Alice-Miranda Shines Bright 8

by Jacqueline Harvey

  Stan and Reg had spent another full day in the cave. As always it had proved entirely fruitless. Despite Stan’s concerns about where Reg had been all this time, their friendship had taken up much as it had left off. They didn’t talk a lot but it was nice to have some human company.

  Stan wondered if he should send Reg home but the man seemed perfectly happy to potter about. He kept talking about his dream, which was perplexing; the cave he described was certainly not the one they were in. Stan thought the silly old fellow’s mind was playing tricks but Reg was sure that with a little more searching, they’d find it.

  Stan didn’t share his friend’s confidence but he was enjoying being back there. His days alone gardening had stretched endlessly together and given him too much time to think about a life that could almost certainly have been different, if Beryl hadn’t been so stubborn. He tried not to let his mind wander to the past too often. It was easier to block things out and pretend they never existed. When Beryl told him to leave the issue alone, he’d all but given up hope of ever finding her. But now Beryl was gone and he wasn’t getting any younger, Stan found himself wishing more than ever that one day she’d find her way home.

  ‘Come on, Reg, let’s call it a day,’ Stan said. ‘It’ll still be here tomorrow.’

  Reginald Parker turned towards his friend, his little round light shining into Stan’s eyes.

  ‘All right, I can barely keep my eyes open anyway. Don’t know what’s got into me lately.’ Reg gathered his tools and walked towards the cave’s hidden entrance.

  ‘Old age, my friend. We’re getting on. What are you now? Seventy?’ Stan asked.

  ‘Pffft. I’m sixty-seven next birthday,’ Reg replied.

  Stan did some silent calculations. He was soon to be seventy-two and he knew Reg was only two years younger.

  ‘Well, if you’re sixty-seven, then I’ll happily take sixty-nine – again.’ Stan shook his head.

  The two men carefully made their way down the track.

  Stan looked at the little brown donkey, who was standing by the gate munching on some long grass. ‘Good afternoon, Cynthia. Anything interesting happen while we were away?’

  Cynthia hee-hawed a greeting and went back to her grazing. Cherry and Pickles were huddled like co-conspirators further along the fence.

  Stan noticed something hanging out of Cherry’s mouth. ‘What have you got there?’ He opened the gate and was surprised to find the latch not properly fixed.

  ‘What is that?’ He peered at the goat’s mouth. She began to chew more quickly. ‘Come on now.’ Stan reached into his pocket and found a couple of boiled sweets. He held them out and the two goats strutted towards him. Cherry dropped the black object in exchange for the barley sugar. Pickles quickly hoovered up her treat too.

  Stan bent down and picked up the slimy piece of rubber.

  ‘What is it, Stan?’ Reg asked from the other side of the fence.

  ‘Looks like . . . I don’t know.’ Stan walked back through the gate, fixed the latch securely, and handed the item to Reg.

  He turned it over in his hands. ‘Looks like part of a windscreen wiper blade, if you ask me.’

  Stan frowned. He wondered where it could have come from.

  ‘Maybe you had a visitor?’ Reg suggested.

  Stan shook his head. ‘Couldn’t get past the bridge these days. The old girl’s half-collapsed into the stream.’

  ‘One of life’s mysteries then,’ Reg said with a grin.

  Stan frowned. There’d been a few of those lately.

  That afternoon, as Millie and Alice-Miranda made their way back to school, Alice-Miranda couldn’t stop thinking about Mr Parker. Millie was disappointed that their amazing discovery would have to remain a secret.

  ‘Do you really think anyone cares that much?’ Millie asked as the pair trotted along on Bony and Chops.

  ‘Of course everyone cares about Mr Parker,’ Alice-Miranda replied, wondering at her friend’s unfeeling remark.

  ‘No, I didn’t mean about him,’ Millie scoffed. ‘I meant about the gold.’

  ‘Oh!’ Alice-Miranda smiled. ‘Sorry, my mind has been in a whirl about Mr Parker.’

  ‘I’m not that mean, you know,’ Millie said.

  ‘No, of course not,’ Alice-Miranda grinned.

  ‘Well, my father always says that if there’s a chance to make a fortune easily, people tend to go a bit mad,’ said Alice-Miranda.

