There’s been a big explosion at Fernbank Cottage, where Dot and Mr Holmes ended up after following Angharad through the forest as she chased Laetitia. What does the little Welsh Terrier know…? Whatever it is will have to wait while the funny curly-haired man sorts everything out…
“Oh fine, fine” said the curly-headed man over his shoulder, as Laetitia jumped off her horse and came over to him, holding her hands out. With a lot of puffing and panting he wriggled his way back out of his window, and stood up, pulling hs jacket straight where it had got all rucked up. “Never been better! Just a little hitch! Back to the - ”
“- drawing board!” said Laetitia, smiling and brushing some of the bits from the explosion off his strange grassy suit.
The curly-headed man winked at Dot. “That’s the trouble with sisters, eh? They always know what you’re going to say next!”
“So – you must be Giles Langton then!” said Mr Holmes, his sharp eyes narrowing to slits as he puffed away on his pipe. “Giles Langton the inventor?”
“How did you know that, Mr Holmes?” asked Dot. He really was amazing!
“I am a regular reader of the ‘Chronicle of Physical Sciences’ ” said Mr Holmes. He grinned suddenly. “Mr Langton appears in that magazine quite often.”
Giles blushed.
Laetitia did too. “Oh… I’m so sorry!” she said. “I should have introduced you!” (You have to remember the Victorians thought it w as VERY IMPORTANT to be introduced to each other in the proper way!) “Mr Holmes – Dorothea - this is my brother Giles – the genius of the family!”
There was a lot of handshaking and how-do-you-do’s all round.
“And that’s why we’re all here” said Angharad to Wiz and Dot (no-one else could hear of course – apart from Mr Mouse – but he was snoring away in his hidey-hole under the shoulder of Dot’s dress, making little bubbling noises.)
“It just had to be” she went on “I just had to follow Laetitia’s scent, soon as I smelt it in the stables… I just HAD to! But I still don’t know why!” She flopped down on her side in a fed-up kind of way and rubbed her bearded little face along in the cool grass of the clearing.
“YA - ROWLLLLLL!!!”
No mistaking that sound – it was Victor the St Bernard! Everyone jumped at the big deep howl, and next minute he lolloped into the clearing, the big jowls under his chin swaying from side to side like a couple of mini-curtains.
He came flopping to a halt and lay down next to Angharad and Wizzie, panting away. “There you are!” he said. “Thought I’d lost you!”
“Lost you?” asked Wizzie, grinning at his big friend. “Who went off chasing foxes, then?”
“Ah… yes… sorry about that” said Victor, in an embarrassed kind of way. “Cheeky beggar, though! Can’t let Mr Brush get away with that kind of behaviour, can we? Not on our own land, what?”
“… and so, I decided to withdraw from the world of the universities” Giles was saying to Dot and Mr Holmes in the meantime. “And start my own laboratory, far away from stuffy professors and their old-fashioned ideas! I wanted to embrace the new age of technology, with our fair nation leading the world in her skills and manufactures! I wanted - ”
“To see if a dangerous explosive would help a housemaid in her cleaning duties?” said Mr Holmes (a bit unfair really, but Giles had been going on a bit!)
“Giles!” said Laetitia sharply. “You didn’t! You promised!”
“Oh… well… it was only a teeny little bit”, said Giles, going pink again. “I didn’t think - ”
“You almost never do!” said his sister sharply. “Honestly, Giles! Remember what happened in the laboratory at college! Professor Braddock STILL hasn’t got any eyebrows!”
“Mmm, yes, well” said Giles, going even pinker (Dot giggled to herself a bit – he looked just like her Dad did when Mum caught him out doing something silly!)
“If only he hadn’t looked in JUST at that moment when everything blew up, then his eyebrows wouldn’t have got burned off. Anyway, I think it made him look quite nice! Distinguished!”
“That and his hair turning white too, I suppose!” said Laetitia. Then she burst out laughing. “You’re hopeless! Oh well, I suppose we’d better go in and clear up the mess. Again!”
“Oh it’s not too bad!” sad Giles with a big smile. “Soon have it sorted out!”
He turned to Mr Holmes and Dot.
“Would you do me the honour of entering my humble home?” he said, bowing low.
They certainly would!
