Alice-Miranda Holds the Key 15

by Jacqueline Harvey

  The old man shook his head. ‘Still a mystery.’

  All of a sudden, Betsy bounded over to the wall and began to bark. She charged through the hedge.

  ‘Betsy, girl, what have you found in there?’ Mr Greening called, squinting at the bush.

  Alice-Miranda gasped. She held her breath until the labrador charged out of the hedge with a large bone gripped between her jaws.

  ‘Where did you get that?’ the man said, scratching his head.

  Alice-Miranda laughed with relief and snuck a look sideways, where she saw Millie and Chessie heading for the conservatory. ‘She probably buried it there. Well, I best be off to help with the preparations. Have a lovely day, Mr Greening!’

  She slammed the window shut and raced out into the hallway, skidding around the corner on the polished wooden floors. The tiny child leapt onto the banister rail and whizzed to the bottom, where she pulled up short of doing her usual jump to the ground below. Her dismount was tame, to say the least.

  She scurried past the dining room, where it looked as though the entire household had taken up residence. Shilly was working away at the sideboard while Cecelia was up a ladder, dusting picture frames. Lily was polishing the solid brass dinner gong and Daisy was cleaning the windows.

  The windows!

  Alice-Miranda screeched to a halt and raced back to the doorway. ‘Daisy,’ she shouted, louder than was necessary.

  The woman spun around, as did everyone else in the room.

  Alice-Miranda scrambled for something to say. ‘Um, what time are the Treloar children due?’ she asked.

  Daisy checked her watch. ‘Fifteen minutes. Have you changed your mind about looking after them?’ she asked anxiously.

  ‘Oh, not at all. I was just checking,’ Alice-Miranda said, flashing a reassuring smile.

  Once she saw Millie and Chessie had flown past, she threw the group a wave and hurried down the hallway, past an assortment of clocks and antiques, to the conservatory. Crowded with ferns and potted palms, magnificent tubs of orchids, as well as several settings of elegant rattan furniture, the space was a tropical oasis. Cecelia had been working on the renovation all year, having taken inspiration from Prince Shivaji’s magnificent room in the palace at Jaipur, with a mind to reveal the finished masterpiece at the annual garden party. Alice-Miranda couldn’t help thinking her mother had done a wonderful job.

  She met Millie and Chessie at the conservatory door. It was going to be much too hard to navigate the foyer without being spotted, but there was another way to get to her bedroom. A secret staircase in Hugh’s study led directly to her parents’ bedroom.

  Alice-Miranda hugged Chessie. ‘I’m so glad you came,’ she said. ‘Follow me. It may be a little tricky, but we’ll be fine once we get to Daddy’s study.’

  Millie frowned. She had no idea why they were going there.

  Alice-Miranda led the girls down the passageway as quickly and as quietly as she could. She pressed her ear to the study door, then pushed it open. She beckoned for Chessie and Millie to go through.

  ‘What are we doing in here?’ Millie asked, still at a loss.

  Alice-Miranda walked over to the bookshelf and pulled on a copy of War and Peace. There was a loud click before the shelf came to life before their very eyes, pivoting to reveal a spiral staircase.

  ‘Whoa!’ Millie’s jaw dropped. ‘This house is the coolest.’

  Chessie’s eyes almost popped out of her head. ‘Where does it go?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s perfectly safe. Just follow me.’ The girls did as they were bid and Alice-Miranda pulled the case closed from the other side, listening for the click. A dim yellow light illuminated the space and she led the way upstairs, emerging into her father’s walnut-panelled walk-in-wardrobe. There was a mile of shirts arranged by colour on the top rail, and racks of trousers below.

  ‘Is this a shop?’ Chessie whispered.

  ‘You should see her mother’s wardrobe,’ Millie whispered. ‘It’s twice as big.’

  Alice-Miranda poked her head out of the room to check the coast was clear. The only person she was worried about now was her Aunt Charlotte.

  The girls sped along the landing, trying their best to avoid the squeakiest floorboards. They were almost at her bedroom door when Aunt Charlotte emerged from the blue room. Alice-Miranda shook her head and pointed to another door, which Millie hurriedly opened and shoved Chessie through before jumping in herself.

