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In the presence of fate - updated 06/11/06, p25

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#1: In the presence of fate - updated 06/11/06, p25 Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 6:48 am
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Seeing as I started wondering about Andreas and Marie's children halfway through my last drabble, I thought I'd try to write a drabble about their eldest daughter. The first few posts will have to be background so I hope they're not terminally boring!

I was born on a January afternoon, high up on the Sonnalpe, in the house known as Die Rosen. On that day it was virtually cut off from the lakeside below by the snow and ice that had come as they always did to the Tiernsee region at that time of year; but not even the treacherous weather conditions and the absence of a proper road leading up the mountainside were going to stop my grandmother from being there to support her eldest daughter through the birth of her first child.

Summoned by a message brought to her by her niece Anna, a maid at the Chalet School which was one of the few places in the village of Briesau contactable by telephone in those days, she made her way up the slippery path with grim determination, to be at my mother’s side. Grandma would have gone through hell and high water to help one of her children or grandchildren, so I suppose that there was no way that she was going to let the Tyrolean winter hold her back.

She was a determined woman. She still is. The villages surrounding the Tiernsee were dogged by poverty and my grandparents had sometimes struggled for sheer survival in the early years of their marriage, as their family grew almost year on year. Like most of the other men in Briesau, Grandpa worked as a goatherd and consequently he, his wife and their children existed through the winter months with no real source of income, knowing that an early fall in the temperature and a late thaw could bring them to the brink of disaster.

Whilst most of their neighbours, in what was then and still remains today the most devoutly religious part of Austria, put their trust in the will of the Lord to keep them safe, Grandma took matters into her own hands. Declaring that she wasn’t spending another winter uncertain from one day to the next how she was going to feed and clothe her children, she opened a guesthouse; and her housekeeping skills and excellent cooking soon won the new enterprise an excellent reputation and the recommendations that came with it.

Grandpa was away for most of the summer months, leaving her to cope alone with both their young family and the guesthouse, but cope she did. And now they had some insurance against the winter weather, because, when the temperature dropped, people flocked to admire the scenery and to skate on the frozen Tiernsee, especially when the popular ice carnivals were being held. But then the Great War came. At its end, the Empire fell apart, and the economy fell apart with it. With few natural resources, the area had little to attract investment - but its natural beauty did continue to attract tourists, and, one long, hot summer, the Bettany family came to stay.

Last edited by Alison H on Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:47 am; edited 72 times in total

#2: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 6:50 am
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Very Happy

A new drabble from Alison ~ hooray!

This looks interesting, thanks.

#3: Author: Nell, Location: London, England

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 9:06 am
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Looking forward to learning more!

#4: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 10:40 am
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Oooh this does look interesting! Thanks Alison

#5: Author: janetbrown23, Location: Colchester

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 12:07 pm
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I am very intrigued by this already. It has to be about the Pfeiffens or is it?. I will look forward to the updates with interest, but then I spend far too much time looking forward to updates of far too many drabbles. Is there a cure for CBB DRabble Addiction please anyone?

Jan

#6: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 4:18 pm
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This is looking very interesting already! Can't wait to read more.

#7: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 5:02 pm
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Definitely interested in reading more.

Thanks Alison.

#8: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2006 7:00 pm
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This looks excellent

Thanks Alison

#9: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 6:52 am
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A steady stream of visitors passed through Grandma’s guesthouse over the years, and, hard though she worked to make their time as her guests as pleasant and comfortable as possible, few of them drew her attention in any particular way. The Bettanys were different for three reasons.

For one thing, visitors from England were few and far between. Most of those who came to the Tiernsee from beyond Austria’s new borders were either German or Italian: such English visitors as did come to the Alps tended to stay in the more fashionable resorts. For another thing, they stayed at the guesthouse for the entire summer. That was very rare indeed: visitors who had the time and money to take a holiday lasting an entire summer would, as a general rule, either take a house for the duration of their stay or else base themselves at a proper hotel. Finally, they were a highly unusual combination – a brother and sister, not yet even twenty years old, and a second sister aged just seven.

It was common enough at the time for young Englishmen of a certain level of wealth and privilege to be travelling the Continent, but it certainly wasn’t the norm for them to be doing so in the company of their sisters. And it was very unusual, even in the “Roaring” Twenties, for a young unmarried lady of that same social class to be abroad without her mother or some other suitable female companion, and equally so for a young child to be so far from home without her parents, guardians, nanny or other adult of a rather more senior status than a brother and sister not even legally of age. And so Grandma was intrigued.

However, she learned before long that the three of them were orphans who had lost both their parents when the elder children had been only twelve years old and the youngest just a tiny baby. Always instinctively maternal, from that moment on she took a special interest in them, and as a result the rest of the family did too. That was how my Uncle Fritzl and my Uncle Hansi came to show them the empty chalet that they and the other local lads used as a secret hideout. It belonged to Herr Braun, the owner-manager of the Kron Prinz Karl hotel. He’d bought it before the war with some idea of converting it into additional hotel accommodation, but because of the effect on trade of the war and its aftermath he’d abandoned the idea, and the chalet had lain empty ever since.

The summer ended, as summers do; and the Bettanys went home, as guests do. Maybe Grandma hoped that they might come back the following year: if she did, she was disappointed. Then, five years later, completely out of the blue, she received a beautifully-worded but utterly bizarre letter, asking firstly whether or nor Herr Braun’s chalet were still vacant and secondly, if so, whether she had any idea if he might be willing to rent it to the elder Fraulein Bettany and a French friend of hers, in which for them to open a small private school.

Once Grandma had recovered from her initial surprise, she realised that the Bettanys must have suffered a very severe downturn in their financial fortunes. Even so, the notion of anyone opening an English school at the Tiernsee seemed to her to be very odd indeed. However, she replied to tell Fraulein Bettany that the chalet in question was indeed still vacant and to suggest that she contact Herr Braun and see what he had to say about the idea. Clearly it met with his approval, because, not long afterwards, she received another letter from England. This one said that everything was arranged and asked her if, by any happy chance, she knew of a trustworthy person or two who – for suitable recompense, of course – would be willing and able to collect the keys from Herr Braun and see about getting the place cleaned up.

It being a quiet time at the guesthouse, Grandma, ably assisted by her eldest daughter, jumped at the chance to earn a little extra money. And so, in a manner of speaking, it was actually my family who opened the Chalet School. My grandmother and my mother.

#10: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:06 am
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Thanks Alison. Very Happy

#11: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 11:45 am
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Thanks Alison. The background is interesting!

#12: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 12:40 pm
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Hurrah for a new Alison drabble Very Happy

*looking forward eagerly to more*

#13: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:32 pm
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What a fantastic drabble! Can't wait for more!

#14: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:43 pm
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Oh excellent.

Thanks Alison

#15: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:56 am
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Thanks for the encouragement!

At the time of Fraulein Bettany’s letter, my grandparents had four children of working age. The eldest was Uncle Fritzl, then came my mother, Marie, then Uncle Hansi, then Auntie Luise. My mother and Auntie Luise had both known from an early age that they would have to go into service when they left school. The same was true of their younger sisters, the eldest of whom was my Auntie Rosa. There was little other employment in that part of Tyrol for young girls like themselves.

There was no industry for miles around, there were no offices in the small lakeside villages, and the owners of what few shops there were ran them themselves with help from their own families. A few brave souls went to seek work in Innsbruck, the nearest big city, but finding a job there generally then posed the problem of affording somewhere nearby to live. What my mother aspired to most, she once told me, was to work at the Schloss Wertheim, the palatial home of the von und zu Wertheim family who employed a large staff and were renowned for treating them well. Of course, jobs there were like gold dust. As soon as one girl said she was leaving, another girl would recommend a sister, cousin or friend for the job before the day was out.

There were no other noble families in the area, and so most girls ended up working either for middle-class families, who would generally employ only one or two servants to carry out all the tasks that servants were expected to do, or at one of the Tiernsee’s several hotels, where conditions could be even harsher. My mother’s girlhood friend, my Auntie Karen, my godmother who couldn’t be any closer to me if she were a blood aunt, worked for a time in the kitchens at the Kron Prinz Karl and was very unhappy there. The hours were long and the head chef was a bad-tempered bully.

My mother had worked at a hotel that had closed its doors for the last time that winter, throwing its entire staff out of work, and Auntie Luise was working across the lake at Seespitz for a family who demanded much and showed her little consideration in return. So, when Fraulein Bettany, who’d never been less than kind and courteous to either of them, suggested that they both come to work at her new school, they could scarcely, so they’ve both told me, believe their luck. The school grew rapidly almost from the moment it opened, and soon Auntie Karen went to work there with them. Later, Cousin Anna, one of their many cousins, joined the domestic staff there as well.

Uncle Hansi worked at the school from even before it opened, as a general handyman. His friends laughed at him for going to work at a girls’ school where his bosses were two women, but they weren’t laughing at him when the next winter came and he was still in work whilst most of them were struggling to earn a few schillings doing anything they could. Even my Uncle Eigen, only ten years old when the school opened, sometimes helped out there in the early days, carrying messages and assisting with various odd jobs.

And so my family played a big part in the Chalet School in the first few years of its existence. Fraulein Bettany and her business partner, Fraulein Lepattre, treated them well by comparison with other employers around the Tiernsee and made sure that all their staff and pupils did the same. My mother thought that Fraulein Bettany was wonderful. She thinks that still. She’s never thought any differently. That’s why my life’s turned out the way it has done.

#16: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:11 am
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The background is really interesting, thanks Alison.

#17: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:49 am
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It must have been such a gift for the family to be involved in the school.

Thanks, Alison

#18: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:01 am
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Enjoying this background to the family. It's fascinating.

#19: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2006 6:52 pm
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Not surprising the family were so loyal to the Bettany family.

Thanks Alison.

#20: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 6:49 am
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Hope this bit's OK. I had all sorts of trouble with Gretchen's father - a) his surname is given as Le Mesurier in "Exile" and Monier in "Gay", b) his first name changes from Andreas to André and back at random (sometimes even within the same book!) and c) sometimes he's Austrian and sometimes he's French Rolling Eyes

. I decided it made more sense for him to be Austrian, but then I had to think of a reason why he had a French surname. *Scratches head in confusion Confused

.*

Still, if it hadn’t been for Fraulein Bettany, both Fraulein Bettanys in fact, I’d never have been born. It was only because of them that my mother came to meet my father, Andreas Monier. Like her, he’d grown up in a small Tyrolean village: unlike her, he’d lost both his parents before reaching the age of twenty and had moved to Innsbruck with the idea that he might find the streets of the city paved with gold. He didn’t, but he did find a job as a “manservant” for a well-to-do elderly gentleman.

Like Uncle Hansi, he got teased about his work by those who said that it was no job for a real man, but it meant a year-round wage and a guaranteed roof over his head and so he took no notice of other people’s comments. Besides, there was a history in his family of similar employment – his grandfather, before his marriage, had worked as a manservant for a very minor member of the nobility. That was how our family had come to bear the French-sounding name “Monier”. My great- grandfather’s master, who’d very much fancied himself as a local leader of fashion, had got it into his head that he’d seem far more smart and sophisticated if he were thought to have a “French valet”, as he’d termed it; and so he’d insisted that his Austrian manservant adopt a French surname.

My father’s elderly master passed away a year or so before my parents met, but my father was lucky enough to meet up with an English doctor who was looking for a servant. He was too grateful to be in work again to wonder too much about what an English doctor might be doing in Innsbruck; but, as it turned out, Herr Doktor James Russell was not only a man of considerable private wealth but also a specialist in the field of tuberculosis, and had come to look round some of the Alpine sanatoriums with a view to opening one of his own.

One day, the Herr Doktor was returning from visiting one of these sanatoriums when the train on which he was travelling was involved in an accident. He wasn’t hurt, and he seemed less concerned about the accident itself than with telling my father about the attractive young lady - also English, and accompanied by her sister and two of the pupils of the school of which she was headmistress – whose assistance he’d sprung to after she’d helped a fellow passenger to escape from a burning carriage. After that, he suddenly seemed to take a great interest in the Tiernsee area; and, not long afterwards, he and my father travelled there, officially for the purpose of seeing whether there might be a suitable location for the proposed sanatorium anywhere nearby.

My father was delighted when they found out that they’d arrived during the week of a lively ice carnival, especially when the Herr Doktor told him that he could take the evening off to go out and enjoy the fun. The Herr Doktor went out to skate on the lake alone, and whom should he see there but the sister of the lady from the train accident. After that, he was so lost in his thoughts that he forgot to look where he was going, and when she, evidently not a very good skater, fell over in front of him, he had no time to swerve out of the way and he fell on top of her.

And so he took her back to the school, where he met up with her elder sister again: she, of course, was Fraulein Madge Bettany. Within the space of a few months they were engaged to be married. On one occasion during those few months my father took a message from the doctor to Fraulein Bettany, she thanked him and suggested that he go to the kitchen and ask for a cup of coffee and a cake, and that was how my parents met. In the kitchen at the Chalet School. Not a very auspicious place for a first meeting, but they were taken with each other from the start, so my mother told me once. I can remember exactly when she said that, because it’s so rare now that she ever talks about her life in Austria.

#21: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 7:04 am
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Thanks Alison.

She's not too impressed with the huge role the school plays in her life, is she.

#22: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:03 pm
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Thanks, Alison. It's really interesting to see things from a completely different point of view.

#23: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 12:48 pm
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I wonder why Marie talks so little about life in Austria now - because of the war, or for other reasons?

Thanks, Alison

#24: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2006 8:32 pm
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Interesting to see it all from a different point of view.

Thanks Alison

#25: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:51 am
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Herr Doktor Russell duly opened his sanatorium, up on the Sonnalpe above the lake, and set up home nearby in a house which he and Fraulein Bettany named Die Rosen. When the two of them got married, my mother left the Chalet School to become their housekeeper. I don’t think that she was given much choice in the matter, but, as it so happened, the arrangement suited everyone admirably. It meant that she and my father could work together, and that not only would they be able to marry whilst both continuing in their respective jobs, but that they would have a home of their own – well, a few rooms in the Russells’ house, but that was more than some young couples had – in which to begin their married life.

A year after Fraulein Bettany and Herr Doktor Russell had been married, my parents’ own wedding took place. They invited all the girls from the school to the reception. How many of those girls later invited my parents to their own weddings, I wonder? One or two, perhaps. Certainly no more. And, as a wedding gift, they presented my mother with a group photograph – of themselves. Of all the stupid, useless, ridiculous things to give someone as a wedding present! But my mother thought that it was wonderful. Largely because Frau Doktor Russell had one exactly the same.

