South of the Alps (completed 19/12/05 )
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#301:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:16 pm

A wet shirt in the Darcy mode, wonderful.

 

#302:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:40 pm

Woohoo!

 

#303:  Author: Mrs Redboots, Location: London, UK PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 1:43 pm

ROTFL at Mr Darcy - oh, sorry, Dr Contarini - and the wet shirt! Laughing

 

#304:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 3:55 pm

Oooooh yummy!

Good for Sally - helping Miss Ferrars even though she's scared of water.

 

#305:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 4:10 pm

Phwoar! Very Happy

Thanks Alison

 

#306:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Thu Dec 01, 2005 10:25 pm

How splendid - a doctor hero, worrying about his shirt.....

Reminds me of Shrek 2

 

#307:  Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 12:23 am

At least he's giving the girls a treat.

 

#308:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 7:58 am

I know some of this is a bit silly but I needed some light relief before trying to sort out everyone's tangled friendships and love-lives!

He dived into the Grand Canal and, as he shot through the water towards the two women, his shirt, now very wet, clung to him, and Prudence Dawbarn wolf-whistled in admiration.

“Shut up Prudence!” Len snapped. “You’re showing us up.”

“I’m showing us up?” Prudence couldn’t believe Len’s nerve. “If it weren’t for your silly antics, none of this would have happened. Thanks to you, most of us are dripping wet, you stink to high heaven because of those filthy weeds, and Ferry and Sally have nearly drowned.”

“Me?” Len was stung by what she considered to be the injustice of what she was hearing. “What did I do? I was only trying to get Francie to sit down.”

“Yes,” Margot put in. “Don’t you speak to my sister like that, Pru Dawbarn. Francie’s the one to blame.”

“Oh you can talk!” Prudence’s twin Priscilla said angrily. “You were egging Francie on.”

“Stop arguing, all of you!” Jo Scott said firmly. “Dr Contarini’s bringing Ferry and Sally to the side of the canal now: we’d better help him.” The girls helped Sally Denny out of the water and then assisted Sandro in bringing Kathie Ferrars on to dry land, trying not to be distracted by the sight of the young doctor in his wet shirt. Sally was very shaken but unhurt apart from a few cuts and bruises. Kathie, however, had struck her head on the side of one of the gondolas: she was conscious, but only just, and the wound on the side of her head would need stitching.

Sandro looked around at the girls, wondering if he might be able to ask any of them to assist him. He knew that girls at British schools often belonged to the Girl Guide movement and would therefore be likely to know about First Aid. He asked Con, who was the nearest, if it were so, but she shook her head apologetically. “We don’t have Guides at school any more,” she said. “We don’t learn First Aid now. Maybe we should start again, given the number of accidents we seem to have." A horrible suspicion crossed her mind, but she dismissed it immediately. It was a preposterous thing to have thought. As if the school authorities would have deliberately decided not to provide First Aid training any more so that the staff and girls would be dependent on passing doctors in times of crisis.

Last edited by Alison H on Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:04 am; edited 1 time in total

 

#309:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:04 am

Thanks, Alison, that was brilliant! I especially liked Prudence's wolf whistle and this line:
Quote:
As if the school authorities would have deliberately decided not to provide First Aid training any more so that the staff and girls would be dependent on passing doctors in times of crisis.

 

#310:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 8:31 am

*snickers* A sharp one that Con Very Happy

Thanks Alison *swoons over the doctor/wet shirt combo*

 

#311:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:17 am

*admires the lovely doctor* Very Happy

 

#312:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:29 am

*joins the swooners*

also chuckling at the last sentence! Laughing Laughing
Thanks Alison

 

#313:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 11:52 am

So Con's worked it out. It's about time someone did.

 

#314:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 3:47 pm

Wicked Con! Laughing

Seems Margot isn't too pleased now - but that she had been encouraging Francie earlier?

 

#315:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 6:38 pm

*giggles*

I LOVE Con's train of thought there!

 

#316:  Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 9:30 pm

No! Surely there must be some perfectly reasonable and logical explanation for dropping Guides and First Aid. Just because we haven't thought of it yet...

 

#317:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:18 pm

Re the "constructive criticism" comments made by Liss, if anyone thinks that this is a load of drivel (probably!!), or that my last drabble was a load of drivel (for people who read it), or has any other general or specific criticism to make, then obviously please feel free to say/do so, but please be a bit gentle with me!!!


Sandro was in a quandary. Really, he needed to get Kathie to hospital, and Miss Denny, who’d also been in the water for some time, ought to be checked over too; but he was reluctant to leave sixteen young girls, most of them cold and wet, to make their way back to his mother’s guesthouse on their own. Con saw the anxious look on his face. “We’ll be all right,” she said quietly. “Thank you so much for rescuing Miss Ferrars and Miss Denny, but please don’t worry about us. We’ll get back to the guesthouse on our own.” Sandro, having ensured that all the girls had had cups of hot coffee and that none of them were hurt, decided that the best thing to do would be to hail a few of the water taxis that plied their trade up and down the Grand Canal. Once the girls were safely on their way back to Marghera – most of them being careful to keep upwind of Len, who hadn’t yet succeeding in freeing herself from all of those unpleasant-smelling weeds – he felt able to turn his attention to the two mistresses.

Signora Contarini exclaimed in horror when she saw the bedraggled girls and heard what had happened. Luckily there was plenty of hot water, and she sent them off to bathe and change whilst she, abandoning temporarily her plans for the afternoon, which had been to go out shopping, set about preparing a hot meal for them all. Once they were all clean and dry, and had been reassured by a telephone call from Dr Contarini to say that the two mistresses were safely in hospital, they sat down to eat, and Signora Contarini excused herself to go out to the shops.

“I say, I’m really sorry, everyone,” Len said. “I suppose I was a bit of an idiot, wasn’t I?”

“Well, at least you’ve admitted it now,” Prudence said. “I suppose you were only trying to help, Len, but you should’ve left it to Ferry: she was in charge of our gondola. You can’t half be a busybody sometimes, you know.”

Len went bright red. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I suppose I can, but I don’t mean to be. I’ll try to think a bit more carefully before I stick my oar in in future. Sorry, that was a rather unfortunate choice of expression, but you know what I mean.”

“Yes,” Jo said. In the absence of the two mistresses, she supposed that she was in charge. She knew that she’d never be Head Girl, not when Josette Russell and Maeve Bettany were both so close to her in age, but she did try to take her responsibilities as form prefect seriously. “I for one accept your apology, Len, and I hope that everyone else will too, and that that’ll be all that any of us need to say about it.”

Everyone else had the grace to accept Len’s apology too. To be fair, she had only been trying to help, and maybe what had happened would teach her that being “a champion butter in” wasn’t always a good thing. Besides, she’d already had to suffer the indignity of being covered in those horrible weeds: no-one was going to forget that in a hurry and Len would be hearing about it for a long time to come! Not to mention the ticking-off that she would get when they got back to school. Enough was enough as far as they were concerned.

“It was really Francie’s fault, anyway,” Betty said, truthfully if tactlessly. “What on earth possessed you to start carrying on like that, Francie?”

Last edited by Alison H on Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:23 pm; edited 1 time in total

 

#318:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 10:23 pm

"Ah yes, Betty, opens mouth purely to change feet!"


Thanks Alison, excellent episode,

 

#319:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 5:43 am

Thank you Alison.
That was fun!

 

#320:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 9:14 am

Laughing Juast caught up on the last 4 posts and have been laughing out loud!

Thanks Alison. Now, for the end of Sally's story... *g* Wink

 

#321:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 10:40 am

Sally and Kathie will both be back with their stories as soon as the girls have sorted themselves out! Thanks for the comments.


“I …,” Francie looked down at the table miserably. “I was upset because Ferry and Sally had a go at me about being late in Lugano, and I hadn’t meant to be late back - I just got lost. I wanted to get back at them, and I knew Sally was scared of water so I thought it’d be fun to mess about with the gondolas. I never meant for anyone to go overboard. And I wanted to impress Margot.”

“Me?” Margot stopped helping herself to spaghetti bolognese and sat up straight. “What are you trying to drag me into it for? I certainly never told you to start playing the fool in the gondola.”

“I wanted you to like me,” Francie muttered. “I wanted to be your friend. I knew that you were upset with Ferry and Sally as well, and I heard you say that the holiday needed livening up, and when we were in the gondola you were cheering me on, and … and there’s something else as well. Emmy, when I pushed into you on the stairs at the Campanile, I did it on purpose: I wanted you to hurt yourself, not badly but just enough so that you’d be out of the way for the rest of the holiday so that there’d be more chance of Margot spending time with me.”

“What?” Emerence exclaimed. Some of the other girls also cried out in horror and Margot stood up, grabbed one of Signora Contarini’s pizzas, walked over to where Francie was sitting, and shoved the pizza right in the other girl’s face. Francie poured her leftover minestrone soup, which had gone cold, over Betty’s head; Prudence threw her spaghetti at Margot; and before long a full-scale food fight was under way, with Priscilla, Primrose, Alicia and Heather all joining in. By the time the others had managed to calm things down, Signora Contarini’s dining room was covered in food and several of the girls needed yet another bath.

“You’ll have to wait till later to get cleaned up,” Ros said. “There won’t be much hot water left, and we’ll have to use what there is to get this place sorted out before Signora Contarini comes back.” Silence reigned whilst they did their best to clear up the mess, but as soon as that was done the recriminations began again.

 

#322:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:37 am

Thanks, Alison. I loved seeing everyone's comments on why they thought various things weren't happening and the reasons for them. I'm glad Francie was honest as well.

 

#323:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 3:12 pm

And Margot made matters even worse by applying the pizza. What a waste of good food.

 

#324:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2005 11:31 pm

Hmm can't help thinking that Margot could have been a bit more restrained. So was she egging Francie of or not?

Thanks Alison

 

#325:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:29 am

“I’m really sorry, Emmy,” Francie said tearfully. “I was just jealous because Margot liked you better than me.”

“So you thought you’d try to shove me down a flight of steep steps?” Emerence asked, shaking her head. “Well, you’ve got some pretty weird ideas about what constitutes a good way of getting people to like you, Francie: I’ll tell you that for nothing. Why don’t you just try being yourself? Margot and I are best friends but that doesn’t mean that neither of us can have other friends, and everyone’d like you a lot better if you didn’t try pulling mad stunts like the one you pulled today. Someone could’ve been killed if the motorboat had hit them, not to mention what could’ve happened to me if I’d fallen down those steps.”

“I’m sorry,” Francie said. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think. I just feel so left out sometimes: our form can be very cliquey. I’ll never do anything like this again, honestly. I just wanted people to like me.”