  Charlotte heard the kerfuffle and turned around. ‘Hello sweetheart,’ she said, smiling at her niece. ‘I was just on my way to the kitchen to warm up some bottles for the twins.’

  ‘Would you like me to watch them?’ Alice-Miranda offered.

  ‘That would be great. They’d love that,’ Charlotte said, and headed to the back stairs.

  Alice-Miranda waited until her aunt had disappeared before she tapped on the door Millie and Chessie were hiding behind.

  ‘That was close,’ Millie said, as the girls scooted around to Alice-Miranda’s bedroom.

  ‘I’m going to watch the twins. Be back as soon as Aunt Charlotte is,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  Millie led Chessie inside Alice-Miranda’s room and the girls dumped their bags onto the floor.

  Chessie was grinning from ear to ear. ‘I’ve never done anything even remotely rebellious in my whole life until the past couple of days. Now look at me. I don’t even know who I am.’

  Millie grinned back at her. ‘Well, I don’t think I’ve harboured too many escapees before either.’

  Chessie wandered around the room, taking it all in. ‘This doll’s house is incredible.’

  Millie walked over to join her. ‘It’s an exact replica of this house. We could probably find that secret staircase in Hugh’s study.’

  ‘I’ve dreamed about a beautiful room like this,’ Chessie said wistfully. ‘I’d hoped there might be one at my mother’s new house, but I don’t imagine I’ll ever get to see it even if there is.’ The smile slipped from her face.

  ‘You can’t be sure of that. It’s probably just a big misunderstanding.’ Millie reached out and patted the girl on the back.

  Chessie sniffed. ‘Thank you for being so kind to me. I hope you and Alice-Miranda don’t get into trouble for housing a fugitive.’

  ‘You’re not really a fugitive,’ Millie reasoned. ‘It’s not as if you’ve committed a crime or anything. Technically, you’re a runaway.’

  ‘You know,’ Chessie said, sitting down on the edge of Alice-Miranda’s bed, ‘I am really quite tired of running.’ She yawned and laid her head on a pillow and within a minute or two was fast asleep.

  Millie met Alice-Miranda outside her bedroom.

  ‘Chessie fell asleep almost straight away,’ Millie said quietly, as they headed downstairs, ‘so I tucked her under the duvet and made it look as if it was you – at least you have the same colour hair.’

  Cecelia Highton-Smith appeared at the end of the hallway carrying a towering stack of newspapers. The top section began to totter and sway before the entire thing came crashing down.

  Alice-Miranda and Millie raced over to help her.

  ‘Oh, silly me,’ Cecelia sighed. ‘I thought I’d fetch some old newspapers from the cellar to clean the windows, but it seems I’ve just created more mess.’

  ‘It’s all right, Mummy, we’ll give you a hand,’ Alice-Miranda said as she and Millie set about picking up the pages.

  Cecelia and Millie each carried a smaller pile into the dining room. While Alice-Miranda gathered the last of the pages from the floor, a photograph caught her eye. It was of her grandmother at a charity ball. She was standing next to a very handsome man, whom the caption revealed to be Desmond Berwick, CEO of the Paper Moon Foundation. But even more troubling was the other woman by his side. Her name was Jemima Berwick and, if Alice-Miranda wasn’t mistaken, she looked strikingly similar to Jemima Tavistock albeit with a slightly different nose. A thousand questions were running through Alice-Miranda’s mind but there was n
o time to raise them right now. She tore out the page and tucked it into her pocket.

  Cecelia reappeared with Millie, and Alice-Miranda passed her mother the last little stack of papers just as the front doorbells chimed.

  ‘We’ll get it,’ Millie volunteered.

  The two girls, wearing only their socks, skidded on the polished floor across the entrance hall. Alice-Miranda fished around in the antique bureau and pulled out an oversized iron key on a long red tassel. She turned the lock and opened the front door.

  Standing on the veranda were the Treloars. The smallest girl was perched on her father’s hip while the other two, a boy and girl, were holding hands.

  The little boy’s jaw dropped open. ‘Are you a princess?’ he asked.

  Alice-Miranda laughed. ‘Not at all.’

  ‘But this is a palace,’ the boy said, craning his neck to see inside.

