Midnight for Charlie Bone (Children Of The Red King, Book 1) (18 page)

            "Fidelio!" Mr. Gunn sang out from the hall. "There are two young ladies to see you!"

            "Show them up, Dad!" called Fidelio.

            "Up you go, right to the top, mind your heads, and please don't hop!" sang Mr. Gunn.

            Olivia burst out laughing but Emilia was silent - as far as Charlie could tell -there was so much noise in the musical house.

            "Here we are!" said Olivia, striding into the room. Emilia followed her. She looked puzzled, but not frightened.

            "Did Olivia explain?" Charlie asked her.

            "You've got something to show me," said Emilia slowly.

            "Yes. It's something your father made," said Charlie. Emilia frowned. "My father's an accountant. He doesn't make things," she said.

            "Well, actually he was an inventor," said Fidelio. "But he died and he left you this case." He pointed to the metal case that lay in the center of the room.

            "How do you know?" asked Emilia, her frown deepening. Fidelio looked at Charlie, and Charlie said, "It all happened when I met your aunt."

            "I've got an aunt? I never knew I had an aunt."

            "She's a very nice person, and she's been wanting to see you for years and years," Charlie told Emilia. "She gave me the case, and then I found out what was in it and how it could -er -wake you up." Emilia looked even more confused. Olivia sat on a large trunk and pulled Emilia down beside her. "It's going to be OK. We won't let anything bad happen to you," she said.

            "I didn't know I wasn't awake," Emilia murmured.

            "I think we'd better do it now,” said Fidelio. "Time's running out. Go on, Charlie."

            Charlie stepped forward. He ran his fingers firmly but carefully over the letters on the side of the case. Tolly Twelve Bells. As he reached the last letter he looked around the room. Everyone was staring at his fingers. He noticed that Billy Raven's eyes had gone wide and dark, and that they completely filled the round frames of his glasses. It gave him a blank, hidden look.

            When the last letter had been pressed, the lid began to open. Charlie stood to one side and watched Emilia's face, but it was Olivia who cried out in amazement. Emilia just looked baffled.

            When the knight raised his sword, everyone jumped up and backed away even Emilia. And then the bell began to chime, and the voices of the chanting choir filled the room.

            For a moment, Emilia looked as if she were in intense pain. She hunched her shoulders and put one hand over her mouth. She closed her eyes and sank back onto a box. Tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

            The others watched, fearfully as the tears grew into a stream and Emilia began to sob helplessly She rocked back and forth, moaning and sighing until the knight lowered his sword and descended into the case. When the chanting ceased and the bell chimed for the last time, Emilia was silent. Both hands now covered her face and she was completely motionless. No one in the room spoke. Charlie closed the case, wondering what to do next.

            At last Emilia said, in a very small voice, "I didn't know that I was so unhappy All my life I've lived with people who didn't love me." Olivia flung her arms around her, saying, "It's going to be OK, Emilia. You're going to be happy now You'll see. Charlie, tell her." So Charlie told Emilia about her poor mother who died, and her father, Dr. Tolly the inventor. And then he described Julia Ingledew, who lived in a bookshop and longed to see Emilia, longed to look after her forever and ever, in fact. And then Charlie told Emilia the strangest thing of all. "Your father said you could fly Emilia. That's why they wanted you at Bloor's."

            "Me?" said Emilia. "I can't fly."

            "Well, you did once," said Charlie. "Perhaps it only happens when you need to."

            "Like, if you're frightened," said Olivia.

            "Tomorrow I'm going to take you to see your aunt," Charlie told Emilia.

            "But how?" she asked.

            "I'll find a way,” he said confidently. “You know you can just walk away from the Moons whenever you want to, now that you know who you are." Suddenly a voice called up through the singing flutes and violins, the drumming and piano exercises, “A Mrs. Vertigo is here!"

            "Well timed, Mom," said Olivia. "Come on, Emilia." Emilia followed Olivia downstairs where Mrs. Vertigo was comfortably chatting with Mrs. Gunn. At Olivia's insistence, she broke off her interesting conversation about lungs and drove the two girls back to an alley behind Washford Road. Mrs. Vertigo was rather surprised to see Olivia and Emilia climb over a wall, but did as she was asked and drove around to the front of the house, where she waited for Olivia to come out of the front door. This happened about two minutes after she'd parked the car.