Incidentally, when my mother moved to Die Rosen, Auntie Luise took over as head cook at the school. A year later she also left to be married. Her husband, Uncle Johann, was the son and assistant of one of the local shopkeepers. Auntie Karen was put in charge of the kitchen and the domestic staff after that, and remained so for nearly twenty years.

Neither of the Russells attended my parents’ wedding, because their first child, a son called David, was born on the very same day. Soon afterwards, my Auntie Rosa joined my parents up on the Sonnalpe, as David’s nursemaid. I was born not the following January, but the January afterwards. I don’t have many memories of the house in which I was born, but I do remember that it was big. Maybe all houses seem big to a small child, and certainly it was nothing by comparison with somewhere like the Schloss Wertheim, but it was still large compared with most of the other houses I knew – which was a good job really, given how many different people lived in it.

It wasn’t what you’d call a normal family home, for any of us – but, to me, mine was a happier and more “normal” family than those of any of the other various people who lived there, and so, in my early childhood, I never felt deprived in any way by being the child of the servants. Rather, I felt that I was the luckiest of the many children in the nursery.

#26: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:55 am
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Quote:

And, as a wedding gift, they presented my mother with a group photograph – of themselves. Of all the stupid, useless, ridiculous things to give someone as a wedding present!

Yes, really they could have come up with something much better!

#27: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 7:58 am
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She's a strange mixture, isn't she? In some ways very angry and resentful, yet in others most appreciative.

Thanks Alison.

#28: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2006 11:20 am
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I guess it was a strange upbringing for someone of her background. Other girls of her own age must have been being brought up in more traditional homes.

Thanks, Alison. I am really enjoying this. Laughing

#29: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 6:47 am
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Why did I feel lucky? Well, I had a Mummy and a Daddy, both living with me, and as well as them I had a huge extended family of grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins all living nearby. I was the only person at Die Rosen who did.

As well as Herr and Frau Doktor Russell, and my mother and father and Auntie Rosa, there were a surprising number of other adults living there, all of them Britons far from home. There was Fraulein Joey: she was the Frau Doktor’s sister, although in many ways the Russells were more like a mother and father to her than a sister and brother-in-law. I thought it was very sad when Mummy told me that Fraulein Joey’s parents had died when she’d been a little baby, so she didn’t even remember them. During school holidays, the Herr Doktor’s sister, Frau Venables, a Matron at the school, also lived at Die Rosen. Her parents had died too, before she’d had chance to make up a quarrel that she’d had with them, and she’d lost her husband and her three little boys as well.

Then there was Fraulein Rosalie, the Herr Doktor’s secretary and a former pupil of the Chalet School. Her parents had sent her to the school when they’d gone to work abroad and had decided that they couldn’t take her with them, and then, shortly after their return to England, her mother had died. Her father was still living, but he’d remarried and she didn’t think that her stepmother would want her to live with them, so it suited her to have a job in another country. Herr Doktor Maynard, the second-in-command at the sanatorium – which everyone called “the San” for short – also lived with us for a while.

Finally, there were Fraulein Juliet and Fraulein Grizel. They ran a subsidiary branch of the Chalet School, which was actually on the Sonnalpe rather than in Briesau. This branch was for “delicate” girls – although most of them appeared perfectly healthy to me – and, although the two of them didn’t actually live at Die Rosen, they spent most of their time there during the holidays. Fraulein Juliet’s parents had both been killed in a car crash and she had no brothers or sisters. Fraulein Grizel’s mother had died when she was young, and she was on bad terms with both her father and his second wife and rarely saw either of them.

So those were the adults. Then there were all of us children. The eldest three, Biddy, Robin and Daisy, were all a lot older than I was and were at school most of the time. Daisy, the youngest of them, was the eldest of Frau Venables’ two daughters. Although she was the Herr Doktor’s niece, she hadn’t met him until she was nine, after her father and brothers had died and Frau Venables had brought her and her little sister to Austria. I couldn’t imagine life without Daddy, or without my little brother when he arrived, and I always felt sad for Daisy and her sister Primula. Years later I learnt what their father had really been like, and by then they had no mother either.

I didn’t see that much of Daisy, but Biddy and Robin would usually come to church with us on those weekends when they were at Die Rosen, they being the only other Catholic members of the household, and so I got to know them quite well, Biddy in particular. She had lost not only her father but her mother as well, and then her stepfather too. She’d supposedly been “adopted” by the school Guide company, which was some sort of club that most of the older girls belonged to. I never did understand how a schoolgirls’ club could be responsible for a child, and in the end I think she effectively became a ward of the Russells. Certainly she always spent the holidays with us. I suppose she had nowhere else to go. I always looked up to Biddy. Maybe it was because her mother had been a maid as well.

As for Robin, she had no parents living either. Her mother had died when she was very little, and her father had then gone off to work in Leningrad and left her at the Chalet School with people she’d never met before. Later, he’d come to the Sonnalpe to work as Herr Doktor Russell’s secretary, but he’d died in a climbing accident soon afterwards. Fraulein Joey always referred to Robin as her “adopted sister”, which sometimes seriously confused people. The actual relationship was that the Russells were Robin’s guardians.

Then there were “the nursery folk”. Me included – yes, for much of the day I spent my time in the nursery with the other children, despite being the child of the servants. I suppose that it wasn’t an ideal situation, but it meant that Mummy got through her work much quicker than she would have done had she been looking after me all day as well, and that not only suited the Frau Doktor but meant that Mummy and Daddy and I had more time to spend together in the evenings. Anyway, the nursemaid was my aunt, after all. I’m not sure that the Herr Doktor was overly pleased about my being with the other children, but he never actually voiced any objections to the arrangement. There was only one person who did.

#30: Author: janem, Location: Ash, Surrey

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:27 am
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I'm really enjoying this.

Alison. I think the way you have worked all the details and background in and then changed it to be from Marie's point of view is brilliant.

Who could it be that doesn't like her. Think I can guess

#31: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 10:34 am
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janem wrote:

Who could it be that doesn't like her. Think I can guess

Me too!

Why doesn't Jem like them mixing?

Thanks Alison

#32: Author: Ruth B, Location: Oxford, UK

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 11:36 am
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I have a pretty good idea who the objector might be!

Thanks Alison.

#33: Author: Chelsea, Location: Your Imagination

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 2:28 pm
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Fatima wrote:

Quote:

And, as a wedding gift, they presented my mother with a group photograph – of themselves. Of all the stupid, useless, ridiculous things to give someone as a wedding present!

Yes, really they could have come up with something much better!

My step-brother and sister gave their mum and my dad a photo of themselves (plus SS's dog) for a wedding present Shocked

#34: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 3:10 pm
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Thanks, Alison. This is fascinating.

#35: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:35 pm
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Hmmm, wonder who it is then? Hardly likely to be Sybil - she's not old enough is she?

Thanks Alison.

#36: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2006 7:09 pm
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Would it be Master Rix?

She's a really interesting character, and it's fascinating seeing a different take on Die Rosen.

Thanks Alison

#37: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:52 am
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Thanks for the comments Very Happy

.

The eldest of the “nursery folk” were Peggy and Rix Bettany, the twin children of Frau Doktor Russell’s brother and his wife. Although they had a mummy and a daddy, they didn’t live with them. Herr and Frau Bettany lived in a country called India, and apparently it was considered unhealthy for British children to live there. That was why the Bettany children lived with their aunt and uncle rather than with their parents. It seemed very strange to me that anyone would want to live somewhere where their children couldn’t be with them, but that was the way it was.

The twins were always referred to as “Peggy and Rix” rather than “Rix and Peggy”, which was odd because Rix was very much the boss of the pair. In fact, he was the boss of the whole nursery; but I don’t suppose he was any bossier than most eldest children are, and we got all right once he accepted that my being younger and female didn’t mean that I was going to take orders from him. Peggy got on my nerves, though. She seemed to think that we girls should do everything that Rix said just because he was a boy; she was always fussing over her dolls and trying to fuss over we younger children as well; and if anyone asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up she just simpered and said that all she wanted to do was have a house and lots of children to look after. The adults all thought that she was wonderful. I could never understand why.

Next came Primula Venables, Bride Bettany and David Russell, all fairly close in age to each other and around two years younger than the twins. Bride was the twins’ younger sister, and Primula was Daisy’s. Primula always seemed like the youngest of the three even though she wasn’t: she was very shy and quiet and she wasn’t allowed to do much because Herr Doktor Russell said that she was “delicate”. She was very sweet, without being sickly sweet like Peggy was, but quite often you just tended to forget that she was there.

Bride was different: she was very much the leader of those three. I sometimes felt sorry for her, because people were always saying how pretty Peggy and Primula were and you could tell that they were thinking what a shame it was that Bride wasn’t pretty too, but I liked her and I couldn’t have cared less that she wasn’t pretty. She was very bright and always thinking up new games for us to play; and she did her best to get on well with everyone. So did David. He was a nice boy, even if he did tend to let Rix tell him what to do more often than not; and he never seemed to resent the fact that there were so many other people in what was supposedly his family home.

Then, after a gap of around twenty months, came Jackie Bettany, Sybil Russell and me. Jackie and I were almost exactly the same age: his birthday was at the end of December and mine was at the beginning of January. Sybil’s was in March. So I was two months old when Sybil was born. And I was less than ten months old when Herr and Frau Bettany went back to India, leaving Jackie, then just a little baby like I was, and their other children behind them. Jackie was a quiet boy, the quietest of all of us except maybe for Primula. Sybil, by contrast, was never quiet at all. From a very early age she always had more than enough to say for herself. She was well aware that she was “the daughter of the house”. The only daughter of the house. And that coloured most of what she had to say in those nursery days. And none of it was ever very nice.

#38: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 6:57 am
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Oh, so it was Sybil then - oh well, the narrator should feel right at home then as Sybil was nasty to all the cousins too! Interesting that she should like Bride more than Peggy - always felt sorry for Bride being compared so unfavourably to her prettier sisters - for a family that, supposedly, didn't want a girl's looks to be discussed they made a huge fuss about them.

Thanks Alison.

#39: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 7:00 am
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Who was the elder one, Peggy or Rix? I usually call our twins Mariam and Abdullah, but SLOC puts it the other way round. Mariam is one minute older, which is why I give her top billing!

Thanks Alison.

#40: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 11:13 am
—
Thanks Alison

*pats Jackie*

#41: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 3:23 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. Sybil always was a right little madam!

#42: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:46 am
—
Maybe Sybil was the way she was because she was pretty and people were always telling her so. Fraulein Joey, who never seemed to show any affection towards Sybil despite being her auntie, was always insisting that other people’s comments made Sybil conceited and that being conceited meant that she had a bad attitude towards everyone else. But no-one seemed to think that people making similar comments about any of the other girls caused a problem. And, personally, I didn’t think that it was that at all. Sometimes I actually saw Sybil look upset when people commented on her looks – usually when they’d asked where her red hair came from and then remarked on how much Rix resembled the Frau Doktor and how much Primula resembled the Herr Doktor.

It seemed to me that the real problem was that she resented having to share her parents with so many other children. It was understandable, I suppose. Neither of them spent much time in the nursery anyway – it was Auntie Rosa, rather than the Frau Doktor, who looked after us most of the time, and some days the Herr Doktor would be kept late at the San and we’d all have gone to bed before he even got home. And, when Sybil and David did get to see their parents, Primula and the Bettany children were always there too.

Not that that excused the way Sybil behaved towards the rest of us – and, believe me, she could be very nasty indeed. She was constantly telling Primula and the Bettanys that they were “only cousins” whereas she and David “belonged”. It never seemed to occur to her to feel sorry for Primula because she had no father, or for the Bettanys because their parents were thousands of miles away. And she used to tell me that I and my little brother Jakob, who arrived when I was two, shouldn’t be in the nursery at all because we were the only the children of the servants and we should be in the servants’ quarters where we belonged.

I learnt soon enough that the best way to deal with Sybil was to ignore her. Anyway, it wasn’t as if I wasn’t aware that being the servants’ children made Jakob and me different from the others. Quite often, when the Russells had visitors, the other children would be taken to the Saal to see them and be shown off to them; but we never were, even if the visitors were just girls from the school. And, when we were in our own quarters, Mummy and Daddy were always cautioning us to be quiet in case we disturbed the others. I say “quarters”, but really they were just three rooms at one side of the house – a bedroom for Mummy and Daddy, a bedroom for Jakob and me, and a bathroom. Auntie Rosa slept in the nursery.

Still, I knew that it was Jakob and I who were the lucky ones. Sybil might have done a lot of talking about “belonging”, but I always felt that we “belonged” far more than she did. We had a whole family in Briesau, after all, and we could count practically everyone else in Briesau as a family friend. And we got plenty of visitors - usually Grandma, or Auntie Luise, or Cousin Anna, or Auntie Karen - of our own.

And some days, especially when the weather was nice, we’d go down to Briesau, sometimes with Auntie Rosa, sometimes with Mummy and Daddy, and sometimes with all of them. I loved going there. Everyone would rush to greet us, and they were always interested in Jakob and me even when the other children were with us. As a special treat, we’d occasionally go over to the other side of the lake on one of the steamers, and usually we got away without having to pay because one of the men who operated the steamers was Uncle August, my grandfather’s brother. How I loved living near the Tiernsee. It never occurred to me that I’d ever live anywhere else.

I might not remember much about those early days at Die Rosen, and at the Russells’ house down by the lake where we sometimes stayed in the summer, but I do remember that I always felt happy and secure, and that I always knew that I was where I belonged. And I remember so clearly not being able imagine what it must have been like for all those people at Die Rosen who weren’t as lucky as I was – who were separated from their families and living in a foreign country,

#43: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 7:21 am
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Jo never was particularly nice to Sybil, was she. Thanks Alison.

#44: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 12:13 pm
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I don't think Jo's attitude helped Sybil at all, though I think she meant it well. Thanks for the update, Alison.

#45: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 6:29 pm
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Thanks Alison - funny that, she was far luckier than any of the Russell/Bettany/Venables clan with regard to family, wasn't she?

#46: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:51 am
—
Sybil’s remarks about “belonging” might not have bothered me, but I knew that they bothered the Bettanys and that in particular they bothered Rix. Being five years older than Sybil, and a boy, he couldn’t retaliate very far without being accused of bullying. Sybil knew that very well and took full advantage of it. So I was very pleased for Rix when it seemed that he and the rest of the Bettanys had finally got one up on her. She and I can only have been about three at the time, but I remember the scene clearly. One morning, Rix came bursting into the nursery, his face glowing with excitement.