“Maybe once this has all been forgotten about then all of us can be friends together,” Ricki said, with the idea of making peace. Odette and Joan, both of whom knew what it felt like to be excluded, expressed their agreement. So did Con. Jo Scott, who had briefly been part of the infamous “Gang” which was currently dominating the Sixth Form, and had come to realise how many problems could be caused by people’s jealousy of other people’s friendships and people wanting to feel like they were one of the crowd rather than on the outside, looked round the group. Not even Emerence, who had more reason that anyone else to feel aggrieved with Francie, seemed disposed to continue the argument. Francie would doubtless have to answer to Miss Annersley for her actions of earlier in the day, but that was none of their concern.

“Look” Jo said. “Why don’t we all try to put what’s happened today behind us, and be friends? Let’s face it, many of us could have been seriously hurt today: let’s be thankful that that didn’t happen, and surely it should’ve made us realise that whatever petty differences any of us might have had don’t really matter in the general scheme of things. Sometimes people can be a bit too cliquey, Francie’s right there. It’s a common enough problem at schools, I suppose. We don’t want to arrive back at the School glowering at each other and have everyone saying that we’re a bunch of squabbling kids, do we? And it’d been a brilliant holiday until today, hadn’t it? Pax, everyone?”

Most people nodded, much to Francie’s relief. She’d accepted, when she’d seen Emerence rush to embrace Margot after the accident, that Emerence would always be Margot’s best friend and was just hoping that she and Margot could at least be pals, and the shock of fearing that the two mistresses had drowned had frightened her badly and made her realise just what the consequences of her “joke” might have been. The other girls were being much nicer to her than she deserved, she knew, and she vowed that she would try to be a better member of the school in future.

Unfortunately, there was one person who wasn’t prepared to agree. “Who asked you, Jo Scott?” Margot asked furiously. “Or you, Ricki Fry? I’m sick of the pair of you, always hanging around Len. That goes for you too, Ros Lilley. As for you, Joan Baker, and you, Odette Mercier, why can’t you leave Con alone? And you can just get lost, Francie Wilford: why on earth do you imagine that I’d want to be friends with a little idiot like you? I might have cheered you on a bit in the gondola but that doesn’t make us friends. And nobody’s being cliquey, Jo; you just don’t understand: you’re an only child so you wouldn’t have the first clue about what it’s like to be a triplet. Len and Con and I, and Emmy who’s been my friend for years, are fine as we are, so why don’t the rest of you just stay out of our way and stop spoiling things for us?”

 

#326:  Author: Lyanne, Location: Ipswich, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 9:43 am

So the only person allowed to have friends is Margot? No change there then! It was good to see Jo's thoughts. It is a shame she doesn't get to be Head Girl, she would have made such a good one.

 

#327:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:43 pm

Thanks, Alison. I have always wondered why Jo was never Head Girl - she was such an obvious choice. I'm glad nearly everyone is happy to be friends with Francie but I'm sorry that Margot is refusing to be friends with her.

 

#328:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 12:44 pm

Margot's jealousy rearing its ugly head again? Oh dear!

 

#329:  Author: Squirrel, Location: St-Andrews or Dunfermline PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 1:47 pm

Methinks this is Margot's jealosy raising it's head for the first time - Ted isn't there yet!

Pity they didnt get her to get ahold of it before she arrived now that they have had such a warning og it.

Thanks Alison

 

#330:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 5:39 pm

*pushes Margot back into the canal*

Thanks Alison Very Happy

 

#331:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 6:30 pm

Margot is so selfish; she can have her own friends and yet still keep Len and Con exclusively to herself.
Quote:
*pushes Margot back into the canal*

And distracts any passing gorgeous wet-shirted doctors before they can heroically rescue her!
Thanks, Alison; what a shame the holiday is almost over. I'm really enjoying this drabble.

 

#332:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:28 pm

There was a shocked silence. Len and Con exchanged uneasy glances, and no-one else was quite sure what to say. Eventually Len spoke. “You’ve got no right saying things like that, Margot,” she said. “Of course Con and I are entitled to have our own special friends, and what Ricki said about all of us being friends is the most sensible thing anyone’s said all day.”

“We’ll always be triplets, Margot,” Con added quietly. “That doesn’t mean that we can’t have other friends as well.”

“Prudence and I are twins, but neither of us minds the other one having other friends,” Priscilla put in.

It was almost unheard of for Emerence to disagree with Margot, but even she felt that her friend was in the wrong this time. She wanted to be supportive but she felt that she had to try to make Margot realise that what she was saying was unacceptable. “You know, Margot,” she said awkwardly. “Maybe they’ve all got a point. You and I are pals, aren’t we? I don’t interfere in your relationship with Len and Con, so why should you think that Ros or Ricki or anyone else should interfere in their relationship with you? I … I think that you ought to apologise.”

Margot was stunned. Normally Emmy followed her in everything. She looked at Emerence, struggling to accept what her friend was saying. Emerence looked back at her steadfastly, and Margot turned and ran out of the room.

Len managed to stop herself from going after her. She knew that she’d caused enough trouble for one day. She and Con exchanged troubled looks. “I feel as if I should say something to her, but I don’t want to make things worse,” Con said. “We’ve both told her already that she’s got no right to interfere in other people’s friendships.” They both looked at the other girls around them in embarrassment. Margot had been unspeakably rude to their own particular friends and also to Francie, but they didn’t feel that they could or should apologise on her behalf. Odette saw the looks on both their faces and spoke up. “Please do not feel guilty about what Margot has said,” she said urgently. “It is not your fault, either of you.”

“Maybe someone should go after her,” Francie said. Her silly joke had backfired in more ways than she could have imagined and she was heartily regretting it, but she was also beginning to wonder why on earth she’d wanted to impress Margot in the first place. There were other girls in the form whom she could see now would be far more worth trying to make friends with. Margot was showing her true colours now and they weren’t attractive ones.

“I’ll go,” Emerence said decisively.

 

#333:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:30 pm

TYpical Margot...
Thank Alison.

 

#334:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:36 pm

Glad that even Emerence was moved to disagree with Margot - it's unfortunate that she'll not manage to get through to her - it'll take something far worse to waken her to how nasty her behaviour is.

Thanks Alison.

 

#335:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 04, 2005 10:46 pm

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad Emmy backed up Len and Con.

 

#336:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:16 am

love the food fight!
Hope Emerence can make Margot see sense.

Thanks Alison

 

#337:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:23 am

Wonderful updates! thank you Alison.

 

#338:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 12:31 pm

Emerence found Margot in the dormitory, sobbing into her pillow. “What do you want?” the younger girl snapped tearfully. “You’re supposed to be my friend. How could you take sides against me like that?”

“I wasn’t taking sides!” Emerence exclaimed. “Oh Margot, why are you being like this? Grow up! I know Francie’s been an idiot today but you ought to be flattered that she was trying to impress you: you could at least be a bit nice to her. And why are you being so horrible to Jo and Ros and the others? For a minute there, I was actually ashamed of you, the way you were carrying on: I was ashamed that my best friend should be a person who could treat others like that. No-one’s trying to come between you and your sisters, but you’ll push them away yourself if you speak to their friends like that. And if you think that triplets shouldn’t be allowed to have any friends apart from each other, then what about me? And what about when you grow up? Are you expecting Len and Con never to have any friends of their own, even when they’ve left home and might not even be living in the same country as you? Come on, Margot, surely you can see that you’re being unreasonable? In fact, you’re behaving like a spoilt, selfish brat. And I should know: I was one myself before I came to the Chalet School.”

“I hadn’t thought of it all like that,” Margot confessed.

“Well you should have done,” Emerence said. She wished that she’d said some of this sooner: she’d realised that there was trouble brewing when there’d been that incident with the glass in Murano, but she’d always been inclined just to follow where Margot led, even though she’d done plenty of mad things of her own before she and Margot had become friends. “Come on, Margot,” she urged. “I’ll come downstairs with you and stand by you if you’re ready to apologise.”

It went against Margot’s pride to apologise for anything, but Emerence’s words had struck a chord with her. If she didn’t learn to accept Len and Con’s friendships with other people, she might end up ruining her relationships with both of her triplets and with Emmy as well. Emmy was right, she supposed. She could hardly expect her sisters to go through life without being close to anyone but herself and each other. Her parents would have a fit if they ever found out how she’d spoken to the other girls. Most of all, the thought of losing Emerence’s friendship had made her realise how Len and Con must feel about her attempts to come between them and their own friends. “All right,” she said. “And thanks for saying you’ll come with me.”

By the time they got back downstairs, the others who’d been involved in the food fight were wondering aloud if there was likely to be any more hot water yet, and everyone was wondering whether they ought to start packing seeing as they were supposed to be leaving in the morning. They all stopped talking when they saw Margot. Len and Con both stood up, but Margot motioned to them to remain seated. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for the way I’ve behaved,” she said. “Ros, I’m sorry I pushed you when we were at that glass stall on Murano; and, Francie, I’m sorry I called you an idiot. And I’m sorry I’ve been so nasty to everyone who’s been spending time with Len and Con. Ricki and Jo were right. We should all be friends.”

OK, Margot's good intentions don't last very long and soon she's blackmailing Ted, but the girls will be leaving Venice soon so that I can concentrate on Sally and Kathie, and I wanted them to end their holiday on a cheerful note!

 

#339:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:00 pm

Thanks, Alison. it was good to see Emerence being sensible and mature for once. As for Margot, she needs a sharper lesson than that.

 

#340:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 1:49 pm

This is so brilliant, Alison. Emerence was brilliant, getting through to Margot like that. What a shame the change of attitude didn't last!

 

#341:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 3:01 pm

Well done Emerence! Thank you Alison.

 

#342:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 5:55 pm

Oh, good for Emerence!

Thanks Alison, I'm glad Margot is going to behave for the time-being at least.

Now ... about Sally ...

Liz

 

#343:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:19 pm

Actually that's quite realistic - the fact of Emmerence leaving will be enough to make Margot totally forget her good intentions.

Thanks Alison.

 

#344:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 8:58 pm

Quote:
Now ... about Sally ...


Yes....quite...

I'm glad they're all friends again so you can devote your time to Sally and Kathie.

Thanks Alison

 

#345: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Mon Dec 05, 2005 11:50 pm

Good for Emerence, and nice that she could use her own past behaviour to underline to Margot that she does understand, but has grown beyond that. Shame Margot can't follow her.

Really interesting interactions there, Alison.

I, too, am looking forward to more about Kathie and Sally.

 

#346:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:13 am

Thank you Alison, that was very interesting.

 

#347:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:55 am

Thanks for the comments. The girls are going home now ... out of Kathie and Sally's way!


