Prefects and Promises
The CBB -> Starting again at Sarres...

#1: Prefects and Promises Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:42 pm


Joey Maynard put her hands to her head and smoothed down her hair. It was the last day of the summer holidays, and the house rang with shrieks of "Mamma!" and "Auntie Joey!" Taking a deep breath, she stepped out into the hallway and was immediately hit by a barrage of questions.

"Mamma, where's my school dress?"

"Mamma, what's happened to my trunk?"

"Mamma, Anna says when do you want lunch served?"

"Mamma, Len phoned, and she says can she bring Rosie and Megan round while she goes shopping in Interlaken?"

"Auntie Joey, have you seen the list I had yesterday?"

"Auntie Joey, where are my hankies?"

"Mamma! MAMMA! There's a letter from Margot!"

"Mamma! Bruno's chewed my ballet slippers!"

"Silence!" Joey bawled, climbing a few stairs to get above the crowd. "Mike, give me Len's message again." Mike repeated it. Joey thought. "I suppose things can't get any more hectic. Phone her back and tell her OK. Claire, your hankies were on your bed this morning. Phil, go and tell Anna that thirteen o'clock will be fine. Cecil - sorry - Cecily, your dresses and Anna's were put in your room yesterday. Erica, the last time I saw your list, it was on the table in Uncle Jack's study. Felix, what do you mean, what's happened to your trunk? What can have happened?"

"It's got a hole." Felix replied. Joey stared at him for a few seconds, and then returned to the last few questions. "Felicity, if Bruno has chewed your slippers that's your own fault, I've told you not to leave them in the Saal. And thank you, Geoff; we'll read it over lunch. Where is Charles?"

"In the study, talking to Anna." Cecily replied, as she re-appeared. "Mamma, there are no dresses in my room. Do you think Anna might have packed mine with hers?"

"Why don't you go and ask her?" her mother said, distractedly. "Felix, what do you mean about your trunk? It's been in the attic. How on earth can it "have a hole"?"

Cecily grinned as she set off for the study. There was indeed a hole in Felix's trunk. One wet day during the holidays, Felix had suggested that all the younger members of the family go up to the attic and look through some of the old trunks. They had all gone willingly, but the plan had been interrupted by an argument between Felix and Mike, which had resulted in everyone cheerfully wrestling on the floor. In the scuffle, Felix's trunk had been pushed out of the attic door and had crashed to the bottom of the stairs, putting an instant stop to the fighting as everyone rushed to see what the damage was. And the damage, she remembered, had been a corner of the trunk staved badly and showing a hole.

On her sixteenth birthday, Cecil Maynard had decided that if her family must abbreviate her name, then it should be to something more feminine. As a result, she had insisted on Cecily, and for the most part, just over two years on, they were reconciled to it. Only in occasional moments of stress did her mother forget. She pushed open the study door and found her best friend curled up in a chair before the fire, buried deep in a battered copy of "Little Women". Opposite sat Cecily's older brother, Charles, reading a newspaper. Cecily rolled her eyes. Despite being eight years older, Charles had spent a good deal of time that summer walking, climbing, and picnicking with Anna and Cecily, their friend Lois, and her twin brother Nick.

"Anna!" she said, loudly, knowing that not much penetrated Anna's consciousness when she was reading. Her friend glanced up.

"What's up?" she asked. She and her mother had, for the past two and a half years, made their home in the Elisehutte, further along the Platz. Lady James had been called to England two weeks ago on business, and Anna had been installed at Freudesheim, as there was no guarantee that her mother would return before the beginning of the new term.

"Where are my school dresses?" Cecily demanded. "Mamma said they were all on your bed yesterday, did you pack them with yours?" Anna shook her head.

"I put them on the chair in the room, to stop them getting creased." She replied. "They should still be there, I haven't touched them." Cecily blushed, recollecting how many things she had piled on to that chair during the morning.

"I'll go and look." she replied, backing out again. Anna was already fathoms deep in her book again, however, and didn't hear a word.

Over lunch, it transpired that there had indeed been a hole in Felix's trunk, and he, Charles and Mike would have to spend the afternoon bringing down another from the attic. Cecily had found her dresses, now badly crumpled, and had had to endure a scolding from Anna, the Maynard's Tyrolean maid, when she had taken them to be re-ironed. Joey read aloud the letter from her third daughter, currently in central Africa, and then issued her instructions for the afternoon.