“You will never guess what!” he said exultantly. Auntie Rosa was too busy fussing over Primula, who had a bit of a cold, to take much notice of what he was saying, but the rest of us looked up immediately from the game we were playing.

“What?” David asked obligingly.

“You’ll never guess!”

“Well just tell us, then,” Bride said. “It’d better be something good!”

“Oh, it’s good all right,” he declared jubilantly. “We are going to India to see Mummy and Daddy!”

“Who’s going to India?” Sybil asked. She usually tried to look as if she wasn’t even remotely interested in anything that Rix had to say, but this time I could tell that he’d really got her attention.

“Me, Peggy, Bride and Jackie. With Auntie Jo. Not you. You’ll be staying here, playing games in the nursery whilst we’re off riding elephants and meeting maharajahs and everything else that we’ll probably get to do in India. Mummy and Daddy aren’t going to want to see you, are they? You’re only a cousin.”

Sybil flushed angrily. She was obviously about to make some disparaging remark or other, but David gave her a black look and for once she kept quiet. However, unusually, David didn’t seem to be entirely convinced by what Rix was saying. “Are you sure about this?” he asked. “Who told you? I thought you weren’t supposed to go to India because you might get ill there.”

“Well … it was actually something I overheard,” Rix admitted. “By accident: I didn’t really mean to listen to what Auntie Madge and Auntie Jo were saying. But it’s definitely true. It’s because of Dr Hunter.”

Herr Doktor Hunter was a new doctor at the San. None of us liked him. Mummy said that it wasn’t nice to say that you didn’t like people, especially when they were important people like doctors; but I didn’t think that even the other doctors liked him, because I’d seen Herr Doktor Maynard glaring at him. I couldn’t imagine what on earth he could have to do with the Bettanys going to India, but it all made more sense when Rix said that Dr Hunter had been upsetting Fraulein Joey and that she’d decided to go to India for a while to get away from him.

“Yes … but did she definitely say that she was taking us with her?” Bride asked doubtfully. She didn’t seem all that excited about the prospect of a visit to India – I suppose she didn’t really remember her parents - but Peggy was sitting with her hands clasped together and a look of delight on her face, and Rix was practically dancing for joy. I was so pleased for them: I couldn’t imagine going through even a single day without seeing Mummy and Daddy, never mind being separated from them for years on end. And I couldn’t help feeling sneakily glad that Sybil was looking well and truly put out about it all.

“Well, not exactly,” Rix confessed. “But I heard Auntie Madge saying that maybe Auntie Jo’d be better going on her own because the climate there wasn’t healthy for children. Then Auntie Jo said that she’d spoken to Uncle Jem about it and that he’d said that he thought it’d be all right, and that anyway she didn’t want to do all that travelling on her own. And Auntie Madge said that if Uncle Jem thought it’d be all right then she was sure it would be. So there you are! We’re going to India!”

#47: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 6:54 am
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Oh, poor Rix, he'll be so disappointed.

Thanks Alison.

#48: Author: Ruth B, Location: Oxford, UK

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:48 am
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Oh poor Rix and Peggy! I want to give them a big hug!

#49: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 9:54 am
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Oh how sad... They could have gone, if Robin went! Sad

(what a horrible sentence but you know what I mean)

Ty Alison

#50: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 4:00 pm
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Oh, poor Rix. And Peggy will be devastated, too.

#51: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 5:58 pm
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Poor things - bet Sybil will crow.

Thanks Alison.

#52: Author: Lulu, Location: West Midlands, UK

Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:37 pm
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I like the observation that Rix, etc., as well as Sybil and David, perhaps have less than Marie and Andreas' children.

Thanks Alison.

#53: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:57 am
—
I’d never seen either Peggy or Rix so excited, and their excitement infected Jackie and the three of them talked about little else for the rest of the day. Both David and Bride were clearly sceptical about the whole thing, but it looked as though they were about to be proved wrong when Fraulein Joey came to the nursery the next morning and said that she’d got some news for us all. Peggy sat up straight, her face more alight than I’d ever seen it before, whilst Rix wriggled about so much that it was a wonder that he didn’t fall off his chair.

“I think you’re all going to be quite excited about what I’ve got to tell you, especially Peggy and Rix and Bride and Jackie,” she said. “I’m going to India to stay with your Mummy and Daddy! And, if there’s anything that you want me to tell them, or if you want to draw some pictures for me to take for them, then you’d better start thinking about it straight away, because we’re going to be setting off as soon as we can get everything arranged!”

“Who’s we?” Rix asked in bemusement.

“We? Robin and me, of course. You wouldn’t want me to be trekking halfway across the globe on my own now, would you? Now you get thinking about those pictures! And remind me to take some snapshots of you all before we go.”

I saw Peggy’s eyes filling with tears, desperate disappointment spreading across Jackie’s face and sadness across Bride’s, David and Primula looking at them all with sympathy, and Sybil smirking. I moved over to where Peggy was sitting and squeezed her hand. I couldn’t think what else to do.

“I don’t understand,” Rix said. “Won’t we be going with you? Don’t you want to take us? Or do Mummy and Daddy not want to see us?” He looked close to tears himself, and it was only then that Fraulein Joey seemed to realise what he’d been thinking.

“Oh Rix!” She tried to put her arms round him, but he pulled away, muttering something about “boys don’t hug” and rubbing his eyes vigorously, and she gave up and sat down on the arm of the chair that Peggy and I were sharing. “We’d love to take you with us, of course we would, but it’s a very long journey, and you know that the climate in India isn’t healthy for you. But I promise that we’ll tell you all about it when we get back, every little thing.

“Remember that it won’t be all that long before Daddy’ll be due for his furlough and then he and Mummy’ll be coming here to see you all, and that you can write to them as often as you like in the meantime. And I’m sure that they’ll be very glad when I tell them in person how well you’re all getting on, and how happy you are here with David and Sybil and Primula.”

I suppose that sometimes it’s a good job that none of us know in advance what fate has in store for us. How would the Bettany children have felt if they’d known then just how many years would have passed before they did see their parents again?

It was horrible in the nursery whilst Fraulein Joey and Robin were in India. Sybil kept taunting Rix about his parents not wanting to see him, and the quarrels between the two of them were worse than ever. David sometimes tried to intervene, but he rarely had much success in calming things down; and Peggy burst into tears at the slightest little thing. However, by the time the travellers returned, we all had something absolutely thrilling to look forward to, so thrilling that I couldn’t quite believe that it was going to happen until it did. Crown Princess Elisaveta of Belsornia, her fiancé, Raphael, Duke of Mirolani, and his aunt, Queen Roxalanne of Mirania, were coming to stay with us.

It was like something out of a fairy story! A real live queen and a real live princess coming to Die Rosen! I’d never been so excited in my life. I was really rather disappointed to find that they were actually quite normal and didn’t walk around wearing crowns and dripping from head to toe in jewellery all day, but I soon got over my disappointment in the excitement of their being there at all and the lovely summer that we all spent together. Even Rix and Sybil put their differences aside as we all enjoyed ourselves in the glorious weather, picnicking on the mountainside and paddling in the lake. Those were happy days.

#54: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:15 am
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It must have felt as though their parents really didn't want to see them.

Thanks Alison.

#55: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:37 am
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Oooh Roxalanne! I do like her. Thanks Alison

#56: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 6:12 pm
—
Poor kids - still, at least having royalty come to visit helped.

Thanks Alison.

#57: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:20 am
—
Soon afterwards, the Russells, the Bettanys and the Venableses went to Belsornia for the Crown Princess’s wedding, at which Fraulein Joey was chief bridesmaid. We weren’t invited, of course; but, much, as we would have loved to see a royal wedding, we’d never expected to be asked and so we weren’t disappointed. And we had a wonderful time whilst all the others were away. We went down to Briesau nearly every day, and Mummy and Daddy were able to spend much more time with Jakob and me than they were normally.

The rest of 1937 seemed to fly by: almost before we knew it, the year was drawing to its close. On Christmas Eve I begged to be allowed to stay up to go to church with the adult members of the family. Eventually Mummy said that I could on condition that I had a sleep in the afternoon, which I readily agreed to – although I spent more time pretending to be asleep than actually being asleep. So, in the evening, I went off to Mass with Mummy holding my right hand and Daddy holding my left hand, surrounded by my grandparents and my aunts and uncles, and all the other people from the village who’d known our family for years. I was so happy, and so excited that I don’t know how I kept quiet during the service.

After church, we all went back to Wald Villa, where Grandma and Grandpa lived, to open our presents. Then those of us who lived at Die Rosen had to go home, because Mummy had to be up early on Christmas Day to prepare Christmas dinner for the Russells and the others. It was very cold out by then, and I was very tired, but I’d enjoyed myself so much that I didn’t care. Then, on Christmas Day itself, we were able to go back to Wald Villa for a couple of hours. Jakob and our little cousin Sabine, Auntie Luise and Uncle Johann’s new baby, slept for most of the time, so I was the centre of attention for once and I freely admit that I thoroughly enjoyed it, but most of us all I just enjoyed being there, spending part of the special day with the rest of our family.

And then it was January, and it was my birthday. Auntie Rosa made a little party for me in the nursery. We had a wonderful time. Even Sybil seemed to enjoy herself! We played games and tucked into the delicious birthday cake that Auntie Karen had made for the occasion and carried carefully all the way up the mountainside, and the adults all stood around saying that they couldn’t believe how the time was flying and that they wondered what 1938 was going to bring to us all.

Little did we know then, we young ones, that over the space of the next few months our safe, cosy childhood world at Die Rosen was going to be torn apart and lost for ever.

#58: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 7:36 am
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Of course, from a child's eye, the wrench would have been even worse as they would not have seen the warning signs. Crying or Very sad

Lovely Christmas - thanks Alison.

#59: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 10:08 am
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She has such a lovely family. Thanks Alison.

#60: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 2:18 pm
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Thanks, Alison. She has such a lovely relationship with her family. I'm glad they had a nice Christmas, even though they had to work at Die Rosen.

#61: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 4:56 pm
—
This is such a beautiful story.

Thank you Alison

#62: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 7:53 am
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Thanks for the comments Very Happy

.

Soon after my birthday, the Easter term at the Chalet School began, as it did every year; but this time it was different. The main part of the school had moved from its premises at Briesau up to the Sonnalpe, to a building which had previously been a hotel called Der Edel Ritter. I didn’t know why the school had moved and I didn’t really care, but I was very pleased about it because it meant that Auntie Karen and Cousin Anna would be living close by and that we’d be able to see much more of them both.

What I didn’t realise at first was that the move was going to mean the partial break-up of our little group in the nursery. Frau Doktor Russell had been teaching Peggy and Rix, and more recently David and Bride and Primula as well, to read and write and do sums. Now, she and the Herr Doktor decided that Peggy, Rix, David and Bride should all attend classes at the school in the mornings. Primula wasn’t included, presumably because Herr Doktor Russell thought that her health wasn’t up to it, but she didn’t seem very interested in the idea of going to school anyway. Personally, I thought that it sounded rather exciting.

Rix, of course, made all sorts of pointed remarks about big boys and girls going to school whilst babies like Sybil had to stay at home, but Sybil was delighted about the new arrangement because she thought that now her mother would have more time to devote to her. However, what actually happened was that Frau Doktor Russell decided to go back to teaching English at the school, as she’d done before she’d been married. So, if anything, we saw less of her than we’d done when the school had been at Briesau. Sybil was very upset about it, although she tried hard not to show it. Obnoxious though she could be, sometimes I found myself feeling very sorry for her.

Another change was that Herr and Fraulein Denny, two of the teachers at the school, came to live at Die Rosen with us. Fraulein Denny was all right, but Herr Denny was weird. He wore very peculiar clothes and I couldn’t understand half of what he said. Still, I didn’t see that much of either of them, so their being there didn’t really bother me that much once I’d got used to it.

And then, round about the time of Sybil’s birthday, all the adults started wearing anxious expressions and using a word that I’d never heard before. “Anschluss.” I didn’t know what it meant, and I didn’t like to ask anyone because it was a subject that seemed to upset people, but I gathered that it was to do with Germany, and something called “the Third Reich” and people called “Nazis”.

#63: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 8:38 am
—
Horrible times - poor kids.

Thanks Alison - really interesting seeing all this from a child's eye.

#64: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 12:25 pm
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Poor children. Their lives are about to change unimaginably. Thanks, Alison.

#65: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:13 pm
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This is wonderful. Thanks, Alison.

#66: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 2:25 pm
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Poor girl, what is she going to think of the next upheavals?

Thanks Alison.

#67: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2006 4:30 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I have just read this from the beginning of the drabble. It's interesting to read it from Marie's - is that her name? - point of view. I felt so sorry for the Bettany children when they didn't have the chance to go to India.

#68: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:10 am
—
Her name is Gretchen. It's only given twice in the books, once as Gretchen and once (in a bit edited out of the pb edition) as Greta. Her brother's name is only given once, as Jacques on one of the days when their dad was French instead of Austrian Confused

, so I've changed it to Jakob as the Austrian equivalent!

I’m not quite sure exactly what I understood, back then, by either the word “Germany” or the word “Reich”. Living at Die Rosen, I was probably better aware than most children of my age that the world was a diverse place and that, in different parts of it, called “countries”, different languages were spoken, different customs were followed, different religions were practised and different climatic conditions prevailed. I knew that Germany, although people there spoke the same language as they did in Austria, was a different “country”, and that it was to be found on the other side of the Tiern Pass; but I don’t think I had any concept whatsoever of statehood and independence, and I wouldn’t have understood what the Anschluss was even had someone told me.

I know what I understood by the word “Nazi”, though. Every time I heard Mummy and Daddy and other adults using it, they sounded worried, and so I took it to be a term equivalent to something like “bogeyman”. Some of the stories that Auntie Rosa read to us involved bogeymen. And once, after Rix and David had run off during a game of hide and seek and it had taken us ages to find them, Auntie Rosa had said that none of us were ever to go off on our own again - because you never knew when there might be bogeymen about. That was what I thought Nazis must be. Bogeymen.

I didn’t know what a Nazi might look like, but I realised that there were Nazis in the area when I heard Herr Doktor Russell say that he’d been summoned to attend a meeting with some of them. It was rather worrying, but I was sure that Daddy and Herr Doktor Russell and Herr Doktor Maynard would be able to keep us all safe, and that soon enough these Nazis, whoever they were, would go back to wherever they’d come from and leave us in peace.

