Alice-Miranda Keeps the Beat

by Jacqueline Harvey

  ‘Thank you,’ Alice-Miranda said warmly, spooning the smallest amount she felt she could get away with.

  ‘Oh, sweetheart, you’ll need more than that to keep you going all day,’ the woman said. She heaped a full serve onto the child’s plate with a wink. ‘Eat up.’

  Luckily, Mrs Jennings did a much better job with the bacon and it was pretty difficult to ruin baked beans, so Alice-Miranda made sure she had plenty of both to mask the tasteless eggs.

  ‘Did you all sleep okay?’ Millie asked as the girls sat down.

  ‘Like a baby,’ Caprice sighed. ‘I was so tired. Honestly, it was such a long three days – the waiting around was diabolical – but that was because there were so many competitors in my section. If only they’d known it would be a total waste of their time.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ Millie said to the girl, who immediately retaliated by poking out her tongue.

  ‘Forgive me for thinking you might be interested in someone other than yourself,’ Caprice retorted. She took a bite of her eggs and spat them out all over the table. ‘Oh, that’s disgusting.’

  Alice-Miranda passed her a napkin.

  ‘I talked to Mummy for a while before bed,’ Chessie said, cutting herself a piece of bacon. ‘I think that helped a lot. She said to tell you all how proud she is of what we did, although I got the feeling she was a bit mortified too.’

  ‘And what about you, Jacinta?’ Alice-Miranda asked. After the phone call with her father, the girl had whispered a few words to her mother then headed off to bed.

  ‘Pardon?’ Jacinta said, looking up from her plate.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Sloane asked. She’d noticed Jacinta hadn’t said a thing all morning and had barely touched her toast.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jacinta replied. To say she was feeling mixed up would have been the understatement of the year. Right after talking to her dad, she’d telephoned the boarding house at Fayle and was surprised that the housemaster put her straight on to Lucas. Having heard about the fire, the boy spent the first five minutes telling Jacinta how brave she and the other girls had been. But it was Myrtle Parker’s gossip that was really on her mind. She didn’t want to come straight out and ask if it was true, so instead she had told him about the call from her father. Her heart sank when Lucas revealed that he’d been speaking to his mother quite a bit lately too, and given their relationship had been strained for a while, he was feeling optimistic that things were on the up and up. Jacinta was sure that, if Lucas was planning to move to America, he would have said something. When he didn’t, Jacinta failed to mention it either. And now she was kicking herself because, between thinking about her father, the fire and Lucas, she’d hardly slept a wink.

  ‘What happened with your dad?’ Millie asked. She exiled her eggs to one corner of her plate and popped a button mushroom into her mouth.

  Jacinta took a bite of her toast and chewed slowly. ‘He’s, um, coming to see me.’

  ‘When?’ Sloane and Millie crowed in unison.

  ‘This weekend,’ Jacinta replied. ‘He said that he has a lot of explaining to do and he wants to make things up to me.’

  ‘And how do you feel about that?’ Alice-Miranda asked. The thought of Neville Headlington-Bear being back on the scene worried her enormously, given the man’s track record, but there was always a chance he’d undergone some positive personal transformation. And who was she to judge?

  ‘Part of me doesn’t want to get my hopes up,’ Jacinta confessed, ‘but part of me can’t help thinking that maybe he’s changed for the better. I mean, Mummy’s a completely different person to what she used to be like. Why couldn’t Daddy do the same?’

  Alice-Miranda smiled at the girl. ‘You can only take people as you find them.’

  ‘Are you kidding me?’ Caprice baulked. ‘He’s a deadbeat dad and, believe me, no one goes from foul to fabulous with a snap of their fingers – it doesn’t happen.’

  ‘You’d know,’ Millie muttered.

  Caprice narrowed her eyes at the girl. ‘What did you say?’

  Millie looked at her evenly. ‘I’m just saying that all your promises to try to be a better human being after what happened in Scotland clearly meant nothing.’

  Caprice stood up and slammed her hand on the table so hard that the room was immediately silenced. ‘They did so!’ she screeched. ‘It’s you. You’re always mocking me no matter what I do. You don’t even care that I beat everyone in the whole country to win the eisteddfod, which is a seriously amazing achievement – not that you’d know, seeing as you have no talent whatsoever!’

