Alice-Miranda in the Alps

by Jacqueline Harvey

  ‘They said the director thought I was hopeless,’ Caprice said, her voice reduced to a whisper.

  ‘I’m sure that’s not true,’ Alice-Miranda reassured her.

  Millie grinned. ‘Is it?’

  Alice-Miranda looked over and mouthed for Millie to stop her teasing.

  ‘Apparently it is,’ Caprice sniffed.

  ‘But you’re the best actress I’ve ever seen,’ Millie said, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing.

  ‘That’s just the point,’ Caprice insisted, her voice wavering. ‘The director said I was overplaying my role. They’ve cut me from the entire episode and Mummy will have to go back early to reshoot some sections.’

  ‘Is that why you had a fight with her?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  ‘She told me we had to go home tomorrow and I said that I didn’t want to. Daddy and the boys are staying, so why should I have to go?’ Caprice whimpered, pulling the duvet up over her head.

  ‘I’m sure your parents will only do what they think is best,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  Millie yawned. ‘I’m exhausted. Goodnight.’

  ‘Goodnight,’ Alice-Miranda replied, switching off the light.

  ‘I’m not talking anymore,’ Caprice said, her voice muffled by the covers.

  ‘You just did,’ Millie said.

  Caprice huffed loudly. ‘Well, I won’t do it again.’

  Millie and Alice-Miranda giggled softly, and not five minutes later all three girls were fast asleep.

  Outside, the snow was falling heavily and the village was shrouded in a thick blanket of fog.

  ‘Looks like you won’t be going up the mountain this morning, kids,’ Hugh said, sitting down at the breakfast table. ‘It’s blowing about a hundred miles an hour up there and all the lifts are closed.’

  Sep wrinkled his nose. ‘That’s a bummer.’

  ‘Caprice, I’m afraid that means we can’t get you back to your parents just yet,’ Cecelia added. ‘I’ve called your mother and we’ll reassess later today, though it’s not looking good.’

  The girl smiled and flicked her long copper-coloured hair over her shoulder. ‘I don’t mind,’ she said pleasantly.

  Millie could have cried into her bowl of porridge.

  ‘What does everyone feel like doing today?’ Hamish asked. ‘Pippa and I are planning to check out the Matterhorn Museum and then wander around the village.’

  ‘Sounds good,’ Jacinta said.

  ‘Boring,’ Sloane quipped. ‘No offence, Hamish. Could we go ice-skating?’

  Cecelia nodded. ‘Yes, of course. There’s a fantastic rink back along the river.’

  ‘I’d love to see if Nina can show us around their museum,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘I know you don’t like museums very much, Sloane, but it’s seriously amazing. What are your plans?’ she asked her parents.

  ‘We were hoping to continue our work and then meet you all for lunch,’ Cecelia said.

  At that moment Baron von Zwicky walked into the room. ‘Good morning, good morning,’ he greeted them. ‘I trust everyone slept well.’

  There were nods all round.

  The Baron sat down at the end of the table, and the group chatted away while two waiters brought them drinks and food.

  Alice-Miranda leaned in close to the man, who was sitting beside her. ‘Uncle Florian, do you know much about the Black Diamonds?’ she asked quietly.

  ‘Not much at all,’ the Baron replied, shaking his head. ‘They’re one of a number of new ski schools on the mountain. I preferred it when we only had the Reds, who have been here since the very beginning and, as far as I am concerned, they are the best. Why do you ask, my dear?’

  ‘Well, apart from the fact that they almost mowed Millie down on the mountain yesterday, Millie and I saw them out the back with Herr Roten last night,’ Alice-Miranda reported.

  The man’s brow furrowed. ‘Really? What were they doing?’

  ‘One of them was slapping Hazel on the nose with his glove,’ Millie said indignantly.

  The Baron gasped.

  ‘Don’t worry, Herr Roten made the man stop,’ Alice-Miranda added.

  ‘Which was just as well because I was about to rip that glove out of the man’s hand and slap him with it,’ Millie said, shovelling another spoonful of porridge into her mouth.

  ‘I think it might have happened before,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘When we arrived the other afternoon, Hazel and Harry both got upset when Millie and I went to pat them.’

