Miles and the children went into the restaurant and sat down at one of the large wooden tables. Miles decided to have chilli con carne with brown rice; Daisy decided to have seafood pizza with prawns, crayfish and pineapple; and Oliver chose pasta twists sprinkled with poppy seeds, with yellowfin tuna, baby sweetcorn, courgettes, mangetout and tomato sauce with basil.
As Miles and Daisy and Oliver waited for their food to arrive, they sipped organic fruit juices. Miles had pineapple, mango and ginger, and the children had strawberry and cherry. They were served with coloured straws, fancy cocktail umbrellas and a slice of lime each. As they drank their organic fruit juices they had another look at the goods they had just bought. Daisy took out the silver charm bracelet. She was wondering what each charm could do. Miles was looking at the silverware.
When the waitress, Emily, arrived, she admired the utterly beautiful charm bracelet and asked where they had purchased it.
Miles piped up that it was a small shop just down the side street with a billboard on view.
Emily said she had been along that street many times, but had never ever seen that shop. She said she thought it must have just opened. She told them she was thinking of buying a necklace to replace her favourite one, which she had recently lost.
Meanwhile, as if by magic or telepathy, Mabble Merlin popped out of the shop and on the billboard on the cobblestones he chalked the words ‘Silver gemstone necklaces - choose from rose quartz, amethyst, blue lace agate, clear quartz, moonstone, jasper, aventurine and obsidian’. He seemed to know that Emily was going to pop into the shop.
When Emily finished work she easily found the shop down the side street, and she bought a heart-shaped rose-quartz silver necklace. From then on she wore the necklace every day, and the customers in The Pecan Pie often commented on how beautiful it was, but none of the customers ever found the shop - and, curiously enough, Emily never saw the shop again. She thought it was very strange that the shop was suddenly there and suddenly gone.
The Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop could make itself invisible if it wanted to. The owl in the shop window, Hoot-Hoot, sometimes stared into a would-be customer’s eyes, and if he didn’t think that person was ready to buy anything magical from the shop, he would make the would-be customer feel so, so, so sleepy. Some of these would-be customers went straight home without buying any of the things they went into town for, and all they could remember was seeing an owl in a shop window. Sometimes would-be customers went into the shop and the owl handed them a business card and then hypnotised them with his large owl eyes to go home and put their feet up. Hours later the would-be customers would wake up at home holding a business card which read: ‘You have had an encounter with the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop. Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Proprietor: Mabble Merlin, at your service.’ The card was purple with silver writing and a few strange symbols, which looked like very ancient magic symbols. The people would look at the card for a long time wondering where on earth the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop actually was. They often waited eagerly for the call, but for many of them the call never came.
Milly Paris Gets to Know Polly Quazar
Penelope opened her present from Miles and was very pleased with the very quaint Australian clock. She loved it.
Polly Quazar, the sweet Australian clock, was put above the mantelpiece in the dining room. As she was telepathic she had no trouble talking to Milly Paris - which she did, morning, noon and night. They chatted for hours, mostly about Australia and about the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Milly was so fascinated by it.
One day disaster struck. Milly’s hands stopped working. She had just put on her favourite fragrance, Paris Time, and was feeling very happy, when Polly whispered to Milly that it was nine o’clock exactly. Milly’s hands spun round and round, but the spinning wore the mechanism and suddenly one of the hands got stuck at eight o’clock. Milly struggled to turn the hands to nine o’clock, but to no avail. They simply wouldn’t budge. She strained and strained, but still nothing happened. She started to sob.
“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear!” she cried.
Mog Og strolled into the kitchen.
“Oh, Milly, do stop sobbing. Dry your eyes. Your perfume, Paris Time, is lovely and sweet and Polly is your friend. What’s got into you? I’ll go and get you a handkerchief so you can dry your eyes.”
“I - I - I can’t move my hands to nine o’clock, Mog Og. All the spinning and whirring of my hands has broken the mechanism. I am doomed. Doomed! Doomed!” she wailed.
