Alice-Miranda Shines Bright 8 Page 5

  ‘Don’t you dare threaten me, madam. One word to Miss Grimm and you’ll be back in Spain for good.’

  Sloane gulped.

  ‘I have a hair dryer in my room, Mrs Howard. It’s very quiet,’ Alice-Miranda offered. ‘I can help Sloane with her hair.’

  ‘I don’t see why you should have to be up any later either.’ Now Mrs Howard glowered at Alice-Miranda and Millie.

  ‘Thank you,’ Sloane mouthed to the smaller girl.

  ‘And where is Miss Headlington-Bear?’ Mrs Howard asked. ‘Did you find her?’

  Millie and Alice-Miranda shook their heads. ‘I think she must have gone to her room when I went to the toilet,’ said Alice-Miranda.

  ‘She wasn’t here when I got back,’ Sloane said.

  ‘Where on earth could the child be?’ Mrs Howard grumbled. ‘Right, Alice-Miranda, you go and have a look in the sitting room. Millie, you take the upstairs bathroom and bedrooms and I’ll do a sweep of all the bedrooms down here,’ Mrs Howard instructed.

  ‘What about me?’ Sloane asked.

  ‘You can take yourself straight to Alice-Miranda’s bedroom and get that hair dried,’ Howie snapped, before turning on her heel and marching towards the door.

  Sloane’s tongue shot out of her mouth.

  ‘Excuse me young lady, what was that?’

  Sloane recoiled. She closed her mouth quick smart and wondered if Howie really did have eyes in the back of her head.

  Alice-Miranda scooted along the hallway to the sitting room at the back of the house. She checked all the couches – girls had been known to fall asleep on them in front of the television and be completely overlooked at bedtime – but Jacinta wasn’t there. Millie searched every room upstairs to no avail either. The only place she didn’t look was Howie’s flat, but it was strictly off limits to the girls unless specifically invited. Millie could only remember one time that Howie had asked her in – when she’d been helping her carry some parcels upstairs. Heaven help Jacinta if she was in there.

  Mrs Howard puffed and blew as she bustled along the hallway, walking in and out of bedrooms, saying goodnight to the girls and snapping the lights off as she left. She was also checking for Jacinta but didn’t want to ask the girls lest they get worked up. And no one wanted girls worked up at that time of night.

  There was no sign of Jacinta anywhere. Mrs Howard headed back to the girl’s own room just to be sure that none of them had missed her in their rushing about. At that moment, Millie scurried downstairs, almost bowling Alice-Miranda over at the bottom.

  ‘Did you find her?’ Millie asked.

  Alice-Miranda shook her head.

  ‘Me neither,’ said Millie. The girls scooted along towards their room. Mrs Howard was now standing in the doorway and the hair dryer whirred inside.

  ‘In you go,’ the housemistress directed the two children.

  Sloane turned around from the mirror. ‘I’m nearly finished. I promise.’

  ‘Never mind about that.’ Mrs Howard looked at Alice-Miranda and Millie. ‘I gather since you’ve come back unaccompanied that neither of you has managed to locate Jacinta.’

  They shook their heads in unison.

  ‘Well, dear me.’ Mrs Howard wrung her hands together. ‘I think it’s time to call Charlie and see if he can have a look around the grounds. Can you think of anywhere she might have gone?’

  The girls shook their heads again.

  ‘Maybe she walked to her mother’s place,’ Sloane said. ‘She was going on about how she hated hot dogs and we were supposed to have pizzas at Wisteria Cottage tonight.’

  ‘I’m sure that Jacinta wouldn’t have gone with­out asking,’ said Alice-Miranda staunchly, although secretly she was worried.

  ‘If she’s walked back to the village on her own at this time of night, there will be trouble, I can assure you.’ Mrs Howard’s crossness belied the fact that she was worried too. She’d never lost a girl on her watch and she didn’t want to start now. It seemed that Reginald Parker and Nurse Raylene weren’t the only ones missing that night.

  ‘A walk, that’s all,’ Reginald Parker had said. But it seemed he had more than a simple walk in mind. He and Stan had faffed about in the garage to find the old headlamps and some gear.