Felicity, you can take Bruno out when you've done your practice. Cecily, Anna, Phil, Claire - you are going over to the school aren't you? Well you can take your trunks - except Cecily, since hers isn't finished. Boys, you can get another trunk down from the attic for Felix, you'll have to unpack one, so try and not make too much mess. Geoff, will you run to the Post Office with the parcel that is in the hall? Erica, Len's bringing Rosie and Megan round, so if you could give a hand with them, I need to go along to Aldersnest and discuss some things with Biddy. Kaffee will be at four-thirty, Cecily, please phone if you four are invited to stay at school for it. OK, everyone?" A chorus of agreement replied, and shortly the four schoolgirls set off through the garden. Miss Annersley was delighted to see them, and immediately sent them to the library, where a large pile of books was waiting to be put away, and another was in need of repair.

Anna, who had been assistant library prefect the previous year, settled down to start the repairs, with Cecily to help her, while the younger girls worked their way through the large pile of books to be returned. As they worked they discussed the likely prefectships for the coming year.

"Not much choice left for head girl, is there?" Phil asked. "I mean, all last year's upper VI have either left or gone to be Millies, and so have Win and Carlotta, haven't they?" Cecily nodded gloomily.

"Yes. We thought Win would have another year here, but her mother has decided that it's to be at St Mildreds instead. You're right though, there's not many choices left."

"Well there's you three." Claire pointed out. "You two and Lois, I mean." Anna shook her head.

"I'm too quiet. And Lois..." she tailed off, and all four minds turned to excitable, chatterbox Lois, not much changed since her Inter V year.

"But Cecily! She could do it!" Claire, who adored her older sister, insisted. Cecily shook her head violently.

"I wouldn't want it!" she shuddered. "How on earth could I follow in Mamma and Len's footsteps? I'll be quite happy with a promotion to full prefect and keeping on music. Maybe one of the twins or Meg?" Anna considered the Linders twins who had started school the same term she did, and then Meg van Alden, one of the naughtiest girls the Chalet School had ever seen. None of them seemed likely prospects for Head Girl.

"Becca? Beth?" she suggested, doubtfully. The other three disagreed.

"Becca's a cert for the magazine." Phil pointed out. "And Beth's not really cut out to be a head girl, is she?" Seeing that they were gradually working their way through all their classmates, Anna switched topics.

"Games Prefect, then. Lois, do you think?" There were nods all around.

"She's by far the best all-rounder we have." Phil said. She herself was nursing a secret ambition of sub-prefectship, but had not even suggested such an ides to the others. She hoped, because five of Lower VI had been prefects the previous year, two as full prefects and three as subs.

"We won't know anything until the Head speaks to us tomorrow." Cecily pointed out, slightly irritated by the fact that all three seemed to think she should be Head Girl. "We might as well get these books done and get home for Kaffee." The others agreed, and they went to work.

The following evening, the school was gathered in Hall, listening to Miss Annersleys welcome speech. From where they sat at the back of the Hall, Anna could see the rows of girls who made us the school stretching away in front of her. She allowed her thoughts to dwell on the prefectships for the following year. She thought Cecily was the ideal choice from the sixth for head, but Cecily had confided the night before that she dreaded the very idea.

"Len tried to talk to me. Said neither Mamma nor her had wanted it either. But they did it anyway, and they were great! If Auntie Hilda picks me, I'll turn it down!" she had said. Anna hadn't believed that.

"I'd like to see you." she had replied. "If the Abbess says you're Head, then you are, and there's nothing you can do about it. You won't know until tomorrow though, so why don't you stop worrying?"

She pulled her attention back to Miss Annersley's speech. Finally, she got to what everyone; Upper VI especially was dying to hear.

"And now, girls, our form and prefect lists for the next year. Our prefects are Daphne Bettany, Elizabeth Black, Marie Courvoisier, Rebecca Hardy, Gretchen Linders, and Joanna Linders. Sub-prefects are Melissa Laurie, Phillipa Maynard, and Frances MacDonald." The nine girls filed up on to the stage and received their badges. Anna, Cecily, and Lois, still seated alone in the Upper VI row, stared at each other in shock. They had been at school for long enough now to know what this meant. Either they were not to be prefects, or they were to hold the top three positions in the school. And as they had all been prefects last year... Miss Annersley continued. "Our Games
Prefect this year is Lois Gellibrand. Second Prefect is Anna James. And our Head Girl this year is Cecilia Maynard."

