by Webb, Holly
‘Well, we could do that! We could enchant this house, so that the dolls could talk!’ Bella stared at it eagerly, her eyes glinting with a strange blue light.
When her magic starts to work properly, Rose thought with a shiver, she really is going to be a little monster… She shook herself. Bella was naughty, that was all. How could she be scared of someone who’d been so happy giving her a present? She stroked the skirt of the doll Bella had given her. Rose had put it standing in the kitchen, and it looked a little nervous. Rose shuddered. China dolls didn’t look nervous. But she put the doll back in her apron pocket anyway.
Gus sat up on the roof of the house regarding them all smugly, his tail wrapped round his toes.
Rose stared at the perfect little house – the furniture rather disarranged by its journey. She picked up the tiny plaster gateau, one that even Mrs Jones would have been proud of, and polished it on her apron before replacing it gently on the kitchen table. More delicate things were packed in little boxes inside the rooms, and she opened one to lift out a delicate teapot. A whole dinner service was packed in straw underneath it. Rose laughed. ‘Perhaps we should do the opposite of what Venn did to the princess. If we made this lifesize, I could go and live in it. It has everything…’
Freddie looked over her shoulder. He had been setting up his present from his parents on the workroom table – a clockwork train set. Now that the whole country was being covered with railways, an enterprising toy manufacturer had developed a child’s version. Freddie had been caressing the red and gold tin engine all day. ‘You couldn’t live in it,’ he told her matter-of-factly. ‘No water closet.’
‘Frederick!’ Bella frowned at him. ‘That is not a subject for polite conversation in front of ladies!’
Freddie only snorted, and went back to fitting his track together. Rose looked carefully in the bedrooms. He was quite right – she did discover a large china chamber pot under the canopied bed in the main bedroom, but there were no other conveniences. She patted the doll version of herself sympathetically. All those chamber pots to scrub.
*
‘Bella’s going to be awfully good at magic, don’t you think?’ Rose murmured, flicking away a speck of dust from the mantelpiece with a feather duster the size of her finger. Bella had gone to show off the whole of her new doll’s wardrobe to her governess, Miss Anstruther.
‘Awfully is quite right,’ Freddie growled. ‘Her mother was a magician too, you know. She made the most amazing charms, my father told me. She could get people to do anything. Bella’s bound to be just like her. I’m considering giving up being an apprentice, I think I’d rather go back and live at home now.’
Rose nodded. Bella was commanding enough without magic – or much of it. ‘Shall we try a spell?’ she suggested, picking up a china bowl with a silken fern in it, which stood in the drawing room. ‘Like Gus said? I’m not sure about bringing the dolls to life. It sounds a bit…wrong. But a plant. That can’t do anything horrible, can it?’
Freddie stared at it morosely, and sighed. ‘Probably not. Very well. You hold it, and think about flowers.’ He cupped his hand around hers, and Rose tried hard to think about plants growing in the sunlight. Was it cruel to condemn a little plant to live shut away in a wooden house?
‘Ow!’ Rose opened her eyes to glare at Freddie, who’d pinched her.
‘Well, that isn’t going to help, is it? You’re far too soft-hearted, Rose. It’s only a plant!’
‘It’s alive! It might not like it, it’s dark in there!’
‘You can put it on the edge of the window, or on the doll’s house roof when it’s sunny. Take it out for walks, I don’t care! Just let’s do the stupid spell.’
Rose sighed, and let him hold her hands again. She remembered the wisteria that grew down the side of the house, now only a few greyish branches in the winter cold. She and Freddie had climbed down it once, to creep out of the house and visit her old home in the orphanage. The wisteria had caught her when she was falling. If she could give this little silken thing some of that green power, it wouldn’t mind being a doll’s house plant, she was sure.
She could feel Freddie joining the spell with her. He was thinking about climbing trees, and his mama’s prized rose bushes, and the cucumber frame he’d broken once with a cricket ball. Rose smiled to herself, wondering how this plant would turn out, a climbing rose with cucumber-green flowers, perhaps. And cricket-ball fruit.
