by Lyn Gardner
“I’m Olivia Marvell,” she said with quiet dignity. “Not Olivia Nobody. Thank you for supper but I think I’d better go home now to my family.” She hadn’t got far down the stairs when she heard Cosi calling her name. For a moment she didn’t turn, but there was something so desperate in Cosi’s voice that she couldn’t bear to ignore her.
“Livy, I’m so sorry. I wish I’d never asked you to come.”
“I wish I never had,” said Olivia lightly, even though she felt really angry. But she could see that Cosi was distraught.
“Dad hasn’t always been like that, you know.” Cosi swallowed and tried to explain. “It’s only in the last couple of years, since his own career has started to slide. It’s as if he’s being eaten away inside by disappointment. It all peaked for him around the time Cosmo and I were born and people say he’s never been the same since our mom ran away. It’s not the money. We’ve got enough to last us several lifetimes. It’s more an obsession with the family name. It’s as if he’s possessed by it. He says without the Wood name we’d all be nobodies like everyone else.” Cosi eyes filled with tears. “But I want to be a nobody! I want to live in an ordinary family and make my own way in the world and make my own name for myself. Just like most kids do.”
“Have you talked to anyone about all this, Cosi?” asked Olivia, feeling as if she was being sucked into Cosi’s life despite herself.
“Only Cosmo, and he doesn’t get it. He’s bought into the whole ‘family business’ idea. He thinks it’s really cool that he’s got all those friends on Facebook. Friends! We don’t even update it ourselves. Our PR manager pretends to be us. We haven’t got any real friends because we’re always on the move or people are too awestruck to really get to know us. It’s a real friction between us. I’m scared I’m going to have to be one of the famous Wood twins until I’m old enough to get away and Cosmo’s scared that I’m going to quit and his own career will be finished. But it doesn’t have to be like that. With some proper training, Cosmo could make it as an actor on his own. In fact, it would be better. We haven’t got a hope of moving from child to adult actors together. I only really hold him back, but alone he’s got a chance. He has some talent, at least.” Cosi added fiercely, “I hate my life! The thought of performing on stage in Peter Pan makes me feel sick but there’s no getting out of it now. Dad would never allow it. Sometimes I think the only thing to do is to run away.”
“You could join a circus,” said Olivia, trying to lighten the mood a little. She felt so sorry for Cosi. She couldn’t imagine what it must be like being made to do something when you hated it as much as Cosi hated being a child star. She knew that if she told Jack she was giving up the high-wire he’d be sad, but he’d respect her decision provided she could show him she’d really thought it through. He wouldn’t see it as a betrayal of the Marvell family name. But Cosi didn’t have that choice. It was as if Jasper was a thief, stealing Cosi’s precious childhood and using it all up until there was nothing left. “Actually, maybe the circus isn’t such a good idea if you haven’t got a head for heights,” added Olivia with a grin.
Cosi gave a smile. “No, you’re right, it wouldn’t be. I’d be a terrible circus performer just like I’m a terrible actress.” She sniffed. “Maybe I’m just terrible. A complete zero.”
“Oh, come on, there must be lots of things you’re good at,” said Olivia.
Cosi shrugged. “I can’t think of anything. But there must be some way I can be myself. I’ll just have to find out what it is. Would you help me?”
“I guess,” said Olivia. She took a deep breath. “Cosi, please don’t be angry with me for asking but if we’re going to be friends we’ve got to be honest with each other. Did you get your dad to order my dad to work tonight so I would be free to come to supper?”
Cosi looked appalled. “Of course not, that would be really evil. I’d never do anything like that…” Her voice trailed off and she looked stricken. “But of course it’s exactly the sort of thing Jasper would do. You’ve seen how he likes to order people around. He must have… Oh, Livy, I’m so sorry. You must hate me.”
Olivia felt really angry, but she knew it wasn’t Cosi’s fault.
“Cosi, it’s OK, you’re not to blame for what your dad does,” she said, suddenly feeling enormously tired. “We’ll talk tomorrow. I’ve got to go.”
