Alice-Miranda at Camp 10 (16 page)

The Barn Owls had fifteen minutes to pack a change of clothes and their sleeping bags into their day packs. Fortunately they wouldn't have to carry their food as well, as the camp staff would drop that off at the camp site.

The sun had dipped behind some fat grey clouds and Mr Plumpton sensed a change in the wind. He hoped they weren't in for a wet night. That was all they needed.

‘Hello Mr Plumpton,' said Miss Reedy as
she spotted the teacher in the quadrangle.

‘Oh, hello Miss Reedy.' Mr Plumpton couldn't help but smile broadly.

‘Sorry about the change of plans with the canoeing,' she said, sighing. ‘Mr Lipp insisted that he couldn't have the children out tomorrow night as he needed another rehearsal with the choir before the fair. Honestly, you'd think they were performing for the Queen. As far as I can tell, there'll be a lot of people from the village and the residents of Pelham Park and that's about it. If Harry had his way, those children would be practising all jolly day and half the night.'

‘Don't worry yourself, Livinia,' Mr Plumpton said. ‘I just hope he hasn't been bothering you too much.'

‘You have nothing to worry about, Josiah,' Miss Reedy confirmed. ‘Mr Lipp could be Lawrence Ridley's twin brother and it wouldn't change a thing about the way I feel.'

Hearing those words made Josiah's heart soar.

‘What was that you were saying about me being Lawrence Ridley's twin brother?' Harold Lipp said cheerily as he approached the pair. He smoothed his safari suit and winked at Miss Reedy. ‘I had no idea you'd seen the resemblance.'

Mr Plumpton bit his tongue.

Miss Reedy smothered a grin and said, ‘Pity you don't have the same fashion sense.'

‘Yes, I quite agree. The poor man looks as if he could do with some styling. I'd be happy to offer a few tips next time he pops in to see Lucas at school,' Mr Lipp boasted.

Several of the children had arrived in the quadrangle. Mr Lipp was waiting to speak with Caprice about a song.

‘Have a lovely time, Mr Plumpton,' Miss Reedy said quietly, and reached out to give his arm a gentle squeeze. ‘I wish I was able to join you,' she whispered.

Mr Plumpton's nose glowed red. ‘Have a good evening, Miss Reedy.' He beamed as she skipped off to check on Miss Wall's Hawks at the swimming pool.

Figgy appeared at that moment. ‘When are you going to ask her to marry you, sir?'

Harold Lipp did a double take. ‘Figworth, that's none of your business.'

‘Not you, Mr Lipp. Miss Reedy doesn't fancy you at all. I was talking to Mr Plumpton.' The boy rolled his eyes.

‘I knew that,' Mr Lipp huffed. ‘And don't be ridiculous anyway.'

Josiah Plumpton stared the man down. ‘Why would that be ridiculous, Mr Lipp?'

‘Well, there are more reasons than I care to count. For a start, Miss Reedy's a woman of the world. She's well read and extremely bright and she's deserving of someone who can, well, complement her,' Mr Lipp blathered.

‘And I don't?' Mr Plumpton demanded.

‘No offence, Josiah, but you're hardly a catch, are you?' Mr Lipp sniffed. He hadn't realised that the rest of the Barn Owls had now arrived and were eagerly listening to the teachers' conversation.

‘That's not true. Mr Plumpton's a great catch,' said Alice-Miranda.

Jacinta leapt to the teacher's defence too. ‘He's smart and he's sweet and he loves his work – even if he does blow things up quite a bit. I'd say that makes his lessons even more interesting.'

Josiah Plumpton beamed.

Mr Lipp was flummoxed. ‘You have no idea what we were talking about, Jacinta, and I'll thank you to keep your opinions to yourself.' He turned and strode off across the quadrangle, completely
forgetting why he'd been waiting there in the first place.

A few minutes later he sheepishly returned. ‘Caprice, may I see you please?'

Mr Lipp handed her a sheet and asked if he could possibly impose on her to learn the song before the next day's rehearsal.

‘Of course, Mr Lipp,' Caprice said. ‘It will be a pleasure. And might I say, sir, that I think you and Miss Reedy would make a lovely couple.'

The teacher smiled at her. ‘It's good to know that
some
people around here have decent taste.' And with that he hurried away.

Mr Plumpton stood beside Beth. ‘Come along, everyone. Beth is going to explain the activities you're about to undertake …'

Fenella Freeman arrived back at the station to find the place locked and a note from Wilson and Barker saying that they'd been called out to an accident on the motorway. She wondered why both of them had to attend, particularly when she learned that it was a single-vehicle incident involving a little old lady
who'd run off the road into the median strip and become bogged. Hardly a major event. She glanced at the pile of paperwork on Barker's desk. Those two were the laziest creatures to walk the earth as far as she was concerned.

