Crossing over to the Rue Vauquelin we were nearly knocked over by two people on bicycles. We hadn’t seen many bicycles and I guess they were uncomfortable on the cobbles. These two were in a hurry, probably late for their lunch.
‘It’s them,’ Jenna was holding up the page from Miss Tregarthur’s book. ‘Marie and Pierre Curie. You can tell by his beard and her – she’s actually wearing a puffed up shirt, like in the picture …’
‘A bouffant blouse,’ Demelza chipped in with the fashion correction.
‘Still doesn’t look like the sort of thing you’d wear in a laboratory,’ Jenna didn’t like being corrected by Demelza.
But it wasn’t their clothes or their bicycles that made me stiffen against the wall and pull the two girls back with me. Further down the street another figure emerged from the shadows and walked off in the direction the Curies had come from. I could recognise that figure anywhere. The figure of Miss Alice Tregarthur.
We watched her walk on, while we stayed flattened against the wall as she looked around before darting through a doorway.
‘What do we do now?’ I said, the sight of that woman made me shiver.
Coffee
-16-
‘Simple,’ Demelza turned to me. ‘We go down there, grab the crystal and head home.’
I wasn’t sure I had any argument with that. Jenna stayed silent.
‘If we get the crystal, she’ll follow us, we all go to that old man with the white robe on the moor, deliver her and it’s all over,’ I said, to the still silent Jenna.
‘If we go to that café,’ Jenna pointed across the road. ‘Any chance you could get us a coffee or whatever?’ She said to Demelza.
‘Use my French?’ Demelza sounded surprised.
‘Yep,’ Jenna said, although I didn’t know if she really liked coffee. We still went over to the café. Miss Tregarthur didn’t reappear. There wasn’t much to see on the street where the Curies worked. I wondered if we should be going after her, see exactly where she went. Maybe she would finish what she had to do and leave. I didn’t want that to happen without us knowing.
We sat outside the café on heavy iron seats, outside in tree shaded Paris, the smell of food, lunch was ending although the customers were taking their time. It did almost feel like a holiday. I missed our school trip to France. Missed that and nearly everything else.
‘I could get used to this,’ I said, leaning back.
Jenna moved her chair and sat looking down the street – the Rue Vauquelin. A perfect view, not a view obscured by parked cars – no parking problem in this year – only an old cart and a couple of rusting broken bicycles. Probably the cobbles had been too bumpy for their riders. Why had Jenna made us sit here? Why were we waiting out here?
‘Café?’ Demelza asked the shuffling bored waiter who appeared after a long wait and who whipped off a few phrases of French and a shrug. His words didn’t make sense to Demelza and certainly not to me. He was about to turn away and didn’t appear particularly bothered if he had taken our order or not.
I stood up in front of him, blocking his way. ‘Three coffees, mate.’ I held up three fingers to make my point. He curled his lip at me so I prodded him in the chest. ‘Ok?’ That made sense. I saw an elderly lady come out of the restaurant and call to him, she swiped him around the head and gave him a torrent of words, the meaning all too clear, we got the coffee – no milk. It was hard earned coffee and I was going to drink it, no matter what, and anyway nothing was happening in the Rue what’s-it.
‘What next?’ I wanted some sugar, which hadn’t arrived on the tables. ‘What’s your idea Jen?’
Jenna was still quiet but leant forward. ‘Miss Tregarthur has come here to get that crystal to work. She must have gone into the Curies’ laboratory. She needs this stronger radiation. If it doesn’t work, she’s stuck.’
‘She did get the tunnel to bring her here,’ Demelza said.
‘It didn’t get her home, it didn’t get her to the time she wanted.’ Jenna poked the table with her finger stressing each word, ‘We don’t know what she had planned next.’
‘Does that matter? If we get her back to that old man he said he’d get us home.’ I wanted to get on with this, whatever we were going to do.
‘Yes, he said that.’ Jenna paused. ‘But he’s part of the family. Do we trust him? I don’t know. He wants Alice Tregarthur back, so he said, but how do we know he’ll keep his promise after that?’
