Alice-Miranda on Vacation (9 page)

Alice-Miranda filled a tumbler.

At that moment Cecelia Highton-Smith appeared on the stairs. She was dressed for action, as she would call it, in jeans and a pin-striped long-sleeved shirt. Alice-Miranda knew this could mean only one thing—some or other room was about to get the once-over.

“Morning, darling.” Cecelia kissed the top of Alice-Miranda’s head and sat down opposite her. “You’re up early. I thought you and Jacinta would like a sleep-in. I can always remember the best part of coming home for the holidays was not being woken by that wretched bell.”

Alice-Miranda explained that Jacinta was still asleep but she had hoped to catch Mr. Ridley this morning. There was something she wanted to ask him.

“Darling, please don’t badger Lawrence. I imagine
he spends a great deal of his life bombarded with cameras and questions. Can you think what it must be like to live every minute of your life in the spotlight?” Cecelia lectured.

“Of course, Mummy. But … how well does Aunt Charlotte know Mr. Ridley?” Alice-Miranda asked.

“Darling, I’m sure that she would prefer to tell you herself, but seeing that she’s not here—I think that they are very much in love.”

“But how long has Aunt Charlotte known Mr. Ridley?” Alice-Miranda asked before taking a sip of juice.

“I think about six months. But that doesn’t really matter, does it? When it’s right, you just know.” Cecelia smiled.

Alice-Miranda decided then not to tell her mother and father about what she and Jacinta had seen the previous night. She would rather talk to Mr. Ridley herself, and anyway, she didn’t know for sure that he was doing anything wrong. Her parents would only worry, and she didn’t want to cause a fuss if there was nothing to fuss about. And surely there wasn’t.

“What are you doing today, Mummy?” Alice-Miranda asked as Mrs. Oliver placed a plate of creamy scrambled eggs on hot buttered toast in front of her.

“I’m afraid I have rather a lot of work to do. Daisy’s coming over and we’re going to attack the dining room. I think Shilly has asked Mrs. Greening to give us a hand too, and there are some lads coming up from the village, so I won’t be much fun. Why don’t you and Jacinta see what Poppy and Jasper are up to?” Her mother poured herself a cup of tea from the silver pot on the table.

Managing a house the size of Highton Hall demanded strict schedules and almost continuous rosters of dusting, polishing, vacuuming and other maintenance. Alice-Miranda was used to the fact that at least once a week, under Shilly’s military-like command, her mother and Daisy could be found leading the cleaning charge. Cecelia often put her slim figure and stamina down to the never-ending household chores.

“Is Lily helping too?” Alice-Miranda asked, wondering if perhaps she could shed any light on the mystery of Mr. Ridley’s midnight meeting.

“No, darling, I think Lily’s got other things on her mind.”

“The village lads don’t usually come unless there’s something special happening,” Alice-Miranda noted, glancing up at her mother.

“Nothing special, darling. It’s just that Daddy and I
have been away quite a lot this last month, so things have been a little neglected. Daisy’s been busy taking care of Granny Bert and Lily has had her hands full too, so we just need to catch up,” Cecelia replied innocently. Alice-Miranda was not convinced.

At that moment Jacinta plodded downstairs.

“Good morning,” Cecelia, Alice-Miranda and Mrs. Oliver chorused.

“Hello, everyone.” Jacinta stretched her arms and yawned. “Oh,
excuse
me. I don’t know why I’m still tired. I slept like a cat.” A tickle pounced on the tip of Jacinta’s nose and suddenly she sneezed loudly.

“Bless you, my girl,” said Dolly.

“That doesn’t sound too good. I hope you’re not coming down with something, Jacinta. Come and have breakfast.” Cecelia motioned to Jacinta to take her place at the table. “What would you like to eat? You can have anything you want.”

“Goodness,” Jacinta sighed. “That does give me rather a lot of options.” She spied Alice-Miranda’s half-eaten scrambled eggs. “May I have the same as Alice-Miranda, please?” she asked, then yawned again.

“Good choice. Mrs. Oliver makes the best scrambled eggs ever,” Alice-Miranda enthused.

“Did you tell your mother about Mr. Ridley?” Jacinta asked, lowering her voice conspiratorially.

“What about Mr. Ridley, darling?” Cecelia raised her left eyebrow.

