The Alice Stories

by Davina Bell

  They had handwritten fifty invitations to a dance recital that Alice would be giving in the newly finished garden to raise money for the Returned Soldiers League. At least, that’s what their guests would think they were coming to see. Apart from Alice, Jilly was the only one who knew the truth. Every single person had accepted, and the invitation requested that they be seated by five o’clock, dressed in black tie – black suits for the gentlemen and white dresses for the ladies. As they’d dropped the envelopes round the neighbourhood, Alice had never felt more grown up.

  ‘Weren’t you supposed to ask about the chairs, Jilly?’ she asked.

  ‘Oh – yes, that’s right, I did, and Mrs Baker says we can borrow them from the church hall if we promise to bring them back. Music?’

  ‘Check,’ replied Alice. ‘Mama says that if Uncle Bear and James carry it down, she can definitely play her harp outside, and she’s been practising Papa Sir’s favourite piece of Debussy.’

  ‘And we’ve heard from Reverend Jeeves?’

  ‘Check. His reply came in the mail yesterday, and he says he would be delighted to attend the recital.’

  ‘And the food?’

  ‘Hm. Little says it’s a bit late notice for a fruit cake, but weddings have to have fruit cakes, don’t they? Angel cake just won’t do.’

  Jilly frowned. ‘Alice . . .’

  ‘Mm?’

  ‘Well, do you think this is all right? Planning a wedding for people who don’t even know it’s their wedding?’

  ‘Why wouldn’t it be? They love each other! And if I don’t do something, they’ll never be together, and wouldn’t that be tragic?’ It seemed too simple to Alice.

  ‘I suppose. Do you think Miss Lillibet will mind?’

  ‘Mind? That she gets to marry the man she loves in the most beautiful garden in Peppermint Grove?’

  ‘But what if the reverend won’t perform the ceremony?’ Jilly had never been completely comfortable with the plan, and as the evening grew nearer, she grew more and more worried, which Alice found very annoying.

  ‘Why wouldn’t he?’ she said indignantly. ‘Reverends love weddings. They’re much cheerier than funerals.’

  ‘It’s a lovely idea, Alice,’ said Jilly hesitantly. ‘But I just think it’s very . . . ambitious.’

  ‘Well, that’s why we’ve been doing all this planning! We’ve thought of everything, haven’t we?’

  ‘I suppose so. Did you decide about the rings? Will you get Mabel to hold them, or are you worried she’ll give the whole thing away if you tell her in advance?’

  The rings were actually washers from Uncle Bear’s toolbox, but Alice figured Teddy and Miss Lillibet could choose real ones once they were married. There would be so many happy, hopeful choices for them to make in their new life together.

  ‘I think I’ve solved that one,’ Alice said. ‘Right before the ceremony starts, when everyone’s all ready and sitting down, I’ll give you the sign, and you can give Mabel the box and tell her when to come up the front. It’s when I say, “The dance I just did was about love.”’

  ‘Are you going to be frightened, talking in front of all those people?’ Jilly asked.

  Alice considered the question and realised she didn’t feel nervous at all. ‘No,’ she said, ‘because I know it’s right. I can feel it in my heart. Now let’s go through the order of events one more time. And we need to remember to get James to carry out the gramophone and stash it somewhere, because after the ceremony I bet people will want to dance.’

  All week long, Mama sewed while Alice planned. She made the little girls heavenly white dresses from silk sheets and damask tablecloths. Then she took the tulle out of the underlayer of a hooped ball dress and made Alice a long, light, puffy skirt that Little described as ‘most very exquisite’. She stitched new, clean ribbons into Alice’s pointe shoes and found an old suit of Papa Sir’s for Teddy and a dinner jacket for George. ‘Your father, ’e loved to get dressed up!’ she said. ‘’e will be watching you, Alice – I am sure.’

  Alice longed to tell Mama everything, then, but she held her tongue. After all that Mama had been through, she deserved a lovely big surprise. They all did.

  The day finally came, and the guests started arriving at quarter to five. ‘Ohhh,’ they breathed as they walked out onto the terrace.