And that was the end of the day’s arguments. The door opened at that point: it was Signora Contarini, back from her shopping expedition. She was so harassed by the events of the day that she didn’t ask why Betty appeared to have soup in her hair or why parts of the walls and floor looked as if they’d just been scrubbed. After a hasty consultation as to what should be done about going home – their train tickets were booked for the following day and Signora Contarini was expecting more guests the following evening – they decided that the best thing to do would be to see if Miss Annersley would allow them to travel home alone. Jo obtained Signora Contarini’s permission to ring the School, only to be told that Miss Annersley was still away, staying with the Emburys in Geneva. Not wanting to ring Freudesheim and disturb Joey, she rang the San and was put through to Jack Maynard. Once he’d been reassured that his daughters and everyone else were all right, even though the two mistresses would be unable to return on the following day as planned, he asked to speak to Signora Contarini. She assured him that she would accompany the girls to the train station the next morning and see them on to the Lugano train, and Jack said that, as there were no cases at the San at present which couldn’t be left to the other doctors for a day, he would come to Lugano with the coach driver and escort the girls home from there himself.

They managed to get through the return journey without any more mishaps, and they all agreed that, apart from the gondola affair, it had been a very pleasant holiday, and that they’d all learned a lot from it. Everyone had good intentions about how they were going to behave in the future – Margot was going to control her jealousy, Len was going to be less bossy, Con was going to pursue her friendships with the other girls, Francie was going to put her obsession with becoming Margot’s best friend behind her, Emerence was going to use more sense and not be so influenced by Margot, Odette was going to involve herself more with the other members of her form, and so on. Not that the good intentions lasted very long, but the happy memories of the holiday did outlast the less happy ones, and the gondola accident was added to the many legends of the school. Joey even used it in one of her books. It was a good job that Chalet School life was so eventful, she told Jack: it saved her a lot of time in thinking up ideas for her school stories! Well, she was a busy lady after all …

 

#348:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 9:07 am

Wonderful! Thanks Alison.

Glad the girls had a good time, and looking forward to seeing what Kathie and Sally get up to now they have Venice to themselves Very Happy

ROFL at that last line!

Liz

 

#349:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 10:40 am

Thanks Alison! Loved all the good intentions....definitely the road to hell! Very Happy

 

#350:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 12:30 pm

Thanks Alison Very Happy

And now back to Kathie and Sally-go-round-the-moon... *hopeful*

 

#351:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 1:09 pm

I'm glad they learned something from their experiences in Venice. Now I'm off to visit Sally and Kathie at the hospital and eavesdrop on any quiet chats they might be having! Thanks, Alison.

 

#352:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:35 pm

In the meantime, whilst the girls had been sorting out their differences, Kathie and Sally had been being taken to hospital, accompanied by an anxious Sandro, his shirt drying out in the heat of the day. “I’m all right, honestly,” Sally said when they arrived at the hospital. “I felt a bit faint before but that’s just because I’m nervous about water: I’m not hurt. I’d like to stay with Kathie, but I’m worried about the girls as well: I don’t know what to do for the best.”

Sandro rang his mother, who was able to inform him that the girls had arrived safely back at the guesthouse and thus to allay Sally’s worries. A kindly nurse sent Sally off for a hot bath and then suggested that she rest for a while whilst her clothes were washed. Luckily it was warm in the hospital and it didn’t take too long for Sally’s clothes to dry, by which time Kathie’s wound had been stitched and Sandro Contarini came to inform Sally that her friend had been asking for her.

“I do not know your first name, Signorina Denny,” he said apologetically, “but I am assuming that it is Nancy. She was asking for Nancy earlier, over and over again, before she’d quite come round properly.” He looked at Sally as if he were trying to work something out but not quite succeeding.

“I’m not Nancy. My name’s Sarah, but people usually call me Sally,” Sally said. “Nancy is … Kathie’s friend. She’s in St Moritz with some of the older girls at the moment.” She was glad that Kathie had been asking for Nancy: she’d been afraid that Kathie had decided not to pursue the relationship and had been saddened by the thought of the distress that that decision would have brought to both of her two young colleagues. “May I see Kathie anyway, though?”

 

#353:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 2:51 pm

Yes, please go and see Kathie and have a nice cosy little chat with her!
Thanks, Alison!

 

#354:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 5:19 pm

Thanks Alison.

Glad the girls have sorted themselves out. Looking forward to hearing the end to Sally's story! Very Happy

Last edited by Josie on Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:32 pm; edited 1 time in total

 

#355:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:07 pm

Poor Kathie - hope she is soon much better, and able to listen to everything Sally has to tell her Wink

Thanks Alison

Liz

 

#356:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 6:50 pm

Thanks Alison!
Hope the girls get back to school with no catastrophes, and that Sally and Kathie can have a decent chat with no interruptions!

 

#357:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 7:59 pm

Glad Kathie was asking for nancy - now talk to each other you two - so Kathie can see it is possible to succeed with an unconventional relationship!

Thanks Alison.

 

#358:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2005 8:03 pm

Glad they both seem okay - now they can have a proper chat and tell us all about it. Very Happy

Thanks Alison

 

#359: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:40 am

I'd almost forgotten that Kathie hasn't yet realised the truth of Sally's story. I hope she's well enough to understand and learn from Sally's experience - though one hopes her own won't need to be so bleak.

Enjoyed all the girls' good intentions - and very sensible they were, too. Even if the effects are short-lived, they've learned something important about themselves.

 

#360:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:42 am

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad Kathie was calling out Nancy's name.

 

#361:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 7:49 am

“Of course.” He led her through to a private room where Kathie was sitting up in bed, looking pale and drawn but, Sally was thankful to see, clearly now fully conscious.

“I will leave you now,” Sandro said, “but I thought you would like to know that I have just spoken to my mother again, and she has told me that arrangements have been made for the girls to return to the school tomorrow as originally planned. My mother will see them on to the train here and the father of three of the girls is to come with the coach driver to meet them at Lugano, so they will be quite safe. You need not worry about them.”

That was a relief: Sally hadn’t relished the prospect of having to escort the girls home and leave Kathie in Venice alone, and it would clearly be another few days before Kathie was able to travel. “Kathie, how are you feeling?” she asked anxiously. “Thank goodness you weren’t more seriously hurt.”

“I’m all right,” Kathie said. “At least, I will be in a few days’ time. Oh dear, I feel as if I will never be trusted to take the girls on an expedition again.”

“Kathie, it wasn’t your fault!” Sally said. “Besides, I had equal responsibility with you. Francie Wilford has always been liable to be a little pest, although I really don’t think that she meant for anyone to end up in the canal; and Len Maynard should have had the sense to sit still, although I suppose she was only trying to help. And if every mistress who’d been in charge of a school party that met with a mishap was banned from taking the girls on expeditions in future, then none of us would be allowed to go anywhere … and Hilary would never have met Phil and Biddy would never have met Eugen.”

“I keep having flashbacks,” Kathie said tearfully. “I keep seeing us all going into the water and the motorboat coming and thinking that we were all going to die. Talk to me, Sally; please talk to me; please take my mind off it.” She looked up at the older woman. “What you were telling me last night … you were upset and I want to help. I asked about your brother and …”

 

#362:  Author: Ruth B, Location: Oxford, UK PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 8:06 am

and....

Think there's a bit missing there Alison!! Wink

 

#363:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:45 am

and!!

Shocked Very Happy

Sometimes you update twice in a day Alison so *crosses fingers* Very Happy Thanks!

 

#364:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 11:16 am

*joins Mia in crossing fingers* (although it makes it a touch tricky to type!)

Thanks Alison!

 

#365:  Author: KathrynW, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 12:42 pm

I was hoping to be off a cliff, having not had the chance to read it for a couple of days but no! Thanks Alison, very much looking forward to Sally's story.

Kathryn

 

#366:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 1:47 pm

Come on Sally - I'm sure you can do a brilliant job of taking Kathie's mind off the accident!

Thanks Alison Very Happy

Liz

 

#367:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 2:35 pm

Thanks, Alison. I am looking forward to finding out what Sally is going to say next.

 

#368:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:06 pm

*also crosses fingers*

thanks Alison. Love the bit about Hilary and Biddy meeting their doctors! Laughing

 

#369:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 3:09 pm

*Pulls chair closer to Kathie's bed*

Thanks, Alison; here's hoping you won't be gone for long!

 

#370:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:10 pm

I'm back now! A client came in late for a meeting and then spent ages waffling on about a fight his mate got in in the pub, which I so didn't want to know! Thanks for the comments. I appreciate that this is a bit daft but I feel sorry for Sally in the books - she's there from very early on in the series but never seems to become close friends with anyone, never gets to do anything exciting, is usually described as "plain" or "sturdy" and never even gets invited to Joey's for tea!

Suddenly realisation dawned on her and she wondered how she could have been so stupid as to not to see it earlier. The difference in names, the complete lack of family resemblance in either looks or personality. A singing master. One who was interested in German culture: now she remembered being told that story about Verity Carey and her refusal to join in the carol singing during her first term at the school. The way that the Dennys lived on their own in a little private chalet away from everyone else, even though Herr Laubach lived at the school so the presence of a male teacher there obviously wasn’t considered to be a problem. The lack of any mention of their family. It was all making sense now. And they’d kept this a secret for over twenty years! No wonder Sally had said that she was good at keeping secrets.

“He’s not your brother at all, is he?” she asked slowly. “The man you were talking about … it’s him, isn’t it?”

Sally nodded. “We didn’t intend to end up living in Austria. We decided to go abroad, we actually planned to go to America, but Tristan’s health was bad and he was told that spending a winter in the Alps would do him good. We were nervous about posing as husband and wife, in case we were asked to prove our identity again, and anyway if we posed as brother and sister then no-one would think it odd that I was working. We needed two incomes, really: we didn’t have much money. Besides, I enjoyed teaching: I still do. So we decided to start as we meant to go on. We went to the Tiernsee as brother and sister … and then we met Madge Bettany … and the air there was so good for Tristan, and then we found out that Jem Russell was planning to open a Sanatorium there so there would always be doctors on hand in case Tristan was ill, and … well, so it went on. I can’t say that it’s always been easy, but we’ve been together, and the Chalet School has been very good to us, and we’ve been as happy as we could have been under the circumstances. Don’t feel sorry for us, Kathie, please. After seeing so many men die in the Great War, we both feel blessed to be able to spend our lives together, even if it isn’t under the most conventional of circumstances.”

 

#371:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:18 pm

Thanks, Alison. I also feel sorry for Sally; always on the very edge, just out of the fun!

 

#372:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 5:40 pm

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad that Sally and Tristan are so happy and Kathie has cottoned onto the truth.

 

#373:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 6:37 pm

Well finally! *Awards Kathie the first prize for 'How dense am I?' *

Glad Sally has been happy - does anyone on the Staff or elsewhere know/suspect?

 

#374:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Wed Dec 07, 2005 10:59 pm

It is lovely that they have been so happy - and so please that Kathie is cottoning on!
Echoes Lesley's question!

 

#375:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:13 am

Getting towards the end now ... this is pretty silly but never mind!

