The Lost Twin

by Sophie Cleverly

  “Are you ready for this?” I asked.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be.” She took a deep breath. “If we end up dead, promise me we’ll haunt Miss Fox together?”

  “I promise. Rattling chains and all.”

  I knocked on the door to Penny’s room, and Nadia opened it. She looked uncharacteristically cheery.

  “Scarlet,” she said. “I wanted to thank you.”

  I almost fell over backwards. “Why?”

  “For that,” she replied, opening the door a little wider and gesturing at the bed. Penny was lying there fast asleep, snoring contentedly. “I don’t know what you did, but she’s like a different person. She told me it was because of you that she was allowed to dance again.”

  Nadia turned to Ariadne. “And you … Scarlet’s friend. What you did earlier was hilarious. I don’t know if it was on purpose or not, but I’ve never laughed so much.”

  In this mood I hoped that Nadia might be open to doing what I was about to ask of her. “Nadia, listen. We have a favour to ask.”

  She nodded. “Mmm, go on.”

  “After lights out, can you knock on our door? If we’re not there I need you to wake Penny. Tell her that … tell her it’s about what she found, that there’s more of it. She knows where to look. Tell her we’ve gone to make things right.”

  Nadia’s eyebrows knitted. “All right,” she said, after a pause. “And she’ll know what this means?”

  “Yes. If we’re back, don’t worry about it. We can tell her ourselves.”

  “Fine,” she said, then she gave a parting grin and pulled the door shut.

  “What was that about?” asked Ariadne.

  “Insurance policy,” I replied. “If we don’t come back, Nadia will pass on that message and Penny will read the diary. She’ll know what’s happened.”

  Ariadne’s mouth dropped open. “Brilliant,” she whispered.

  I couldn’t believe what we were about to do. The corridor seemed endless, and when we got to the stairs I felt like every step sent a shock through my body.

  Halfway down, Ariadne grabbed hold of my arm and gripped so tightly that her knuckles turned white. “This is really happening, isn’t it?” she said under her breath.

  I placed my hand over hers. “It might be a nightmare, you know. I’m not sure yet.”

  We reached the bottom floor and headed along the corridor. Mrs Knight spotted us and shouted something, but I paid no heed to her. She was merely a small fish; Miss Fox was the shark.

  The office door loomed ahead of us, and I felt my fear grow at the thought of going in there, of what might happen, of those lifeless dogs staring down at us from the walls.

  I knocked. I held my breath.

  The door opened. “Yes?” said Miss Fox.

  I stared up at her. “We need to talk to you,” I said.

  She looked affronted. “Where are your manners, Miss Grey?”

  “Probably in the same place where you left yours.” I marched into her office, leaving her open-mouthed in the doorway. Ariadne trailed behind me. She was gazing with horror at a stuffed pug dog wearing a miniature saddle.

  I’m not entirely sure what came over me, but I knew I could take advantage of the Fox’s confusion. I grabbed the cane from by her side and sat down in her chair.

  “What on earth do you think you’re doing?” she demanded, slamming the office door behind her.

  Ariadne stood behind me, arms folded. This wasn’t the same mousy girl I had once met, that was for sure.

  “I’m making some changes,” I said, putting the cane down behind me. “We don’t think you should be in charge here any longer.”

  The white of Miss Fox’s face began to burn an angry red. “Scarlet Grey, get out of that chair this instant, or I will—”

  “Or you’ll what?” I demanded. “Get rid of me like you did my sister and Violet Adams? And besides, my name is IVY.”

  “What are you talking about?” she said flatly.

  “Let’s start with what we know, shall we?” I kept talking, knowing that if I stopped I would never be able to carry on. “We know that you were so keen to hide your secrets that you got rid of Violet. Then when my sister wouldn’t keep quiet, you had to get rid of her too. Because you couldn’t let anyone find out about what you keep hidden in that drawer.” I shot out my trembling hand and pointed directly at the locked top drawer of her desk.

  Ariadne breathed in sharply behind me.

  Miss Fox shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re messing with,” she said.