  James had helped Alice string paper lanterns up between the fruit trees, and they bobbed and twinkled like plump little planets against the cloudless evening. Along the top of the zigzagging hedges, candles sat in the bottoms of paper bags. The air was full of the smell of narcissi and jonquils and hyacinths. The chairs were set up with an aisle down the middle, and Alice and Jilly had looped masses of ivy across the front of the stage and put copper buckets of white roses on either side.

  Just as Alice had asked, the girls and the ladies were all wearing white, and they looked as if they were glowing. For the first time, Little’s hair was long enough to plait, and she couldn’t stop touching her two smart braids. Mama had made herself a new dress with layers and layers of white ruffles. She was wearing a smart hat shaped like a white bell that her best friend Coco had sent her from France. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were very sparkly, and as Alice watched her sit down at the harp, she felt wonder.

  But when Miss Lillibet arrived, Alice gasped. Her dark hair, which was usually up in a tight bun, was flowing around her shoulders in curls, and her gown, which looked like it was made of folds of white light, touched the ground.

  ‘I hope I haven’t overdone it,’ she said. ‘But I was so excited about your performance, I couldn’t help getting dressed up.’

  ‘You look perfect,’ said Alice. Everything’s perfect, she thought to herself, and she had to run and squeeze Pudding tightly to let all her feelings out.

  As instructed, George escorted Reverend Jeeves to the middle of the front row. I hope he doesn’t need a prayer book, thought Alice suddenly, and sent Jilly racing off to Papa Sir’s study to find one. She returned a few moments later with a copy of Moby Dick, which was a novel about a whale.

  ‘What’s that?’ Alice hissed.

  ‘Sorry, Alice, I couldn’t reach the right shelf. But he’ll know the ceremony by heart, won’t he?’

  ‘I hope so,’ said Alice. ‘I suppose he can make it up a bit. Do you have the rings for Mabel?’

  ‘Right here – I’ll go and tell her now.’

  When everyone was seated, Alice walked up to the front and climbed the stone steps to the stage, feeling her knees wobble just a little. Looking out from up on the firm wooden floor, everything looked just as she’d imagined. ‘Thank you so much for coming and supporting this worthy cause,’ she said, trying to make her voice travel to the back row. Everyone clapped politely. ‘This is the first time I’ve performed on pointe, so I hope I’m not too awful,’ she added when they’d finished, and the audience gave a friendly laugh.

  Alice nodded at Mama, and Mama began to play the opening of Clair de Lune. It was so enchanting that Alice almost missed her cue. She hadn’t had much time to make up the steps, but once she began, it didn’t really matter; she added bits in and made bits up, and soon she was enjoying herself so much that she forgot there were people watching.

  Halfway through she almost stopped mid-turn. She stumbled, and the crowd gasped. For suddenly, unmistakably, there came the sweet, nutty smell of Papa Sir’s pipe. Am I dreaming? Alice wondered as she whipped through a round of pirouettes.

  No – there it was again, as real and present as the stage beneath her pointe shoes. Alice wanted to stop and catch it and bottle it to keep with her forever, for suddenly Papa Sir didn’t seem so far away. But she kept dancing to the end of her piece, and leapt higher, and stretched longer, for if Papa Sir was near her, she wanted him to see her do her best.

  Then it was over, and everybody was standing and clapping and whooping and cheering, lit by the dipping sun, and by the time they had all sat back down, Alice’s heart was racing. She nodded at Little, who came up
to the front and pulled a posy from one of the copper buckets where it was hidden among the roses, and then joined Alice on stage, quivering at all the attention.

  Alice cleared her throat. ‘I would like to thank my dance teacher, Miss Lillibet, who . . .’ she trailed off, not knowing quite how to say it. She thought of the many happy hours they had shared together and all that Miss Lillibet had given her. ‘Who has taught me how to dance from everything that’s inside me,’ Alice finished.

  ‘Ohhh,’ said the audience in a happy sigh as Miss Lillibet came up and took the bouquet from Little, and stooped to kiss Alice on both cheeks. Alice put her hand on Miss Lillibet’s arm to keep her from sitting back down.

  ‘And there’s someone else I’d like to thank,’ she continued, ‘and that’s my brother Teddy.’

  Just as they’d practised, Pudding went over to Teddy. He looked reluctant and really quite cross, but Pudding looked so delicious in her white frock that there was no way he could have refused her chubby little hand as she held it out to him. He stood awkwardly at the front, shifting from foot to foot as he was given a clap.