“Does anyone else know?” Kathie asked.

Sally shook her head. “No-one. Oh it’s been difficult, especially that last term in Tyrol when the school was moved up to the Sonnalpe and we were living with the Russells, but no-one has ever guessed. It’s been hard, Kathie, having no-one to talk to about this, but in some ways it’s brought us closer together.”

“And his wife won’t agree to a divorce, even now?” Kathie asked. “Or does he not know where she is?”

Sally looked surprised. “Did I not tell you that bit? She managed to track him down, through a solicitor, the last year before the school came out to Switzerland. She’d met someone else she wanted to marry. Maybe the second war changed her views about divorce and what people found acceptable, or maybe it was just that she wanted to marry this man so much: I don’t know. It took a while to sort all the legalities out, but he got his divorce in the end, quite recently in fact, but … well, could you imagine if we told everyone at the Chalet School that we’d been telling them lies and living over the brush all this time? Can you see Joey Maynard’s face? Can you imagine the gossip that there’d be? We’d be hounded off the Gornetz Platz so fast that our feet wouldn’t touch the ground, and then what would we do? The Chalet School’s been our family all these years and we both love our jobs there. No, I’ve been Miss Sarah Denny for over twenty years –that’s even the name on my passport and on my official papers, I changed it by deed poll – and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

“Maybe you’re right,” Kathie said unhappily. “Sally, I admire you, and I’m glad that you and Tristan are happy together but I just don’t think that I’m strong enough to keep my relationship secret as you’ve done, and if anyone found out about Nancy and me then the same thing would happen … the gossip, being run out of the school. So I’ve decided. I’m going to tell Nancy that it’s all over.”

 

#376:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:20 am

Now Kathie, you know that's not what you're supposed to do! *shakes head*

(and hurrah for Tristan and Sally actually being together, even if it's not quite ideal)

Thanks Alison.

 

#377:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:27 am

Oh Kathie! What about what Nancy wants? Maybe she's strong enough...

Thank you Alison!

 

#378:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:35 am

Oh poor Sally and Tristan! That's really poignant Sad

Noo Kathie don't do it! Shocked

Thanks Alison Very Happy

 

#379:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:02 pm

Kathie, don't let yourself down, or let Nancy down, please.

 

#380:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:08 pm

Nooooooooooo Kathie!!!!!

Sally's story was supposed to inspire you and make you see that there is a way for you and Nancy to be together. If you weren't so ill I would shake you!

*repeats mantra to self - it's only a story, it's only a story*

Thanks Alison

 

#381:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 7:47 pm

*Smacks Kathie on the head - will you listen to Sally????*


Thanks Alison! Laughing

 

#382:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 8:14 pm

Thanks, Alison. I hope Sally can persuade Kathie not to break off her relationship with Nancy.

 

#383:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:17 pm

C'mon Kathie - take courage from this!

 

#384:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 7:54 am

“Oh Kathie, no,” Sally protested. “I know I guessed about you and Nancy but that’s only because I’m oversensitive to secrets. Anyway, times change. Attitudes towards divorce are changing, and soon attitudes towards relationships like yours and Nancy’s will change as well. And do you not think that it’ll be difficult for the two of you to work together afterwards? Let me ring the School: they’ll get word to Nancy at St Moritz and she’ll come straight here: Dr Contarini said that you’d been asking for her.”

“No!” Kathie said. “I don’t want her here. I’ll tell her when I get back to the School, and then I’ll hand in my notice. You’re quite right about it being difficult for us to work together afterwards. I thought I might go back to England.”

“And then what?” Sally demanded. “Even if you get over this, you’ll meet someone else, and then what will you do? Run away again?”

“Oh I don’t know,” Kathie said miserably. “Maybe I should just try to conform to what people expect. Maybe …”

“Oh no,” Sally said. “Not that nice young doctor. Oh I can see that he’s taken a bit of a shine to you, but you can’t encourage him, Kathie: you can’t. It wouldn’t be fair to you and it most certainly wouldn’t be fair to him.”

“You’re right: I know you are,” Kathie said. “It’s just that occasionally the thought of being alone for the rest of my life seems even less appealing than the thought of being with the wrong person. I’ll just have to get used to it, though. Luckily I love my job too: teaching’s a very fulfilling career, and hopefully I’ll be able to find another school where my life’s as full as it is at the Chalet School, and I’ll devote my life to it. Plenty of people are effectively married to the Chalet School, after all. Hilda Annersley, Nell Wilson, Rosalie Dene, Gwynneth Lloyd … I’ll be like Jane Eyre – formed for labour, not for love.

Sally forbore to point out that Jane Eyre had married Mr Rochester in the final chapter of Charlotte Bronte’s book. Surely Kathie wouldn’t give up on love either.

 

#385:  Author: Nicola, Location: Derbyshire PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:11 am

Noooooo! This is all wrong (but I love it anyway). They're meant to be together. Sally, ignore her and send for Nancy right NOW!

Thanks, Alison. I'm really enjoying this.

 

#386:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:30 am

Yes, send for Nancy!

Kathie you can't just give up like that! Thanks Alison Very Happy

 

#387:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:07 am

Adds to list of people calling for Nancy! Thanks, Alison, this is lovely.

 

#388:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:36 am

Thanks, Alison.

*Chair joins the queue of people wanting to call Nancy.*

 

#389:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 11:27 am

Oh Kathie, Kathie, Kathie...please not give up on love and loving the right person.

Thank you Alison!

 

#390:  Author: Michelle, Location: Near London PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:53 pm

Thank you, Alison. We want Nancy!

I think Nancy should know in her heart that Kathie needs her, and come running.

Michelle

 

#391:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 1:01 pm

Have just caught up on the last few posts, Alison, and breathed a sigh of relief when light finally dawned on Kathie - may light now dawn on her own relationship!

She needsNancy, and vice versa, so please, Sally, knock some sense into her.

Thanks, Alison.

 

#392:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 1:33 pm

Getting into the queue to slap some sense into Kathie.

 

#393:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 1:44 pm

Also joining the queue to persuade Kathie to follow her heart, not the conventions - if Sally has done it for all these years (OK, I know that was a heterosexual situation) then surely Kathie can have the courage of her convictions here. Hope that Sally will either get Nancy to come to Venice, or persuade Kathie that she must *not* break off this relationship.

Looking forward to more, ALison, thanks.

 

#394:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:12 pm

Thanks for all your comments.

The medical staff decided that Sally should stay in overnight, and Signora Contarini said that she would be able to find room for her to stay at the guesthouse for another couple of days until Kathie was well enough to be released from hospital and travel back to Switzerland. The nurses politely indicated that Sally should return to her own ward so that Kathie could rest.

Kathie dozed off for a while. When she awoke, it was evening. Everything that had happened came back to her in a flash. She was in a foreign hospital, she didn’t speak the language, her head was hurting, and she was going to have to tell Nancy that it was all over. She started to sob. When there was a knock at the door, she rubbed her eyes frantically, called “Entra,” hoping that she’d got that right – it was similar to the French “Entrez,” after all – and was extremely embarrassed when Sandro Contarini appeared. She pulled the bedclothes up hastily: she wasn’t wearing very much apart from a hospital nightie and dressing-gown.

“Dr Contarini, I must thank you for your very kind assistance today,” she said, trying to sound as formal as possible.

“Truly, it was nothing,” he said, in his charming Italian-accented English. “Saving ladies from accidents is all part of a doctor’s work after all. I only hope that today’s unfortunate events have not given you a bad impression of our beautiful city, Kathie.” She assured him that she would have many wonderful memories of Venice, and then realised that once again she’d said the wrong thing and stopped hastily, muttering instead something about his mother’s kindness in offering to make sure that the girls boarded the train safely.

“I came to see if you were all right,” he said “I thought that you would like to know that I have been home to check on your pupils and that they are all well. Those who caused your accident are extremely sorry for their actions, but I have assured them that you and Signorina Denny will soon be well again and able to return to the School. May I add that I will be very sorry to see you go?”

 

#395:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:21 pm

Poor Sandro! Thanks Alison.

 

#396:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 4:29 pm

Oh dear, she's just going to have to tell him she's not interested...

Thank you Alison.

 

#397:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 8:20 pm

Kathie you'd not be fair to him if you allow him to continue. You can't be false to your own nature.

Thanks Alison.

 

#398:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 9:51 pm

Thanks, Alison. I really hope Kathie explains the situation to him.

 

#399:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:51 am

Sad Poor Sandro.
*hopes Kathie tells him the truth*

Quote:
Surely Kathie wouldn’t give up on love either

Hope not!

Thanks Alison.

 

#400:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 8:44 am

It's all right, he twigged when he heroically rescued Kathie only for her to keep on asking for Nancy! Bless him!

“Dr Contarini … you have been very kind, as I said, but… What I mean is that I fear that I may perhaps have given you the wrong impression.”

“Signorina Ferrars! What can you mean?” he said. Kathie was mortified. Had she just made an even bigger fool of herself? Had he not been attracted to her after all? Oh dear, this was so embarrassing. She wished that the floor would open and swallow her up. Then she looked up and saw that he was grinning and that his eyes were twinkling.

“Ah, Kathie, did you perhaps fear that my heart was about to be broken?” he laughed. “I enjoy the company of pretty ladies, certainly, and you are indeed a very pretty lady, but we have known each other only a few days. Perhaps, though, there is a rule at your Chalet School that dictates that if a lady is rescued from an accident by a doctor then she has to marry him?”

“You may have just hit the nail on the head there,” Kathie muttered, not sure whether to laugh or to cry.

“Pardon?” The English he’d been taught at school hadn’t included slang. He was under the impression that using slang would be regarded as a very serious offence by an English schoolteacher.

“Never mind.” Kathie started to laugh and he laughed with her.

“Let me assure you that no such rule exists in Venice!” he said. “Now. About Nancy.”

“What?” She looked at him, startled.

“When you were first regaining consciousness, you kept crying out for Nancy. I thought at first that Nancy must have been the name of your colleague, Signorina Denny, and I was puzzled because I have seen the two of you together and certainly I would never thought that you were … but she tells me that her name is Sally, and that Nancy is your … friend? Forgive me, Kathie, it is not my business … but I can see that you have been crying and I wondered if perhaps there was anything I could do to help. The young ladies told me that all the school parties would be returning to the school tomorrow: I thought that perhaps you might wish for someone to telephone the office there and ask if Nancy might be able to come here to see you?”

 

#401:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 9:22 am

Quote:
Perhaps, though, there is a rule at your Chalet School that dictates that if a lady is rescued from an accident by a doctor then she has to marry him?”

Absolutely! Thanks, Alison, this is such a wonderful drabble!

