Alice-Miranda at Sea (10 page)

A
lice-Miranda, Millie and Jacinta finished their breakfast and, together with Lucas and Sep, who'd arrived a little while after the girls, planned the day ahead. They decided to spend the morning at the pool, followed by some games on deck and maybe a movie in the theatrette during the afternoon. Admiral Harding had announced at breakfast that there was the strong possibility of a storm that evening and given some recent weather activity in the region, he predicted that the passengers may be confined to their cabins if a gale blew up.

‘Well, come on, we'd best make the most of the day,' Alice-Miranda instructed. She stopped to greet her parents on the way out of the breakfast room but still couldn't get near her aunt or Lawrence, who seemed to have a never-ending queue of well-wishers demanding their attention.

The children hurried off to change into their bathers and met back on the glass-covered pool deck. The deck chairs were filling fast as the guests were making the most of the unseasonally warm sunshine.

Alice-Miranda and Sep laid their towels out on adjacent recliners and sat down.

Sep glanced around at the rows of glamorous women in their brightly coloured swimsuits. ‘My mother would have loved this,' he remarked.

‘How is she?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Oh, fine, I think. She and Dad adore Spain and I'm assuming my mother spends all day every day lying by the pool at their villa anyway,' he replied. ‘It's funny, but I do miss them a little.'

‘Of course you do. That's perfectly understandable,' Alice-Miranda replied. ‘Have you talked to your sister at all?'

‘No, not really. Whenever I call, she just hands the phone straight to Mum or Dad.'

‘I've written her a few letters,' Alice-Miranda offered. ‘I hope she's received them.'

‘Really? I mean, after what Mum and Sloane did. It was pretty unforgivable.' Sep concluded.

‘They just got carried away, that's all. There's always a reason why people behave the way they do. You can't really blame Sloane – she was just doing what your mother asked her to – and it's hard to say no to grown-ups,' Alice-Miranda replied.

‘I'm sure you don't find it hard to say no – to anyone,' Sep smiled.

‘Well, if you're talking to Sloane at all, please tell her that I'd love to hear some news,' said Alice-Miranda. ‘In fact, I think I might write to her this afternoon.' And with that she skipped over to the side of the pool and jumped into its crystal depths.

Sep grinned to himself. He'd really never met anyone like Alice-Miranda.

The children spent so long in the water that by the time they hopped out, their fingertips and toes were shrivelled like raisins.

‘I'm starving,' Millie complained. ‘We should go and get some lunch.'

‘Last one to the dining room's a rotten egg,' Lucas challenged.

The children raced across the deck towards their towels when Alice-Miranda felt a stabbing pain in her left foot.

‘Ow,' she winced.

‘What's the matter?' Jacinta asked.

Alice-Miranda hopped over to the sun lounge to inspect the damage, leaving a trail of red spots behind her.

Millie and Jacinta rushed over to her.

‘It feels like there's something in my foot,' said Alice-Miranda, flinching as she held it up for her friends to examine. Small drops of blood leaked onto the deck.

‘I'd say you've got a splinter.' Millie pulled Alice-Miranda's leg up to take a closer look. A shard of timber was poking out from the soft flesh between her toes.

‘That's not a splinter,' Jacinta remarked. ‘More like a miniature javelin or a giant's toothpick.'

Millie glared at Jacinta. She didn't want to alarm Alice-Miranda but it did seem a little more serious than a splinter and Jacinta wasn't helping at all.

‘We'll have to tell Admiral Harding,' Jacinta proclaimed. ‘That's really not good enough for a royal yacht.'

Millie and Alice-Miranda exchanged quizzical glances.

‘Splinters. You shouldn't be getting splinters off the deck of the
Octavia
,' Jacinta tutted. ‘You'd think they'd have better maintenance, and the ship's just been renovated.'

Lucas peered at Alice-Miranda's foot, which was now streaked with red.