In fact, most of the time, safe in the nursery, I didn’t think about these Nazi people at all. There were plenty of other things to think about, after all. There was Easter to look forward to, and then, the week after Easter, Fraulein Juliet was getting married and we were all, even Jakob and I, going to her wedding. Best of all, springtime meant that the weather was getting better, and that soon we’d be able to spend plenty of time out in the fresh air. Being cooped up in Die Rosen for days at a time, as we generally were when it was cold and wet outside, could get very boring.

One day, Fraulein Joey and Herr Doktor Maynard announced that they were going on a picnic with Robin and some of the other girls from the school. We were thrilled by the idea of a picnic, the first one of the year, and begged them to let us go too; but they refused point blank to take us, even though we all asked nicely and promised faithfully to be on our best behaviour. We were extremely disappointed and thought it was very mean of them.

We expected them back by eighteen o’clock or so, but by half past eighteen there was no sign of them and it was starting to get dark. Sybil and Jackie and I should have been in bed by then – Jakob was already asleep - but all three of us felt that there was no way we’d be able to sleep, and Mummy, Auntie Rosa and Frau Doktor Russell were too worried to be strict about bedtime for once; so we were allowed to stay up. Eventually, at around nineteen o’clock, Robin arrived back – with Herr Doktor Gottfried Mensch, whom we were quite sure had had nothing to do with the picnic. And without Fraulein Joey and Herr Doktor Maynard. It was all very odd indeed. Herr and Frau Doktor Russell were obviously very worried and I began to feel frightened. What if the Nazi people had got them?

At half past nineteen we were all eventually packed off to bed, and, although I’d been sure I’d never be able to sleep, the next thing I knew it was morning. And, thankfully, both Fraulein Joey and Herr Doktor Maynard had got back safely. Peggy, who’d been in floods of tears the night before, asked her aunt where on earth she and “Dr Jack” had got to and why they’d come home so late. Fraulein Joey said that Robin and one of the other girls had got separated from the group, and that the rest of them had gone to look for them but had ended up getting lost themselves instead.

Her story sounded plausible enough, but, somehow, something about it just didn’t ring true. However, she refused to say any more, and the important thing was that everyone had got back safely in the end. After a day or two, I stopped thinking about it all, and concentrated on looking forward to Easter.

#69: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:05 am
—
Yes, can understand them worrying - and can understand them thinking the worst was over.

Thanks Alison.

#70: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:00 pm
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It must have been a very confusing and scary time for the children.

#71: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 1:14 pm
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Must have been so scary for them. And then a huge upheaval to come Confused

Thanks, Alison

#72: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:58 pm
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I like the way she thought of Nazis as similar to bogeymen!

Thanks Alison.

#73: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 8:14 pm
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Thanks, Alison. I feel so sorry for all the children and everyone else that was living on the Sonnalpe.

#74: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2006 10:12 pm
—
Thanks, Alison, a fascinating point of view.

#75: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 6:50 am
—
On Easter Sunday, Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Rosa took Jakob and me down to Briesau, to join the rest of the family for church, and then we all had Easter Sunday lunch at Wald Villa. But somehow it wasn’t like it’d been at Christmas. Everyone seemed quiet and subdued, and it wasn’t nearly as much fun as I’d been anticipating. Also, it was a warm day and it got really stuffy with so many of us in the house. Part way through the afternoon, Daddy and Uncle Fritzl said that they were going outside for a breath of air. A few minutes later, I asked Mummy if I could go outside for a bit as well. She said that I could as long as I didn’t wander away from the house.

I only got as far as the doorway. Then I heard voices. I knew that it was wrong to stay there and eavesdrop, but I really did want some fresh air and I’d promised Mummy that I wouldn’t wander off. Besides, sometimes when you start listening to something it’s very hard to stop.

“There are other jobs, Andreas,” Uncle Fritzl was saying. “I understand your loyalty to the Russells, but surely you can see that by working for a British master and mistress you and Marie and Rosa could be drawing attention to yourselves; and that’s the last thing anyone should be doing with things the way they are. Hansi’s decided that he’s not going back to work at the school after Easter, and I’m hoping that Anna’ll have the sense to tell them that she can’t carry on working there either. Karen too. I’ve said this to Rosa already but all she did was get upset; but I would think that if you and Marie leave Die Rosen then she will too. Think about it, Andreas. For the children’s sake if not for your own. Please.”

“We’re not being forced out of our jobs by the Nazis,” Daddy said forcefully. “I appreciate your concern, Fritzl, but so far the Nazis don’t seem to want any trouble with the British - and, anyway, they’re hardly likely to bother about Marie and Rosa and me, are they? And what are the chances of Marie and me finding anyone else who’ll employ a married couple with two children? Besides which, the Russells have been good to us and we wouldn’t want to let them down. We’re staying where we are.”

I ran back into the house after that. My mind was racing. Obviously Uncle Fritzl thought that we were in some sort of danger because we lived at Die Rosen. But why? It made no sense to me at all. Why would anyone mind that Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Rosa worked for the Russells? The Herr Doktor was a good man who helped people who were very poorly and might otherwise have died. I’d heard lots of people say so. But Uncle Fritzl wouldn’t have said what he’d just said for no reason. And it sounded as if Uncle Hansi agreed with him. And that Auntie Karen and Cousin Anna might be in danger too. Were the Nazi people going to come and get us all? And, if they did, what would they do to us? I was terrified.

After three days of worrying and three nights disturbed by bad dreams, I plucked up the courage to tell Daddy that I’d heard someone – I didn’t say whom – talking about the Nazi people and that I was frightened. And Daddy hugged me, and he said that I wasn’t to worry about anything. He said that he and Mummy would always look after Jakob and me, and that everything would be all right. And then I felt better. If Daddy said that everything would be all right, then everything would be all right.

#76: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 8:28 am
—
It's all very scary - and of course the domestic staff were at just as much risk of trouble for staying with the Russells/at the school/San as the teaching staff.

Thanks Alison - it's fascinating seeing this from the 'downstairs' (and child's) point of view.

#77: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:07 am
—
Thanks Alison, this is really thought-provoking

#78: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:21 am
—
Thanks, Alison. It's interesting to see that Marie and Andreas feel so loyal to Jem and Madge.

#79: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:53 pm
—
Poor girl; I hope she doesn't have too bad a time leaving Austria.
Thanks Alison.

#80: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:11 pm
—
Poor little girl. How scared she must have been. I hope she won't suffer too much when things start getting tricky for the school and San.

#81: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2006 5:40 pm
—
Poor little girl - and yes, to any of the Austrians, they would have been in particular danger.

Thanks Alison.

#82: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 6:46 am
—
So I was able to stop worrying, and to enjoy Fraulein Juliet’s wedding. I’d never been inside a Protestant church before and it was all a little bit strange to me; but Fraulein Juliet looked beautiful, and she and her new husband, Herr O’Hara, were obviously very happy. It was a lovely day. The boys scoffed and said that weddings were soppy, but we girls thought that it was all very romantic and we speculated as to who at the Sonnalpe might be the next to get married. We thought that it would be either Fraulein Grizel or Fraulein Rosalie, both of them only a little younger than Fraulein Juliet; but we couldn’t decide which one of them it was more likely to be. Fraulein Grizel was prettier, but Fraulein Rosalie was quite pretty as well and she never got bad-tempered like Fraulein Grizel sometimes did. So we weren’t sure.

However, it was actually Fraulein Joey who announced shortly after the wedding that she was engaged – to Herr Doktor Maynard. We were all rather surprised, because she’d always insisted that she was never going to get married, but everyone was very pleased about it. Peggy and Sybil hoped that she’d ask them both to be bridesmaids, so that they could wear pretty dresses. In all the excitement, I almost forgot about the Nazis altogether. But, then, one of them came to Die Rosen.

We were having our mid-morning milk. Sybil and I both reached for the same glass and we ended up knocking it over. Some of the milk went on to the table and some of it went down Sybil’s dress. Frau Doktor Russell, who was in the nursery for once, took Sybil off to get changed, and Auntie Rosa sent me to the kitchen to ask Mummy for some cloths to wipe the table with. I’d just got to the kitchen when there was a loud knock at the front door: Mummy went to answer it and I followed her. Standing at the door was a big, aggressive-looking man in a uniform. I knew, without even having to ask, that here, in the flesh, was a Nazi.

I was too afraid to move. I just stood there, rooted to the spot. I could tell that Mummy was afraid too, and that frightened me even more. Then the Nazi said that he wanted – in fact, he said that he demanded - to speak to “the Fraulein Josephine Bettany and the Fraulein Robin Humphries”. Mummy went to fetch them, and suddenly I found myself able to move again and I scurried after her. There was no way that I was staying in the hall on my own with that man there.

But the man followed us into the Saal, where Fraulein Joey was talking to Fraulein Grizel. I didn’t understand most of what was said next, but it was something about “the Gestapo” – I had no idea what that was, but it certainly sounded very scary – and the laws of “the Reich” and there being “no Austria”. That last bit made no sense to me whatsoever. Of course there was an Austria. We were all standing in it!

Then Frau Doktor Russell came downstairs with Sybil, and she ordered Sybil to go to the nursery immediately and tell Auntie Rosa that none of us were to leave the room until someone came to say that we might. Then she saw me standing behind Mummy, and ordered me to go to the nursery immediately as well. It was very rare for her to speak to any of us like that, and the fact that she’d done so made it clear just how serious this was.

Sybil and I fled. We burst into the nursery, gasping for breath, and slammed the door behind us.

#83: Author: Elle, Location: Peterborough

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 8:33 am
—
Gosh. have just discovered this Alison, and it is excellent. So excellent I should have been dressed and in work half an hour ago! Oh well, its technically history, so therefore research....

#84: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 10:00 am
—
It must have been so terrifying for such a small child, especially having Nazis barging into your home!

#85: Author: Nell, Location: London, England

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:01 am
—
Thank you Alison. How scary that must have been.

#86: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:41 pm
—
Thanks Alison *echoes Nell*

#87: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:51 pm
—
Yes, it's the thought that there was one in her home that must have been so terrifying.

Thanks Alison.

#88: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:44 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I am now wondering if Sybil and Peggy were allowed to be bridesmaids.

#89: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:20 pm
—
Must have been terrifying for them.

Thanks Alison.

#90: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:51 pm
—
Poor kids - no idea what's really going on except that things aren't right and are scary Confused

Thanks, Alison

#91: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 6:50 am
—
Thanks for the comments. BTW I am working on Gretchen and Sybil being about 4 at this point, which is older than Sybil is in Exile but fits in with her age in the following books. It got even more fun later on when Sybil (whose age I'm following as all we're ever told about Gretchen's age is that she was 2 months old when Sybil was born) stayed 14 for about 2 1/2 years!

We heard a lot of raised voices, and then we realised that the Nazi was taking Herr Doktor Maynard away. Later on, the adults tried to tell us that the Herr Doktor had gone to Innsbruck on business for a few days. Once they accepted that we knew very well that the Nazi had taken him, they tried to reassure us that he was just going to have to answer some questions and that the Nazis wouldn’t hurt him. We weren’t at all convinced, and it was only when the Herr Doktor arrived back safe and well a few days later that we stopped torturing ourselves with thoughts of what they might be doing to him and whether we might never see him again.

In the meantime, the summer term at the school had started, and Rix, Peggy, David and Bride reported to the rest of us that a lot of the girls who’d been there before the Easter holidays weren’t there any more. Jackie asked fearfully if the Nazis had taken them away as well. Rix said that he wasn’t sure but that he thought they might well have done; and Primula started to cry. Auntie Rosa told Rix off for upsetting Primula, but then she asked exactly what he’d been saying, and we told her.

She told us firmly that we were to stop being so silly and frightening each other; and that of course the girls hadn’t been taken away by the Nazis: they’d just left to go to different schools. But we knew full well that it wasn’t normal for so many girls to leave at once, especially as no new girls had come to take their places. Nothing seemed to be normal any more. We weren’t even sure what normal was any more.

Then, the week after the Nazi had come to Die Rosen, Herr Doktor Russell, Frau Doktor Russell and Frau Venables all came to the nursery together. The Frau Doktor told us that they had something very important and serious to say to us all, and that we were all to be very sensible and grown-up about it. Then the Herr Doktor said that Frau Venables and Fraulein Rosalie were leaving Austria. They were going at the end of that very week. And not only Daisy and Primula, but also David, Sybil and the four Bettany children were all going with them.

There was instant pandemonium. Rix said that he wasn’t scared of the Nazis and that he wasn’t going anywhere. I could see that in actual fact he was terrified. He’d already lost one home and been separated from his parents, and now he was about to lose another home and be separated from his aunts and uncle as well. It wasn’t even as if they were going to England, which we’d all been told so much about. They were going to a place called Guernsey, which none of us had ever even heard of. Peggy burst into tears, and Jackie said that if Rix wasn’t going then he wasn’t going either.

Sybil burst into tears as well, and said that she didn’t want to leave her mummy and daddy. Frau Doktor Russell tried to reassure her by saying that she and the Herr Doktor and Fraulein Joey would be going to Guernsey as well, just as soon as they could make arrangements to close the school and send all the girls home, and make some arrangements concerning the San. She said that Herr Doktor Maynard would be going to Guernsey as well, and so would Fraulein Grizel, and Robin, and Biddy, and lots of other people too.

Sybil stopped crying then, but she said that she didn’t see why she couldn’t stay at the Sonnalpe until her parents were ready to leave, and then they could all leave together. However, David managed to persuade her that they both had to do as they were told, and leave with Frau Venables and Fraulein Rosalie. He solemnly assured the Frau Doktor that he’d look after Sybil for her, and then the Frau Doktor started to cry as well.

They all seemed to have completely forgotten that Jakob and I were there. I put my arms round my little brother and hugged him tightly. I felt as if our world was crumbling around us. Everyone was leaving Die Rosen. The school was closing down. What was going to happen to us?

Once I’d calmed down, I realised that I knew the answer. We would go to Wald Villa, and stay with Grandma and Grandpa until Mummy and Daddy found new jobs. And, hopefully, they’d find jobs that didn’t require them to “live in”. And then we’d be able to have a house of our own. Instead of living at Die Rosen, with Sybil sneering at Jakob and me for being the children of the servants, we’d be living in our own home, in Briesau close to all our family and friends. Despite all the horrible things that had been happening recently, it seemed as if our lives were actually about to take a turn for the better.

