Clementine Rose and the Treasure Box 6 (6 page)

Clementine was out collecting the mail with Uncle Digby when Basil Hobbs delivered a car load of packing boxes to Penberthy House the following week. Clementine and the children had painted the signs with Ana the day after the meeting and Basil had put them up all around the village and in Highton Mill too. But then the children had gone away and Penberthy House had been busy with more guests. Clementine couldn't wait to see Tilda
and Teddy and Araminta again and to start sorting the attic.

Basil balanced several boxes and followed Lady Clarissa upstairs. When he saw the treasure trove in the attic, he was tempted to stay and help.

‘Clarissa, if you don't mind me saying, please make sure that you check the children's decisions on what can go into the jumble sale,' the man said as he spied a stunning Tiffany lamp on top of a mahogany side table.

‘Yes, I certainly will, Basil. I thought that they could be in charge of the more ordinary household items.' Lady Clarissa picked up a cracked pie plate. ‘Like this. Uncle Digby and I will look after everything else.'

Basil wandered to the other end of the room. ‘Oh my heavens, where did you get him?'

‘I presume you've found Theo.' Lady Clarissa edged through the furniture to join the man. ‘He's very handsome, don't you think?'

‘He'd scare the socks off anyone,' Basil grinned.

‘That's why he's up here. He was in the library until one of our guests took a walk in the middle of the night. The poor woman screamed so loudly I thought there must have been an intruder. When I found her she was as white as a sheet and frozen to the spot, demanding that I call the police and have the animal shot. I didn't have the heart to tell her that my grandfather had already done that about eighty years earlier. The next day Uncle Digby and I heaved and hefted Theo up here. You know, he's awful but I just can't bear to part with him. He's been in the family for such a long time.'

‘He'd have to be sent to auction anyway, Clarissa. There must be collectors who delight in that sort of thing. It's not my cup of tea but someone would love him,' Basil said as he cast his eyes over the rest of the bric-a-brac. ‘I should get going. The children couldn't fit in the car with me and all the boxes but they'll be up soon.'

Lady Clarissa had just farewelled Basil and was on her way to the kitchen when she heard the back door slam.

‘Are they here yet?' Clementine called as she almost bumped into her mother. She'd been bursting to see the Hobbs children again for days.

‘Hello darling, did you have a good walk?'

Clementine nodded.

The doorbell rang.

‘They're here!' Clementine raced into the hall and skidded along the polished timber floorboards in her socks. She wrenched open the front door.

‘Hello,' Clementine said.

‘Hi,' the twins chorused.

‘Hello,' Araminta said.

Lady Clarissa walked up behind Clementine. ‘Good morning. Your father dropped off the boxes a few minutes ago. Come in.'

‘How was your grandmother's birthday celebration?' Lady Clarissa asked.

‘It was fun. Granny had a huge cake and it had about a hundred candles on it,' Tilda said.

‘It was only eighty, Tilda,' said Araminta, shaking her head.

‘That's even more than Aunt Violet,' Clementine said. She couldn't imagine that many people in the world were older than her. ‘Can we go upstairs, Mummy?'

Lady Clarissa nodded. ‘I think I might help for a little while. There's a lot to get through. And then I have to make some phone calls and do some paperwork.'

Clementine nodded. ‘We can do it, Mummy. I promise.'

Lady Clarissa smiled at the eager foursome. ‘Come on, then. Let's go and do battle, shall we?'

The children followed Lady Clarissa up to the attic. She had already pulled back the shutters to let in as much light as possible.

‘Now, I thought you could find anything that was household related. Like the vacuum, and the pots and pans down the back. There's
a huge number of old kitchen utensils, too. Why don't you stack them into boxes and then I can have a look afterwards. Uncle Digby and I will take care of all the decorative things and the furniture and maybe Aunt Violet can help with the clothes.'

‘Oh no, Mummy, please don't sell the dress-ups,' Clementine begged.

‘You know, Mummy said that when the ballet school is up and running, she'd have a concert at the end of every year. Some of the clothes would be perfect for that,' Araminta said.

Clementine nodded. ‘That's a great idea.'

Her mother relented with a smile. ‘Okay, Clementine, the clothes can stay. Now, does everyone know what they're looking for?'

‘Yes,' the children chorused. Clementine, Tilda and Teddy headed straight to the far end of the attic.

‘I think there's an old mixer down here,' Clementine said.

Araminta got started on a huge old dresser full of cutlery and utensils.

Lady Clarissa spent about fifteen minutes watching them. When she was satisfied that they weren't about to put anything especially valuable in the boxes, she headed downstairs.

‘Hey, look at this,' Araminta called. Clementine and the twins made their way to the other side of the attic.

‘What is it?' Tilda asked.

Clementine looked at the bowl. ‘I've seen one of those before,' she said. She suddenly remembered. ‘Oh! That's an old-fashioned toilet.'

‘Yuck,' said Araminta. She peered inside. ‘At least it's clean.'

