03 The Princess of the Chalet School (19 page)

‘It was the weird way you behaved that made me remember,’ Joey assured him with unflattering readiness.

‘You bobbed about behind luggage as if you were funky of the police or something.’

At this point Ternikai thought it diplomatic to interfere. He was secretly full of joy at the snubbing this English child was administering to his master, but he knew that it was very likely to recoil on his own head if he did not stop it. Therfore he said, ‘We have very little time for arrangements. If you, signorina, will permit Signor Belsarni to walk a little way with you, I will give her Highness his gracious Majesty’s message.’

Joey shook her black head. ‘Oh no,’ she said; ‘I’ll walk three steps away, and you can
whisper
it. I’m not going anywhere with anybody.’

She walked the three steps, and was thus out of earshot of a low voice. Ternikai would have enjoyed wringing her neck at the moment, but the time was going and he had a good deal to say, so he was forced to agree. He bent down to Elisaveta, while Joey began a conversation with his royal master, and murmured,

‘Your Royal Highness would have been advised to come alone. There is much to say, and it is a secret.’

‘Then hurry up and say it,’ returned Elisaveta, standing very upright. ‘As for coming alone, the Princess of Belsornia always has her lady-in-waiting with her.’ This was true, and, anyway, too much time had already been wasted on things that really didn’t matter. The cowherds would soon be coming laong with their strings of patient cattle, leading them to the mountain pastures, and neither of the men wanted to be seen in the grounds of the Chalet School.

‘I beg you pardon, madame,’ he said gravely. ‘I will tell you at once. There is danger for you here. Cosimo has discovered where you are, and it is the wish of his Majesty the King, and of his Royal Highness the Crown Prince, that you come away with me into a place of safety until the danger is passed.’

‘How do I know that you come from the King?’ asked the Princess.

For reply he offered her a sealed envelope. ‘The instructions are here, madame,’ he said.

Elisaveta took it and broke the seal. Inside was a letter written on the King’s private notepaper – Cosimo had a spy in the palace – and in the King’s handwriting. It was very brief, and simply ran: ‘Elisaveta, – Obey the bearer of this in all things. He has my fullest confidence. – Ridolpho R.’

It was in her grandfather’s peculiar script – Cosimo was gifted in the art of forgery – and she saw no reason to doubt it. ‘Joey!’ she called.

Joey was beside her and reading the note before either of the two men could prevent it. ‘Coo!’ she said when she had finished it. ‘What have you to do?’

‘I am to go into hiding at once,’ replied the Princess.

‘What? Now?’

Cosimo turned to his friend. ‘Curse this brat!’ he said in Russian. ‘Will she rouse the whole valley?’

With a great effort Joey controlled herself. She had felt that all was not well. This unguarded speech of the Prince’s made her determined to keep with Elisaveta whatever happened.

Ternikai turned to the Princess. ‘Not this moment, madame,’ he said, ‘but soon. It is the request of his Majesty that you will speak of it to n one, lest Cosimo should make inquiries.’

Prince Cosimo spoke again. ‘Take her at once,’ he said in his fluent Russian. ‘Leave it now and something will happen. That child knows too much!’

Ternikai looked doubtful, but something in his master’s face convinced him that it was the only thing to do. ‘Will it please you to come, Highness?’ he said to the Princess. ‘Believe me, it is better so.’

Elisaveta looked dismayed. ‘I cannot come now,’ she said. ‘I am not ready.’

‘You can get a hat and coat if I put you up,’ urged the man. ‘I will lift you and la signorina, and she can help you to come down again. It is best.’ Then he added the one thing that was needed to persuade her. ‘For the good of the kingdom, Highness. It is necessary.’

Elisaveta turned to Joey. ‘I must,’ she said. ‘Come on!’

Joey turned and went across the grass with her without a word. She was too busy thinking to say anything.

The story
might
be true. She had very little to go on, for she had only followed Cosimo’s Russian very roughly, and she might have got it all wrong. Anyway, she would have to let Elisaveta go.
But
– and it was a big ‘but’ – she would keep her promise and go too. Only, the men would not know it. They climbed back up and got back into the dormitory without any trouble. No one had heard them, and Bianca was popularly supposed to be related to the Seven Sleepers. Elisaveta collected her toothbrush, her comb, and some handkerchiefs. Joey helped her into her long coat and gave her her hat. Then she put her arms round her neck. ‘If anything goes wrong, or you are frightened, or anything,’ she said, ‘call three times like an owl.

