Amanda Lester and the Red Spider Rumpus Read online

  After a few minutes of this, Gordon was finally able to place a jar over one of them and slip something under it, then turn it over and screw on a top with holes in it. How he did that was a mystery because the little buggers were extremely tricky, but since he’d grown up on a farm he must have had some special knowledge. He’d demonstrated his skill when Ivy had been stung by bees and he’d lured them away from her, saving her life. This talent was definitely not something the kids had noticed when he was hanging around with his old friend David Wiffle and they were glad to see it emerge.

  After Gordon had caught the first spider the rest were easy. Maybe it had been their leader or something because now he was able to scoop up several others. But that seemed the best they could do for the moment. The remainder had disappeared, and although the kids spent a long time looking for them, not even Nigel was able to find them.

  As they started back Amanda checked her phone. There were several texts from Despina saying that she wanted to get Professor Kindseth and Charlotte to collaborate on an art project without realizing that the other one was involved. She seemed to think that would bring them together. Why she had to play matchmaker, particularly with two people who didn’t want to be together, was beyond Amanda. However, she did like Despina’s idea of setting up a Web site to let people collaborate on art projects. She’d have to talk to the kids to see how they might help the woman, who as creative as she was, had no idea how to do it.

  When they returned to Legatum Holmes insisted on letting one of the spiders bite him. Knowing how big the bugs were, Amanda and Ivy did not like this idea one bit, but they didn’t have a choice because before they could stop him he placed a jar on a table, peeled off his jacket, and stuck his arm into it. He must have been bitten immediately because within a few seconds the limb was red and the site of the bite swollen. Thirty seconds later he was looking dopey and soon after that he complained that he was feeling hot. Amanda became alarmed and offered to take him to Dr. Wing, but Holmes declined adamantly.

  Ever tactless, Gordon said, “What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?”

  “No,” said Amanda, eyeing Holmes nervously. “Don’t answer that, Scapulus. That isn’t fair.”

  “Aw, you’re no fun, Amanda,” said Gordon. “Wouldn’t you like to hear something juicy?”

  Holmes looked from one to the other of them and started to open his mouth, but Amanda ran to him and put her hand over his lips before he could say anything. He looked at her goofily and said, “That feels nice.”

  “Let’s start with something small, shall we?” she said, removing her hand.

  “Spoil sport,” said Gordon.

  “Let’s just see if this thing works,” said Amanda. “There’s no need to go prying into people’s lives.”

  “I don’t mind,” said Holmes, grinning. “I don’t have anything to hide.”

  Yes he did and he knew it. Had the spiders made him lose his judgment? Experiment or no, there were things having to do with the detectives’ secrets and his relationship with Amanda, not to mention Amphora, that should be kept private.

  “Scapulus, tell us something about yourself that we don’t know, but not something embarrassing,” said Amanda.

  Holmes thought for a moment and said, “I wish I had a brother or sister.”

  Amanda knew how he felt. A sibling might have been a fun filmmaking companion, not to mention an ally in the ongoing struggle with her parents.

  “Aw, that’s nothing,” said Gordon. “Give us something awesome.”

  “Gordon,” said Ivy, but Holmes was already speaking.

  “There is one other thing.” He looked positively gaga by this point. That venom sure was strong.

  “Now you’re talking,” said Gordon, moving close to Holmes. He was downright bloodthirsty.

  “Don’t say it, Scapulus,” said Ivy.

  “Sometimes I wish I weren’t a Holmes,” said Holmes blithely. “I wish I didn’t have to be so good all the time. I’d like to be bad, like Moriarty. I envy him.”

  Every jaw in the room except Nigel’s dropped. No one seemed to know what to say. All Amanda could think was that she was glad Nick wasn’t there. She’d speak to each of the kids privately after this and ask them not to reveal Holmes’s secret. She had no idea how it could hurt him but she didn’t want to take any chances. And what he would think when he realized what he’d said . . . well, she couldn’t imagine that either.

  “I’m next,” said Simon, breaking the tension and putting an end to Holmes’s bloodletting.