She didn't care, though. It was nice to have the station to herself. Fenella sat down in front of the computer and jiggled the mouse to bring the screen back to life. She typed the words ‘Light and Colour Turner' into the search engine and waited. A vast number of hits appeared. She added the name ‘Kennington-Jones' and waited but nothing came up.

Fenella decided to search for the history of ownership. She scanned the first site and realised where her father had taken her and Niall to view the painting. What came next had her eyes glued to the screen and made her heart thump in her chest.

Stolen? Really? She searched the police database too, taking extra care to check whether the painting had been found and returned to its owners or whether it was still an open case. She wasn't about to go off half-cocked again.

The telephone rang. Fenella picked it up and her ears were immediately assaulted by shrieking.

‘DS Freeman, how may I help?' she asked.

The woman on the other end sobbed hysterically. Fenella couldn't understand what she was saying for the first few minutes and had to ask her to calm down and take a breath. When she finally got her words out, all Fenella could hear was ‘murdered'.

The detective leapt out of her chair and snatched up a notepad. ‘Your address?' she demanded. Fenella scribbled the details on the pad.

The painting would have to wait. It seemed that life in Dunleavy had suddenly become a lot more interesting than it had been for a very long time.

The Barn Owls traipsed through the woods with Beth in the lead and Mr Plumpton bringing up the rear. It wasn't long before the overhanging branches opened up and the children found themselves on the pebbly banks of a pretty river.

Further along, a row of upturned yellow canoes sat side by side. High on the bank behind them was a small shed with its roller door open.

‘Okay, everyone. I need you to go and get a life jacket and a paddle from the shed. Your life jacket
should fit nice and snug and come down to your hips. I don't want to see any that you're wearing as dresses and none that look like midriff tops either,' Beth instructed.

‘How many people in each canoe?' Rufus called.

‘Three, so please arrange yourselves in groups,' Beth replied.

The children looked at one another. There were ten students in the Barn Owls.

‘What about the odd man out?' Caprice asked. She wasn't planning for that to be her.

‘Mr Plumpton and I will be in the mix too,' said Beth. ‘Perhaps, Mr Plumpton, we should appoint a leader for each group and then they can choose their crew?' Beth suggested.

‘Mmm, good idea,' the teacher replied. ‘Our four leaders are …' He looked at the children and thought about who should have a turn. ‘Susannah, Lucas, Caprice and Sep. Now select your shipmates.'

The teacher pointed his finger at Susannah, who chose Sloane. Lucas then chose Jacinta and everyone groaned.

‘Of course he'd choose his girlfriend,' Figgy guffawed.

Caprice pointed at Millie and Sep selected Alice-Miranda. Millie's stomach knotted. She'd been hoping her telepathic messages to Susannah and Lucas might have saved her spending another activity with Caprice.

Susannah then pointed at Beth. Lucas
ummed
and
ahhed
between Figgy and Rufus before deciding on the latter. The lad was strong and he should be a good paddler. Caprice picked Figgy, who almost keeled over on the spot. It left Mr Plumpton to go with Alice-Miranda and Sep.

The children heaved and shoved their canoes to the river's edge, loaded their belongings and started to paddle upstream. The tents were being delivered to a protected spot on the edge of the woods near the boundary between Bagley Hall and Pelham Park. The camp site was only a few hundred metres away from where they were setting out, but the children didn't know that yet.

‘Okay,' Beth called from her spot at the front of Susannah's canoe. ‘Try to stay together. I don't want anyone going too far ahead nor lagging behind. You'll get the hang of the paddling. Just make sure that you don't all paddle on the same side.'

‘Why? What happens then?' Rufus asked, swapping his paddle to the same side as his partners just to see. Their canoe starting turning in a circle.

‘Hey, what are you doing?' Lucas called over his shoulder to the boy.

Jacinta quickly swapped her paddle to the other side and the canoe surged forward again.

‘Oh, you go around in circles,' Rufus said.

‘Is he really as dumb as he makes out?' Caprice muttered.

A few minutes later Susannah, Sloane and Beth had got themselves caught up in some overhanging branches and Sloane was busy yelling at everyone that it wasn't her fault.

It seemed that the only group who really had their act together was Caprice's.

The children paddled upstream for an hour before Beth instructed them to turn around and head back to their camp site.

Millie rubbed her aching arms and Figgy could barely paddle another stroke. Caprice had spent the whole time rubbernecking to see what everyone else was up to, and whispering her expectations for the rest of the afternoon and evening in Millie's ear.

‘When we get to camp, Millie, I expect you to help
somebody
fail every single challenge,' Caprice hissed. ‘If you want her stay in one piece, that is.'