  “Oh, I think I do,” I replied, sounding just like Scarlet. “I think we’re messing with someone who is very afraid. You’re terrified that people will find out that you’re not completely in control.”

  She snorted, but I could tell I’d hit the mark. “I will not stand here and listen to children—”

  Ariadne slammed her hands down on the back of the chair, making me jump. “WHAT’S IN THE DRAWER, MISS?”

  Miss Fox’s eyes were wide with rage. “Get out,” she screeched. “I won’t tell you again.”

  And I saw a glint around her neck. An opportunity.

  I darted towards her and snatched the velvet ribbon from around her neck, the key to the drawer dangling on the end of it. I tossed it to Ariadne.

  “Why don’t we see what’s in there for ourselves, Miss? What will we find?”

  Miss Fox clenched her teeth, about to scream at me just as the office door opened, someone was speaking as they pushed it wide:

  “Mother, this is ridiculous. I will not keep up this charade any longer …”

  It was Miss Finch.

  o, it couldn’t be true.

  When Miss Finch saw me standing there, gaping, she clamped her hand over her mouth and staggered back against the door.

  I had to break the silence. “She’s your mother?”

  My ballet teacher looked at me, tears shining in her eyes.

  “Are you in league with her?” I demanded. “I trusted you!”

  “No, Ivy, please … it’s not like that,” she said. She reached out to me. “She’s … We’re …”

  Miss Fox was giving her a look that could kill, hands clenched into trembling fists. “Don’t say another word, Rebecca,” she said through gritted teeth. “You just couldn’t keep your mouth shut, could you?”

  I stared from one of them to the other. “Please tell me this isn’t true. Tell me you didn’t tell her about—”

  But they were both ignoring me now.

  Miss Finch began pleading: “I had no idea that anyone else was in here. I just wanted to tell you that I thought it was time to be open about this.”

  Somewhere behind me, there was the click of a desk drawer being unlocked.

  Oblivious to anyone else in the room, Miss Fox had stepped towards Miss Finch, furious. “There will never be a time to be open about this. I told you it was to remain strictly confidential or there would be consequences, did I not?”

  “I can’t hide who I am forever.”

  “You can and you will do as I say!”

  Although I felt racked with despair, I knew had to keep them distracted. “Miss Finch, how is this possible? Why are you working here?”

  She blinked at me. “I don’t have a choice,” she said. “I have nowhere else to go.”

  “Silence! SILENCE!” yelled Miss Fox. She leapt forward, snatched up her cane and brandished it like a weapon. It looked as though she would snap it in half if she gripped any tighter. “Both of you stop this, immediately.” Miss Fox turned to me, the cane shivering in her hands. “Insolent child. I should have known you’d be as much trouble as your sister. You’ll never find her!”

  My blood felt red hot, like a fire was burning inside of me, and I felt a far cry from little Ivy who never asked questions. “What did you do to her? If you laid a finger on her, I swear I’ll kill you!”

  I was all set to launch myself at her when Ariadne cleared her throat, loudly.

  We all turned
to look at her.

  She was holding two things. One was an open file brimming with papers, the other a glass keepsake box. She put the box down and held out the file, flipping through it. “Miss Fox,” she said, “I’m an accountant’s daughter. Things like this don’t get hidden in a locked drawer for no reason. Have you been fiddling the numbers? Embezzling?”

  “PUT THAT DOWN!” cried Miss Fox. “That is not—”

  Ariadne ignored her. “Big transactions, like this?” She pointed at a few places on a column. “Looks like it could be bribery money to me.”

  I was sure that was just a stab in the dark, but Miss Fox went red and started yelling something. And then Miss Finch was yelling too and I tried to shout over them and Ariadne was waving the file and …

  The telephone rang.

  Everyone froze. The shrill ring pierced into me and without thinking I leant over and picked up the receiver. “Hello?”

  “Hullo?” a gruff male voice crackled down the line. “Guinevere? Is that you?”

  I frowned. Miss Fox’s name was Guinevere? “I’m a student. Who is this?”

