by Gwyneth Rees
But before Ava had the chance to forget it, she found herself at the rear of the house being grabbed, not by the master sweep, but by Mrs Potter. ‘Gotcha, you little wretch!’ the bad-tempered woman grunted.
Ava screamed and tried to struggle free, but it was no use.
That’s when they saw that the master sweep was sitting some distance away on an old tree stump at the bottom of the garden, munching a pie. He waved Tom over and immediately grabbed the tankard of ale from the boy. ‘Mrs Potter’s found just the chimney for you to climb, young Fred,’ he shouted across to Ava. ‘A nice straight one where you can’t get yourself lost! Be careful you don’t get stuck though, for it’s a narrow one when you get near the top, so she tells me!’ He chuckled. ‘And be glad you’re good and skinny, for it wouldn’t help you to have a big fat bellyful of dinner inside you, like your poor master here.’ He belched loudly.
‘Your poor master’s just tramped his muddy boots all through my beautiful clean house, so I’ve told him he can stay out here while I take you inside,’ grunted the housekeeper sourly.
‘Let me go up that flue for you, missus,’ Tom offered at once. ‘I’m a much quicker climber than me brother is.’
But Mrs Potter just shook her head, tightening her grip on Ava’s arm as she told Tom, ‘Don’t you worry. I’m sure a few pins stuck in his feet will help him go faster – and I’ve a sewing box full o’ them!’
‘Let me go!’ Ava shouted, starting to struggle.
‘You’re bigger an’ heavier than I thought you were, lad,’ Mrs Potter complained as she dragged Ava into the house. ‘I fear you’re going to have a terrible job squeezing up this narrow flue. Still, it’s like I always say, the more you climbing boys have to wriggle, the more soot you scrape off in the process!’
6
The housekeeper dragged Ava into a small sitting room at the back of the house, where she half pulled, half pushed her over to the fireplace. There she forced Ava’s head and shoulders up into the chimney opening where Ava cried out in shock as her face was scraped against the inside wall. The movement dislodged a lump of soot, which stung her eyes and filled her nose so that she started to cough uncontrollably. And at that point, Ava really panicked, kicking out her feet with all her might and catching the housekeeper in the belly. As Mrs Potter yelped and loosened her grip, Ava shoved both hands as hard as she could against the sooty walls, pushing herself downwards out of the flue. And before the cruel woman could grab hold of her again, Ava had dodged past her and escaped from the room.
Ava bolted down the corridor in the direction of the open back door where Tom was still standing. Wide-eyed with surprise at the sight of her, he stepped back to let her past, then grinned suddenly as he moved back into the path of the housekeeper, causing the woman to waste precious seconds before she could continue her pursuit.
The sweep master, who was still enjoying his lunch break in the sun at the bottom of the garden, stood up and let out a shout when he saw what was happening. Then he put down the rest of his lunch and gave chase as well. Fortunately Ava had a good head start as she streaked across the road, darting behind a passing horse and cart as she headed for the furniture shop.
The old man got up from his desk when she entered, but there was no time to stop and speak to him as she rushed by, squeezing between the high-backed chairs and skirting round the collection of grand tables to get to the magic mirror. Once there, she stood in front of it, panting, as she stared at her reflection in the glass.
But this time, instead of immediately starting to glow, the mirror didn’t do anything. She glanced quickly about her to check she had the right one, but this was the only mirror with a little card saying NOT FOR SALE on it. She stared at her reflection again, willing the magic to start up, but for some reason the mirror didn’t seem to be reacting to her presence at all.
And that’s when she suddenly realized what the problem was. Since she had exchanged outfits with Florrie, she was no longer wearing any of the magic clothes from Marietta’s shop!
As the shop door was flung open by a very angry Mrs Potter, Ava did the only thing she could think of. She dropped out of sight behind the nearest table.
‘Where is he?’ Mrs Potter demanded of the old man, who had turned slowly to greet her.
‘Where is who?’ the old man asked quietly.