Alice-Miranda shot Jacinta a knowing look. “Mr. Ridley’s very handsome, isn’t he, Mummy?”

“Yes, darling. He is,” her mother agreed. “Is that all?”

“That’s all.” Alice-Miranda didn’t like keeping things from her mother, but she really didn’t want to cause a bother. She shook her head at Jacinta, who was about to say something else.

“You are a funny little thing sometimes,” her mother laughed.

Mrs. Oliver placed Jacinta’s perfect scrambled eggs in front of her. Cecelia finished her tea and nibbled at a piece of jam toast while she read the paper.

“What do you want to do today?” Alice-Miranda asked her guest.

“I don’t mind,” Jacinta replied. “Maybe we should go and see Jasper and Poppy. And remember, you promised to take Granny Bert for a wheel around the garden—I just hope she’s in a better mood.”

“Granny Bert in a better mood?” Mrs. Oliver turned from the steaming sink, where she was scrubbing a
large frypan. “You’re an optimist if ever I’ve heard one.”

“We’ll go straight after breakfast,” said Alice-Miranda. She stood and carried her plate to the sink. “And hopefully Daddy and Mr. Ridley will be back just after lunch.”

“Thank you, darling girl.” Mrs. Oliver took the dirty dishes and began to stack them in the dishwasher. “Now why don’t you run along and brush your teeth and I will pack a picnic for your lunch. How does that sound?”

“Brilliant!” Alice-Miranda gave Dolly a quick hug. “See you in a minute,” she called to Jacinta.

She bounded upstairs, leaving her mother and Jacinta to finish their breakfast. Cecelia was as unconvinced by her daughter’s earlier answer as Alice-Miranda was of her explanation on the subject of the cleaning. She decided Jacinta might be a more reliable source.

“Jacinta, what did you mean before about Mr. Ridley? Is there something I should know?” She folded the newspaper and set it to the side.

“No, not at all,” Jacinta replied, a little too quickly for Cecelia’s liking. “Alice-Miranda and I were just talking last night about how gorgeous Mr. Ridley is. No wonder he’s a movie star,” she raved. “Those eyes
are soooo dreamy. If only I were ten years older.” She sighed dramatically.

“Yes, he is quite something,” Cecelia agreed. Jacinta’s response satisfied her curiosity for the moment. She had a lot of things on her mind, and besides, Hugh had taken Lawrence out for a ride and she doubted they would be back for hours. Their guest was safe for a little while, at least.

B
y the time the girls headed off, Jacinta had sneezed another twelve times. Her voice was beginning to croak and Cecelia was worried that she was getting sick. Despite not feeling one hundred percent, Jacinta insisted on carrying the delicious spread Dolly had packed for them.

“If you start to feel worse, Jacinta, please come home,” Cecelia insisted. “We can tuck you up in bed with a pile of books and some tea and crumpets.”

Jacinta didn’t want to admit it, but that sounded rather good. She hated being ill, and it was just her luck to come down with something in the holidays—again. But this time the pleasure of having someone
as warm and patient and lovely as Mrs. Oliver or Cecelia looking after her was rather more appealing than she was prepared to confess.

“We’ll go and find Poppy and Jasper first. Maybe we can go for a walk to the stream. And we have an amazing cubby—it’s totally hidden.”

“Aaah-choo!” Jacinta sneezed again and shivered miserably. She didn’t want to disappoint Alice-Miranda, but as always her little friend knew just the right thing to say.

“Bless you. Are you sure you want to go at all?”

“I might feel better for a walk and”—she turned to face Alice-Miranda and mouthed silently—
“we have to talk about you-know-what.”
Jacinta picked up the pack and hauled it onto her shoulder.

The two girls set off across the lawn toward the walled garden and the scene of the previous night’s mystery meeting.

“We should keep an eye out for clues,” Jacinta suggested. “Perhaps Mr. Ridley dropped something while he was out here last night.”

“I went to see him this morning before you woke up,” said Alice-Miranda.

Jacinta stopped and turned to face her friend. “What did he say?”

“He wasn’t there. The window was open and the
breeze had scattered papers all over the floor. I picked them up,” Alice-Miranda began. “And?” Jacinta gripped Alice-Miranda’s hands tightly.

