by Lyn Gardner
Contents
Title Page
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
By the Same Author
Copyright
Chapter One
“How very odd,” said Georgia, leaning out of the dance studio window on the second floor of The Swan Academy of Theatre and Dance. “There are three people with cameras hiding in the bushes down by the front steps. Do you think we should tell Miss Swan?”
“Let me see,” said Tom, jumping off the high-wire. He brushed back his red hair and ran over to the window. He gave a little whistle. “Georgia’s right. And there’s another one sitting in that blue BMW across the street. The Swan’s being staked out by the paparazzi!” he said excitedly. “Someone famous must be coming to visit.”
The children were used to celebrities visiting the Swan. Often they were ex-pupils. Hot magazine had recently done a photo-feature about the princess of pop, Amber Lavelle, returning to her former school, and at the end of last term Theo Deacon – whose performance at the National Theatre was dubbed by the critics as “a Hamlet to die for” – had come to give a talk to the senior pupils. But there was something different about today. Even as they were watching, a camera crew turned up, swiftly followed by two large men wearing dark suits and sunglasses who looked around shiftily as if they were secret-service agents in a bad American spy movie.
“He doesn’t look like someone from the press,” said Eel, pointing at one of the men in dark glasses. He saw her and scowled, then turned his back and eyed a group of Swan pupils making their way up the front steps of the school, some already wearing their practice clothes and with ballet shoes slung round their necks. He watched them closely as if he thought that their leotards and leg warmers were very suspicious and clear evidence of criminal intent.
“Maybe they’re just pretending to be photographers and they’re really undercover police officers investigating a terrible crime!” said Eel. “That man’s moustache looks fake to me; it’s exactly like the one Tom wore in Bugsy Malone for end-of-term concert.” She wriggled excitedly at the thought, showing just how she’d got her nickname.
“Why would the police want to stake out a stage school?” asked Aeysha reasonably.
“For crimes against art?” said Tom with a grin. “Maybe someone reported your performance in the end-of-term concert to Crimestoppers, Eel. You’re probably about to be arrested for murdering pirouettes.”
Eel looked so indignant that everyone laughed.
“Only joking, Eel,” said Tom hurriedly. “You’re a brilliant dancer. The best.”
“I’m not quite the best,” said Eel. “Not yet, anyway. But one day I will be, if I keep practising.” She knew that talent wasn’t enough; if she was going to be a great dancer she had to work her socks off, and then she would need some luck too.
“Well, I think we ought to tell Miss Swan about the photographers,” said Georgia.
“She already knows,” came a quiet voice. Everyone swung round to look at Olivia Marvell, who was balanced on one foot on the high-wire suspended across the studio. She was reflected back at them several times in the huge mirrors hung on the wall. Unfazed by her friends’ attention, she coolly performed a perfect somersault to dismount. As she untied her long dark hair, a gentle smile twitched around the corners of her mouth and her eyes sparkled, giving her serious face a luminous quality as if it was lit from within.
“Liv Marvell, you’ve been keeping secrets from your best friends, and you know that’s not allowed,” said Tom accusingly.
“And from your little sister. It’s an outrage,” said Eel with a little jiggle. Olivia looked guilty; she felt really torn. She longed to tell them everything she’d discovered that morning. She’d overheard her grandmother, Alicia Swan, talking on her mobile to the theatre director Jon James. He’d recently had a big hit on the West End stage with a revival of The Sound of Music, featuring several Swan children, including Tom and Georgia. It was clear from what Olivia had heard that Jon was planning a new production of a very famous play with all-star Hollywood casting. But she had promised Gran that she wouldn’t say a word until Alicia herself had made an announcement at the traditional start-of-term assembly.
Olivia and Eel were the granddaughters of Alicia Swan, a former star of the West End stage who owned the Swan Academy. They lived with her on the top floor of the stage school while their dad, Jack, a famous high-wire walker, travelled the world trying to restore the Marvell family fortunes. He was currently finishing making a documentary in Snake Canyon in Idaho.
Olivia felt really tempted to spill the beans. After all, everyone would soon know why the photographers and bodyguards were outside so did it really matter if she told her friends a few minutes early? It could do no harm, surely. But she didn’t want to break Alicia’s trust. Alicia hadn’t been looking well recently and Olivia, whose relationship with her grandmother had sometimes been prickly, felt protective towards her. Alicia was a beautiful woman but her eyes had the hollowed contours of someone who wasn’t sleeping well and she was jumpy too. She was getting an awful lot of calls, some on her mobile like the one Olivia had overheard this morning, but the landline was unusually busy as well. Only that morning at breakfast the house phone had rung and rung. Alicia hadn’t answered it but just kept looking at it as if it was about to bite her. When Eel, fed up with the noise, had gone to pick it up Alicia had snapped at her granddaughter with a sharpness that wasn’t like her.