  ‘I don’t care about the money,’ Millie said. ‘I just thought it was exciting that we made a discovery. Like real adventurers.’

  ‘It was exciting,’ Alice-Miranda agreed. ‘But we mustn’t tell. We promised Miss Hephzibah and Miss Henrietta that we wouldn’t.’

  Millie placed her hand over her heart and pronounced loudly, ‘All right then. The secret of the golden cave will go with me to my grave.’

  Alice-Miranda smiled. ‘You don’t need to be quite so melodramatic about it, Millie. Maybe when we’re older there’ll be a reason to tell someone.’

  ‘Okay,’ said Millie. ‘I wonder if Jacinta will be in a better mood when we get back?’

  ‘I hope so. I can’t understand what’s made her so cross the past couple of days,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  Millie shrugged. ‘Who knows? Come on, I’ll race you to the stables.’ She clicked her tongue and dug her heels into Chops’s flank.

  ‘Hey! Wait for me.’ Alice-Miranda gave Bony a sharp kick and the little pony took off at top speed. The girls were neck and neck as they flew through the undergrowth and into the home paddock.

  Millie leapt out of the saddle and tied Chops to the low rail outside the stable block before racing inside to retrieve two brushes and a couple of carrots. Alice-Miranda tied Bonaparte up beside the little bay gelding. She undid the girth strap and pulled Bony’s saddle and cloth off his sweaty back.

  She carried them into the tack room and returned with Bony’s stall halter, which she quickly swapped for his bridle. Millie was in the process of doing the same when Susannah appeared.

  ‘Hello,’ Alice-Miranda called as she glimpsed the older girl walking up the drive.

  Susannah waved and called ‘hello’ back.

  Millie returned from the tack room and said hello too. ‘How was the orientation?’

  Susannah frowned. ‘It was terrible. Well, it wasn’t terrible but Jacinta was.’

  Millie ducked under Chops’s neck and looked at Susannah.

  ‘You’re never going to believe this . . .’ the girl began.

  Alice-Miranda stopped brushing Bony’s tummy and looked up. Her own tummy fluttered at the thought of Jacinta being in trouble. ‘What did she do?’

  ‘Well, you know how we were going there to try some classes and have a proper look around the school?’ said Susannah.

  Millie nodded. She didn’t really know that but she wanted Susannah to hurry up and get on with the story.

  Susannah continued. ‘We had a Science lesson to start with and the teacher was going to show us how to use a Bunsen burner and do an experiment.’

  ‘That sounds interesting,’ said Alice-Miranda. ‘Mrs Oliver has some of those in the laboratory at Highton Hall. She showed me how they work but I’m not allowed to touch unless she’s supervising. They can be very dangerous.’

  Susannah nodded.

  ‘So did you do the experiment?’ Millie asked, then turned her attention back to untangling a knot in Chops’s mane.

  ‘No. The teacher was terrifying and made us all feel like idiots. When we got into the classroom he told everyone to stand up and then he went around the room asking each girl to name one of the elements on the periodic table,’ Susannah explained.

  Millie looked bewildered. ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Exactly,’ said Susannah. ‘I only know what it is because my dad’s a chemist. Mr Plumpton was there
and he tried to explain that we hadn’t covered the topic this year. But Professor Crookston – that’s the scary teacher – snapped and asked if Mr Plumpton taught Science or Needlework. Poor Mr Plumpton’s nose was glowing like Rudolph’s and we all thought he might cry.’

  ‘That’s awful. Then what happened?’ Alice-Miranda asked as she brushed Bonaparte’s flank.

  ‘Well, Professor Crookston went around the room and kept staring at each girl until she said something. Fortunately he looked at me first and then Ashima, whose mum’s a scientist, and so we started them off and some of the girls made good guesses. But then he got to Jacinta and it all went downhill.’

  ‘Why? What did she do?’ Millie asked.

  ‘She didn’t say anything for ages. And he just kept staring at her.’

  ‘What does he look like?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  ‘Dangerous. He has jet-black hair, all shiny like a crow, and he can make one eyebrow go up and the other go down at the same time.’

  ‘So what happened next?’ Millie asked.

  Susannah looked as if she could hardly bear to speak of it. ‘Professor Crookston asked Jacinta to go to the front of the room and then he roared at her and said that he’d never met such a stupid imbecile in all his life.’

