Alice-Miranda on Vacation

by Jacqueline Harvey

  “Visitors, I haven’t had any visitors since you were here yesterday.” Granny pouted. “It’s been a lonely time for an old woman with not even her closest neighbors to call on her. Everyone’s so jolly busy.”

  “But Granny, I’ve seen a black car here a couple of times now. Who does it belong to?” Alice-Miranda asked.

  “Oh, just a friend,” she replied. “Lovely man. I’ve been helping him with something—for your parents.” Granny’s lips drew together as though she were sucking on a very sour lemon.

  “Was he here this morning?” Alice-Miranda reached out and placed her tiny hand on Granny’s. Her skin was like tissue paper.

  “Of course not. I told you before that I haven’t had any visitors since you were here last time. Do you think I’m losing my marbles, young lady?” Granny grouched.

  “Of course not,” Alice-Miranda replied. “It’s just that I saw that car when I was here earlier this morning.”

  “But you weren’t here earlier this morning. You mustn’t tell tales to make yourself feel better. I know you’ve got more interesting things to do than sit here with me.”

  “But Granny, I promise I was here earlier,” Alice-Miranda protested.

  “Alice-Miranda, if you had been here I would remember. I think it’s time for you to go home.” Granny withdrew her hand and folded her arms in front of her.

  There was no point arguing. Alice-Miranda picked up the teacup and saucer and set them down in the sink. She walked back into the sitting room and reached up to give Granny a peck on her powdered cheek.

  “Goodbye, Granny.” She smiled. “I’ll come and see you again soon, I promise.”

  “Goodbye, dear.” Granny stared vacantly at the window. “And I’d rather you didn’t make promises you can’t keep.”

  Alice-Miranda’s mind was racing. If I’m not going mad, she thought, then I think someone must have put something in Granny’s tea. She wondered what sort of medicine made people go to sleep and forget things.

  Something else was bothering Alice-Miranda. She needed to find Jasper. She felt awful about what had happened earlier and wanted to make sure that he was all right.

  Alice-Miranda left Rose Cottage and ran down the lane to Jasper’s house, where she knocked loudly on the back door. Heinrich was in the kitchen having lunch.

  “Hello, Alice-Miranda,” he called. “Come in, come in. How is zat pony of yours?”

  “He’s fine,” she replied. “I don’t think he actually ate that much. Is Lily home?” It had just occurred to her that she might have a chance to talk to Lily before seeing Jasper. Hopefully Lily could clear up one of the mysteries.

  “No. She’s gone to ze city today.” Heinrich shook his head. “Won’t be back until late.”

  “Is Jasper in?”

  “He’s upstairs—in a bit of a mood, I zink. Poppy’s gone to play wiz a little friend in ze village. I ’ave to pick her up later. Better not forget or I’ll be in trouble wiz her mother.” He winked. “Why don’t you go up and see Jas—might make ’im feel better.”

  Alice-Miranda bounded upstairs, eager to put things right with her friend. He was in the room under the eaves, playing with his models.

  “Hello, Jasper,” she said from the doorway. “I’ve come to apologize.”

  “For what?” He didn’t look up.

  “You know—for before … with Lucas. I didn’t mean for him to wreck your model. I was only trying to help,” Alice-Miranda explained.

  Jasper stood up and walked around to the other side of the table. He picked up two soldiers and moved them to another part of the battlefield.

  “I’m sorry,” Alice-Miranda tried again. “I was hoping we could spend some time together. Jacinta’s not feeling well, so she’s gone to bed, and Bonaparte’s in trouble,” she began. “I’ve really missed you.”

  Jasper brushed a hand across his eye. “Why did you have to go away to that stupid school?” He looked up at her.

  “But I love school,” Alice-Miranda replied, “and I’ll be home every couple of months.”

  “It’s not the same,” said Jasper. “And now that he’s here, he’s wrecked everything.”

  “Who?” Alice-Miranda asked.

  “Who do you think?” Jasper stood up and faced her.

  “Oh,” Alice-Miranda whispered.

  Jasper looked as though he might cry.

  “Why is he here, Jasper?” she asked.

  He didn’t reply.