  “Edgar …” The man seemed to have a violent coughing fit, and I held the telephone away from my ear until it had stopped. “Edgar Bartholomew. I’m the headmaster. Would you kindly tell me what on earth is going on, and why you’re answering Miss Fox’s telephone?”

  I seized the opportunity. “Miss Fox is a little indisposed,” I said, “on account of her attacking students and embezzling funds from the school and—”

  “HOW DARE YOU?” Miss Fox swung the cane at me, but I was ready. I ducked, and instead of hitting me the hissing cane knocked a line of dog photographs off the wall, sending them spilling down on to the desk. I jumped up, my heart racing, but kept hold of the telephone.

  “WHAT?” Headmaster Bartholomew roared. “Is this some kind of prank? Put Miss Fox on immediately!”

  “It’s for you, Miss,” I said, holding the receiver out to her. She snatched it up immediately.

  “I need to sit down,” said Miss Finch. She pulled up a chair in the corner and lowered herself into it, trembling. I looked over at Ariadne – she was still standing with the file, a strange mixture of terror and excitement on her face.

  I could hear shouting coming from the end of the telephone. Miss Fox was protesting. “No, sir, I most certainly did not … She isn’t … No … Don’t …”

  The colour drained from her face.

  “You can’t …”

  And before I knew what was happening, Miss Fox shoved me and I fell sideways, crashing into Ariadne. Both of us went sprawling to the ground, narrowly missing a stuffed Jack Russell.

  Miss Fox barrelled past Miss Finch, flung open the door and ran.

  he telephone swung silently over the edge of the desk, back and forth.

  I scrambled up from the floor and ran to the doorway, just in time to see Miss Fox’s black dress swoop around a corner. I chased after her, running faster than I’d ever thought I could, but it was no use.

  It was as though she’d disappeared into thin air. I frantically searched the rooms nearby and then headed for the entrance hall. I opened one of the huge front doors and peered out, but it was dark and I could see very little. I ran down the steps, looking out over Rookwood’s long drive.

  Nothing. Miss Fox was gone.

  When I got back to her office, it was a state. The chair was tipped over, her desk covered with the fallen photographs, drawers open and spilling their contents. And in the middle of it all sat Miss Finch, being comforted by Ariadne.

  “I couldn’t catch her,” I said, shaking my head. “She got away.” I felt so disappointed.

  Ariadne came over and put her arm around me. “It’s all right. She may be gone, but she won’t be getting out of this one easily.” She gestured at the file lying open on the desk. “I think that alone is enough to get her arrested.”

  “If they catch her,” I said with a sigh.

  Miss Finch nodded. “Well, she’s not going to be setting foot in this school again, Ivy. I spoke to Mr Bartholomew after you ran out, and I told him about the files we found and that Mother – Miss Fox – had run away. He sounded positively furious. I know he’s been recuperating from a long illness, but given what has happened, well, he’ll have to travel back here to try and sort everything out. Mrs Knight is to be in charge in the meantime.”

  I picked up Miss Fox’s chair from the floor and sat in it, my head in my hands. How would I ever find out the truth about Scarlet’s death now?

  Ariadne knelt on the floor beside me, but her attention was on Miss Finch. “Miss, how can it be true that you’re Miss Fox’s daughter? You couldn’t be more different …”

  Miss Finch sighed. She looked so tired. “The beginning is the best place to start, I suppose.” She settled into her seat and began. “I was adopted as a baby. I had a happy childhood with my parents in London. Ballet was my first love. I trained from a young age, and it became my profession. I danced all over the world, and then …” She stopped, and gazed at the floor. “I had the accident, on stage one night in Russia. My leg was very badly broken. The doctor said I would walk again, but my career was over. When I was healed well enough, I travelled back home. But the news hadn’t reached me. My father had suffered a heart attack. And it wasn’t long before my mother passed away as well.

  “I had no other family, no one else to turn to. My money ran out. So I started investigating – I hoped that if I found my birth mother, she might be willing to help me …”

  “And you found Miss Fox,” Ariadne finished.

  Of all the people to come to for help, Miss Finch had the misfortune to seek out someone who lived for cruelty and control of others.