  Stan Frost suspected it was a waste of time. He had no idea if they’d even be able to get inside. There’d been a lot of rain last year and he’d noticed a few mudslides on the mountain. The entrance to the cave might have been covered up by now. Part of him hoped it was.

  Stan and Reg ambled along in the late sunshine. When they reached the bottom of the hillside, Stan was surprised to find himself ahead of his friend. It had taken Reg much longer to navigate the narrow trail that led steeply to the cave’s entrance. Several times Reg grasped at the vegetation to steady himself and had to stop to catch his breath. Stan couldn’t remember his friend ever being this slow before. He was different too, although Stan couldn’t exactly say how.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Stan asked Reg, and offered him a hand to get up a particularly steep part of the track.

  ‘Right as rain, Stan. Can’t think why I’m so tired though. I’ve never been this slow in my life.’ Reg steadied himself. ‘Look, Stan, there she is.’ He pointed then knocked on his hard hat – it was something he’d always done before they went inside. Reg switched on the amber glow of the headlamp and pushed his way through the waterfall of vines that had sprouted from above, shielding the entrance like a bridal veil.

  ‘Where’d this lot come from?’ Reg asked as he parted the long tendrils. ‘Must be the fastest growing creeper on earth.’

  Stan wondered what he was talking about. Reg led the way inside. Stan followed. The cave was just as he remembered. A dank smell rose up and assaulted his nostrils and the glow from their headlamps sent a small colony of bats screeching towards the entrance.

  Stan was terrified that the bats would turn around and fly back towards them. He’d never much liked the little blighters with their big ears.

  Reg traced the walls of the cave for hours, his nose almost pressed up against the surface at times.

  Stan searched too but he didn’t like their chances of finding anything. Although he had stumbled upon a few small treasures once, many years before, they’d been up there hundreds of times since and never come across anything except the odd lizard, and of course the bats. Then again, it had always been the thrill of the chase more than anything else. Stan’s stomach grumbled. He looked down at his watch, shining the headlamp onto its face. It had just gone ten o’clock. Four hours after his appointed dinnertime.

  ‘Come on, Reg, let’s pack it in for the night,’ he called out. ‘I don’t know about you but I’m starving.’

  Reg was feeling light-headed himself but had put it down to being in the confined space. ‘All right. But tomorrow’ll be the day. You mark my words.’

  Stan wondered if Maudie and Itch might have demolished the kitchen looking for their dinner. He hadn’t planned on being out so long.

  By the time they reached the bottom of the hillside and started across the field for home, Stan had decided that he wanted some answers.

  ‘Reg, I need to know exactly where you’ve been for the past three years.’ The headlamp on Stan’s helmet glared into Reginald’s grey eyes. Stan thought they looked strangely hollow – almost empty.

  Reg frowned. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Stan. I was here yesterday.’

  ‘Stop it, Reg. Three years ago you left here one afternoon and said that if you didn’t get home and get the gutters cleaned out, Myrtle would string you up. Then you disappeared and I haven’t seen you since then until today.’

  Reg shook his head. ‘I think you’re losing your marbles, old friend – too much time in the woods.’

  Stan didn’t know what else to say, so he clammed up. When they reached the cottage,
Reg followed Stan through the back door.

  He went straight to the stove, lit a match and threw it in with the kindling that he had ready inside. Then he ducked through to the utility room and organised some mincemeat for the dogs, who were dancing about at his knees.

  Reg sat down at the kitchen table.

  Stan retrieved two fillets of fish from the fridge. He’d been planning to have them for the next couple of nights but now they’d do for both of them.

  ‘Dinner will be a while,’ he said. When he turned around, Reginald seemed to have drifted off to sleep.

  ‘Please, Mrs Howard, can Millie and I help Mr Charles search for Jacinta? The school’s so big and there are loads of places that she could have gone.’ Alice-Miranda looked pleadingly at the old woman, who was hovering next to the telephone in the sitting room. She’d already called Charlie Weatherly, the school gardener, half an hour ago and the trio were now anxiously awaiting any news.

