‘No!’ shouted Tig.
‘She will of course be dismissed from our employment immediately.’
‘Tig,’ said Eliza. ‘How could you?’ She put her hand to her mouth, upset.
‘He’s lying!’ she pleaded. ‘Mr Snell has—’
‘I should have guessed. She was the only one who had access to your room and her behaviour lately has been so erratic. I can only apologize—’
‘Professor, this isn’t true,’ said Tig. She stepped towards him. ‘I found—’
‘Be quiet, Miss Rabbit,’ said Faber.
Tig fell into a horrified silence. How could he believe Snell? It felt like one of the stage trapdoors had opened beneath her and she was falling, falling. Not just into the space beneath the stage, but through an endless pit of darkness.
‘Miss Rabbit had my watch because I gave it to her,’ Faber said.
‘What?’ said Snell, flustered. ‘No, you misunderstand, Mr Faber. This is the watch that was stolen from your room. I found it, in Miss Rabbit’s belongings.’
‘I asked her to get it repaired.’ Professor Faber’s eyes met Tig’s for a moment and the slightest twitch in his expression told her that she should play along.
‘But…’ Snell held a polite smile on his face but his eyes flicked around the room – he was wrong-footed by Faber’s unexpected reaction. ‘The burglary…’
‘Yes, the burglary. The shock of it caused me to forget, briefly, that I had instructed her to take the watch to be fixed.’ He flipped open the cover. ‘Ah yes. Seems to be working now. Well done, Miss Rabbit.’
‘Well done, Edgar. What a tremendous waste of everyone’s time.’ Faber bowed in her direction. ‘I apologize for the confusion. I did not mean to cause any difficulties.’
‘But, the paper.’
‘This trifle?’ The professor shrugged and crumpled the paper. ‘It is nothing. A list I wrote when I was packing. No doubt she meant to throw it away and forgot about it.’
Tig nodded furiously.
Snell’s face was becoming redder and his whole posture was stiff. He seemed, for once, lost for words.
Tig bit her lip, enjoying watching Snell squirm. He knew they were lying, but what could he say? To expose them would be to admit that he’d stolen the plans and the watch.
‘I trust this is the end of the matter,’ Faber added. ‘It is very late, and I do not wish to be disturbed again.’ He went back into his room and slammed the door.
‘What is going on around here lately?’ demanded Eliza. ‘I’m getting thoroughly fed up of all these goings on.’
‘All this could have been avoided,’ said Snell, pointing a finger at Tig. ‘If she had spoken up about the watch. It’s a form of dishonesty, if you ask me. Disturbing you in the middle of the night over nothing, Eliza.’
He was flustered, trying to cover his tracks and shift the blame.
‘I think you’ll find it was you that disturbed us in the middle of the night,’ said Eliza.
‘You’re always looking for some way to blame me,’ said Snell. ‘I’ve said all along…’
Their bickering faded away as they retreated back in the direction of their rooms.
Tig felt a wave of relief wash over her. The professor had believed her. He still trusted her.
On Cue
Tig was up at the crack of dawn the next morning, but by the time she got downstairs, Faber was already awake.
‘Snell knows,’ she said. ‘He told me last night. He knows Euphonia predicts the future.’
‘How did he find out?’
‘Gus has been spying on us.’
‘I see. Well, that settles it, then. I cannot stay here any longer.’ He retrieved his carpet bag from its corner and put it on the table to begin packing.
‘You’re leaving?’
‘Of course I am. Now, don’t do that.’
‘Do what?’
‘The sad face.’
‘I’m not doing it on purpose,’ said Tig. ‘I am sad. If you go, what happens to us lot, here? We haven’t made enough money yet. The theatre will probably close and be sold.’
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t stay where Euphonia is at risk.’
As if she had been listening for the right moment, Euphonia began to speak.
‘The day is here. The rescuer comes and the fire begins. Two hundred souls inside.’
‘I do not like the sound of that,’ said Tig.
‘Oh no, oh goodness.’ Faber pressed his knuckles into his temples.