Polly, in the next room, could hear her cries.
“Milly, whatever is the matter, my dear friend? Has Mog Og upset you, or are you suffering from a chill or the flu, with the English weather?”
Polly always thought the wet English weather was responsible for everyone being a little bit temperamental in England.
“No, Polly. My hands are stuck. If I push my hands any more, they will drop off. I have been whizzing my hands round and round and round, guessing the time and trying to catch up with all of you lot. I’m not much use. I’m as good as a chocolate Advent clock.”
A chocolate clock isn’t much use for telling the time, that is true.
“I know Dr Laugherty will just put me on a dusty shelf in the dusty attic.”
Polly interrupted with her keen Aboriginal insight: “I think you’re right, Milly. He’s sure to do just that.”
“Oh, oh, oh!” wailed Milly.
“But wait - I haven’t finished,” piped up Polly. “I can see you getting better and coming back so much happier. I’m certain of it. You’ll see - it will happen, so don’t be sad.”
Milly continued to sob, and Mog Og offered her a handkerchief. Her mascara was ruined and her lipstick was smudged. Mog Og felt very sorry for her. He jumped on to a chair and stretched up and wiped her face clean so she could put on some more mascara and pink lipstick and put a bit of rouge on her cheeks as she looked so pale. Milly realised crying wouldn’t help, so at last she fell silent and dried her tears.
Mog Og began to sing, just to cheer Milly up:
“Milly, Milly, you’re like a fresh Paris flower in springtime.
You’re too nice, too sweet to hide away on a dusty shelf
I’m gonna make a wish that you stay
And hope you don’t sob all day,
So smile your pretty clock smile
And start to sway.”
Milly was glad that Mog Og was singing. It cheered her up, and she soon felt everything would somehow be fine, even though she thought it was the worst time of her life. It was rather bitter-sweet because she had some good friends - especially Jasmine and Polly and George and Mog Og. She’d also heard that a new picture clock had arrived named London Melody. It wasn’t yet on the wall, but she was looking forward to meeting it.
A Trip to the Seaside
Every year the Laugherty family liked to take a trip to the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.
In Jurassic rocks you may find, if you are extremely lucky, dinosaur bones; and if you are really imaginative, you can glimpse the long-distant past - the age of the dinosaurs, when dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex roamed the earth, and pterodactyls flew in the skies.
So one weekend the family arrived in Weymouth after a long car journey from London, and they headed for the picturesque harbour, where fishing boats bobbed about and yachts lay moored.
They decided to go to the Renaissance Fayre, where everyone was in full sixteenth-century costume, recreating the atmosphere of the Tudor era. Musicians were playing Tudor music, and many of the people at the fayre seemed to have actually come straight from the sixteenth century. In fact, some of the musicians from the fayre had actually time-travelled from sixteenth-century London.
As well as the fayre, something else had showed up unexpectedly. Guess what it was! Well, it was the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Sho
p, and it was sandwiched between a palmist’s shop and a seashell shop. The palmist was a Romany gypsy named Clara May Lee, who had already foretold that the curiosity shop would turn up on the day of the Renaissance Fayre. The seashell shop was named The Sea Urchin. This sold beach balls, buckets, spades, sunglasses, surfboards and, of course, seashells, including huge conch shells and nautilus shells.
The Laugherty family strolled happily along the Esplanade eating fish and chips, while the sea breezes blew away the cobwebs of care. They had not a care in the world. However, poor Milly’s world was about to turn upside down.
Before long the Laugherty family noticed the palmist’s shop, and Penelope was very eager to go into the shop to get her palm read. At that moment Patrick suddenly noticed the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop next to the palmist’s. He couldn’t believe it. It looked exactly like the musty old shop he’d been into down a side street in Kensington. He was amazed that the two shops looked so similar. Patrick wandered in, but this time Mabble Merlin was dressed in sixteenth-century costume. He looked like a writer from Tudor times. He wore a black velvet cloth cap with a large purple feather, a purple-and-gold waistcoat, a very flamboyant white frilly cotton shirt, black leggings, and black pointed shoes with gold buckles. His hair was long and dark, and he had a black moustache and beard. On the shop counter there was a very large book filled with Mabble Merlin’s writings.