‘The sweep’s boy of course! I just saw him run in here, the little wretch! When I get hold of him I’ll give him such a whipping! I’ll flay the skin off him, that I will, afore I hand him back to his master.’
The shopkeeper pointed to the door that led out the back to the kitchen. ‘I believe he went that way,’ he said coolly.
At that moment, the sweep master burst into the shop too, and the old man pointed him in the same direction. ‘I don’t know if you’ll catch him. There’s an alleyway out back. He may be gone by now.’
The second they had both disappeared, the shopkeeper beckoned for Ava to come out of her hiding place. ‘You must return at once to wherever it was you came from,’ he whispered to her urgently.
‘I can’t return,’ Ava said, starting to cry a little with frustration. ‘I need my magic clothes but I’ve given them away. Oh . . .’ Suddenly she remembered something. ‘My cape!’ she gasped. ‘I left it in Madame Varty’s drawing room. If I wore that, would it be enough to transport me home again, do you think?’
‘I should think any part of your costume ought to suffice,’ the old man replied. ‘Make haste though. You must go and fetch it while those two are looking elsewhere.’
So Ava hurried back across the road and up the driveway of the house, where she paused for a moment, knowing she couldn’t call at the front door dressed as she was. She quickly made her way round to the back, where she found Tom sitting in the garden, looking gloomy. He stood up, however, when he saw Ava.
‘So they didn’t catch you,’ he said, coming across the grass to join her. ‘That’s a good thing for you, but it means they must still be thinkin’ you’re Florrie. She’s goin’ to get a terrible beatin’ when she turns up again.’ He frowned, clearly still worried about the whereabouts of his sister. ‘If she doesn’t come back soon I’m goin’ to have to go to our uncle’s house and look for her there,’ he grumbled.
‘I’m sorry, Tom,’ Ava said sympathetically, ‘but I haven’t got much time to talk to you. I need to go back inside the house and find something I left there.’
Tom shook his head at her as if he couldn’t believe her foolishness. ‘Well, if they catch you, don’t expect me at yer funeral.’
Nervously she stepped in through the back door, hoping that the corridor Mrs Potter had dragged her along would take her to the front of the house. Luckily it did, for it was a servants’ passageway that led all the way to the entrance hall where it came out via a small door behind the staircase. She stood for a moment in the empty hall, hearing piano music coming from the upper floor. She briefly wondered how Florrie was getting on at her audition, but of course there was no time to wait around and find out.
She soon identified the drawing-room door and as she pushed it open she heard ladies’ voices talking politely inside, and the sound of china teacups chinking against saucers. It appeared that several more of the ballet girls’ mothers had now arrived to wait for their daughters.
None of them spotted Ava creeping silently into the room and hiding herself behind the nearest high-backed armchair.
Ava could see her cream cape, draped over the arm of the sofa where she had left it – but how was she to fetch it without anybody seeing her?
She quickly got down on her hands and knees and started to crawl behind the furniture as quietly as she could towards the sofa and her cape. As she crept along, she listened with interest to the ladies’ conversation, for they were talking about Madame Varty. Several of them had seen her performing in the past, and one lady began to talk in a hushed tone about how unfair it was that Madame Varty would never be able to dance again. It seemed from what the
lady was saying that Madame Varty had initially suffered a relatively minor injury to her knee, from which she would have recovered had she been properly looked after by her ballerina employers. Instead she had received no treatment at all and had been made to keep working long hours on stage despite her injury. As a consequence further damage had been done to the knee joint and she had ended up crippled for life.
It was then that Ava accidentally knocked her elbow against one of the coffee tables and the lady sitting nearest turned and saw her, letting out a startled scream.
Panicking, Ava jumped to her feet, snatched up her cape, and ran out of the room.
Luckily at that moment the front door was being opened again to admit another of the girls’ mothers, and Ava seized her opportunity to escape, dashing past the surprised maid and lady visitor, and racing down the front steps.
‘STOP, THIEF!’ came an angry cry from behind her – and she quickly realized that the maid was gathering up her skirts to chase after her.