Alicia had then gone into the living room to take the call, closing the door firmly behind her. “Gran’s behaving very oddly,” Eel had hissed to her sister. “And it’s not the first time she’s almost bitten my head off. Do you think we should tell Dad?”
Olivia bit her lip. “I’m worried about her too but I don’t think we should bother Jack. He’s busy trying to finish his film. And anyway, he should be back quite soon.” She sighed. “I wish he was here. I do miss him. Gran’s just not been herself since she heard about the building next door. It’s as if she’s still Gran, but a paler, more irritable version.”
At the end of last term, after flying to America to act in a movie and provide coaching for its two young American stars, Cosmo and Cosima Wood, Alicia had finally raised enough money to buy the derelict building next door to the Swan. She had long dreamed of expanding the school. She had expected to be the only bidder for the building, which was owned by the council and had been lying empty for years, but at the last minute somebody else had unexpectedly put in a higher sealed bid. Olivia and Eel had been there when the bad news had come through and seen Alicia crumple like an elegant old house whose foundations had suddenly been removed. She had set her heart on the Swan’s expansion. She wanted so many more children to be able to benefit from its training, which was recognized as the best in the country, and also to set up weekend and after-school courses for children who couldn’t attend the Swan full time.
Staring at her friends�
�� expectant faces, Olivia decided she couldn’t betray her gran’s confidence, even though it was very tempting. And anyway, it made her feel quite tingly and powerful to know something that no one else did, and which everyone was desperate to find out about.
“Please tell us, Livy. We promise not to tell,” said Georgia, her cheeks pink with excitement making her look more like a pretty china doll than ever.
“I am sorry but I really can’t,” said Olivia. “All I can tell you is that it’s connected to her trip to Hollywood last term. I only found out myself this morning when I heard her talking on her mobile.”
“Oh, come on, Livy!” cried Aeysha. “Who was Miss Swan talking to?”
“My lips are super-glued shut,” grinned Olivia.
“You can’t do this to us, Liv,” groaned Tom.
“We could tickle her to extract the information. It’s what I always do to make Livy tell me things,” suggested Eel seriously. “She’s got very ticklish feet.”
But Olivia was saved by the school bell. It was the first day of the summer term at the Swan Academy and like every term it would begin with assembly in the school hall, followed by vocational lessons. Soon the entire academy would reverberate to the sound of singing and dancing and acting classes.
“I’m bursting to tell you, but you’ll just have to be patient,” said Olivia as she started to put away the wire. “All will be revealed in just a few minutes. I promised Gran that I wouldn’t let the cat out of the bag, and a promise is a promise. I can’t break it.”
“What cat?” asked Eel. “I didn’t know we had a cat.” Everyone laughed, and Olivia looked hard at her smart little sister. It wasn’t always easy to tell if she was playing the fool or not.
“There is no cat, Eel. But there is an invitation to tea for all of you after lessons this afternoon. Gran asked me to ask you,” said Olivia. Her eyes gleamed mischievously. “There’ll be chocolate cake and surprise guests, who I think you’ll want to meet.” Tom, Georgia and Aeysha looked at each other excitedly and that moment the bell rang again.
“Oh no, I’ve left my score for Les Miserables up in the flat and I need it for Singing first period,” said Olivia, rifling through her bag. “I’ll meet you all in the hall.” She left the others and took the stairs two at a time as she ran towards the flat. She gave a little skip and put her worries about Alicia out of her mind; she was really looking forward to the summer term at the Swan.
Chapter Two
The voice at the other end of the phone was smooth. “If you know what’s good for you,” it said, “you’ll accept our offer for the school. Otherwise, Miss Swan, we might have to use a little persuasion, and that won’t be nice for you or your pupils.”
“Are you threatening me?” said Alicia with a steely note in her voice. “I’ll go to the police. They’ll soon put an end to your bullying. There are laws against this kind of intimidation.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t advise that,” said the voice silkily. “All those little dancers and their precious little legs. You wouldn’t want anything to happen to them, would you? However would you live with yourself?” There was a tiny pause and then the voice added, “I hear your own granddaughter is a very, very talented dancer. It would be such a pity if she or her sister had some kind of accident…”
The voice trailed off. Alicia slammed the phone down. She was very pale and her hands were shaking. She stood up and turned around. She gasped when she saw Olivia standing staring at her, the score for the children’s version of Les Miserables in her trembling hand.
“Gran,” whispered Olivia. “Something terrible’s happening, isn’t it? What’s going on?”
Alicia went over and hugged her. As she held Olivia in her arms she thought how she would do anything she could to protect her precious granddaughters. They’d barely had a chance to know their own mother, Toni, who’d died in a plane crash when Olivia and Eel were very young. Alicia glanced at the huge portrait of her daughter on the living-room wall and thought how alike Toni and Olivia were: both unaware of their own beauty, loyal, intense and intensely private as if there was some part of themselves that they refused to make readily available to the world. Toni only allowed that part of herself to show on stage and it had been one of the things that had made her a great actress. Alicia suspected that Olivia was the same and would one day be a brilliant actress too. But for the moment Olivia was only really interested in walking the high-wire.