‘You'll have to get it out,' he offered. ‘Or it might turn septic.'

‘And then you'll have to get your leg amputated like my granny's friend Ossie,' Jacinta added.

‘That's terrible,' Alice-Miranda gasped. ‘Did he have a splinter?'

‘No, he had gangrene from years of heavy smoking, but his leg turned septic and they had to cut it off anyway.'

‘Jacinta!' the children chorused. Millie gave her a shove.

‘You'll need to see the doctor,' Millie advised as she grabbed a towel and tried to mop up some of the blood.

The children glanced around the deck. It seemed that all of the adults had already headed off to lunch.

Alice-Miranda stood up. She couldn't put pressure on the front of her foot at all, so with Lucas on one arm and Millie on the other, she hopped inside.

‘We'll come too,' Jacinta offered.

‘No, why don't you and Sep go and organise something to eat? We won't be long,' Alice-Miranda called.

‘Are you sure?' Jacinta replied. ‘You might have to have horrible huge needles and it could take a while to get that monster out.'

‘Jacinta!' Millie glared. ‘Just go and get some lunch.'

Lucas looked at Alice-Miranda. ‘It won't be that bad.'

‘I'm sure Dr Lush will be very gentle,' Millie reassured her friend.

T
he children arrived at the infirmary to find Dr Lush outside taping a handwritten sign to the door.

‘I'm so glad we caught you,' Millie panted.

‘What?' the doctor spun around to find Alice-Miranda flagged by her friends.

‘Godfathers,' Nicholas breathed. ‘What's the matter now?' He'd had enough of children already today.

‘Alice-Miranda has a splinter and she needs you to get it out,' Millie informed him.

‘A splinter? For heaven's sake, couldn't one of you have dug it out? There's a first aid kit on the pool deck, which is obviously where you've come from . . . dripping water all over my floor. And you do have parents, don't you?' He unlocked the door and walked back into the consulting room. ‘Well, are you coming?'

‘Interesting bedside manner,' Lucas whispered, catching Millie's attention. Millie rolled her eyes.

‘I am so sorry to inconvenience you, Dr Lush,' Alice-Miranda began. ‘It's just that I was running and tripped on the deck and I seem to have acquired a rather
large
splinter in my foot.'

Dr Lush let out an exasperated sigh and instructed the children to help Alice-Miranda over to the examination table.

‘Hop up there,' he directed.

Alice-Miranda attempted to push herself up but caught her damaged foot on the stool.

‘Ouch,' she squeaked. ‘I think I might need some help.'

Millie and Lucas glared at the doctor.

‘What?' he said. ‘Oh you want
me
to lift her up?' He curled his lip and huffed loudly before depositing Alice-Miranda on the table.

Nicholas Lush was not having a good day. Between that pasty boy in the Albert Suite and several nasty bouts of seasickness, which he couldn't understand given that the ocean resembled a millpond
,
Nicholas's intention to spend his time making better acquaintance with some of the lovely ladies on board had not worked out at all. And now a splinter had put paid to his lunch plans.

He held up his right hand and with rather over- dramatic flair, wrenched a latex glove over his outstretched fingers then repeated the act for his left. Nicholas fished around in the top drawer of his desk and found a magnifying glass, with which to inspect the minuscule fragment.

He picked up Alice-Miranda's heel and moved her foot up towards the glass.

‘Good Lord.' He reeled in open-mouthed horror. ‘That's not a splinter. You could whittle a figurehead from that beast.' His heart began to thump and he wondered what sort of surgery might be required to remove the shard protruding from between Alice-Miranda's toes.

Alice-Miranda bit her lip and looked to her friends for reassurance.

‘Way to go, Dr Lush,' Lucas admonished. ‘I'm sure Alice-Miranda is feeling much better now.'

‘Find her parents,' Dr Lush commanded.

‘Oh, it's all right,' Alice-Miranda advised. ‘Millie can hold my hand, sir. I'll be fine.'

