More Broken Clocks

The guests had given up looking for Madeleine, and they were all settled back at the table waiting to be served with individual jellies. Miles brought them on a tray.

“I’ll help you to hand them out,” piped up Henry Bollinger, who was even more tipsy than before.

He took a few off the tray, but he was so unsteady, and the jelly wibbled and wobbled so much, that one fell down the back of Marilyn’s dress. She was wearing a beautiful silver dress - she looked like a mermaid.

“Wha-woo!” she screamed. “That’s cold!”

The other guests started to laugh as Miles rushed forward with a napkin.

“Don’t worry,” said Marilyn.

Mervin took the napkin off Miles and used it to wipe jelly from the back of her dress.

“I’m awfully sorry,” said Henry. “I’m a huge clumsy oaf.”

“You can say that again!” said Harriet, and they all laughed.

But out of the jelly had tumbled a little key, and Mervin said, “What’s this key for? Perhaps the bottle of poison has been locked away somewhere.”

The poison was locked away in a tiny trinket box in the handbag of Cherry Scrimshaw. She had tried to hide the trinket box in the grandfather clock in the hall, but she couldn’t open the clock so she had hidden it on a shelf in the closet. Charles Sayre had seen her hiding it, and he had slipped the box back into Cherry’s handbag.

Henry grabbed the key as Miles brought in some blancmange.

“Who wants blancmange?” he asked.

Miles stood there with a huge blancmange on a tray.

“That looks gorgeous!” said Tamara.

Suddenly Mervin grabbed the key back off Henry, and as he did so his elbow caught the corner of the tray. The huge blancmange fell off the tray, and some of it landed on Mog Og, some landed on Wanda, some landed on Carolyn Chivers, some on Clifford Jones, some on June Jakes, and some on Charles Sayre.

Mog Og shouted and rushed around the room. At the same time, the cuckoo clock, Jasmine Feathersprings, started to cuckoo. She screeched at Mog Og because as he shook the blancmange off his fur some of it went into her feathers and up her nose, almost choking her, and in her mouth. She coughed and spluttered and shouted at Mog Og until her voice was hoarse.

“I’ve got a date tonight, and look at the state of me!” shouted Mog Og.

“And look at the state of me!” cried Jasmine. “It’s your fault, Mog Og.”

She flew out at Mog Og, and her springs suddenly broke. She tried to stand up, but she couldn’t. She could hardly speak.

“Oh dear, oh dear! I’ve broken my feather springs,” she gasped. Then she sat down and began to cry.

Meanwhile Mike had found a large key, and he thought he would open George up to see if the deadly nightshade was hidden inside. However, the key was for winding George up, and in his attempt to open the clock he wound poor George so much that he could hardly breathe. Suddenly all George’s springs made a loud popping sound, as though something had broken, but he was just wound up so tight he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t tick and tock any more, and it looked as though his eyebrows had risen two inches off his face.

“Oh, George, you don’t look well,” said Mog Og when he came into the hallway.

“Oh, dear! Oh, me!” said George. “I’ve been wound up too tight. I can hardly breathe.”

Miles went upstairs to have one last look for Madeleine. He went in and out of all the bedrooms until he was dizzy. In the bedroom Penelope had used to get ready in he found Omega Horizon on the floor. Her face was cracked, and it looked as though some clumsy oaf had trodden on her. Omega had shouted for help, but then she had passed out with the pain.

Miles picked her up, and then on the dressing table he noticed a business card from Mabble Merlin’s Clock-and-Watch Hospital. ‘Open all hours - Dial 123456 and we’ll be there before you put the phone down,’ it read.

Miles carried Omega Horizon downstairs, and he soon realised that the grandfather clock wasn’t working. Then he saw that Jasmine wasn’t working. And then, when he went into the kitchen, he saw the French court clock, Claudette de Seconds, sitting on the floor. In a fit of temper she’d jumped off the wall. She was sick of all the noise - especially Mog Og running around shouting. She missed life at the French court. One of her hands had fallen off, and she hadn’t bothered to put her make-up on or to do her hair. Her false eyelashes had also fallen off.

Miles picked her up off the floor and quickly went to make a phone call. He wasn’t thinking straight, and he went to use the pretend 1920s phone, which wasn’t even connected.

“Hello,” said Miles. “Is that the clock-and-watch hospital?”

“At your service,” answered Mabble Merlin.

As soon as Miles put the phone down there was a knock at the door, and Miles and Karl Bridges picked up George and carried him to Mabble Merlin’s collection van. Miles then took Jasmine off the wall and handed her to Mabble Merlin. Then he gave him Omega Horizon, and then he handed over Claudette de Seconds.

Mabble Merlin sped off in the van to get them all quickly to hospital, and when they arrived Milly was very pleased to see them all.