The House of Hidden Wonders

by Sharon Gosling

  She reached a landing with a door directly ahead of her. The sound of footsteps and voices echoed along the corridor, battling with the noise of wood being sawn and nails being hammered. Footsteps from above startled her – the heavy tread of someone descending the stairs. Slipping into the room ahead, she found herself inside the real House of Wonders.

  Zinnie stood still for a minute, her back against the door. Before her was a series of connected rooms that seemed to stretch on and on, one after the other, vanishing into the distance in every direction she looked. Each was lit only in the centre and with varying degrees of brightness, giving the impression of mystery. The walls, where they could be seen, had been painted a deep carmine red. The room in which she stood was lined with glass cabinets, filled with all manner of bleached skulls of unnamed monsters, accompanied by faces of all shapes, sizes and colours, every one different. At first Zinnie thought they were made of skin, that MacDuff had taken the visages from numerous once-living things and mounted them for the good people of Edinburgh to gawk at. It was only when she overcame the sudden thundering of her heart and stepped closer that she saw some of them were made of wood, others of shell or bone or cloth. They were masks, hundreds of them, assembled from who knew how many nations of the globe.

  She moved on to the room beyond, which was not yet complete – some of the cabinets were still being built. Of those that were finished, some were larger than the ones that held the masks. Zinnie was shocked to see that they had straw in their bases and small shelters too, as if things unseen but living lurked within. Did Phineas MacDuff really keep creatures here, as well as ornaments from other lands? She thought of Ruby the monkey, with her little black-and-white face. Had Ruby been destined to spend her days here, penned into one of these glass cabinets? If so, no wonder Aelfine had run away. She would have wanted to save her pet from being put into a cage like this.

  Zinnie moved on into the next room and found the biggest cabinet of all. It took up half the floor space and reached from floor to ceiling. There was straw strewn in the bottom of this one too, but no shelter like in the smaller enclosures. Instead, there was a tree trunk leaning at a steep angle against the rear wall, which had been made to look like a rock and that had shallow ledges jutting out of it here and there. They led up to the ceiling, into which had been hammered a series of hoops. Hanging from the ceiling, suspended on sturdy rope, were two small swings, which Zinnie gauged would be just large enough to hold a child each. The cabinet was otherwise empty, apart from two iron rings that had been hammered into either side of the cage. From these rings led chains just long enough that whatever was fastened to them would be able to climb up to each of the swings. Zinnie stared at these for a while, realizing what they meant. The cabinet had obviously been made for two occupants.

  On the wall behind the swings were large painted letters. Zinnie couldn’t read them, but in a sudden, horrible flash of understanding, she knew that if they were said aloud they would say THE HUMAN MONKEY. She felt sick.

  “Two more ears!” boomed a loud voice behind her. “Two! It’s beyond a joke!”

  Zinnie jumped and turned. The voice – and the two sets of heavy footsteps that accompanied it – was in the neighbouring room and moving swiftly closer. Panicked, she looked around for somewhere to hide. There were two other cabinets in the room but both were unfinished and offered nowhere to conceal herself. The only other object in the room she had at first dismissed as a pile of carpets, probably left for use elsewhere when the house was finished. Now she realized that the haphazard fabric was actually a small draped tent. It was circular with a peaked roof, made of a heavy, glittering fabric printed with a motif of stars and moons. There was a sign standing beside it, a picture of a woman sitting before a crystal ball alongside more words she couldn’t decipher.

  Zinnie ran towards it and dropped to her knees, scrambling through the opening just as the footsteps arrived in the room. Shuffling backwards, she fetched up against a large wooden trunk.

  “Three pairs over the past two weeks. I tell you, it’s too much,” the voice was saying. It was MacDuff. “I’ve already given you money for a job you promised you’d be able to accomplish, and so far you’ve given me nothing in return.”

  It was the second voice, though, that made her hold her breath in shock. Zinnie would know it anywhere.

  “You only asked me yesterday,” it said gruffly, and with no hint of apology. “I ain’t a miracle worker.”

  Bartholomew Talbot.

