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    Two Edwardian Adventures
    Two Edwardian Adventures
    Two Edwardian Adventures
    Ebook165 pages2 hours

    Two Edwardian Adventures

    By Cecilia Peartree

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    About this ebook

    This book consists of 2 light-hearted novellas of about 16,000 words each, set in Edwardian times, mostly in Edinburgh, and linked by some of the characters involved.
    ‘Adventure at the National Exhibition’ is a tale of old and new illusions, some of which are shattered by the end of the story. Betsy Martin is captivated by the acts at Edinburgh’s Empire Palace of Varieties, but she isn’t so keen on her older sister Kirstie’s friend Mr Hamilton, who is with them. Later, at the National Exhibition of 1908, the girls encounter one of the performers from the variety show again, along with two policemen and a lady from Corstorphine, but they have no idea how adventurous the day will be or how much it will change at least one of their lives.
    ‘Adventure on the Scotch Express’ is a tale of several people with something to hide who share a compartment on the Special Scotch Express between York and Edinburgh in 1909. Suffragette Kirstie Martin has persuaded her brother to put on a disguise to travel with her, but they have no idea that the young artist in the corner isn’t what he seems either. Even the respectable ladies from Morningside and the ticket collector are acting strangely, and the two policemen are at their wits’ end. It isn’t until the suffragette march in Edinburgh the following day that everything is finally sorted out.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCecilia Peartree
    Release dateJul 27, 2014
    ISBN9781310461170
    Two Edwardian Adventures
    Author

    Cecilia Peartree

    Cecilia Peartree is the pen name of a writer from Edinburgh. She has dabbled in various genres so far, including science fiction and humour, but she keeps returning to a series of 'cosy' mysteries set in a small town in Fife.The first full length novel in the series, 'Crime in the Community', and the fifth 'Frozen in Crime are 'perma-free' on all outlets.The Quest series is set in the different Britain of the 1950s. The sixth novel in this series, 'Quest for a Father' was published in March 2017..As befits a cosy mystery writer, Cecilia Peartree lives in the leafy suburbs with her cats.

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      Book preview

      Two Edwardian Adventures - Cecilia Peartree

      Two Edwardian Adventures

      Cecilia Peartree

      Copyright Cecilia Peartree 2014

      Smashwords edition

      All rights reserved

      CONTENTS

      Adventure at the National Exhibition

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

      Chapter 9

      Chapter 10

      Chapter 11

      Adventure on the Scotch Express

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      Chapter Eight

      Chapter Nine

      Chapter Ten

      Historical Notes

      Adventure at the National Exhibition

      Chapter 1

      Look, Kirstie! The Tumbling Tambellinis!

      Betsy Martin tugged at her sister’s hand to attract her attention as they walked up the steps and into the Empire Palace of Varieties. The poster showed two men flying through the air, one holding on to a trapeze with his feet and to the other man with his hands.

      Kirstie made a little noise of annoyance and kept walking.

      Are they on the programme tonight? Betsy persisted. Do you think they’ll really do that? Here?

      She could easily imagine herself on the flying trapeze, dancing in mid-air high above an amazed audience, dressed in a shiny and yet suitably modest outfit – perhaps a pierrot costume – and looking down on her big sister, who had her hands clasped together and her mouth hanging open in wonder.

      Kirstie pulled at her hand to drag her along. She almost over-balanced, but made a recovery and caught up with her sister. You couldn’t be an acrobat, after all, without a good sense of balance.

      Betsy was a little too old at the age of twelve to feel over-awed by the occasion, but she couldn’t help being excited by the crowds, and the height of the ceiling in the auditorium with its impressive chandelier, and the big red velvet curtain with the gold tassels that hung at the front of the stage. She wondered what treats lurked behind it, waiting to delight them all during the evening. Her feet gave a skip, which she tried hard to conceal from her older sister.

      Sssh! said Kirstie. And stop all that jigging around. Everybody’s looking at us.

      The only thing Betsy wished was that she could have borrowed something more grown-up to wear to the theatre, but Kirstie was very possessive about her meagre wardrobe and the family didn’t have money to burn. Betsy was conscious she looked like a wee girl, as well as behaving like one, in last year’s skirt, now so short that if she grew any taller her knees would be visible, an old-fashioned jacket that didn’t match the skirt, and the funny little hat that perched on top of her curly reddish brown hair.

      Kirstie’s young man, Mr Hamilton, hadn’t been very pleased about Betsy coming along with them. He had tried to tell Mrs Martin he couldn’t afford to take both of them out, but their mother had pre-empted that by giving him Betsy’s ticket money and saying firmly that she didn’t approve of young couples being out in the dark alone together. So Betsy was a kind of chaperone really. That sounded quite grown-up.

      They found their seats, towards the back of the stalls.

      Just sit down and don’t make any more fuss, said Kirstie. She turned her back firmly on her sister and began to talk to Mr Hamilton. She giggled a lot, which wasn’t really like her, and Betsy had no doubt that she was batting her eyelashes too.