  ‘Welcome to Highton Hall,’ Alice-Miranda said warmly. She extended her hand to Bentley, who gave it an awkward shake. ‘You must be Mr Treloar. I’m Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones and this is my friend, Millie. We’ve been looking forward to your visit all day.’

  The man’s face quickly turned the colour of his hair. ‘I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure where we should go.’

  ‘We tend to use the side entrance by the kitchen,’ Alice-Miranda told him, ‘but of course you weren’t to know. Mummy should really put up a sign, especially because the bells on this door can be a bit hit and miss at times. You could have wound up standing out here for ages if they were having an off day!’

  The ginger-haired family blinked in response, quite taken aback by the charming child.

  ‘You must be Dottie,’ Alice-Miranda said. She offered her hand to the older girl, who reminded her of Millie but with strawberry-blonde curls and fewer freckles. Dottie grinned shyly and shook her hand. Alice-Miranda turned to the boy. ‘And you’re Leo?’

  ‘Like a lion,’ he growled, and Millie recoiled in mock horror.

  ‘Leo, stop that,’ his father chided. But the boy continued to bare his teeth.

  ‘And this must be Martha.’ Alice-Miranda tickled the little girl’s chubby bare leg. The toddler giggled.

  Daisy scampered down the hall and out onto the veranda, tucking her dusting cloth into the back pocket of her jeans and wiping her brow. Martha’s eyes lit up as soon as she spotted her. She released the grip on her father’s neck and leaned out, eager to be in the young woman’s arms.

  ‘Thank you so much for bringing the children over, Mr Treloar,’ Daisy said. ‘I hope it wasn’t too much of an inconvenience.’

  ‘Not at all,’ the man replied, his eyes sweeping the entrance foyer. ‘I’m just thankful you can look after them. I hope you won’t be too tired. It’s a lot to manage.’

  ‘I’m fine. It’s a busy time, that’s all,’ Daisy said. ‘And Alice-Miranda and Millie have everything worked out. They’ve got games for the children to play in the side sitting room and plenty of toys.’

  Martha clapped her hands at the mention of toys.

  ‘Can we go exploring?’ Leo asked.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘There are lots of secret places and maybe we can go to the treehouse too. It’s not dangerous, I promise.’

  The little boy’s smile couldn’t have been any wider.

  A clock struck somewhere inside the house, reminding Bentley to get a move on. He leaned down to give Leo and Dottie hugs and kisses then Martha too. ‘I’ll see you at home in the morning,’ he said and gave a wave as he walked back to the car.

  ‘Okay, you lot, Alice-Miranda and Millie are in charge. I want you to be on your best behaviour and do as they say,’ Daisy instructed, leading the troupe into the entrance hall.

  Leo smiled and pointed at Alice-Miranda. ‘She’s pretty,’ he said.

  ‘Thank you, Leo,’ Alice-Miranda said with a grin. ‘And I think you make a very handsome young lion.’

  The little boy beamed and raced to grab her hand.

  ‘The house is beautiful,’ Dottie breathed.

  ‘I think so too,’ Millie agreed.

  ‘We’re very lucky to live here,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  ‘You are a princess,’ Leo gasped, and pointed at a shiny coat of armour that stood guard in an alcove under the staircase.

  Alice-Miranda laughed. ‘I do know some princesses but I am definitely not one of them. Is anyone hungry?’

  The three children nodded.

  ‘Perfect,’ she said. ‘Mrs Greening made a heaven cake. I can’t wait for you to try it. It tastes like clouds and has cream frosting that tingles on your tongue. It’s my favourite – along with devil’s food cake, which is the best chocolate cake in the whole wide world.’

  ‘She’s right,’ Millie jumped in. ‘It’s not like anything you’ve ever tasted.’

  The group made their way to the kitchen, where Millie poured milk for the children and helped Alice-Miranda to cut some slices of heaven cake.

  ‘It’s not usually so busy,’ Alice-Miranda explained as they sat around the kitchen table. ‘It’s just that we have a big garden party and open house event next weekend and Mrs Shillingsworth likes everything to be spick and span from top to bottom.’

  The children relished their first afternoon tea at the Hall. Martha stuffed her chubby fingers into her mouth, licking every last morsel, although her tongue wasn’t quite long enough to reach all of the places on her face where she’d left crumbs.