  “No, I’ll go,” said Clive, practically jumping on Simon’s words. He did a weird thing with his eyebrows that Amanda interpreted as, “This isn’t a good idea,” but Simon didn’t get the hint. He just stuck his arm in one of the jars. A spider bit him and he yelped.

  “How bad is it?” said Ivy, rushing to feel his arm.

  “Piece of cake,” said Simon, who looked like he was about to turn green.

  Ivy frowned. “It doesn’t sound like a piece of cake. Let me feel that.” She took hold of his arm and palpated, then frowned some more and shook her head at the other kids.

  “Well it is,” Simon squawked. “Chocolate banana cake with fudge frosting.”

  “Let me see that,” said Amanda, feeling his arm. “Oh for heaven’s sake. It’s huge already. Gordon, can you get him some ice?”

  Gordon raced out of the room, skidding through the doorway.

  Amanda glanced at Holmes. He was still sitting there like a zombie but he didn’t look any worse.

  “Okay, I admit it, this hurts,” said Simon.

  “It’s working,” said Ivy. “He’d never say that otherwise.”

  “You’re right about that,” said Clive, still fidgeting with his hands.

  “Let me feel your forehead,” said Amanda. She reached out and pressed the back of her hand to Simon’s face. “Hm, it’s not that bad.” She tried Holmes again. “Hotter than Simon, but I think maybe less than it was.”

  “Tell us a secret,” Gordon said eagerly. He’d come back with the ice, which he’d wrapped in a napkin. Amanda was surprised to see him so organized. He was really coming along.

  “A minor one,” said Amanda, taking the ice and applying it to Simon’s arm. “Let’s not overdo this.”

  Simon cringed, then looked at Gordon goofily and said, “Sometimes I’m embarrassed that I’m so awkward.”

  The confession got to the kids. Even Gordon looked uncomfortable, perhaps because he could relate. Not that Gordon was uncoordinated. Like Simon, he was awkward with people.

  “Oh, and one other thing,” said Simon, grinning like the Cheshire cat. “I love Ivy.”

  “What did you say?” said Gordon, jumping up and staring.

  “I said I love Ivy,” said Simon. “Madly.”

  Clive winced, Amanda gaped, Gordon yelled, “I knew it!” and Ivy turned beet red and ran out of the room.

  Simon looked around and said, “Why did Ivy run away? Did I say something?”

  Amanda said, “We’ll talk about it later” and ran after her friend.

  Amanda found Ivy in the dining room. “Are you all right?” she said.

  Ivy looked shaken but claimed she was fine. “Yes. I’m okay, thanks.”

  Amanda touched her arm. “You’re upset.”

  “Not really,” said Ivy, getting up and going for tea. Amanda followed her to make sure she didn’t spill any hot water on herself.

  “You don’t feel the same way,” said Amanda, eyeing Ivy’s pouring. “I mean about Simon.”

  “I have no idea,” said Ivy, feeling for the milk. “I’ve never thought of him that way before.”

  Amanda watched her calculate where the cup was and pour a splash of milk in. She was quite expert. It never ceased to amaze Amanda how well she functioned.

  “You know how he was kissing me all the time a few months ago?” He’d been downright annoying except that he was an amazing kisser and Amanda had secretly enjo
yed every moment.

  “Yes, I remember that. Who could forget? He was leaking hormones all over the place. He even kissed me. OMG, I didn’t realize—” Her hands began to shake and her cup rattled. Amanda hoped the tea wouldn’t spill. “He’s going to be so embarrassed.”

  “Yes. But probably less than most people would be.” Simon didn’t get embarrassed. His nerve endings were different or something. Which made his skill at kissing all the more baffling.

  “I don’t know about that,” said Ivy. “Remember how he acted when you threw up on him?”

  “Ugh. Did you have to remind me of that?” Amanda had indeed thrown up, although not on Simon per se. It had been his coat, the day of the orientation a year before. When she’d taken the jacket to the ladies’ to clean it, she’d met Nick for the first time. It had been the weirdest meet cute in history.

