"Look out," Mei hissed.
She pushed Evangeline into the nearest shrubbery.
"Look. On the other side of the street."
It was a bobby on patrol, twirling his truncheon and whistling.
"Someone has spotted us and called the police."
"He looks like he is out for an evening stroll, rather than searching for marauders." Evangeline giggled. "But we must keep out of his sight."
Evangeline held up the atervis detector again, to get a closer look at the policeman as he walked on the opposite side of the street. As she peered through the lens, a horse and carriage clip-clopped through her line of sight.
"Knickers." She gasped.
"What?" Mei whispered.
Evangeline looked again, following the carriage as it continued down Wellington Parade towards Richmond. Through the lens, the edges of the carriage glowed silver, like a freshly polished looking glass.
"The carriage! Follow it."
"But the policeman will see us," Mei replied.
"It's getting away. I know it is the alchemist."
"Perhaps your eyes are trickin' you. Let me see."
Evangeline passed the detector to her friend.
Mei placed the glass to her eye.
"Blimey!" Mei said. "I see it too. Blazing silver."
The carriage was now fading from view and the silver aura trailing away into the distance. The bobby was strolling in the same direction.
"You go after the carriage," Evangeline said. "I'll get rid of the policeman."
"But this is your adventure."
"We're wasting time arguing. He's getting away and you're faster on foot. Follow the carriage and wait outside the alchemist's house. I'll fob off the policeman and come and find you. Then we can solve this mystery together."
Mei dashed off after the carriage. Her flat shoes were indeed more convenient for chasing alchemists than Evangeline's heeled boots. But then again, Evangeline's boots had other advantages.
Evangeline took a deep breath and dusted off her rusty acting skills. She vigorously rubbed her eyes and headed across the road towards the policeman, sobbing loudly.
Chapter 15
"Excuse me, sir," Evangeline sobbed.
The young policeman, who was cursed with a pathetic and patchy moustache, turned and rushed towards her.
"Miss. Are you hurt?"
Evangeline blubbered and wiped her nose on her sleeve, hiding the detector deep inside her skirt pockets.
"I am so sorry, Constable. Can you help me?" she wailed in her best Irish accent. "I am very lost."
"Don't cry, Miss. Where are you supposed to be?"
"Collins Street, sir. My mistress will be awful angry. I was only supposed to be gone an hour." Evangeline snivelled. "She has such a temper. She'll clip me 'round the ear or turn me out onto the streets. Then I'll have nowhere to go."
"Oh, Miss. You are lost. You are heading in completely the wrong direction."
"Oh, I am an eejit. I've only arrived off the boat from Derry a few days ago."
"It's an easy mistake to make in a new town. Turn around and head back that way." The Constable pointed. "But don't cut through the park. It's not safe at night. Follow Wellington Parade and you'll eventually come to Spring Street."
"I know my way from there. God bless you, Constable," Evangeline said with a curtsey.
"My pleasure, Miss."
The Constable doffed his helmet and continued down Wellington Parade. Evangeline walked in the opposite direction for a few houses, then hid in the shadows, waiting for the Constable to disappear from sight.
Minutes passed but it felt like hours. Evangeline's heart raced with excitement. Mei would be waiting outside the alchemist's house by now. Soon, she and Mei would reveal the identity of the charlatan. Everyone would be so proud.
Evangeline counted to five hundred, then followed the path of the Constable and Mei. She darted from shadow to shadow along the gas-lit street, listening intently for Mei's call.
But she passed house after house, without sight or sound of her friend. Her feet aching.
"Mei," Evangeline whispered into the darkness. "Where are you?"
There was no sign of her friend.
Evangeline's excitement began to turn to panic. She pulled the atervis detector from her pocket and began inspecting the houses for any trace of silvery aura.
"What are you doing here?" said a voice.
Evangeline gasped and turned.
The Constable emerged from a side laneway, chuckling.
"You do have a poor sense of direction, don't you, Miss?"
