"Ballocks."
The Bunyip, surprised by the hit across the jaw, stopped pulling for a moment. Evangeline leaned back and her hands touched the bottom of the river. She had never been so glad to grab a handful of mud.
"Go for the snout!" Mei said.
Evangeline kicked, her hard heeled boot striking at the monster's black wet nose. Her genteel shoes did have some advantages over Mei's flat slippers. Mei joined Evangeline in the water.
"Go," yelled Mei.
The two friends pummelled at the creature with feet and fists, a furious avalanche of small strikes. The creature shook his head, confused and irritated. He opened his mouth to roar and let go of Evangeline's skirts. She tumbled from his grasp and scrambled to her feet. Evangeline and Mei moved forward and the friends started to kick at the Bunyip in unison.
The creature began to back away onto the bank.
"Punches and kicks aren't enough." Mei shook her head.
Evangeline turned, grabbing hold of a log floating down the river. Her fingers slipped, the log was so heavy she could barely lift it. This would be an ideal time for the strange power to return. She grabbed the log with both hands and gathered all her determination. She screwed up her eyes for a moment and tried to summon the magic again. But nothing.
Evangeline would have to resort to her natural brute strength. Straining and grunting in an undignified manner and with one almighty swoop, she lifted the log and bashed the creature across the head.
Thwack.
His eyelids fluttered and the mammoth creature crashed into the water in a heap.
The girls glanced at each other with disbelief, frozen for a moment. It was suddenly very quiet. The Bunyip did not move. His head slumped in the shallow water.
"Is it dead? Did we kill it?" Evangeline asked.
"Looks dead to me."
Mei poked the scaled body with a stick.
"We did it! We managed to kill it." Mei cheered, breaking into a little jig on the riverbank. "We're the best!"
"Thank heavens," Evangeline said flatly, as she trudged wearily out of the water and onto the river bank. Her limbs were heavy and she started to pine for her comfortable feather bed. She wanted to escape the bush and the river as quickly as she could.
"You don't seem very excited? What about the dead policeman and the two girls? You ought to be proud."
"That was far too close for my liking. Perhaps I'll feel more victorious after a good night's sleep," Evangeline said. "Let's go home."
"What about the reward?"
"We'll stop at a telegraph kiosk and report it on the way home."
"What are you goin’ to do with your 300 quid? I might get myself an auto-chariot. Do you think the Professor could get me a discount?"
Evangeline finished wringing out her soaked skirts and headed into the bush.
"Wait." Mei grabbed Evangeline's arm. "Can you hear somethin’?"
Evangeline frowned.
Something large was moving through the bush. Something, or someone, was coming.
"Don't tell me," groaned Mei.
Chapter 19
Mei and Evangeline glanced at each other with dilated eyes.
"Two Bunyips?" Mei said, saying aloud precisely what Evangeline was trying not to think.
"Let's hide."
Before Evangeline and Mei could reach the trees, a group of men came crashing into the clearing. Evangeline shielded her eyes against their blinding gas lamps.
"Miss Caldicott?"
"Mr. Middlehall. What a surprise."
"Blimey." Percy Sharpthorne and Basil Mawdesley crowded around the lifeless body of the Bunyip. A flash bulb blasted as another unfamiliar man snapped a photograph.
"I guess I owe you £100, Miss Caldicott," Albion said.
"Ladies, may I take a photograph of you with the Bunyip?" Interrupted another man with a notebook. "I'm from The Argus. This way, please. Everyone in Melbourne will be desperate to hear the story of the two young ladies who beat the dreaded Bunyip."
"Don't forget the £500," said Mei.
"Of course. Miss?"
"Fang. Mei Fang." Mei puffed out her chest. "Of Fang's Fine Launderin’."
"I want to hear every detail of how you slayed the creature. Believe me, ladies. This will be the biggest story of the year!"
As the gentlemen praised and complimented her, Evangeline's tiredness was replaced by a warm glow. As she posed with Mei on the bank, Evangeline recalled the policeman and the two Aboriginal girls. Mei was right. They had saved lives with their courage.