#92: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:11 am
—
Poor little girl. Thanks, Alison. This is wonderful.

#93: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 12:47 pm
—
I think she's likely to be disappointed on that one Sad

Thanks, Alison

#94: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 1:43 pm
—
Yes, not just 'servants' children' but in a foreign country, too. Poor child.
Thanks Alison.

#95: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:36 pm
—
And, of course, all Jem and Madge's plans will actually go by the wayside anyway!

Thanks Alison.

#96: Author: little_sarah, Location: Liverpool/Manchester

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 7:17 pm
—
Thanks Alison, it's really interesting to see everything through Gretchen's eyes.

#97: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:02 pm
—
Alison, I just found this. This is wonderful! She is very observant for a four-year-old. The poor Bettany kids....

Chang

#98: Author: JackieP, Location: Kingston upon Hull

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:56 pm
—
I've been following this Alison - it's horrible to think what might be happening next.

Thanks

JackieP

#99: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:16 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that everything is so scary.

#100: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 10:27 pm
—
Seeing all this through the eyes of a child is so powerful. All their worlds being turned totally upside down, and not understanding why. And the adults trying to hide their frantic anxiety and grief.

Very moving, Alison.

#101: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:52 am
—
No-one actually said anything about what was going to happen to Jakob and me, but I assumed that we’d be staying at Die Rosen until Herr and Frau Doktor Russell, Fraulein Joey and everyone else had left, and it sounded as if that wasn’t likely to be for a good few weeks yet.

Obviously I was a little upset at the prospect of being separated from the other children, but I’d always known that our ways would part sooner or later. After all, we’d hardly been expecting, or wanting, to spend our entire lives in the nursery. I’d long been aware that, at various points in the future, I’d be starting at the village school in Briesau, where Jakob would follow me when he was old enough; the other girls would be going to the Chalet School, as boarders; and Rix, David and Jackie would be going off to school in England. Once all that happened, it was inevitable that we’d be making different friends and leading different lives.

Admittedly I hadn’t expected the separation to come so soon, nor to be so complete and permanent, but it was hardly as if Jakob and I were having to be parted from, say, Grandma and Grandpa or our aunts and uncles. As Sybil had always been so fond of reminding us, we’d never really belonged with the other Die Rosen children anyway. So, although I was genuinely sad about them leaving, I wasn’t breaking my heart about it.

Daisy Venables, by contrast, was devastated at the prospect of being parted from her schoolfriends, and insisted that she wanted to buy presents for them before she went. So, on the day before the group from Die Rosen were due to leave for Guernsey, Fraulein Joey and one of the teachers from the school took Daisy, Robin – who was to stay at Die Rosen that night so that she could say goodbye to Frau Venables and the others in the morning - and some other girls on a shopping trip to Spartz, the nearest town. Three people from our house set off on that shopping expedition - but only Daisy came back.

She was brought home by a goatherd called Herr Scheitzer. I vaguely knew him - he was a friend of Uncle Fritzl’s – and I knew that he’d be out in the mountains at this time of year. There was no way that he’d have been anywhere near Spartz - so how on earth had he come to meet Daisy, and why was he bringing her home? I couldn’t ask him, because he said that he needed to speak to Herr Doktor Russell in private. What was going on? And where were the others? It was like the terrible day of the picnic all over again.

And this time it was worse. It was far, far worse, because Daisy, who was usually so happy and cheerful, was tearful and hysterical and gabbling incoherently - about churches and trap doors and secret passages and Herr Goldmann the jeweller. I couldn’t make head nor tail of what she was saying and then, before any of us could ask her any questions which might have made sense of it all, Frau Venables and Frau Doktor Russell took her away for a hot bath and bed.

The rest of us were packed off to bed early too, but I couldn’t get to sleep. I lay there, tossing and turning, and wishing that there were a clock in the room so that I’d know what time it was. Where were Fraulein Joey and Robin? Surely they’d be back soon, with yet another tale about people getting separated from the group and other people getting lost. I knew that I wouldn’t believe whatever story they came up with it, but I didn’t care: I just wanted to know that they were all right. I lay there and lay there, and still they didn’t return; and then I heard Mummy and Daddy going into their room and I knew that it must now be very late indeed.

But then I heard a knock at the door, and I heard Robin’s voice, and I felt a tide of relief surge over me. I didn’t hear Fraulein Joey speaking, but I was sure that Robin wouldn’t have come back without her: they were devoted to each other. Fraulein Joey must just be trying to be quiet so as not to wake anyone. Now that I knew that, whatever might have happened, they were both safe and sound, I was finally able to relax; and I drifted off to sleep.

#102: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 7:05 am
—
Poor Daisy, it was a horrible experience for her.
Thanks Alison.

#103: Author: Ruth B, Location: Oxford, UK

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 8:12 am
—
Poor Daisy - the effect on her is passed over in the books, but it must have been horrific.

#104: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:01 am
—
I'm glad she's stopped worrying, but it's a shame it's only temporarily Sad

Thanks, Alison

#105: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:17 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I'm feeling sorry for Daisy and everyone else.

#106: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:19 pm
—
*sniffles*

Thanks Alison, this is so moving.

#107: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2006 6:43 pm
—
Horrible time - poor Daisy!! Crying or Very sad

She was only 12.

Thanks Alison

#108: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 6:47 am
—
It was a strange night, and when I woke in the morning I had no idea how much of it had been real and how much of it had been a dream. I know that I did go to sleep, but then … did I keep waking up, or did I dream it all? I thought I heard Herr Doktor Russell’s voice, and then I thought I heard someone leaving the house – but it would have been the middle of the night, so where would anyone have been going? And then I thought I heard banging at the door, and Frau Doktor Russell speaking, and angry voices demanding to speak to “the Fraulein Robin Humphries”. Did it really happen, or was it the events of the week before coming back to haunt me whilst I slept?

Then I thought I heard Herr Doktor Maynard and Herr Doktor Mensch talking - but why would Herr Doktor Mensch have been at Die Rosen in the small hours of the morning? And then came the sound of even more comings and goings until, finally, it was time to get up. How much of what I’d thought I’d heard had actually happened, and how much of it had I dreamt? I just didn’t know. And outside the window everything was covered in a thick mist, which added to the sense of unreality.

But some things were real all right. Robin had gone. Fraulein Joey had gone too: in fact, she didn’t seem to have ever returned from the trip to Spartz the day before. And Herr Doktor Maynard had gone as well. All their belongings were still there, but the three of them seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Mummy tried to tell me that they’d just decided to leave for Guernsey earlier than originally planned, but there was no way that I was being fooled by that. People didn’t just suddenly decide, in the middle of the night, to set off on long journeys, without even taking any luggage with them. When she realised that I’d convinced myself that the Nazis had taken Herr Doktor Maynard away again, and had this time taken Fraulein Joey and Robin away too, she took a deep breath and told me that there’d been some trouble – she didn’t say what exactly, but it had obviously been something very bad - in Spartz the day before. And that, because of it, Fraulein Joey, Fraulein Wilson from the school, Robin and some of the other girls had decided to leave Austria at once.

Herr Doktor Maynard and Herr Doktor Mensch had gone with them, and, she assured me, would make sure that they were all safe. Mummy had great faith in doctors. I hoped that she was right. At least the Nazis hadn’t got them: she was quite definite about that, and that made me feel much happier.

Frau Venables, Fraulein Rosalie and the Venables, Bettany and Russell children left shortly after Fruhstuck. Horrible though it sounds, in the end I was quite glad to see them go. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I understood one thing. Uncle Fritzl had been right. There was danger at Die Rosen. The sooner that the Russells and the others were away from there and safely in Guernsey- wherever that was - the better. And then we’d be able to leave too. We’d get away from Die Rosen and we’d go and live in Briesau. And then, I was sure, everything would be all right.

#109: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:34 am
—
Oh dear - she is going to be disappointed, isn't she?

Thanks Alison - the tension and events as seen through a child's eye make it even more horrible. Shocked

#110: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 7:37 am
—
Yes, it's terrifying to think what these little children had to go through.
Thanks Alison.

#111: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:35 am
—
If only that were the case Confused

Thanks, Alison

#112: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2006 11:19 am
—
How difficult it must have been for her to try to make sense of what was going on. I'd like to think she'll be safer now, but somehow I doubt it! Thanks.

#113: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 7:53 am
—
There isn't much detail in Exile about how the people who weren't with Joey & co got to Guernsey, so I hope no-one minds me making it up!

I’d assumed at first that, once the decision to close the school had been taken, the girls and the staff would be departing straight away. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. All the girls’ parents and guardians had to be contacted, and travel arrangements had to be made. However, it was only a matter of a few weeks before the school had shut down, Auntie Karen and Cousin Anna and the rest of the domestic staff had moved back in with their families, and the girls and the teaching staff had all left the area. All except for one. Fraulein Grizel insisted that she wasn’t leaving until Frau Doktor Russell was ready to leave too.

I heard them talking about it. “I do so wish that you’d change your mind and go with the others, Grizel,” Frau Doktor Russell said anxiously. “I’m sure that your father’s worried about you and that he’s keen to have you home, and I’d be very glad to know that you were safely away from here. It’s kind of you to be concerned about me, but I’ll be fine. I’m a seasoned traveller, remember!”

“Not in … well, a delicate condition, you’re not,” Fraulein Grizel said firmly. “Anyway, there’s no way I’m going back to Taverton, even temporarily. I’m going straight to Guernsey. And there’s no way that I could let you travel on your own after everything you’ve done for me.”

Really, they were all obsessed with this idea of people being “delicate”, I thought! Robin was delicate, Peggy was delicate, Primula was delicate, Fraulein Joey was delicate, all the girls who’d been at the “Annexe” were delicate, and apparently now the Frau Doktor was delicate as well!

Fraulein Grizel carried on speaking. “You won’t be leaving it too long before you go, will you?” she asked. “I understand that you don’t want to leave Dr Jem; but it’s a long journey, and the Channel can be rough at any time of year.”

“That’s what Jem keeps saying,” the Frau Doktor said. “Especially given that … well, last time I was earlier than I’d expected, although I’m fairly sure that I haven’t made the same mistake this time. I don’t know what to do for the best. I don’t want to leave it too long, for obvious reasons. Nor do I want to be apart from the children for much longer. Besides, it’s not fair to expect Margot to look after my two and Dick and Mollie’s four indefinitely, although it’s very kind of Rosalie to stay with her rather than going home, and equally kind of Gillian Linton to say that she’d escort Biddy to Guernsey and help Margot and Rosalie as much as she could. But I don’t want to leave Jem without having any idea of how long it might before he can leave. Oh Grizel, how did it come to this? What’s happening to the world?”

Fraulein Grizel shook her head sadly and said that she didn’t know.

I didn’t understand half of what they’d said, but I felt very sorry for Frau Doktor Russell, and for David and Sybil who were separated from their parents. But then, the week after the school closed, Mummy and Daddy told me that “the Government” – whoever exactly they were – were taking over the San, which meant that the Russells would now be able to leave. Frau Doktor Russell and Fraulein Grizel left for Guernsey soon afterwards, with three of the British doctors; and the Herr Doktor told Mummy and Daddy that he’d be leaving too as soon as he’d sorted out the issue of something called “compensation”. I didn’t know what that meant, but I hoped that it wouldn’t take too long.

With only the Herr Doktor left at Die Rosen, Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Rosa had far less work to do, which was good because it meant that they had time to take Jakob and me to visit all our family and friends. On one particular day, we went to see all of them - Grandma and Grandpa, and Auntie Luise and Uncle Johann and baby Sabine, and Cousin Anna, and Auntie Karen, and everyone else as well. For some reason everyone seemed to be very upset, and they kept hugging and kissing us all – much to Jakob’s disgust – but over the past few months I’d got so used to people acting strangely that I didn’t honestly think very much of it. At the time.

#114: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 8:47 am
—
Well actually, although it's not in Exile, there is something written about the School's departure from Austria! Wink

Like Grizel in this - brave of her.

Expect Gretchen to be most disappointed when she discovers just why all her family appear so upset.

Thanks Alison.

#115: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 9:00 am
—
Thanks, Alison. Grizel was very supportive of Madge.

#116: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 9:13 am
—
Good for Grizel, staying with Madge. It's nice to see her good side.

#117: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:13 pm
—
Thanks, Alison, the terror and the not knowing. I think the adults were so concerned with keeping things from the children, that they never bothered to notice how much the children were taking in.

ETA: I'm so glad that you're giving Grizel her chance.

#118: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:38 pm
—
Nice to see such a supportive side to Grizel. Thanks, Alison.

#119: Author: MaryR, Location: Cheshire

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 1:49 pm
—
Children always take in far more than anyone thinks, don't they? And usually get it out of all proportion and frighten themselves. Crying or Very sad

Thanks, Alison.

#120: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 2:49 pm
—

MaryR wrote:

Children always take in far more than anyone thinks, don't they? And usually get it out of all proportion and frighten themselves. Crying or Very sad

Thanks, Alison.

Only here, with what is about to happen, I'd say it's hard to get it out of proportion. Their country is gone, their world is going to come to an end. Poor kid.

Thanks, Alison, for writing this.

Chang

#121: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 5:04 pm
—
Good for Grizel Very Happy

Thanks, Alison

#122: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2006 10:39 pm
—
Interesting to think about what did happen to the others.

And Grizel is lovely here.

Poor wee Gretchen, nothing is going to get any better. Agree with Mary that adults always badly underestimate what's going on in a child's mind.

Thanks, Alison, this gets more and more fascinating.

#123: Author: Kathy_S, Location: midwestern US

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:39 am
—
Very interesting perspective!

Thank you, Alison.

#124: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:50 am
—
Thanks for the comments Very Happy

.

I hadn’t been sleeping well – I kept having bad dreams about everything that had happened and then waking up early – but after our long visit to Briesau I was tired out, and that night I slept soundly until I was woken by someone gently shaking me. I couldn’t believe that it was morning already, but then I realised that it wasn’t morning at all: it was the middle of the night. I immediately panicked, thinking that the Nazis must have come to Die Rosen again, but I relaxed when I realised that the only voice I could hear was Mummy’s. “Gretchen, I need you to get up and get dressed,” she said. “I’ve got your clothes here. Will you put them on whilst I get Jakob ready?”

“Ready for what?” I wasn’t at all impressed at being expected to get out of bed when it quite obviously wasn’t morning yet. It wasn’t as if there seemed to be any sort of problem in the house. “What do we have to get up now for? I’m tired.”