"Two Maynard's and a Bettany in the prefects, and no multiple births!" Hilary Graves murmured to Biddy Courvoisier. Both had returned to teaching when Erica Standish had opened her nursery. "That has got to be a record."
Biddy opened her mouth to reply, but was silenced when Miss Wilson turned around deliberately and glared at them.

"She always makes me feel like the naughty middle I used to be!" Biddy whispered, when she had turned away. Hilary nodded her agreement as Miss Annersley called for applause for the new prefects, and a storm arose. Thanks to a pinch from Anna, Cecily remembered the first of her new duties.

"Thank you all." she said softly, stepping to her front of the dais. "I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say we'll do our best to follow all the prefects who have gone before us."

Miss Annersley dismissed the school, the prefects on the end of the line and Cecily last of them. Pausing at the door to switch off the lights, she looked around and her eyes fell on the honours board. She knew some of the lines on it without looking. Every other female member of her family who had passed through the school was listed there.

Josephine Mary Bettany - Head Girl and First Editor of the Chaletian.
Marya Cecilia Humphries - Head Girl.
Margaret Cecilia Venables - Head Girl and Games Prefect.
Primula Mary Venables - Second Prefect
Margaret Josephine Bettany - Head Girl
Bridget Mary Bettany - Head Girl
Maeve Margaret Bettany - Head Girl and Editor of the Chaletian
Josephine Mary Russell - Head Girl
Mary Helena Maynard - Head Girl
Mary Constance Maynard - Editor of the Chaletian.
Mary Margaret Maynard - Games Prefect.
Evelyn Ruhannah Richardson - Games Prefect
Adrienne Marie Louise Desmoindes - Second Prefect.
Aline Elizabeth Russell - Head Girl
Erica Jane Standish - Second Prefect
Felicity Josephine Maynard – Winner of a Royal Ballet School Scholarship

It was an impressive list, and they were all there. They had all made a success of their jobs and their lives. All had been prefects except Felicity, who had gone to the Royal Ballet School instead. At the end of this year, would her name be added? Not everyone made it to the honours boards. Girls who had either been successful prefects, or done something impressive for the school - like Felicity. It was a lot to live up to, and for a moment Cecily felt that she would never do it. Then she pulled herself together. She was a Maynard. Of course she could do it.

"Marya Cecilia Maynard. Head Girl and winner of the Karl Anserl Scholarship. “She whispered to the empty hall. It sounded nice.

Meanwhile, Charles Maynard lay on his bed at Freudesheim, two pieces of paper in his hand. One of them was the reason he had returned home six months before. He remembered the night he had met Claire in the restaurant. He had just received his results from his finals. He was Dr. Charles Maynard - the third doctor of his generation in the family. Rix was working at the Welsh san. David was a GP, and had invited his cousin to go into practice with him. Charles had thought it a wonderful idea, and planned to put it to Claire as soon as she had said yes. The last thing he wanted to do was go back to Switzerland and work at the San.

He could remember exactly how she looked. It had been raining heavily, and her hair had formed curls on her forehead. He had been nervous, continually fingering the small box in his pocket, and repeating over and over in his head what he wanted to say. After the meal, he told himself. Thank goodness he had. As they were finishing dessert, and his nerves were becoming more and more acute, she had said those dreadful words.

"Charles, I have something to tell you." He had laughed, and asked what. "I've met someone else." The words had hit him like hammer blows. He remembered the disbelief he had felt, remembered paying for the meal and leaving the restaurant, and then remembered no more. He had woken the following morning in his bed, his brother asleep on the couch nearby. He had felt more ill that morning than ever before. He couldn't believe that what should have been a prefect night had become so terrible. How many times had he envisaged the scene? Entering the saal at Freudesheim, Claire on his arm.

"Mamma, this is Claire. She is going to be my wife. Papa, I done it. I passed." Two wonderful pieces of news. Now there would be only one, and had he had a choice, he would have chosen the other. When Mike awoke, he told him he had found him wandering like a mad man around London, and had brought him back to his rooms in the early hours of the morning.

