Alice-Miranda on Vacation (5 page)

After sampling some delicious homemade lemonade the children went upstairs to play. Poppy tagged along despite her brother’s protests. In a small room under the eaves, Jasper showed Alice-Miranda and Jacinta an old trestle table on which he had re-created a battlefield resplendent with trenches, trees, tanks and various other artillery installations. He was explaining how he had recently added a village when Jacinta piped up.

“We met an awful boy before—in the field,” she began.

“Oh,” Jasper replied absently.

“He was hiding in one of the oak trees and pelting stones at us. He hit me twice and he hit Alice-Miranda once too.” Jacinta folded her arms in front of her. “Your mother said that she knew him.”

“Where does he come from, Jasper?” Alice-Miranda asked gently.

“He belongs to us,” Poppy replied. “His mummy doesn’t want him anymore. And he doesn’t have a daddy.”

“That’s not true. Aunty Kitty’s just gone away for a while.” Jasper glared at his chatterbox sister and then continued playing with his tiny tin men, lining them up row by row.

“He got spelled.” Poppy poked her tongue out at her brother.

“Spelled? Do you mean
expelled
, from school? Is that true?” asked Alice-Miranda as she inspected one of the soldiers.

Poppy nodded. “He’s a bad boy.”

“I don’t want to talk about him. Stop telling tales, Poppy. You know what Mum said.”

Alice-Miranda smiled at Poppy.

Before she had time to say anything else Jasper stood up. “Let’s go and see Daisy and Granny Bert.” He placed a soldier back on the table. “She’s been ill, you know.”

“Who?” Alice-Miranda asked.

“Who what?” Jasper replied.

“Who’s been sick? Daisy or Granny Bert?”

Jasper looked puzzled.

“Granny Bert, of course. Don’t you listen?” He rolled his eyes.

The children traipsed downstairs and Jasper informed his mother of their plans.

“Would you mind taking this with you? Daisy and Granny might like some treats.” Lily handed Alice-Miranda a wicker basket containing a rectangular lemon cake with passion-fruit frosting, a jar of homemade cherry jam and two fat pears.

Alice-Miranda inhaled deeply. “That cake smells delicious. But I promise we won’t touch it. Jacinta and I have been invited for afternoon tea with Mrs. Greening—and I’m hoping she’s made Heaven Cake.”

“Thanks, sweetheart. Now, don’t stay too long. It doesn’t take much for Granny Bert to get tired.” Lily turned her attention to Jasper and Poppy. “And you two come straight back afterward, please. I think
there must have been a tornado in a couple of bedrooms upstairs.” She raised her eyebrows.

Jasper frowned and Poppy wrinkled her nose.

The group set off through the front garden, out the gate and down the lane. They passed the main sheds. In one of them, Jasper and Poppy’s father was tinkering with one of the tractors.

“Hello, Daddy.” Poppy waved. Her father looked up and waved back. “Hello zere, you lot. Alice-Miranda, it’s good to have you home again,” Heinrich said in his thick German accent.

“It’s lovely to be home, Heinrich. We’re off to visit Daisy and Granny Bert. We’ll see you later,” she called.

Farther along the laneway there was another pretty little house, partially hidden behind a stone wall covered in the most delicate of pink Cécile Brunner roses. The cottage was almost an exact replica of the gatehouse with its turrets and chimneys.

Alice-Miranda handed Jacinta the basket of goodies and went to unlatch the front gate. Just then, the boy who was responsible for the stone throwing appeared from behind the hedge on the opposite side of the lane.

“Hello, Lucas,” Poppy greeted him.

“What do you want—Lucassss?” hissed Jacinta, shooting him a smug stare. “Have you come to apologize?”

He ignored both girls’ words completely and stalked closer.

“What’s in the basket?” he demanded as a faint waft of lemon cake escaped from under the tea towel.

“Some treats for Daisy and Granny Bert,” Alice-Miranda replied.