There was nothing for it but to run as fast as she could, with the maid following her as she sped through the front gate and across the road to the furniture shop again. As she reached the door she saw to her horror that Mrs Potter and the sweep master were emerging from the side path that led to the back alley, and when they spotted Ava they let out loud yells.
Ava slammed the shop door shut behind her and headed straight for the magic mirror, without even noticing whether the old man was at his desk or not. She was just fastening the cape around her neck when the master sweep burst in closely followed by Mrs Potter, but Ava was already staring hard at her reflection in the mirror, which had started to glow.
The sweep master was too big to slip between the heavy pieces of furniture as deftly as Ava had done, and he swore loudly as he tried to push a large leather armchair out of his path.
Suddenly a blinding light filled the whole shop, causing Mrs Potter and the sweep master to gasp out loud and cover their eyes. And as Ava closed her own eyes against the glare she smiled in relief, for she knew that by the time the light in the shop subsided and her two pursuers were able to see again she would be long gone.
Seconds later she was back in Marietta’s Victorian room, covered in soot and still wearing Florrie’s ragged climbing boy’s clothes under her cream cape. She briefly wondered what her mother would say if she could see how filthy she was – but there was no time to think of that, because the door suddenly opened and Marietta walked in.
She looked at Ava, first with an expression of utter shock, then one of dismay, until finally her mouth twitched and she began to laugh.
‘Whatever happened to you?’ she asked as Ava removed the cape, now also smudged with soot.
Ava pulled an apologetic face as she replied, ‘Quite a lot.’
‘Well, I must say I didn’t expect you to come back looking like this,’ Marietta said. ‘That cape is mine, isn’t it? But as for the rest . . .’ She frowned. ‘And where is that beautiful tutu?’
‘Don’t worry, it’s quite safe,’ Ava explained hurriedly. ‘I lent it to a little girl I met there. She’s a chimney sweep but she wants to be a ballet dancer, so I persuaded her to audition for a place at Madame Varty’s dance school. Madame Varty is the dancer Dad went to interview, you see . . . Anyway Florrie and I swapped clothes so—’
‘You gave my beautiful ballet tutu away to a chimney sweep?!’ Marietta exclaimed in disbelief. ‘Oh, Ava!’
‘I told you – I’m going to get it back again,’ Ava attempted to reassure her. In fact, she wanted to travel back through the mirror as soon as possible – so Florrie would still be at the dance school and easy to find. She already knew from her past adventures that time passed at the same rate on both sides of the portals. And she was desperate by now to know how the audition had gone, as well as to get the tutu back.
But Marietta just sighed. ‘This is my fault for encouraging you to go through the portal by yourself, I suppose,’ she admitted. ‘Tell me . . . did you meet your dad while you were there?’
‘No,’ Ava replied. ‘I don’t know where he went. Madame Varty’s maid said she told him he could do his interview later this afternoon. He hasn’t come back here while I’ve been gone, has he?’
Marietta shook her head, ‘I expect he’s gone off on some guided tour with that Victorian nanny who seems to have taken such a shine to him.’
Ava scowled, momentarily forgetting everything else. ‘He could have taken me with him if he has!’ she snapped.
‘Oh, knowing him, he probably thought the places they were going weren’t suitable or something,’ Marietta said swiftly, smiling sympathetically. ‘He was always worrying about that sort of thing when I was young. It’s a good job our parents gave me so much freedom before they left or I’d never have seen half the exciting things I did while I was growing up!’ Marietta had been sixteen when her parents had disappeared, and Ava could only imagine the arguments there must have been between Marietta and Dad – who had effectively been left in charge of his teenage sister – after that.
Thinking about her grandparents reminded Ava about Marietta’s visitor.
‘Has your father’s friend been yet?’ she asked. Although she wanted to travel back through the portal as soon as possible, she was hoping Marietta would come with her this time. She really didn’t want to face the master sweep and Mrs Potter again on her own, plus there was something else she wanted to do back in Victorian London – something she was certain would be easier if a grown-up was with her.