  ‘Good heavens, I must speak with Marius immediately,’ the Baron muttered.

  ‘That’s not all,’ Millie said.

  Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘They were loading the boxes of Fanger’s Chocolate into the back of the carriage and seemed to be struggling under the weight of them, which is odd considering they were supposedly empty. Don’t you agree, Uncle Florian?’

  A waiter placed an espresso in front of the man. The Baron looked up and smiled before turning back to the two girls. ‘I wonder what they are up to,’ he said. ‘That reminds me – Frau Doerflinger is staying in the hotel at the moment.’

  ‘Really?’ Alice-Miranda frowned. ‘She didn’t mention it when I told her that we were going to see you and Aunt Giselle.’

  The Baron shrugged. ‘I imagine Frau Doerflinger is a very busy woman. Her chocolate business seems most successful. But I will ask Marius what was going on yesterday. Thank you for telling me, girls.’

  The conversation turned to lighter things as the children regaled the adults with tales of their exploits on the mountain. The Baron hooted with laughter when Millie and Lucas described their attempts at snowboarding and told him how they’d had a pile-up on the magic carpet on one of the beginner slopes.

  The group finished their breakfast and made plans to go their separate ways until midday, when they would meet back at the hotel for lunch. It turned out that the Baroness had accumulated the most amazing collection of lost property over the years, much of it near new, so Caprice was kitted out in a jiffy. Although the girl wasn’t best pleased at the thought of wearing anything second-hand, she realised that she didn’t exactly have a choice. And after the debacle with the identical gowns at the Queen’s Jubilee Ball, Cecelia was loathe to ask either Jacinta or Sloane, who were about the same size as Caprice, to lend the girl any of their things.

  The children donned their hats and jackets in the foyer. Millie caught Caprice admiring her reflection in the giant mirror.

  ‘You look perfect,’ she said.

  ‘I know,’ Caprice retorted.

  Millie rolled her eyes and Sloane giggled.

  ‘Ready?’ Alice-Miranda asked everyone.

  ‘As ever,’ Millie replied, jamming her beanie onto her head and following Alice-Miranda out into the blustery cold.

  ‘Good morning, Herr Schlappi,’ Alice-Miranda greeted the doorman, who was rugged up extra-tight against the bitter chill.

  The old man smiled and held the door open for the children. ‘How are you today, young lady?’

  She smiled at him as the group traipsed out onto the hotel driveway. ‘Very well, thank you. I’m going to see if Nina’s home,’ she said, then raced across the road and knocked on the green door. A minute later, Nina poked her head outside.

  ‘Hello,’ said the girl. ‘I’m sorry I cannot come with you today. I have to stay with Opa.’

  Alice-Miranda shook her head. ‘We’re not going up, either. The lifts are closed, so we’re staying in the village.’

  ‘I knew it was windy but I didn’t think it was that bad.’ Nina’s stomach twinged. She always worried about her father when the weather was extreme.

  ‘I was wondering if you might be able to show everyone the museum,’ Alice-Miranda said.

  Nina’s eyes lit up. ‘I would love to! I just have to get the key.’ The girl took off upstairs, returning a minute later.

  Alice-Miranda turned around and beckoned for the others to join her. The children scrambled inside and stood in a large entrance hall.


  Millie gasped and pointed at the handpainted ceiling. ‘That’s so beautiful,’ she breathed.

  ‘Welcome to Lars Dettwiller’s Mechanical Musical Cabinet Museum,’ Nina said with a bow.

  ‘What’s a mechanical musical instrument?’ Sloane asked.

  ‘Be patient and you will see,’ Nina replied as she held back a red velvet curtain and motioned for everyone to walk through. On the other side, she unlocked a wide timber door and the group followed her into a dimly lit room.

  ‘What’s that?’ Millie pointed to a long cabinet that looked like a Middle Eastern palace. It had three figurines right in the centre of the stage. There was a colourfully dressed man with a turban in the middle and two women with veiled faces and sparkling clothes on either side of him. At both ends were two large drums suspended on their sides like gongs. ‘It looks like something from an old-fashioned carnival.’