"Oh, you startled me, sir." Evangeline switched back into her Irish accent and hid the detector. "I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere."
"Never mind. This time I'll escort you back myself."
"Oh," Evangeline said. "There's no need, sir. I'm sure I can find my way back this time."
"I insist, Miss. It's a quiet night. It will only take ten minutes to take you back where you belong."
"I don't want to be any trouble. I can manage on my own."
"It will be my pleasure." The young policeman smiled. "This way."
Evangeline stalled.
If she ran, the sensible booted policeman would easily catch her. And then what would happen, would he escort her home to her father? She pictured the Professor's face, purple with rage.
Evangeline was torn.
"Did you say you were from Derry? My grandfather was from County Derry too. We could be related. I'm Constable Kane."
"Mary O'Malley, sir."
"Pleased to meet you, Miss O'Malley. Now, this way back to Collins Street."
Reluctantly, Evangeline decided to follow Constable Kane. Eventually Mei would get bored of waiting for her and probably return home. Perhaps she had lost sight of the carriage and was already home safe, waiting by her telegraph key for Evangeline.
The policeman escorted Evangeline along the safe route around the outskirts of Fitzroy Gardens, past Parliament House, to the laneway at the Spring Street entrance.
"Will you be safe from here, Miss?"
"I know my way now. I will be in even more trouble if I am seen returning with a handsome young gentleman. My mistress will think even worse of me."
The young bobby blushed violently.
"May I call on you, Miss O'Malley? To ensure you made it home safely. Otherwise I'll worry. We don't want you getting lost again."
"I would like that, Constable. 46 Collins Street."
Constable Kane bowed his head and let Evangeline scurry into the darkness of the laneway.
She stuffed her hand in her mouth to stop herself from giggling, thinking of the poor Constable knocking on the door of 46 Collins Street tomorrow to find no Mary O'Malley.
She scuttled along the cobblestones, through the complaining door and into the back courtyard. Miss Plockton's light was out. The sounds of hearty male laughter floated down from Edmund's study, Augie must be home from the theatre.
Evangeline scurried up the drainpipe, grabbed the window sill and swung her body through the open window, landing on the floor in a crouched position with barely a sound.
Disappointed with her fruitless evening, Evangeline pulled her telegraph key from under the floor board and sat at her writing desk, waiting for Mei's communique.
The next thing Evangeline knew, there was a knock on her door. The sun was streaming through the open window, she had fallen asleep at her desk. She glanced at her mantel clock. It was after nine. Her neck cricked, and, still in her clothes from last night, she quickly stuffed the telegraph key under her pillow, before Miss Plockton burst through the door.
"Oh, thank heavens, Miss Evangeline."
Miss Plockton sighed loudly.
"Good morning, Miss Plockton. Is something wrong?" Evangeline said.
"She isnae here, Mrs Fang," Miss Plockton replied, as Mei's mother came into the bedroom behind her. Her eyes red.
"Why would Mei be here?" Evangeline aske
d. A knot clenched in her stomach.
"She's disappeared. We suspected you were together, off on one of your gallivants. But here you are safely in your room."
"Disappeared?"
Evangeline collapsed back onto her bed, her mind reeling. The alchemist.
"She no sleep in her bed. Her room empty," Mrs Fang said.
Tears sprang to Evangeline's eyes. She bit her lip.
"You know where is Mei?" Mrs Fang asked. Hope and worry inscribed across her face.
"No, Mrs Fang," Evangeline said truthfully. "I don't know where she is."
She didn't lie but she didn't tell the whole truth. Mei was somewhere on Wellington Parade.
This debacle was all Evangeline's fault. She should have been the one to chase the carriage. Tonight she would go alone to find the alchemist and rescue her friend.
Chapter 16
The day was long and maudlin. Evangeline moped. Her distracted thoughts were noted during her physics lesson with the Professor and watercolours with Miss Plockton.
