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Author:	Fiona Mc [ 15 Feb 2009, 12:11 ]
Post subject:	An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
This was inspired by the Formal Discussions of The Chalet School Triplets. I did think about doing an alternative ending to the bookend incident until I read someone's comment re: their disappointment with the book as nothing really happened and only Con really grew/matured. It echoed my thoughts especially with Margot only ever having a scene with losing her temper. I decided to swap Margot and Len's main scenes and have adjusted the chapters accordingly. My words are in Italics except with the changing of the names. The first is the shoplifting scene. Miss Moore went off to book her tables and Miss Charlesworth, having explained the arrangements to the girls, turned them loose, warning them to keep in sight of each other as far as they could. After all, they were all girls in the later teens. Even Margot, the “baby” of the party, was nearly sixteen-and-a-half. All spoke French and German with facility and all had been warned more than once during their years at school not to chatter to strangers. It seemed highly improbable that they could come to any harm. The top floor was given up to what Pen Grant rather pompously called “Objects of art and vertu”. In one part, prints and reproductions of famous pictures and statuary were shown. Woodcarvings filled two sets of shelves in another. In yet another were examples of the Swiss jewelers' work from strings of pretty beads and “costume” jewelry to cases of trinkets set with precious stones and costing considerably more than the girls could spend. Margot, Ted, Con, Ricki and Sue, together as usual, paused enraptured before one table on which were scattered examples of the delicate filigree work for which Switzerland is famous. “It's all lovely, but what prices!” Ted sighed as she examined the price ticket on a dainty brooch she longed to send home as a present to her cousin May. “This is cheaper and it's quite as pretty,” Con replied, pointing out another. “Wouldn't that do, Ted?” After inspecting it carefully, Ted decided that it would and the purchase was made. They wandered on then, some way behind the rest by this time. Suddenly Margot stopped and pointed to a sparkling string of baby rhinestones. “Wouldn’t that be just sweet on Felicity?” she exclaimed. “I thought your mother didn't let any of you wear trinkets until you were a good deal older than Felicity,” Ricki said. “We three had coral necklets for our eighth birthday and Fee will be eight in September. I could keep it till then. She'd love it and it's so simple and dainty I don't think Mamma would object to it then. How much is it?” Margot made a face when she saw the price, but hasty calculations showed her that she could manage it and still have enough to get a trifle for her triplet sister Len, who was enjoying Half Term elsewhere with the rest of the Prefects; and something for her mother. “I’ll take it,” she said. “What do you think, Con? Do you think Len will join when we tell her, and we might never have another chance of anything like it?” Con agreed and by the time it was wrapped up and paid for, the last of the other girls was out of sight. A quick glance round told them that no one they knew was anywhere about. “Oh, my goodness!” Sue exclaimed. “We've lost them! Have you any idea which way they went, Ricki?” “Not a clue! I wasn't watching,” Ricki replied. She looked round, and then gave an exclamation. “Isn't that Heather Clayton over there?” She pointed. “Come on! Charlie's a poppet, but she won't be exactly pleased if she finds us missing when she counts heads. This way, everyone!” They hurried along in the direction in which she had been pointing, only to find that Heather, if Hetaher it had been, had vanished and so had the others. “Oh, bother-bother-bother!” Margot ejaculated. “Well, we'd better find the lifts and go there and wait for them. Which department did Charlie say they were in?” “The third - I think,” Sue said after a little consideration. “Are you sure? Myself, I thought she said the first.” The five stared at each other in troubled silence. “Well - which shall it be?” Ted asked at last. “Or - I know what! You three go to the third lot and Margot and I'll go back to the first. Whichever they come to, someone there will fetch the others. OK?” Con suddenly laughed. “Solomon! All right; it's probably the most sensible thing to do since neither of us is certain. It must be one of those two since we've both hit on the same sound. We'll go and wait in the next room and you two trots back to the first. I don't suppose it'll be for long, anyhow.” Margot and Ted waited for nothing more. While Ricki, Con and Sue sauntered on to the next room, Margot and Ted turned and hurried as fast as they could to the first and took up their position by the lifts. Meanwhile Miss Charlesworth, having missed the couple, sent the others to wait in the fifth department and herself went through the other four as fast as she could, searching for her missing lambs as she went. It was a slow business for, by that time in the afternoon, the store was crowded. It had a