  ‘That’s exactly where it came from,’ Nina said proudly. She walked to the side of the cabinet and flicked a switch. Organ music, the kind one hears on a carousel, blared. The male figurine began to move his arms as if he were singing, while the women swung their hips from side to side like belly dancers. Every few beats the gongs would clash.

  ‘Cool,’ Lucas said above the din.

  ‘It’s just the start,’ Nina promised with a smile. She led them through another doorway and into a room filled with unusual contraptions.

  ‘That’s a gramophone,’ Jacinta said, spotting a turntable with a large trumpet on top. ‘My granny used to have one of those and it sounded terrible.’

  Nina took a vinyl record from a sleeve and put it on the turntable. She cranked a handle and gently placed the needle in the groove. There was a crackle then the music began.

  ‘Frank Sinatra,’ Sep said, recognising the man’s voice.

  ‘May I have this dance?’ Lucas asked, holding a hand out to Jacinta. He smiled and the girl felt her heart skip a beat.

  ‘Why, sir, of course,’ she replied with a curtsy.

  He took Jacinta in his arms and spun her around the floor while the other children giggled and swayed in time with the music.

  Sep stepped forward and held his hand out to Alice-Miranda, and the two of them waltzed around the room, quickly followed by Millie and Sloane.

  Caprice rolled her eyes, her gaze falling on what appeared to be a large piano with two cylindrical cabinets on top of it. ‘What’s that?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s a violina,’ Nina answered, lifting the needle off the record. ‘I’ll show you.’ She walked over to the instrument and opened the keyboard lid.

  ‘Wait until you see what those are,’ Alice-Miranda said to the others, her eyes sparkling.

  Nina parted the doors on the left cylinder to reveal three violins, then did the same on the right.

  Millie moved closer to inspect the unusual instrument. ‘What is that thing?’ she asked.

  What came next was a complete surprise as Nina switched on the contraption. The piano keys came to life, as if they were being struck by a ghost. The violins rotated, their tune in perfect harmony.

  Jacinta marvelled at the machine as it played a famous composition by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. ‘That’s the most bizarre thing I’ve ever seen.’

  ‘I love Eine kleine Nachtmusik,’ Alice-Miranda said wistfully. She looked around the room at her friends, smiling to herself.

  ‘Why don’t we have instruments like this anymore?’ Lucas said.

  ‘I’m not really sure, except that they are very hard to maintain,’ Nina answered. ‘Opa has been restoring them for years and they need regular attention.’ She turned a switch and the tune immediately slowed before stopping completely. ‘Now for my favourite.’

  Sloane’s eyes bulged. ‘There’s more? Who knew museums could actually be interesting?’ she said, following Nina into the next room, where a huge cabinet took up the length of one wall.

  ‘It’s so pretty,’ Jacinta gushed. ‘Look at those ballerinas! Do they dance?’

  Nina nodded, smiling.

  The children spread out in front of the glass box, pointing and commenting on the funny little figurines. Nina pulled the handle on the side of the instrument and the players sprang to life.

  Millie leapt into the air. ‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ she said, giggling at herself.

  An old man entered the room, his white hair sticking up all over the place. ‘What is going on in here?’ he asked in bewilderment.

  Nina froze. This is what she had been hoping for more than anything – she just hadn’t expected her grandfather to come now. ‘I … I was just showing my friends the museum, Opa,’ she said hesitantly.

  Alice-Miranda bit her lip, wondering if Nina was going to get into trouble.

  Herr Dettwiller stood there staring at the cabinet, entranced by the music. For several minutes nobody said a word. When the tune came to an end, the old man turned to the children. ‘So, did you like it?’ he asked, his stern face fracturing into a smile.

  Millie grinned. ‘It’s amazing!’

  ‘Brilliant,’ Lucas said, nodding.

  The other children weighed in with their words of praise, all except Caprice, who said nothing.

  Herr Dettwiller looked at the girl. ‘And you? What did you think?’

  ‘It’s clever,’ she conceded.

  Nina placed a hand on her grandfather’s arm. ‘How are you feeling, Opa?’

  The old man gazed around the room. It felt as if he were visiting a long-lost friend. ‘Better than I have in a long time,’ he replied.

  Nina looked into the old man’s green eyes. ‘You’re not cross?’

  ‘Whatever for?’ Opa said in surprise.

