Alice-Miranda in the Alps (17 page)

The children followed Nina and her grandfather through the door and onto a large landing. Herr Dettwiller flicked a switch, revealing a wide staircase with an ornate cast-iron balustrade. Though the paint on it was flaking, the marble stair treads hinted at the grandeur that lay beneath.

‘Are we going to the cellar?' Millie asked, noting the damp air.

‘Those are the fanciest cellar stairs I've ever seen,' Jacinta said as she glanced around at the shiny tiles that covered the walls and ceiling.

‘What's down there?' Sloane asked.

‘Wait and see,' Nina replied mysteriously.

The children followed Nina and her grandfather into the unknown. When the old man neared the bottom, he reached for another switch. This time the entire chamber lit up.

‘Whoa! What is this place?' Lucas gasped, his voice bouncing around the walls.

The children spilled onto a platform beneath a dome ceiling lined with glossy cream and sage-green tiles. There was a pile of paint tins and a ladder propped up against the wall beside stacks of tiles and some other tools. Running through the centre of the chamber was a train track that stopped abruptly at the rocky wall to their right. Behind them, printed in the tiles, were the words ‘Monta Rosa'.

‘Where are we?' Sep whispered.

‘It's a secret,' Nina said. ‘Opa has been restoring the old railway station. We were going to put some of the instruments down here because the acoustics are amazing.'

Millie frowned. ‘Why is there a railway station beneath your house?'

Herr Dettwiller shuffled to the edge of the platform. ‘This building wasn't always a house,'
he told the children. ‘Back in the early nineteenth century, it was the first hotel in Zermatt – the Monta Rosa.'

‘Why did the hotel close?' Alice-Miranda asked.

‘It was during the war,' the old man said.

‘But Switzerland wasn't in the war,' Caprice piped up.

‘No, but we are in the centre of Europe and it was impossible for the tourists to come. My parents were young back then. Papa had inherited the hotel from his father, though his heart was never in it. We moved away to Basel and this place was locked up tight. It was my wife who wanted to come back here,' the old man explained. ‘But, alas, I was a watchmaker, not a hotelier. Although we raised our daughter in Zermatt, the hotel was never reopened. I had a clock shop and we rattled around for a long time until I started the museum.'

‘There would have been steam trains back then,' Sep said. ‘Were they able to come down here?'

Herr Dettwiller nodded, his face lighting up. ‘Clever boy! That was precisely the conundrum. The guests complained of getting covered in soot, so after a couple of years the trains stopped at the main station instead. They used handcars to take
passengers and their luggage to their hotels. Eventually, the horse-drawn carriages became the favoured mode of transport, while the tunnel was only used for the transfer of luggage and goods.'

‘Hotels?' Sep asked.

‘See the platform on the other side?' the old man said, pointing ahead of them. Sep and the children nodded. ‘Although it is covered up now, there was an entrance to the Grand Hotel Von Zwicky too, but it has been sealed tight for many, many years,' Herr Dettwiller explained.

‘Where does the tunnel lead?' Lucas asked.

‘To the railway station in Zermatt, but it is boarded over now too. You wouldn't even know it was there,' the old man replied.

Sep and Lucas leapt down onto the tracks. At the end of the line was a large handcar with a seesawing handle.

‘Does this still work?' Sep asked, jumping onto it.

Nina's grandfather nodded. ‘Be careful not to go too far. It is dark down there.'

‘This place is incredible. You have to reopen the museum and finish it,' Alice-Miranda said. ‘People should see this.'

Lucas and Sep stood opposite one another, pumping the handle up and down as the old carriage wheels grated on the metal, making the most hideous screech. Everyone cringed at the noise. The two boys soon disappeared out of sight, and the noise with them.

‘Come back!' Jacinta called into the darkness.

For a few moments there was nothing but silence.

‘Stop messing around,' Millie shouted, her voice echoing back to her.

‘Perhaps they don't know how to make the handcar go in the other direction,' Nina's grandfather said. ‘You have to pull the lever the other way, boys,' he shouted into the tunnel.

There was a clattering sound as the handcar came back into view.

‘Thanks for the tip, Herr Dettwiller,' Lucas said as the contraption slowed to a stop. ‘We thought we were going to have to push it back.'

‘Can we all go for a ride?' Millie asked.

With a nod from her grandfather, Nina turned to the others with a wide grin. ‘All aboard the Monta Rosa Express!'

The children returned from their adventure just after midday, bubbling with excitement. As the weather hadn't improved, they were going to have lunch with their parents at a traditional Swiss cafe on the main street, not far from the hotel. The children gathered in the foyer to meet the adults when Alice-Miranda realised she'd left her earmuffs in her room.

She ran upstairs to collect them. When the girl reached the first-floor landing, she spotted a familiar figure. ‘Frau Doerflinger?' she called.

The woman at the end of the hallway hesitated before slowly turning around. ‘Oh, you,' she said flatly.

Alice-Miranda smiled. ‘Hello. Uncle Florian mentioned you were here.'

‘I leave tomorrow,' Delphine replied.

