03 The Princess of the Chalet School (11 page)

Madge still looked troubled. ‘Truth and honour, Joey?’

‘Truth and honour,’ Joey assured her. ‘I didn’t really mean it, and I only think it
very
rarely. Honour bright, I do!’

Madge’s face cleared. ‘I am glad of that, Joey,’ she said slowly. ‘You see this is the last term. Jem and I hope to be married in July.’

Joey looked at her; then she gulped hard. ‘T-tell me what is wrong with your letter,’ she said huskily.

Madge answered hurriedly, ‘It is from Prince Carol, Joey. He writes to tell me that he is afraid that his cousin Cosimo, may make an attempt to kidnap the Princess. He has quarreled with the King, and Prince Carol as well, and he made some threat of the kind once before when they had a difference. He does not know where she it – no one in Belsornia except them, her maid, Alette, and Dr. Tracy do. But he is afraid he may find out, and then, if he does, Elisaveta must be taken somewhere into safe hiding until the trouble is over. He warns me not to let her speak to any strangers. If ever you see any attempt to speak to her, Joey, you must stop it somehow. They don’t want her to know anything about it, as he is afraid of making her nervous. Don’t say anything, but just watch.

‘I’ll stick to her like glue,’ promised Joey. ‘But I say, Madge, it’s rather awful, isn’t it? What would he do to her if he got her away? Kill her?’

‘Nonsense, Joey! Don’t let your imagination run away with you like that! The worst thing he would do would be to hold her as a hostage while he made the King and the Prince do as he wanted. But he wouldn’t hurt her. He would get into all sorts of trouble it he did that.’

‘I see,’ said Joey thoughtfully. ‘Well, I’ll do my best. She’s awfully jolly, isn’t she? It is hard luck that she can’t be Queen some day!’

‘They have the Salic law in Belsornia,’ replied Madge. ‘I don’t know that it is such a pity, Joey. I don’t think a queen’s is such an enviable existence. I wish I knew what would be the best thing to do,’ she went on, more to herself that her sister. ‘So long as he doesn’t know where she it, she’s pretty safe. But I think I’ll ask him to send someone to whom I could apply if there was any difficulty.’

Joey looked solemn. ‘Do you think he
is
likely to kidnap her, Madge?’

‘Goodness knows! I don’t see how he can find out where she is, because she came like any other new pupil, and certainly no one is making any extra fuss over her. But it’s rather a big responsibility. I don’t know that I should have taken her if I had dreamt there would be any trouble like this!’

‘Oh, well! We don’t know that he’ll try to cart her off,’ said Jo easily; ‘and we can keep a firm eye on her –

I will, myself, if it’s any comfort to you.’

‘I wish you would,’ said Madge, laughing in spite of herself. Joey looked such a baby, despite her fourteen years, as she stood there, with her black, gollywog’s mop of hair standing rampantly on end as usual, and her short skirts. It was difficult to imagine her looking after herself, to say nothing of keeping an eye on anyone else.

Jo was nothing daunted. ‘I mean it,’ she protested.

‘I accept your offer,’ returned her sister. ‘What about a game of tennis, if we can get two other people to make up a set?’

‘Rather! Come on! And, troubles all forgotten for the moment, they made their way to the tennis-courts for a strenuous set.

‘Joey – Joey Bettany!’

Back came the answer. ‘Hello! What do you want?’

‘Where are you?’ called Grizel.

‘Up in the pine-tree just behind you. Look out! I’m coming.’ There was a scramble and a clatter, and then Joey tumbled out of the pine almost on the top of Grizel.

‘What on earth were you doing up there?’ demanded the games prefect. ‘Madame wants you at once. Buck along. She’s in the study.’

‘What on earth does she want now?’ grumbled Joey, who had just got comfortably settled with her book, and resented having to leave her perch.

‘I didn’t ask her,’ replied Grizel. ‘If you go, you’ll soon find out.’

‘Suppose you go instead of me,’ suggested Jo.

‘Is that intended for a joke?’ demanded Grizel. ‘If so, it’s a rotten one.’

Joey grinned. ‘I’d enjoy seeing her face if you
did
go and say you’d come instead of me!’ she said, as she turned towards the house. ‘
Wouldn’t
there be a fuss?’