“We’re leaving,” she said quietly. “Come on, please. We need to set off very soon.”

We were leaving! At long last, we were leaving! I’d assumed that someone would tell me in advance when the time came for us to go, and I certainly hadn’t expected to be heading off in the middle of the night; but never mind – we were leaving! Wide awake all of a sudden, I tumbled out of bed happily and beamed at Mummy. “Now? Does the Herr Doktor know that we’re going? Are we going to live with Grandma and Grandpa?”

“Yes, now; and yes, of course the Herr Doktor knows,” she said exasperatedly. “Come on, Gretchen! Go and have a wash and brush your teeth, and then get dressed, please: there’s a good girl. I need to get your brother sorted out.”

“Are we going to live with Grandma and Grandpa?” I persisted.

“No. We’re …” She hesitated for a minute and my initial euphoria began to fade a little. I hoped fervently that she wasn’t about to tell me that she and Daddy’d got jobs in another big house where we’d have to live in and Jakob and I would have to spend our days in the nursery putting up with people like Sybil. “We’re going to visit Daddy’s auntie and uncle,” she said finally. “Auntie Clothilde and Uncle Pierre. In France.”

I sat down on the bed with a thump. France? I’d heard of France, of course. It was where Mademoiselle Lepattre - Frau Doktor Russell’s friend - and her cousins the Lecoutiers were from. They’d recently moved back there, I knew. But I’d never heard of an Auntie Clothilde or an Uncle Pierre, or indeed of Daddy having any relations in France. And why would we be setting off to go there at this time of night? Something wasn’t right.

I looked at Mummy suspiciously. She was biting her lip. “You’re making it up,” I said bluntly. I’d never been rude to her before, but I was tired and confused and now I was beginning to feel frightened as well. “Where are we really going?” I asked. “Why won’t you tell me?” Suddenly I had a horrible thought. “Are the Nazis coming to try to take us away? Have we got to go and hide somewhere? Is that why we’re going when it’s dark?”

“Oh Gretchen, of course not!” she exclaimed. She put her arm round my shoulders. “You mustn’t think that. Honestly, it isn’t that: I promise. Now come on, be a good girl now, and go and get ready. Will you be able to manage by yourself or shall I get Auntie Rosa to help you?”

I sat back, crossed my arms, planted my feet firmly on the floor and looked at her stubbornly. “I’m not going anywhere until you tell me where we’re really going,” I said.

#125: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:06 am
—
Oh dear - if you must lie to children at least make it convincing!

Thanks Alison. Laughing

#126: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 7:39 am
—
Poor Marie, the last thing she needs now is rebellion from Gretchen, but it must be so difficult for her to know how much to tell her - and possibly she doesn't know everything either.

Thanks, Alison

#127: Author: Chris, Location: Nottingham

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 12:25 pm
—
Whatever happened to 'instant obedience'? Laughing

#128: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:22 pm
—
Poor child, after all her worrying it's no wonder she is suspicious of being woken in the night like that.

#129: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:43 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I can understand Gretchen's reaction to the news.

#130: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:16 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I wonder what Marie is going to say to Gretchen.

#131: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:22 pm
—
Poor little Gretchen! Thanks Alison

#132: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 6:17 pm
—
No wonder Gretchen is concerned. I hope she can be persuaded to leave.

#133: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 6:52 am
—
Daddy must have been wondering what was taking us so long, because he came into the room at that point - just in time to hear what I’d said. He and Mummy looked at one another and he nodded.

“All right, Gretchen,” Mummy said quietly. “We’re going to Guernsey. It’s where Frau Doktor Russell and all the others have gone; and now we’re going there too; and then the Herr Doktor will come on soon afterwards - and, once we’re all there, everything’ll be just like it used to be. But, until we’re out of Austria, we need to pretend that we’re going to visit Auntie Clothilde and Uncle Pierre in France, because …well, because….” She looked uneasy and she turned to Daddy for help.

Daddy sat down next to me. “Gretchen, we need you to be very grown-up and very brave,” he said. “Do you remember the man who came here and took Herr Doktor Maynard away? The Nazi man?”

I nodded. Remember him? I didn’t think I’d ever be able to forget him as long as I lived.

“Well, it’s possible that men like him might try to stop us from leaving the country, if they thought we were going abroad to stay. They probably wouldn’t stop you and Jakob and Mummy from going, but they might try to stop Auntie Rosa and me. I haven’t really got an Auntie Clothilde and an Uncle Pierre, but we’ve got to imagine that I have: we’ve got to pretend, like a game. And if we’re asked where we’re going, then we have to say that we’re going to visit them. Thank heavens that we’ve got a French-sounding surname!

“So do you understand now? Gretchen? Oh sweetheart, don’t cry! It’ll be all right: Mummy and I’ll be there to look after you. And just think - we’ll be going on a big train, and we’ll even be sleeping on the train! And then we’ll be going on a big boat, much bigger than any of the boats of the Tiernsee. And remember that, at the end of it all, you’ll be seeing Sybil and all your other friends again, and everything’ll be back to normal.”

Sybil! As if I wanted to see Sybil! I didn’t care if I never saw her again. At that precise moment I didn’t care if I never saw any of the Russells or the Bettanys or the Venableses again. All I cared about was that Mummy and Daddy were saying that I had to leave my home and my family and go to some nasty horrible foreign place that I knew next to nothing about and where we’d hardly know a soul and where the people wouldn’t even speak German. And how often would we be able to see Grandma and Grandpa and everyone else if we weren’t even living in the same country as them? “I’m not going,” I sobbed. “I’m not going. I’m staying here. You can see me when you come back to visit.”

“Gretchen, you’re being silly now, darling,” Daddy said. “We’re going to Guernsey and that’s that. I know that the thought of going to a strange place is scary, but I’m sure you’ll love it when we get there. Anyway, you can’t very well stay here all on your own, can you?”

I supposed that he had a point there. I couldn’t really stay at the Sonnalpe on my own. Besides, I didn’t really want to stay there. It had been horrible there over the last few months. Maybe I could go and live with Grandma and Grandpa, or Auntie Karen, I thought. They’d look after me. But I didn’t want to be separated from Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Rosa and Jakob. But then I didn’t want to be separated from everyone in Briesau either.

I thought deeply. “Do you promise that we’ll come back lots and lots to see everyone?” I asked. I didn’t know how far away Guernsey was, but I got the feeling that it would be too far for us to be able to come back every weekend; but maybe if we could come back every few weeks or so it wouldn’t be quite so bad.

Mummy and Daddy looked at each other again, and Mummy bit her lip and shook her head. And then finally I understood, I really understood, what going to Guernsey meant.

It felt like the end of my world.

#134: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 7:46 am
—
Poor little Gretchen, it was the end of her world. At least Marie was honest with her - but taking a terrible risk by being so. Crying or Very sad

Thanks Alison.

#135: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:56 am
—

Alison H wrote:

“Do you remember the man who came here and took Herr Doktor Maynard away? The Nazi man?”

I nodded. Remember him? I didn’t think I’d ever be able to forget him as long as I lived.

Poor kid - I hope she didn't have nightmares about him for years Sad

Thanks, Alison

#136: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 10:43 am
—
Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that Gretchen has to go away from her Grandparents.

#137: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 1:31 pm
—
I hope Grechen doesn't give the game away - I can imagine her saying that they don't really have an Uncle Pierre and that they're actually going to Guernsey!
Thanks Alison.

#138: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:02 pm
—
This is so sad. Poor Gretchen. It must be heartbreaking to be uprooted from everything you know when you don;t understand why. Thanks, Alison.

#139: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 8:26 pm
—
Oh poor poor little Gretchen.

This is a wonderful drabble - thank you Alison

#140: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:18 pm
—
How awful for her to be so torn apart.

I, too, hope she doesn't give the game away, particularly as she's so resistant to the whole idea.

Great drabble, Alison.

#141: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:36 pm
—
Poor girl. It is "the end of [her] world". But she seems to be written as such a precocious child that I think she knows how important it is not to give the game away. Also, she hates Nazis so much that I think her dislike of them would trump any desire to tell them (or anyone else) her family's real plans.

For someone so young, she seems to be very aware of the danger of her situation.

Chang

#142: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 9:46 pm
—
She's probably a lot more aware of what's going on than she should be at her age Laughing

, but I couldn't make her any older at this point Rolling Eyes

. Although I do like the idea of her being brighter than any of the Russell/Bettany kids!

#143: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 6:47 am
—
Mummy took my hand. “Gretchen … I know that this is hard for you, and it’s hard for me too; but you need to understand that, once we leave Austria, we won’t be coming back; not even to visit. Not for a very long time. Guernsey’s a long way away, but it’s not just because of that. If we were to come back into Austria, it might be difficult for us to leave again. So we won’t be coming back for as long as the Nazis are here, and neither I nor anyone else can tell you how long that’s going to be.”

So we were leaving because of the Nazis! “But what about Grandma and Grandpa and everyone else?” I demanded fearfully. “Won’t the Nazis get them if they stay here? What if the Nazis take them away?” I started to cry again. “Why aren’t they all coming with us? I don’t understand.”

Mummy sat down and put her arms round me. “Gretchen, listen to me, sweetheart. Nobody’s going to do anything to Grandma and Grandpa, or to Auntie Luise and Uncle Johann, or to anyone else we know. They’ll all be absolutely fine, and we’ll know that they’re fine because we’ll be hearing from them all the time. They’ll be sending us lots of letters and telling us all the news from Briesau. We’re not leaving because anyone’s coming to “get” anyone, honestly: there’s no need to be frightened. We’re going because of the Russells. They’ve decided to go to Guernsey, and we work for them so we have to go where they go.”

I’m quite sure that what she said, the reason she gave me for leaving, was only meant to make me feel better. But it made me feel worse. We were leaving our family and friends and everything we knew behind, and going to some strange place, just because of the Russells? That was what she’d just said, wasn’t it? “Why?” I demanded furiously. “Why do we have to go where they go? They’re not part of our family. They’re not our friends. Why can’t we stay here? Why can’t you and Daddy work for somebody else? Why do we have to go just because they’re going?”

“Because of the Russells.” How many times have I heard that over the years? How many times have I asked “Why?” and been given that as an answer. And I’ve never been able to accept it. I couldn’t then and I can’t now. But on that day, before I could vent my feelings about the Russells any further, something else suddenly struck me like a thunderbolt. They’d said that we were going now. I looked from one of them to the other. “Aren’t we even going to go and say goodbye?” I asked tearfully.

“Oh Gretchen,” Mummy said sadly. “That was what we were doing yesterday. We didn’t say anything to you and Jakob because we were afraid that one of you might tell someone. If anyone in Briesau, where people know that we work for the Russells and people know that we’ve got no relations in France, were to find out that we were going, they’d realise that it was for good … and that’s why we've got to leave now, before it’s light. We’ll have to walk the first part of the way. But once we’re away from Briesau, and we’re where no-one knows us, we’ll be getting on the train and then, God willing, we’ll soon be well on our way to Guernsey.”

I was only a small child and I suppose they’d have dragged me away kicking and screaming if they’d had to, although in the end I went along quietly like the obedient little girl I was supposed to be. And, before long, we were indeed well on our way - on our way away from Briesau, away from Tyrol and away from Austria, none of us with any idea at all of how long it might be before we’d be able to return. Months? Years?

I don’t think I even really knew what months and years were back then. In fact, all I felt I did know, when Daddy helped me off the boat after the rough, sea-tossed crossing that marked the end of our journey – a long and tiring but mercifully safe and unhindered journey - was that I was tired and seasick and I wanted to go home. And that, instead, we were going to somewhere called Bonne Maison. I didn’t even know what that meant. It was French and I didn’t understand a word of French.

Bride told me the next morning that it meant “Good House”. She said that that meant that we’d all be happy there. It was a silly thing to say, really. But, somehow, it made me feel better.

#144: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:27 am
—
Poor little girl - and can see where here resentment of the Russells sprang from.

Thanks Alison.

#145: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:35 am
—
Completely away from everything she's ever known. I'm glad Bride told her the house name and she got comfort from it - poor mite needs all the comfort she can get.

Thanks, Alison

#146: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 8:52 am
—
Yes, I can understand how she is fed up with the 'because of the Russells' explanation. Thanks Alison.

#147: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:27 am
—
Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that she has had to leave when she wants to stay with everyone else.

#148: Author: Jennie, Location: Cambridgeshire

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 12:39 pm
—
Thanks, Alison.

#149: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 1:22 pm
—
How awful to be torn away from everything that's familiar to her and to have to start again in a strange new place.

#150: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:08 pm
—
Poor little Gretchen.

Thanks Alison

#151: Author: JustJen, Location: sitting on the steps

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 6:20 pm
—
I just got caught up on this story Allison and I'm enjoying it very much.
Please update soon

#152: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 9:49 pm
—
How sweet of Bride re: the Bonne Maison comment! It's the kind of thing a kid would say and another kid would find comfort in. Although Peggy is always presented as "the motherly little soul", it looks like Bride is really the one looking out for Greta/Gretchen, at least.

Thanks, Alison!

Chang

#153: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 6:48 am
—
Thanks for the comments Very Happy

.

A lot happened during our first seven or eight months in Guernsey. In some ways, it wasn’t all that different from being at the Sonnalpe. The Herr Doktor arrived at Bonne Maison a few weeks after we did, and the San reopened nearby. Mummy and Daddy and Auntie Rosa did their work as they’d done before, and Jakob and I spent most of our time in the nursery with the other children as we’d done before.

I was old enough to be starting school in the September, but I was terrified at the prospect of being sent somewhere where I wouldn’t know anyone and where, although I spoke English well enough, everything would be strange and foreign. However, it had been decided that Fraulein Joey, Fraulein Grizel and Fraulein Rosalie would teach the Bettany, Russell and Venables children at home, as none of the local schools met with Frau Doktor Russell’s approval, and after Fraulein Rosalie heard me voicing my fears about school to Mummy it was agreed that I could attend lessons with Sybil and Jackie. (Much to Sybil’s disgust!) When I started lessons I found that I thoroughly enjoyed them; and I was surprised but pleased when all three Frauleins said that I was a much quicker learner than either of my two “classmates”.

So things could have been much worse. I didn’t have to go out amongst strangers, and I liked our little nursery “school”. And Auntie Rosa, Fraulein Rosalie and Fraulein Grizel took us out for walks and picnics when the weather was nice, so we weren’t stuck inside all the time. Even better, not long after we’d arrived in Guernsey Cousin Anna and Auntie Karen arrived there too. Auntie Karen went to work for Gillian and Joyce Linton - two old girls of the Chalet School, who were living nearby - and Fraulein Grizel who was sharing a house with them. And Cousin Anna went to work for Herr Doktor Maynard and Fraulein Joey, after the two of them got married on a beautiful Guernsey autumn day.