“Livy, you’re a real friend.” Cosi smiled faintly. “Actually, you’re my only friend.”
Olivia said goodbye and turned to leave. As she reached the door of the hotel, her phone rang.
“Olivia?” said a voice at the other end. “It’s Katie. Katie Wilkes-Cox. We need to meet. There’s stuff I have to tell you.”
Chapter Eight
“OK, Cosmo and Cosi, you can go now,” said Alicia, who could see both twins were looking tired. Particularly Cosima, who was very pale. “You’ve had a long day.” Then she added brightly, “That was much better.” She didn’t sound convincing even to herself. She felt bone weary.
“No, it wasn’t,” said Cosima sadly. “We were lousy.”
Cosmo opened his mouth to protest.
“OK. Let me rephrase that,” said Cosi. “I was lousy and you were slightly less lousy.”
“Speak for yourself,” said her brother.
“Oh, wake up, Cosmo, and smell the coffee. You’ve seen some of the Swan kids acting. Even the tinies in Year Three would be better playing Peter and Wendy than us. They all sing, dance and act much better than we do. We’re total amateurs. They’ve been trained to appear on stage. We’ve never had any of that. We’ve just learned the lines, stood about in front of the camera looking cute, picked up what tricks we can as we’ve gone along and just hoped that because we’re the famous Wood twins the director will have been paid handsomely enough to make us look good. Eel’s right. How do we know we’re any good if we’ve never had to audition for anything? If we had auditioned for Peter Pan and been up against any of the Swans, we’d have been shown the door straightaway. Livy doesn’t even want to be an actor and she’d be a much better Wendy than me.”
Cosmo said nothing. But he had been secretly shocked by what he’d found at the Swan. He was used to people praising him and telling him how he had inherited the Wood family talent and what a star he was, but he had soon realised that at the Swan he was nothing special. He probably wouldn’t even get in if he tried. It made him feel really insecure.
“Look,” said Alicia soothingly. “I can’t cram five years of training into a few weeks. But in the time we’ve got I can teach you some techniques to help you when you get out there in front of an audience.”
“I can’t do it,” said Cosi matter-of-factly. “I can’t go out there. I’ll just freeze. I’d rather die.”
“Oh, Cosi, of course you can do this,” said Alicia. “I would never have taken you both on if I didn’t think that you could, and you’ll be surrounded on stage by people who want you to succeed, not to fail. The audience will be on your side too. They’ll want to have a good time, they’ll feel sympathetic towards you. But you’re going to have to work very hard if we’re going to pull this off. Are you willing to do that?”
Cosmo nodded; Cosima looked doubtful but shrugged and said, “I haven’t got much choice, have I?” Then she added, “Look, sorry, I know you’re really trying to help us, Miss Swan.”
“Right then,” said Alicia. “Let’s not stop. Let’s carry on for a few more minutes.”
After she had finished working with the twins, Alicia made her way up to the flat and sat down at the kitchen table with her head in her hands. She was exhausted. She was worried about the twins but she was even more worried about the noise from the building site next door. One of the reasons she had been working with the twins after school was that the level of noise was so intense during the day that almost all the classes were severely disrupted. Cosmo had even complained to his dad, and Jasper Wood had given Alicia a hard time. But there didn’t seem to be anything that she could do about it, e
ven though the noise was sometimes so intense it felt like a physical assault. Alicia had developed an almost constant headache. She and Sebastian had tried to enter the derelict building but all the entrances seemed to be boarded up. They had never seen anyone go in or out either.
In desperation, Alicia had rung the local planning department to complain about the noise, and had been put through to Bill Jukes, the head of planning, who’d been most unhelpful. He said that nobody else had complained and what did she expect from a building site? He pointed out that she’d had plenty of time to object before the building work started and that it was too late now.
Alicia had been furious. “But I didn’t know that work was going to start!” she’d said. “I still don’t even know what’s being built over there.”
“Well, you were sent a letter, Miss Swan, and notices went up on all the lamp-posts.”