Tig took out her paper and unfolded her notes with all of Euphonia’s prophesies written down. She snatched up Faber’s pen and added this new prediction to her list.
‘A fire. There’s going to be another fire – two hundred people! You can’t ignore this one.’
‘No, I’m not listening to you.’ Faber shook his head. ‘I will not intervene in Euphonia’s predictions. Every time you have been involved, it has made things worse.’
‘What’s worse than two hundred people in a fire? Please, you have to help me stop this.’
He reached for one of his medicine bottles. Tig watched closely as he measured out a dose of the sticky red syrup. It was very slight, but she noticed it – his hands were shaking. He was frightened.
Swallowing the medicine, the professor reached into his waistcoat pocket and pulled out the crumpled paper from the night before. He put it on the desk and smoothed it out carefully.
Lines and lines of writing in Faber’s skinny, angular script. Most of them were crossed out with a single strike but four were not.
‘You have a list, too,’ said Tig. ‘It’s a list of predictions, isn’t it? You wrote them down in German.’
‘In case the list fell into the wrong hands,’ said Faber. ‘Which it did.’
Tig put her own list besides Faber’s. Although she couldn’t understand the language, it was clear that his list was longer.
‘She’s been telling you things when I’m not around, hasn’t she?’ said Tig. ‘You have to tell me. What does this one say?’
‘The carriage accident outside the theatre. The circle breaks, the chamber falls.’
‘Maschine.’ Tig pointed at another line. ‘That must mean machine, right? Is this the one about—’
‘Precious things behind and beneath the machines, yes. When you hurt your arms.’
‘And Nelson cutting his hands?’
‘This one,’ said Faber. ‘And this one –’ he paused, swallowed hard, shook his head, ‘this one says “follow the rabbit through the flames”.’
‘I heard that one too. I thought it was about the fire at the chemist.’ Tig’s stomach lurched. Now she thought about it, that one didn’t quite make sense – she’d barely seen any flames in the fire, let alone gone through them. The floor seemed unsteady beneath her.
‘No,’ said Faber. ‘I don’t think that was it.’
Tig shivered violently. ‘So that means… I’m going to be in the middle of the next fire? The one she just predicted?’
‘It might not be about you,’ said Faber.
‘It says “rabbit”.’
‘It could mean an actual rabbit.’
‘Oh yes, one of the many wild rabbits seen in the streets of Manchester! We’re in the middle of a city, professor, of course it means me! And Euphonia said “Antigone”.’
‘I didn’t want to frighten you.’
‘It’s not frightening me – it’s warning me! If I’m going to be in a fire, don’t I deserve a warning?’
‘You are still not paying attention! Everything she said is coming true. It makes no difference if you have a warning or not. The fire will happen either way. At least this way I could spare you the worry.’
‘What do these two say?’ said Tig, pointing to another line that hadn’t been crossed out.
‘It means “the worker bees smoked from their hive”.’
‘ “Worker bees”!’ Tig’s eyes widened. ‘That’s what they call the people of Manchester. All buzz
ing in and out of the factories.’ She copied down the translations into her own notes. ‘And smoke. So many of these predictions are about fire. Are they all about the same event?’
‘I had considered as much.’
‘Do you know what’s going to happen?’ Fire and smoke and flames and two hundred people… All the tragedies Euphonia had predicted so far were tiny compared with this.
He shook his head.
She pointed at the last surviving prediction, which was quite high on the list, surrounded by many scratched-out lines. ‘What about this one?’
Faber reached over her and snatched the paper away. ‘You don’t need to know about that one. It has nothing to do with the others, I assure you.’
‘Then why not tell me?’
‘So many questions! All the time you bother me with your endless questioning!’ He took a breath. ‘I can’t talk about this any more. I’m sorry. I need to be alone.’
He showed her out of the Green Room and closed the door firmly behind her. Her thoughts were scrambled by this sudden change of pace. Whatever that last prediction said, it must have frightened him. Why else would he abruptly refuse to help her, when the situation had never been more serious?
