“Oh, hen.” Noni looked exasperated. “If you keep saying that, you’ll make it true! I know you don’t want to go to boarding school. You’ve made that very clear! However, you have no choice.”

Polly put down her fork. The cake had tasted good at first, but now her stomach was churning. “Oh, Noni, why can’t I share Biddy and Vivien’s governess?”

“Polly, how many times do I have to tell you this? You wouldn’t learn enough with a governess. St. Winifred’s is an excellent school, and I want you to get the best education possible. And what about your art? I’ve taught you all I can. Now you’re going to have regular
and
extra art classes. You’re lucky—not many girls have this opportunity. Please
cheer up, hen, and try to be positive.” Noni smiled at her. “Think of how much Maud loved St. Winifred’s. Who knows? You may like it, too!”

I won’t!
said Polly, but only to herself.

Noni signed the bill and picked up her gloves. “Come along now, Polly. We’re supposed to be at the school by five.”

They left the hotel restaurant and fetched Polly’s suitcases from Noni’s room. The bellhop hailed them a taxi and they began to drive to the outskirts of Victoria.

When the taxi driver learned they were from Kingfisher Island, he told them he had relatives there. All the way, he and Noni chatted about his cousins. Polly stared out the window, clenching her hands. How could Noni do this to her?

The car turned off the road at a stone gate with a sign saying “St. Winifred’s School for Girls.” It made its way along a winding driveway through wooded grounds and a playing field. They reached three buildings grouped in a semicircle around a cement space. Two of them were low and modern; Polly knew that one contained the classrooms and one the gymnasium. The third building was the ugly stone residence where the boarders lived. Dark ivy cloaked one of its walls.

The driver helped carry Polly’s bags up the wide steps of the residence. The headmistress, Miss Guppy, opened the door. Polly shrank as the tall, grizzled woman advanced towards her greedily. “Why, it’s Polly—here at last! Say
goodbye to your grandmother, now. She won’t want to keep the taxi waiting.”

“No tears, hen,” Noni warned. “Remember to be brave, and try to enjoy yourself. We’ll see you very soon.” She pecked Polly’s cheek and hurried down the steps.

Polly watched until the taxi was out of sight. She couldn’t believe that what she had dreaded for so long was actually happening!
It’s only for a year
, she told herself.

“Come inside, Polly,” Miss Guppy barked from the door. “Mrs. Blake will take you up to meet your roommates.”

The hall was panelled in dark wood, its walls covered with group photographs of uniformed girls. A young woman approached Polly and shook her hand. “I’m Mrs. Blake, your matron,” she said in a lilting English voice. She picked up both of Polly’s suitcases and led her up some steep stairs. They went down a hall lined with open rooms; excited voices and laughter floated out from them.

Finally, they reached a room with four cots in it. Their white iron frames were blotched with dark patches where the paint had peeled. The floor was bare. Only one picture hung on the dingy blue walls: a sampler that spelled out
Work, For the Night Is Coming
in crooked letters. Polly grimaced; she had always hated that hymn.

“This is the junior dorm,” said Mrs. Blake. “Now let me introduce you.”

Three pairs of eyes stared curiously at Polly and three
voices said hello. She knew she should answer, but her tongue wouldn’t work. She forgot the girls’ names as soon as Mrs. Blake said them.

“You are all new girls, and I’m new, as well!” said Mrs. Blake. “So let’s try to be patient with one another. I hope we’ll soon become friends.” She had a friendly smile.

“Mrs. Blake, why is this called the ‘junior’ dorm?” asked one of the girls. “
We
aren’t juniors!”

“You’re juniors because you’re the youngest boarders,” Mrs. Blake told her. “Now, finish unpacking. Polly, your bed is the one by the door. I’ll take some of these empty suitcases down to the storage room. Dinner is in ten minutes.”

Polly’s hands trembled as she opened her suitcase. Her back was to the other girls, but she could still feel them staring at her. She slipped her sketchbook and paints into a drawer and covered them up with her underwear. Then she took out the family photograph that Noni had framed for her and placed it carefully on top of the small chest of drawers beside her bed.