  ‘The dance I just did,’ said Alice, ‘was about love.’ She looked across at Mabel, who was gesturing wildly. What was she trying to say? Alice couldn’t tell, so she just kept going. ‘And that’s why we’re here today.’ She frowned at Mabel and jerked her head to beckon her up. She needed the rings. But now Mabel was on the ground, scrabbling under her seat. ‘Love is, um, love is kind,’ Alice went on, trying to fill in the time with Miss Annie’s favourite Bible quote – but how did it go? And what was Mabel doing? ‘And patient. It doesn’t boast and it isn’t, er, envious at all . . .’

  People in the audience were looking at Alice with confusion. Luckily, at that moment, Mabel stood up and sprinted to the stage.

  ‘I’m very sorry, everyone,’ she boomed, ‘but I’ve lost the rings, because for your information this is actually a wedding. Teddy didn’t want to propose to Miss Lillibet because he thinks he’s completely rubbish – because of the war. So Alice has saved him the trouble and this is the wedding right now! Reverend Jeeves, please come to the front to perform the ceremony.’

  The air seemed to ring with silence, and then everyone burst into excited chatter. Well, that wasn’t exactly how I planned, but that’s all right, thought Alice, turning to smile at Miss Lillibet. But Miss Lillibet had turned almost as pale as her dress, and she covered her mouth with her hand. Over the noise, Alice could hear the awful grinding of Teddy’s teeth. They didn’t seem happy at all.

  Good grief, thought Alice. Jilly was right. What the devil have I done?

  Reverend Jeeves strode up the stairs. He did not look pleased. ‘Dear child,’ he said to Alice when he reached the top, puffing. ‘What is the meaning of all this?’

  ‘I – Teddy – I mean . . . I wanted to make them happy.’ Suddenly it sounded com­pletely ridiculous. I’m not grown up after all, she thought. I’m just a silly little girl.

  Reverend Jeeves puffed out his chest, and wrinkled his moustache irately. ‘Marriage is a sacred bond – a lifelong union that requires momentous commitment. There is also a considerable amount of paperwork to be filled out beforehand. It isn’t something to be decided on a whim, much less plotted by a girl. Why, the Bible tells us that –’

  Mabel clicked impatiently. ‘Miss Lillibet, do you love Teddy or not?’

  Miss Lillibet gazed at Mabel for a long moment. Slowly, she nodded. ‘More than anything.’

  ‘And Teddy,’ Mabel said dramatically, ‘do you love Miss Lillibet?’

  Alice held her breath. She felt Miss Lillibet do the same. Reverend Jeeves glowered.

  Teddy turned, then, and ran down the stairs and across the lawn and up through garden terraces. It was so quiet by the time he reached the house that everyone could hear the screen door bang.

  Miss Lillibet burst into tears, and Alice felt that she must be the most horrible person alive. Why, why, why did I have to try to fix it? she thought angrily. Why do I always have to interfere? ‘Miss Lillibet, I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘I’ve ruined everything. But it was only because I love you both so much.’

  ‘Dear Alice.’ Miss Lillibet sniffed. ‘You know I’d marry him in a heartbeat, but I don’t think he’ll ever be able to –’

  There was another bang, and then Teddy was hurtling back down the terraces, his long curls glinting in the setting sun.

  ‘What’s he doing now?’ said Mabel impatiently.

  ‘I have no idea,’ said Alice as she watched him career across the lawn and dash down the aisle and jump up onto the stage in one elegant leap. He bent over, breathing heavily. One of his hands was bunched tightly in a fist. He closed his eyes.

  Alice stepped forward and touched his shoulder. ‘I’m sorry, Teddy,’ she said. ‘I wanted to make things better, but I’ve made them a thousand times worse.’

  Teddy shrugged her off. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Miss Lillibet. He dropped to one knee and opened his hand.

  In his palm sat a ring. The gold was a rosy colour, and the stones were diamonds, one big one in the middle, and nine little ones around the outside, like blossom petals.

  ‘Lillibet,’ he said. ‘One day, very soon, will you do me the honour of being my wife?’

  ink, I’d never have had the courage to ask if it wasn’t for you,’ Teddy told Alice the next morning as they lay on the front lawn while the gramophone played and the littlies danced, still jazzed up from the night before. ‘How did you get so brave?’