Nelson! He was her only hope – she’d have to find him and get him to help her figure out what to do. But she hadn’t seen him since he offered to lock up last night. He hadn’t even stopped by to say good morning, which was very unusual for him.
Something was wrong, she could feel it.
She checked the workshop and all the storerooms, each in turn. She went through the dress circle in case he was in there scrubbing the floors, but there was no sign of him. The ticket booth was empty, as was the gallery. There would be no reason for him to be in the office, but perhaps Eliza had sent him on an errand of some description. She tapped on the office door.
‘Enter,’ Snell’s voice came from within.
She opened the door but stayed where she was, not wanting to be any closer to him than she could help. ‘Do you know where Nelson is?’
‘Nelson is no longer employed at this establishment.’ Snell turned the page in his newspaper, refusing to look at Tig.
‘What do you mean?’ said Tig.
‘I let him go last night,’ said Snell.
The words were like a punch to the stomach. ‘Why?’
‘There was too much dead weight around here. The Royale can’t afford to keep paying unnecessary wages. It seems that you are too invaluable to lose, Miss Rabbit.’ He sneered cruelly. ‘So Master Nelson was let go instead.’
‘You can’t do that! You can’t fire him to punish me!’
‘I can, and I have.’
‘But Nelson – he’s got a family to support, and he’s injured! He won’t be able to get a labouring job until his hand is healed—’
‘All the more reason to let him go,’ said Snell, disappearing back behind his newspaper. ‘He’s no use to me if he can’t work.’
‘That’s not fair. He got hurt here, working for you!’ Tig could feel anger rising through her body.
‘The tiles in the foyer need polishing. Since Master Nelson is no longer here, you will have to pick up his duties in addition to your own. I want to see my reflection in them by this afternoon.’
Tig clenched her hands tight and took a deep breath. She didn’t have time to argue with Snell. ‘Yes, sir.’
Final Call
She didn’t bother even to pretend to do as she was told. There was too much at stake. Leaving the theatre, she headed to the right and turned onto Market Street, but once she was in the thick of the crowd she doubled back towards Nelson’s house.
Snell was lying. He couldn’t have fired Nelson last night. He had left the building when the Peeler was still there, and didn’t come back until very late, after Nelson had gone. She had no trouble believing Snell would do something so nasty, but her gut told her that wasn’t what had happened. So where was Nelson?
There was no answer when she knocked at the door of his house. She peered in through the grimy window, but there was no sign of anyone inside.
‘Mornin’, Miss Rabbit!’ It was the little girl who sold fruit outside the theatre. She was emerging from a nearby ginnel, pushing a small barrow which was already loaded with her wares for the day.
‘You’re out early, miss.’ The girl had a big smile and Tig noticed how white her apron was, even though the street was very dirty.
‘I was looking for Nelson. He lives here. About my size, dark curly hair.’
‘Yeah, I know Nelson. But I ’aven’t seen him since yesterday morning.’
‘Oh, that’s a pity. Do you know where the rest of the family are?’
‘The old woman, Ma Nelson, she’ll already be out, I reckon. She takes in washing and ironing. The fella, what’s ’is name? Lumpy. He’ll be home any minute, I should think. He does nights at the factory.’
‘Thanks,’ said Tig. ‘You’ve been a big help.’
She watched the girl push the barrow along the uneven cobbles out towards the market. She wondered what time they had to get up in the morning to go and get all the fruit ready for selling. She wondered where the oranges came from.
If Nelson’s uncle was due back soon, she might as well wait for him. She hoped he wasn’t long. Anxiously, she checked the list of predictions again. The day is here. Time was running out to work out what it meant.
Lumpy appeared around the corner not long afterwards.
‘Hullo, Tig,’ he said. ‘You waiting for Nelson?’
‘Didn’t he tell you?’
‘Tell me what?’