"I'm positive the police will find her," said the Professor. "Inspector Pensnett is a splendid chap."
"I've said a prayer for Mei. The Lord will bring her home," assured Miss Plockton.
Evangeline only sighed and nodded in response, her mind wandering into many dark and different places. She pictured the alchemist experimenting on Mei, turning her friend into a statue of fool's gold. Her conscience prickled, yet Evangeline was confident she would rescue her friend. She anxiously awaited nightfall.
Cook baked Evangeline's favourite plum tart for tea. Evangeline smiled weakly and thanked her, but her appetite was ruined. The tart only reminding her of their trip to Faversham's the day before. Augie attempted to lighten the mood with a tale of an actor's jape, the lead actor's moustache wax swapped for anchovy paste.
"Oh, we laughed. Until Vincent was attacked by the theatre cat, Willie. It took three of us to prise Willie off the poor Vincent and his claws left quite a mess. Still, it worked out well in the end. Vincent was perfect for our production of Beauty and the Beast."
Evangeline knew she was spoiling their tea with her long face and excused herself as soon as it was polite.
In her bedroom, she tinkered with her invention, fastening the nuts and testing the release of the mechanism. Evangeline stared long and hard at the atervis detector, her father's invention which led her right to the alchemist. She would have go out alone tonight, without Mei to watch out for her.
"Of course," she said.
Carefully prising apart the four chambers and protecting the nuummite inside, she shortened the optical tubes. Next, she grabbed the nasal dust protector and removed its leather straps. The atervis detector would be infinitely more practical as a monocle.
She slipped the new improved atervis detector over her head and admired herself in the looking glass. She looked rather swashbuckling, Mei would have said she looked like a Chinese Pirate Queen. The thought of her friend made her sigh once again. But Evangeline was ready. It was only a matter of hours until she could escape the house and rescue her best friend.
As the Melbourne day finally ended, thick clouds rolled across the sky, hemming in the summer heat. The temperature barely dropped as the sun disappeared, the heat close and thick. Storms were coming.
Evangeline waited until the house grew silent. Uncles Augie and Edmund had gone to Edmund's club for the evening. Miss Plockton retired to her room in the attic. Even the Professor was at his monthly Horological Engineers' Meeting at the university. A purely academic affair which often resulted in the Professor stumbling in late, reeking of brandy and cigars.
Evangeline steeled herself and thought of her friend. She dressed in her plainest gown, hid the atervis monocle in her pocket and slipped into her new invention. She gathered her skirts in one hand and slid down the drainpipe to the ground. A calico cat scattered across the courtyard as she dropped to her feet. She stopped and listened.
Hooves clattered along Collins Street, piano scales and conversations floated from open windows and groups of people walked the balmy evening streets.
Evangeline placed her hand on the door to the back alley and turned the handle. It was locked. She cursed under her breath in a very unladylike manner, before pulling a pin from her hair and picking the brass lock. A light came on in the conservatory overlooking the courtyard and Evangeline jumped behind the privy, her nose curling at the stench after four days straight of baking heat. The night soil man must be late.
Miss Plockton appeared in the windows, peering out. Evangeline's heart battered inside her chest.
The cat wandered across the courtyard into the light. Evangeline sighed with relief as Miss Plockton turned off the gaslight, reassured the cat was the source of the noise.
Then she heard a voice, so soft Evangeline wondered if her ears were deceiving her.
"Bring her back safe."
Miss Plockton? How could she know?
But there was no time to waste on rumination, Evangeline turned back to the door. With three sharp turns of her hairpin, the lock clicked open and she was out on the laneway.
She ran and ran towards East Melbourne, dodging cat-calling drunken men, groups of women arm-in-arm returning from the theatre, cabs and men on horses.
She only slowed to a walk when she reached Wellington Parade. This time, she was determined to try a different approach. She crept into the laneway running behind the houses, hoping Constable Kane was not on patrol again this evening. She pulled out the atervis monocle, wrapped the straps tight around her head and began her inspection. The grounds of the Wellington Parade homes were grand with outbuildings and stables, the scent of warm hay and horse mess thick in the air.