  Alice-Miranda gasped. ‘Poor Jacinta, that’s awful! She’s hasn’t been herself lately anyway, so this must have finished her off.’ She felt sick for her friend.

  ‘Not exactly,’ said Susannah. ‘You should have seen her. She was amazing. She didn’t flinch, not even when he was yelling right in her face. She just stared at him as if she’d gone into a trance.’

  ‘Teachers can’t yell at children like that. It’s not right,’ Millie declared.

  ‘Try telling Professor Crookston that,’ said Susannah.

  ‘What did Mr Plumpton do?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  ‘He walked over to Professor Crookston and asked him to calm down, but that only made him yell more. It was lucky that they were distracted for a moment. I mouthed “gold” to Jacinta, and pointed at my finger as if I were wearing a ring. She said it out loud but they didn’t hear her and then she shouted “gold” and Professor Crookston stopped. He glared at her and said, “So you’re not as stupid as you look.” Jacinta just walked back to where she was sitting without a word. We all thought she was terribly brave.’

  ‘What happened then?’

  ‘The professor called her back again and said that as she was so clever she could demonstrate how to use a Bunsen burner. Mr Plumpton told him that we had no experience but he insisted that Jacinta would be all right. So he handed her a box of matches and said that she should show everyone how to light the contraption.’

  ‘That sounds dangerous,’ said Alice-Miranda, frowning. ‘The Bunsen burners in Mrs Oliver’s laboratory are all hooked up to the gas and I know even she has trouble lighting them sometimes.’

  ‘So what happened? Did she do it?’ Millie asked.

  ‘She struck a few matches before getting one to burn. By then you could smell the gas. Then she lit the flame and turned the little dial and it seemed to be going well. Professor Crookston said that perhaps she’d get through Science after all.’

  Alice-Miranda let out a breath. ‘Well, that’s a relief.’

  ‘Not really. The professor had a pile of worksheets on the bench and Jacinta accidentally knocked the Bunsen burner over when she was trying to move it. The papers erupted into flames and the whole front bench caught alight. Mr Plumpton raced to get the fire blanket. Danika grabbed a bucket from the sink near where she was sitting and just as Mr Plumpton threw the blanket over the fire, Danika threw the bucket of water. The fire was out but Professor Crookston was soaked. Jacinta, Danika and Mr Plumpton were all standing there with their mouths open and then Professor Crookston let out this sound like, I don’t know, like nothing I’ve ever heard before – maybe a wounded elephant.’

  Susannah shook her head in amazement before continuing. ‘He roared at Jacinta and said that she’d done it on purpose just to make him look bad. You can imagine how Jacinta reacted. We could see her getting madder and madder and then she exploded too, telling him that he was the meanest teacher she’d ever met and she wouldn’t want to be in his stupid Science class anyway, and how dare he embarrass the girls by asking them things they had never learned before.’

  ‘Oh my goodness, that’s terrible. What happened next?’ Alice-Miranda’s face was pale.

  ‘He grabbed Jacinta by the collar and dragged her out of the room. Poor Mr Plumpton was spluttering and frothing and calling out that it was an accident and he needed to let go of her. Professor Crookston just yelled that Mr Plumpton had to watch the rest of the “feral children” and he would deal with her as he should have done in the first place.’

  ‘Where is she now?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  ‘We don’t know,’ Susannah said.

  Millie gawked at her. ‘What do you mean you don’t know?’

  ‘We finished our lessons and had lunch, which was disgusting, and then there were some games afterwards on the field with another cranky teacher and we got to have a look through the boarding house too, but Jacinta didn’t come back.’

  ‘What did Miss Reedy and Mr Plumpton say? Surely they knew where she was?’ said Alice-Miranda.

  ‘They just said that Jacinta wouldn’t be coming back to school until later and that her mother would have to go and pick her up.’

  ‘Poor Jacinta,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  Susannah nodded. ‘I know. I heard some of the other girls whispering that although Mrs Jelly, the headmistress, might look soft and wobbly, underneath she makes the old Miss Grimm look like Glinda, the Good Witch of the South. You know, the Miss Grimm you met when you first arrived, Alice-Miranda.’