‘He—’ She stopped herself. Maybe Nelson didn’t want to worry his family by letting them know he’d lost his job. That was just like him. Never a complaint. He always did his best and did it with a smile. ‘Nothing. I’ve knocked but he doesn’t seem to be home.’
‘He wasn’t home when I left for work last night,’ said Lumpy. ‘Late closing time at the theatre, I suppose? He must have gone in early, too. He’s a hard worker, our Nelson!’
Did that mean… had Nelson not come home last night?
‘Yes, he is,’ said Tig. ‘Well, I’ll head back to the theatre and catch up with him there.’
Lumpy nodded and let himself in, ducking his head under the low doorframe.
There had to be a reasonable explanation. Nelson wasn’t the type to run away or do anything silly. He probably got home late, and then got up early because he was looking for work. That was all.
But Tig just knew that it was something worse.
Nervously, she fished the paper out of her pocket and unfolded it. She scanned through the lines of predictions, but there didn’t seem to be anything about Nelson or someone not coming home. Would Euphonia have warned her if Nelson was going to go missing? She always predicted bad things, but that didn’t mean she would predict every bad thing. She hadn’t predicted Snell stealing Professor Faber’s plans after all.
When she returned to the theatre, Faber was standing outside bare-headed and in his shirt sleeves. He was on the opposite side of the road to the theatre, pacing anxiously, ducking back and forth to avoid the people walking past.
‘What’s going on?’ said Tig.
‘Gas leak! A tiny spark could—’ He clapped his hands then flung them wide, miming an explosion.
A jolt of panic. Theatres burned down all the time – they were notorious for it. Was this it? Was this what Euphonia was predicting? ‘Is everyone out?’
‘Yes. Yes. I believe so. Yes.’ He folded his arms, then unfolded them, then clasped his hands behind his back. He was scared. ‘The surly boy went that way.’ He pointed up York Street, towards the train station and the hospital. ‘And Eliza is there.’
Eliza was on the corner, also without a hat, talking to a lady outside the post office. Snell stood on the stone steps of the Royale’s grand entrance speaking with a short man in builder’s overalls. They both kept looking up at the building and gesturing towards it, though Ti
g couldn’t hear what they were saying over the hubbub of the busy street.
‘Who’s that?’
‘He came to fix the leak,’ said Faber.
She noticed his hands were shaking slightly and knew he must be thinking about Euphonia’s words. ‘Do you think… is this the calamity she predicted? Even though it’s not during a performance with hundreds of people inside?’
Faber didn’t answer. He seemed lost in thought.
‘It’s all right now!’ Snell shouted over the noise of the horses and foot traffic. ‘Everyone can go back inside!’
Faber strode across the road without looking.
A street sweeper almost tripped over him. ‘Oi! Watch it, mate!’
‘Sorry!’ said Tig on Faber’s behalf as she hurried after him.
He marched up the stairs. Snell and the short man had been joined by two others in similar clothing, who had emerged from the theatre. The older man wiped his hands on his overalls. ‘False alarm, sir.’
‘You’re quite sure it’s safe?’ said Faber.
‘I’d let me own grandmother go inside,’ said the short man.
Faber nodded, puffed out his chest as if bracing himself for something, and entered the building.
‘Why did you think there was a leak?’ said Tig to Snell. ‘What made you call them in?’
Snell glared at her. ‘Get out of here. Shoo!’
Tig trudged up the stairs as slowly as she could, trying to catch a little more of the conversation. She couldn’t think why Snell would lie about something like this, especially if it cost him money to have the gas men come and check it out, but lately she found everything he did suspicious.
When she reached the backstage area, the Green Room door was open. She stepped inside to see Faber, white-faced and wide-eyed, staring at the empty space by the wall where Euphoria should have been.
‘She’s been taken.’ Faber sounded as though he could barely believe his own words.
‘It had to be Snell,’ whispered Tig. ‘He invented the gas leak because he knew you wouldn’t leave the theatre willingly.’
‘He was outside the whole time…’ said Faber. ‘He must have had someone helping him.’
The Incredible Talking Machine Page 15