Mabble Merlin loved to write, and indeed he had many things to write about. He wrote about his customers and his travels, his journeys and his thoughts on life. Some of his stories were incredible.
Patrick noticed that the shopkeeper’s eyes were the same mud-brown colour as the eyes of the shopkeeper in Kensington.
Suddenly Mabble Merlin piped up: “How can I help you, sir?”
“Oh, erm, I’m looking for a kitchen clock actually. The one we have has unfortunately broken; its hands have stuck, you see.”
“Now, do come over here, sir. I’ve something perfect for you - and I think you’ll agree.”
Penelope, Daisy and Oliver were now standing in the shop. Penelope had decided she wanted to buy a necklace for the 1920s-themed cocktail party. Penelope didn’t know that Mabble Merlin had all of the outfits and accessories for the cocktail party ready to be delivered. There were feather boas, headbands, necklaces and bracelets for the ladies. However, Mabble Merlin had known that Penelope would be popping into the shop to choose her own accessories - and he was never wrong!
Penelope went over to the jewellery shelf and opened a beautiful silver trinket box. Inside there was a very eye-catching silver and gemstone necklace. On the end of the silver chain was a pyramid-shaped lapis-lazuli gemstone. It had been fashioned in the time of the Ancient Egyptians. It was truly mesmerising. There was also a lapis-lazuli bracelet with little gemstone pyramids. It had a regal look about it.
As she opened the silver trinket box, Penelope somehow felt that these items of jewellery had been made for the wife of Tutankhamen, Ankhsenamun, who was Queen of Egypt over 3,000 years ago. Penelope felt an immediate connection with the necklace, and Mabble Merlin informed her that it was indeed worn by the Egyptian queen. Patrick immediately offered to buy the jewellery. It was perfect for his queen, Penelope.
Mabble Merlin popped the Egyptian jewellery back into the trinket box, wrapped it all in gold wrapping paper, popped it into a gold satin bag and handed it to Penelope. It made Penelope feel so elegant and regal to know she had a 3,000-year-old necklace and bracelet that once belonged to an Ancient Egyptian queen.
Patrick was then shown a French kitchen clock, which had once belonged to Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. It was given to them as a wedding present.
Marie Antoinette loved beautiful things, and the people of France loved her very much, but one day when she was feeling a bit spiteful, and more worried about her hair than the people of France, someone asked her, “What shall we eat?”
She replied, “Let them eat cake.”
Unfortunately she was carted off somewhere to be beheaded, and the French clock, Claudette de Seconds, somehow ended up in the Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop along with most of Marie Antoinette’s clothes and other artefacts from the royal palace. Louis XVI met the same fate as his wife. They were rather unforgiving, the French. Well, Marie Antoinette lived in an age when French ladies wore white wigs, and brightly coloured taffeta dresses with satin and lace. They always looked very grand. They danced and wrote lovely poetry.
Well, Claudette de Seconds was now in Weymouth on the Dorset coast.
Dr Laugherty held the clock. He liked this pink and pompous kitchen clock with the face of Marie Antoinette painted in a cameo in the centre of the clock. In the portrait she was eating cake - a lovely strawberry-and-cream cake. The clock was extraordinary. It had the magical ability to record things, and it contained a record of everything that had happened at the French court. Claudette de Seconds was a very good historian. If the Laugherty children needed to know about life at the French court, then Claudette de Seconds could chatter about that to their hearts’ content. She could tell them all about the fancy white wigs that they wore and the powdered ladies with beautiful satin puffed-out dresses and silver-buckled shoes. The ladies often carried satin parasols and spent their time painting in the courtyards or walking in the gardens, which were scented with the fragrance of roses, lilacs, lavender and vanilla. It was an easy, storybook life at the court (unless of course you told everyone to shut up and eat cake - then you got into big trouble, like Queen Marie Antoinette).