  “Do you want to go for a walk?” Alice-Miranda suggested. Jasper nodded his head ever so slightly. “Come on then.”

  She walked downstairs with Jasper two steps behind her.

  “Bye, kids—go and have zum fun now,” Heinrich said as the children walked through the kitchen.

  “Goodbye, Heinrich,” Alice-Miranda called. Jasper raised his hand to wave at his father.

  Alice-Miranda and Jasper headed off into the long meadow toward the stream. Before Alice-Miranda had left for school, she and Jasper—with lots of direction from Poppy—had built a hidden cubby beneath the branches of an enormous fir tree. For weeks they had spent every afternoon there.

  The towering trunk soared into the sky, and the branches had grown so long and heavy that they hung down to the ground to form a natural shelter. Once the children were inside no one would ever have known they were there.

  Alice-Miranda lifted the branch that guarded the entrance. The cubby was cavernous, and it was just as she had left it—even the teacups and saucers were still sitting on the table.

  Jasper finally spoke. “We haven’t been here at all since you left.”

  “Why not?” Alice-Miranda asked as she poked around examining the various bits and pieces.

  “Because it wasn’t the same without you. I told Poppy that it had been taken over by witches so she wouldn’t want to come anymore,” he explained.

  “Poor Poppy—she’s terrified of witches. I’ll have to tell her that they’ve moved out. This place needs a bit of a tidy-up.” Alice-Miranda set forth stacking the china plates and emptying the grungy water from the teacups. She found an old straw broom and began sweeping the dead pine needles into a pile in one corner. She moved the gaudy green armchairs to face each other and picked up a battered accordion from the ground. It wheezed a very flat C as she placed it on the pine dresser.

  When the children decided to make the cubby, Alice-Miranda had asked her father and mother if she could have some furniture for it. Her father suggested they could have some especially made, but Alice-Miranda thought that was too silly for words. She loved her father very much, but she thought he was a little bit prone to spoiling her. Instead she remembered that there were a whole lot of old bits and pieces in one of the sheds near Rose Cottage that would be perfect. So Mr. Greening had helped the children transport two armchairs and a pine dresser, an old kitchen cabinet with a sink, a pine table with four chairs, a mirror and a tarnished brass light fitting, which they suspended from a branch inside. Heinrich had found a moth-eaten accordion to add to their treasures.

  “So, can you tell me about Lucas?” Alice-Miranda asked as she stacked the plates into the dresser.

  “He’s our cousin,” Jasper said.

  “Yes, I know that. But why is he staying here?”

  “His mother has gone away. He was supposed to be at boarding school but that didn’t work out, so my mother offered to let him stay with us until Aunty Kitty comes back,” he explained.

  “So Aunty Kitty is your mother’s sister?” Alice-Miranda asked. She plonked onto one of the armchairs. Jasper sat down opposite.

  “Yes. But I’ve never even met her. Dad says she’s the black sheep of the family—whatever that means.”

  “I think it’s like the odd one out. The one that doesn’t quite fit in,” Alice-Miranda explained. “Where’s Lucas’s father?

  “I don’t know. Nobody talks about him.”

  “Oh.” Alice-Miranda twisted a stray curl around her finger and examined the ends. “Do you know wh
ere your aunt has gone?” she questioned.

  “To America, I think. She’s a costume designer for movies. Mum said that she couldn’t take Lucas with her because she has to move around a lot. That’s why she sent him to boarding school. Anyway, Lucas has been horrid ever since he arrived. He hates everything and I hate him,” Jasper spat.

  Alice-Miranda frowned. Jasper was the kindest, most thoughtful boy she had ever known. He never said bad things about anyone, and she’d certainly never heard him say that he hated anyone before. She needed to talk to Lucas at once.

  Alice-Miranda stood up. “Jasper, it can’t be as bad as all that. Lucas must be terribly lonely. I’m sure I would feel very sad and scared if I’d been sent to live with cousins I’d never even met before,” she soothed.

  Jasper couldn’t imagine Alice-Miranda ever feeling lonely. She made friends with everyone.

  “Well, I wouldn’t steal their things and break stuff and tease them all the time,” Jasper replied.