‘It’s working!’ Freddie hissed, and Rose opened her eyes eagerly. He was right. The delicate silken fronds were shivering, and changing colour to a bright sap-green. Lacy tendrils were growing out from the plant’s heart, and coiling themselves around, as though searching for something. One wrapped itself around the wrist of the little Rose doll, sticking out of the real Rose’s apron pocket, and a faint greenish flush spread up her china hand.
‘Be careful…’ Freddie muttered, watching. ‘Rose, I don’t think you should let it do that!’
‘How do I stop it?’ Rose tried to pull the wiry green stem away, but it was tough, and sticky. An extra tendril shot out of it, and wound itself around her finger, growing thorns, and pricking her. ‘Ow, Freddie, help!’
Freddie was pulling now, and she could feel him thinking about secateurs, whatever they were, and drought, and pruning. The little plant shivered, and the tendrils shrivelled away, back into the pot. A fingernail-sized blood-red blossom opened, letting out a sweet, innocent perfume.
‘It’s cracked her!’ Rose mourned, stroking the thread-like craze over the doll’s porcelain arm. ‘Oh, and now I’ve stained her, look…’ The blood was seeping from her prickled fingers, dark against the snow-white china. ‘Freddie, can I have your handkerchief?’
But Freddie was looking down at the doll with a frightened expression. ‘You don’t need it. Look.’
The blood was gone, and so were the cracks. The china was smooth and perfect again, and the doll lay there innocently in Rose’s hand, its painted cheeks now very slightly more flushed than they had been before.
‘It swallowed your blood!’ Freddie hissed angrily. ‘Of course it’s dangerous!’
Rose shook her head. Somehow she was sure he was wrong. The doll did not feel frightening, or angry, or even different to the way it had before. Its face was still pleasantly plain, with that brownish hair – Bella must have searched carefully for that, as all the other dolls were blonde, or had shining coal-black hair painted on.
‘It looks like you,’ Freddie muttered, staring at the doll suspiciously.
Rose shrugged. ‘She always did.’
‘You have to get rid of it.’
‘No!’ Rose clutched the doll tightly. She had only had the little china creature a day, but already it felt precious. ‘Don’t be stupid, Freddie. I don’t want to, and anyway, what would I do? I can’t just throw her away! If you’re right, and she has got part of me inside her somehow, I can’t let anyone else find her, can I? And if I break her, I’m breaking me. Besides, Bella would never speak to me again, and I don’t want to make Bella cross.’
Freddie moaned, and slumped back against the window seat.
‘There’s no guarantee that its influence would be malign.’ Gus stroked the tip of his tail gently over the china face.
‘It’s an enchanted doll!’ Freddie wailed. ‘It’s horrible!’
‘It might be useful.’ Gus purred at the doll, and licked it delicately. ‘Mmm. Warm. I do not think you can destroy it now, Rose.’
Rose cupped the doll close, protectively. ‘I won’t let you hurt her, Freddie.’ Then she shivered, and shook her fingers, as though something had stung them, and stared down at the doll. ‘She’s moving!’ she whispered.
‘I told you! I told you it was horrible!’ Freddie wriggled away with an expression of disgust on his face.
But Gus came closer, his whiskers a fraction of an inch from the doll, staring at it, fascinated. ‘What is it doing?’
‘She twitched, I’m sure she did.’ Rose stroked o
ne finger down the china face, and this time the doll moved enough for everyone to see. Gus sneezed in a sort of surprised amazement, and Freddie backed right into the corner.
The doll stood up, delicate china fingers gripping Rose’s finger. It turned, and looked up at her. ‘He’s watching you,’ it said, in a silvery little voice. ‘He knows that they are watching him. The snow man. He sees you staring. He’s hidden away in all that water. He’ll pull you under with him. Take care.’ Then it froze again, but this time with one hand held open, where it had been clutching Rose’s finger.
Swallowing, Rose laid her down in one of the doll’s house armchairs – which of course as a maid she shouldn’t sit in, but Rose felt she deserved it. ‘We need to go and see Mr Fountain.’
‘You had better bring it with you— Ah. No need. He’s coming.’ Gus turned to look at the door, purring.
Mr Fountain flung the workroom door open, a bewildered expression on his face. ‘Rose! Freddie! What is going on? I’ve just had the strangest feeling…’ His eyes fell on the doll. ‘So it is true…’ He crouched down next to Rose. ‘It spoke to you?’