Don’t let
them
know, though. Good-bye!’

She kissed her friend and then helped her through the window. Elisaveta .dropped, and Cosimo caught her safely. Joey waved her hand and then went back into the room, rather to the surprise of the men, who had been sure that she would wait to see them off. Joey had other things to do, however, and she would have been ashamed of herself if she could not follow a track in the thick dews. She dressed herself warmly, took her purse, and also Elisaveta’s, for she had no idea what she might want, and money was always a good thing to take with one on an expedition of this kind. Then she wrote a note to her sister, which she pinned to her pillow, and when they had had a good start she went out on to the balcony once more and let herself down on to the grass.

The Chalet School remained in stillness, although Bianca, vaguely disturbed, turned over in bed restlessly.

However, she did not wake up, and by the time that Marie Pfeifen, always the first up, was stirring, the two members of the school were far enough away.

The rising bell had gone, and Bianca, drowsing comfortably among the sheets, was rather surprised that nobody made any effort to get her out of bed. As a rule it was only the exertions of Elisaveta and Joey that got her down to
Frühstück
in time, but today there was only silence from behind the curtains which hid the other beds from view. The window was wide open she knew, for her own curtains were drifting lazily backwards and forwards in the breeze. Finally she roused herself sufficiently to call, ‘Joey, what is the hour?’

There was no answer.

‘Horrid things!’ she thought. ‘They have got up and gone out early without waking me. Now I shall be late, and Maynie will be cross! Oh dear!’

As there seemed nothing else to do she rolled out of bed, snatched up her towels and made for the bathroom. It was so late that she only had what Joey called, ‘A cat’s lick and a promise.’ Then she fled back to the bedroom and hurried through her dressing. Her hair took the longest time, for it was very long and thick, and had to be plaited. With all her haste she wasn’t nearly ready when the warning bell went, and even when she was dressed she had to turn all the clothes off her bed, carry them out, and hang them over the balcony rail to air. She grabbed them up, pushed the curtains aside, and then nearly dropped them. Joey’s bed was just as she had got out of it! Well! Words failed Bianca. She scrambled through the window, hung up her burden anyhow, and made a dash for Jo’s bed. The final bell sounded as she did so, but Bianca was a Guide, and she couldn’t leave the bed like that. Jo would get into a most fearful row if it were found. She stripped the bed at express speed and hauled the curtains back. Then she got her second shock. Elisaveta’s bed was in the same condition! Well, there was nothing for it but to strip it too. Bianca did so, and then went down to the
Speisesaal
, nearly ten minutes late.

As she came in Miss Bettany turned round. ‘Bianca, you are very late,’ she said severely. ‘And where are the other two?’

It was beyond Bianca. She stared dumbly at her headmistress.

‘Did you not hear my question?’ demanded Miss Bettany with excusable annoyance. ‘I want to know why you three are all late for
Frühstück
– and where the other two are?’

Bianca found her voice. ‘I do not know, Madame,’ she said faintly. ‘I thought they would be here.’

‘You thought they would be here? Do you mean that you have not seen them this morning?’

‘No, Madame?’

‘Then where are they?’

‘I do not know, Madame.’

Miss Bettany turned from Bianca to the rest. ‘Have any of you seen either of them?’ Nobody had. Neither could anyone suggest where they could be. Bianca was sent to her seat, and the school was told to go on with its meal, while Miss Bettany returned to hers.

‘Coo!’ murmured Margia to her next-door neighbour, Frieda Mensch. ‘I wouldn’t be those two for something! Where d’you suppose they are?’

Frieda had no ideas on the subject and conversation languished. As Grizel said afterwards, ‘How could anyone talk with Madame looking like a thunderstorm and an earthquake rolled into one?’

When grace had been said, Miss Bettany called the prefects to her study and told them to find other people to make their beds for them, and to go and look for the missing pair until the bell rang for prayers, or until they were found. Then she went up to the Blue dormitory to see if she could find any clue to their absence there. She found Bianca making her own bed at the same express speed at which she had stripped. The curtains were thrown back in accordance with the rules, and the bedding of the two was all airing on the balcony.