  They were waiting in the sunshine for Uncle Bear. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the breeze was up, and finally they were going to sail Papa Sir’s boat all the way to Rottnest Island to celebrate everything that had happened the night before.

  ‘I shouldn’t have tried to fix you,’ said Alice. ‘But Teddy, I’m so glad I did – just this once.’

  ‘By the way,’ he said, as Pudding and Mabel and Little and George came and flopped down beside them, tired at last. ‘I forgot to say it earlier, but your dancing was incredible last night. And Lily and I had an idea about taking you to – actually, I should fetch her, so we can tell you together.’

  He went to find her, and Alice closed her eyes, wondering where Teddy and Miss Lillibet might be going to take her. His Majesty’s theatre, perhaps?

  Then she sat bolt upright as she realised that it was somewhere much bigger than that, and much, much farther away. That’s when she saw a man walking slowly down the driveway towards them. ‘Who’s that, I wonder?’ she said, and they all turned to look.

  Though he wasn’t wearing a uniform, he was obviously a soldier: he was tall, and thin as a rail, and his wooden leg clunked against the gravel, and though his hat was pulled low over his eyes, as he got closer there was something about his face that didn’t seem right.

  ‘We can offer you some bread and jam, but there’s no work here, I’m afraid,’ Mabel called. They’d had quite a few men come through since the war had been over, asking for odd jobs. One had even offered to be their butler, and Mabel had been very taken with the idea. James and Uncle Bear had paid a couple of men to scythe the lawns and pick some fruit, but they didn’t really need much help beyond that.

  ‘It’s raspberry jam,’ Alice called, standing up. ‘It’s a really nice one.’

  The man was still walking towards them – all the way up to the house. Usually they stayed at the bottom of the driveway until someone came out to speak with them.

  ‘Just wait there,’ Alice said nervously. The man was walking faster now, breathing heavily. His leg clicked jauntily against the gravel.

  ‘Hello, Tink,’ he said.

  Alice blinked. ‘How do you know my name?’ she said uneasily.

  ‘Don’t you know mine?’ asked the man. He had a nice, posh accent. For some reason, it reminded her of many things at once: of chocolate and bath time and the woody smoke of a pipe. He stopped just a few feet away.

  Mabel squinted up at him, and then leapt to her feet a
nd ripped off his hat.

  ‘Mabel!’ Alice cried. ‘What are you –’

  But she couldn’t finish, because Pudding was screaming the most ear-splitting scream and throwing herself at Alice’s legs.

  For one side of the man’s face had been burned so badly that it looked as if it wasn’t skin at all, but the flesh of a monster, eerily smooth in some parts, and puckered and swollen in others. His cheek sagged so much that it pulled the eye out of his socket a little.

  As Pudding screamed, Mabel stood with his hat in her hands, trembling, her face pushed right up to the man’s. He didn’t step away.

  Alice lifted Pudding up onto her hip and kissed her hair, trying to calm her. But a little part of Alice felt frightened, too. Standing there, so still, with his long, thin body and his poor hurt face, the man looked like something from a nightmare or a fairytale – like something that might chase you and eat you. Pudding buried her face in Alice’s neck, so that her cries became muffled squeaks.

  And then the strangest thing happened. Mabel put her hands on the man’s shoulders and jumped, launching herself at his body and wrapping her legs around him.

  ‘Mabel!’ said Alice, shocked. ‘That isn’t –’

  Then George stood up, grinning, and held out his hand. ‘Sir,’ he said.

  Laughing and trying not to drop Mabel, the tall man batted George’s hand away and pulled him close, ruffling his hair. ‘George,’ he said fondly. ‘My son.’

  Alice’s heart leapt up into her throat. How was this man George’s father? His father was her father, and he was dead: lost at sea, the cablegram had said.

  But as she looked closer, it dawned on Alice that lost things can be found again. Perhaps the only thing that had died had been their hope. The man looked over at her and winked.

  ‘Papa Sir?’ Alice whispered. ‘Is that you?’

  ‘It’s him!’ Mabel called from over his shoulder. ‘His face looks like steak, but he hugs the same. Papa Sir, I think you might need to eat some of Little’s cooking. You’re a bit skinny for a man.’