‘So what do we do?’ Demelza sounded cross that we hadn’t done what she’d suggested and weren’t trying to take the crystal from Miss Tregarthur. She took a swig of the coffee, which made her choke. It wasn’t coffee like we knew it.
‘First we need to find out if she can make the crystal work again with whatever she is doing at the laboratory,’ Jenna pointed down the road. ‘If it works and then we take it from her we might be able to get the tunnel to work for us. Otherwise we just have to rely on that man.’
‘How do we find out if she succeeds?’ I asked. ‘If she does we might miss her. She could run off without us taking the crystal from her.’
‘She’ll head to the moor anyway,’ Jenna said. ‘We just have to get there before her.’
Should we have bothered going after her at all? Had we been sent on this wild chase by the man on the moor – one of Miss T’s relatives? Surely we needed to do more than wait. There was no sign of anything happening further down the street.
Jenna took the scarf she had bought in London, pulled it over her head and tied it under her chin. Along with the new clothes it was quite a good disguise.
‘You two stay here while I take a look.’ Before we could disagree Jenna strode off towards the laboratories, if that was what they were.
‘Do you believe that Jenna’s right?’ Demelza said, after Jenna had left and she moved her chair a little closer. ‘What do you think, Alvin?’ and she laid her hand on mine.
‘More coffee,’ I said, jumping back while Demelza laughed at me.
‘Not drinking anymore of that stuff, let’s try something else,’ Demelza turned towards the waiter who was lurking near the restaurant door. ‘Garcon,’ she cried and the boy came over. ‘Avez vous la glace?’ Demelza’s French had suddenly improved – I somehow wished I’d had a little more time in school.
‘Oui,’ the waiter seemed quite astonished. ‘Quelle sorte?’
‘Vanille,’ Demelza smiled and we got vanilla ice cream.
‘Didn’t know any other flavours,’ Demelza laughed with lukewarm ice-cream melting around her mouth. That made me smile at the wrong time because Jenna reappeared.
‘You two having a good time,’ Jen muttered.
‘See anything?’ I asked quickly as Jenna sat down and took my ice-cream for herself.
‘Miss Tregarthur was in the laboratory. I don’t believe it was locked. It’s a primitive sort of place.’
‘How did you manage to see?’ I asked.
‘There’s a window at the side, easy to look in and Miss T didn’t notice. She was too busy.’
‘Doing what?’ Demelza had just dribbled a lump of ice-cream onto her chest and was frantically looking for something to wipe it off. There weren’t any napkins, but another smile brought the waiter with a cloth. He seemed to have melted, like the ice-cream.
‘She was standing at a glass cabinet,’ Jenna said. ‘I saw her take the crystal thing out of her bag and ...’
‘What happened?’ I leant forward.
‘There was a space at the back with a pile of beakers and other glass. She put the crystal under them and left it there. Then she got out. I had to run and hide behind that cart.’ She pointed down the road again.
‘We didn’t see her leave,’ I said.
‘Probably having too good a time,’ Jenna barked. ‘If you’d been watching you would have seen her come back up the street and go into one of the houses. She must be staying there, there’s sign outside which says ‘chambres’ which I think means rooms?’ Jenna looked to Demel
za who nodded.
‘The cabinet has to be where the radium is kept and she’s left the crystal to get more radiation – bit like we did on the moor.’ Jenna finished my ice-cream. ‘We just have to work out how long she is going to leave it there.’
I didn’t want to argue with Jen, especially with Demelza around. But this sounded too difficult. Unless we watched the laboratories all the time Miss Tregarthur could easily slip away if the crystal started working again.
‘We need to find a place to stay around here.’ Jenna poked Demelza. ‘How about asking your nice waiter boy?’
The waiter was no use, but the woman, who was his mother, found someone who spoke English and she was happy to offer us a room, for money, one bed. So we camped out there. A small window gave a view down the Rue Vauquelin. We tried to keep watch but nothing happened and the day was ending.
‘She’s going to leave it there overnight, I’m sure,’ I said, without confidence, before making for the bed and being pushed on to the floor by the two girls. I thought Jenna was making me pay for the ice cream – and perhaps the laughter she had heard.