‘We've just had the most amazing morning,' Alice-Miranda began, her eyes widening. ‘My friend Nina gave us a guided tour of Herr Dettwiller's Mechanical Musical Cabinet Museum. We got to see the most incredible thing!'

The old woman nodded and began to turn away.

‘You won't believe it, but there's an old railway station
underneath
the museum. Well, it's actually under the road between the museum and the hotel.
Nina's grandfather told us that trains used to bring passengers all the way up here back in the early nineteenth century.'

Frau Doerflinger turned back and stared at the child. ‘It can't be …'

‘I told you you wouldn't believe it,' Alice-Miranda said with a grin.

‘Did you
see
it for yourself?' the old woman asked.

‘Only half of it,' the child answered happily. ‘The other side of the train track was boarded up, but Herr Dettwiller says there is another platform underneath this hotel – beneath our very feet! I can't think where the stairs leading to it would be. Maybe Uncle Florian or Aunt Giselle will know.'

‘Really?' Delphine said, arching an eyebrow. ‘That
is
amazing.'

Alice-Miranda nodded. ‘We thought so too. Anyway, I'd better go or Mummy and Daddy will be wondering where I've got to. We're going for lunch. Goodbye, Frau Doerflinger!'

With that, Alice-Miranda skipped away to her room.

Frau Doerflinger stood there, stunned. She still had to find the entrance but at least she now knew
there was access via the museum across the road. Perhaps someone could find it from there. ‘I might as well employ that child,' she muttered to herself. ‘She would do a much better job than the idiots who work for me.'

Valerie Wiederman rubbed her eyes and pinched the top of her nose. She'd spent all morning on the telephone – or at least pretending to be – going through the list of past guests and writing down their reasons for not returning this season. There had been knee replacements and elderly parents, children who'd had accidents and businesses gone bust. She scratched her head and wondered what to put next. Creative writing had never been her forte.

The telephone on her desk buzzed and she picked it up. Valerie listened intently, then, without saying a word, she replaced the handset and stood up.

‘Herr Schlappi,' she called.

The man was standing just inside the door, polishing its brass frame. He stopped and looked up at her. ‘Yes?'

‘Could you listen out for the telephone?' she asked, smiling sweetly. ‘I have to make an inventory of the housekeeping cupboard upstairs. I won't be long.'

The man nodded and returned to his polishing.

Valerie rode the lift to the third floor, walked to the end of the hall and rang the bell. The door opened and she walked inside. The young woman smiled and went to kiss her aunt's cheek, but the older woman ignored her and turned on her heel.

‘Aunt Delphine, is something the matter?' Valerie asked. She had barely seen her aunt since the woman had arrived, as Delphine had a habit of disappearing for hours on end.

‘Of course something is the matter,' the old woman snapped. ‘You know very well the deal I had hoped to close last week is now in ruins.'

Valerie gulped. ‘I did everything you asked. There are no guests … I have told so many lies.'

‘And you will tell many more before we are done.' Frau Doerflinger sighed and rubbed her temples. ‘Stop being so nice to everyone too. I heard you going gaga over those brats.'

‘I like children,' Valerie swallowed.

‘You will learn,' Delphine scoffed.

Valerie wrung her hands together. ‘I promise, Aunt Delphine, I will be the best manager the Grand Hotel Fanger has ever seen.'

The old woman's eyes flickered up at her niece. ‘The Grand Hotel Fanger,' Delphine repeated, enjoying the way it rolled off the tongue. ‘I hadn't even thought of changing the name, but of course we will. Fanger's is a much more reputable brand. Valerie, if you want to be the manager anytime soon, you must find the hotel blueprints.'

Valerie bit her lip. ‘I have never seen them. If I were to hazard a guess, I would say the Baron most likely keeps them in the safe in his apartment.'

‘Then I need the key too, unless you happen to know where the entrance to the phantom railway station under the hotel is.'

‘Actually, I do,' Valerie said, her eyes lighting up.

‘What?!' A wave of crimson crept up Delphine's neck. ‘Why haven't you told me before now?'

‘You never asked,' Valerie said, fidgeting nervously. Her mind raced. As far as she knew, the old station had been boarded up for decades. The woman wondered what it could possibly have to do with her aunt's acquisition of the hotel but she knew better than to ask. ‘It's in the basement. There's a door at the back of the boot room, but I don't think it has been opened in years.'

‘How do you know all this?' her aunt demanded.

‘The Baron told me,' Valerie replied with a shrug. ‘He said he planned to reopen it one day, to entice guests back to the hotel. I was worried that he might do it, so I took the key and hid it.'

Her aunt grabbed her by the arms and shook her. ‘Do you still have the key?' she asked, her eyes were wild. ‘Tell me you have the key!'

Valerie nodded frantically. ‘Y-yes. It's old and I knew that he would never be able to find another like it. He seems to have forgotten about it, anyway.'

‘You are a genius, my dear girl. A genius!' Delphine kissed the girl's cheek and hugged Valerie so hard she almost squeezed the life out of her. ‘Bring it to me. Bring it to me now!'