 

#402:  Author: flitterwit, Location: london PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 10:09 am

AAhh, sounds as if people are being sucked into the mad self-referential world of CS. *It is not real**It is a drabble* If there is such a rule in the fictional world of CS, then first the doctor has to prove whether there was an accident and whether he did rescue the lady. (This was in the days before CGI but I suppose you could still pay witnesses)

*extricates herself from this mad world*

What if Kathy doesn't marry the doctor? That would be a thorn in EBDs side. Why did she marry her staff and pupils off to doctors? As if there were no other suitable men in the world. No other author does this. Which Chalet girls didn't marry doctors?

 

#403:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:10 am

Thank you Alison.
Kathie, listen to those around you, trusr Nancy, trust yourself, say your prayers and go for it! Very Happy

 

#404:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:47 am

flitterwit wrote:

Why did she marry her staff and pupils off to doctors? As if there were no other suitable men in the world. No other author does this. Which Chalet girls didn't marry doctors?


Most of them actually don't marry doctors (shock horror Laughing Laughing !), but the rule seems to be that anyone who marries anyone other than a doctor then disappears, e.g. Juliet when she marries a barrister, Gillian when she marries an artist, Bernhilda when she marries a banker, etc. It's a shame really - I would like to've seen Marie in her Schloss (why did no-one ever go and stay with the von und zu Wertheims when they got the castle back, considering that they were all so keen on Tyrol?), and I would love to've seen Joey being a bridesmaid at Elisaveta and Raphael's wedding. & lucky Simone, being married to the head of a French cosmetics and perfume company!

 

#405:  Author: flitterwit, Location: london PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 11:58 am

Quote:
I would like to've seen Marie in her Schloss (why did no-one ever go and stay with the von und zu Wertheims when they got the castle back, considering that they were all so keen on Tyrol?), and I would love to've seen Joey being a bridesmaid at Elisaveta and Raphael's wedding


So would I have loved to have seen von und zu wertheim's wedding. Marie did come back several times (*shock**horror*) and so did Elisabetha in Armishire as in they did not disappear.

 

#406:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 12:40 pm

Stands over Kathie with a poking stick. She WILL say that she wants Nancy to come to see her.

 

#407:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 3:29 pm

Thanks, Alison. I hope that he can help Kathie to see that she and Nancy are meant to be together!

 

#408:  Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 3:46 pm

flitterwit wrote:
Quote:
I would like to've seen Marie in her Schloss (why did no-one ever go and stay with the von und zu Wertheims when they got the castle back, considering that they were all so keen on Tyrol?), and I would love to've seen Joey being a bridesmaid at Elisaveta and Raphael's wedding


So would I have loved to have seen von und zu wertheim's wedding. Marie did come back several times (*shock**horror*) and so did Elisabetha in Armishire as in they did not disappear.


True, but we see them very fleetingly. Compare this to Hilary and Biddy (and, well, Joey herself), whom we regularily see.

I suppose with the Platz being such a small community, EBD couldn't think of any other occupation that would mean that the husband (and thus ex-Chaletian) would be near the school.

Please, may we have some more story?

 

#409:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Sat Dec 10, 2005 7:08 pm

It would have been nice to see more of old CS girls - especially the foundation stones, but life moves on and the school certainly did that.

Anyway....back to the story.

Please?

 

#410:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 9:46 am

“No!” Kathie said sharply. “Dr Contarini, Sandro, I appreciate that you are trying to help, and I apologise for any misunderstandings that there have been, but you must understand that I do not want Nancy – my friend Miss Wilmot - coming here.”

He nodded. “Very well. I will wish you buonanotte then, Kathie. I hope that we will see each other again before you leave Venice. If not, then may I take this opportunity to wish you and Signorina Denny a very safe journey back to the Gornetz Platz.”

Kathie awoke late the next morning: it was almost afternoon when she finally opened her eyes. She felt much better, and the nurse who came in to check on her said that hopefully she would be able to leave the next day. Sally called in to see her briefly, and explained that she was going to go back to the guesthouse and would bring Kathie some fresh clothes. Kathie sank back into her pillows, trying to rehearse what she was going to say to Nancy, how she was going to word her letter of resignation, and how she was going to explain to her aunt and uncle that she was leaving the Chalet School when she’d told them that she was so happy there. She lost track of the time, and when there was a knock at the door she thought to herself that either it was later than she’d thought or that Sally had been very quick about getting to the guesthouse and back.

But it wasn’t Sally.

 

#411:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 12:25 pm

I hope it's Nancy.

 

#412:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:06 pm

I hope you won't make us wait too long to find out!! Thanks, Alison.

 

#413:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:12 pm

Thanks, Alison. I am also hoping that it is Nancy.

 

#414:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 1:30 pm

But who else could it be? Laughing

A nice little cliff, you rascal. Shocked

Thanks, Alison.

 

#415:  Author: dackel, Location: Wolfenbuettel, Germany/Cambridge, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 3:38 pm

*crossing my fingers* I, too, hope it's Nancy!

 

#416:  Author: Identity Hunt, Location: UK PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 4:23 pm

Please, please let it be Nancy !

 

#417:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 5:21 pm

Let's hope it is Nancy - and that she will be able to persuade Kathie to stay and try out a relationship.

Thanks Alison.

 

#418:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sun Dec 11, 2005 10:46 pm

Please let it be Nancy!

 

#419:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:11 am

“Kathie Ferrars, what on earth have you been doing to yourself?” a familiar voice asked. “I’ve brought some chocolate from St Moritz for us to share: I’ve given up with the diet yet again. Well, we got stranded by an avalanche, and I gather that you and Sally took an unexpected swim in the Grand Canal. No-one could ever say that Chalet School trips were uneventful, could they? Are you really all right? Someone rang the school office from the hospital here, asked for our address in St Moritz, then wired me there. I left as soon as I could: I had to change trains more than once and it’s been a bit of a nightmare, but I’m here now.”

“I can’t believe Sally Denny went and did that,” Kathie muttered. “She wanted to ring and ask you to come to see me, and I told her not to.”

“It wasn’t Sally,” Nancy said. “It was a young doctor. I’ve just spoken to him now. He said that you weren’t expecting me, and that he’d rung because it would matter if you were angry with Sally but it wouldn’t matter if you were angry with him, and that he thought that I ought to be here because you were asking for me.” She looked at Kathie with narrowed eyes. “What is it, Kathie? Why didn’t you want me here? And what does Sally Denny know about us, anyway?”

“I told Sally,” Kathie said miserably. “I had to talk to someone: I hate feeling as if our relationship’s a nasty little secret when that’s the last thing it should be. I’m sorry if you’re angry that I told her, but she was very understanding and she seems genuinely pleased for us.”

Nancy smiled wryly. “I’ve told Hilary Graves,” she confessed. “Like you, I needed someone to talk to, and Hilary wasn’t even surprised. She said that she’d guessed months ago and that we were very well-suited. Why didn’t you want me here, though, Kathie?”

Kathie took a deep breath. “I was going to end our relationship when I came back to the Gornetz Platz,” she said. “I’ve decided to give in my notice and go back to England. I just can’t see any other way. If we stay at the Chalet School and people find out, then we’ll cause a scandal and probably both be asked to leave. If we stay there and people don’t find out, then we’ll be living a lie and keeping secrets for the rest of our working lives. There’s no other answer. I don’t want this to end, but can’t you see that it’s for the best?”

 

#420:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 11:39 am

Oh Kathie! I can see why you said this.. but trust Nancy - and you never know - there may well be others on the staff who have relationships that have sustained them and can understand.

 

#421:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 12:35 pm

*crosses fingers that things will work out for Kathie and Nancy somehow!*

 

#422:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:01 pm

Just caught up on this.

Thanks Alison Very Happy

Hope Dr Contarini finds somebody nice - he sounds like he deserves it.

Liz

 

#423:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 2:47 pm

Thank you Alison! Yay for Nancy coming now she just has to convince Kathie that everything will be alright!

 

#424:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:14 pm

Noooooooo it has to be okay!

Thank you Alison

 

#425:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 5:21 pm

At least give Nancy a chance to put her point of view before you decide, Kathie. It's her relationship as well.

ThankS, Alison.

 

#426:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 7:59 pm

Hope Nancy can persuade Kathie otherwise.

Thanks Alison.

 

#427:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 12, 2005 8:27 pm

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad Nancy has arrived and I hope Nancy can talk Kathie out of it.

 

#428:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:52 am

“Oh please don’t do this, Kathie,” Nancy gasped. “Don’t do this to us. I can understand what you’re saying, but how can you think that there’s no other answer? Every relationship has its problems, Kathie. You can’t just give up on us because you’re worried about what a few gossips might say. You’ve just had a very frightening experience and now isn’t the time to be making big decisions. Why don’t we stay on in Venice for a few days and work this out between us? We make each other happy, don’t we? We aren’t hurting anyone, are we? Hilary’s pleased for us, you’ve just said that Sally’s pleased for us, and anyone else who genuinely cares about either of us will be pleased as well.”

“I don’t think so,” Kathie said bleakly. “You’ve been involved with the Chalet School for far longer than I have, Nancy: you know how narrow-minded some of the people at the School and around the Platz can be. You’re a born teacher, everyone says that, and all your friends are at or near the School. I can’t let you put the life you’ve made for yourself there at risk for me.”

“What if I want to?” Nancy demanded. “Madame built the School up from scratch and then gave it up to marry Sir James, Dr Jem as people called him then, and move up to the Sonnalpe. If you really want to go back to England, then let me come with you.”


Kathie shook her head. “It’d be no better anywhere else,” she said. “Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be, Nancy.”

Nancy was usually a calm and placid person. Under different circumstances she might have made allowances for the fact that Kathie was younger than her, had seen less of life than she had and was still suffering from the effects of the shock of the accident, and might have suggested that they talk things through at a more appropriate time and in a more appropriate place, but she was tired after her long journey and the last thing she’d expected was to be greeted like this. “Fine,” she snapped. “If that’s what you want, then I’ll go. Now this minute, in fact. Goodbye, Kathie. No doubt I’ll see you when you get back to the School. I certainly won’t be speaking to you again beforehand. My best wishes for your speedy recovery.” She picked up her belongings and stalked out of the room and out of the hospital.

Sally Denny, seeing Nancy leave the hospital in tears just as she herself was arriving to visit Kathie, guessed exactly what had happened and was deeply saddened. She had hoped so much that, should Nancy come to Venice, she and Kathie would be able to sort out their differences, but it looked as if Kathie had let convention come between them. What a fool she was, throwing away happiness with both hands.

 

#429:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 8:11 am

Oh no! Poor Nancy and Kathie. Please rethink this, both of you.

 

#430:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:18 am

just caught up with lots of this as have been away for the weekend - just when I thought everything was going to be ok as Nancy had turned up, Kathie went and said everything we've all been shouting at her not to say! Honestly, can't she hear us?!? Wink

thanks Alison

 

#431:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 10:51 am

Thanks, Alison. Unfortunately, Kathie and Nancy weren't taking any notice of what we have been saying. I wish the two of them would realise what they're throwing away.