“Well, I never got a letter and I haven’t seen any notices,” said Alicia.
“That’s impossible,” said Bill Jukes smoothly. “I arranged it all myself.” And before Alicia could say another word, he’d put the phone down. It was all so frustrating.
Up in one of the rehearsal rooms, Olivia, Eel, Tom, Georgia and Aeysha were sitting on the floor eating liquorice laces even though no food was really allowed.
“I’ve never seen Gran like this before,” said Olivia. “It’s as if she’s completely defeated. I’ve always thought of her as being like a piece of steel. Unbreakable. I’m really worried.”
“We all are,” said Tom. “She totally lost it with Will Todd today when he produced that mouse from his pocket in the middle of classical acting class, and normally he always makes her smile however cheeky he is.”
“Poor Miss Swan, the pressure is really getting to her,” said Georgia. “If only we could help in some way.”
“Maybe we could get Jasper Wood to adopt you and Tom, Georgia, and then you could play Peter and Wendy instead of the twins?” said Eel.
“I wish people would be kinder about the twins. It’s not their fault they’re playing Peter and Wendy; they weren’t given any choice by their dad.” Olivia had told the others about her awful evening at the Savoy. “Anyway, it’s not just the twins who are giving Gran grief, the noise is getting to her too.”
“It’s getting to all of us,” said Tom.
“It really is,” said Eel. “Pablo is teaching the trapeze wearing earmuffs and a terrible frown, and my dancing has gone right downhill. My feet can’t think when my ears can’t hear the music.”
“Must you always just think of yourself?” snapped Olivia. Then she looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Eel, I’m a snappy crocodile today. I think it’s the noise too. At least it’s stopped now.”
“Yes, it has, hasn’t it?” said Tom. “Don’t you think it’s funny that it always stops as soon as school ends?”
“I suppose the workmen go home at the same time as school finishes,” said Georgia.
Tom looked thoughtful. “But why would they keep school hours? And why do we never see anyone coming in and out? When they were building that office block down the road, we used to see the workmen everywhere, sitting on the side of the road eating their sandwiches in their bright-yellow hats, buying tea from the café across the road. But this lot are like phantoms.”
“That building’s been derelict for ages. Maybe it’s haunted?” said Eel.
“More likely there just aren’t many workmen in there,” said Aeysha.
“Well, they make enough noise,” said Georgia. “It sounds as if there are hundreds of them.”
“It does,” said Tom. “What’s more, their working hours seem entirely synchronised with the Swan’s school day. When we start, the noise starts. When we stop for break or lunch, the noise stops and then as soon as the bell goes again, the noise starts up. I wish we could take a look at what’s going on over there.”
Olivia looked thoughtful. She opened her mouth to say something, then noticed the time. “Oh!” she cried. “I’ve got to go!”
“Where?” asked Georgia.
“Oh, I just arranged to meet someone,” she said. “I’ll tell you about it later.” And with that, Olivia dashed out of the room.
Chapter Nine
Olivia took another sip of her orange juice and watched the pigeons in the Covent Garden piazza. Katie Wilkes-Cox was sitting opposite her, talking in a low, urgent voice. It was only a few weeks since Olivia had last seen Katie but she had changed so much. She looked nervous and kept peering about her as if she was worried they were being watched. She had lost the glossy look that had always made her resemble a sleek, pampered cat when she had been at the Swan.
“So we’ve got to get inside that building and find out exactly what he’s up to,” concluded Katie. In normal circumstances, Olivia would have dismissed what Katie had been saying as some kind of fabrication but it chimed with Tom’s suspicions about a sinister reason for the noise coming from the building next door. Katie was suggesting it wasn’t just normal building-site noise but deliberate harassment.
“But why would your dad be doing this, Katie?” asked Olivia.
“That’s easy. For starters: revenge. He still has a grudge against Miss Swan for kicking me out. But the other is money. If there’s one thing that motivates my dad, it’s dosh. Buying this building killed two birds with one stone. He knew that Miss Swan wanted it to expand the school and he liked being able to thwart her. Particularly as he’d previously tried to bribe her to keep me on at the Swan by suggesting he buy it and develop the top half into luxury flats and allow the Swan to expand into the bottom half.”