A gong sounded loudly. Mrs. Blake came back and led them down to the dining room. Four tables of girls made such a din that a huge chandelier trembled from the ornate plaster ceiling. Polly and her roommates were divided up among the tables. Most of the shrieking, laughing girls at Polly’s table were as big as women. “So you’re Maud’s
sister!” several said, reaching over to shake her hand. She couldn’t return their smiles.

Miss Guppy was at the head of one of the tables. She stood, and the girls copied her, their chairs all scraping in unison. “‘For what we are about to receive, the Lord make us
truly
thankful,’” the headmistress’s gruff voice intoned.

Everyone chorused “Amen” and plunked down again. Polly poked at her grey meat and pale vegetables; then she took a few nibbles of some wobbly white junket.

After dinner, they were herded into a sitting room, where they sat cross-legged on the rug, still keeping up their chatter. When Miss Guppy entered, the noise stopped as abruptly as if a gramophone needle had lifted off a record.

“Good evening, girls,” she said.

“Good evening, Miss Guppy,” the girls answered tonelessly.

Miss Guppy gazed at them down her long nose. She rubbed her hands together with relish as she said, “What a treat to have my girls together again! Will the new boarders please rise.”

Polly stumbled to her feet. She looked around: of the twenty-eight boarders, only the girls in her dorm and one other were new.

“Five new boarders—that’s more than we’ve had for years! Welcome to St. Winifred’s. We hope that you will soon feel at home.” Miss Guppy spoke sternly, as if that were an order.

Everyone clapped and the new girls were allowed to sit down. Miss Guppy sat in an armchair in front of them, her long legs stretched straight out. They were so wide apart you could see the tops of her stockings. Beside Polly, one of her roommates suppressed a giggle.

“I hope this Christmas term of 1935 will be a fresh start for all of you,” began Miss Guppy solemnly. She told them that the boarders were a special family within the school, a family who had to encourage each other to do her very best. Then they all stood as Miss Guppy led them in some prayers. Everyone droned “Abide with Me,” which one of the girls picked out haltingly on the piano. Finally, they were sent back to their dorms.

At eight-thirty, Mrs. Blake came in and told the junior dorm they were to start getting ready for bed. Polly had never undressed in front of strangers. She made a tent of her nightgown and removed her clothes under it. When she glanced at the others, she noticed they were doing the same.

Clutching their towels and toothbrushes, the four girls went down the hall to a long bathroom full of sinks. Three toilet cubicles were opposite them.

Half an hour later, Mrs. Blake turned out the lights. “Not a word now,” she said. “I’m sure you’re all tired and will go right to sleep.”

Polly’s bed creaked as she squirmed on its narrow mattress, trying to find a soft spot between the lumps. Moonlight
coming through the window at the end of the dormitory made squares of light on the floor. If only she had the bed by the window! Then she could at least look out at the night sky.

Her roommates breathed around her. To keep from crying, Polly tried to sort them out. Daisy, the tallest, smiled a lot. Sturdy-looking Rhoda had a mop of dark curls and a pouty mouth. She was the one who had complained about being called “juniors.” She had also complained when Mrs. Blake told her she had brought too many clothes and had to store some in her suitcase. Eleanor wore glasses with thick lenses. She was quiet, but seemed confident.

The others had asked Polly a few questions, but Polly still couldn’t speak, and had only shrugged or nodded. They probably thought she was really stupid.

It’s only for a year
, she reminded herself again. But a year was
forever
!

Never in her life had she been so alone. Daddy or Maud or Noni had always been near. She didn’t even have Tarka. Did he miss her? Did he wonder why Polly wasn’t in her own bed?

Feeling more like six than almost thirteen, Polly put her pillow over her head and finally let loose her tears.

“Polly! Hey, Polly …” someone was whispering, shaking her shoulder.

Polly lifted her wet face. It was Eleanor, standing over her.

“Shhh! Come with me.”

Eleanor pulled Polly by the hand and led her across the room. To Polly’s astonishment, she pushed up the window and went onto the fire escape.

“Quick, before the others wake up!”

Polly lifted the hem of her nightgown and stepped over the sill. Eleanor pushed down the window, and they sat on the highest of the wooden stairs leading to the ground.

Polly breathed in the warm September air and her sobs subsided.

“Why are you crying? Are you homesick?” Eleanor asked in a matter-of-fact voice.