‘Not yet, I’m afraid,’ Marietta said. Seeing the look on Ava’s face she added, ‘But I’m sure he can’t be much longer. Once he’s been we can shut the shop and go and do something fun together.’
But Ava shook her head. ‘I have to go back through the portal again straight away, but in some different Victorian clothes. This time I need to look like . . . like I’m visiting a posh lady’s house for afternoon tea or something.’
Marietta smiled. ‘You’ve another adventure planned already, have you? OK then, I’ll go and look out something suitable for you. And in the meantime . . . well . . . you know where my bathroom is.’
‘Your bathroom?’ Ava was momentarily puzzled.
‘That’s right,’ replied her aunt. ‘I don’t mind you borrowing some more magic clothes, but before I let you anywhere near them you’re going to need a very good wash!’
7
In the end Ava wasn’t worried about being recognized by Mrs Potter or the master sweep when she returned through the mirror, because in her new clothes she couldn’t have looked more different.
She was clean and tidy again, her blonde hair pulled back neatly with a pretty Alice band. While she had been in the bath Marietta had found her some smart Victorian day clothes to put on and she now wore a long-sleeved cream blouse with a high neckline and a lace collar, tucked into a gorgeous, very full emerald green silk skirt that swung when she moved. The skirt came to just below her knees and was held out by a surprisingly light, wire-hoop cage. A wide frill ran around the bottom of the skirt, under which the additional white frills of her pantalettes peeped out, and beneath these a pair of long white cotton drawers covered her legs down to her ankles. On her feet she wore a pair of dainty-looking, pointytoed green leather shoes with little bows on the front. The clothes were a bit fussier than Ava was used to but they certainly made her feel like a very proper Victorian young lady.
She had brought Florrie’s clothes back through the mirror with her as well, since Marietta said it was always best to leave things in the time and place where they belonged. But as Ava placed the little bundle of rags out of sight under a chair in the furniture shop, she hoped with all her heart that Florrie would never have to wear them again.
The old man wasn’t there this time, though Ava knew he must be around somewhere as his shop was clearly still open to customers. She briefly wondered what you did if you needed to access the magic mirror after the shop had closed – but she decided it was best not
to worry about that at the moment.
She took a deep breath, for there was something important she needed to do. It was so important she had decided to get on with it even before going back to Madame Varty’s to look for Florrie, and she felt quite nervous about it.
Ava hadn’t said so to Tom and Florrie, but she had made up her mind to go and call on their aunt and uncle herself, to see if she could find out any information about their missing father. Since Florrie had told her that their house was in the next street, and Tom had told her about the lion statue at the front gate, Ava imagined that it shouldn’t be too difficult to find. Of course she didn’t know exactly which ‘next street’ Florrie had meant, but if necessary Ava intended to try them all.
A grandfather clock in the shop window told her that it was mid-afternoon as she stepped outside and stood for a minute or two on the pavement, looking to and fro to see where the nearest neighbouring street lay. A gleaming horse and carriage suddenly appeared from around a nearby corner, so Ava decided that she might as well start there.
She hurried along the pavement, passing several dress shops, a children’s clothes shop that had sailor suits and pinafore dresses in the window, a very posh-looking hat shop and an upmarket shoe shop. And as she walked along she couldn’t help thinking how strange it was to be wearing a crinoline skirt. She was certainly glad it wasn’t windy or she was afraid she might be tipped off balance and end up displaying her frilly underwear.
The street from where the horse and carriage had emerged turned out to be wide and tree-lined with big detached houses on both sides set back from the road. Some of them had quite grand pillars at the entrances to their drives, but none had a statue of a lion as far as Ava could see. Then, after she had walked quite far up the street and was wondering if she ought to turn back and try a different one, she spotted a house that was smaller than the rest. It had huge yellow pillars marking the entrance to its short, narrow driveway and on top of one of the pillars sat an enormous, rather ugly yellow stone lion. The size of the ornament seemed completely out of proportion to the size of the driveway and house, Ava thought. But it was certainly impossible to miss as you walked by.