            "You're a star, Mom," said Olivia, climbing into the car. "It all worked perfectly."

            “You do lead an exciting life, Olivia," said Mrs. Vertigo, who was, in fact, a real star. A film star, as it happened.

            For a few moments after the girls left, the four boys sat in a bemused silence. Charlie was enormously relieved that their plan had worked. Now it was up to him to see that Emilia found a home where she truly belonged.

            "What shall I do with the case?" asked Fidelio.

            "Can you keep it up here?" Charlie asked. "I think I'm going to need it again."

            "It's safe with me," said Fidelio.

            Billy Raven stood up. "I'd better go back now,” he said. "They're sending a car for me." His voice was a bit shaky and he looked at the floor as he spoke.

            Charlie wondered if he was feeling ill. He agreed to take Billy home immediately Fidelio had to do his violin practice, and by the time the three boys left Gunn House, they could hear their friend adding to the musical racket behind them.

            As they wandered back to Filbert Street, Charlie and Billy were wrapped in their own thoughts, but Benjamin hopped along, whistling and chattering, eager to be back with his returned parents and his precious dog. A black car sat outside number nine. When the boys tried to peer through the smoked-glass windows, a cloor opened and an elegant cane shot out, whacking Charlie on the knee.

            "Ouch!" He leaped back. "Who's in there, Billy?"

            "It must be old Mr. Bloor," he said.

            Something made Charlie anxious. "Billy you won't tell anyone about Emilia, will you?" he said. "No one can know until we're ready."

            Billy shook his head.

            Charlie took him in to collect his bag and, after a brief thank-you to Maisie and Mrs. Bone, Billy ran out and jumped into the black car.

            "What a strange boy,” said Maisie, as the black car pulled away from the curb.

            Emilia Moon lay in bed in her tidy white room. "Emma Tolly,” she said to herself She repeated the name and decided she liked it much better than Emilia Moon.

            The telephone in the hall rang several times. This was unusual. The Moons never got phone calls at night. But Emilia thought nothing of it. She was so excited. She'd never really felt excited about anything before. Her life had been dull and cold and organized. Nothing had ever surprised or delighted her. But all that was about to change. "Now I am Emma," she murmured.

            Her door suddenly opened and Mrs. Moon looked in. "Get dressed and pack your things," she said. "We're going out."

            "Where are we going?" Emma asked nervously.

            "Back to the academy. We've just had a call."

            "Why?" asked Emma. Could they have found out about her visit to Gunn House?

            "You've broken the rules, Emilia," Mrs. Moon said coldly. “Now, hurry up." With shaking hands, Emilia put on her clothes and went downstairs. Mrs. Moon grabbed her arm and took her out to the car, where Mr. Moon, a thin bespectacled man, sat waiting in the driver's seat. Emma and her bag were pushed into the back of the car and they drove off. Bloor's Academy looked huge and forbidding from the outside. A single light showed at the top of the tall, grim building, but otherwise it seemed silent and deserted.

            Emma walked between Mr. and Mrs. Moon, across the courtyard and up the wide steps. Mr. Moon pulled a chain that hung beside the massive doors, and a bell rang somewhere, deep within the building.

            Emma's heart sank when Manfred Bloor opened the door. She glanced away from his coal-black eyes, expecting one of the horrible, numbing stares. But he didn't even try to make her look at him.

            "Thank you," he said to the Moons. "Come in, Emilia!"

            "Good-bye, Emma," said Mrs. Moon. She put Emilia's bag on the floor beside her. "Be good."

            The heavy doors closed and Emma was alone with Manfred. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked. "In the middle of the night?"

            "You broke the rules, didn't you, Emilia? You must be punished." Emma felt suddenly brave. It was a very unusual sensation. She also found that she was angry. “I'm not Emilia," she said. "I'm Emma Tolly."