  ‘Calm down,’ Alice-Miranda implored the pair of them. ‘You’re both going to say something you regre–’

  ‘How dare you!’ Millie lunged towards Caprice, grabbing a handful of the girl’s hair and yanking hard.

  Caprice squealed, clutching her ponytail. She clambered over the table, knocking plates and glasses sideways before throttling Millie. Sloane and Jacinta leapt from their seats and were doing their best to loosen Caprice’s grip.

  ‘Girls! Stop that at once!’ Miss Reedy boomed from the doorway. ‘What a dreadful display. I will see both of you at Winchesterfield Manor straight after breakfast – and you will walk there in the rain!’ Livinia turned to the young woman beside her. ‘I am sorry about that, Miss Crowley. Millie and Caprice tend to push each other’s buttons,’ she whispered out of the corner of her mouth. ‘Actually, Caprice pushes nearly everyone’s buttons. Something to look forward to.’ She cast another glare at the duelling redheads before proceeding to the front of the room.

  Millie sat with her arms folded tightly in front of her while Caprice had conjured fat tears. Chessie passed her a tissue, but she slapped the girl’s hand away, determined to stew in her misery.

  The woman beside Miss Reedy did nothing to betray how she felt about the scene in front her. Alice-Miranda thought she must be mid-twenties at most, though she dressed with a style and elegance befitting someone far more mature. Her blonde fringe was swept back by two mother-of-pearl barrettes that complemented her navy pants suit and white silk blouse. A beautiful dragonfly brooch was pinned to her blazer lapel.

  ‘She must be the new English teacher,’ Chessie said. ‘She’s pretty, isn’t she?’

  Sloane had just been thinking the same thing.

  ‘Good morning, girls,’ Miss Reedy said. ‘I’d like to introduce Miss Crowley, who will be taking over Mrs Reeves’s classes. I’m sure that you will all make her feel very welcome.’

  The girls burst into a round of applause, which Miss Reedy silenced with a querulous glare. She then looked at Millie and Caprice. ‘You two had better hurry up and finish your breakfast. I will see you both at nine o’clock sharp.’

  Livinia began to walk away when Miss Crowley gently touched her arm.

  ‘I wondered if I might say something,’ Tabitha said, earning herself an arched eyebrow. ‘I’ll be quick.’

  ‘Be sure you are. I have to get over to the junior school,’ Livinia replied, taking a step back to give the woman the floor.

  Tabitha turned to face the group. ‘Hello girls,’ she said brightly. ‘I am so delighted to be here and I can’t wait to make your acquaintance. For those of you who are in my classes, I have lots of fun in store. I hope you enjoy drama and art and singing as I have been known to incorporate all of those elements into my lessons, and I am thrilled to announce that I will be resurrecting the Winchester-Fayle Singers as well.’

  The hall burst into another round of applause. Jacinta was particularly pleased to hear it as that guaranteed at least an hour a week with Lucas.

  Livinia frowned. The woman had been here all of five minutes. This was not the time to go making promises she might not be able to keep. Livinia could almost guarantee Miss Crowley’s commitment to the singers would fall by the wayside as soon as she realised she’d bitten off far more than she could chew. ‘Thank you, Miss Crowley. It sounds like you have many talents and we will look forward to seeing
them in due time,’ she said, and marched off towards the door. Livinia turned to discover that Tabitha had stopped to talk to Millie and Caprice. ‘Miss Crowley, we need to go now!’ she barked.

  Alice-Miranda glanced over in surprise. Miss Reedy once had a reputation for being meaner than a dragon with a toothache, but she had mellowed considerably over the past few years. Ever since she’d found true love with Mr Plumpton, she was fun and cheerful and one might have called her breezy on occasion, but none of that was evident this morning. Miss Reedy hadn’t even asked how the girls were feeling after what had happened yesterday and that was most unlike her. Alice-Miranda wondered what could possibly be the cause of such ill humour.

  Miss Crowley whispered in Millie’s ear, causing a smile to sweep across the girl’s face. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect on Miss Reedy and Caprice, who both looked as if they’d swallowed something particularly unpleasant.

  Ada Abboud cradled a twin in each arm as she gazed through the window into the hospital room where her husband was attached to a multitude of tubes and monitors. He had been in a coma since the fire and the doctors had explained that for now it was best that way.