  “It’s too much, I tell you,” MacDuff went on, as if Talbot hadn’t spoken. “I came to this city because I thought it was safe to stop at last, to make a home for myself. But I’ve had nothing but trouble since I got here. The ears, man, the ears! It must be the Queensland Kings, it must! But how did they find me? And the ears! I was sure it must be the fortune-teller and that it would stop once she was dealt with. Now I need you to deal with it. If you don’t, you’ll get nothing.”

  Zinnie couldn’t make sense of anything MacDuff was saying, but it was Talbot’s next words that really made her blood run cold.

  “What about your missing idiot?” he asked. “Could it be her, causing trouble? Following you?”

  MacDuff snorted. “She can’t even look after herself. She doesn’t have the gumption to cut off a man’s ears and send them to me.”

  “But you still want her found?”

  “I can’t open without my crowning exhibit, can I? They’re all over the posters. If I took a coin for every time I’ve been asked about them, I could build a bridge to the moon. Besides, she knows too much. I want her back here, under lock and key. A wild animal and a fool. Surely they can’t be difficult to locate. Or is even that too much for the likes of you?”

  Zinnie could hear Talbot’s reply edging out between clenched teeth. She knew that if not for the promise of payment when he delivered, the villain would happily slip a knife between Phineas MacDuff’s ribs there and then.

  “I’ll find them.”

  “Good. And be quick about it, I want to open the lower two levels next week while we finish the upper ones. Seeing what we’ve got down here will make people eager to come back for a second time once we’re fully open. I’m losing money every day this place stands idle. I’m a rich man, Talbot,” MacDuff added. “I’m sure I’ll find frequent uses for a man of your … skills … in the future. Providing you can prove to me that you do actually possess the talents of which you boast.”

  “I’ll sort out your troubles, MacDuff,” Talbot growled. “Don’t fret about that.”

  “Good. Get on with it. Now I’ve got affairs to set straight. See yourself out.”

  MacDuff’s heavy footsteps stalked away. Eventually, there was the distant sound of a door opening and closing. Zinnie sat still, listening, but Talbot didn’t leave. She heard him move with slow, deliberate footsteps. For a second she thought he was heading for her hiding place, that he was suddenly going to rip aside the tent’s heavy entrance flap and declare that he’d known she’d been there all along. Panicked, she lifted the trunk’s lid, but it was full of clothes, with no room for her to hide inside. Talbot kept walking, though, his footsteps moving to the other side of the room. Then he stopped. There was another moment of silence.

  “Where are you, you wee wretch?” he said, his voice low and menacing. “I’ll find you yet. I’m coming for you. And you’ll be sorry that you’ve led me this little dance.”

  It was then that Zinnie knew exactly where he was standing. He was looking into the Human Monkey’s enclosure. Into Aelfine’s prison.

  Talbot’s footsteps echoed past her again and away, following MacDuff’s route out.

  Zinnie sat still in the darkness of the tent for a long time afterwards, trying to make sense of everything she’d seen and heard.

  Zinnie slipped out of the House of Wonders the same way she’d gone in. She was shaken and still feeling sick to her stomach. She kept an eye out for Talbot as she hurried home, but there was no sign of hi
m. Still, he and his men would be out there somewhere. Now that she knew they were searching for Aelfine and Ruby, she was doubly afraid. Talbot was the worst man in Old Edinburgh, he knew the closes as well as Zinnie herself, and everyone – including her, though she’d never let him know it – was afraid of him. If Talbot were looking for Aelfine and Ruby, then it wouldn’t be long before he found them.

  Zinnie hoped that she’d get back to Mary King’s Close to find their spot deserted, Sadie and Aelfine already having gone to Doctor Jex-Blake’s, but that was not to be.

  “I couldn’t get her to come with me,” Sadie said when Zinnie reappeared. “As soon as I told her that we’d be going to see a doctor, she refused to leave. She’s been hunched up in the corner like that ever since. She’s terrified. I didn’t want to leave her alone.”

  Aelfine had crammed herself in between the wall and the fireplace and pulled her knees up to her chest. Her forehead was resting on her knees and Zinnie could just see Ruby’s little face peeking out beneath her mistress’s chin.