Cough Castle
“Yes, yes, I’ll take this,” said Dr Laugherty.
He purchased the French clock, and Mabble Merlin wrapped it in beautiful pink wrapping paper and tied it with a pink bow. He then popped it into a pink satin bag.
Dr Laugherty, Penelope and the children left the shop. Dr Laugherty had planned a special treat for Daisy and Oliver: they travelled from Weymouth along the coast to the Isle of Purbeck, where they all went on the Swanage Steam Railway. They took a trip to Cough Castle, not far from the town of Swanage.
They sat in a little old compartment of the steam train as it huffed and puffed along the tracks. The train was just like the Orient Express. The steam train was named the Dorset Choo-Choo. The steam train went through tiny villages en route, but the scenery was mainly farmland, with sheep and cows and horses and occasional pigsties. The cows in the fields turned their heads and wondered what on earth was going past them and giving off a lot of hot air. They looked so surprised! The poor little sheep (who get nervous if a sheep dog runs after them) started running up the hill in one field, and the pigs stopped eating their pigswill to look up to see what the great monstrosity was.
Oliver and Daisy had a great time waving to the children that lived in the little villages. They poked their heads out of the cottage windows and waved back at the train. Even some Dorset scarecrows waved back at the children. Oliver and Daisy felt like royalty.
When the steam train eventually came to a halt, Patrick said, “I’ve got another surprise: we’re now going to Cough Castle.”
They all got off the train at a little village named Church Knowle, where a signpost told them it was a five-minute walk to the castle.
Patrick had already made a booking for the family to stay the night at the castle, but the family didn’t know they had a room booked. They hadn’t even known the castle existed before that day. For that matter, they hadn’t known the Dorset Choo-Choo existed either.
The day was getting better and better. Oliver loved castles. He wanted to own a castle when he grew up. He thought he might renovate an old ruined castle - and there are plenty of those. There is even a ruined castle on the outskirts of London, in nearby Hertfordshire - South Mimms Castle. Oliver thought ruined castles should be renovated, and that was his ambition.
When they had walked for about five minutes they suddenly came upon Co
ugh Castle. Oliver was transported back in time. He imagined it in days gone by with a moat and a drawbridge. He imagined himself as a knight, walking up to the castle.
They all went inside the castle, where there was a large display that told the history of the castle. The staff were all dressed in period costume, and a few of them were dressed like knights. The lights were dimmed to give the effect of a haunted castle. At first visitors cannot see clearly in the gloomy room, but their eyes soon adjust to the dark.
One of the staff, dressed in a cook’s outfit, suddenly said, “Hello, Patrick.”
Penelope said to Patrick, “How did she know your name?”
“I have no idea,” said Patrick. “Maybe it was a ghost.”
When they turned back, the cook was gone.
Then something touched Penelope’s face, and she screamed. But it was only the pretend cobwebs in the corner of the wall.
Then one of the knights whispered to Oliver, “Welcome to Cough Castle, Oliver.”
Penelope turned and said, “How does he know your name?”
Oliver lifted the knight’s helmet, but there was nothing inside - certainly no person!
Then suddenly the lights came on. They had been watching the Haunted Cough Castle Show, and now everything looked very charming. The waitress came over and offered them tea and biscuits in the castle lounge, and they gratefully accepted. The lounge was all wood-panelled with a wooden floor and large wooden tables and chairs. The family sat down to enjoy their tea and biscuits.
As Daisy was eating a biscuit, out of the corner of her eye she glimpsed a girl the same age as her with hair in ringlets. She was carrying a rag doll in one hand, and some books in the other hand. She walked towards the bookcase, where she pressed a button. The bookcase swung away from the wall and she walked through. It was as if she was deliberately showing Daisy a secret passageway in the castle.
The Musty Old Magical Curiosity Shop Page 6