Teddy looked at it too. ‘I wonder how many of your relatives have used that.'

Clementine shrugged. The children continued their sorting and packing and were surprised that they already had six boxes of household items for the stall.

‘Does anyone feel like a drink?' Clementine asked.

The children nodded. Araminta wiped some beads of perspiration from her brow. ‘I thought you were never going to ask.'

‘Let's get some morning tea and come back later,' Clementine said.

Just as they were about to leave, there was a loud thud.

‘What was that?' Teddy said.

The children looked to see if anything had fallen over.

‘Probably just something in one of the cupboards falling down,' Clementine said confidently. She walked over to the first wardrobe and opened the doors, but everything was still in place. She wandered along and opened each one but couldn't see anything unusual.

There was another thud, this time louder than the first.

Araminta jumped. ‘Can we go?' she said, her knees trembling.

‘It's all right. I've been up here lots of times,' Clementine said. ‘It's probably a mouse.'

Teddy had wandered off into the far corner of the room and discovered a narrow door.

‘Clementine, where does this go?' the boy called.

Clementine scampered over with Tilda and Araminta behind her. She couldn't remember seeing the door before. Maybe her mother had moved something out of the way earlier.

‘Open it,' she said.

Teddy turned the handle, wondering what he'd find.

It was certainly not what he was expecting.

‘Ahhhh!' the twins and Araminta screamed in unison. ‘It's a skeleton!'

The three Hobbs children raced off towards the stairs. Clementine giggled. So much for the twins wanting to find a ghost. But Clementine wasn't frightened. She peeked in.

‘Hello, who are you?' she said. She was about to leave when she heard a scraping noise. It was loud and didn't sound like any of the mice she'd come across before. She jumped and ran down the attic stairs, along the hall and down
the back stairs to the kitchen. She found her friends all talking at once, telling Lady Clarissa about the thuds and the skeleton in the other room.

‘Mummy, I told the children there was nothing up there but when I looked at the skeleton, I heard a scraping noise and I didn't know what it was either. Where did the skeleton come from? Is it someone in the family?' Clementine fired the questions at her mother.

Lady Clarissa directed the children to sit down. She pulled a large pitcher of homemade lemonade out of the fridge and set it down on the table.

‘The skeleton's nothing to worry about. I'd forgotten about him actually,' she said. ‘He first belonged to your great-grandfather, Clementine. He was a doctor and that skeleton was affectionately known as Claude. We inherited him. Your grandmother used to love playing tricks on your grandfather with him. She'd put him in all sorts of odd places around
the house when I was a girl and then wait for your grandpa to bellow. She and I loved it. Uncle Digby used to get in on the act too, I think,' Lady Clarissa explained.

The old man walked into the room balancing a tea tray. He'd just served morning tea to the guests who'd arrived the previous evening.

‘What did I do?' he asked, setting the tray on the bench near the sink.

‘The children discovered Claude upstairs in the attic,' Lady Clarissa explained. ‘Do you remember that time Mummy and I took Claude and set him up in Daddy's office chair in the library? The poor man almost had a heart attack when he spun the chair around and went to sit down.'

‘Oh yes, that was funny. But I think the best one was when we put him in the back of your father's car with a hat and a coat. Your father was halfway to Highton Mill before he realised who his passenger was,' Uncle Digby said with a giggle. ‘Although that was very silly of us.
In hindsight, the poor man could have had a nasty accident.'

The children listened to the stories and felt much better about the skeleton.

‘But that still doesn't explain the thuds and the scraping sound,' Araminta said, frowning.

‘It could have been anything,' said Uncle Digby. ‘And I might just set a few rat traps in case the builders let some creatures in while the roof was being done.'

‘Was it Lavender?' Lady Clarissa asked. ‘Or Pharaoh?' Both animals were missing from their usual spot in Lavender's basket.

Clementine shook her head. ‘I didn't see either of them up there and usually Pharaoh meows so loudly to let you know he's around.'

‘I wonder if it really could be a ghost,' Tilda said. ‘Daddy says that all old houses have ghosts.'

Araminta flinched. ‘I don't want to go up there again.'

‘I've lived here all my life and I've never seen any ghosts. Why don't you go and play in the garden for a little while and get some fresh air,' Lady Clarissa suggested. ‘You can do some more sorting later, if you like.'

While the attic was a treasure trove, outside the sun was shining and the skeleton had put the visitors off going back upstairs for now.

‘Do you want to play hide-and-seek?' Clementine asked.

‘Okay,' Tilda and Teddy said at the same time.

Araminta nodded.

Lady Clarissa set a plate of chocolate-chip biscuits on the table.

‘Why don't you take these into the garden,' she said. ‘I'll see if I can find Lavender and Pharaoh and shoo them out.'

Before she could move, a squeal came from the sitting room.

‘Oh, oh, what on earth?' a woman called loudly. ‘Good gracious, there's a monster in here.'

‘Oops! I think our guests have just met Pharaoh.' Lady Clarissa dashed off.

Clementine giggled and the others did too.