The wedding helped to cheer all of us up after everything that had happened. It was a strange wedding in some ways, because it took place in a Catholic church even though Fraulein Joey was a Protestant. That was because Herr Doktor Maynard was a Catholic. It was all a bit confusing. One of the things that I found very difficult to get used to in Guernsey was the fact that most of the people there were Protestants. After living in Tyrol, where almost everyone was Catholic, being somewhere where most of the churches were Protestant, the religious images which I was used to seeing in public places just weren’t there, and festivals such as the Feast of the Assumption passed without being marked, took a lot of getting used to.

Daisy, Peggy, Bride, Primula and Sybil were all bridesmaids. It was only a small wedding, but Fraulein Joey had promised them months ago that they could be bridesmaids and I suppose that she didn’t want to disappoint them. Robin was the chief bridesmaid, and Fraulein Grizel was a maid of honour. For the first time in a long time, no-one looked sad and no-one looked worried. It was a wonderful, happy day.

Then, about two months after the wedding, God sent a new baby to Bonne Maison – a little sister for David and Sybil. She was named Josephine, after Fraulein Joey – or Frau Doktor Maynard, as she now was - but everyone called her Josette. She was a very pretty baby, with dark hair and pink and white skin. I thought she was lovely, and I wished that God would send me a little sister as well.

There were some days when I was unhappy and I cried, because I missed Grandma and Grandpa and my aunts and uncles and cousins so badly and I had no way of knowing how long it might be before I’d be able to see them again. And I missed the Tiernsee as well. We got letters from home, but it wasn’t the same. At one point I did hope that we’d be able to go back, because everyone kept talking about the Nazis doing something in Munchen and so I hoped that maybe they’d left Tyrol and gone back to the other side of the Tiern Pass, but it turned out that they hadn’t. And sometimes I wished that I could meet other children, because Sybil was never very nice to me, Jackie was always so quiet and there was no-one else at Bonne Maison who was my age. But, all in all, life in Guernsey wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d been expecting.

Then it all started to go wrong.

#154: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 7:41 am
—
I was about to say 'I'm glad things are getting a bit better for her'. Then I read the last line!!!

Thanks, Alison

#155: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:28 am
—

LizB wrote:

I was about to say 'I'm glad things are getting a bit better for her'. Then I read the last line!!!

Thanks, Alison

Me too! Such a shame things have to get more difficult for her. Thanks, Alison!

#156: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:42 am
—
Poor Gretchen - she's got so many changes still to come. Crying or Very sad

Thanks Alison.

#157: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 1:12 pm
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Now I'm worried - what went wrong?

#158: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:04 pm
—
Thanks, Alison. I wonder what is going to go wrong.

#159: Author: Eilidh, Location: North Lanarkshire

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 3:21 pm
—
Thanks Alison - just read this from the start and it's great. Looking forward to more!

#160: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 10:02 pm
—
Glad that Gretchen's intelligence is recognised.

Also wondering what went wrong. Anything to do with Sybil's jealousy of Josette, I wonder?

#161: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 6:55 am
—
Sorry this has got a bit miserable - just trying to follow what we're told about events during the "missing bit" of Exile Rolling Eyes

. Hopefully things'll cheer up once they get to Armiford!

The first problem was that Sybil didn’t like the new baby. Well, actually, I don’t think that she objected to anything about little Josette herself. She just didn’t like the way that everyone who came to the house was more interested in the baby than they were in her; and she certainly didn’t like the way that the baby took up so much of the Frau Doktor’s time. A few times, Auntie Rosa caught her leaning over little Josette’s cot, prodding and even pinching her. Poor Auntie Rosa didn’t know whether to tell the Herr Doktor and the Frau Doktor or not, but eventually she decided that she had to.

Instead of asking her why she was doing it, the Herr Doktor gave Sybil a stern talking to, and Frau Doktor Maynard – although I don’t know what it had to do with her – told Sybil that she was a very wicked little girl to hurt her baby sister. Of course, that made Sybil feel as if the whole world was against her; and she took it out on the rest of us. She kept telling me that the servants’ daughter had no business having lessons with her and Jackie, and that it was pointless me learning anything anyway because all I was going to end up doing was being a housemaid, and she was constantly coming out with all that “not belonging” stuff when speaking to her cousins. David would tell her to shut up and stop being so horrible to everyone, but then she’d end up quarrelling with him too. All in all, it sometimes made for a very nasty atmosphere indeed.

Then we all got chickenpox. I’m not sure how it started, but the whole lot of us, from Rix and Peggy down to Jakob, came down with it en masse. Only baby Josette escaped, probably because she didn’t spend much time with the rest of us. None of us had it very badly, but we were all itchy and irritable and none of us liked being cooped up in the house, so nerves got very frayed until we were all better and the quarantine period was over.

All of that seemed bad at the time, but then something far, far worse happened. Frau Venables hadn’t been very well ever since she’d come to Guernsey. I once heard Herr Doktor Russell saying that he’d never forgive himself for letting her bear the heavy responsibility of taking eight young children halfway across Europe with only Fraulein Rosalie to help her, but the Frau Doktor said that he shouldn’t blame himself and that Frau Venables had never really recovered from everything that had happened to her in Australia. I knew that Daisy and Primula’s daddy and three brothers had died in Australia, and I thought how terrible it must have been for Frau Venables and I felt very sad. I didn’t really understand why either that or the journey away from Austria should have made her ill, but she got weaker and weaker and sometimes I felt that she didn’t even want to get better.

It was decided that Daisy and Primula should go away to England. Fraulein Rosalie took them to stay with her father and stepmother. The day they went was horrendous. They both cried and cried and said that they didn’t want to go. “Mummy won’t be here when we get back, will she?” Daisy sobbed. “You’re sending us away and we’ll never see her again. I’m not a baby: I know what’s happening. I’m the same age as you were when your mummy and daddy died, Auntie Madge. How would you have felt if you hadn’t seen them for weeks before it happened? Remember what happened when Princess Balbini died? She wanted Mario and Maria with her at the end and no-one could find them. What if Mummy wants Primula and me and we aren’t even in Guernsey? Please, please don’t make us go.”

But Herr Doktor Russell said that it was Frau Venables’s wish that Daisy and Primula be sent away, and so off they went. They were gone for over three months. When Frau Venables’s condition worsened, David, Sybil, Bride and Jackie went to stay at Les Rosiers, and Peggy and Rix went to stay with Fraulein Grizel and the Lintons. So only Jakob and I, and baby Josette, were in the nursery with Auntie Rosa when Mummy came in and told us that the angels had taken Frau Venables to heaven. She said that we weren’t to be upset, because now Frau Venables wouldn’t be sad or in pain any more; but it was the first time that anyone I’d known well had died and I couldn’t make sense of it. How could someone be there one minute and gone the next? I didn’t understand any of it.

#162: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:20 am
—
Definitely don't understand why Madge would do that to Daisy - she knew about the Balbinis, she knew the age Daisy was would have been the time when she needed her mother. Bet if the school had been up and running it wouldn't have happened - Miss Annersley wouldn't have allowed Daisy to go through the same pain she experienced. Crying or Very sad

Like the little bit about not understanding why Frau Doktor Maynard spoke to Sybil! Wink

Thanks Alison.

#163: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:35 am
—
Poor Daisy and Primula - how heartbreaking for them Crying or Very sad

Thanks, Alison

#164: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 7:35 am
—
How cruel to send Daisy away; although maybe Mrs Venables preferred the girls to remember her as she was, not as she became before she died. Thanks Alison.

#165: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:52 am
—
Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that Daisy and Primula were sent away and they weren't able to see their mother during the last months of her life.

#166: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 11:00 am
—
That's so sad for Daisy and Primula. Daisy was at just an age to be really affected by being sent away. I wish she'd been allowed to stay, even if Primula had had to go away.

#167: Author: Changnoi, Location: Milwaukee, USA

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 5:32 pm
—
Poor Daisy! I can understand sending Primula to stay with someone else at her age, but when Daisy is old enough to realize what's going on and asks categorically to stay, she needs to be allowed to stay.

Poor girl.

Chang

#168: Author: patmac, Location: Yorkshire England

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:32 pm
—
I've just read this from the start and it's excellent. You've really caught the confusion of a little girl and how a small child hears snippets and puts 2 and 2 together - sometimes making 5 Confused

It must have happened to so many children at that time as people were uprooted in so many countries.

The interplay with the Russells et al is very realistic as well. By their own standards and the expectations of Marie and André, they treated their servants well but Gretchen is a new generation and I can imagine she would resent the inferior status of her parents as she grew up.

thank you Alison.

#169: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Fri Sep 08, 2006 10:29 pm
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Such a sad lack of understanding from good people, trying to do their best. From the lack of interest in why Sybil is behaving as she does (admittedly it's scary to have your youngster hurting the baby) to the cruelty of sending Daisy and Primula away, especially as Daisy is so clear-sighted about why she needs to stay. Poor kids. Sad

#170: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:17 am
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I don't really understand why EBD decided that Daisy and Primula should be sent away, especially after the comments about the Balbinis and about Hilda in New Confused

. Anyway, on to the next bit! Thanks for the comments Very Happy

.

It was Frau Doktor Russell who helped me to accept what had happened. She said that, when someone died, they fell asleep and woke up with God. I thought about that a lot. It made sense to me, and I found it a comfort. I think she said the same thing to Daisy and Primula when they came home; but Daisy in particular found it very hard to come to terms with losing her mummy. She was still very upset about being sent away to England when Frau Venables was dying, and I think that that was why she decided that she didn’t want to live at Bonne Maison any more. She asked if she could go to stay at Les Rosiers, and eventually both the Russells and the Maynards agreed to let her.

It all made me feel a little bit guilty about being upset at not being able to see my family in Briesau. At least they were still alive, and we heard from them regularly. Frau Venables was gone for ever. Looking back on it years later, I supposed that the shared experiences of everything that had happened at the Sonnalpe, and of then leaving the Sonnalpe and making that long, difficult journey to Guernsey, had, despite our different backgrounds, ages and personalities, created a bond in our little circle; one that was shared by all of us and could never be shared by anyone else. That one member of that circle was gone and was never coming back was something that we all found very difficult to get used to.

Gradually, though, things started to return to something like normal. Or, at least, they did for most people. Gillian and Joyce Linton became friendly with a lady called Miss La Touche, who looked after a big family of children – brothers, sisters and cousins – and, before long, all of them were introduced to all of us. Daisy made friends with the eldest of the girls, whose name was Beth Chester, and Bride made friends with Beth’s sister Nancy and their cousin Julie Lucy. In fact, the two family groups all got on very well, and soon the Venables, Russell and Bettany children were being invited round to play with their new friends fairly often.

Jakob and I were never included in these invitations. I’m sure that no-one meant to be rude or unkind by excluding us. It just didn’t occur to them to do otherwise. We were the children of the servants, after all. Mrs Chester in particular seemed very pleased that her children, especially Beth, were making “nice” friends - I heard her say so several times - and I supposed she thought that Jakob and I couldn’t be classed as “nice” because of who our family were. So the other children would go out and we’d stay at Bonne Maison without them. I suppose that there’d always been a gulf between them and us, but now it became far more obvious, and far wider.

And then the gulf widened even further – because the Chalet School reopened. It reopened in a building called Sarres. The place was quite a mess to start with, but two men recommended by Mrs Chester did a lot of repairs to it and made it much better. Then the place was cleaned from top to bottom and all the floors were polished – by Mummy, Auntie Rosa and Cousin Anna. Sometimes I wondered if Frau Doktor Russell, Fraulein Rosalie and the others even knew how to clean things. And some of the teachers and girls who’d been with the school in Tyrol came back, and Auntie Karen took up her old job as school cook.

Sybil and Jackie were to go to the school Kindergarten, of course. But what about me? It did occur to me that maybe I could go there too. Of course, I knew that servants’ children didn’t usually go to the Chalet School – but Biddy went there, and her mummy had been a lady’s maid and her stepfather a chauffeur. I didn’t understand all the ins and outs of it, but I thought that maybe if they could make an exception for her then they could make one for me too.

I’d always assumed that the school’s admission criteria were based on social background. It was only when Daddy gently explained to me that my going there just wasn’t an option, and why, that I realised that, except under very exceptional circumstances, you couldn’t go there unless you paid. I didn’t mention the subject again after that. I knew even at that age that we had very little money.

It was decided that the school should open at the end of August, rather than in September when the new academic year would start at the other local schools; and Mummy was kept so busy with all the cleaning and the other preparations that the issue of a school for me was rather left in abeyance. The new Chalet School opened on August 31st. Even I had to admit that its reopening after over a year was quite exciting, and everyone else at Bonne Maison and Les Rosiers was thrilled almost beyond words.

#171: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 7:30 am
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Yes, I can see why she'd think she could go to the school if Biddy had been there. After all, she's smart enough to go.

#172: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 11:25 am
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Such a shame she couldn't have gone to school. It might have helped take her mind off leaving Austria.

#173: Author: keren, Location: Israel

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 6:46 pm
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So where will they send her, I mean she has to go to school?
and whose problem is it?

#174: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Sat Sep 09, 2006 10:01 pm
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Aaagh! How horrid! I feel so cross that this bright little girl, who is so closely connected with the families who run the school (in every sense), can't go there because they have no money.

I suppose she will have to go (horrors!) to the village school. Which is fine, it's just not fair. Sorry. Am steaming!

#175: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:17 am
—
The euphoria lasted for little more than a day. The school reopened on a Thursday. On the Friday afternoon, I realised that something was very wrong. All the adults were looking anxious, and I kept hearing the word “Poland” mentioned. I tried to remember where I’d heard of Poland before, and then I remembered that it was the country that Robin’s mummy had come from. I had absolutely no idea why everyone should be talking about it all of a sudden, but clearly there was something going on; and from the looks on people’s faces and the tones of their voices it was obvious that it was something bad.

“Do you know why everyone’s talking about Poland?” I asked Rix when he and the others got back from school that evening. Rix generally liked to give the impression that he knew everything. He didn’t fool me for a minute, but I thought he might know more than I did about whatever was happening. However, he shook his head. “Not sure. I know what you mean, though. I heard some of the mistresses at school talking about it. There’s definitely something up. I’ll go and ask Uncle Jem: he’ll know all about it.”