            Manfred laughed. It was a horrible, vicious sound. "We'll soon knock that nonsense out of you. Emma Tolly! I never heard such garbage. Pick up your bag and follow me."

            Something inside Emma wanted to fight, but she didn't see how she could. She was alone with Manfred, as far as she could see. Perhaps, later, she could find a way to escape. Manfred led her down passages she'd never seen, up dangerously narrow spiral steps, and through empty rooms hung with cobwebs. He carried a lantern in each hand, but Emma could barely see where she was going. There was obviously no electricity in this part of the building. Bats screeched and flittered across the crumbling ceilings, and the wind moaned through broken windows. At last they reached a small room where a narrow bed had been pushed against the wall. There was a pillow and a blanket, nothing else. The floor was bare, the walls great slabs of stone. Manfred put one of the lanterns on the floor. "Night, night!" he said.

            "Sleep well, Emilia Moon."

            He closed the heavy door behind him, and Emma heard a loud click as a key was turned in the lock. When Manfred's footsteps had receded, she tried to open the door. It was locked, just as she expected. Emma sat on the bed. She didn't cry She'd done enough crying for one day She just sat and thought about all the wonderful things she was never going to have after all. The kind aunt, the friends, the adventures, and the amazing feeling of being happy.

            "They'll say I've disappeared," she said to herself, "and no one will ever find me."

            She looked around her dreadful, dingy cell. Would she be kept here for ever and ever? Until she was very old?

            "No," she said to herself. "I'm Emma Tolly now, and Emma won't stand for it. Emma is a persevering person." And with that she leaped up and screamed for all she was worth. "Help! Help! Help!" She could hear her own voice echoing through the empty rooms beyond the door. But there was no answer.

            So Emma called out again, and this time she banged on the door. She rattled and knocked and kicked until her toes were bruised and her knuckles were red and raw And then she retreated and lay on the narrow bed, exhausted by her efforts.

            She was just about to close her eyes, when there was a soft creak outside the door. Emma sat up. The key turned in the lock, the latch was lifted, and the door swung open.

            Emma rushed across the room and looked out. There was no one to be seen. She picked up the lantern and swung it across the passage outside. No one -nothing -unless you counted the bat that hung from a beam. Bats can't open doors, thought Emma.

            Holding the lantern as high as she could, she began to walk down the passage. "Who's there?" she whispered. "Who let me out?" This time she didn't dare to raise her voice in case Manfred came storming back. At the end of the passage she came to a staircase. Cautiously she began to climb down. At the bottom of the stairs, passages branched right and left. Emma hesitated and then took the right. It was very smelly Gaslight flickered from the walls and she wondered whether it was this that caused the smell.

            And then she saw the monster. Or was it a dog? It was low and fat, like a pillow on very short legs, and its face had all but disappeared, except for a long sagging nose. Emma gasped and shrank against the wall. But the dog hadn't seen her. She was about to creep in the other direction when a voice screeched, "Stop. You there! Come back!"

            Before tearing away Emma cast one quick look over her shoulder. She saw a man in a wheelchair, so old that his face was almost a skull. He had a woolen shawl over his shoulders and his long, white hair dripped like wax from a small woolen cap.

            "It got out!" he shrieked. "The inventor's brat! Manfred, get it!" Stifling a scream, Emma ran. She crashed up the stairs, banging her lantern against the wall, along the passage and into the cell-like room, slamming the door behind her. And then she waited, knowing that very soon something bad would happen.

            It wasn't long before Manfred's unpleasant face peered through the door.

            "Ah, you're there," he said. "You'd better not try that again."

            He closed the door with a bang and locked it, saying, "I'm taking the key so don't think you can let her out again. Any more trouble, and you won't get jam for a week." Obviously he wasn't speaking to Emma. Something hard crashed against a wall and Manfred yelled, "Stop it!" Another door banged and then there was silence.

            Emma tiptoed to the door. "Who are you?" she asked. There was no answer.

            "I'm sorry I got you into trouble," she said. Still no answer. Whoever was out there had either crept away or jam was so important to them, they didn't want to risk being deprived of it.