  “Of course not.” She walked toward the door, then stopped and turned to her friend. “I’ve only been home one day and so far I have had stones thrown at me, I’ve almost been run over by a big black car, my pony has made a mess of the vegetable patch, I’ve had a row with you, and Granny Bert thinks I tell lies. I’d rather like to start my holidays again, if I can?”

  Alice-Miranda promptly walked out of the cubby, turned around and knocked on a branch as loudly as she could—which wasn’t very loud, so she yelled “Knock, knock.” When she reentered she walked over to Jasper and held out her hand.

  “Hello, my name is Alice-Miranda Highton-Smith-Kennington-Jones and I’m very pleased to be home.”

  Jasper stood up and reached his hand out to meet Alice-Miranda’s. “And I’m Jasper Bauer and it’s really good to see you.” The two friends laughed as they shook hands.

  Jasper asked Alice-Miranda about school and Alice-Miranda told him all about Miss Grimm and Alethea and all of the challenges she’d had to complete. For a little while she forgot about Mr. Ridley and the mystery of the black car. They chatted for ages about this and that until Alice-Miranda’s stomach rumbled so loudly Jasper thought it was a wild animal outside. They decided to head back to the Hall for a sandwich.

  “What did you say before—about almost being run over?” Jasper asked as they walked through into the walled garden.

  Alice-Miranda explained about the black sedan at the back of Rose Cottage. She told Jasper about her visit to Granny and the cup of tea and Granny’s lost memory.

  “I’ve seen that car,” Jasper told her, “and I met the man who drives it.”

  Alice-Miranda’s eyes widened. “Who is he?”

  “I don’t know. He was poking around in the machinery shed and when I asked what he was doing he said that he was meeting a man about a tractor. I didn’t think that was very likely, seeing that my dad handles all the business about the machinery. And besides, who wears a suit to go and look at a tractor? When I said I would go and find Dad, he disappeared.”

  “That does seem strange,” Alice-Miranda agreed. It appeared that Jacinta was right after all.

  The next few days seemed to disappear in a blink. Alice-Miranda still hadn’t managed to talk to Lily—who could apparently make herself invisible at will. Mr. Ridley was equally difficult to pin down. When he and her father returned from their long ride on Monday afternoon, Mr. Ridley vanished and was nowhere to be seen at all the next day. Her mother said that he had some important things to attend to and there would be plenty of time to get to know him later in the week. But then midweek he was called back to the city on urgent business, so he packed his bag and up and away he flew with Cyril and Birdy. He had said he hoped to be back before the weekend, but there was still no sign of him.

  Dr. Marsh declared that Jacinta had a nasty bout of flu. Although she was getting stronger every day, she’d promised the doctor she’d take a few days’ bed rest. So Alice-Miranda spent most of the time romping about with Poppy and Jasper just as she had always done. They all kept an eye out for the black car and its mysterious driver, but there was no sign of either of them. Lucas seemed to have found a cloak of invisibility too—despite visiting Jasper and Poppy’s house, Alice-Miranda never caught as much as a glimpse of him.

  Granny Bert was well on the mend, grumbling and grizzling as good as new. Alice-Miranda decided not to ask her anything more about that strange morning with the tea and the car. There was no point upsetting her again. She decided to talk to Daisy instead.

  On Wednesday morning Alice-Miranda was on her way to meet Jasper when she spied Daisy trimming the roses near the fence.

  “Hello, Daisy,” she called. “Have you got a minute?”

  Daisy looked up and smiled. “Hello, darling girl. How can I help you?”

  “Well, there’s been something bothering me quite a bit and I thought you might be able to help. I really don’t want to worry anyone at home. They’re all so busy getting ready for the weekend, which—I know—I’m not supposed to know about. Anyway, it’s probably best I talk to you. It’s about Granny.”

  Daisy snipped another bloom.

  “When you were helping Mummy at the Hall the other morning I called in to see Granny and she was asleep,” Alice-Miranda began.

  “Oh, that’s not unusual, and since she’s been sick she’s been sleeping all the time,” Daisy replied.