  Howie shook her head. ‘It’s far too late to have you two wandering about.’ She wondered what had got into Jacinta. She used to be a right terror but since she’d been befriended by Alice-Miranda she’d become quite the model student. This was most definitely a backward step.

  ‘Shouldn’t you telephone Mrs Headlington-Bear and see if Jacinta walked over to Wisteria Cottage?’ Millie said.

  ‘Millicent, the poor woman has had enough trauma for one day without me adding to her worries. And I suspect she’s looking after Mrs Parker this evening, which is more suffering than anyone should have to bear.’

  Millie smiled. Howie was right about that.

  ‘But what if Jacinta turns up there and her mother telephones you first and then you’ll have to explain why you didn’t tell her that Jacinta was missing.’

  Howie rubbed her chin. She hadn’t thought of that. She imagined that Ambrosia Headlington-Bear would become hysterical when she found out what was going on.

  ‘Mrs Howard, I have an idea where Jacinta could be,’ said Alice-Miranda.

  The telephone rang and the old woman almost shot through the ceiling. She snatched the handset from the cradle.

  ‘Hello, Charlie, what news?’

  Alice-Miranda and Millie looked up at her expectantly.

  ‘Oh dear. No sign?’

  There was a long pause as Charlie explained where he’d searched.

  ‘I think we have to alert her mother in case she’s gone there – although I would have expected the woman to call if the child had turned up.’

  There was another lengthy silence.

  ‘All right, I’ll telephone Miss Grimm instead, and you contact Constable Derby.’ Mrs Howard gulped. ‘Hold on a minute, Charlie –’ She looked at Alice-Miranda. ‘Do you really think you know where she might be?’

  ‘Yes, we can be there and back in ten minutes.’ Alice-Miranda grabbed Millie’s hand and together they were halfway out the door before Mrs Howard had time to object.

  ‘Hold off, Charlie. I’ll call you back.’ Mrs Howard hung up and began to pace up and down the room.

  She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost eleven.

  ‘Where are we going? Millie asked as Alice-Miranda charged up the driveway.

  It was fortunate there was a full moon lighting their path, as neither of the girls had thought to grab a torch.

  ‘The stables?’ said Millie, as she realised where they were heading. ‘But Jacinta hates horses. I don’t remember her ever coming up here.’

  ‘Exactly,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘No one would think to look for her here.’

  The girls scurried into the cool brick building and Alice-Miranda flicked on the overhead lights. Bonaparte nickered softly.

  ‘Sorry, Bony, I didn’t mean to wake you up,’ she said.

  The pony threw his head over the stall door and bared his teeth.

  Millie went from stable to stable, hauling herself up to look inside, although she couldn’t imagine that Jacinta would go in with any of the horses. She was terrified of them.

  Alice-Miranda went to the tack room, then to the feed room, and returned with a treat for Bonaparte.

  ‘Consider this an apology.’ She held out the carrot and he hoovered it up.

  ‘She’s not here,’ said Millie, shaking her head.

  ‘What about up there?’ Alice-Miranda pointed. ‘There’s no one in the flat since Billy moved out.’

  Millie nodded. She opened the door and scampered up the stairs, with Alice-Miranda close behind.

  The place looked just as it had when Billy Boots had lived there for a short while, before the girls learned that he was really Liam Sharlan, the rightful owner of the carnival that came each year to the village for the show. The new stablehand, a girl called Elsa, was taking a gap year before university and lived with her parents on a farm a few miles away.

  The lounge room was empty. Alice-Miranda walked to the far end of the room and opened the bedroom door.

  ‘Jacinta!’ she exclaimed and ran towards the bed. The girl was fast asleep.

  Millie raced in and stood beside Alice-Miranda, then reached out and prodded Jacinta’s shoulder.

  ‘What?’ The girl woke with a start.

  ‘What are you doing up here?’ Alice-Miranda was wide-eyed. ‘Mrs Howard is about to call the police.’

  ‘The police?’ Jacinta wondered what she was talking about. ‘What’s the time?’

  ‘It’s after eleven,’ Millie said.

  ‘Eleven?’ Jacinta repeated.

