expected to enjoy himself quite so much at all. His hiccups had lasted the entire time but stopped once he was back on board.

  ‘Did you have fun?’ Alice-Miranda asked as she walked alongside him.

  ‘Yes,’ he nodded.

  ‘Isn’t this amazing?’ Alice-Miranda looked around at all the pulleys and cables.

  ‘Astonishing,’ Neville replied. ‘I would never have guessed you could have all this on a ship.’

  The children returned to the dining room for a bite of lunch before heading to the theatrette. The weather had turned decidedly grey and several of the passengers were already fretting about the possibility of another storm.

  Admiral Harding seemed to spend most of his time pacing the ship.

  ‘Gosh, the admiral is in a funny mood,’ Lucas said when the old man passed them for the fifth time just after lunch and asked them for the fifth time if they were all right.

  ‘He looks like he’s expecting something terrible to happen,’ Jacinta added. ‘Like there’s a bomb on board or we’re about to get taken over by pirates.’

  ‘Jacinta!’ the group chided in unison.

  ‘You know, after you win your gold medal at the Olympics, you should definitely become a newsreader,’ Sep added.

  ‘Why?’ she asked.

  ‘Because you love being the bearer of bad news,’ he said, and the group laughed.

  Jacinta rolled her eyes and poked out her tongue.

  It seemed that word had spread of the screening and there was nothing could fill a theatre as fast as bad weather and a gorgeous movie star. By the time the show was ready to start almost every one of the three hundred seats was full.

  As the lights dimmed, Granny Bert could be heard loudly requesting that one of the stewards bring her a choc top, while the children munched their popcorn and sat back to enjoy the film.

  An hour and three quarters later the audience was clapping and cheering, and in some cases bawling their eyes out. Shilly and Mrs Oliver were both reaching for their handkerchiefs, Granny Bert was telling Daisy that she should marry that gorgeous fellow, Lawrence Ridley, completely forgetting that they were on the ship for his wedding to Charlotte, and Jacinta just seemed lost in a trance.

  ‘That was wonderful,’ she gushed. ‘Your father is the most amazing actor.’

  ‘Yeah, he’s pretty good,’ Lucas agreed. ‘He always seems to get the girl.’

  ‘And save the day,’ Sep grinned.

  As they were leaving the theatre the children ran into Alice-Miranda’s mother.

  ‘Did you enjoy that?’ Cecelia enquired.

 
‘Oh, yes, Mummy, it was wonderful,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘Isn’t Uncle Lawrence clever? He should win an Academy Award for that one.’

  ‘Oooh, yes!’ Jacinta was bug-eyed. ‘I’d be so proud.’

  Everyone hooted with laughter.

  ‘You’ll need to go and start getting ready for dinner soon. It’s formal. Think of it as practise for tomorrow,’ Cecelia advised.

  As the children headed for their suites, Alice-Miranda walked alongside Neville. ‘I don’t suppose you have a dinner suit among your things?’ she whispered.

  Neville shook his head. ‘It’s okay. I’d rather stay in.’

  ‘Don’t be silly,’ Alice-Miranda reassured him. ‘I’m sure we can arrange something. Besides, if you stay in you’ll only worry about things.’

  ‘How did you know?’ Neville almost managed a smile.

  ‘Did you enjoy yourself today?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  Neville nodded. ‘I haven’t even thought about, you know . . .’

  ‘Well, then, you must come to the party tonight!’ Alice-Miranda said, then waved goodbye to Neville as he headed downstairs to the Gallery Deck.

  ‘Bye Neville,’ the group chorused. ‘See you later.’

  Neville blushed, before his whole face crumpled upwards into a smile.

  Sloane Sykes arrived home from school to find her mother standing at the kitchen sink drumming her red talons on the granite benchtop like a slow march, over and over again.

  ‘Hello Mummy.’ Sloane threw her backpack into the corner. ‘I need a drink.’

  When her mother didn’t move, Sloane opened the fridge and took out a two-litre bottle of diet cola. She proceeded to pour herself an enormous glass, then sat down at the bench to consume it. Her mother hadn’t turned around at all and seemed rather lost in her thoughts.

  Sloane was preoccupied too. Her day had begun with a slew of taunts from Lola, a brunette beauty who had the whole school wrapped around her manicured pinkie nail, and had ended the same way. For whatever reason, the girl and her posse of friends had taken an intense dislike to Sloane and whenever they saw her they called her names – in Spanish of course, which she didn’t understand but knew from the howls of laughter that accompanied them must have been unkind at the very least. Sloane had yet to make a friend and frequently found herself thinking about Alice-Miranda and Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale Academy for Proper Young Ladies. Maybe it hadn’t been so bad there after all.