      Betsy scowled at the man in the row in front of them whose head seemed to be much bigger than it should be. She would have to wriggle to one side to see past him. She experimented with that.

      Stop it! said Kirstie without even turning round. You’re making the whole row shake with your fidgeting.

      Can I read the programme?

      No! I’m looking at it just now!

      Betsy knew her sister wasn’t looking at the programme. That would have been an awful waste when she could have been staring into Mr Hamilton’s eyes. They weren’t even very nice eyes in Betsy’s opinion, being small and deep-set so that you couldn’t see what colour they were or what sort of expression they had. He always seemed to be frowning when he looked at her though, as if he disapproved of what he saw.

      Maybe if she folded the seat back and sat on top of the fold she would get a better view... the next moment she hit the floor with a horrible crash.

      As she clambered to her feet, she heard Kirstie hissing, Sit still, you wee monster! You’re showing us all up.

      The people in the row in front turned round and made shooshing noises and she thought she heard Mr Hamilton saying, If that was my sister she’d get a good skelp round the ear.

      Betsy folded down the seat again and sat in it properly, sulking. But soon it was time for the pianist to start playing, and then the red and gold curtains opened and the show started.

      First there was a man singing, which wasn’t all that exciting, except to get people in the mood to watch the rest of the show. Betsy recognised one of the songs. Her mother often sang it to herself around the house. After he had finished, he began to talk about all the other acts they were going to see that night. Betsy’s interest grew as he mentioned the Tumbling Tambellinis and their acrobatic exploits, and she shivered when he told them there would be a sorcerer. She couldn’t resist tugging at Kirstie’s sleeve again at that point to make sure her sister was still paying attention.

      What? said Kirstie crossly, without turning round.

      I’m scared of the sorcerer! whispered Betsy, not wanting Mr Hamilton to hear.

      Hmph! said Kirstie.

      Betsy heard her muttering something to Mr Hamilton, and they both laughed.

      This outing wasn’t turning out to be nearly as special as it had seemed beforehand.

      But then there was a woman with some performing dogs, and a pair of male comics, and after that the first man came back and sang another song, and then it was time for the Tumbling Tambellinis. They wore the same sparkly outfits as she had seen in the poster, but there was a woman with them this time and she was dressed up in the pierrot costume of Betsy’s daydreams. At first the woman just had to stand and watch or hold out hoops while they did some acrobatics, standing on each other’s shoulders, tumbling head over heels across the stage and through the hoops. Then one of the men announced that Belle Chance would be ascending to the trapeze and would fly through the air and see if one of them could catch her. He asked the people in the audience to be very quiet in case they disturbed her concentration.

      Betsy held her breath as Belle Chance swarmed up the rope towards the high trapeze. She noticed everything about the woman’s costume, from the hat that must surely be glued on to her fluffy blonde hair, to the white gloves that protected her hands from the rough texture of the rope, to the silver slippers that completed the outfit. She was determined to remember it all later and to re-enact it in her mind a hundred times.

      Do you think anybody ever calls her Miss Chance? said Mr Hamilton in a loud whisper. Betsy turned and glared at him. She would never forgive him if it was this interruption that caused the woman to lose her grip on the trapeze and plummet to the stage, broken and battered.

      But nothing terrible happened. The audience gave a collective gasp when Belle Chance, after swinging to and fro on the trapeze for a while hanging by her hands, swung across high above the stage and then let go – but both the Tumbling Tambellinis had appeared at the far side to catch her. Then they were all flying to and fro, swinging from hand to hand, a human chain of light and wonder, until the very last moment when they all dropped back to the floor and took a bow. Someone came on stage with a bouquet of spring flowers for Belle Chance.

      That was – lovely! whispered Betsy to her sister. She didn’t dare say anything more. Kirstie half-turned and gave her a little smile, and then a moment later her head was nestled close to Mr Hamilton’s in that annoying way.

      The mood became more sombre for a while as a man and a woman sang a very sad song together, ending with them parting and going off at different sides of the stage as if they had quarrelled. It made Betsy think of the last time she had seen her father, when he and her mother had shouted at each other about something silly and then he had gone off and been killed in an accident at work. She had just put a hand up to her face to brush away a tear when the stage lights came back on, only not as brightly as before, so that there were shadows in the corners, and from one of the shadows a man in a dark hooded cloak strolled forward. He peered out at the audience from under the hood, and the lighting made his eyes look very blue and piercing, as if he could see everything in the theatre. Her hand stayed where it was for a moment longer, and her muscles tensed. She had the feeling of not wanting to move in case he saw her, which was ridiculous as she sat in the middle of a row of people, all much larger than she was, and the row was in the middle of a series of other rows which were full of other people too. She wasn’t nearly important enough for anybody to notice her.

      This must be the sorcerer. Smoke curled round his feet as he paced the stage. Wasn’t it dangerous to produce smoke in a theatre? No smoke without fire, thought Betsy. She shivered. Music played, but it wasn’t jolly and tuneful as it had been before. There was an unsettling rhythm to it, like somebody creeping along in the dark and then getting a fright and jumping backwards.

      Without saying a word, the sorcerer produced a bouquet of black

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