 

#432:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 12:05 pm

Oh poor Nancy and silly Kathie. Please Alison make it right, thank you!

 

#433:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:57 pm

Please will someone try to reason with Kathie - because she'll have to make the next approach to Nancy. It will be too bad if she really fears the conventions more than she wants the relationship with Nancy - I'm quite sure they could work things out.

Echoes those asking Alison to make this right.

 

#434:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 3:59 pm

Silly Kathie, she knows perfectly well what she's throwing away.

 

#435:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 5:19 pm

Let's hope Sally can do some good and get through to Kathie before Nancy goes away. Thanks Alison.

 

#436:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 7:55 pm

Can't blame Nancy for her reaction - just hope Kathie comes to her senses.

Thanks Alison.

 

#437: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:18 am

Nancy, you know Kathie's in a mess over this, you're older and wiser, don't walk away! Don't throw all you have away, both of you.

It actually makes me so angry that they have to feel like this, because actually Kathie's right, life will be tough for them, and it's so unfair.
Quote:
We make each other happy, don’t we? We aren’t hurting anyone, are we?
Quote:
anyone else who genuinely cares about either of us will be pleased as well.”
If only it were that simple.

I wonder if Hilda could help. Validation from someone in power might convince Kathie that it is possible

 

#438:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 7:55 am

Tara, watch this space - Hilda may have some comments on the matter to make shortly Very Happy ! Liz, I'm sure Dr Contarini will find a nice girl soon - someone with no connection to the Chalet School after he's been drooled over by a gaggle of giggling girls and then rescued Kathie only to find that she wasn't interested ! However, it's time for Kathie and Sally to leave Italy now. Thanks for all your comments.


Two days later

“Thank you so much for all your kindness, Signora Contarini,” Sally said warmly as she and Kathie prepared to leave the guesthouse. “You too, Dr Contarini. I can’t thank you enough for diving into the water to save us like that.”

“Goodbye, Signora Contarini,” Kathie said. “And goodbye, Sandro, and thank you for everything.” She wasn’t going to part from him on bad terms after he’d saved her life: maybe he’d done the right thing in ringing Nancy and allowing her to say what had to be said here rather than at the School. She could just see herself and Nancy trying to sort out the rest of their lives and being interrupted by Matey complaining that they hadn’t made their beds properly or Joey Maynard wanting to know if they’d like to come to Freudesheim for English tea.

The Signora and her son both kissed the two English ladies warmly on both cheeks, in the Continental style, and then Kathie and Sally were off. They were taking the train to Interlaken: there was only one change along the way, and they could hardly expect anyone to come to Lugano to meet them. The only other people in their carriage were a cheerful Italian family who chattered amongst themselves all the way to their stop and clearly didn’t understand a word of English. Sally took a deep breath. Now was her chance to try to talk some sense into Kathie, if it wasn’t too late for her young friend’s relationship with Nancy to be saved.

“Now then…” she began.

 

#439:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:01 am

Go Sally! Laughing

Thanks Alison.

 

#440:  Author: Guest,  PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 9:58 am

Sally, please make Kathy see reason !
Poor Nancy, having a bombshell dropped on her like that......

 

#441:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 10:10 am

Yay for Sally, now to hope she can help!

Thank you Alison!

 

#442:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 12:27 pm

*joins in chants of 'Go Sally'*

Thanks Alison

 

#443:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:03 pm

Just caught up again - am really enjoying this. Thanks Alison Very Happy

*hoping for a happy ending*

Liz

 

#444:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 1:57 pm

Thanks, Alison. I've got my fingers crossed that Sally will be able to convince Kathie to follow her heart!

 

#445:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:13 pm

Thanks, Alison. Kathie seriously needs someone to bang her and Nancy's heads together!

 

#446:  Author: dackel, Location: Wolfenbuettel, Germany/Cambridge, England PostPosted: Wed Dec 14, 2005 5:19 pm

Go Sally, indeeed!

Plaese make Kathie see sense!

 

#447:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:00 am

Kathie rose early the next morning. In the privacy of her own room, with the door firmly shut, she set about writing her letter of resignation.

She was very quiet at breakfast. Luckily, everyone attributed that to the shock of her accident. She’d already been told that no-one expected her to resume teaching for another few days and that cover had been arranged for her classes, so she took herself back to her room as soon as the meal was over. She sat down in the wicker chair and tried to think of the right words to write to her aunt and uncle. The words wouldn’t come, and she was about to throw down her pen in despair when she heard a knock at the door. It couldn’t be Nancy: Nancy was covering her maths class with Vb that morning. “Who is it?” she called out.

“It’s me, Sally,” a voice said. Kathie heaved a sigh of relief. “Come in,” she called.

She smiled ruefully as Sally entered. “I’m just writing to my aunt and uncle,” she said. “I’ve already written my letter of resignation. In fact, I’m going to go to the study and hand it in to Hilda Annersley now. There’s no time like the present, after all.”

“Oh Kathie,” Sally said sadly. “Are you sure about this?”

Kathie nodded. “There’s nothing else for it,” she said. “And … would you come with me, Sally? I wouldn’t mind a bit of moral support. Miss Annersley stood by me when I was having problems with Inter V, as they were then, during my first term here, and she’s going to feel horribly let down when I tell her I’m leaving. I don’t think any mistresses ever do leave the School for any reason other than marriage to a doctor or problems at home.”

This hadn’t been what Sally had hoped that their chat on the train yesterday would lead to Wink , but she certainly wasn’t going to deny Kathie her support at such a difficult time. Together, the two of them made their way to Miss Annersley’s study and knocked on the door. “Come in,” the beautiful voice, which, as everybody knew, was one of the Head’s greatest assets, called.

Hilda Annersley raised her eyebrows in surprise when she saw the two mistresses. “Kathie? Sally? Why are the two of you looking so worried? You surely don’t think that I blame you for what happened in Venice. I’ve had Francie Wilford and Len Maynard both telling me that what happened was their fault, and Margot Maynard and Francie both telling me that they’d caused bad feeling in the group. I’m pleased to say that they all now realise that they’d made mistakes and that I’m sure that they’ll think more carefully in future. In fact, the holiday seems to have gone rather well, and it seems to have gone a long way towards healing some of the divisions in Inter V and Vb. Sometimes, sadly, it takes something like an accident to make people come to their senses. I’m just sorry that the two of you ended up in hospital, and very glad indeed that you weren’t more seriously hurt.”

“Thank you, but it isn’t that,” Kathie said awkwardly. “I’m glad that you aren’t angry with me, though, because … well, I’m going to need a reference from the School. I’ve come to give in my notice.”

“Your notice?” For once, Hilda was visibly upset. “Oh Kathie, surely not? Is there something wrong at home, my dear? I hope that your aunt and uncle are both well?”

“Oh they’re fine,” Kathie said. “It’s …well, it’s personal reasons, really. I don’t want to leave, but I feel that it’s for the best. Under the circumstances. I can’t really explain, but please understand that this isn’t a decision that I’ve taken lightly.”

Hilda began to laugh.

Wink

 

#448:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:02 am

Um, think you've forgotten to finish that post, Alison Very Happy

 

#449:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:29 am

Thanks, Alison. Please come back and tell us why Hilda has started to laugh. It would be much appreciated please!

 

#450:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:40 am

Alison, you can't leave it there I need to know...

Thank you btw!

 

#451:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 12:39 pm

Alison, fancy leaving it there!

 

#452:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:40 pm

Surely Kathie resigning hasn't caused Hilda to have nervous breakdown! Wink I'm sure you have a far better reason, Alison - please share Very Happy

Liz

 

#453:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:51 pm

Thanks, Alison! Hope you won't keep us in suspense too long!

 

#454:  Author: Identity Hunt, Location: UK PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:57 pm

Alison - I really do need you to come back and finish this interview, you know !
My nerves are taking a real strain Wink

 

#455:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 1:57 pm

LizB wrote:
Surely Kathie resigning hasn't caused Hilda to have nervous breakdown! Wink I'm sure you have a far better reason, Alison - please share Very Happy

Liz


I didn't think of Hilda having a nervous breakdown! Maybe I should change the rest of it now .... Laughing

 

#456:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 2:08 pm

I thought that was another post...but no my hopes were dashed! Laughing

 

#457:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 7:59 pm

Nice cliff Alison! Laughing

(Not that i'd know anything about them of course! Wink )

 

#458:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:04 pm

Hmm, think I can hazard a guess at why Hilda laughed - not that I'm saying anything in public, of course!!

Nice cliff, Alison - but please remove us from it s-o-o-n!

 

#459:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 8:10 pm

Elder in Ontario wrote:
Hmm, think I can hazard a guess at why Hilda laughed - not that I'm saying anything in public, of course!!

Nice cliff, Alison - but please remove us from it s-o-o-n!


Wonder if you've got the same idea that I have?

 

#460:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 10:17 pm

Hilda laughing? Oh, I wonder....?!
Thank you Alison Very Happy

 

#461: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Thu Dec 15, 2005 11:24 pm

The only thing I can think of is Nancy having already tried to resign and having confessed all to Hilda! Whatever's happened, Hilda will sort them out - won't she??? Please!!

 

#462:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:34 am

Ah, Hilda's pretty perceptive - she can see most things, and she's never even needed glasses to do so Wink !

Kathie and Sally were both bemused, and really Kathie was rather hurt. “I didn’t expect you to think that it was funny,” she said, trying to control the tone of her voice. “This is a very difficult time for me.”

“Oh Kathie, I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to offend you,” Hilda said, “but I get the distinct feeling that this is all to do with you and Nancy Wilmot. Surely you haven’t got it into your head that you’ve got to leave because of the relationship between the two of you?”

“You know!” Kathie gasped.

“Of course I know!” Hilda said. “Do you really think that I don’t know what's going on in this school? Please believe me, Kathie; I don’t have the slightest problem with you and Nancy being together. I’m very pleased for you both. In fact, I’m going to ask her to come to the office now, so that we can put an end to this nonsense about you resigning. Unless there’s any other reason that you want to leave?”

Kathie shook her head. “I love working here. There isn’t any other reason I would want to leave. But, about Nancy … you don’t understand. When I said I was leaving …” Her voice tailed off as Hilda summoned one of the maids and asked her to fetch Miss Wilmot as quickly as possible.

Nancy arrived a few minutes later, rather surprised at having been called out of her lesson. Sally Denny, who was just leaving the office as she arrived, gave her a supportive smile, but she still felt a little nervous. After all these years, she still felt like a naughty schoolgirl whenever she was summoned to the Head’s office. “Ah, Nancy,” Hilda said. “Do sit down.”

 

#463:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:47 am

I knew Hilda would sort it all out! She's not my heroine for nothing! Laughing

Thank you, Alison.