Evangeline's thoughts suddenly turned to her mud-caked hair and wet torn dress. This was not the ideal image for the front page of The Argus. But being a heroine was not all Balls and Coffee Palaces, sometimes it was messy work.
"Ladies, please step back a bit further."
Mei and Evangeline edged towards the grey body.
"My word. What a monster," the journalist said.
"How did you manage to defeat it?" Albion asked, with a curious smile.
Basil and Percy were quiet, seething over their loss of the wager.
"With Evangeline's invention," Mei replied, winking at her friend. Evangeline smirked back.
"I knew it," exclaimed Albion.
"Ready, ladies."
The photographer focused the camera on Mei and Evangeline. They struck their best respectable poses, upright and proper, the way one should appear in photographs. The flash exploded with a white puff and the girls blinked, blinded for a moment.
Evangeline felt a shuffle of movement behind her.
"Bloody hell!" yelled the photographer. "Move!"
Evangeline screeched as a massive tail swooped around and knocked her from her feet. She collapsed with a thud on the dirt.
The Bunyip was back on his feet, snarling with his tail slapping in the water. The journalist and the photographer sprinted backwards to the other men, bumblingly loading their weapons.
The Bunyip roared.
He stared down at Evangeline, laying defenceless in the mud. A splatter of saliva struck Evangeline on the face. She wiped her cheek with shaking hands, her heart hammering. The Bunyip lumbered forward, looming directly over her. Evangeline's lumpy throat filled with tears. She stared into the Bunyip's dead black eyes. She was certain this was it. Her luck had finally run out.
"Three clicks?" Mei yelled.
Evangeline was so frightened, she could barely reply.
"Three," she managed to croak.
Mei clicked once. The pink parasol opened.
"What is she doing, silly girl?" said one of the men. "That's not going to help."
Mei clicked twice. The thin toothed saw emerged.
"That's no ordinary parasol," said Albion.
Mei clicked three times. The saw retracted and the bayonet blade extended, glistening in the light.
With her own blood-curdling battle cry, Mei took a running jump. She leaped forward, stabbing the blade straight through the Bunyip's left eye.
The creature flailed backwards and forwards in the river, shrieking and crying with pain. Mei had struck deep. Only the cane handle of the parasol was now visible, poking out of the Bunyip's eye socket. Waves of water splashed in all directions as the Bunyip tossed his head from side to side. Mei grabbed Evangeline's hand and pulled her to safety. Then the Bunyip's gigantic head dropped onto the river bank with a crash, shaking the ground like an earthquake. His right eye was open but unseeing, his thick grey tongue lolling from his mouth.
Everyone on the river bank was silent. They watched and waited. After a few long minutes passed, Albion crept forward.
"Blood." He pointed to a dark red puddle flowing from the bank into the Yarra.
Then the body shuffled and Albion skirted backwards with a girlish yelp. The current of the river pushing the body downstream.
"I think it's dead," Albion said. "Properly dead this time."
Evangeline hugged her best friend.
"Thank you," she said with tears in her
eyes.
"It was my turn to save you." Mei grinned. "Now we're even. I think I ruined your parasol though."
"Miss Fang. May I say, that was magnificent." Albion Middlehall stepped forward. "Jolly impressive."
"Fantastic sword work. Where did you learn how to do that?" said Percy.
"Where do you reside, Miss Fang?" The journalist said, pen poised in the air. "What will you do with the £500?"
The men crowded around the beaming Mei.
Evangeline stepped back with a grin, watching her best friend, the heroine.
"My grandmother was a kung-fu grandmaster and taught me everythin’ I know. I started as soon as I could walk..."
While the others were distracted by Mei's increasingly tall tales, the water stirred. Evangeline instinctively flinched.
The grey body was moving again.
She opened her mouth to call out, but the Bunyip looked up, staring straight at her with his one remaining eye. Their eyes locked and Evangeline did not speak. This time the anger and brutality had gone, his black eye was filled with sadness and pain.
With a single glance, Evangeline understood. What had she done? She'd allowed trivialities like money and fame to entice her. The Bunyip was only protecting his home. He was not her enemy.