Next day, Saturday, was still quiet on the road. The waiter had become more friendly – with Demelza – which at least let me off the hook as she flirted with him and she managed to get tea with milk and some breakfast. Jenna put her scarf back on and went to look at the laboratory.
‘The crystal is still there,’ Jenna said, when she returned.
‘You went into the laboratory?’ I wondered if that was safe.
‘No, I just looked through the window again.’
‘You could see enough?’ I asked.
‘Probably.’ Jenna turned to Demelza. ‘What’s on the menu?’
‘There isn’t a menu.’ Demelza loved knowing more than we did. ‘You go into the kitchen and point at whatever you want.’
We ate and drank through the day, again sitting outside. Other people came and went. Demelza told me the food smelt of garlic, and drains. I quite liked the food, not the drains. The weather stayed warm. Perhaps we might have to stay here forever.
We didn’t see the Curies again. They must have left for the weekend, maybe a cycling trip. It seemed strange there was no security at this place, with the radiation.
We saw Miss Tregarthur go down the road several times and disappear into the laboratory. What was she doing? There was no way to tell. Each time she came back I wondered if she had the crystal with her. There could easily be a back way out of the place she was staying, we’d have no idea if she left.
Jenna went again. ‘I tried to get in, but the laboratory is actually locked, Miss Tregarthur must have got a key from somewhere.’
‘Under a brick?’ I asked.
‘I looked, not stupid,’ Jenna huffed.
‘No light coming from the crystal?’ I didn’t want Jenna to get cross.
‘Not that I could see.’ Jenna was watching Demelza fluttering her eyes at the waiter while his mother glared.
Jenna went on, ‘I’d guess Miss Tregarthur has picked the weekend, while the Curies are away. That means she’ll take the crystal tomorrow or maybe even early Monday before they get to work.’
We watched and waited. Miss Tregarthur went to the laboratory on Sunday morning. We saw her go down the road rather slowly. She came back later and almost staggered on the pavement outside the house where she must have been staying. She didn’t come out again.
On Monday morning still nothing happened. Miss Tregarthur didn’t appear. Jenna said we should all go to the house advertising ‘chambres’.
Malade
-17-
The dusty green wood-panelled door stood open, open for business, not a hotel but something smaller, just rooms. Where had Miss Tregarthur eaten her meals, I wondered? There was a strong smell about the place.
Demelza sniffed. ‘Cabbage? Boiled cabbage?’ she spoke in a whisper because this was a place that made you want to whisper, old, musty and dark even in the summer light. We heard shuffling and a woman appeared. Shabbily dressed but her hair in the most amazing pink rollers.
‘Hello?’ she said as a question without us having told her anything. ‘You are English?’
‘You speak English?’ Jenna said, with surprise.
‘Oui, yes, of course, I am an English landlady.’ She had stopped in the hall and the way she stood made it clear we weren’t to go any further.
‘Explains the cabbage smell, very English,’ Demelza whispered in my ear.
‘We have another English woman staying here.’ She fingered her hair as she spoke and let her words hang in the air waiting to see what we would say.
We didn’t look like guests and she could simply guess why we had come, but anything to do with Miss Tregarthur worried me, this lady worried me.
‘Can we see her?’ Jenna said.
‘You are?’ the woman snapped.
‘Alvin.’ Jenna pointed at me. ‘Alvin is her nephew.’
Where did that come from? I knew Jenna was fast on her thinking feet, but Miss Tregarthur a relative? That … I thought a bit more. The white robed man, he knew my name. Other coincidences I had tried to forget. Was there truth in Jenna’s words?
‘Alvin.’ Jenna poked me, I’d been miles away.
‘Yes … my aunt. Is she in?’ I said.
Her half smile told me the English landlady didn’t believe my aunt story. She opened a desk drawer.
‘Oh, she must be here, her key is not here. I thought she’d gone out.’ Not finding the key seemed to surprise her. ‘She always leaves her key when she goes out, I don’t think … she must be in her room,’ she said, almost to herself before turning to us: ‘Stay here.’ She pointed to the ground. ‘Right here.’ And she disappeared behind a curtain. We heard her footsteps on the stairs.