  ‘Hello dear,’ said a lady with curly grey hair. She was wearing a pink pinafore over a white uniform and was pushing a tea trolley towards Ada. She manoeuvred her way past and stopped on the other side of the corridor. ‘Would you like something to eat?’

  Ada shook her head. ‘No. Thank you, I am fine.’

  ‘You must be hungry. At least have a biscuit.’ The woman placed a couple of packets into Ada’s pocket. ‘I’ve left some for the children, and juice too,’ she added, her blue eyes twinkling.

  Hamza squirmed in Ada’s arms and his sister, Miray, began to whimper. They were both hungry and Ada had been having trouble with her milk since the fire.

  ‘I’ll fetch someone to help you,’ the tea lady said. ‘I’m Sue, by the way.’

  Ada’s eyes filled with tears. The thought of starting over – again – was almost as overwhelming as the journey that had brought them to Winchesterfield in the first place. When she, Mehmet, Zahra and baby Esma had fled the bombs that had rained down on their city, Ada had wondered where they would end up. Anywhere safe was all she had prayed for. At first the villagers were wary of them – suspicious, almost – but Mehmet had such a bright smile and an infectious personality that it wasn’t long before the residents embraced them. How could they resist? He was the happiest person she knew. Ada had fallen in love with Mehmet the day they had met, when he’d made her laugh at his silly jokes. Only Myrtle Parker had taken a while longer to win over. In the end it was Mehmet’s falafels that did the trick. The woman couldn’t resist them.

  ‘Here, let me help you,’ Sue said, taking Hamza in her arms. ‘Don’t you worry. I’ll speak to someone. I’m surprised the social worker hasn’t been to see you to sort out your accommodation.’

  Ada reached into her pocket for a tissue as Miray’s screaming grew louder. She had to feed her or else the matron would come. ‘Please, give me my baby,’ she said.

  ‘I’ll take him to the room for you,’ Sue said, abandoning her trolley for the moment.

  She followed Ada down the hall to the room and halted at the door. Feather down from the inside of two pillows was falling like snow and the two little girls were jumping on the bed as if it was a trampoline.

  ‘Stop!’ Ada yelled, startling them. She then spoke harshly in Arabic, causing Esma and Hatice to burst into tears. ‘Enough! Or they will ask us to leave and then where will we go?’

  The simple fact of the matter was that there was nowhere to go. Their home was destroyed and they had no family in the country. The nurses had been terribly kind, setting them up in an empty room with two beds and a large chair, but Ada knew they couldn’t stay there forever.

  ‘Clean up this mess, Zahra. You are the oldest and you should know better,’ the woman scolded. ‘But then what do I know about you? Always coming and going and not telling anyone where you are.’

  Zahra’s eyes hit the floor. She’d just run to the toilet for a couple of minutes and returned to find her sisters misbehaving. She’d told them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen, and now it looked as though she was being irresponsible yet again.

  Sue waited for Ada to settle on the bed with the twins before piping up. ‘Would you like me to organise some formula and bottles?’ she asked. ‘I can get them from the nursery. The staff here are very appreciative of us tea ladies and I’m sure it won’t be a problem.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Ada said gratefully. She hadn’t wanted to ask for another thing.

  As Sue stepped into the hallway, an idea came to her in a flash. She would call her friend Myrtle. Yes, that’s exactly what she would do. There was nothing that woman couldn’t fix.

  Millie and Alice-Miranda huddled under an umbrella as they dodged puddles on the path that linked Winchesterfield-Downsfordvale and Caledonia Manor. Caprice stomped along behind them, avoiding the cracks as she recited an old rhyme in her head. Alice-Miranda had thought it best that someone chaperone the two hotheads and had sought permission from Mrs Clinch, who agreed it was a very sensible idea. It was only a short detour – ten minutes at a clip – so she wouldn’t be too late for her first lesson. Before the renovations, most of the girls had never realised how close Grimthorpe House was to the old stables and derelict manor, which had been separated by a thick patch of scrubby woodland. That was probably a good thing, given the stories that did the rounds, scaring the life out of many a new student at their midnight feasts (which always took place at nine o’clock because no one could stay awake until twelve).