 

#464:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:22 am

Thanks for that, Alison. I'm so glad that Hilda keeps her finger on the pulse of the school. Poor Nancy, feeling like a naughty middle when she is called to the Head's office - I do feel that way myself, though, whenever I get a note asking for my presence in the director's office!

 

#465:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:30 am

Yay for Hilda! Well done. Now lets see this all sorted out!

Thank you Alison.

 

#466:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:02 am

Of course you know Hilda - why wouldn't you?
Thanks Alison.

 

#467:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:07 am

Good for Hilda! Thanks Alison, just caught up on loads Very Happy

 

#468:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:11 pm

Brilliant Alison! More soon please!

 

#469:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:47 pm

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad Hilda is ok about everything and I hope she will help to get Nancy and Kathie back together.

 

#470:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:14 pm

Thanks, Alison - I'm glad that my hunch was not the correct one - I quite thought Nancy had already been to the office on the same mission!

And of course Hilda would have seen the relationship between her and Kathie and understood it, thank goodness.

 

#471:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 9:38 pm

Lovely Hilda -and so matter-of-fact about it!

Thanks Alison.

 

#472:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 10:43 pm

Of course Hilda knew...she knows everything.

I do hope it will be sorted out and Nancy isn't going to bear a grudge.

Thanks Alison

 

#473: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 11:45 pm

Wonderful Hilda. Now, as long as Nancy isn't stubborn about nursing her hurt, we should be ok, at least until the next crisis.

 

#474:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:14 am

Luckily, Nancy is always described as being very placid and Kathie as being too quick to act, so I don't think Nancy would bear a grudge for long Very Happy .


Nancy, doing as she was bidden, saw the piece of paper in Kathie’s hand and realised that Kathie had come to give in her notice. Then she saw the look on the Head’s face, and realised that Hilda Annersley, who’d known her since she was a teenager, knew all about her and Kathie after all.

“That was quick,” she said. “We only decided on this late last night, when Kathie got back from Venice. Kathie, I know that we agreed that you should give in your notice first and that I should wait until the end of term because people might get suspicious if we both left at the same time, but I didn’t expect you to do it this morning! Still, I suppose that it’s best to get it over and done with. I’m sorry, Miss Annersley; I realise that losing two members of the maths department within such a short space of time won’t be ideal for you, but … well, I don’t expect you to understand, but I hope that you won’t think badly of us, and I hope you’ll accept that we’re both very sad to be leaving. We’re hoping to find jobs in different day schools in England, somewhere where we won’t be so involved with the schools that we’re working at and our home life will be totally separate from our working lives, but we’re both going to miss everyone here very much. I just hope that you’re not too shocked.”

“Oh Nancy!” Hilda said. “Shocked? I’m pleased for you both. Nell Wilson and I both are. In fact, I’m pleased for the School as well. Do you have any idea how many good teachers I’ve lost over the years? They get used to our ways, they get used to our curriculum, they get on well with the girls and with the other members of staff, and then they leave us to get married. It’s one of the most difficult things about my job, having to replace mistresses who leave. Think about it, both of you. Nell and I won’t be working here for ever. Oh I daresay that some people think we’ll both be being carried out of here with our boots on, but we’d both like to retire some day. I see the two of you working here long term, maybe being co-heads yourselves one day. Did you really think that Nell and I would ever have dreamt of dismissing either of you? Now, away with the pair of you! I’ve got a huge pile of post to deal with!”

“Do you mind me asking what Sally said to you?” Nancy asked when she and Kathie were alone in a secluded part of the school grounds. “You said that she was the one who’d made you realise what a fool you were being – your words, not mine, true though they were!”

 

#475:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 9:50 am

Love that! Hilda didn't even consider the resignation, simply told them that they were both staying and she approved of the relationship! If that doesn't stop Kathie leaving nothing will. Laughing

Thanks Alison.

 

#476:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:02 am

Exit Kathie and Nancy, speechless and gasping! Brilliant, Hilda and not even a chance to reply. Very Happy

 

#477:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 10:02 am

InterEsting! Thank you Alison!

 

#478:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 11:46 am

Good for Hilda and Im glad Nancy holds no grudge. Thanks Alison Very Happy

 

#479:  Author: Yvette, Location: Brisbane, Australia PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:23 pm

Alison H wrote:
After all these years, she still felt like a naughty schoolgirl whenever she was summoned to the Head’s office.


As do I whenever my Head has wanted me!!! Shocked

Alison, this has been great. I love the Nancy/Kathie stories.

Keep it up! Very Happy

 

#480:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:45 pm

Thanks, Alison. I hope they will both get back together.

 

#481:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:54 pm

Pure Hilda through and through - *no nonsense, please, just get your act together and help me out here* but done with such exquisite sympathy and understanding.

I bet they didn't know what had hit them. Laughing

 

#482:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 3:35 pm

Absolutely pure Hilda - not even a reference to them resigning - Kathie might just as well not have offered her that letter. Certainly Nancy needn't have bothered launching into that explanation!!

And such understanding and approval of their relationship, coupled with Hilda's calm assumption that they are staying - no ifs, ands, or buts about it, just 'go away and stop wasting my time' or words to that effect!! I just loved it.

Nancy and Kathie must feel so much better about things now - but thank goodness that Sally had clearly convinced Kathie that even if it meant the two of them leaving, they would remain together.

Thanks Alison

 

#483:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 6:54 pm

Yay!!!

Good for Hilda!!!
Thanks Alison!

 

#484:  Author: dackel, Location: Wolfenbuettel, Germany/Cambridge, England PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 7:33 pm

I loved Hilda's reaction! Let's hope they now manage to get everything sorted out between them.

 

#485: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 8:54 pm

Yes, such matter-of-fact acceptance, no geysers of emotion, just 'is there a problem', and the hope of future glory in career terms held out, too. Nothing could be more encouraging. Glad that Sally's words made such a difference - waiting to see what they were!

 

#486:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:52 am

Thanks for all your kind comments. I'm used to writing boy-meets-girl-and-they-get-married-and-live-happily-ever-after stories so this has been something a bit different for me! Nearly finished now.

Kathie smiled. “She said that you had to make the most of your life, that not everyone’s life was destined to be conventional and that you shouldn’t throw away happiness because of what other people might think. And she was right. I’m so sorry for what I said in Venice, Nancy: I know I said it last night but I’m saying it again now. And if people do find out and talk about us then let them. Our true friends will be happy for us, and it doesn’t matter what people who aren’t our true friends think. We aren’t doing anything wrong. And we are going to stay here, aren’t we? Living in England and working at different schools might have worked out all right, but I love it here, and I like us working together. I would like us to go to England together soon, though, but just for a holiday: I’d like you to meet my aunt and uncle.”

“I’m sorry for losing my temper and running out of the hospital like that,” Nancy said. “And, yes, I’m happy to stay here: I always was. And I’d like you to meet my family too. It won’t always be easy, Kathie, but life isn’t always meant to be easy. But in some ways we’ll have the best of both worlds – we’ll have each other but we’ll have our teaching careers as well. Hilary’s devoted to Phil and the children but I know that she sometimes misses the challenge of teaching and the camaraderie of working at the School. We won’t have to make that sort of choice.”

Sally was delighted when Kathie told her later that both she and Nancy would be staying at the Chalet School after all. “What about you, though?” Kathie asked. “You and Tristan are free to marry now. Why don’t you?”

Sally smiled. “I think that that might be a bit too much for the School to cope with whilst we’re both teaching here! We’re both due for retirement in a few years’ time, though. We’ve talked about it, and I’m giving you advance warning that we’ll be throwing a very big party then … a joint wedding and retirement celebration. We’re going to really give the Gornetz Platz something to talk about! Remember, though, Kathie, that in the end it shouldn’t matter what other people say. “Conventionality is not morality,” to quote Charlotte Bronte, Tristan and I have always been happy together, and I’m sure that you and Nancy will be too.”

And they were.

 

#487:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 8:58 am

Awww, that was lovely, hope Kathie and Nancy's families are accepting - but even if they are not they have each other. Wonder if Sally and Tristram's secret is known by anyone?

Thanks Alison. Laughing

 

#488:  Author: MaryR, Location: Sale Cheshire PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 9:01 am

*....you shouldn’t throw away happiness because of what other people might think. *

How right Sally was - and how good that at last Kathie can see and accept.

I loved the idea of Sally shocking the whole Platz as a finale to her time at the school. Laughing That should be a real eye-opener!

Is that the end, Alison, or am I jumping the gun here, by saying what a delightful, insightful tale this was.

Thank you.

 

#489:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 10:09 am

How good that they feel they can work something out - and I love the idea of a joint wedding/retirement party! Very Happy

 

#490:  Author: Elder in Ontario, Location: Ontario, Canada PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:32 pm

A very neat 'sorting out' section here. It's good to know that Nancy and Kathie will continue to teach at the school, and enjoy their relationship, regardless of what others may think.

I love the idea of the Denny's combined retirement/wedding party 'bash' - will we participate in due course?

Thanks, Alison for a tale very sensitively told - like Mary, wondering if this was the end.

 

#491:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:40 pm

Thanks, Alison. Hooray! Nancy and Kathie have worked things out and they are back together!

Mexican Wave Mexican Wave

I'm glad that Tristan and Sally will retire in a few years' time and they will be able to get married. Is this the end of the drabble or will we see the wedding please?

 

#492:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 12:56 pm

Thanks everyone! There are 2 more posts to go.

 

#493:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:08 pm

Thank goodness Hilda has sorted them out.

 

#494:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:08 pm

This is just fabulous, Alison, thank you! I'm also hoping that we get to see everyone's reactions to the wedding/retirement bash!

 

#495:  Author: Identity Hunt, Location: UK PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 1:21 pm

Alison H wrote:
Thanks everyone! There are 2 more posts to go.


Oh, brilliant !
More to look forward to ! Very Happy

 

#496:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 5:08 pm

Thank you Alison!!!
I REALLY hope that one of those two remaining posts will be Sally and Tristan's wedding! (or if not, that the bunny will provide a sequel!)

 

#497: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Sun Dec 18, 2005 11:28 pm

So glad they are able to stay together. Also that they won't have to choose between a relationship and their career. Hope everyone who has power in their lives will be as accepting as Hilda.

This has been great, Alison.

 

#498:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:52 am

This is just a short-ish post ...

The following day

“Well, how was your holiday, everyone?” Joey asked. Despite being “busy”, she was feeling much better, and had invited Kathie, Sally and all the sixteen girls who’d been to Italy over to Freudesheim for English tea so that they could tell her all about Venice.

“Oh, it was ... interesting,” Kathie said with a grin.

“It was certainly that,” Sally added.