“Well, I didn’t look at anything on purpose, because it’s wrong to pry into other people’s private things, but there was a letter. I couldn’t help seeing it.”

“What did it say?” Jacinta shook Alice-Miranda’s arms.

“I didn’t read it.”

“Why not?” Jacinta demanded.

“I couldn’t! That would be very bad manners. But I did see who it was from.”

“Who?” Jacinta was practically bursting.

“I’m pretty sure it said Kitty.”

“Who’s Kitty?”

“I don’t know for sure. But didn’t Jasper say something about Aunty Kitty yesterday when we were asking about Lucas?” Alice-Miranda replied.

“Yes, he did. Mr. Ridley must be up to something,” Jacinta insisted. “It’s all too much of a coincidence, him meeting your father by accident at the club. I can’t believe that he just happened to meet someone out here in the middle of the night by accident too.” She shook her head in disbelief.

“I don’t know. I’ll talk to him as soon as I can. But
for now I think we should just go and find Jasper and Poppy and enjoy our first proper day of holidays.”

Alice-Miranda looked at her friend, who answered with a very loud “Aah-choo!”

“Bless you again.” Alice-Miranda smiled.

“All right. But you must admit, it’s pretty exciting—for me, anyway.” Jacinta frowned. “It’s not every day you get to stay in the same place as a real live movie star—and especially not one as handsome and mysterious as Lawrence Ridley,” she gushed.

“That’s true. Oh, look.” Alice-Miranda pointed toward the barn near Rose Cottage. “There’s Jasper—let’s see if he wants to play.” She began to run.

Alice-Miranda called out to Jasper as they neared the building. He had his back to the girls and as they drew closer they could hear shouting.

“You’ve wrecked everything! It took me forever to put this together and look what you’ve done!” He rushed forward into the shadows, his fists pummeling.

“Jasper,” Alice-Miranda called.

This time he swiveled around. “Go away!” he yelled.

Jacinta caught up to Alice-Miranda, and as their eyes adjusted to the light, the girls saw that Lucas was standing in the shadow against the barn wall, the object of Jasper’s anger.

“Oh, look—so sweet—your little girlfriend’s come to save you,” Lucas said with a sneer.

“Shut up!” Jasper yelled. “She’s
not
my girlfriend.”

“Hello, Jasper. Hello, Lucas,” Alice-Miranda interrupted. “Is there something the matter?”

“He’s wrecked everything—as usual.” Jasper was fuming.

“It was only a stupid model.” Lucas’s black eyes glinted in the half-light. “You’ve got hundreds of them. And it’s not wrecked—you just have to repaint it.”

“Look!” Jasper demanded, holding out a miniature tank that appeared to be missing its tracks. “I’ve been working on this for weeks and it’s ruined.”

“Gee, you’re getting a bit worked up, aren’t you? It’s only a toy.” Lucas smirked.

“May I have a look?” Alice-Miranda reached out and Jasper reluctantly gave her the model. “It does look a bit worse for wear.” She gently turned it around in her hands. “Maybe you could fix it,” she suggested to Lucas.

“Yeah, and maybe you could
drop dead!
” he yelled.

“Lucas, that’s really not very nice,” Alice-Miranda replied.

“I told you yesterday, I’m
not
very nice. And I really don’t feel the need to be
nice
to you.” Lucas
snatched the model from Alice-Miranda’s hands and threw it to the ground. Then he proceeded to jump up and down on it until it was smashed beyond recognition. Jasper, Alice-Miranda and Jacinta stood staring, their mouths gaping as if they were a choir of singing codfish. Lucas reached down and picked the model up, then thrust it toward Jasper.

“I didn’t wreck it in the first place, but since I’m going to get the blame for everything around here, just like at that stupid school …” He shoved Alice-Miranda out of the way and stormed around the corner of the barn, disappearing from sight.

“Monster!” Jacinta shouted after him.

Jasper examined the ruined model, then looked at Alice-Miranda. “Why did you have to butt in?”

“I was just trying to help.” Alice-Miranda patted his shoulder.

Jasper flinched. “I didn’t need your help. Look what you did—at least before it could be fixed. Now it’s totally wrecked.” His voice quavered and the moisture in his eyes threatened to spill. “Just go back to that dumb school and leave me alone!” he cried, and ran toward the house.