  “It’s just that there was a black car parked around the back of the cottage and when I came into the house there was a noise upstairs and then I called Granny and she was sound asleep in the front room. The odd thing is, there was a steaming cup of tea beside her.”

  “Oh, perhaps she managed to shuffle out to the kitchen to make it.” Daisy cut a ragged-looking flower.

  “Well, the tea was really hot and Granny was fast asleep. It seemed odd to me. I hope you don’t mind, but I took a look around upstairs—I had the strangest feeling that there was someone else in the house. Anyway, there was no one there—except poor old Mr. Pippin locked in your wardrobe. And then I heard a door slam downstairs. I looked out the back but there was no one there. Oh, except there was a big black car. Anyway, I decided to leave Granny and come back later, but that’s when Bony got into the vegetable patch. When I did come back the teacup was gone and Granny was very cross with me for not visiting her earlier. I asked her about the owner of the black car and she said that it belonged to a friend who was doing something for Mummy and Daddy.”

  Daisy absently lopped the head off a full bloom, sending it tumbling to the ground. A trickle of blood ran down her arm.

  “Daisy, you’re bleeding!” Alice-Miranda exclaimed.

  “Oh.” Daisy dropped the cuttings. “It’s only a thorn. I can assure you there’s nothing to worry about, Alice-Miranda. Granny’s just getting old and forgetting things. She probably put the teacup away herself. And the wind must have caught the back door—it has a terrible habit of flying open on its own. I’m sure there’s nothing more to it than that.”

  Alice-Miranda rummaged around in her pocket and found a tissue, which she handed to Daisy.

  “But who owns the black car?” Alice-Miranda insisted.

  “No one important.” Daisy shook her head. Alice-Miranda was not convinced. “Look, there’s Jasper,” said Daisy, pointing. “Why don’t you run along and play.”

  “But there was something else too,” Alice-Miranda began.

  “Sorry, sweetheart, I have to go. Granny has a doctor’s appointment in the village and we daren’t be late.”

  Daisy rushed off before Alice-Miranda had time to mention anything about the plans in the crisper.

  On Thursday afternoon Jacinta felt well enough to go for a walk in the garden. She thought she might find Alice-Miranda and the others, and although she loved being the center of Mrs. Oliver’s attention, she was feeling much better and had started worrying that she hadn’t done any training since the weekend. There was nothing she wanted more than to win a medal at the junior Olympics, and s
he knew it wouldn’t happen if she lay about in bed eating cakes and drinking tea.

  “Where do you think I might find Alice-Miranda and Jasper?” Jacinta asked when Mrs. Oliver came to collect her tea tray.

  “Well, I heard Alice-Miranda telling her mother that she was meeting Jasper and Poppy at the cubby. It’s a bit of a walk, though, dear—would you like me to have Mr. Greening drop you down there?”

  “If it’s all right with you, I’d really love to go for a walk—if you could just tell me how to find it, I’m sure I can make it on my own.”

  Mrs. Oliver gently laid the back of her hand on Jacinta’s forehead. She then put each of her palms on Jacinta’s cheeks and nodded.

  “Temperature seems to be gone—and I must admit you have been the model patient, my dear. I think a walk might be just the tonic,” Mrs. Oliver replied. She opened the top drawer of the cedar tallboy, retrieving a pair of socks and a pink checked shirt. She opened the wardrobe and found some jeans.

  “Why don’t you get dressed while I take the tea tray downstairs? When you’re ready, come and see me in the kitchen and I can draw you a map of how to find the cubby.” She smiled at Jacinta. Dolly had grown rather fond of her little patient over the week—perhaps all the more so because the latest edition of Women’s Daily contained a whole page about Jacinta’s mother and her latest outing in Rome. Dolly had shown the article to Shilly and shaken her head. Ambrosia Headlington-Bear had not called once to inquire after Jacinta’s well-being—even after Cecelia had alerted her to the fact that her daughter was rather unwell.

  “The woman doesn’t deserve to be a mother,” Mrs. Oliver had muttered under her breath before taking Jacinta an extra piece of devil’s food cake that afternoon.

  Jacinta got dressed as instructed, grabbed her pink jacket and headed to the kitchen.