“It’s nothing for you to worry about, Livy darling,” she said. “Just some silly people who think they can persuade me to sell the Swan. But that’s never going to happen, I promise you.”
Olivia felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. The Swan wasn’t just her school, it was her home. The only place she’d ever been able to call home after her previous life in a travelling circus. The thought of losing it and all her friends made her feel sick. She felt as if she had already lost so much in her short life.
“If you’re being threatened, you should go to the police,” said Olivia, hoping to sound strong and grown up but her voice came out all scratchy because she was trying not to cry. Alicia held Olivia even more tightly and felt grateful that her granddaughter hadn’t heard the other side of the conversation and the ominous warnings of the man with the sinister, silky voice. Particularly those concerning Eel and Olivia herself.
“Really, Livy, it’s not as bad as it sounded. It’s probably just somebody’s idea of a nasty joke. If I was really being threatened, of course I’d go to the police,” said Alicia. Her voice sounded a little too jaunty even to her. “I’m going to sort it out, believe me, and in the meantime please don’t say anything to anyone. I’m trusting you, just as I trusted you this morning.” She sighed. “Now, come on, Livy, we must go downstairs for assembly. Everyone will be wondering what’s happened to us. And we’ve got such exciting news to tell them!”
Alicia held out her hand to Olivia, who helped her down the stairs as fast as her grandmother’s arthritis would allow. Alicia squeezed her granddaughter’s hand: it wasn’t the pain in her hands and feet but the voice on the phone that scared her. That and the look of fear in Olivia’s dark eyes.
Alicia Swan gazed across the school hall at her pupils, or the Swans as they were affectionately known in the business. They were frequently to be found performing in London’s West End theatres. Georgia and Tom were in The Sound of Music at the Duke’s Theatre, while other pupils were playing in Les Miserables at the Queens and Billy Elliot at the Victoria Palace. Two Swans were at the Royal Court in a new play by a young woman playwright that had all the critics raving, and William Todd, who was in the same year as Olivia and her friends, had just finished being the doomed Prince Arthur in the RSC revival of Shakespeare’s King John at the Roundhouse. William, thought Alicia to herself, must have acted his socks off to get the role of the saintly Arthur, because in reality he was a high-spirited little devil who was always playing practical jokes. She shuddered when she remembered the stink bomb incident when he had been in Year Three.
Alicia was proud of all her pupils and they were proud to be Swans – there was fierce competition to get into the school and those who won a place knew that they had been the lucky ones.
“The ducklings, they all look very happy to be back,” said Pablo Catalano, the Spanish circus-skills teacher, to one of his colleagues.
“They do indeed,” agreed Sebastian Shaw, who was head of acting. “And when they hear Miss Swan’s news I predict they’re going to be positively ecstatic!”
Pablo shrugged. Like Olivia, he didn’t really care about celebrities; he just wanted to teach circus to children who really wanted to learn. Olivia was his star pupil, perhaps not surprisingly as she and Eel had grown up in a travelling circus run by their dad, Jack Marvell. Pablo watched as Alicia raised her hand to silence the chattering children. She looked very pale and her voice didn’t quite ring with its usual authority.
“Welcome back, everyone,” she said. “It’s lovely to see you all a
gain and I hope you’re all raring to go because it’s going to be a very busy term indeed. You’re all going to have to work very hard, because we are determined that the Swan is going to remain the country’s leading stage school. Of course, there are also public examinations this year for those of you in Year Eleven, and I don’t want anyone to say that we neglect the academic side of things at the Swan. We are as proud of our examination results as we are of winning leading roles on stage and in film, TV and advertising campaigns.” She looked hard at the Year Eleven pupils. “I’m expecting great things from you and I know that you won’t let me down. Last year’s Year Eleven gave us our best examination results ever, and I know that you are going to surpass them.”
“No pressure then, Miss Swan,” called out Kasha Kasparian, one of the most popular boys in Year Eleven. Everyone grinned.
“Believe me, Kasha, exam pressure is a doddle compared with the pressures you’ll be facing in the music business,” said Alicia drily, but there was a twinkle in her eye. At just sixteen, Kasha already had a recording contract and looked set for stardom but his headmistress had successfully persuaded him to stay on at school, arguing that fame could be fickle. “And you never know, Kasha,” she’d said, “you might decide you want to be a brain surgeon one day. You’re bright enough. Take your exams and keep all your options open.” Alicia was pleased that Kasha had taken her advice; even though she was confident that he had a dazzling future ahead as a singer-songwriter. But nothing was ever guaranteed in this business. There were plenty who became stars in their teens and who were burned out by the time they were twenty and on the scrapheap. Show business could be so cruel.