Rose nodded, and Gus arched his back, purring and rubbing against his master. ‘It warned her. She bled on it, did you know?’
‘That’s an old, old charm… A poppet…’ Mr Fountain peered down at the doll. ‘You’d better not ever let it out of your sight. I mean it, Rose. It could be used against you, terribly.’
‘What did she mean? She said they knew we were watching, that they could see us.’
Mr Fountain sighed. ‘They caught me scrying, Rose. I found them last night. After I sent you all away, I looked for him, in the snowflakes. His winter magic was his great strength, but sometimes, if you rely on something too much, it can be a weakness too.’ He sighed. ‘I wasn’t going to tell you this today. It seemed cruel.’
‘Tell me what?’ Rose whispered.
Mr Fountain sat down, and took her hand, so that he was holding the doll, too. ‘I didn’t see where Gossamer is, just the feel of him. And his plans. Such a sense of excitement, and menace, and evil glee. He has the mask of course, His Majesty was right. But as yet, I don’t think he knows how to use it. He seemed frustrated. Angry, almost. My guess is he’s fighting with the spells to work out its secrets. I searched for him again early this morning, and it was easier to find him. I was so relieved, so desperate to see more, that I was careless. He felt me watching him, and he was furious. His mind was almost burning with it. But it wasn’t me he was angry with, Rose.’
‘He wants the child?’ Gus mewed sharply.
‘Me?’ Rose squeaked.
‘Gossamer is still furious with you for thwarting him in his plan to steal Jane. It would have meant every magician in the country driven underground. Can you imagine? All of them, hurt, angry, frightened. Searching for an escape. Someone to rescue them. A leader.’
‘You mean, he wanted us to follow him?’ Freddie asked, creeping closer, though he still shivered at the sight of the doll.
‘He was going to offer us what we deserved. After we’d been despised and imprisoned, perhaps we would have thought we really did deserve the right to take over. That’s what he wanted. Magicians in power, with himself at their head.’
‘He wanted to be king?’ Rose asked slowly.
Mr Fountain shrugged. ‘Why stop at ruling Britain? I see it now. If the ice had covered the sea and the invasion had been successful, he would have been the Talish emperor’s closest adviser. His most trusted adviser. Which would probably have meant the emperor lasted less than a year. His heir is two years old, you know. Little Prince Leopold. Who would be the most likely candidate for Lord Protector, or whatever they call it in Talis? He would have been one of the most powerful men in the world. An Emperor Magician.’
‘But we stopped him…’ Freddie faltered.
Mr Fountain nodded. ‘So he’s gone elsewhere. He has the mask to play with now. Maybe he’s given up on the idea of leading us all in some crazy crusade. He’s going to find some other way of controlling people. Power, that’s what he’s after.’
‘He’s quite mad, isn’t he?’ Rose asked, in a small voice.
‘Did you see any hint of where he is?’ Gus asked, springing into Mr Fountain’s lap.
Mr Fountain frowned, stroking Gus’s white fur slowly. ‘Water. A strong sense of water. But that could be anywhere! Probably he’s on a ship, somewhere, although it didn’t feel quite like that.’
‘The doll said that too…’ Freddie frowned. ‘Didn’t it, Rose?’
‘She said he was hidden in the water, and not to let him pull me under,’ Rose agreed in a whisper. ‘Sir, if he felt you, he knows we’re watching him!’
‘He knew that anyway!’ Gus’s reply was scornful. ‘Of course we are chasing him! All he knows is that we are strong enough to have found him, hiding away from us like some nasty black spider. A healthy fear, that’s what we want him to have. Exactly…’
The white cat purred, soft and complacent, but Mr Fountain shook his head. ‘No. Rose is right. I’ve warned him, don’t you see? He’ll put up more guards.’ He thumped his hand on the table angrily, and the doll shook in Rose’s hand. ‘We need to find him. Now, before he has time to redouble his protection.’
Rose hardly heard him. The doll was still moving in her fingers, trembling, as though eager. ‘Could I use her, somehow?’ She lifted the tiny figure, supporting her sawdust-stuffed body under the arms, as though it had suddenly grown heavier. More solid. The little body twisted in her hand as she said it, and she felt the miniature fingers pinching her own. She sucked in a deep breath, and her blood seemed to surge and churn inside her, as if the droplet inside the doll was calling.
