We scurried towards the sampan as quickly as we could, jostling to get on board. Mr Arthur stood by the ramp and handed the girls onto the old boat one by one. When Ruby Kelly nearly lost her balance, he caught her in his arms and lifted her gently on board. She blushed a little but she didn’t thank him.
‘Did you see that?’ whispered Tilly, more to Valentine than to me. ‘Did you see how Mr Arthur was with Ruby? Perhaps Ruby’s given him ideas.’
‘Tilly!’ I said. ‘How dare you talk like that about Mr Arthur!’
Then she laughed, long and loud. She took my hand and kissed the back of it, as if to placate me. ‘Mercy, Poesy Swift. That wasn’t meant for you. You have such jug-ears! But why shouldn’t he like Ruby? He was jealous when she was flirting with those sailors. That’s why he boxed her ears.’
‘No, that’s not right. It was because she hurt Miss Thrupp.’
‘Mr Arthur isn’t what he seems, Poesy. He’s a married man. They say he has two children. Somewhere. But he gives all the girls ideas. Even I used to fancy him once, when I first joined up.’
‘He doesn’t give me any ideas,’ I said hotly. ‘Besides, he’s a grown-up and we’re children. He’s old! How can anyone fancy him?’
‘That doesn’t mean a thing,’ piped up Valentine. ‘Lots of girls have older men fall in love with them. Men can’t help themselves.’
She put her face close to mine, talking in a hurried, breathless way. ‘When we danced for Mr Carnegie in New York City, I think he fancied me. Mr Carnegie, that is, not Mr Arthur. But with Mr Carnegie, it was more fatherly. Perhaps he would have liked to adopt me. You know, that’s probably why he sent money for the Northcote Library. He sent flowers backstage too. They were addressed to all of us but I was the lead that night in The Girl from Paris. Of course, Mrs Essie wouldn’t let me meet him. There’s always a sign on the stage door when we’re touring, saying that no one’s to meet the children, in case they’re not proper, but sometimes when you look down into the audience, you know the gentlemen fancy you. It happens all the time.’
‘But Mr Arthur isn’t in the audience. Mr Arthur – he’s like an uncle to us, isn’t he?’
Tilly narrowed her eyes and shook her head at both of us.
‘You are adorable, Valentine, but sometimes you say the most fanciful things. While you, Poesy, you are simply a baby.’
I looked out at the smooth blue Java Sea and hoped I would never grow up.
18
THE INQUISITION
Poesy Swift
We were only eight hours out of Batavia on our way to Singapore when one of the crew collapsed. I was playing chasey with the little girls and we all saw him fall. He was one of the coal-shovelling men who stoked the engines. He came staggering onto the deck and collapsed right in front of us so that Daisy nearly tripped over his body. She let out a squeal. The man was black and sooty with coal dust, sweat was running in rivulets across his face and he was twitching, almost like Yada when she fitted. Dr Whitehead came running and Miss Thrupp hurried us away from the man.
Half an hour later, there was a meeting of all the passengers in the dining hall. Dr Whitehead announced that the stoker who had collapsed had died of cholera. Miss Thrupp and Eloise both gasped and clutched their babies, and all the girls began to talk at once. Mr Arthur had to stand on a chair and shout at the top of his voice to make us quiet down.
‘There is no need to panic, ladies. I presume none of you have been mingling with the crew. This man would have caught the disease because he stayed ashore in Batavia while we returned safely to the ship. But I want everyone to stay in their cabins until Dr Whitehead gives the all-clear. We will suspend rehearsals until such time as the good doctor deems it appropriate for us to mingle again.’
As soon as the announcements were made, Miss Thrupp burst into tears and ran from the dining hall. Mr Arthur turned his face up to the ceiling and sighed.
‘Eloise,’ he called. ‘Please go and assist Miss Thrupp. She hasn’t had much sleep, it seems.’
‘And who, may I ask, has?’ said Eloise. Her baby was only a month older than Timmy Thrupp. She handed Bertie to Eliza and stood with her hands on her hips, facing Mr Arthur. ‘Can’t you see, Arthur? She’s frightened. But she’s not the only one with a baby, or a cross to bear. You can’t keep all these kiddies locked up all the way to Singapore.’