  Alice-Miranda cleared the plates and glasses, stacking everything neatly into one of two dishwashers while Millie grabbed a packet of wet wipes and she and Dottie washed the children’s hands and faces before they headed into the side sitting room. Alice-Miranda was about to join them when she spotted something poking out from behind the biscuit jar on the bench. She smiled and picked up the furry creature. ‘I don’t know where you’ve been hiding but I know someone who will be very glad to see you when she wakes up.’

  Alice-Miranda hadn’t noticed that Aunt Charlotte had arrived in the kitchen with Imogen in her arms. Imogen reached out and grabbed the dog from her cousin’s hand.

  ‘Mine,’ she declared.

  Alice-Miranda shook her head. ‘I’m afraid this little dog belongs to someone else,’ she said, trying to prise the soft toy from the toddler’s grasp.

  Imogen’s lip began to wobble and her face scrunched up.

  ‘Please don’t cry, darling,’ Charlotte cooed. She turned to Alice-Miranda with a desperate look in her eyes. ‘Can Imogen keep him for now? I’ll get it back to you as soon as she forgets.’

  Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘Of course.’

  ‘Would you mind watching her for a few minutes while I go and get Marcus?’ Charlotte asked. ‘That boy is so patient. He never complains when I take bossy boots here first.’

  Alice-Miranda cuddled her cousin and took her through to the sitting room. Millie had the children involved in a great game of cubby building with sheets and pillows everywhere.

  ‘This is Imogen,’ Alice-Miranda said, introducing the toddler.

  Martha eyed her warily for a few seconds before thumping over and grabbing her hand.

  ‘Would you like me to take your dog for you?’ Alice-Miranda asked Imogen, eager to separate the two as quickly as possible.

  ‘No!’ Imogen clutched the creature ever more tightly. ‘Mine.’

  Alice-Miranda looked at Millie, then at the dog. Millie’s mouth formed a perfect ‘O’ when she realised what her friend was getting at.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Millie said with a grin. ‘As soon as she puts him down, I’m on it.’

  Trouble was, Imogen had no intention of being parted from her new friend – no matter what.

  Marjorie Plunkett felt a wave of relief wash over her. Dr Treloar’s investigations had resulted in the most extraordinary revelations. It had transpired that it was just as Alice-Miranda had suspected – a mild poison, the culprit being cyanide. Now all that was left to do was to locate the source of the cont
amination and neutralise it. She’d called Hugh, who was eager to consult with his team on the next step in the process. Hopefully, they would be able to isolate the cause and have the shops reopened within a matter of days.

  The chopper hovered over the moonlit field beyond the front lawn of Highton Hall. Marjorie could see that preparations for the garden party were well underway. Fingers crossed it would be an occasion to celebrate, after all.

  As the helicopter came in to land, its headlights shone on to the front of the house, illuminating a child’s face. She could only assume it was Alice-Miranda’s, although it was difficult to tell.

  Marjorie’s phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out and looked at the screen, and decided she’d have to call back later. Juggling two major investigations always kept things interesting. The Kennington’s case had taken up most of her time lately due to the urgency of the situation, but things were also beginning to gain traction on the other matter. Marjorie would certainly have her hands full for a while yet.

  It was just after seven o’clock when Daisy took the Treloar children home and Aunt Charlotte put the twins to bed. Alice-Miranda had hoped to have retrieved Rodney by now, but there was no way Imogen was going to be parted from her new love. Millie and Alice-Miranda were on their way downstairs to tidy up the sitting room when they heard the aircraft approach.

  ‘Is that Birdy?’ Alice-Miranda asked her mother.

  Cecelia shook her head. ‘It shouldn’t be. Cyril’s taken her away for servicing. I’m not sure who that is.’

  Alice-Miranda and Millie dashed back into the kitchen, out the side door and around to the front of the house. They waved wildly as they leapt off the veranda and onto the lawn.

  As the rotors shuddered to a stop, Marjorie Plunkett emerged from the helicopter. She grinned and waved back to the pair when something caught her eye. She looked to a second-floor window. The curtains billowed and she could have sworn she saw a child duck down out of sight.