‘That's well and good, but you will be requiring an anaesthetic and quite likely some stitches with the mess that will make . . . I mean the extent of the digging required; and I won't be doing anything until I have signed permission from one of your parents,' Nicholas stated. ‘In the meantime, I suppose I can give you something mild for the pain.' He looked at Alice-Miranda's foot and shuddered.

Alice-Miranda sat patiently on the examination table. Millie and Lucas had done as they were told and gone to locate her parents. Dr Lush retreated to his desk where he looked to be consulting a thick medical textbook.

‘Have you removed many splinters like this one before?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Of course,' he snapped.

‘Then may I ask, why are you looking in that book?' She craned her neck to get a better view.

‘Nerves,' he replied.

‘Oh, don't be nervous,' Alice-Miranda soothed. ‘I'm sure you'll do a perfectly good job.'

‘I'm not nervous, you silly child,' he bit. ‘You have nerves in your foot. I just want to check that I'm not about to damage any of them.'

‘Oh,' Alice-Miranda sighed. ‘That's a relief. Because I'd be a little bit nervous myself if you were anxious at all.'

Lush was reading, mid-sentence and deep in thought when the telephone rang. He hesitated, then picked up the receiver. ‘Lush,' he answered. ‘Not now. I have a patient.' He was clearly not enjoying the conversation. ‘What do you mean
she's
missing? We're on a ship – she can't be far,' he breathed. ‘Well find her, you imbecile!' The doctor slammed the telephone down.

‘Is everything all right, Dr Lush?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘Of course,' he snapped. ‘Why wouldn't it be?'

‘Well, it's just that you seemed a little bit cross on the telephone. I'm sure being a doctor on a ship must be a difficult job – people after you all hours of the day and night. What is it that you've lost – or should I say who?' she asked. ‘Perhaps I can help. Aunty Gee told us that we could have the run of the ship, so my friends and I had a really good look around yesterday and I think we saw just about every part of it – well, except inside the suites, of course, because it would be terribly rude to go barging in on people's private areas. But other than that, we went everywhere; except the engine room, too. So I'm sure that if you tell me who you're looking for, Millie and Jacinta and Lucas and Sep and I could try and find her for you.'

‘I don't know what you're talking about,' Nicholas Lush scoffed. ‘I didn't say I'd lost anyone. I think the medicine must have made you a little bit silly, young lady.'

Alice-Miranda frowned. She knew what she'd heard. Dr Lush had just told someone on the telephone, who must also been on the ship, that someone was lost. She wasn't affected by any medication at all.

‘But, Dr Lush, you didn't give me any medication,' Alice-Miranda replied.

‘Of course I did,' he barked. He turned around to see the container of paracetamol open on his desk and two small tablets sitting beside a full glass of water.

She was right. He hadn't given her any medication.

His face flushed red. ‘Well, you'd better have it now.'

Nicholas wished he hadn't taken that call. Something told him that this tiny child, with her cascading chocolate curls and eyes as big as saucers, was a meddlesome little creature.

Alice-Miranda was getting one of her strange feelings.

The operation to remove Alice-Miranda's giant splinter took rather much longer than Nicholas Lush had hoped. He had other things on his mind but knew that if he messed this up his life wasn't worth living.

Her mother, the charming Cecelia Highton-Smith, had promptly arrived at the infirmary, horrified by the scene in front of her. Nicholas gave her something to soothe her nerves and reassured her that everything would be just fine. Then he gave the child a local anaesthetic and spent what seemed like an age coaxing the timber from between her delicate toes. In the end there was hardly a mark – and no stitches required. It was the best work he'd done in quite a while. Cecelia Highton-Smith was so grateful that she invited the doctor to join her and her husband Hugh for dinner. Nicholas was thrilled. The Highton-Smith-Kennington-Joneses knew everyone who was anyone.