‘I don’t want to lock them up,’ he said, exasperated. ‘But they can’t mingle with the crew or any other passengers. God knows what will happen if one of them comes down with cholera.’
We were given a list of instructions. We must keep ourselves clean, wash our hands, drink only tea, avoid the passengers who weren’t in the troupe and keep to our cabins until we were notified by Eloise or Miss Thrupp that we could go to the dining hall.
Tilly and Valentine hooked arms and went off to their cabin in a hurry. I looked across at Lizzie and felt my heart sink. I knew she hated being shut up in the cabin. She was always going up on deck in the evening to watch the sea, or sending me out so that she could have time to herself.
In our cabin, the air was like warm soup. I pushed at the porthole, but even with the window open I felt as though I could hardly breathe. Eliza lay on her bunk with a wet flannel over her eyes.
‘Has this ever happened before, when you were touring?’ I asked.
‘People have got sick before. In Manila, Tempe got some tropical sort of fever and I had to take her part. But we were never quarantined. I’m glad I’m with you, Poesy. Imagine if we were stuck in a four-berth cabin with Ruby and that lot.’
‘Don’t you like Ruby?’
‘Do you?’
I didn’t answer because I wasn’t sure how I felt about Ruby. She was one of the prettiest girls in the troupe – no one could compete with her honey curls and dimples – and she had been kind to me. Once, during a rehearsal, she offered to help me with some dance steps. Mr Arthur had been rather wry about it, saying it would have been nice if she could show the same courtesy to her little sisters, but I’m sure she helped them too occasionally.
It wasn’t Ruby that worried me but her two best friends, Tempe and Clarissa. All three girls were seventeen but Tempe was their leader. When she looked down her nose at me I felt uncomfortable inside my own skin, and even if she smiled at me, my teeth were set on edge as if I’d eaten something too sugary.
As for Clarissa, there was nothing sweet in her – she was like something sharp and pickled that left a dry, startled taste in your mouth.
It was odd that I should have been thinking about them at that moment. I was thinking about Clarissa in particular when there was a knock on the door and there she was, as if I’d conjured her.
‘Come and visit us, Poesy,’ she said, taking my hand and drawing me out into the hall. ‘You must be lonely all by yourself.’
‘I’m not by myself,’ I said. ‘Lizzie’s here.’
Clarissa didn’t say anything but she raised one eyebrow and pulled the cabin door shut, leaving Lizzie to her rest.
She kept a firm grasp of my wrist as she led me down the hall to the big cabin that the older girls shared. I tried to twist my arm free but she kept a resolute grip.
‘I’m rescuing you, you stupid creature,’ she said, shoving me through the door of her cabin.
Tempe and Ruby were sitting on a bunk, looking flushed and frowsy in the equatorial air, their bare feet making a row of twenty neat pink toes. They’d stripped down to their petticoats and were taking turns fanning each other with little Chinese paper fans. Clarissa made me sit on a chair opposite them, as if I was on trial. Then she peeled off her outer clothes as well and lay down on the empty bunk above them.
‘We need two things from you, Poesy,’ said Tempe. ‘We need you to tell us what Eliza and Mr. P were doing on deck together late last night. And we need you to be our agent and do a little bit of snooping for us.’
‘What do you mean?’ I asked warily.
‘First question, please,’ said Tempe. S
he pulled her petticoat up higher and then leant forward, putting her pretty face close to mine. ‘What happened last night?’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. Lizzie always goes for a walk on deck in the evenings.’
‘Surely you’re not such a dunderhead that you didn’t notice Eliza was missing for hours,’ said Clarissa.
‘She wasn’t missing. She was with Lionel. He saw her back to our cabin.’
‘Not Mr Arthur?’
‘If she was with Mr Arthur, she was with Lionel as well.’
The jury looked at each other knowingly, as hideous as three witches.
‘Do you think she’s in love with him?’ asked Tempe.
‘With Lionel?’ I asked, incredulous. ‘She pities him, that’s all.’
There was something lumpy about poor Lionel. Lumpy and clumpy and a little bit sad. It didn’t seem possible that anyone should fall in love with him, least of all Lizzie.
‘No, silly. Mr Arthur, of course!’ said Clarissa.
