Winter Term at Malory Towers (10 page)

She unlocked the door, and the girls filed out. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Felicity said, ‘Now, we must all behave perfectly normally towards Sylvia and Olive for the time being. We don't know which of them is guilty, and it would be terrible if we accused someone wrongly a second time.'

June appeared to have drifted off into a kind of dream,
and Susan said sharply, ‘June! Are you listening? We don't want any accusations flying around until we are absolutely certain which of the new girls is the sneak.'

‘Of course,' said June. ‘Don't worry, Susan, I've learned my lesson. In fact, I wasn't even thinking about the sneak.'

‘What
were
you thinking about, June?' asked Freddie, noticing the mischievous glint in her friend's eye.

June grinned, and said, ‘I was thinking about the ghost of Malory Towers.'

Sylvia and Olive had returned to the common-room, having failed in their search for the fourth formers. Olive, in particular, felt very disgruntled. She looked across at Sylvia, and thought what a dreadful chatterbox the girl was. Sylvia had kept up a constant stream of talk throughout the search, endlessly speculating on where the girls could be, what they could be doing, and what form any trick they were planning might take. Olive had soon grown heartily tired of her, and thought what bad luck it was that they were thrown together so much.

Just then the door opened, and the rest of the fourth form poured noisily in.

Sylvia and Olive eyed them suspiciously, but Susan grinned warmly and said, ‘Did you think that we had got lost?'

‘Well, Olive and I did wonder where you had got to,' said Sylvia. ‘It's been awfully quiet in here.'

The girls had already decided what story they were going to tell, and Julie said, ‘We all popped down to the stables. You see, Lucy has taught her horse Sandy the most marvellous trick. He can count up to five by pawing the ground with his hoof.'

‘Yes, I taught him how to do it in the holidays,' said Lucy. ‘And, of course, the others were simply dying to see it.'

‘I should have liked to see it too,' said Sylvia, looking a little put out. ‘I'm very fond of horses, you know.'

‘I didn't realise,' said Lucy. ‘If I had known I should have asked you to come along too, Sylvia. Never mind, perhaps I can take you to see Sandy tomorrow.'

That cheered Sylvia up, and she was able to dismiss her worries about the girls playing a trick on her. Julie sat down beside her and asked, ‘Do you have a horse at home, Sylvia?'

‘No, for we don't have any stables,' Sylvia answered. ‘My young brother and sister and I go to a local riding school in the holidays, though.'

‘How old are your brother and sister?' asked Julie with interest.

Of course, Sylvia needed very little encouragement to talk about herself, and was soon telling Julie all about her home and family.

Felicity, nearby, turned to Susan and said, ‘Clever Julie! She is getting Sylvia to talk about her family in the hope that she might let something slip.'

‘Good idea!' said Susan. ‘If only we could do the same with Olive, but she will just clam up, as she always does.'

‘Perhaps the reason she never talks about her family much is because she has something to hide,' suggested Felicity. ‘Like an aunt, who also happens to be the most unpopular mistress at Malory Towers.'

‘I wouldn't be at all surprised,' said Susan. ‘I must
admit, I feel far more inclined to suspect Olive than Sylvia. Sylvia is so open, and will chatter away about herself to anyone who will listen. Hardly the behaviour of someone who is hiding a dark secret!'

‘Miss Tallant never seems to take much notice of Sylvia,' observed Felicity thoughtfully. ‘Yet she came down hard on Olive over the mouse trick.'

‘Did she, though?' said Susan, frowning. ‘She may have just pretended to give her a punishment to throw us off the scent. Bonnie said that when she passed the classroom that morning, Olive and Miss Tallant were just talking. Do you remember?'

‘Yes,' said Felicity slowly. ‘And I've just remembered something else! That photo that Olive put on her locker. I asked her about it, and she bit my head off. She threw it in her locker, in a fit of temper, and I haven't seen it since.'

‘What are you getting at, Felicity?' asked Susan, puzzled.

‘Well, it looked as if someone was missing from the photograph,' Felicity said. ‘Olive's father had his arm outstretched, as though it were around someone's shoulders, but there was no one there. It was as if someone had been cut off. What if that's it, Susan? What if the person missing from the photograph is Miss Tallant?'

Susan gave a gasp, and said, ‘I wonder if you could be right, Felicity.'

‘Hallo, you two look very serious!' said Pam, coming over with Nora. ‘What's up?'