‘You're disgusting,' Millie mouthed.

Figgy turned around from where he was sitting at the front of the canoe.

‘What are you talking about?'

‘Nothing!' Millie and Caprice snapped in unison.

‘Oh, I get it.' Figgy grinned and raised his eyebrows at Caprice, who grimaced.

Millie burst out laughing. ‘You know, you two would make a really cute couple.'

Caprice glared at Millie.

Figgy's heart thumped and his sigh sounded like air escaping from a balloon.

Beth pointed at the bank and told them all to head in. There was a small shelter with a table and a large flat area perfect for pitching the tents.

Several of the children realised that they had recently passed the shed they'd set out from.

‘Pretty lame camp-out, sir,' Rufus complained. He pointed to the chimney pots of Pelham Park in the distance. ‘Hey Alice-Miranda, are there any outside toilets over there?'

Alice-Miranda shrugged. ‘I'm not sure.'

‘It'd be better than digging a hole,' Rufus said, pulling a face.

The children hauled the canoes onto the bank and unpacked their things. Alice-Miranda wondered
if Caprice was going to ask Millie to be her tent partner. She was pleased that the two of them seemed to be getting on better but Caprice was insistent that Millie should go with Alice-Miranda.

‘There are several tests that you'll be graded on this afternoon,' Beth announced. ‘The first one is putting up a tent. I'm going to demonstrate first and then you'll have ten minutes to put up the tent you'll be sleeping in with your partner.'

Caprice looked at Millie. ‘You know what you have to do,' Caprice whispered to the girl as she slunk past.

Beth had a stopwatch ready. ‘Okay. On your marks, get set, go!'

Alice-Miranda had the tent out of its carry bag in a few seconds. Millie unrolled it on the ground and took a few minutes to sort out which direction the door was facing. She handed Alice-Miranda two pegs and hid the others under the carry bag, but the child was a born problem solver and soon found them. This was going to be much harder than Millie thought.

As Beth called time on the constructions, Millie ducked around to the back of the tent and pulled out three pegs, hiding them under the base.

‘This looks good,' the camp leader said as she walked around Alice-Miranda and Millie's tent. She tugged at the guide ropes and checked to see that everything was squared off. ‘Uh oh,' Beth said from where she was kneeling down at the back. ‘You're missing some pegs.' The back half of the construction slowly caved in.

Alice-Miranda frowned at Millie. ‘I thought we checked them all.'

Millie nodded. ‘Yeah, me too.'

‘Sorry, girls, you'll have some points deducted for that,' said Beth as she scribbled on her scoresheet.

Caprice looked over at Millie and smiled. ‘Good job, girls.'

The rest of the group had varying degrees of success, from Figgy and Rufus's disaster, which collapsed as soon as Beth crawled inside, to Caprice and Susannah's triumph with a perfect score.

Building a fire was their next task. Although the main fire ring was already in place in the centre of the tents, each child had to build their own smaller version down on the riverbank.

The children spread out and searched for rocks and kindling. Alice-Miranda headed away from the bank to look for some larger branches. While she was gone,
Millie swapped her friend's dry sticks for some green ones she'd just gathered from a nearby willow tree.

Caprice saw exactly what was going on and gave the girl a fairy clap. Millie was a far better helper than she'd ever expected. When Caprice turned away Millie poked out her tongue.

Figgy was hunched over his fire circle rubbing two sticks together. The boy was panting and perspiring.

‘What are you doing?' Mr Plumpton asked.

He looked up and took a deep breath. ‘Making a fire, sir. I thought that's what we were supposed to do.'

‘Yes, but you might like to use these.' Mr Plumpton threw the lad a small box.

‘Oh, I didn't realise we could use matches.' Figgy gave a huge sigh of relief.

A pall of white smoke blew all over the campers as Alice-Miranda tried to get her kindling lit.

‘Ow! My eyes are stinging,' Jacinta complained, squinting. ‘What are you doing, Alice-Miranda? We're not sending smoke signals.'

‘Sorry! I thought my twigs were dry,' the child apologised.

‘Wonderful, Caprice. Well done,' Beth praised
the girl as her little stack of kindling popped and crackled.

‘Rufus, what are you doing?' Mr Plumpton barked. The boy seemed to be building a bonfire worthy of Guy Fawkes. ‘Put that timber up near the main fire.'

‘Sorry about your fire,' Millie said to Alice-Miranda.

The child shrugged. ‘I don't know what's going on with me this afternoon.'

Bile rose in Millie's throat. She hated what she was doing. But after the disaster of the trivia night and Caprice's threats in the canoe, Millie wasn't prepared to take any risks.