Alice-Miranda led the charge across the cobblestoned courtyard toward Grimthorpe House. From her position on the dimly lit veranda, the house mistress, Mrs. Howard, peered out into the darkness, a flurry of bother frothing on her lips.
“Oh, thank heavens!” she exclaimed. “I was worrying myself into an early grave. Where on earth have you been? Dinner was an hour ago. Now hurry up inside. It’s cool out, and the last thing I need is a house full of coughs and splutters.”
The girls poured into the hallway, one after the other. Mrs. Howard gathered them around her like a mother hen, locked the front door and turned to face her charges.
“Sorry, Mrs. Howard, we should have phoned you,” Alice-Miranda began. “Miss Grimm and Mr. Grump invited us back to the study for hot chocolate and marshmallows and we lost track of the time. Miss Grimm was telling us about their honeymoon in Africa. It all sounded so wonderful. They went on a safari and they saw elephants and lions and hippos—”
“And guess what, Howie?” Millie interrupted as she rushed through from behind Alice-Miranda. “Two monkeys invaded their bedroom and stole Miss Grimm’s lipstick and when she was telling us about it, I almost jumped out of my skin. She’s good at scary stories, that’s for sure.”
Mrs. Howard rolled her eyes. “Imagine that! Well, run along, girls and brush your teeth. I’ll be in to turn the lights off in ten minutes.”
The girls began to disappear through doorways along opposite sides of the long corridor. Alice-Miranda and Millie were headed toward their room when Jacinta whispered Millie’s name. She then opened and closed her hands, signaling the number ten. “Ten minutes. Okay?” Jacinta asked.
“What was that fo–?” Alice-Miranda began. Millie promptly put her hand over Alice-Miranda’s mouth and gave her a gentle shove into their bedroom.
Millie shut the door and flopped down onto her bed. “Midnight meeting in Jacinta’s room.”
“Midnight! What fun! But it’s school tomorrow,” Alice-Miranda said as she unbuttoned her shirt. “Won’t that upset Mrs. Howard? I don’t think she was very happy about our staying out late tonight.” She retrieved her pajamas from under her pillow and began to get changed.
“Don’t worry about Howie,” Millie replied. “She was just pretending to be annoyed. She could have phoned the kitchen if she was that worried. Anyway, the girls on the corridor always have a ‘midnight meeting’ on the first night back.”
“We didn’t last term,” Alice-Miranda replied.
Millie explained that this was because Alethea wouldn’t allow anyone except her friends last term. Apparently the meeting was not really at midnight anyway, more like quarter to nine, and usually someone fell asleep by quarter past and everyone got off to bed by ten at the latest. After vacations, when the girls got to stay up later, it was hard to go back to the routine of eight-thirty bedtime for at least a couple of nights.
“We can talk about what we did over vacation,” Millie informed her friend.
“But, Millie, there are some things we can’t talk about from vacation,” Alice-Miranda reminded her.
During the school vacation, Alice-Miranda, Jacinta and Millie had far more adventure and excitement than any of them had bargained for. Jacinta had gone to stay with Alice-Miranda for the whole break. The two girls quickly found themselves at the mercy of a rather cranky boy and a dastardly stranger. When Millie arrived to join in the fun for Aunt Charlotte’s birthday party, things went from bad to worse. A case of mistaken identity saw dear old Aunty Gee kidnapped by a gang of rogues intent on getting their hands on the Highton-Smith-Kennington-Joneses’ cook and her formula for Just Add Water Freeze-Dried Foods. The fact that Mrs. Oliver and Aunty Gee looked like twins had a lot to do with the confusion. In the end Aunty Gee returned safely and Alice-Miranda’s bravery ensured that the crooks were captured, but the girls had been sworn to secrecy. Since Aunty Gee also happened to be the Queen, her future freedom depended on their silence. Indeed, she would never be allowed anywhere on her own again if news of such misadventures reached the palace.
“Do we take snacks?” Alice-Miranda asked. “Because Mrs. Oliver packed a whole tin of her chocolate fudge.”
“Yum.” Millie licked her lips. “Treats are always welcome. But don’t expect to have any leftovers.”
Alice-Miranda and Millie finished changing into their pajamas, grabbed their toothbrushes and hurried to the bathroom at the end of the hallway. The place was a hive of activity as all of the girls from the ground floor readied themselves for bed.
Not five minutes later, the bathroom was empty and Mrs. Howard was patroling the corridor, poking her head into each room, saying her goodnights and flicking off the lights.
Alice-Miranda and Millie lay in the dark, watching the clock as the minutes ticked by slowly until eight-forty-five.
“It’s time,” Millie whispered as she pushed back the covers and sat up, swiveling her legs around to scoop her slippers from the floor.
Alice-Miranda hopped out of bed and pulled on her bathrobe, then slid her feet into her pink slippers. “This is such fun!” She smiled. Her tummy was full of butterflies. “Are you sure Mrs. Howard won’t mind?”
“Trust me,” Millie replied. “It’s a first night tradition. Well, most of the time.” She grabbed Alice-Miranda’s tiny hand and they scampered to the door.