Polly nodded, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“Is that why you aren’t talking to us?”

“Yes,” said Polly. “I’m sorry to be so rude. I just—I just couldn’t.”

“Well, you are now,” said Eleanor comfortably. She stretched out her legs. “Isn’t it swell to be outside? I’m so lucky I was here first. As soon as I saw the fire escape, I knew I wanted that bed.”

“But are we allowed to come out here?”

“Probably not. But who will know?”

Eleanor was so calm that Polly felt calmer herself. She gazed up at the bright moon and stars, the same ones she saw from her window at home.

“I’m a bit homesick myself,” said Eleanor, as if she were surprised. “I miss my family, but most of all I miss my dog.”

“Oh, I miss mine, too!” cried Polly. “I have a border terrier named Tarka. He sleeps on the foot of my bed every night.”

“Mine is a collie—Breeze.”

Their words tangled as they described their dogs. Tarka and Breeze were both male, and almost the same age. Breeze sounded much better behaved than Tarka, however.

“Where are you from?” Eleanor asked.

“Kingfisher Island. It’s one of the gulf islands between Vancouver and Victoria.”

“We went there once on a picnic! It’s really beautiful.”

“It is,” said Polly sadly. “Where are
you
from?”

“Nanaimo. It’s about seventy miles up island from here.”

Eleanor told Polly about the rest of her family besides Breeze: she had two older brothers and a younger sister. Her father was a high-school principal. “Dad was really lucky he could keep his job when the Depression started. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to come here.”

Polly winced as she remembered how Daddy had never
been able to find steady work; that had been his downfall. “Did you
want
to come?” she asked Eleanor. “I didn’t!”

Eleanor nodded. “St. Winifred’s has a really good reputation. I’m going to be a science teacher one day, and I’ll learn more here than I would have in Nanaimo. What do
you
want to be?”

“An artist,” said Polly at once.

“Are you talented enough to be one?”

Eleanor’s bluntness was startling, but Polly nodded. “Yes, I think I am.”

“Good! Now tell me about
your
family.”

Polly swallowed. “Well, I live with my grandmother, and my great-aunt and -uncle are right next door. Their son, Gregor, just got married, and now he and his wife, Sadie, are living in Chilliwack. Gregor’s going to be a curate in the Anglican church there. I have an older sister, Maud, who just started university in Vancouver. She graduated from St. Winifred’s last year—she was head girl!”

“What about your parents?”

Polly took a deep breath. “My mother died when I was two. And my father … well, he lives in Kelowna, but right now he’s in Winnipeg for a while.”

“Why don’t you live with him?”

Eleanor hadn’t read about Daddy in the paper, then. “It’s a long story,” muttered Polly. “I’ll tell you sometime, but not tonight, okay?”

Eleanor shrugged. “That’s perfectly all right. I didn’t mean to pry.”

There was an awkward silence, then Eleanor asked, “I hope you don’t think this is nosy, as well, but why did you come here if you didn’t want to?”

“Because the Kingfisher Island school only goes up to grade seven. I’m only here for a year, though.”

“You are?”

Polly nodded. “After I wrote the entrance exam, Miss Guppy and I made a bargain—but my grandmother doesn’t know about it. I promised to try St. Winifred’s for a year, and if I don’t like it, I don’t have to come back. If I can get Noni—my grandmother—to agree, of course, but the Guppy said she’d support me. Then I’ll share my friends’ governess on the island.”

“Miss Guppy seems quite fierce. I can’t believe you got
her
to agree. And do you really call her ‘the Guppy’?”

“Maud says that everyone calls her that, but never to her face,” said Polly. “She
is
fierce, but that’s our bargain—we shook hands on it. Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

“I won’t. But I hope you’ll stay until you graduate, like me, Polly. Maybe you
will
like it.”

That was nice of her, but Polly said firmly, “I know I won’t. At least I’m not a full-time boarder. I’ll be going home every weekend.”

“Then you’ll see Tarka! You’re so lucky—I won’t see Breeze until Thanksgiving.”

They sat in silence. Polly gazed at the inviting lawn below. The trees swayed in the light breeze and the grass looked so soft. Eleanor noticed her longing glance.

BOOK: And Nothing But the Truth

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