Alexander Graham Bell: Master of Sound #7 Read Online Free PDF

turned and watched the people milling about in front of the building ahead of them.
    “Are they…in a play?” she asked finally.
    “I would say no,” Felix said. “It looks like they’re going to a party or something. In there.”
    Now Rayne turned to face Felix, her pretty face crossed with worry.
    “Why are they dressed all old-fashioned if they’re not in a play?” she asked.
    Felix spotted a stone bench beneath a tree.
    “Come on,” he said, taking Rayne’s damp hand in his. “I have a lot to explain.”
    She let him lead her to the bench, and the two of them sat on the cold damp stone, shivering. The rain was not falling hard. Rather, it was like a relentless mist that covered everything.
    “Well,” Felix said, trying to figure out where to begin, “you know the room we broke into?”
    Rayne nodded.
    “It’s full of things that my great-great-grandfather collected,” Felix continued.
How
, he wondered,
do you tell someone that she has just time traveled? Or that you yourself have time traveled six other times?
    “Uh-huh,” Rayne said.
    “And somehow…I know this sounds ridiculous…but when Maisie and I both touch one of the objects, we…”
    Rayne looked around again, her gaze focused on the people.
    “You…?” she began, but her voice broke.
    “We kind of…”
    Wonder washed across Rayne’s face.
    “Felix,” she said, “have we
time traveled
? Are those people dressed old-fashioned because we’re back when that’s how everyone dressed?”
    Felix watched what Rayne was watching. The men wore what almost looked like riding clothes—tight pants with tall boots and a long coat over a vest. They all had beards and held canes like Great-Uncle Thorne used. The women created a sea of blue velvet and silk long dresses and hats with feathers sticking out of them. Everyone had an umbrella, and every umbrella was black.
    “Yes,” Felix said, “we’ve time traveled.”
    “Where are we?” Rayne whispered, squeezing his hand—out of excitement or fear, Felix wasn’t sure.
    Felix stared at the people and the rain and the serious-looking people.
    “I think maybe England,” he guessed.
    “I love England!” Rayne said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s go see what the big fuss is over there, shall we?”
    Felix agreed, wondering if Rayne was talking slightly British on purpose. She seemed so happy to be here that he didn’t mention that they’d lost Maisie and Hadley. Or that neither of them had the magnet, and that the magnet was also the way back home. He just walked with her over to the crowd of people as if they belonged there.
    Sure enough, as they got closer, everyone was speaking with a British accent.
Kind of,
Felix thought. It was British-
y
, but thicker and more garbled, harder to understand.
    “They don’t sound like people from England,” Rayne whispered.
    Before Felix could answer, a man walked out of the building and began to ring a bell, calling everyone inside.
    “The show is about to begin,” the man announced.
    Rayne and Felix joined the crowd moving up the stairs and inside.
    “Excuse me,” Rayne asked the woman walking beside them. “What show is this?”
    The woman cocked her head as if she couldn’t quite hear her.
    “Eh?” she said. “What did you say?”
    “The show,” Rayne said in that slow, loud way people talk when they can’t be understood. “What. Is. It.”
    The woman smiled. “It’s Professor Bell performing
David Copperfield
,” she said. “You two are in for a treat. The professor reads it better than Dickens himself.”
    Rayne smiled at her in thanks.
    The answer seemed to satisfy her, but Felix couldn’t stop wondering where they were, and who they were supposed to meet.

    A branch tickled Maisie’s cheek. She brushed it aside and saw, across a stone stoop, Hadley sitting in a large bush, looking surprised. Maisie realized she, too, had landed in a bush. Prickly needles pressed into her legs as she tried to pull herself out.