She lowered her eyes, saying nothing as the monster slipped away under the surface of the water, disappearing completely from view.
"Another photograph, Miss Fang? With your trophy," said the reporter. "Wait a moment. Where has it gone?"
The others turned and looked. The river bank was empty. Evangeline shrugged her shoulders.
"It appears the Bunyip is not dead," Percy Sharpthorne sneered. "What a shame."
"No body. No reward. I'm afraid," said the reporter. The photographer began packing up his equipment.
"You did fight valiantly, Miss Fang. What rotten luck," Albion consoled.
"Come along, Middlehall. There's still a chance to catch this thing ourselves," Percy said as Basil and the newspaper men headed back into the scrub.
"There goes my auto-chariot," said Mei, her shoulders drooping. "I was looking forward to promenadin' down King Street."
"There are more important things than auto-chariots," Evangeline said.
"More important than auto-chariots?" Mei frowned.
"Like honour and intestinal fortitude."
"Oh, you mean cake. Or is it bangers? Cakes with bangers? I told you, I hate riddles."
"I'll explain later." Evangeline placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder.
"We could have bought a lot of cake for £600." Mei shook her head.
"Let's go home."
Wet and weary, the best friends found the right path through the bush and headed home, Bunyip-less.
Chapter 20
A week later
At the Soldier's Benefit Ball, everyone was still talking about the Bunyip.
"Your father knows the Bunyip catcher? The Wilberfoss chap?" The same questions, over and over, from every person Evangeline met. "Have you met him? I bet he's awfully impressive."
Evangeline smiled and nodded with gritted teeth. Only she and Mei knew the truth. But since the night at Yarra Park, the Bunyip had gone into hiding and Wilby had taken all the credit. And the reward.
To make matters worse, Mei's mother caught her sneaking back into the house covered in mud. Mei was confined to her room until further notice. Their hasty snippets of conversation over the telegraph were no substitute and when anyone mentioned the Bunyip, it reminded Evangeline how much she missed Mei. Her brave friend who saved her life.
Evangeline wandered aimlessly through the Ballroom of the Travancore Estate, wishing she was with her cogwheels and flanges in the laboratory-workshop.
"Apparently the body of the Bunyip went missing in transit on the way to the Museum. The rumour is a private collector had it stolen," Percy Sharpthorne said loudly.
Evangeline screwed up her face as she overheard the discussion. This was the missing piece of the puzzle, Evangeline had wondered how Wilby managed to produce a Bunyip body to claim the reward. He must have stacked lie upon lie, culminating in the convenient theft of the body. Evangeline grimaced. Some hero Wilby turned out to be. He better not show his face at 56 Collins Street.
Evangeline sighed and continued ambling through the cavernous room. Not even the sight of a table heaving with strawberry flummery could lift her spirits.
Jemima and Albertine eyed Evangeline suspiciously, she could sense their snide comments behind their gloved hands. But when she caught their eyes, they smiled and waved. Barnaby ignored her entirely, dancing more than three times with Jemima, not that Evangeline was counting.
"I was hoping to see you this evening, Miss Caldicott." Albion Middlehall approached as Evangeline stood alone by a potted palm, watching the dancing.
"I guess I owe you £100," she said lowering her chin to her chest, wondering where on earth she would find such a sum.
"Forget the wager. Terrible shame your Bunyip got away. I presume the parasol was one of your inventions. Do you have more? I would like to hear all about them."
"Ahem." Uncle Edmund cleared his throat. "Can I whisk my niece away for a waltz?"
For a brief moment, a dark look flashed across Albion's face, as though he was not happy to see Uncle Edmund. Evangeline could not understand why.
"I would be delighted." She beamed and Uncle Edmund led her onto the dance floor.
"I have been hearing some interesting stories about you, young Miss Evangeline," her uncle said with a mock stern tone, as they took their first steps to the music. "From a mutual friend by the river."
"You should know better than to listen to gossip, Uncle."
"Well, whatever happened, I am very proud of my niece," Edmund said.
The music swelled, Uncle Edmund twirled her around and Evangeline rested her head on his shoulder. Finally she was enjoying the Ball.