  “Yes,” agreed Miss Finch, sadly. “It turned out that she’d got pregnant very young, unmarried, and been sent to an asylum. I found out that she was a teacher, and I came here to meet with her, to ask if there was anything she could do for me. She tried to deny it completely at first, but I had proof, my birth certificate.”

  “I’m surprised she wanted to help you,” said Ariadne.

  Miss Finch frowned, and dragged her fingers through her red-tinged hair. “I’m not entirely sure if she did. But she’s just so proud and so stubborn. If anyone found out, she thought no one would ever respect her again. She wanted to get control of me, I think, to stop me from telling anyone who I really was. So she gave me the job, and let me stay at the school, but with conditions. I couldn’t tell a soul that she was my mother. It was hardly ideal, but I was desperate.” My ballet teacher’s eyes filled with tears. “And to think, all I wanted was to find her…”

  Find her.

  Miss Fox had said it.

  She’d said, “You’ll never find her.”

  Oh my goodness.

  What if? No, I didn’t dare to hope. But I had to ask.

  “Miss Finch,” I interrupted. “Is my sister … is Scarlet alive?”

  iss Finch leant forward and didn’t say anything for a moment.

  “Ivy, I’m sorry … I tried to ask my mother about it. All I got were bruises for my troubles, and she threatened to throw me out on to the street if I asked any more ‘inappropriate questions’. I wish I could tell you the answer.”

  I hugged my knees to my chest, feeling crushed.

  “Miss Fox did something to her, Miss, we just don’t know what.” said Ariadne. “Are you certain you can’t think of anything that would help us?”

  Miss Finch shook her head. “I really don’t know. Unless … unless there’s anything in that which could tell us.” She waved a hand at the objects on the desk, the incriminating file and the glass box.

  Wait a minute! We hadn’t even looked in the glass box yet. I gasped and reached for it. Ariadne stood up and looked over my shoulder. I undid the catch and prised open the lid, peering into it.

  There was a tiny lock of hair, reddish coloured and attached to a card monogrammed with an ‘R’. I held it out to Miss Finch. “This is yo
urs, I think.” She took it and gave me a weak smile.

  But there was something else. A folded piece of paper. No – a photograph.

  It was of a girl, and by the scowl painted on her black and white features I could tell it was a young Miss Fox. She was standing by a pram with a big hood and wheels like a bicycle. That contained Rebecca, I supposed. But what was more interesting was the background – huge iron gates, high walls and a sign.

  The sign read ‘Rosemoor Asylum for Young Females’.

  My mind raced.

  Miss Fox made girls disappear. Violet. Scarlet. Perhaps others. Maybe she killed them. Maybe she hid them in the cellar and threw away the key.

  Or maybe, just maybe, she had them locked up in an asylum.

  “She might have taken Scarlet there,” I whispered. Then, louder, to Ariadne and Miss Finch: “She might have taken Scarlet to the asylum!” I held up the picture and tapped the sign. “We have to go and look! Please, Miss!”

  Ariadne gasped. “Of course …”

  Miss Finch took the photograph from me and held it with quivering hands. “Goodness,” she said. “Ivy, you could be right.”

  Where I had been numb, suddenly there was fire. The room came alive around me and I realised what it was – hope.

  My hope had returned.

  I jumped up. “Please, if there’s any chance that Scarlet’s there, I have to go, Miss. I have to get her out.”

  Miss Finch pushed herself up from the arm of the chair and got to her feet. She took a deep breath. “First things first – I have to call the police about my mother.”

  “Please,” I whispered.

  Miss Finch took my hands. “Ivy,” she said. “You’ve been so brave, but I really need to sort out some of this mess first. The police will want to talk to me, perhaps to you as well. I promise you, we’ll go tomorrow. I’ll look up the address in my book, I’ll find Miss Fox’s driver if he’s still around, and we’ll get him to take us to the station. Can you be brave for one more night?”

  I bit my lip so hard that it started to bleed. Tomorrow, if Scarlet was alive, I would find her.

  “Yes, Miss,” I said.