He had spent the next week in bed, barely eating or drinking. It was after that week that Mike had come back with Steve and Roddy, and David and Rix. Between them they had packed up his belongings and put both them and him on the train. Charles assumed Mike had told them what had happened. He had never asked if his parents knew. He had told them that he had been ill, and had come home to recover. His father had offered him a job at the San, and he had taken it reluctantly, moving back into the family home. Had he ever recovered?

Now, it felt like he hadn't, like he never would. But there had been times, over that summer, when he had felt differently. Mostly when he had been with Cecily and her friends. He looked at the other paper, a charcoal sketch Adrienne had done for him over the summer while she had been visiting with Steve and their baby daughter.

"Dear Adrienne." he murmured, tucking both pieces inside a textbook for safekeeping. Adrienne knew. He and Adrienne always been close, and she had been in the house ten minutes before she had cornered him and demanded the full story. And he had told her everything. He had felt better afterwards, but now he felt as if all the misery had returned again. Rising, he settled himself on the window ledge, from where he could see the lights of the school twinkling across the lawn. The dinner gong interrupted his thoughts. It would be a small group tonight. Felix and Felicity had left for England the night before with Geoff, he to university and she to rejoin her ballet company while Geoff went back to school. Mike would be going back to his ship the next day. Then there would be just him and his parents. As he opened the door, he made a promise to himself. He would not speak to her, even after she had finished school. He would never again give anyone the chance to hurt him.

"Not that she'd be interested in a boring old doctor living with his parents anyway." he muttered as he went downstairs.

Back in the school, Cecily, Anna and Lois were settling in to their new room. As Head Girl, Cecily was entitled to a room to herself, but she was delighted to find that Miss Annersley had given them the option of three beds in one of the spare dormitories. Designed to hold six, the room had ample space, and the three friends had left their cubicle curtains open as they talked quietly, Anna and Lois attempting to reassure Cecily of her ability to make a success of her new position. As the silence bell rang, Anna settled back into her pillows and stared out the window at the stars so far above. She was thinking about the summer they had just passed, such a delightful time and so much of it spent in Charles' company. She smiled to herself in the darkness as she remembered, and the smile remained on her lips as she fell asleep.

The following afternoon, Cecily held her first prefects meeting. Seated where her mother and older sister had been before her, she felt inadequate to deal with the task facing her. Anna was seated on her right and Lois on her left, as tradition dictated. Anna read the previous terms report, her voice shaking slightly, and Cecily signed it. Then they turned their attention the duties. Cecily called for the customary vote, and after Anna and Phil had counted them, she announced the result.

"Music - Beth." she glanced down the table and saw Beth's nod. She had guessed that this would fall to her, and was happy to step into Cecily's shoes. "Library - Marie". Cecily continued. The oldest daughter of the school history mistress nodded, relived not to be Staff Prefect. In the library she shouldn't come in to close contact with her mother. "Staff - Melissa". Melissa, who knew what Staff Prefect involved, agreed. "Juniors - Daph." Cecily said, with a wicked grin at her cousin. "Remember that you have to organise the rota for going to help at the Nursery. Art - Frances. Hobbies - Gretchen." Another two nods. "Assistant Games - Joanna." Joanna Linders beamed. She and her sister were identical in looks, but nothing else, and both had received a job that would suit them perfectly. "Assistant Librarian and Hobbies, Phil. And the magazine editor this year is Becca – no much dispute about that! Unanimous vote, Becca!"

"It's hardly surprising, considering she's the best at English in the entire sixth." Lois said, tilting her chair back. She was pleased with the results of the vote. She liked Joanna, and was looking forward to working with her.

"Now, the prep rota." Cecily said with a grin. There were groans from around the table. "There are twelve of us, so we all do one lot of prep a week, either middles or juniors. I'm going to propose myself and Lois to take Monday, as Anna has her music lesson then."

"Thanks a lot." Lois muttered. Monday was generally the worst night to take prep.

"I'll take Friday, then, Cecily." Anna volunteered. "It's never a great night either."

"I will, too." Becca said. Cecily thanked them and entered their names on the chart. The others girls rapidly volunteered for the other spaces, and then Cecily dismissed her first prefects meeting, feeling considerably more confident.