‘No!’ I shouted. ‘How can you be so beastly, Clarissa! Lizzie’s not like you. She’s good and kind and pure of heart.’
‘Hush, hush,’ said Tempe. ‘We didn’t know you and Eliza had become quite so thick. We thought you were Tilly’s little friend.’
‘I’m Tilly’s friend too. But I’m not a sneaking hound,’ I shouted.
Fighting back tears, I dashed out into the corridor, away from their awful insinuations, away from the horrible inquisition, away from their nasty secrets and dirty lies.
19
CABIN FEVER
Poesy Swift
I went back to our cabin but Lizzie wasn’t there and I was glad. I couldn’t bear to face her. What if she asked me about why Ruby and Clarissa and Tempe had wanted to see me? She would be appalled.
I picked up my two dollies, Topsy and Turvy, and pressed their little bodies against my cheeks. Yada had tried to clean them once with eucalyptus oil, and ever since they had smelt of gum trees. It didn’t make me long for home. It made me think of Charlie and us being wedged side by side in our tree outside Balaclava Hall. I tucked them into my apron pocket and stepped out into the passageway.
I knew I’d be in terrible trouble if I was caught but I simply couldn’t sit on my bunk waiting for Lizzie. I tiptoed down the corridor with my heart in my mouth and knocked on Charlie’s door. I hoped he’d be alone because Lionel was nearly always shadowing Mr Arthur. When no one answered, I opened the door myself.
‘Poesy!’ exclaimed Charlie. He was sitting on his bed in his undershorts. He jumped up quickly and turned his back on me while he pulled on his trousers.
‘I knocked,’ I said, stepping into the room and shutting the door behind me. I suppose I should have been embarrassed to catch him half-undressed but I felt oddly pleased. It made me feel we were like brother and sister.
Charlie and Lionel’s cabin was tiny, no bigger than a cupboard with two little bunks set into the wall. I looked around with curiosity, trying not to stare at Charlie’s naked chest, while he pulled on his singlet.
‘I was sewing up my trousers so the pockets make a cone shape, rather than squares,’ he said. ‘It makes it easier to find things when you’re doing a trick. Would you like to see?’
‘I thought you said girls shouldn’t know about magic.’
‘You’re not like the other girls,’ he said. He snatched an old Gladstone bag from beneath his bunk.
‘I want to show you everything. You see this, this is my servante, my magic bag of tricks.’
He patted the bunk and we sat down opposite each other with the servante between us. One by one, he showed me his props: hats, balls, dice, cards, eggs, wands, coins, handkerchiefs and two tiny jars of white powder. Then he took out a shiny red book with a wizard dressed in a long shroud on the cover and rubbed his hands over it. The title, The Magician Annual 1909, was embossed in silver letters.
‘It’s science, really,’ said Charlie. ‘Not mumbo-jumbo.’
I leaned closer to him as he flicked through the pages, pointing out news of the world of magic and explaining the tricks. Suddenly, he looked up.
‘Why are you here, Poesy?’
‘If I have to be locked in a cabin, I’d rather be locked in with you than anyone.’
He smiled but he wouldn’t look at me. The silence between us grew until I couldn’t bear the weight of it. My eyes began to sting with tears.
‘It’s just I hate the way all the girls do nothing but talk about men and boys in a really horrid way.’
Charlie pulled a face. ‘That’s what they do, that lot. They flirt and tell stories. If you don’t like ’em, don’t listen. Then it won’t matter what they say.’
‘But they tell lies! They pretend that men like them and they think every girl wants nothing but to be kissed and it’s all they want to talk about.’
Charlie shrugged. ‘I don’t pay those girls no mind. All a storm in a teacup, if you ask me.’
‘Do none of the boys listen to them?’
‘I should think not,’ he replied. He reached into his servante and pulled out a red velvet bag.
‘Let’s not talk about all that rubbish any more. I’ll show you a trick. Have you got something I could do a vanishing act with?’
‘I wish you could put all those girls’ terrible lies in that bag and make them vanish.’
Charlie rolled his eyes.
‘I’ve got Topsy and Turvy,’ I said, pulling my dolls out of my apron pocket. ‘But you won’t really make them disappear for good, will you?’
‘No,’ he said, scrunching up his nose. ‘I’m going to make them come to life and actually be like Houdini. You watch. There’s more to these dolls than meets the eye.’