  ‘That sounds bad,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘And if Mrs Jelly has teachers like Professor Crookston in the school, that could well be true.’

  ‘Jacinta might get expelled,’ Millie said.

  ‘Can she be expelled before she’s actually started?’ Susannah asked.

  ‘I don’t think so. But they could revoke her entrance,’ Alice-Miranda reasoned, ‘although I imagine the school would love to have someone with her gymnastics ability, given their reputation.’

  Susannah nodded. ‘I hope so. Now, I’d better get moving. I only have time to give Buttercup a quick brush. Miss Reedy told us we had to be back at the dining room for afternoon tea so we could have a debriefing about the day.’

  ‘Gosh, is it that time already?’ Alice-Miranda turned and looked at the clock that hung on the far wall.

  ‘You don’t have to come down though,’ Susannah said.

  ‘No, but I’m starving.’ Millie’s tummy grumbled on cue. She was also dying to find out what had happened to Jacinta.

  ‘Where did you go today?’ Susannah asked as she opened the door to Buttercup’s stable and walked inside.

  ‘Up on the ridge,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  ‘But there was nothing at all interesting up there,’ Millie added.

  Alice-Miranda shot her friend a warning look.

  ‘Then we went to Miss Hephzibah’s and to Gertrude’s Grove, where we had a picnic and played some games near the creek,’ Alice-Miranda finished.

  ‘I’m going to miss being here so much,’ Susannah said. ‘I love riding with you two and I don’t even know if I’ll be able to take Buttercup to Sainsbury Palace because they’re doing some renovations on the stable block and talking about turning it into an art studio. I can’t imagine not having her with me.’ Buttercup nickered softly as if to agree. ‘And I’m scared about the teachers. I don’t want to go at all any more.’

  ‘School should be fun,’ Alice-Miranda declared. ‘If it’s fun then it’s much easier to learn.’

  Alice-Miranda finished rubbing Bonaparte down before swapping her brush for a hoof pick
. Millie led Chops into his stable and organised his dinner. Soon Alice-Miranda did the same.

  ‘There you go, boy.’ Alice-Miranda added a handful of oats and molasses to his lucerne hay. ‘Don’t get used to it but that’s a special treat for negotiating all the way up that mountain and back.’

  Bonaparte whinnied as if to say thank you.

  Millie rubbed their names off the whiteboard and they walked down to the dining room with Susannah. The girls from the sixth grade were gathered around a couple of tables with Miss Reedy holding court.

  ‘Hurry along, Susannah. I want to talk to you all about today’s visit to Sainsbury Palace before you have afternoon tea.’ She noticed Alice-Miranda and Millie. ‘You girls can get something straight away.’

  The two younger students gave Miss Reedy a wave and proceeded to the servery, where Mrs Smith was cutting a large marble cake.

  ‘Hello Mrs Smith. That looks delicious.’ Alice-Miranda held out her plate and the old woman placed a slab of cake onto it.

  ‘Yes, I hope so. I haven’t made too many of these before. It’s Mrs Oliver’s recipe.’

  ‘Oh, I’m sure it will be lovely.’ Alice-Miranda poured two glasses of milk while Millie got her cake too.

  ‘Did you enjoy your ride?’ Mrs Smith asked.

  ‘Oh yes, and the sandwiches were perfect, thank you,’ Alice-Miranda smiled.

  ‘And how were the sisters?’

  ‘Good,’ said Millie.

  Mrs Smith raised her nose in the air. ‘Oh heavens, I’ve boiled the pasta dry!’ She shot off into the kitchen.

  ‘Let’s sit over there.’ Millie pointed at the table next to where the sixth-grade girls were talking to Miss Reedy.

  ‘We shouldn’t eavesdrop, Millie,’ Alice-Miranda admonished.

  ‘Do you really think I was planning to listen to their conversation?’ Millie looked shocked.

  Alice-Miranda nodded.

  ‘You’re right,’ Millie said, laughing. ‘Come on, it’s not as if the other girls won’t tell us later. We’ll just hear about it firsthand instead of second.’

  Alice-Miranda smiled. ‘Only if we can sit on the far end of the table, so you’re not completely obvious.’ The tiny child followed Millie to the other end of the dining room.