“We had an amazing time,” Len said, and all the girls chorused their agreement. “In fact, it was the best trip we’ve ever had. It was a brilliant idea of Miss Ferrars’ to take us south of the Alps.”

 

#499:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:46 am

Thank you Alison!

 

#500:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:46 am

Lovely! Just caught up on this Very Happy but oh, is it over now? Crying or Very sad

 

#501:  Author: Robin, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 11:15 am

just caught up on it all too - great! Really glad it had a 'happy ever after'! Thanks Alison Very Happy Very Happy

 

#502:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 12:41 pm

For everyone who asked if it'd finished yet, there's one more bit ( a long bit!) to go!

 

#503:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:16 pm

Oh, can't wait for that then! Thanks, Alison, this has been so wonderful throughout.

 

#504:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 1:37 pm

Thanks, Alison. I'm glad Len declared it to be the best trip and that there's one final part!

 

#505:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 2:32 pm

I'm so sad it's coming to an end, but glad tat everything has been sorted out.

Thanks Alison

 

#506:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:29 pm

Apologies for the really cheesy ending to this, but it's nearly Christmas and I always associate this film with Christmas because it seemed to be on over the holidays every year in the 1980s when I was a kid Very Happy !


1965

“I’m so glad that you and Tristan are here,” Kathie said as she greeted her old friend outside the cinema that now stood about halfway between the School and the San. “It wouldn’t have been the same without you. Anyway, how could Tristan, as a retired music master, have missed seeing a film with a name like this one’s got? Nancy and I wanted to treat all the staff and all the former staff members and Old Girls living nearby, to celebrate our taking over as co-heads of the School and to wish Nell and Hilda well in their retirement, and Nancy knew that everyone who’d been with the School in Austria would want to see this. Even if it won’t be quite as dramatic as your retirement party was!”

She looked at the gold band on her friend’s finger and smiled, not enviously but a little wistfully. Some day, though, marriage ceremonies for couples like herself and Nancy would become legal: she was sure of it. Even if it took another forty years. Sally and Tristan’s wedding day had been wonderful: the ceremony had been private, with only Kathie and Nancy in attendance, and then they had announced their news later in the day at what everyone else had been told in advance was a retirement party. Hilda and Nell had both confessed that they had had their suspicions but had never liked to say anything in case they were wrong, and Madge Russell, who had come to Switzerland for the occasion, had said the same, but everyone else had been stunned. Joey had nearly choked on one of the lemon biscuits that Anna had made for the party and Matey had been heard to regret that people no longer kept smelling salts to hand; but everyone had, when they had recovered from the shock of the news, wished the couple well.

It was hard to imagine that the blissfully happy, elderly couple before Kathie now had once been a young soldier and a young nurse meeting under unspeakable conditions, torn apart by their circumstances and then reunited, but Kathie knew that they had never forgotten those days and she always took their marriage as a lesson of how love could stand the test of time and of the times.

Kathie and Nancy had decided against keeping their relationship a secret: they hadn’t announced it to everyone but they hadn’t concealed it either. Those who didn’t quite approve, and there were some, conveniently ignored it, but their true friends were happy for them.

Kathie couldn’t remember ever enjoying a film more. She smiled at the nuns’ song - people didn’t usually sing in the Chalet School staffroom but there’d been more than a few “How do you solve a problem like …?” discussions in there over the years; and she had to suppress a fit of very un-headmistress-like giggles when she heard Joey Maynard mutter “Only seven children? Not much of a family, that, is it?” Then, when Maria and the seven children all managed to fall into the lake, she leaned towards Sally and murmured “Remember Venice?” She still received a Christmas card every year from the Contarinis – Sandro, his wife, his children and his mother- and she was still in touch with all sixteen of the girls who’d gone on that trip: she held fond memories of the girls who’d made up “her” forms in her first couple of years at the School and was always happy to hear how their lives were progressing. The girls were all out in the world now, pursuing their different dreams, and she sometimes thought back to that holiday in Venice and how it had influenced their characters.

She saw Nell, Joey and Hilary all wiping away tears at the end of the film, when the family climbed up into the mountains to escape from Nazi-occupied Austria (even if that part of the story wasn’t strictly true and making that journey on foot from Salzburg would have been well nigh impossible!), but the part of the film that stuck in her mind the most was Maria’s conversation with the Mother Abbess. She, Kathie, would always be grateful for the wise counsel of her older friends and colleagues, Sally and Hilda. Your life might not turn out how you’d expected or how other people had expected, but you couldn’t run away from problems and you couldn’t try to be what you weren't. The Reverend Mother in The Sound of Music was right.

“Climb ev’ry mountain, ford every stream,
Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream.
A dream that will need all the love you can give,
Every day of your life for as long as you live.”

She would remember that song. And she would remember the words that preceded it.

“You have to live the life you were born to live.”

They were living the lives that they were meant to live.


Thank you all so much for reading this and for all your lovely comments. I love the CBB - everyone is always so kind and friendly and helpful and supportive, and it feels like there's always a nice place to escape to. Hope everyone has a good Christmas/Chanukah/New Year!

Alison x

 

#507:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:32 pm

Oh, that was a wonderful ending! Thank you so much for this, Alison, it has been fantastic from beginning to end. I am so sorry to see that it's ended, as I am really going to miss it.

*sending lots of bunny treats in the hope of another story soon*

 

#508:  Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent, England PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:44 pm

Thanks, Alison. That was a really lovely ending though it is sad to see this drabble end. I'm glad Tristan were able to get married and that Kathie and Nancy could tell more people about their relationship. Thank you so much for writing this drabble, Alison - I have definitely enjoyed reading it.

 

#509:  Author: Ally, Location: Jack Maynard's Dressing Room!! PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:01 pm

What a fantastic ending Alison, thank you do much, and I hope your bunnies get lots of nice christmassy treats Wink - Oh and you too!

 

#510:  Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:29 pm

I'm really sorry that this has ended, I loved every bit of it.

 

#511:  Author: ali, Location: medway, kent PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 7:34 pm

I have really enjoyed your drabble and am glad it ended so happily for every one. There's nothing cheesy about the sound of music and I'm sure I'll remember this next time I watch it.
Looking forward to your next drabble. Wink

 

#512:  Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:27 pm

That was a lovely ending Alison - thank you. This has been a really enjoyable story.

(And Kathie did get her wish - even though it was 40 years on - hope she and Nancy lived to see it.)

 

#513:  Author: Becky, Location: Newport, South Wales, UK PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:33 pm

Thanks so much Alison, really enjoyed that. I always find "The Sound of Music" really Christmassy as well. Looking forward to the next time your bunnies bite!

Becky

xx

 

#514:  Author: Josie, Location: London PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 8:33 pm

Oh what a lovely ending!

Thanks Alison, another one here who's enjoyed this very much. Very Happy

 

#515:  Author: Cath V-P, Location: Newcastle NSW PostPosted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:52 pm

Thank you Alison - that was a lovely ending! I loved Joey choking on her lemon biscuit!!! Laughing

 

#516:  Author: pim, Location: Helmel Hampster PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:12 am

Ahhh, what a lovely ending to a lovely drabble, like everyone else am only sorry it's over. Thanks Alison Very Happy

 

#517:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 9:53 am

What a totally wonderful ending, I loved it, and I loved the whole drabble! I hope it won't be too long until your next one Very Happy Kiss

 

#518:  Author: Nell, Location: London, England PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 10:03 am

A lovely ending and I also really enjoyed the whole drabble, thank you Alison! And a Merry Christmas to you too!

 

#519:  Author: KathrynW, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:51 pm

Thanks Alison for a really lovely ending to a really lovely story!

Kathryn

 

#520:  Author: Vikki, Location: Sitting on an iceberg, freezing to death!!! PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:54 pm

Lesley wrote:
That was a lovely ending Alison - thank you. This has been a really enjoyable story.

(And Kathie did get her wish - even though it was 40 years on - hope she and Nancy lived to see it.)


That was just what I was going to say Lesley! And a RATHER appropriate day for Alison to post this! Wink

That was LOVELY Alison, and I LOVE the bit about Jo choking on a lemon biscuit!

 

#521:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:04 pm

Vikki wrote:
Lesley wrote:
.

(And Kathie did get her wish - even though it was 40 years on - hope she and Nancy lived to see it.)


That was just what I was going to say Lesley! And a RATHER appropriate day for Alison to post this! Wink



I've spent too long writing this ... I saw the pictures of Elton John and David Furnish's joint stag night on TV this morning and wondered if Kathie and Nancy'd had a joint hen night Rolling Eyes !

 

#522:  Author: Mia, Location: London PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:11 pm

Alison H wrote:
I've spent too long writing this ... I saw the pictures of Elton John and David Furnish's joint stag night on TV this morning and wondered if Kathie and Nancy'd had a joint hen night Rolling Eyes !


An epilogue? Prettypleaseprettypleaseprettyplease!

 

#523:  Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:49 pm

Kathie must be in her mid-70s by now if she was 22 when the triplets were about 13, and Nancy wasn't much younger than Joey so she must be well into her 80s ... so I think they'll probably just have afternoon tea, with lemon biscuits provided by Anna who is still making them even though she must also be in her 80s, and a lavish meal catered by Karen who is probably now in her 90s!

& Joey will be there with her lime green Zimmer frame.

& then they will finally get to "get married and live happily ever after" ...

 

#524:  Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:36 pm

Alison H wrote:
Kathie must be in her mid-70s by now and Nancy well into her 80s ... Anna who is in her 80s, and Karen who is probably now in her 90s!


(Sorry to have misquoted you, Alison)

I think I believe in the wonderful words of Remeberence:

They shall grow not old, as we...grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

I can't imagine any of them aging at all.

 

#525: south of the alps Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:32 pm

Fatima's quotation sums it all up!

This was really smashing, Alison, they deserved their happy ending, and it's so good that they were able to live the lives they were born for. I don't suppose you meant it to be quite so topical, but loud cheers, all the same, for all who are now able to declare their love and commitment.

 

#526: Re: south of the alps Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 10:23 am

Tara wrote:


I don't suppose you meant it to be quite so topical, but loud cheers, all the same, for all who are now able to declare their love and commitment.



It was originally meant to be about Venice, because I thought it was a shame that there were no CS trips to North Italy even though it's so close to the Oberland and even closer to the Tyrol, but first Sally took over the story and then Kathie took over the story, and I added the bit about Kathie hoping she and Nancy'd be able to get married one day when I realised that I'd be posting the last bit on the day that the first civil partnership ceremonies in the UK were taking place - it was a nice coincidence! Thanks again for all your lovely comments Very Happy .

 

#527:  Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries PostPosted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 3:39 pm

Thank you for a lovely ending, Alison.

I've really really enjoyed this drabble.

 

#528:  Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England PostPosted: Fri Dec 23, 2005 1:15 pm

Thanks Alison - that was a beautiful ending Very Happy

Liz

 

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