  “What is it she’s afraid of?” Zinnie asked.

  Sadie shook her head. “The doctor, I think. I tried to explain that she’d just want to help, but Aelfine burst into tears and begged me not to make her go. Did you find anything out?”

  Zinnie nodded grimly. “Aye. It’s worse than I thought, in more ways than one. Talbot’s looking for her. Have you got something that might help to calm her? I need to ask her some things.”

  Sadie nodded. “I’ve got camomile and St John’s wort. I’ll brew her a tea. But I’ve got to get back to Nell soon…”

  Zinnie squeezed her sister’s arm. “I know.” She wanted to visit Nell too, but she knew that while Sadie’s skills lay in looking after the sick, her own would be put to better use elsewhere. “Tell her I’ll come and see her as soon as I can, won’t you?”

  Sadie nodded and reached up to pluck two handfuls of herbs from her stores, busying herself over the fire. Zinnie went to Aelfine and settled beside the girl, pulling her legs up to mirror how she was sitting.

  “Aelfine,” she said quietly. “I went to the House of Wonders. I know why you ran away. You never have to go back there, I promise. It’s an evil place, run by an evil man.”

  Aelfine hugged her knees harder to her chest, but said nothing. Ruby chattered quietly, one paw against her mistress’s cheek as if trying to soothe her.

  “But the thing is you can’t stay here. If you do, he’ll find you. So we need to get you somewhere safe. Where’s home for you?”

  Aelfine’s shoulders shuddered as she took in a great breath. For a moment Zinnie thought she would stay silent, but then her rasping voice came out in a whisper almost too faint to hear. “Nowhere.”

  “Well,” Zinnie said, trying a different tack as she watched Sadie stir the steaming cup of herbs, “what about where you were before you came here, to Edinburgh?”

  “Circus,” came the short reply. “With … with Ma.”

  Sadie and Zinnie looked at each other. “You were with your ma? Well – where is she now, Aelfine? Is she still with the circus?”

  Aelfine said nothing as Sadie passed the tea to Zinnie. Then she began to cry again, great wracking sobs that tore out of her lungs as if the world were ending. “Dead,” she sobbed. “Ma’s dead, dead, dead. All alone. No one but Ruby. And he’s going to kill me too.”

  Zinnie’s blood ran cold for the second time that day. “What do you mean?”

  “He hurt Ma,” Aelfine sobbed. “Because she said she would tell if he didn’t let us go. He put his hands on her, here.” The little girl lifted her head and demonstrated with her hands round her neck. “And then she didn’t get up any more.”

  Zinnie stared into the mug she held in her hands, her heart thumping hard. “You mean … Phineas MacDuff did that?”

  “My fault,” Aelfine went on, still sobbing. “Because I didn’t want to be a monkey. He tricked Ma. He said that he just wanted her to do her fortune-telling. So we went with him because she knew I didn’t want to be in the circus any more. But then he built a cage for … for Ruby and me.”

  Zinnie swallowed round the swift pounding of her heart. “Aelfine – did you see it happen? Were you there? Did he … did you see what he did to your ma?”

  “I was hiding. With Ruby.”

  “Did he see you?”

  Aelfine nodded. “Ma told me to stay hidden. She made me promise. But, when he hurt her, I screamed. I couldn’t … keep … it … in. And then he knew where I was. He chased me and…”

  “And you ran,” Zinnie said. “You ran here.”

  “After.”

  “After what?”

  “After I saw where he took Ma.”

  Zinnie and Sadie looked at each other.

  “You mean where he went with your ma after…”

  “After she was dead.” Aelfine sobbed harder. “But he’s looking for us, he’s looking for me, because…” Her voice dissolved into a storm of sobbing again. “He still wants me to be a monkey. I heard him. He told Ma. ‘She’s mine,’ he said. ‘She’s my missing link. She’ll make me rich.’”

  “Mother of God,” Zinnie heard Sadie murmur. “This is … this is murder. Cold-blooded murder, Zin. We must tell the police!”

  Zinnie’s stomach turned over. “We can’t,” she said. “Not you and me. They’ve got posters up of me, remember? And, even if they didn’t, they wouldn’t take our word for it anyway, would they? Two street rats bad-mouthing a fine businessman of the New Town? We haven’t got any proof!”