Charlie took Topsy and Turvy from me and turned them this way and that, studying them closely. He smoothed their wiry black hair down and adjusted the fall of their dresses. When he finished examining them, he winked at me and then he made Topsy and Turvy dance about on the top of his servante while he whistled a little tune. Next he made them peek over the edge of the case to look at what was hiding inside. He animated them so well, it was almost as if they were really alive. When they’d finished studying all his things, he sat them both in the crook of his arm while he shook out a soft red velvet bag and showed Topsy and Turvy how it was lined with black silk.
Before I could stop him, he’d tumbled them both into the bag.
‘Now look into my servante and fish out that long green ribbon,’ he said as he held the bag firmly shut with both hands. ‘We don’t want them to escape. We want them to prove that the magic has taken hold of their souls.’
My heart fluttered in my chest but I did as I was told and tied the ribbon in a tight knot around the top of the bag. ‘Now you keep hold of both ends of the ribbon, Poesy, so you can be sure that Topsy and Turvy are safe inside.’
While I held the long ribbon stretched in either direction, Charlie pulled out a silk scarf and covered the bag. I could feel my heart beating faster. The air in the cabin suddenly seemed very close. I pulled the ribbons tighter and tighter, almost afraid that Topsy and Turvy really were going to come to life and wrestle their way out of the bag. And then, that’s exactly what they did.
Charlie put one hand under the scarf and up jumped Topsy and Turvy. I let out a shout of surprise and at the same moment he threw away the silk scarf and I was left holding the two ends of the ribbon with the bag still firmly hanging in the middle. It was extraordinary. I grabbed the bag and untied the ribbon. Of course it was empty, for Topsy and Turvy were sitting on Charlie’s knee. I studied the bag to see if there was some secret hole that he had slipped them through, but it was neatly sewn on all sides.
‘How did you do that?’ I asked.
‘If I told you, it wouldn’t be magic.’
‘Please, Charlie. I can’t bear not knowing. You mustn’t lie to me.’
‘I’d never lie to you, Poesy,’ he said, suddenly hurt and shy in the same instant. He hung his
head and picked at Topsy and Turvy’s clothes. ‘I just can’t tell you all my secrets.’
Even though I longed to know how he’d done it, I nodded. Gently, I prised the dolls from his fingers. I kissed each of them tenderly and then tucked them back in my pocket. All the while, Charlie sat watching me.
‘One day, perhaps I might tell you,’ he said.
We stared at each other for a long moment.
‘One day,’ I said, ‘we might tell each other everything.’
20
LITTLE PIGGIES
Tilly Sweetrick
It was dreadful being cooped up. I felt like a wild bird trapped in captivity. Every time I tried to creep out of my cabin, Mr Arthur or that awful sneak Lionel would be patrolling the ship and would shoo me back into my cage.
We steamed across the Java Sea and crossed the Equator during the night. When we reached Singapore, a health inspector came on board, took away the body of the dead stoker, and declared the Ceylon was to be quarantined for two weeks.
‘Two weeks!’ The pronouncement shot through the troupe like a whipping, a prison sentence.
That same afternoon, Mr Arthur called a meeting in the dining hall. The air was steamy and everyone was thirsty but the doctor said we had to keep drinking nothing but tea until the all-clear was given. Everyone sat slumped in their seats, utterly miserable.
‘Rehearsals will continue so you won’t be confined all day. I want you in the dining hall every morning by ten o’clock sharp but at other times you’ll keep to your cabins. We’ve booked the Victoria Theatre here in Singapore and we must be ready to open our season as soon as we’re off the ship.’
‘We can’t spend another two weeks in our cabins,’ I said. ‘You simply can’t treat us like cattle, only allowed out for milking.’ I looked at Mr Arthur pleadingly but he ignored my warning. His face was drawn and his mouth set in a grim line. If only he’d listened to me.
At the end of our first week in quarantine, I was quietly making my way to the dining hall for rehearsals when it happened. As I turned onto the main deck, a dozen girls came pelting towards me. Ruby was in the lead, her tawny hair loose. She threw her arms up in the air to slow her pace and nearly collided with me. While the others streamed past, she put her arms on my shoulders, breathless with laughter.
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