She walked along the laneway, home by home, seeing nothing of the silvery aura or the carriage from last night.
"Oi, what are you doing, girl?" a voice yelled out of the dark.
Evangeline spun around to see a grey headed man standing in the shadows behind her.
"What's that on your 'ead?"
Evangeline must have looked frightfully odd, like some kind of pirate burglar scoping out the grandest houses in Melbourne.
She ran.
But suddenly there it was. A silver aura jumped out like fireworks in the distance. Evangeline's heart leapt simultaneously with fear and joy. The silvery glow stretched out into the sky around one house. There was no doubting it, she had found the home of the alchemist. But the sheer pulsating strength of the aura was frightening. If only the Professor was here to counsel her.
Evangeline ran towards the house, her heart beating faster with each step closer. When she reached the back wall of the property, she gulped. This was an ordinary wall with her naked eye but through the atervis monocle, the bricks glowed iridescent silver.
She craved excitement and here it was. This was her chance to stop the alchemist, rescue Mei and save the day. She breathed in deeply. She would make her father proud.
"You, girl. Stop."
The grey headed man had followed her down the laneway.
"Go away, old man," she grumbled. "I have more important matters to attend to."
Evangeline inspected the wall. Climbing over was not an option, sharp shards of broken glass were set into the mortar along the top. She turned the handle of the back gate but it was locked. She pulled out her faithful hairpin but there was no lock on this side of the door. Evangeline was not perturbed. In fact, she smiled. Finally, a chance to test out her newest invention.
She clicked her heels together to release the mechanism in her boots. Four large springs discharged from the soles of her ankle boots, two at the toes and two at the heels. She was instantly raised six inches into the air. She giggled. Phase one of her invention was a success. She teetered from side to side on the wobbly springs, rolling front and back, waving her hands in the air to balance.
She bent her knees, testing the compression and the energy in the brass coils, then straightened her legs, up and down, building momentum
. In one final push she left the ground altogether, flying through the air and over the brick wall, landing triumphantly on the opposite side, her knees braced.
But the force of her landing sent her straight up into the air again. Up and down. Up and down. She had made a mistake, failing to add a stopping mechanism to her spring heeled boots. Now she was inside the alchemist's home grounds but ricocheting like a jack-in-the box. Up and down. On her next bounce, she had some fun, adding a double somersault. On her fourth, she tried a twist. But she could not stop. The horses whinnied in the stables and a dog started barking from the house next door.
She stopped her tricks and focused on the house. A mansion on two levels, with verandahs running along both floors. She could not stop her upwards and downwards motion but she began to gain control of her direction. She aimed herself towards the house and with one almighty bound, shot towards the first floor balcony.
But her angle was awry. She crashed heavily into a beam with a thud and a smash of glass. Her monocle.
She scrambled to wrap her arms around a wooden post, her legs kicking in the air. Her arms slipped, elbows colliding with the balustrade, legs dangling. She interlaced her fingers around the beam, bringing her fall to a shuddering stop. She bashed her boots together, trying to retract her springs, her arms aching with the strain of her bodyweight. Then the sky boomed with thunder and the first heavy drops of rain splattered onto Evangeline's head.
She kicked her heels together again. This time, with success. Her left boot springs retracted into the sole. But her right boot was stuck, the coils extended. Rain drops, like fat water bombs, splashed onto her head and down the back of her dress.
Slipping her left foot under the railing, Evangeline hoisted herself up on her hands, springing over the wet balustrade. She botched her landing and dropped onto the verandah in an unladylike soggy heap. Grabbing her trusty little screwdriver from her boot, she pressed the springs back into her right sole, fastening the mechanism again. Her invention required a few minor refinements.
The Antics of Evangeline: Collection 1: Mystery and Mayhem in steampunk Melbourne Page 6