reputation for its trinkets and bric-a-brac and, though this was not the tourist season, there are generally a goodly number of visitors to the Genevan lake towns all the year round. Miss Charlesworth, feeling annoyed, circled about groups standing together at the various tables, pushed her way through a clump of a dozen or so people standing before a set of shelves laden with cuckoo clocks of every size and kind from a two-inch square one to one a foot-and-a-half each way, adorned with marvelous carving which culminated in a chamois head at the top. This brought her through the fourth room and into the third where she suddenly spied Con, Ricki and Sue standing beside the lift-shaft. The mistress sped across to them with small heed for the shoppers between them. Finally she reached them. “Really,” she said crossly, “if five big girls like you all can't be trusted to listen to what is said to you, I think it's a pity. I told you the fifth department!” The three flushed. “We’re very sorry, Miss Charles-worth. And Margot and Ted aren't with us,” explained Con. “We couldn't decide if you said the first or the third set of lifts, so we came here and they went back to the first. They'll be waiting there. Shall I go and fetch them?” “No; I'll go myself. It'll be quicker in the end. If you'd only listened when I was speaking, you'd have known I said the fifth and we should have been spared all this trouble and waste of time. Go and join the others while I look for Margot and Ted. Remember, please, that none of you are to move till we join you. Now go along, and don't do this sort of thing again.” “Whew! Charlie is going up the wall and no mistake!” Ricki said as they turned to make their way to the fifth department where the others teased them unmercifully for some minutes about losing themselves. They laughed and presently had recovered from Miss Charlesworth's sharp speech. They exchanged notes on their purchases and were so engrossed in themselves that it was ten minutes or more before Heather, looking round, remarked that it was taking Charlie a long time to retrieve Margot and Ted and bring them to join them. “I expect they're finding it difficult to fight their way back,” Sue said easily. “The two first departments were pretty crowded when we came along and they looked like getting worse all the time. Even Charlie can't go butting her way just anyhow through mobs like that. They'll be along in a few minutes.”

Author:	Fiona Mc [ 15 Feb 2009, 12:14 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets
They weren't; and by the time twenty minutes had passed, the girls were feeling anxious. Could anything have happened to Margot and Ted? But what could? They wouldn't have left the floor by themselves. Margot spoke French and German better than any of them, except Con, so it was most unlikely they had got tied up that way. Yet it was definitely taking an abnormally long time for them and Miss Charlesworth to rejoin them. There was nothing they could do but wait. If any of them went off in search, goodness only knew how long it might be before they were all together again. But it was dreary work standing there, being eyed curiously by various folk who clearly wondered why so many of them were clustered together in that corner, not even looking round the place. “Us, for beating the boy, on the burning deck'.” Eve Hurrell said once, with a forlorn attempt at a laugh. “I do wish people wouldn't stare at us as if we were animals at the Zoo!” She voiced the feelings of all, but it didn't help and they resigned themselves to continuing with their imitation of Casabianca. Meanwhile Margot and Ted, having reached the lift-shaft in the first room, had stood waiting patiently enough at first. A stand showing copies of some of the Dutch masters was nearby. They passed the time by inspecting them, one after the other. Quite a number of the visitors to the store glanced with surprise at the two tall, pretty school-girls, one with red-gold curls and the other with longer, thick dark hair beneath hats that matched their big coat of gentian-blue. Presently an English lady who had been the round of the department and was on her way back, came over to speak to them. “My dears, are you waiting for someone?” she asked kindly. “Or have you lost your friends?” Ted and Margot turned with a start - they had been staring at the stand again - and at the same time, a small, thin woman who had come hurrying from the trinket department cast a quick glance over her shoulder before colliding with Margot. The lady, who had just spoken to the girl, caught her arm and steadied her, turning to make an indignant remark to the other woman. Even as she opened her lips, the lift came up, discharging a couple of young girls. The small woman pushed past the other two without a word of apology, snapped “Daunwed!” at the liftman, the doors came together and the lift descended with her. “How rude!” the Englishwoman exclaimed. “I hope she didn't hurt you?” “Not in the least,” Margot said politely. “And I'm waiting for some other people, thank you. They ought to be here any moment now.” There was nothing for the kindly stranger to do but say, “I see. Well, if you are sure you'll be all right?” This was as far as she got. There was a sudden hubbub. A bell began to peal, shrilly and incessantly, and a thin, dark man came hurrying along, a scared-looking girl running after him, while a cry of “Thief - thief!” suddenly rang out and was taken up by a good number of people. The man pulled up at the lifts and accosted Ted and Margot's unknown friend in English. “Madame 'as been standing 'ere - and zee young misses? 