  “Sorry,” said Ivy. “It’s just that I was thinking how unsure of himself he was back then, and now he seems so confident. Remember what a dork he was in Professor Also’s class that first day with the fedora?”

  “You’re right,” said Amanda. “I hadn’t thought of that.” Professor Also had wanted the kids to start planning their detective’s mystiques. She had called Simon to the front of the class and told him to choose accessories that would express his personality. At first he’d stood there like a dunce, but eventually he’d got into the spirit and then they couldn’t stop him. “Well, the cat is out of the bag now. What do you think he’ll do when he finds out what he said? Deny it?”

  “No.” Ivy blew on her tea. “Simon isn’t like that. He knows if the spiders really can make you tell the truth then he did.”

  “What then?”

  “I don’t know,” said Ivy. “He’ll probably want to analyze the venom in the lab or something.”

  “Maybe he’ll propose,” said Amanda archly.

  “Amanda!”

  “Sorry. But you know Simon. He doesn’t beat around the bush.”

  Ivy lifted the cup for a sip but forgot to drink. She was all dreamy-looking. “No, he doesn’t.”

  Amanda took Ivy’s non-tea hand. “Do you think you could ever . . .”

  “I don’t know. I’ll have to think about it. Oh dear. I just thought of something. Wait until Amphora finds out about this. She’ll never let us hear the end of it.”

  She was right about that. Amphora could be quite vindictive. She hadn’t shown any signs of it with Holmes yet, but there was always another shoe waiting to drop with that girl.

  “She needs to grow up,” said Amanda.

  “I know,” said Ivy. “What is this ghost hunting thing anyway?”

  Thank goodness Ivy felt the same way about Ramon that she did. On the other hand who wouldn’t? The guy was off his rocker.

  “Beats me. She’s too gullible.”

  “Yes, but I’m not going to say anything.” Ivy was still friends with Amphora, probably for just that reason.

  “You won’t have to. Simon and Nick will do it for you. Well, maybe not Nick. The old Nick would have. Now I’m not so sure.”

  Ivy squeezed Amanda’s hand. “Speaking of Nick, is he all right?” It was sweet of her to ask. And typical. Here she was in the middle of a crisis and she was thinking about her friends.

  “Not really,” said Amanda. “He’s doing better than most people would but he’s pretty confused.”

  “I feel sorry for him,” said Ivy.

  “Thank you. You’re the only one. But don’t let him know. He doesn’t want pity.”

  “No, I shouldn’t think so. He’s really changed though. I can tell.” She reached over and gave Amanda a kiss on the cheek. “He’s crazy about you, you know.”

  At that moment Simon bounded into the dining room and said, “They tell me I said something I shouldn’t have.”

  Amanda coughed.

  Ivy said, “No, stay, Amanda. It’s okay, Simon. Do you want to talk about it?”

  “To be honest, not now,” said Simon. “I need to think about it. I mean, it isn’t that I don’t . . . I do but—”

  Amanda found this kind of thing coming from Simon so embarrassing she could hardly stand it. She got up to leave, but Ivy pushed her back into her seat.

  “You don’t have to say anything,” said Ivy.

  “I do, but maybe later,” said Simon. “Is that all right?”

  “It’s fine,” said Ivy. “Don’t worry about it. I’m not upset.”

  “Upset?” said Simon. “I should think you’d be overjoyed!” He winked at Amanda and Ivy smiled. She couldn’t see the wink but she obviously knew something was going on.

  “Oh, I am. I am!” she said in an exaggerated way.

  “Thought so,” he said, and left the room.

  The big to-do after Simon’s revelation—and Holmes’s—however, turned out not to be about them, or Ivy. It was about Nick. Gordon started it.

  “The venom works, so we need to get the spiders to bite Nick.”

  Amanda was aghast. “No way. That isn’t fair. He’s already spilling his guts to Feeney.”

  “How do you know he’s telling the truth?” said Gordon.

  She wanted to pop him, but “Because he is” was the best thing she could come up with.

  “I agree,” said Clive. “Nick should submit to the test.”