Lucas lifted the towel.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Jacinta pulled the basket away but not quickly enough. He reached in and picked up one of the pears, immediately biting into its green skin.

“Why, you!” Jacinta was seething.

“Lucas, that was for Granny and Daisy.” Alice-Miranda frowned. “I’m sure if you wanted a pear you could ask Lily for one.”

“Why would I ask her for anything?” he said, still tearing into the juicy fruit. “So is this your girlfriend, Jasper? The one in all those pictures with you—from the big house?” he teased.

“Stop it,” Jasper ordered.

“Or what?” Lucas countered.

“Lucas, Jasper is one of my best friends, and I do
love him, of course, but we are both far too young for romance, if that’s what you mean,” Alice-Miranda interrupted.

“I do love him, of course …,” Lucas mimicked Alice-Miranda, pouted and then noisily kissed the back of his hand.

“Leave us alone, Lucas,” Jasper shouted. “Go home!”

“I’d love to.” Lucas glared at Jasper, his ebony eyes drilling straight through his cousin. Lucas took off through the hedge and disappeared into the field beyond.

Jacinta was fuming and Jasper was red-faced, but Poppy just smiled.

“Come on. Let’s get this cake inside.” Alice-Miranda led the group through the gateway, down the path and around to the side of the cottage.

“Hello, Daisy, Granny, it’s Alice-Miranda,” she called cheerily as she opened the door into the kitchen.

A slight young woman with shoulder-length blond hair was standing at the sink. She looked to be dabbing her eyes with a tissue.

“Daisy, are you all right?” asked Alice-Miranda as she approached her. The woman didn’t seem to hear. “Daisy? Is everything okay?”

The woman swiveled around, surprised to hear Alice-Miranda’s voice.

“Oh!” Daisy let out a little cry. “It
is
you. I thought I must have been imagining.”

Alice-Miranda ran forward and threw her arms around Daisy’s tiny waist.

“It’s so lovely to be home,” she said. “But you look sad.” Alice-Miranda’s stomach knotted. “Is everything all right? Is Granny okay?” Daisy absently stroked the top of Alice-Miranda’s head.

“Sorry. I—I’ve just had a visitor.” She smiled tensely at the children. “Yes, yes. Granny’s getting stronger every day. She had pneumonia but she’s well on the mend. Plenty of fluids and rest—Dr. Marsh has looked in most days. I think she’ll be back on her feet again come the end of the week.”

Alice-Miranda introduced Jacinta, who promptly set the basket on the table. “I’m afraid there’s only one pear—
we
had a visitor too,” Jacinta said, her eyebrows knitting together.

“A visitor?” Daisy looked perplexed.

Alice-Miranda shook her head at Jacinta. She thought Daisy looked as though she had her own worries, and there was nothing that could be done about Lucas now anyway.

She changed the subject. “Nothing to fuss about. I
can tell you this cake looks rather good. It’s lemon with passion-fruit icing.”

“Please thank Lily for me.” Daisy set the contents of the basket out on the table. “Would you like some? I’m about to put the pot on,” she asked.

“No thanks. We’ve just had lemonade, and next we’re off to see Mrs. Greening for afternoon tea. I thought we would pop in and see you and Granny, and then we’d be off—but I promise we’ll be back again soon,” Alice-Miranda said.

Daisy nodded, still looking distracted. “Oh, okay. Run up and see her, then. She should be awake. Tell her I’ll bring some tea shortly.”

The children bounded upstairs. If Granny Bert wasn’t awake beforehand she certainly would be now.

A
little while later, the two girls said goodbye to Poppy and Jasper outside Rose Cottage. “You’d better get home,” Alice-Miranda reminded the reluctant pair.

“I’d much rather come with you,” Jasper sighed, before heading off with his little sister in tow.

Granny Bert was certainly on the mend. Propped up on a mountain of pillows, she had spent the whole time huffing and grumbling that her tea was late. Alice-Miranda laughed and said that she couldn’t understand what everyone had been so worried about. Clearly Granny Bert was almost as good as new.