'Ave you seen someone go down in zee élévateur - a small, thin woman, comme une belette - a 'ow do you say 'im ? - a outsell?” The lady nodded. “A small, thin woman, dressed in brown and - yes; you are right, Monsieur. She was very like a weasel in the face.” “Zat is zee one! She is a - une voleuse - what is zee English?” “Shop-lifter, you mean?” Margot exclaimed. “Zat is zee word. Myself, I 'ave 'ad suspicion for 'er. Zis young lady,” he indicated the assistant at his side, flushed and agitated, poor girl, “she 'ave seen 'er slip some rings in 'er pochette. Me, I 'ad been watching 'er, and I followed vite - vite. She ran; but I 'ave given zee alarm. She will not escape. And now, Mademoiselles.'' he turned to Margot and Ted, “ you 'ave stood 'ere a long time. I 'ave seen you. 'Ave you seen zee woman, hein?” “I couldn't very well,” Margot said. “She barged-er-bumped into me and nearly sent me flying, only this lady caught me in time. But I didn't see her, really.” He looked at her suspiciously. “But 'ere you stand a long time. I have observed you - me. Why do you rest 'ere so long?” “I'm waiting for my party,” Margot explained, beginning to feel slightly alarmed and slightly angry, what with the curious crowds thronging round and the look on his face. Only Ted’s firm grip on her arm acted as a reminder to keep a grip of her rising temper. “We are from school and my friends and I got separated from the others, somehow. We knew we had to wait by the lifts, but we were not sure which set, so some of us are waiting in the third department and we came here, she said indicating Ted.” “Vraiment!” Margot had spoken in French so he used the same tongue and the sneer in his voice made her flush with rage at his obvious disbelief. “A very ready tale, Mademoiselle. Truly, a ready tale. But young ladies from school do not wander far from their teachers. I must trouble you to come with me to the manager's office where we may search you. Me, I do not believe this charming fairy-tale of yours.” Margot's eyes flashed dangerously. As everyone at the Chalet School was well aware Margot had a hair-trigger temper, and although she managed to keep it well under control, for the most part; there were moments, and days where Margot longed to lose control, and go into a rage like she used to. Ted, herself had been a victim of her temper, and a constant reminder, of a time in her life, that Margot bitterly regretted, where she gave into her rage and jealousy. She was feeling more than thankful for Ted’s firm grip on her arm, not only for its unspoken support, but unbeknownst to Ted herself, it was reminding Margot exactly why she shouldn’t give in to the thorough paced rage she was feeling coursing through her. Margot took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. She drew herself up to her full height as she replied, “However, my tale is true, as you will see if you will wait until our mistress comes - as she may do at any moment.” “Oh, I have no doubt of that! But we will not wait here. We will wait in the manager's office - if he consents to permit it and does not send immediately for the police. Come!” “No! I was told to wait her and here I stay!” Margot retorted. She felt a sneeze coming and dived into a pocket for her handkerchief. She pulled it out anyhow and with it came a handful of oddments she knew had not been there before. Three sparkling rings, a brooch, a pair of bangles studded with rhinestones, a pair of nylon stockings, and a packet of handkerchiefs fell to the floor. Still gripping the arm he had seized, the detective caught at the bangles while the girl with him chased the rings which were rolling away. The man held up his booty triumphantly. “Aha, Mdlle l'Accomplice! So I have you, at least! Soon, very soon, we shall have your partner in crime also. Of no use to struggle! You are caught and it is I - I, Achille Dupleix - who has caught a bare-faced thief! And it is the first day of my engagement here!” He tugged at Margot's wrist and she shrank away from him, her face white. The English lady intervened, while Ted’s own eyes flashed. “One moment, if you please! There is a broadcasting system here, is there not? Then please have a call sent out at once for any teacher who has lost a pupil. In the meantime. I will stay with these young ladies --- ”

Author:	Fiona Mc [ 15 Feb 2009, 12:19 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets
“Margot! And Ted! Why on earth couldn't you listen when I spoke? You tiresome girls to give me all this trouble!” It was Miss Charlesworth, able at last to push her way through the crowds gathered from all quarters now. She dashed up to her pupils and spoke in her severest tone. Ted gasped. “Oh, thank goodness you've come at last! Some horrid creature has been shop-lifting. I suppose she felt someone watching her and was afraid to escape with the things, so she fell over Margot while we were standing here and she must have shoved them into her pocket to get rid of them. This man thinks - thinks --- ” She stopped short, her voice shaking on the last words. It had been a horrible ordeal, though Margot had faced the worst of it, Ted was still shaken. Now, with the arrival of Miss Charles-worth, it was all she could do to keep the tears back. “What?” Miss Charlesworth ejaculated. She stared at white-faced Margot and noticed the look of rage in her blue eyes, that Margot was struggling to subdue, at the English lady who had slipped an arm round the girl and was holding her firmly, at the little stores assistant with her hands full of the very mixed bag Margot had pulled out with her handkerchief. Finally, she turned on the stores detective, drawing herself up to her full height. “I desire you to take us to the manager's office at once,” she said. She repeated the demand in both French and German so that there should be no mistake. “These young ladies are my pupils. I can see that she has been made the victim of some thief, but I can vouch for their honesty as I can for my own. Be good enough to escort us to the manager where we will have a proper explanation.” The other girls had heard the bell and seen the rush to the farther room. If they had dared, they would have followed. As it was they waited where they were, together with the assistants who, perforce, must also stand fast to guard their own goods. There Miss Moore found them when she joined them, having grown tired of waiting beside the lingerie. By that time, Miss Charlesworth had released Margot from the detective's grip and, in company with him, Ted, and the English lady, they were taken to the manager's room. His secretary tried to stop them but Miss Charlesworth, as Margot said later when she was telling her family about it, simply tanked over her. She marched through the outer office into the manager's own sacred sanctuary, followed by the other three. Standing before the desk, at which a tall thin man with snapping black eyes was seated, was the weaselly woman in the grip of another of the store detectives. On the desk lay a handful of other trinkets and a positive magpie's collection of oddments from the various departments. The manager started up in protest as Miss Charlesworth and her party burst in on the scene. “Madame! I must request you to excuse me! I am engaged!” Then his eyes fell on Achille Dupleix, who burst forth into his own tale immediately. He did not get very far. Miss Charlesworth swung round on him, anger blazing in her face, and snapped, “Taisez-vous donc ! Vous avez fait une grosse erreur et je l'expliquerai, moi-meme!” Before her wrath he fell silent and the English lady spoke. Between her account, Ted and Margot's faltered story, Miss Charlesworth's comments and information as to who they were and whence they came, everything was finally made clear. By that time, chairs had been brought for the three and a glass of wine had been pressed on an angry Margot, by the manager himself. As Margot admitted to Con later. It was only Ted’s face beside her that had enabled to keep a firm grip on her rising temper and rage at being suspected the way she had. “And after the way I treated Ted years ago, I couldn’t lose control,” said Margot a little shamefacedly, “certainly not with her standing right beside me.” “Well, I think you did well not to lose it at all said Con soothingly. “It wouldn’t have been a pleasant experience at all.” “Do you know though,” added Margot, “I’ve never admired Charlie as much as I did. She just waded in like Matey or the Abbess would have. She was amazing.” When the Manager got to the bottom of everything, he was alert to make all the amends he could for his detective's mistake. He apologised profusely all round before sending for the rest of the party, insisting on regaling the lot with the best coffee and cakes to be found. The English lady - a Mrs Molesworth - had to decline as she was already late for an engagement, but she handed her card to Miss Charlesworth with the remark that she would try to fit in a visit to the Platz before she had to go home. After all this, as Ted Grantley remarked sotto voce, the manager looked ready to burst into tears. He all but wrung his hands and the volley of abuse he directed at his employee was masterly and comprehensive. Retailing a vivid account of it to her confrères that night, Miss Charlesworth said that it looked as if he was on the verge of offering the entire contents of the store to them by way of recompense for the insult, offered to Margot, the school and the Sanatorium. Mercifully, he stopped short of that. But when they had had their meal, he had ordered a motor-coach to take them back to the Platz, for which most of them were devoutly thankful. As for Margot, she was too upset to do more than taste a cake, though she drained three full cups of coffee. It had been a horrible experience and, full of common-sense though she might be, she was a sensitive creature at bottom and the shock had been stunning. For the next two nights, her sleep was