Felicity told the two girls, and Nora said, ‘So, it's
looking more and more likely that Olive is the culprit. I must say, I don't altogether blame her for not wanting to own up to having Miss Tallant as an aunt. I certainly wouldn't, if she was mine.'

‘Well, we still can't be absolutely certain that it is Olive who is Miss Tallant's niece,' Susan said. ‘And until we
are
certain it might be wise to keep our suspicions to ourselves.'

‘Yes, I suppose it would,' agreed Pam. ‘Actually, Susan, Nora and I came over to ask when we are going to have our first rehearsal. I know it's only short play, and no one has many lines to learn, but we all want it to be perfect.'

‘I was thinking about that myself, actually,' said Susan. ‘Mary has finished her song, and very good it is too. So now we are just waiting for June and Freddie to add their jokes.' She raised her voice, and called out, ‘Hi, June! Freddie!'

The two girls, who were sitting side by side on a sofa, their heads close together as they talked, looked up, and Susan said, ‘How are the jokes coming along for our play?'

‘Almost finished,' said June, who had thoroughly enjoyed the task that Susan had given her. Ably assisted by Freddie, she had come up with several very funny lines and jokes to add to the script. Now she said, ‘Another day or two, and we should be finished.'

‘Excellent!' said Susan, happily. ‘In that case, we could hold our first rehearsal on Saturday, if the hall is free.'

There were ‘oohs' and ‘aahs' at this, and Nora clapped her hands together, crying, ‘Marvellous! I simply can't
wait to begin. Bonnie, how are the costumes coming along?'

‘I have made a start on yours, Nora,' answered Bonnie. ‘I found the most beautiful dress in the store-room—all white and sparkly. With a little alteration, it will be perfect.'

‘I say, I wonder if that was the dress Mary-Lou wore, when she played Cinderella in the pantomime that Darrell wrote,' said Felicity, her eyes shining.

‘I'll bet it was,' said Pam. ‘My word, that was a jolly good pantomime. I hope our little play will be as big a success.'

‘I'm quite determined that it shall be,' said Susan, and everyone agreed.

‘We shall spend every spare moment tomorrow finishing our work on the script,' said June to Freddie. ‘For once that is done, there is something else I need to concentrate on.'

‘How to get back at Miss Tallant?' said Freddie.

‘Yes,' said June, her wicked dark eyes glittering. ‘My goodness, I'm going to make her wish that she had never crossed me!'

Freddie grinned, and said, ‘So, when is the ghost of Malory Towers going to make an appearance?'

‘Not until he—or she—is ready,' said June, grinning back at her friend. ‘This trick is going to be more carefully planned than any trick I have ever played. I really do intend to give that horrid woman the shock of her life!'

‘Well, your brother is coming to see you at half-term, isn't he?' said Freddie. ‘He's always full of good ideas, so perhaps the two of you should put your heads together.'

‘The
three
of us,' said June. ‘Don't forget that you are coming with us at half-term, because your people will be on holiday. And I may need your help, Freddie.'

‘You know that you can rely on me,' said Freddie loyally. ‘I would like to see Miss Tallant brought down a peg or two as well.'

And Miss Tallant struck again, the day before the first rehearsal was due to take place. The mistress caught Julie whispering to Lucy, and promptly dished out a hundred lines. ‘I have to hand them in tomorrow morning!' groaned Lucy. ‘And I was hoping to learn my lines for the play tonight.'

‘Look here,' said Julie. ‘Why don't I do half of them for you, Lucy? My writing is a bit like yours and I bet Miss Tallant will never notice the difference.'

‘Oh, would you, Julie?' said Lucy happily. ‘You are a sport! If we do them as quickly as we can, we shall both have time to go through our lines.'

The plan was duly carried out, and once the lines were finished, the two girls sat down together in the common-room and read through their parts in the play.

But they were in for a shock the following morning, when Lucy handed two sheets of paper to Miss Tallant, both covered in large, rather sprawling handwriting. The mistress did not even glance at them, but smiled at Lucy, saying, ‘I hope that you did not have to waste too much of your evening on these lines, Lucy.'

‘No, Miss Tallant,' said Lucy a little nervously.

‘Of course you didn't,' said Miss Tallant, her smile
growing broader. ‘Because Julie did half of them for you, didn't she?'

Lucy gasped. How on earth could Miss Tallant possibly know
that
? The girls' writing was almost identical, and even if there
was
the very slightest difference, the mistress couldn't have noticed it, for she hadn't so much as glanced at the pages. There was only one way Miss Tallant could know, Lucy realised suddenly, her lips tightening grimly. The sneak had struck again!

