Alice-Miranda In New York 5 Read Free Page B

at the bicycles with their pedestrian carts behind.
    â€˜Count me out, my dear,’ Dolly replied, shaking her head. ‘I prefer my arms and legs attached.’
    â€˜Excuse me, Mr O’Leary, do you know what the hold-up is?’ Alice-Miranda asked the uniformed driver.
    The kindly man glanced at Alice-Miranda in the rear-vision mirror and said in his lovely Irish lilt, ‘Oh lass, this is just the regular Saturday night. This place never stops, you know. Three o’clock in the morning and there are still thousands on the streets.’
    â€˜It’s electric!’ Alice-Miranda bubbled. ‘There’s something about this city. I can’t wait to start school on Monday.’
    â€˜I know Jilly is looking forward to it too,’ Cecelia replied.
    For the next month or so, Alice-Miranda would be attending Mrs Kimmel’s School for Girls, on East 75th Street. The headmistress just happened to be an old friend of Cecelia’s from her own school days. With a diplomat father, Jilly Hobbs grew up attending schools in several different countries before returning to the United States to go to college. Jilly had made a career teaching girls in New YorkCity and was now headmistress of the prestigious Mrs Kimmel’s.
    The car continued up Sixth Avenue and into Central Park.
    â€˜Oh, Mummy, look at the carriages. Aren’t the horses beautiful? Can we ride in one? Please?’ Alice-Miranda begged.
    â€˜Don’t you remember? We did that last time we were here,’ her mother replied.
    â€˜Yes, but that was when I was only four,’ Alice-Miranda reminded her. ‘And now I’m almost eight.’
    â€˜Of course,’ her mother smiled. ‘It doesn’t seem that long since we last came together but, yes, you’re right.’
    The car wound its way through Central Park, exiting at the 65th Street Transverse and crossing Fifth Avenue. Veiled in scaffolding, Highton’s department store took up the entire block between East 64th and East 65th, with its frontage on Fifth Avenue. A grand set of gates at the rear of the building opened automatically. Hidden behind the gothic facade, a circular driveway led through a formal garden and spiralled downwards. Another set of elaborate metal gates, adorned with cherubs and vines and other creatures among the ironwork, slid open to reveala private parking garage and equally decorative subterranean entrance to the building.
    â€˜Well, here we are.’ Cecelia Highton-Smith slid forward and gathered her handbag and jacket. Seamus O’Leary held open the door as the group alighted from the vehicle.
    â€˜Good evening all.’ An impeccably dressed man emerged from the entrance. He had a shock of wavy white hair and wore a red polka dot bow tie.
    â€˜Mr Gruber!’ Alice-Miranda raced towards the gentleman and immediately launched herself at his middle.
    He lifted her up in one swift action and Alice-Miranda gave him a smacking great kiss on the cheek.
    â€˜Oh, my dear girl, you do make an old man happy.’ Gilbert Gruber put Alice-Miranda back down. ‘I think you are just the tonic I’ve needed.’
    â€˜I’m so excited to be here, Mr Gruber. I’m starting school on Monday and then Mummy and Daddy are going to take me all over the city after school and we’re going to ride the subway and pedicabs and have the best time ever and I think Mrs Oliver might even let me eat hot dogs from the street stalls and giant pretzels and we’re going to the Museum of NaturalHistory and the Met and I don’t remember where else but I’m not going to waste a minute.’
    â€˜Whew! I’m tired just hearing it,’ Gilbert grinned.
    Cecelia Highton-Smith greeted the old man with a kiss on each cheek. He embraced Mrs Oliver like a long-lost friend and firmly shook Hugh’s hand.
    â€˜How are you, Gil?’ Hugh Kennington-Jones slapped the old man on the back.
    â€˜Well, I have