  ‘For playing the instruments,’ Nina replied.

  Her grandfather shook his head sadly. ‘They are meant to be played. And, thanks to you, something inside me has woken up. I have been numb for such a long time.’

  ‘Shall we show my friends the rest of the museum, Opa?’ the girl asked, taking his hand.

  ‘Why not?’ he said with a wink.

  Alice-Miranda blinked back tears of happiness.

  ‘How much more is there to see?’ Millie asked.

  Nina’s eyes twinkled. ‘This is just the beginning. There is something Opa has been working on for years. No one has ever seen it – not even you, Alice-Miranda.’

  ‘Really?’ The girl smiled. ‘That sounds intriguing,’

  The children looked at one another, eager for the unveiling.

  ‘Well, there is no time like the present,’ the old man said. He shuffled across the room to a huge bolted doorway. The children held their breaths as they watched Herr Dettwiller pull out a small brass key from his pocket and turn it in the lock.

  The children followed Nina and her grandfather through the door and onto a large landing. Herr Dettwiller flicked a switch, revealing a wide staircase with an ornate cast-iron balustrade. Though the paint on it was flaking, the marble stair treads hinted at the grandeur that lay beneath.

  ‘Are we going to the cellar?’ Millie asked, noting the damp air.

  ‘Those are the fanciest cellar stairs I’ve ever seen,’ Jacinta said as she glanced around at the shiny tiles that covered the walls and ceiling.

  ‘What’s down there?’ Sloane asked.

  ‘Wait and see,’ Nina replied mysteriously.

  The children followed Nina and her grandfather into the unknown. When the old man neared the bottom, he reached for another switch. This time the entire chamber lit up.

  ‘Whoa! What is this place?’ Lucas gasped, his voice bouncing around the walls.

  The children spilled onto a platform beneath a dome ceiling lined with glossy cream and sage-green tiles. There was a pile of paint tins and a ladder propped up against the wall beside stacks of tiles and some other tools. Running through the centre of the chamber was a train track that stopped abruptly at the rocky wall to their right. Behind them, printed in the tiles, were the words ‘Monta Rosa’.

  ‘Wher
e are we?’ Sep whispered.

  ‘It’s a secret,’ Nina said. ‘Opa has been restoring the old railway station. We were going to put some of the instruments down here because the acoustics are amazing.’

  Millie frowned. ‘Why is there a railway station beneath your house?’

  Herr Dettwiller shuffled to the edge of the platform. ‘This building wasn’t always a house,’ he told the children. ‘Back in the early nineteenth century, it was the first hotel in Zermatt – the Monta Rosa.’

  ‘Why did the hotel close?’ Alice-Miranda asked.

  ‘It was during the war,’ the old man said.

  ‘But Switzerland wasn’t in the war,’ Caprice piped up.

  ‘No, but we are in the centre of Europe and it was impossible for the tourists to come. My parents were young back then. Papa had inherited the hotel from his father, though his heart was never in it. We moved away to Basel and this place was locked up tight. It was my wife who wanted to come back here,’ the old man explained. ‘But, alas, I was a watchmaker, not a hotelier. Although we raised our daughter in Zermatt, the hotel was never reopened. I had a clock shop and we rattled around for a long time until I started the museum.’

  ‘There would have been steam trains back then,’ Sep said. ‘Were they able to come down here?’

  Herr Dettwiller nodded, his face lighting up. ‘Clever boy! That was precisely the conundrum. The guests complained of getting covered in soot, so after a couple of years the trains stopped at the main station instead. They used handcars to take passengers and their luggage to their hotels. Eventually, the horse-drawn carriages became the favoured mode of transport, while the tunnel was only used for the transfer of luggage and goods.’

  ‘Hotels?’ Sep asked.

  ‘See the platform on the other side?’ the old man said, pointing ahead of them. Sep and the children nodded. ‘Although it is covered up now, there was an entrance to the Grand Hotel Von Zwicky too, but it has been sealed tight for many, many years,’ Herr Dettwiller explained.

  ‘Where does the tunnel lead?’ Lucas asked.

  ‘To the railway station in Zermatt, but it is boarded over now too. You wouldn’t even know it was there,’ the old man replied.