She was out of hearing by the time Grizel had thought of a sufficiently squelching answer, so that young lady let it go, and went off to the lake where the other prefects were waiting for her before they rowed over to Buchau on the other shore. Joey, meanwhile, trotted off to the study, where she found her sister sitting on the window-ledge, looking out. She turned her head as the younger girl entered the room. ‘There you are,’

she said. ‘I’ve sent for you to see if you know what the girls would like to do on the fourth.’

‘Why, it’s not for a fortnight!’ said Jo in amazement. ‘You
are
in a hurry for your birthday to come this year! Where’s the rush?’

‘It’s the last birthday I shall have as Head of the school,’ explained her sister. ‘I want it to be extra nice –that’s all.’

‘Oh, I see!’ Joey squeezed herself into the narrow space left by her sister, and considered the matter gravely. ‘I don’t think there’s anything special they want to do.’

‘Sure?’

‘Yes – absolutely certain. Why? Have you got an idea of your own, then?’

‘Well, I rather thought of a day at Mayrhofen in the Zillerthal.’

Joey’s black eyes widened with excitement. ‘
Madge!
What a gorgeous idea! I loved the Zillerthal when we were there last summer, and I should think most people would go crazy over it! It’s nearly as nice as Briesau

– only it hasn’t got the lake, of course.’

‘You really think the others would like it?’

‘They’d be idiots if they didn’t!
Do
fix on it straight away!’

Miss Bettany laughed. ‘You
are
enthusiastic! Well, it seems to me about the best thing we can do. If it’s fine, then, we’ll go there. If it’s wet, I’ll take you all down to Hall, and we’ll do it thoroughly.’

‘I hope it’s fine,’ said Joey sincerely. ‘Are you going to tell the others now?’

‘No. I’m going to leave Juliet to do that,’ replied Madge. ‘She will like it, and it’s
her
last term, too – as head girl.’

‘I
hate
coming to the end of things!’ said Jo vigorously.

‘Most of us do. Run along and tell Juliet that I want her.’

Joey slid down from her precarious perch, and ran out of the room to the lake, where Juliet was in a boat with the others – luckily, not far from the shore. ‘Ju-li-
et
!’ Joey’s golden voice rang out over the water, and Juliet turned her head with its masses of long, fair hair. ‘Yes?’ she called.

‘Madame wants you.’

‘All right; I’m coming.’

The boat was turned, and Juliet sprang to land; while Joey, having delivered her message, sauntered off to the woods, where she presently encountered Elisaveta. With her was Simone Lecoutier, who, in the early days of the school, had had a craze for Joey. Two years had made a difference, and the sentimental French child had learned to understand that Joey could be friendly with her and two or three other people as well.

There had been a good many scenes before Simone had been persuaded to realize this; but at last she did, and they were far better friends than they had ever been before. Joey said that Simone had learnt a little common-sense. At any rate, she no longer insisted that they two should be all in all to each other, much to Jo’s relief.

Elisaveta ran up to her friend when she saw her. ‘Joey,’ she cried, ‘I’ve an idea? Couldn’t we ask the visitors to play us at tennis?’

Jo shook her head. ‘I don’t quite see how we could. Of course, some of them come every year, and we know them – more or less, that is. But I’m sure my sister wouldn’t agree to asking any of them to play a match with us like that. You can’t do that sort of thing in a school. We have the inter-form matches anyhow, so I don’t see what you are all grumbling at!’

But it
wasn’t
grumbling,’ protested Elisaveta. ‘It was only meant to be an idea.’

‘Oh, well, it’s no good, anyway,’ replied Joey, slipping her arm through Simone’s. ‘Come on, you two.

I’ve got a gorgeous piece of news which I can’t tell you – ‘

‘But why, then, speak of it?’ demanded Simone. ‘It is unkind, Jo.’

‘No, it isn’t! It’s only sort of giving you an appetite for it when it comes.’

Simone shook her head over this; but there was no arguing with Jo, and they had to possess their souls in patience till
Kaffee
, when Juliet rose with much dignity and announced the Head’s scheme for her birthday.

It was greeted with shouts of joy, and from that minute the girls could talk of little else.

Frieda, who was the only one of them who knew the Zillerthal at all well, was in great request, and even then she only knew Zellam-Ziller, which is one of the great holiday resorts for the Tyrolean. Maria Marani had been to Mayrhofen once, but that had been years ago, when she was only a baby, and she could remember nothing of it.