‘Rose?’ Freddie touched her shoulder, cautiously. ‘She’s cold,’ he muttered. ‘What’s it doing to her?’
Rose slumped back into her chair, the doll held loosely in her hands, her eyes misty. The doll spoke for both them, its tiny voice clear and bell-like.
‘It’s taken him home. It wanted to go home. You really ought to read the book, I think.’
‘Fiori’s book? But we can’t find it!’ Mr Fountain protested, and the doll shook its head disapprovingly. Even though it was moving, its china hair stayed all of a piece, the real Rose noted vaguely. This felt like a dream, but she was almost sure it was really happening.
‘The chair! Think! When the chair kept wobbling! Rose, you should clean better, then you’d have known.’ It settled back to being a doll again, this time smirking slightly, without her doll-like otherworldly calm. The tiny sweeping brush swung from a loop on its wrist.
‘I do try,’ Rose murmured, as she shook the strange fogged feeling away. ‘But we’ve all been so busy, with Christmas…’
‘Don’t let a doll make you feel guilty,’ Mr Fountain snapped. ‘You’ll need to watch it, Rose. Poppets can be tricky. It – it may not always have your best interests at heart.’
Everyone stared at the white china face, with its knowing expression.
‘What’s the matter with it?’ Bella demanded worriedly, as she marched into the room. ‘Why are you all looking at Rose’s present like that? Rose, have you done something to it? It didn’t look like that before.’ Bella picked up the doll, frowning. ‘It looks more real. Did you put a spell on it?’
‘Not on purpose…’ Rose admitted.
‘You gave Rose a doll that swallowed her blood,’ Freddie told Bella accusingly.
Bella stared at the doll, fascinated. ‘Really?’
Rose shook her head. ‘That isn’t fair. The blood dripped on her, and I’d cracked her, Bella, I’m so sorry. It was one of the plants from the doll’s house. Freddie and I tried to make it a real one, and…it went a little bit wrong…’
Mr Fountain glared at them both. ‘I was about to get to that. Good Lord. What am I going to do with the pair of you? Dangerous magic exploding out of you, coupled with no common sense whatsoever. I never expected Freddie to have any, but you, Rose!’
&nb
sp; ‘You mean a common servant child should have had more sense?’ Gus enquired, his voice brightly interested.
‘No! Well…yes. An orphanage upbringing should have made her very sensible, shouldn’t it? Stop trying to tie me in knots, cat.’
‘Blood will out.’ Gus jumped off Mr Fountain’s lap, and padded over the table to nose Rose’s cheek gently.
Rose looked down at her finger, where there was still a tiny purplish mark.
‘Not that, silly. Family blood. You may have been abandoned at an orphanage, but your family is claiming you now. You can’t hide it.’
Rose ran one finger down his velvet nose, and sniffed. ‘No, they aren’t. Not really. The magic’s just like leftovers. No one actually wants me.’
‘Leftovers can be just what one needs in the middle of the night.’ Gus settled into her lap, purring. ‘Quite delicious. And most often, one can tell exactly what they were the previous day, too. I shouldn’t be surprised, Rose, if we find you’re quite the best smoked salmon.’
‘Everything is always about fish for you!’ Bella complained. ‘Papa, I forgot. I was coming to tell you that most unfortunately, Miss Anstruther seems to have…’ Bella looked thoughtfully at the ceiling, and then started again. ‘She says she wants to hand in her notice.’
‘Oh, not again… Bella, what did you do?’
‘I only screamed. Not even very loudly. But she says her ears are ringing, and she can’t stand me any longer.’ Bella sounded quite proud of herself.
‘She always says that,’ Freddie pointed out. ‘She’ll be fine if you leave her to lie down for a while. Shouldn’t we be trying to work out what that… creature…meant?’
Rose took the doll back protectively from Bella. She wasn’t a creature. Although, as Rose examined the painted smile, she suspected that the doll had rather enjoyed being mysterious, and could probably have given them more of a straight answer. If Rose had wanted to. And had she really been neglecting her cleaning?