“He might not tell you,” I said doubtfully; but Rix looked at me scornfully and said that he wasn’t a baby and that of course his uncle would tell him. It turned out that he was right. The Herr Doktor came back to the nursery with him, and explained briefly but carefully that Poland had been invaded by Nazi Germany.

He looked very solemn and worried. However, when he’d gone, Bride got the nursery atlas out, we all pored over it to see where Poland was, and we saw that it seemed to be a very long way away. We were terribly sorry for the poor people there, of course – the very word “Nazi” was enough to strike fear into the hearts of every one of us after what had happened before we’d left Austria - but we honestly had no idea just what the invasion meant for Britain and for all of Europe.

We still hadn’t on the Saturday, when we heard the word “ultimatum” being used. Peggy looked it up in the dictionary, but all it said was “final statement of terms”, and none of were sure what that meant or what it had to do with Poland. We wondered who was the best person to ask about it, but then we got distracted by Auntie Rosa announcing that we were all going out for a nice long walk because we really ought to be making the most of the nice weather before autumn set in. She popped her head into the kitchen to speak to Mummy before we left. “We’re just going out for a walk, Marie,” she called.

Normally Mummy would just have called back something like “All right” or “See you later”, but on this occasion she stopped what she was doing and she looked worried. “You won’t go too far, will you?” she asked. “And, Rosa … whatever else you do, remember to speak English all the time. No German. Not in public. Not with things the way they are.”

Now I began to feel frightened. Frightened and confused. With what “things” the way they were? Now what was going to happen?

On Sunday, September 3rd, just before eleven o’clock in the morning, Herr Doktor Russell summoned us all into the drawing room (as the Saal was called in Guernsey) and put the wireless on. He told us that the British Prime Minister, Mr Chamberlain, was about to speak.

Then Mr Chamberlain’s voice came over the wireless set into the drawing room.

"I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and consequently this country is at war with Germany."

#176: Author: leahbelle, Location: Kilmarnock

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 10:36 am
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How scared she must still have been. Poor little girl. Thanks, Alison.

#177: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:05 pm
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Poor poor little Gretchen.

She's going to have a pretty hard time at the village school in the current political climate. Especially with such a German name. Confused

I don't see why they can't make an exception and send her to the Chalet.

Thanks Alison

#178: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 2:21 pm
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I wonder how much English they spoke; and they were sure to have German sounding accents. Poor girl, she won't be popular at school if she gets there.

#179: Author: Miriam, Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 5:08 pm
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THe older membaers of her family would probably have had an accent, but I'm not sure that she would. She did grow up in the nursery at Die Rosen, along with childern who spoke english as thier first language, and hearing it spoken by adults all the time. Children pick up accents very easily, and her english was probably good. What is likely to be much mnmoer problematic is being called Gretchen.

It makes a lot of sense really for Andre to have adopted a french sounding name.

#180: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 6:28 pm
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Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that Gretchen didn't have the chance to go to the CS. I hope that things won't go badly for them in Guernsey.

#181: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Sun Sep 10, 2006 8:34 pm
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Poor girl - not really knowing what it all means, yet knowing it means trouble.

Thanks Alison

#182: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:47 am
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I'm leaving going to school until they get to Armishire as the poor kid seems to have enough to cope with as it is Rolling Eyes

!

When I understood that Britain, and the rest of the British Empire, and France, were all at war with Germany, my first thought was that very soon the Nazis would be driven out of Austria and we’d be able to go home. But then Mummy and Daddy sat me down and explained that the war would probably go on for a very long time, and that there was no knowing for certain just what might happen.

Then they explained that, for as long as the war lasted and Austria remained part of the Third Reich, it would be virtually impossible for us to communicate with the people at home. We would know nothing, nothing at all, of what was happening to Grandma and Grandpa and all my aunties, uncles and cousins until the war was over.

At first I said that they were making it up. I knew that they weren’t, but I didn’t know what else to say. I shouted and I cried and I went and threw myself down on my bed and refused to leave my room, and I threw a book at Mummy when she came in to try to talk to me. Then she started to cry too, and I realised that it was just as bad for her, and I put my arms round her neck and we cried together.

It was the same for the other Austrians living nearby. There were a few of us. Me. Jakob. Mummy and Daddy. Auntie Rosa. Cousin Anna. Auntie Karen. Maria Marani, the Head Girl of the Chalet School. Frau Mieders, the school’s cookery teacher. The Count and Countess von und zu Wertheim, the Countess’s sister Frau von Gluck, and their children, who'd all come to live in Guernsey. From noblemen to servants, we all had to accept that contact with our friends and relatives at home had been severed, and that there was nothing we could do about it.

We also had to accept that, because we were Austrians and Austria was part of the German Reich, some people would think that we might want Germany to win the war. Mummy and Daddy said that, because of that, it might be best for us to try to keep a low profile for the time being. So they decided against sending me to the local school, and decided that I should have lessons at home for the time being, with Auntie Rosa.

It wasn’t ideal. I loved Auntie Rosa; but she wasn’t a very good teacher, and sometimes when I asked her questions she didn’t seem to be very sure of the answers. And she had Jakob and Josette to look after too. However, there wasn’t really anyone else. Both Fraulein Rosalie and Fraulein Grizel were working at the school now, and we weren’t seeing much of Frau Doktor Maynard. She hadn’t been going out much lately. It was apparently because she was “busy”, but busy doing what I didn’t know.

Within hours of war being declared, we’d heard that a British passenger ship, the Athenia, had been sunk by the Germans. Over a hundred people had been killed. It was terrible. Soon afterwards, Frau Doktor Russell explained to the Bettany children that, because the war had made the seas dangerous even for passenger ships, Herr and Frau Bettany and their two new babies would probably have to stay in India until it was all over. Although at least Jakob and I had our mummy and daddy with us, I sort of understood how Rix, Peggy, Bride and Jackie might feel, and when Peggy cried about it in the nursery I cried too. But at least they could still get letters to and from India. We had no idea at all what was happening to our family in Austria.

British troops were sent to France. One of them was Herr Doktor Maynard, who’d “joined up” along with a lot of other men from Guernsey. We were very worried about him, and we all wrote letters for the Russells to send to him. Jakob couldn’t write yet, so I put “from Gretchen and Jakob” at the bottom of mine instead of just “from Gretchen”. The Herr Doktor wrote back to say that it was lovely to hear from us all and that he was quite all right. It was so frightening, though. Only a few weeks earlier, he’d been safe at Les Rosiers, and now anything could be happening to him.

We had to have things called gas masks, in case the Germans dropped poisonous gas on us. You had to take them everywhere. All the cinemas and theatres in Guernsey were closed down, and the lights that helped you to see where you were going if you were out in the dark weren’t put on any more. We had to put dark cloth over the windows at night, and a bossy man came round to check that we were doing it properly. That was so that any German pilots flying over Guernsey at night wouldn’t be able to see where they were going. I was terrified at the thought of German planes flying overhead and dropping bombs and poisonous gas on us, but I didn’t see any or hear any

In fact, we didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary. Within a couple of months, the initial panic had died down and life was pretty much going on as normal.

#183: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:31 am
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The initial calm before the sttorm - poor Gretchen - understandable that she would feel so upset.

Thanks Alison.

#184: Author: keren, Location: Israel

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 9:30 am
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This is very interesting
I do not realy have time to comment but read it every day
I like how you are telling the story from a different point of view, and not missing any details.
What about internment of enemy aliens........................

#185: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 12:43 pm
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This is absolutely gripping.

Thanks, Alison

#186: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 1:01 pm
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Thanks, Alison. It is really interesting to see this from the point of view of a girl so young.

#187: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 2:22 pm
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Thanks Alison. I feel so sorry for Peggy, crying when she knew her parents couldn't come home. You never really get a sense of that from the books, but she must have missed them so.

#188: Author: Tara, Location: Malvern, Worcestershire

Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2006 10:13 pm
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I was wondering about internment, too.

Love Gretchen wondering what Jo is 'busy' doing - and signing her letters from little Jakob as well as herself.

Thanks, Alison.

#189: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:51 am
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There was no internment on Guernsey until May 1940, by which time they'd already left for Armishire. According to some stuff I was reading on the internet on Friday afternoon when I had nothing to do at work Wink

!

On November 5th, something happened that almost made us forget about the war altogether. Three babies arrived at Les Rosiers, all at once. I knew that sometimes two babies arrived at the same time, but I’d never known three be born together before. They were all girls, and they were named Len (stupid name for a girl, I thought!), Connie and Margot. Daisy and Primula were very pleased that one of the babies was to be called Margot, because that had been Frau Venables’s name. It was sad that Herr Doktor Maynard wasn’t there to see them when they were first born; but he was allowed to come home soon afterwards, even though it wasn’t for long.

Whilst he was home, we got a big surprise - three people we’d known in Austria turned up! With Rufus, Frau Doktor Maynard’s dog who’d had to be left behind when we’d come to Guernsey. They were Herr von Gluck, Herr Doktor von Ahlen who’d worked at the San, and Fraulein Mensch who’d been in Frau Doktor Maynard’s year at the Chalet School. And it turned out that Fraulein Mensch and Herr Doktor von Ahlen were now married! I was pleased about that. They’d both always seemed really nice whenever they’d come to Die Rosen; and they seemed happy together.

I was shocked when I actually saw the Herr Doktor, though. He’d gone very thin, and his hair had started going grey. Herr von Gluck was the same, but I’d only met him a couple of times before and didn’t really remember him, so I thought that maybe he’d always looked like that. Herr Doktor von Ahlen certainly hadn’t, though. I was quite upset about it. “He must have been very poorly,” I said sadly in the nursery a few days later. “He looks awful.”

“Oh, that’s not because he’s been poorly,” David said. “Keferl von Gluck told me about it. He said that his dad won’t say much about it, but the Nazis put both him – Keferl’s dad, I mean - and Dr Bruno in some really nasty sort of prison called a concentration camp. They’re only here because they managed to escape. Keferl said that his dad said that…”

“David, shut up,” Bride said suddenly.

“What’s up with you?” David glared at her indignantly. Then Bride looked pointedly at me, and he looked awkward. “Oh right. Sorry. I didn’t think about that. Er, anyway, they’re all right now; and they’re talking about joining the French Foreign Legion, like something out of a story, and …”

“What were you going to say?” I asked suspiciously. “Before. Tell me.”

David looked at the floor. “Keferl said that his dad said that some really bad things are happening in Austria,” he muttered. “Only to some people, though. I’m sure all your family’ll be all right. I mean, nobody’s going to bother anyone in Briesau, are they? It’s just a little village. Nothing much ever happens there.”

“Too right,” Rix added. “They’ll be okay there. Anyway, the Nazis are hardly going to want to put everyone in prison, are they? They’re going to need men to go in their Army and Navy and Air Force; so they won’t want people locked away. Everything’ll be fine.”

How had that never occurred to me before? I didn’t know; but somehow it hadn’t. Of course the Nazis would want people to go in their Armed Forces. Grandpa was too old, but my uncles weren’t. They were all the same sorts of age as the men who were joining up in Guernsey. Where were they now? And what on earth was a concentration camp? And just what exactly might Herr von Gluck mean by “really bad things”?

“Rix, you idiot!” I heard Peggy exclaim. “What did you have to say that for? If that’s your idea of helping then don’t bother in future. And you’re even worse, David. Of all the stupid things to say! Oh, come on Gretchen; don’t cry. Your family’ll be safe.”

“How do you know?” I sobbed. “Anything might have happened to them and I wouldn’t even know.” I put my head in my hands, and I cried and cried, until eventually Auntie Rosa came in, saw the state I was in and took me off for a mug of hot milk and early bed.

By the next morning I’d calmed down. And, like everyone else who felt as if their lives had been turned upside down by the war - children and adults alike - I got on with things. We didn’t have any other choice, did we?

#190: Author: Chair, Location: Rochester, Kent

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:28 am
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Thanks, Alison. I'm sorry that Gretchen had to find out in that way.

#191: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:33 am
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What a terrible way to find out - and of course the children wouldn't automatically think about what the conditions would mean for Gretchen's family - that Bride and Peggy did is very impressive. Liked Gretchen's little aside about Len! Also interesting that she noticed how much Bruno von Ahlen had changed.

Thanks Alison.

#192: Author: francesn, Location: away with the faeries

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 10:34 am
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Crying or Very sad

Poor little Gretchen - worrying about her family

Thanks Alison

#193: Author: LizB, Location: Oxon, England

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:03 am
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How horrible for her Crying or Very sad

Thanks, Alison

#194: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:06 am
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Thanks Alison, poor little mite! Crying or Very sad

#195: Author: Fatima, Location: Sunny Qatar

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:24 pm
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That's another worry for her, about her uncles joining the army or navy. Thanks Alison.

#196: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 1:39 pm
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Please excuse my ignorance, but would Austrians serve in Austrian regiments within the Germany army or would they have been assimilated into a 'Great Reich' army or something different entirely? I suppose Austria doesn't actually have a Navy of its own!

Edited for clarity - I hope!

#197: Author: Lesley, Location: Allhallows, Kent

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:02 pm
—

Mia wrote:

Please excuse my ignorance, but would Austrians serve in Austrian regiments within the Germany army or would they have been assimilated into a 'Great Reich' army or something different entirely? I suppose Austria doesn't actually have a Navy of its own!

Edited for clarity - I hope!

Wasn't Captain Von Trapp a Naval Captain?

#198: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:15 pm
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Yes, Captain von Trapp was a naval captain, but he'd served in the old Imperial Navy - quote from Liesl in the film Wink

, "he was even decorated by the Emperor" - before 1918.

Austria, AFAIK, hasn't had a navy since the dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire - the ports ended up in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy, which I think was done deliberately to deny Austria direct access to the sea, so it hasn't really got anywhere to put a Navy, so to speak!

Not very well up on anything that happened after the First World War Laughing

so not sure if Austria had its own army from 1939 to 1945 or not. Hmm, must check that!

#199: Author: Mia, Location: London

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:27 pm
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Thanks. I knew about the Austro-Hungarian Navy and the corridor to the sea - Admiral Horthy was in the same situation as Captain VT, how interesting! - but really wondered if when you wrote that Gretchen's uncles could join the navy if they actually could - if for example they reformed it? Sorry to be a picky annoyance! Embarassed

I should look it up myself.

ETA: See how your fine drabble has got me all interested!

#200: Author: Alison H, Location: Manchester

Posted: Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:03 pm