  Sadie bit her lip. “Aelfine can go herself then,” she said. “We can point her towards the police station and she can go in and tell them what she’s just told us.”

  Zinnie looked at Aelfine, who was rocking where she sat, still sobbing, her face screwed up in distress and terror. “Do you think they’d listen to her any more than they’d listen to us?”

  Sadie’s face took on a despairing look. “Then what are we going to do?”

  “I still think Doctor Jex-Blake is our best bet.”

  “No!” Aelfine moaned loudly, causing Ruby to chatter even more. “No doctors! They’ll take me away! He said so. He told Ma, if I wasn’t good, that he’d let the doctors take me away!”

  “Doctor Jex-Blake isn’t going to take you away, Aelfine,” Zinnie said in her most reassuring voice. “But we need help and she’ll be able to give it to us. I know she will.”

  “They’ll put me in a ’sylum,” Aelfine moaned, her forehead against her knees again as Ruby tried to comfort her. “They will, they will. Without Ma, they’ll lock me away.”

  Zinnie looked at Sadie. Doctor Jex-Blake wouldn’t do that, Zinnie thought. She’s not like that. But she didn’t know the doctor, not really, and, after all, wasn’t Zinnie already worried that Jex-Blake would put Nell in an orphanage rather than let her come back home to Mary King’s Close? Wasn’t that also the reason that Zinnie had never wanted Conan Doyle to know where they lived, either? The likes of them didn’t have a say over their own lives, not once other people got involved, so how much less of a say would someone like Aelfine have, with no one that mattered to speak up for her? Aelfine’s fears, she realized, weren’t idle ones at all.

  “No one’s going to lock you away,” Zinnie said quietly. “I promise. We’ll find a way to keep you safe ourselves.”

  “But Zinnie,” Sadie protested. “How on earth—”

  “I don’t know yet,” Zinnie said, interrupting. “I’ve got to think. But the first thing we need to do is get Aelfine and Ruby out of Mary King’s Close. She can’t stay here. Sooner or later, someone will realize who she is. Talbot will already have put it about that he’s looking for her.”

  “But if we can’t take her to the doctor’s…”

  “There’s someone who still owes me a favour,” Zinnie said, standing up. “And Writers’ Court will be better than here, at least.”

  “You must be joking,” said Constance McQuirter. “Do I look like a babysitter?”
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  “I’m not asking you, I’m telling you,” said Zinnie, standing in Constance’s room with her arms crossed. “Or you know what will happen.”

  McQuirter sighed, looking at the cloaked figure of Aelfine lurking by the door. Sadie stood with her, one arm round her shoulders, looking anxious. “Who is she then? What’s she done that she needs to hide?”

  Zinnie glanced over her shoulder, but Aelfine’s face was still covered by her hood.

  Constance gave a short laugh. “Oh, come on. It’s another little sister you’ve adopted, isn’t it? As if all these waifs and strays count as family.”

  Zinnie gritted her teeth. “It’s none of your business. All you need to do is let her stay here and keep quiet about it. I mean it, Constance – not a word to anyone. Or first thing tomorrow you’ll find yourself begging for your breakfast or else in a jail cell.”

  The woman huffed for another minute, as if trying to come up with an argument. Then she sighed and nodded. “All right. But I’ve got to go out. I’m visiting a client.”

  “All the better. See? This is going to work out just fine.”

  “If you say so,” Constance muttered, eyeing Aelfine’s shrouded figure with suspicion and curiosity.

  “Just forget there’s anyone here at all, Constance,” Zinnie advised her, as Sadie hugged Aelfine and murmured to her.

  Constance snorted and turned away to pick up a shawl as Zinnie spoke to Aelfine.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “Everything’s going to be fine. Just stay quiet – I know you can do that – and don’t go anywhere. I’ll be back before you know it. All right?”

  Aelfine’s hood nodded up and down. Zinnie hugged her lightly.

  “Do you really think we can trust Constance not to gossip?” Sadie asked, once the two girls were back outside.