Anna flew to the dormitory immediately after the meeting, to practice pinning her hair up into a neat bun. Her 18th birthday occurred the following day, and she was determined not to embarrass herself by having her hair fall down.

Cecily, meanwhile, wandered the corridors alone. She stopped regularly to look out at the grounds, and eventually ended up in the senior library where she settled herself in a high backed chair facing the window and began to read. She had been seated there for half an hour when the door opened and closed. She noticed it subconsciously, being absorbed in her book. A few minutes later she looked up. Something had penetrated her consciousness. She listened for a few seconds, but there was no noise. Putting down her book, she got to her feet and walked softly to the shelves, looking down each aisle in turn. When she was about half way down, a sob caught her attention. She spun on the spot, searching for the source of the noise, and set off again. Eventually she found, crouched on the floor at the end of a row of books, a girl, curled in a ball and crying.

Her Maynard practicality coming to the fore, Cecily bent down and pulled the girl to her feet.

"A middle!" she gasped. "You do know..." she checked herself. This was no time for where people should and should not be. Putting one arm firmly around the sobbing child, Cecily piloted her out of the room and through the corridors. She considered her study for a moment, and then changed her mind. She hadn't had a chance to unpack and arrange it yet. Pulling up sharply, she opened a door beside her and pushed the sobbing child ahead of her into a room filled with the late afternoon sunshine.

"And what do we owe the honour?" asked Lois, looking up. "Oh, goodness! Who's this? Where did you find her? Why is she crying? Why have you brought her here? Will I put the kettle on? I could make tea and we have cake! And biscuits!"

Anna got up from her desk, where she had been working at some French, and, taking the confused looking child from Cecily; put her in an armchair beside the fire. Cecily, meanwhile, caught Lois by the arm and gave her a few brief instructions. Then she perched herself on the edge of her desk, Cecily took the other armchair, and Anna curled up on the rug.

"Right. First things first." Lois began. "Who are you?"

"Christina Aitken."

“Are you new?” Cecily asked.

“Yes.”

“Where are you from?” Anna continued. The girl gulped.

“Edinburgh.”

“OK.” They were back to Lois. “Why are you crying?” Christina burst into tears again, and Anna got to her feet and put her arms around her.

“Come on.” She said in her soft voice. “We can’t help you if you don’t tell us what’s happened.”

“You can’t help me anyway.” Christina gasped.

“Is it a school thing?” Cecily asked. The weeping middle nodded.

“Then don’t be too sure about that.” Lois said. “We can sort out most things. Do you want to tell us what’s happened?” Christina continued to wail, however, and Anna still sitting with her arms around the younger girl, shook her head. Finally Lois got to her feet, picked up the small girl, and carried her off to Matron.

“Any luck?” Cecily asked when she returned. Lois shook her head.

“Even Matey couldn’t get anything out of her.” She said. “I reckon its acute homesickness.” Anna shook her head.

“I know acute homesickness.” She said. “That wasn’t it. We need to keep an eye on her.”

The next morning Anna, hands clamped firmly over her head, came flying down the main staircase, pausing anxiously at the bottom to check she was still tidy. As she straightened her collar, the front door opened and Charles entered the school rather nervously, carrying a large box. His heart skipped a beat as he spotted Anna smoothing down her hair. It was the first time he had ever seen her without her hair in its long pigtail, and despite her uniform, she no longer looked like a schoolgirl to him.

"Anna!" he said. She jumped and the colour rose in her cheeks.

"Charles" she replied. "Good Morning."

"Mamma asked me to bring this to you." he said, indicating the box. She took it from him, and as she did their hands brushed together. He jumped as they did, and hastily pulled his hands away. "It's your birthday presents," he said.

"Thank you." Anna replied, calmly. "I'll open them this afternoon. Cecily has got permission to have a party in the prefect’s room for me."

"That's nice." Charles replied. "I had better get back for breakfast.
Goodbye."