disturbed by bad dreams in which she relived the whole thing over again. She had lost her fresh colour and her appetite was badly to seek, though Matron dosed her with a tonic three times a day. Joey was in Basle, paying Frieda von Ahlen a brief visit, and the doctor was hard at work at the Sanatorium where they were short-handed at the moment, or one of them would have been sent for. In fact, neither knew of the contretemps until the middle of the week when Joey, having returned home, breezed in to deliver all sorts of messages and was regaled with an account of it in full detail. Her comments were peculiarly her own. “ Well, I know I may expect anything to happen with a family the size of mine, but I'm bound to admit that never in, wildest dreams did I imagine that one of them would be accused of being the assistant of a professional shop-lifter! One lives and learns!” Then she added rather anxiously, “ How is Margot? Has she been very much upset ?” Matron, who had come into the room at the tail-end of the story, took charge. “ I'm sorry, Jo, but she has. She's lost her appetite and she looks white, and during a session with her before I came here, I dragged it out of her that she's been dreaming about it. I've just been down to ring up Jack and ask him to come and see her. Bad dreams aren't in Margot's line as a rule. From all Ted said about the affair, she did remarkably well to keep her temper throughout it all.” Joey bounded to her feet. “ My poor lamb! Where is she, Gwynneth ? I'll go and have a word with her. What's more, if I see fit, I'm going to take her home. Where's Hilda Annersley?” “Over at St Mildred's discussing business with Nell Wilson,” Nancy Wilmot told her. “Rosalie Dene's there, too. Suppose you bag the study and I'll go and send Margot to you. I'd no idea the young ass was having nightmares.” “No one had,” Matey said austerely. Joey nodded. “It's preying on her mind, I expect. Oh, well, I can stop that. Send the three to me, Nancy. I’ll fill their little brains with something far otherwise. No; I'm saying nothing to you folk yet, but you may all prepare for shocks before long. Now I'm off.” And she departed, followed by Miss Wilmot, who was as good as her word and sent the triplets along to the study in short order. They arrived as demurely as any seniors, but when they saw who awaited them, they hurled themselves on her with cries of joy. “Let me look at you!” Joey exclaimed, freeing her-self at last. “Yes; well, you look under the weather, Margot. I'm not exactly surprised after such a nasty business, but I am proud of the way you handled yourself through it all. Now, you're going to forget about it. I've a secret for you three and it's to remain a secret for the moment. Come and sit down and lend me your ears and remember that this is not to leak out until Easter. I've got a plan and it's working out nicely - so far. But I'll want your help, so clear your minds of shops and shoplifting. You haven't any time for them just now. Now listen! Oh, and spare me your comments until I've done.” She proceeded to unfold her plans and by the time she had finished, even Margot was looking a little more like herself. She swore them to secrecy and then departed for home, certain that one of her firstborn's nightmares would be a thing of the past, for the scheme she had evolved was startling and would certainly give them all plenty to think about. As for what it was, that must wait for the Easter holidays. But it was exciting enough, and that night Margot fell asleep and slept peacefully all night, her night-mares in very truth a thing of the past.

Author:	Alison H [ 15 Feb 2009, 12:28 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
Thanks Fiona - that was really interesting. I'm certainly one of the people disappointed with how EBD handles the triplets - at the end of Theodora there's that big showdown and they're all supposed to've been shaken into growing up, but then in Triplets Margot is behaving really badly again and Len is being overly responsible, and as late as Althea (I think) Con is going off into daydreams and causing problems as a result. It would've been great to've seen something like this instead.

Author:	Abi [ 15 Feb 2009, 16:33 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
agreeing with Alison We never really get to see Margot maturing, and it would have been nice to see her learning some self-control. I like your version, Fiona!

Author:	Emma A [ 16 Feb 2009, 11:51 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
Yes, this is very appropriate, Fiona. Margot learns something, and we see how she's trying, and succeeding, to control her temper, something that Len never has to do under the same conditions. Thank-you.

Author:	MaryR [ 17 Feb 2009, 20:28 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
Intriguing idea, Fiona. Thank you.

Author:	Cath V-P [ 18 Feb 2009, 04:12 ]
Post subject:	Re: An Alternative to The Chalet School Triplets- Margot's Scene
Yes, Margot would have found that very trying. At times, it really seems as if EBD decided just which roles the triplets would fulfill, and that was that - no change possible.

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