  ‘You’d better tell Miss Reedy this was all your fault,’ Caprice yelled over the thrumming rain. ‘If you weren’t so awful to me, I wouldn’t need to be mean to you.’

  Millie held up her free hand. ‘Speak to this because I don’t care to hear your whining.’

  Caprice screeched in frustration and kicked at a clump of mud, which flew into the air and splattered the backs of Millie’s legs.

  Millie turned to examine the brown flecks. ‘Are you kidding me?’ she exploded. Against her better instincts, she picked up a handful of dirt and threw it at the willowy girl. It splodged on the front of Caprice’s tunic, spraying the girl’s face and hair as well.

  Alice-Miranda quickly wedged herself between the pair. ‘Stop it,’ she ordered.

  ‘Or what?’ Caprice sneered. ‘You’ll tattle to Miss Reedy and say it’s all my fault because Millie is your bestie?’

  ‘I asked you both to stop,’ Alice-Miranda replied. ‘Millie may be my dearest friend in the world, but you’re my friend too.’

  Caprice’s eyelashes fluttered in surprise. ‘I am?’

  ‘Yes, and I’m sure everyone would be a lot kinder to you if you refrained from showing off and stirring trouble,’ Alice-Miranda added. Millie twisted her lips to stop a smug smile from forming. ‘Come on, we’d better hurry,’ Alice-Miranda said as the rain began to beat down harder. ‘And you shouldn’t take every bit of bait she dangles in front of you,’ she whispered to Millie.

  The girls had been so distracted that they hadn’t realised they’d reached the main school until Millie very nearly tripped over Charlie Weatherly. The man was bent down in his grey raincoat and hat, planting clumps of petunias along the edge of the path.

  ‘Morning, girls,’ he said, tipping his hat and creating a mini waterfall. He noticed that Millie and Caprice were spattered in mud but, judging from their miserable expressions, thought it best not to ask why.

  ‘Oh, hello Mr Charles.’ Alice-Miranda smiled at the old man. ‘It’s a bit wet to be out in the garden, isn’t it?’

  ‘I don’t mind working in the rain. At least it’s not cold,’ he replied cheerfully. Decades of outdoor labour had rewarded him with deep lines on his forehead and around his cornflower-blue eyes that sparkled on this dreary morning. ‘Well done for what you did yesterday. I hear you girls saved that family’s life.’ />
  ‘If it wasn’t for Alice-Miranda being ridiculously brave and making the rest of us feel as if we could do anything, things mightn’t have turned out nearly so well,’ Millie said.

  Caprice rolled her eyes. ‘I don’t have time to hear this again,’ she grumbled and, shoving Millie out of the way, took off towards the back doors of Winchesterfield Manor.

  ‘Excuse you!’ Millie shouted after her.

  Charlie shook his head. ‘Miss Millie, you shouldn’t let Caprice push your buttons. It isn’t worth it.’

  ‘So I’m told,’ the girl replied with a sigh. ‘I just can’t help myself, but I promise I’ll try not to let her get to me.’

  Millie and Alice-Miranda said their goodbyes and ran to catch up to Caprice. The three of them sped past the portraits of generations of headmistresses with their stern expressions and beady eyes, dripping water on the carpet as they went. It was funny to think that Miss Grimm would one day have her picture up there too, but hopefully she wouldn’t look anywhere near as terrifying.

  ‘Hello Mrs Derby,’ Alice-Miranda said, announcing their arrival.

  ‘Good morning, girls. Please take off your raincoats and leave your umbrellas in the stand,’ the woman said. She glanced up from her notebook and gasped. ‘Good heavens. What happened?’

  ‘Ask Caprice,’ Millie said, glowering at the girl.

  ‘I think I’d prefer not to.’ Louella offered them a packet of wet wipes from the top drawer of her desk, then hurried around and set to work eradicating the mud from Caprice’s and Millie’s dresses. Alice-Miranda took one and attended to their grubby legs. ‘At least you appear somewhat respectable now,’ Louella said, stepping back to appraise them. ‘Miss Reedy will see you shortly. She’s meeting with Miss Grimm at present.’

  Although Ophelia Grimm was technically still on maternity leave with baby Aggie, she had recently resumed some of her duties. Truth be told, she was itching to return to work. Ophelia had been biding her time, trying to find the right moment to inform Livinia that her tenure was about to be cut short.