"Goodbye. And thank you." Anna smiled. She turned to leave, and he called out

"Anna! Wait!" She paused, and turned. Crossing the hall in three quick strides, he put his hands on her shoulders. Happy Birthday." he said, bending and kissing her gently on the cheek, before turning on his heel and striding off. Anna stood rooted to the spot, until the bell ringing for Fruhstuck right over her head galvanised her into action. Hurrying through the corridors to the prefects' room, she deposited the box, before quickly glancing in the mirror and rushing to the Speisesaal, where she took her seat at the head of the Lower IVa table and began dishing out breakfast.
Charles, meanwhile, was walking back through the school grounds towards Freudesheim muttering furiously to himself.

"How could you? What the hell did you do that for, you idiot? Don't you have enough problems? What are you going to do now! Idiot! What about Claire? Had you forgotten her?" Ignoring breakfast, he headed towards the san, still muttering angrily under his breath. He stormed in the front door, scowling so blackly that he silenced the greetings on the lips of the people he passed, pushed past his father without even noticing him, and flung himself down in a chair in the office he shared with Laurie Rosomon.

He threw himself at the waiting pile of paperwork, and, his anger slowly abating began to work his way through it.

That afternoon, Lady Gellibrand and her son sat together in Jack Maynard's office.

"You have the results?" Jesanne demanded in her customary business-like manner. Jack nodded. "Is that them? Are they good? Is he going to be OK?" she asked. "What do we need to do? Money is no object, if need be I'll sell Dragon House, we can live out here, it won't be a problem.”

"Mum! You sound like Lois!" Nick protested. "Maybe if you let Doctor Jack tell us?" Jack smiled.

"Thank you Nick. Jesanne, calm down please. You are not helping anyone and there will certainly be no need to sell Dragon House. Now, Nick's results." He turned to a file on his desk.

Halfway through Anna's birthday party, there was a knock at the door. Cecily opened it to reveal one of the maids.

"A telephone call for Miss Lois." Lois, chatting to Anna on the other side of the room, turned pale. Putting her cup down, she walked calmly across the room and out of the door. Cecily followed her, and closed the door firmly behind her.

"Lois?" her friend turned. "I'm here if you need me." Lois smiled weakly and continued towards to study, where she picked up the phone.

"Lois? It's me." her brother said.

"I know. What did he say?"

"It's fine. The tests were negative. But I've to stay in Switzerland for the time being. They say its preventative." Lois felt relief flood through her.

"That's great!"

"I know. Listen, Lois, I have to go. Dr Jack had more to tell mum and I. I just slipped out to phone you."

After a few more seconds, Lois replaced the receiver, and collapsed weakly on the window seat. She stayed motionless for a few minutes, then got to her feet and returned to the party, where Cecily was watching anxiously for her. She saw the sings of tension lifted from her friend's face, and her own heart lightened. It was going to be OK.

Later, Anna, dressed in her gentian blue coat and hat, walked sedately out of the school grounds and along the path towards the Elisehutte. Her mother had telephoned to say she had returned and could Anna come and spend the evening and receive her birthday present? Miss Annersley had granted immediate permission, and Anna had set off. As she approached the path leading off the main road, she noticed for the first time a tall figure coming towards her. As he drew nearer she realised it was Charles, and her heart skipped a beat, then she pulled herself together. He had no feelings towards her. The morning's incident had only been politeness, and it would be better if she cooled the friendship that had sprung up between the over the summer. She would only get hurt otherwise.

Charles had seen her as well, and similar things were running through his head. He must cool off his friendship with this girl who was his sister's friend. Nothing good could possibly come of continuing it. Look how he had lost control that very morning! That was not the way to treat young ladies in polite society. They drew level on the path, and he halted to let her past.

"Doctor Maynard." she said, coolly. Charles hadn't realised how bad the coolness would make him feel.

"Miss James." he replied.

"Please thank your mother for my present. I shall write properly later." Anna said, struggling to fight back her tears. This was awful! What must he think? And he had looked so hurt when she had greeted him so coolly.

"I will." Charles replied, moving on.

He returned to Freudesheim, where he paced around the upper floors, muttering angrily to himself. Joey, seated in the saal, heard him and wondered.

He ended up back in his own room, where he sank down on his bed.