‘Hope aunty is there,’ Demelza smirked.
We waited in silence, fixed to the spot as we had been told. The dingy musty hallway with its smell of cabbage made me uneasy. Were there more people here? Were we in danger and not just from Miss Tregarthur?
The silence broke with the woman’s scream: ‘MALADE. MALADE.’
Jenna looked at me and we all rushed up the stairs. The lady with the hair rollers stood at the half open door to one of the bedrooms. Her hands on her head and a desperate look on her face as she muttered, ‘Malade,’ over and over again before collapsing onto a chair on the landing, still muttering and holding out her hand in a not very convincing way to stop us going into the bedroom.
Jenna pushed her aside and we went in. It was quite difficult to see what was going on in the room. Everywhere in this place was dark. Jenna pulled back some ancient curtains and light flooded in through the tall windows. The room was barely furnished – a bed, chair, few other things – and, slipping from the bed on to the floor, Miss Tregarthur. She looked up at us with sunken eyes.
‘You.’ She raised a pointed finger before her hand flopped to the floor. She tried to move. The effort was too great and she slumped back, groaning. Around her a terrible sight of blood and vomit.
The landlady had gone to pieces, sitting on her chair, rocking back and forth, babbling in a mixture of French and English: ‘Malade, what do I do, aide mois, what must I do?’
Strange that none of us felt sympathy for her or the person on the floor.
‘Where’s the crystal?’ Jenna prodded Miss Tregarthur with her toe, ‘Where?’
Miss Tregarthur didn’t manage an answer but half raised her hand again as though pointing somewhere.
‘Is it at the lab?’ Jenna prodded her again. That made the landlady moan even louder but Miss Tregarthur gave a weak nod.
‘You two clean her up, get her downstairs.’ Jenna started ordering us. ‘I’ll get the crystal and meet you back here. I need to hurry and hope Marie Curie isn’t there.’
‘Then what?’ Demelza obviously didn’t like the idea of cleaning up the mess.
‘Then we take her to the tour hotel and see if that guide man can help.’ Jenna made it sound po
ssible. ‘Stick with the aunty story,’ Jenna whispered to me before she turned and started to leave.
‘Hang on,’ I said. ‘I don’t know anything about it but this illness she has, vomiting blood. Has the crystal caused it? Is it dangerous? Is she going to die? Can we catch it?’
Miss Tregarthur muttered something from the floor.
‘What?’ I asked her.
She croaked and tried again, ‘Radiation.’
‘Radiation?’ Demelza said, and we looked at her.
Jenna nodded. ‘I thought it had to be that.’
‘From the crystal?’ I put a hand out to stop Jenna leaving. ‘It won’t be safe. Don’t you need to do something to make it safe?’
‘Lead, put it in something made of lead.’ Demelza might be the most hateable person on the planet but she did seem to know stuff. Not everyone was as ignorant as me.
‘I’ll see if there’s anything in the lab.’ Jenna pulled away from me and started to leave.
‘Wait,’ I called her back. ‘The key.’ On a shelf by the bed were two keys, one with a tag and the hotel name, the other had to be the key to the laboratory. I handed it to Jenna.
Cleaning up Miss Tregarthur wasn’t a job I wanted to do. Neither was Demelza a competent medical aid.
‘Is she going to die?’ The landlady had returned to the doorway.
Weird that this woman should be asking us, what did she think we were, some sort of medical team? I stared at her without speaking.
‘You’ll take her away?’ She’d heard Jenna’s words.
‘Yes,’ I answered. It was obvious that the woman’s distress was more about the difficulty this would cause her than the health of Miss Tregarthur. Made me wonder what an English landlady was doing here – perhaps she was running from something.
‘You promise to take her away?’
I nodded. That promise set the landlady to work on Miss Tregarthur – demanding help from us to get water and towels from the kitchen. It wasn’t long before she’d stripped off the blood stained clothes and found a clean smock from somewhere. Miss Tregarthur didn’t seem to have the strength to resist.
Tregarthur's Crystal: Book 4 (The Tregarthur's Series) Page 15