  This really made Amanda mad. Clive was supposed to be her friend. “Why don’t you guys cut him a little slack?”

  “Why should we?” said Gordon. “You know the things he’s done.” He was being so nasty it was almost as if he was hanging around with David again.

  “I agree,” said Holmes, who had come down from his venom high. “It’s the right thing to do.”

  Amanda folded her arms. She wasn’t going to say it but she was thinking really hard about his Moriarty envy. Of course she knew he envied Nick because of his relationship with her, but she hadn’t realized he was attracted to the dark side. That might be worth investigating, except that he was mad at her so maybe not right now.

  “Let’s just agree that the spiders perform as advertised and leave it at that,” she said.

  “Better,” said Clive.

  “I’ll say,” said Gordon with a wink.

  “Shut up,” said Amanda. “Maybe they should bite you, Gordon.”

  “Bring it on,” said Gordon. “I’m not in love with Ivy.”

  “No, I mean it,” said Holmes. “We have the perfect tool for determining whether he’s telling the truth. And there are things Professor Feeney isn’t going to ask him. We could.”

  Amanda didn’t know what he had in mind but she knew she wouldn’t like it. She was sure Holmes wanted to humiliate Nick for personal reasons and she wasn’t going to let that happen. Except that Nick himself walked into the room at that very moment and said, “I’ll do it.”

  “No!” said Amanda.

  He looked at her in a way that bored right through her and said, “I told you I’d do anything to make things right and I will.”

  This wouldn’t do at all. She pulled him aside and spoke into his ear. “I don’t want everyone knowing our business.”

  “Our business?” he whispered. “Oh. Hadn’t thought of that.”

  “It’s kind of private, isn’t it?”

  “Whoops,” he said softly. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “But now what?” She was really worried. Either he’d have to rescind his offer, which would confirm the suspicion that he was still hiding things, or forge ahead and potentially reveal what had passed between them. It was a lose-lose situation.

  Nick pulled back and looked her in the eye. It was most disconcerting. “I’m not embarrassed to love you, Amanda. If you don’t return my feelings you don’t. That doesn’t change how I feel.”

  She was so moved she wanted to throw her arms around him right then and there. “But I do love you,” she hissed, forgetting that she’d vowed not to tell him. She looked deep into his eyes and whispered, “I do.” Then, real
izing where she was, she glanced over at Holmes, whose own eyes were glued to the two of them. She was glad her face was turned away from him. It wouldn’t have been difficult to read her lips.

  Nick looked at her sharply and spoke even lower. “What do you mean you love me? You love him.” He chin motioned toward Holmes.

  “This isn’t the time,” she whispered.

  Nick looked to the others, then back at Amanda, and something behind his eyes changed. “Let the spider bite me,” he breathed. “I’ll lie.”

  She gulped. “You can’t. You saw what it did to Simon.”

  Nick smiled and gave her a look that made her want to melt. “I can do anything for you.”

  When they returned to the group everyone was eyeing them suspiciously. Amanda was sure they’d figured out what was going on and tried to appear normal. The fact that her heart was fluttering all over the place made it difficult but she was a detective. She’d manage.

  She took slow, deep breaths and felt her heart slow little by little. She tried to picture boring things take her mind off that fact that she’d finally, after a year, told Nick Muffet she loved him—in front of everyone. Motor oil, dirty socks, David Wiffle. Yes, that was it. It was working.

  Whatever Nick did or didn’t feel you wouldn’t have been able to detect it on his face. He appeared absolutely neutral. He rolled up his sleeve, removed the top from one of Gordon’s jars, and reached in. The bite came instantly, and like Simon and Holmes he became visibly ill.

  Holmes pounced. He didn’t even wait for Nick’s arm to swell. “State your name.”

  Nick didn’t hesitate. “Nicholas Muffet.”

  That took the kids by surprise. They didn’t seem to know he had dropped the name Moriarty.

  “Are you in love with Amanda?”

  “No,” said Ivy. “You can’t ask that.”

  Amanda was glad she’d spoken up. Holmes had done exactly what she thought he’d do and she was annoyed.