"What were you thinking about?" he asked the wall. "She's eighteen, and you are twenty-six! She showed her feelings quite plainly this afternoon. Don't remember all the talk when Len and Reg got engaged?" The occupants of the Platz had discussed nothing else for months. Reg was so much older than Len, and she was straight out of school. She had hardly known anyone else. Not that that was the case now. There were lots of young people on the Platz, and Anna and Cecily socialised with young men and women alike. Jean Courvoisier, Felix, Mike, the younger Embury boys, the van Ahlen boys, Pierre de Bersac, and Nick Gellibrand, when he was on holiday, were all in their social circle. Then there were the student doctors from the san. One of them had been paying Anna particular attention, until Jack Maynard, at the request of Maria James, put a stop to it. All in all, he knew, the Platz was nowhere near the innocent haven it had been when the triplets had left school. Still, it wasn't anything like what Anna and Cecily would experience when they went to university. And it wasn't like he wanted to get engaged to Anna anyway. Just her friendship would be nice. And if, when she was finished university, she wanted more than friendship, then he would see. For the time being, though, he scolded himself silently; he would remain loyal to Claire. And loyalty to Claire did not include giving his sister's friends birthday kisses!

Anna gathered her books together and made her way rather nervously to the Middles Prep room. She had never had responsibility for the middles before, her piano lessons the previous year had made it necessary for her to take the juniors every week. Despite three years at the school, she was still unsure of her ability to control the girls. Lois and Cecily were well known as stern disciplinarians, but she knew she was more or less an unknown quantity to these girls.

"Miss Annersley wouldn't have made you second prefect if she didn't think you could cope." she told her reflection in the mirror. "So get in there and cope!" Still slightly nervous, she pushed open the door and walked as confidently as she could into the room. About half the middles were gathered in a group around the lockers, while the others were seated at their desks, working away.

"What is going on?" Anna asked in her soft voice, placing her books on the mistress’s desk. The group jumped, and several of the outer members slipped back to their desks. "Get your books and sit down. You should have begun already." Anna said, sitting down herself. She didn't see Heather Blake and Lucy Williamson tucking things into their pockets before they hurried to their desks, significantly, positioned on opposite sides of the big room. She did spot Christina, sitting in the middle of the room working hard. Two further interviews with Christina had brought nothing further from her, and she still walked around the school looking as if she was scared of her own shadow.

The first half of the prep period passed in comparative silence. Anna worked at her harmony in the intervals of attending to the middles work and managed to get a good section of it completed. She was pleasantly surprised, having heard horror stories from the others of middles prep time.

After another ten minutes however, Anna's concentration was broken by a murmur.

"Silence." she said. Another five minutes passed, and then there was an exclamation. Anna closed her harmony and put it to one side.

"Who was that?" she asked. A member of Lower Fourth, Bethany Black, who was seated beside Christina, tentatively raised her hand. "What is wrong?" Anna asked.

"Nothing, Anna." the middle stammered.

"Please stay silent then." Anna replied, settling down to watch the girls for the remainder of the period. In another few minutes, though, Heather arrived with a complicated question about her German. Anna spent a good while with her trying to untangle it, and when they were half-way through there were a series of noises from all across the classroom. She looked up sharply.

"The next girl who makes a noise will spend the rest of her prep time in the corridor." she said, before turning back to Heather's German to finish her explanation. Heather, who knew perfectly well what she had done to get her German into that state, barely listened, instead catching Lucy's eye. Immediately Lucy took another pellet from the collection in her pocket and flicked it across the room, where it hit Christina. She sat up immediately with a yelp, and Anna looked up. Her heart fell when she saw the culprit, but she knew she had to stick to her guns.

"Out." she snapped. Tears brimming in her eyes, Christina got up and left the room.

Anna considered her next move. She knew very little about the middle school girls, other than by reputation. Heather she knew was abnormally clever, and that made it seem even stranger that she should be in such a mess over her German. Lucy, her friend, had only come the previous term, but had a reputation for mischief seldom surpassed in the histories of the school. Len Entwistle considered her worse than Jack Lambert and Emerance Hope, not to mention her own sister Margot.

Dismissing Heather to her desk, she stood up and faced them. "What has been going on in this room?" she asked, knowing immediately that it was the wrong question.

There was a barely stifled giggle from Lucy, followed by another from Heather. Anna considered sending them out as well, but then realised that the logical conclusion of that would be the entire class standing in the corridor. As usual however, giggles were proving infectious, and before she could quite do anything about it the entire class was laughing wildly. The noise brought Miss Ferrars from her classroom next door, where she had been doing some marking.