The Head had asked the girls to give her no birthday gift this year. Her real reason was that she was leaving at the end of the term, as all the parents knew, and she preferred that they should omit the practice which had held good for the other two féte-days. The girls, of course, knew nothing about it, and were not to know until after the trip to the Zillerthal. Miss Bettany did not want them upset any sooner, though she felt that it would not be fair to them to slip away without letting them know till it was all over, which had been her first plan. The school had appeared to fall in with her wishes, but in reality they had decided to get something for the school, and already Herr Marani had been commissioned to choose two pictures, and have them sent up to Herr Braun of the Kron Prinz Karl, so that they might be safely kept until the birthday morning.

‘We won’t say anything to Joey,’ declared Juliet. ‘She would probably let it out to Madame, and then she’d stop it. It won’t really matter, because Jo is sure to have her own present.’

So Jo knew nothing but that the usual presentation of flowers would take place, and she joined the serenading party quite cheerfully on the morning of the fourth, having slipped into her sister’s room and laid her own gift on the table at the bedside.

They sang ‘Hark, Hark, the Lark’ to Schubert’s lovely setting, and, as they finished, Miss Bettany thrust out a ruffled head to look down on them, as they stood beneath her window, and thank them.

‘We’ve got another one,’ called Juliet.

The Head pulled her dressing-gown round her more closely, and settled herself to listen. It was a very simple little song that greeted her surprised ears, and was a verse – one only; Joey hadn’t been able to manage any more! – on her name:

I sing the charms of Margaret, sweet and kind,

No fairer maiden ever graced this day;

The richest pearl she is that man could find.

It is thy birth-morn! Sweeting, come away.

Miss Bettany listened to this in startled silence. The air was as simple as the words, but with a certain freshness which covered one or two rather glaring mistakes in composition. When it was over, she leaned out of the window. ‘Where did you get that?’ she demanded.

Juliet answered her. ‘Joey wrote the words, and Margia the tune,’ she called.

‘Good gracious!’ The Head nearly fell out in surprise.

‘Do you like it?’ called her small sister the composer.

‘Yes; very, very much indeed! It’s the most charming thing I ever heard!’ Miss Bettany suddenly felt a big lump in her throat, and was unable to go on. She drew back into the room to recover herself; and the girls, well pleased with themselves, went off to their duties. Jo was the only one who left them neglected, and she fled upstairs to wish her sister many happy returns. She found her sitting on the bed, scrubbing her eyes with a handkerchief.

‘Many – happy – returns – what – on – earth – is – the – matter?’ panted Jo, all in one breath.

‘I’m an idiot!’ replied Madge, with a little choke. ‘It was so unexpected that I felt all choky – that’s all.’

‘I see. D’you like my present?’ asked Jo, turning the conversation at once.

‘I haven’t looked at it yet. Give it to me, Joey.’

Joey passed it over to her, and then stood by while Madge peeled off the many outer wrappings, and finally disclosed to view – six teaspoons!

‘Awfully appropriate, isn’t it?’ said Jo complacently. ‘They aren’t real silver, of course. I thought they’d do for everyday ones.’

‘They are awfully startling,’ said Madge faintly. ‘I never expected such a thing.’

‘We-ll, they aren’t silver at all,’ confessed Joey. ‘They only cost a very little. You see, I’m saving up for your wedding present.’

A tap on the door prevented her sister from replying to this, and the Robin entered, hugging a big bundle.

Jo had helped her choose, and this turned out to be a pudding-basin!

‘It will be useful, Ma Tante, I think,’ said the baby wistfully. ‘You like it?’

‘It’s a
splendid
present;’ said the recipient as she gave the small person a hug and a kiss. ‘They are both most useful; and thank you both very much.’

The she sent them away to see to their beds, and lay back on her pillows and laughed till her sides ached.

After
Frühstück
they all scattered to make their beds, and then prayers came, and with them the presentation of the flowers, a thing which was never omitted. Madge Bettany stood there on the little dias, half-smiling, half-serious, for this was the last time that the little ceremony would take place. She expected to spend her next birthday on the Sonnalpe, with Dr. Jem. Joey, who knew this too, felt choky. ‘I wish there need never be any changes,’ she thought to herself as she wriggled restlessly in her place.

The flowers were taken up to the dias; and when they were all heaped round the Head there was a little stir, and then the Robin and little Inga Eriksen, the two youngest children in the school, came up to her, each carrying a big, flat parcel.