Just then, a small second former walked past the classroom, and Miss Tallant called out, ‘Elizabeth! Please go and find Julie of the fourth form, and tell her to come to me at once.'

The nervous second former sped off at once, and then Lucy endured a very uncomfortable five minutes indeed! Miss Tallant sat down at her desk and picked up a book, neither looking at Lucy, nor speaking to her. So the girl had to stand in silence, until a puzzled and rather worried-looking Julie arrived. Miss Tallant laid her book aside and got to her feet, and one look at the mistress's face was enough to tell Julie that she was in serious trouble.

‘Well, Julie!' said Miss Tallant, looking sternly at the girl. ‘I understand that you were foolish enough to help Lucy with her punishment yesterday evening.'

Startled, Julie looked at Lucy. Surely her friend couldn't have been so foolish as to tell Miss Tallant the truth? But Lucy, guessing what Julie was thinking, gave the tiniest shake of her head.

Miss Tallant spoke again, a smile of satisfaction on her face, as she said smoothly, ‘Of course, you must both be punished for such deceit. And your punishment will be that you are both forbidden to take part in the rehearsal this afternoon. Instead you will sit here, under my eye, and write an essay on the importance of obeying one's elders and betters.' The girls stared at Miss Tallant in dismay. Julie actually groaned out loud, and opened her mouth to say something, but Lucy gave her a nudge. There was no point in antagonising the mistress, for they would only end up with an even worse punishment. If there
was
anything worse than missing their first rehearsal! They had been looking forward to it so much, and now they were going to miss it. Not only that, but they had let the rest of their form down too, and all through their own deceit.

‘I know that what we did was wrong,' said Julie angrily, as the two girls escaped from Miss Tallant's presence, her instructions to come back to the classroom at two o'clock sharp ringing in their ears. ‘But we did it for the good of the play, so that you could learn your lines. The mean beast who split on us to Miss Tallant had no good intentions at all!'

‘No,' said Lucy miserably. ‘She just intended to cause trouble for us with Miss Tallant—
and
to spoil our rehearsal.'

‘Well, she has succeeded,' said Julie, who felt very angry and upset.

Felicity and Susan were angry, too, when the two girls
told them that they had been forbidden to attend the rehearsal.

‘What rotten luck!' cried Felicity. ‘We can't possibly rehearse properly without the whole cast there.'

‘Oh, Julie!' wailed Susan. ‘I know that you were trying to help, and did it for the good of the play, but I do wish that you hadn't offered to do half of Lucy's lines for her. There are so few characters in the play, that I really don't know if it is worth carrying on with the rehearsal now.'

Julie hung her head and said, ‘I'm sorry, Susan. I wish that I hadn't done it now.'

‘It's not all our fault, Susan,' said Lucy. ‘The person who sneaked on us is to blame, too.'

‘I realise that,' said Susan, looking angry. ‘But as we don't know who is to blame, we can't deal with them as they deserve.'

‘Were both Sylvia and Olive in the common-room last night?' said Felicity, thinking hard.

‘Yes, they were,' said Lucy. ‘I remember seeing them.'

‘Lucy and I were sitting at the table doing our lines,' said Julie. ‘I suppose it would have been easy enough for one of them to peep over my shoulder and see that I was helping Lucy. Bother, why couldn't I have been more careful? Susan, you aren't really going to cancel the rehearsal, are you? Do say that you aren't, or I shall feel even more dreadful than I do already.'

‘Well, I suppose we shall have to go ahead with it, as all the others are looking forward to it,' said Susan, still sounding rather disgruntled. ‘We shall just have to get
someone to stand in for you two, though they won't know the lines, of course. For heaven's sake, do take care not to get on the wrong side of Miss Tallant again, for I shouldn't be at all surprised if she is deliberately setting out to spoil our play, simply because we wouldn't let her be involved.'

Fortunately the rehearsal went smoothly, though Olive was not at all happy when Felicity told her that she was going to stand in for Julie, and take the part of the toy soldier.

‘Can't you get someone else to do it?' said Olive, sullenly.

‘Everyone else is busy with their own parts, or with jobs behind the scenes, so I'm afraid you really have no choice, Olive,' said Felicity firmly. ‘And it doesn't matter if you can't act well, because you're only standing in for Julie. All you have to do is read the lines.'