"Life is rather peculiar, isn't it?" Edmund mused as they traversed the room. "People are often not what they seem."
"Here you are. I've been looking everywhere for you both," Augie called and waved from the side of the room, his face flushed with excitement. "You won't believe it."
"What's happened now, Augie," Edmund shook his head with a smile.
"Mrs. Picklescott-Smythe has invited us all to a mummy unwrapping soiree next week." Augie clapped his hands. "I went to a few in London. Mummy unwrapping parties are all the rage. It will be the event of the season."
"This may even entice Monty out of the house," said Edmund.
"Am I invited?" Evangeline perked up.
"All the Caldicotts."
"It would be educational," said Edmund.
"I hope it's cursed," Evangeline said.
"Evangeline!" scolded Augie. "How horrid."
Uncle Augie shook his head with a grin.
"What will we do with you?"
Evangeline and the Spiritualist
Mystery and Mayhem in steampunk Melbourne
(The Antics of Evangeline Book 3)
Chapter 1
It was not every day Evangeline had the chance to witness a mummy being unwrapped.
"I'm so excited, Father." Evangeline skipped to catch up with the Professor. Her father led the way through their front gate, dressed in his best black coat. His prized moustache, waxed and curled perfectly in place.
"Indeed. A piece of ancient history right here in our own street."
"Listen to you both," Uncle Augie said. "Giddy as Christmas morning. Ordinarily I have to invent the most elaborate ruses to get you out of the house."
The whole Caldicott family crossed Collins Street, dodging the carriages and auto-chariots, to the grand residence of Mrs. Picklescott-Smythe. Uncle Augie was not Evangeline's real uncle but rather her Uncle Edmund's constant companion. Edmund and Augie were sporting fashionable ascots while Evangeline proudly wore her new lavender afternoon dress, edged with satin ribbon. Their heeled boots crunching through the amber leaves a
s the golden Melbourne afternoon sun streamed over the cobblestones.
"This soiree should be highly educational," the Professor said. "Not like your usual frivolous rubbish."
"Do you think there'll be a curse?" Evangeline said.
Uncle Edmund snickered while Uncle Augie gasped with horror, clasping at his ample chin. "Evangeline! Never jest about a curse. Have I told you about the music stand at the Garrick? I still get nightmares every time I hear the scraping of metal."
"I shouldn't think so," the Professor replied with all seriousness. "It's probably some minor member of the royal family. No one too special."
"That's not what I heard..." started Uncle Edmund, opening the iron gate. Augie flinched as the gate squealed.
"Evangeline, please assure me you will not ask once we're inside. Enquiring about a curse is very impertinent. The best families always have the worst curses but no one asks directly. Preferably spoken about when their backs are turned. Now, let me look at you."
Evangeline humphed as Augie inspected her. The Professor rapped on the brass door knocker and adjusted his tie.
"Once we straighten this..." Augie said, pulling up her left glove. A metal object dropped to the ground with a clang and Evangeline winced. "What's this? A screwdriver?"
Evangeline shrugged. "I like to be prepared."
"What else have you got in there?"
The front door swung open, and Augie slipped her rosewood handled screwdriver into his inside pocket and replaced his frown with a radiant smile. A tall butler in white tails and a shiny bald head stood in the entrance.
"Professor Caldicott and family." The Professor handed over the invitation card.
"And Mr. August Beauchamp," Augie added.
Evangeline was still getting used to being a Caldicott. Less than a year earlier, she'd been on the other side of the world, living in squats and flea-pits, tumbling and pick-pocketing under the iron rule of her stepfather, Charlie Drigg. She hadn't a clue about the existence of her real father, living faraway in the Colonies.
"Of course, sirs, miss. Please come this way." The butler peered down his nose at Evangeline, but she lifted her chin and strode inside. He must have seen the screwdriver and was now fearing for the silverware. But the butler had nothing to fear, Evangeline's pilfering days were far behind her. Most of the time.
The Antics of Evangeline: Collection 1: Mystery and Mayhem in steampunk Melbourne Page 14