With a sudden remembrance of the Italian child’s lateness the Head turned to her. ‘Were those beds stripped when you got up, or did you do them?’ she inquired.

Bianca stopped with her
plumeau
in her arms and shuffled uneasily from one foot to the other. She wasn’t very sure what to say. She had no desire to get them into any further trouble and she couldn’t tell a lie about it, so she said nothing, and she brought wrath on her own devoted head.

‘I am waiting for an answer, Bianca,’ the Head said, in such icy tones that the child gave it up.

‘No, Madame, they weren’t,’ she said unwillingly.

‘Then who did it? You?’

‘Y-yes, Madame.’

‘Is that why you were late?’

‘No, not exactly,’ Bianca stammered.

‘How do you mean! Were you late to start with?’

‘Y-yes.’

‘I see. And, I suppose, you though that as you
were
late a few minutes more could make no difference?’

Bianca’s head went down, and her cheeks burned. She wondered if the Head was going to punish her severely.

‘It was mistaken kindness, Bianca,’ said Miss Bettany gravely. ‘You should not have done it. I will excuse your lateness this once, but you must be in time for the future.’

Then she left the room, and Bianca, having finished her own work, set to work and made Elisaveta’s bed.

She turned to Joey’s quarters next, and had got the under blanket and sheet neatly tucked in and was bringing the pillows, when she gave a little exclamation and dropped them. On one side she had seen the note which Joey had left when she had gone off on her mad adventure. With hands trembling with eagerness Bianca unpinned it, and then tore down the stairs to the study, nearly knocking over Frieda as she went. Miss Bettany was there, talking to Miss Maynard, when she burst in without knocking. The Head looked up, annoyed. ‘Really Bianca -‘ she began. Then she stopped as she saw the little note the girl held out, with its direction, ‘Madge,’ written in Joey’s unmistakable scrawl.

‘It was pinned to the pillow,’ panted Bianca, who was breathless with haste. ‘I did not see it when I stripped the bed.’

The Head took it and tore it open. The two people in the study watched her face anxiously as she red it, and saw it change to a whiteness which made Miss Maynard step forward hastily and put an arm round her. ‘Go and fetch some water, Bianca,’ she said sharply. ‘Don’t speak to anyone on the way.’

Bianca vanished, looking thoroughly startled, and the mistress bend over the chief. ‘Don’t try to talk yet,’

she said. ‘Wait a minute.’

But Miss Bettany put her gently to one side and got to her feet. She swayed a little, but she pulled herself together and gave Miss Maynard the note. ‘Read it, will you?’ she said. ‘I don’t think I’ve taken it in quite.’

Miss Maynard read the note rapidly. It was brief and to the point.

Dear Madge, – Elisaveta is in danger from Prince Cosimo, so the man who was sent here has taken her into hiding. I don’t think he really was sent, as his friend talked Russian, and said we were brats, and other things. I promised you to keep an eye on her, so I’ve gone after them. Don’t worry, and tell Jem, if he wants to follow us, I’ve left the trefoil every here and there. I’ve got some chalk in my pocket, and I’ll draw it.

Also, I’ve got my scout knife, and al the money E. and I have.
Don’t worry!
And write or wire to Belsornia.

The name of the friend is Carlo Belsarni. Love. -Joey

‘Of all the mad things to do!’ exclaimed Miss Maynard when she had got through this. Then she turned to the Head. ‘My dear, don’t look like that! Joey’s got her head screwed on the right way, and she hasn’t been a Guide for nothing. Let me ring up Dr. Jem, and send off that wire at once.’

‘Yes; at once,’ said Miss Bettany. ‘In the meantime get the school together – it’s nearly time for prayers, isn’t it? – and take prayers, and tell them that Elisaveta has gone to see some friends and taken Jo with her.

Whatever happens, we must have as little talk as possible.’

Miss Maynard agreed with her there. She went out; sent Marie off to the post with a telegram to Signor Calmori, the secretary of the Crown Prince, and rang up Dr. Jem, who promised to come down at once. Then she rang the prayer-bell, and took prayers. After they were over she made the announcement, and sent the girls in to their exams., with Miss Wilson and Miss Carthew in charge. Miss Durrant was with the babies, and when she got back to the study she found Mademoiselle with the Head. Bianca had been put on her honour not to mention anything until she was given leave.