  ‘Come on, we’ve got to get back to the house.’ Alice-Miranda grabbed Jacinta’s hand to help her off the bed.

  ‘But what are you doing up here?’ Millie tried again.

  Jacinta frowned. ‘I don’t want to talk about it.’

  ‘Well, you’d better think of something to say, because I’m pretty sure that Mrs Howard will want to talk about it.’

  Jacinta pouted. ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Alice-Miranda asked. ‘I don’t understand why you got so cross about the hot dogs. I mean, I know you were disappointed about us not having pizzas with your mother but that can’t be the reason you ran off. I’m sure that once we find Mr Parker we can arrange another pizza night.’

  ‘Just stop talking!’ Jacinta stalked ahead of the two girls, stomping downstairs and into the stable block below.

  Millie looked at Alice-Miranda and shrugged.

  Alice-Miranda was worried. Something was up­setting her friend and she was determined to find out exactly what it was.

  Jacinta walked through the back door of Grimthorpe House and almost bumped into Mrs Howard.

  ‘Oh, thank heavens.’ The old woman enveloped the child, who practically disappeared under Howie’s ample frame. When she released Jacinta, the child recoiled like a spring.

  Alice-Miranda and Millie arrived just behind her.

  ‘I’m going to bed,’ Jacinta mumbled, then began to walk towards the hallway.

  ‘Oh no you don’t, young lady. You are going to tell me where you’ve been. I was just about to call the police and your mother. You can imagine how pleased she would have been to have a third missing person on her hands in one day.’

  Jacinta’s face fell and she studied the floorboards.

  ‘Well?’ Mrs Howard demanded.

  ‘Do you think you should call Mr Charles first?’ asked Alice-Miranda.

  ‘Yes, of course,’ Mrs Howard replied.

  Jacinta began to edge towards the door.

  Howie dialled the number and turned around. She didn’t notice that Jacinta had disappeared.

  Charlie Weatherly was relieved that the girl had been found. He didn’t ask for any further details and at that stage Mrs Howard couldn’t have given them to him anyway.

  She rang off and turned back to face Jacinta.

  ‘W
hat? Where’s she gone?’ Mrs Howard blustered.

  ‘I think she went to her room,’ Millie said.

  ‘But I told her to stay right there!’ Mrs Howard scratched at the creeping red rash that had made its way up her neck to her ears. The poor woman was prone to hives, particularly when she was anxious.

  ‘We found her in the flat above the stables,’ Alice-Miranda explained. ‘She was asleep in the bedroom.’

  ‘The stables?’ Mrs Howard was as shocked as anyone to learn that Jacinta had gone there. ‘But why?’

  Alice-Miranda shook her head. ‘She wouldn’t say.’

  ‘She’s gone weird,’ said Millie.

  ‘Weird?’ Mrs Howard repeated.

  ‘Like when she used to throw all those tantrums, except that instead of kicking and screaming, this time she just won’t talk at all. It’s weird,’ explained Millie.

  ‘Yes well, thank you, Dr Millicent.’ Mrs Howard scratched at her ear again. ‘Perhaps it’s best I talk to her in the morning. Thank you for your help, you two. Now off to bed. I’ll be there in five minutes to turn off the lights.’

  ‘I’m just glad that we found her,’ Alice-Miranda said. ‘She gave us an awful fright.’

  Millie rolled her eyes. ‘No, she didn’t.’

  ‘Well, she won’t be doing it again,’ Mrs Howard said. ‘Not after Miss Grimm has a word to her.’

  ‘Do you really have to tell Miss Grimm?’ Alice-Miranda asked, not wanting Jacinta to get into too much trouble. She’d been hoping to talk to the headmistress herself earlier in the day but Miss Grimm and Mr Grump had been away visiting friends and hadn’t been due back until late that night.

  ‘I’m afraid I must. We can’t have students running off like that, Alice-Miranda. Heavens, the girl’s just about to go to high school. If she can’t behave herself then perhaps she’s not ready to go at all.’

  Hidden from sight in the doorway of another room, Jacinta had been listening to every word. She smiled to herself and shot off down the hallway, just before Millie and Alice-Miranda headed to their rooms.