She made them promise to come back again
tomorrow and take her for a walk around the garden. If she had to have a wheelchair, she said, it might as well be put to good use. Before they left she demanded that Alice-Miranda find her some lipstick. “I feel naked without my face on,” she had said, flinching at her reflection in the hand mirror she picked up from the cluttered bedside table.

“Goodness, Granny Bert has a lot to say,” Jacinta commented as they headed down the laneway. “Is she always like that?”

“Oh yes—and usually much worse,” Alice-Miranda laughed. “But she doesn’t often get muddled up with names. I can’t imagine why she insisted on calling you Annabelle the whole time.”

“Yes, I mean, I could understand if she thought my name was Jasmine, perhaps, or even Jessica, but Annabelle was a bit far off the mark,” Jacinta commented. “Is she really your granny?”

“Oh no, not at all. She’s Daisy’s granny. But we’ve always called her Granny Bert—her real name is Albertine. She used to work in the house a long time ago—before Shilly. She ran the whole place when there were loads more staff and house parties every other weekend. Mummy says that she was incredible and everyone loved her.”

“I can’t imagine,” Jacinta scoffed.

“She’s quite good fun, really. Just you wait and see. I can guarantee that once she’s completely well, she’ll be up to her old tricks again,” Alice-Miranda countered.

The girls skipped on along the laneway toward the gatehouse and Mrs. Greening’s much anticipated cake. A grand avenue of oaks lined the path, and the afternoon sun played tricks with dapples and shadows through the canopy.

They heard in the distance the whine of a powerful engine.

“I wonder who that is.” Alice-Miranda turned and caught sight of a large black sedan speeding away from the back of Rose Cottage. It was creating rather a lot of dust as it accelerated toward them. “I didn’t notice a car when we were at Daisy and Granny’s. Did you?” she asked Jacinta.

“No, but Daisy did say something about a visitor, didn’t she?” Jacinta replied.

“They must have gone out the back door through the utility room before we arrived,” Alice-Miranda decided.

“Well, whoever it is seems to be in rather a hurry now.” Jacinta grabbed Alice-Miranda’s hand and they jumped back from the road just as the car roared past.

It had dark tinted windows and was traveling at such speed it was impossible to see who was inside.

“Maniac!” Jacinta called after them. “You’ll kill someone!”

Alice-Miranda watched as the vehicle turned left and headed for the main road. She wasn’t used to seeing strange cars on the estate—especially not ones being driven at such pace. She felt a twinge in her tummy and a strange feeling that something wasn’t quite right.

The girls walked back onto the road. “Oh, I see where we are,” Jacinta said as she caught sight of Highton Hall in the distance. “We’ve come around in a big loop.”

Her words interrupted Alice-Miranda’s thoughts. “Come on,” Alice-Miranda said, dismissing the strange feelings from her mind. She grabbed Jacinta’s hand and started running toward the gatehouse. “I’m starving.”

Jacinta followed closely behind as Alice-Miranda unlatched the garden gate and bounced down a pathway bordered by delphiniums, hollyhocks and hydrangeas. The warm afternoon air exhaled the most delicious scent. Alice-Miranda ducked through an archway to the side of the path and raced across the
velvet lawn toward the back of the house. “Betsy,” she called. “Betsy, where are you?”

A gruff bark echoed in reply before Betsy whizzed around the corner to greet the girls.

“Hello, you!” Alice-Miranda threw her arms around the Labrador’s neck.

Mr. Greening appeared. “Hello there. You’d better come inside. Mrs. Greening has just taken something out of the oven.” He winked at Jacinta.

“Ah, heaven,” Alice-Miranda sighed.

M
rs. Greening bustled around the kitchen pouring cups of sugary white tea, which she set down gently in front of the girls. A huge cake with lemon-tinted frosting adorned the center of the table.