“How generous of him,” said Olivia.
“Oh, there’d have been a profit in it for him,” said Katie. “There always is. Anyway, he managed to buy the building but then he discovered that there’s a new high-speed train link being planned, which will link up to the nearest station. The price of land round here is going to rocket. So he wants the Swan site too. He’s made an offer through some business associates.” She wrinkled her pretty button nose. “Not nice people. But your gran doesn’t want to sell, and my dad doesn’t take no for an answer. So he’s going to drive her out if necessary. And he will, Livy. I know him. He’ll stop at nothing. He’s ruthless when it comes to money.”
“Poor Gran,” whispered Olivia. No wonder Alicia was so stressed. “Why are you telling me all this, Katie?” she asked quietly.
“I want to help,” said Katie. “He boasts about it quite openly at home. Even my mum is sickened, but she’s afraid of him. I knew I had to do something. I couldn’t just stand by and watch while he tried to destroy the Swan. I had to act. Even if he is my dad, what he’s doing is so wrong. He’s got to be stopped.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” asked Olivia. She knew from bitter experience that Katie was a superb actress who was adept at double dealing and appearing sincere when she was at her most devious. Even Alicia had almost been taken in by Katie’s wide-eyed innocent act.
“I don’t blame you for being suspicious, Livy,” said Katie sadly. “I know I haven’t earned your trust, but I will be forever grateful to you for what you and Tom did. You saved my life. Nothing will ever be enough, but the least I can do is try to save the Swan. I didn’t realise it at the time, but it’s the only place I’ve ever been happy. I squandered all that but I can’t sit back and let my dad destroy the school. But that means getting into the building and he’s certainly not going to give me the key. Then I thought of you. You can get in.”
Olivia looked into Katie’s face. She wanted so much to believe that Katie was telling her the truth but a tiny part of her brain kept telling her, You know what she’s like. Don’t trust her. Don’t allow yourself to be taken in. She pushed the thought away.
“We’ve got to get into the building,” said Katie insistently, “and you’re the only person I know who can do it, Livy.”
Olivia swallowed. In her first term she had risked her life by walking a wire stretched across the gap f
rom the Swan to the derelict building next door to retrieve some jewellery from the nest of a bird that had stolen it. If she had fallen off, she’d have plunged to her death. Afterwards, she had promised her gran that she’d never do anything so dangerous again. But she had added a proviso: “Unless I feel I really have to.” Well, she did have to. She couldn’t bear to see Gran lose everything she’d worked so hard for. She had to find out what was happening in that building.
“Could you go in over the roof?” asked Katie. Olivia nodded. “Then you can let me in. It’s only a Chubb lock. I’ve seen the key.”
“That’s decided then,” said Olivia. “We’ll do it.” She couldn’t tell whether the feeling inside her tummy was excitement or fear. Fear that Katie could not be trusted.
The entire class was in the computer suite. They were supposed to be researching their projects on famous scientists. Olivia and Cosi had been assigned Sir Isaac Newton. Cosi had never heard of him and all Olivia could remember was that he had had something to do with apples. Tom and Cosmo were given Galileo. Cosmo insisted this was the name of a new American boy band and was showing Tom their website.
Olivia was distracted. She was thinking about her conversation with Katie. Was she being led into some kind of trap? Either way, she knew she had to do something. She’d told Jack about the noise but because he was never around during school hours he really had no idea how bad it was and had thought that she was exaggerating. She wondered about going to the police herself, but what would she say? She had a strange feeling that Alicia would deny she was being threatened. It was clear that her gran was very frightened indeed.
Olivia dragged her attention back to the computer. Cosi was hunched over the screen muttering furiously to herself, but when Olivia looked over her shoulder she saw she was on the World Wildlife Fund site. That didn’t seem to have anything to do with Newton or apples. Cosi clicked on a picture of a polar bear with her cubs.