"What is going on in here?" she shouted above the noise, opening the door and pushing Christina through it in front of her. There was instant silence. She glared around and caught sight of a scarlet Anna standing at the desk.

"This entire class may take an order mark." she said. "You may go, Anna. I will deal with the rest of this prep." Anna, her eyes swimming with tears, stumbled out of the room and made her way to her study, where she sank into an armchair and cried, much to the consternation of Lois. That young woman couldn't even manage her normal stream of questions, but instead dived out of the door and returned within a few minutes with Cecily.

 


#2:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:42 pm


Between them the two girls managed to get the story of the awful prep from Anna, including her unfair punishment of Christina and Miss Ferrars intervention.

"So now Miss Annersley's going to think I'm not fit to be a prefect and I don't blame her and I never want to see a middle ever again." She wound up; sipping the cocoa that Lois had just produced.

"Nonsense," Cecily said. "Do you really think the Abbess is going to let one bad prep stop you being a prefect? And as to not wanting to see them again, you are going to take my prep with them on Monday."

"No I'm not." Anna protested. "I have a piano lesson, and I just told you, I'm never taking their prep again."

"Not next week you don't. Miss Williams has swapped us. So I need you to take my prep."

"Lois can do it. I'll take the juniors."

"No, you are doing it." Cecily replied. "You owe it to Christina to go and find out what's going on. And this is what you're going to do."

On the Monday afternoon Anna walked in to the middle prep room again, and once again gave the orders for seats and silence, then sat down to watch the entire room carefully. She saw Lucy and Heather exchange glances, and settled herself back in the chair to see them better. About ten minutes later, Lucy got to her feet and headed for the desk, her maths prep in a terrible muddle.

"Please, Anna, I don't see where to go here." she said. Anna looked at the book, and remembered what Cecily had said about distraction techniques. She was sure this was another one.

"You may take it to Miss Wilmot." she said. Lucy looked disappointed, but left the room. On her way out she seemed to trip and fall against Christina's desk, knocking over the glass of water that was sitting there. The water spilt over Christina's history textbook and her notebook, destroying the careful notes she had been taking. Christina gave an exclamation and Anna got to her feet. She suspected Lucy's trip had been deliberate, but had no way to prove it, so contented herself with a rebuke and an instruction to be more careful. Christina she sent to Miss Dene with the destroyed books, choosing not to dwell on what Madame Courvoisier would say about them.

"Continue with your work, please." Anna said, giving up any pretence at work and keeping a firm eye on Heather. Heather looked up, saw her gaze, and turned her eyes back to her desk, irritated. Didn't the girl have any prep of her own to do? She and Lucy had been so pleased when they had spotted Anna in Cecily's place, but now all their plans were going to waste. If she didn't stop paying so much attention then how were they going to get anything done? And she seemed to have got wise to their distraction techniques as well. Just then Bethany got to her feet and approached Anna, carrying her Literature book.

"Please, Anna, what does this word mean?" she asked. Anna gave her a careful glance, but decided this was a genuine problem, so looked at the book and began to explain about working things out from context. Seizing this as her best chance, Heather dropped her pen, which rolled under Christina’s desk, as she had hoped. Then, looking as innocent as she dared, Heather raised her hand.

"Yes, Heather?" Anna asked.

"Please may I fetch my pen?" Heather asked. Anna nodded, and turned back to Bethany. Heather got to her feet, made her way across the room, and abstracted the first book that came to hand from Christina's desk while collecting her pencil. Making her way back across the room, she tucked the book back into her desk, and then began to fly through her prep with a speed and accuracy which was the envy of her classmates.

Eventually the bell rang for the end of the period. Anna looked up.

"Lucy, Heather, and Christina remain behind please." she said, as the girls put their books away and filed out to the splashery.

The three girls waited, Lucy and Heather standing together, Christina one her own.

"Wait outside please Christina." Anna said. When she was alone with the other two, she took a deep breath, and asked them simply,

"What is going on?" Both girls stared at her blankly.

"I don't understand." Heather said.

"Lucy, did you deliberately ruin Christina's notes?" Anna asked bluntly, deciding a more Lois-like approach was called for here. Lucy shook her head.

"I tripped, it was an accident." she protested. Anna looked at her carefully. While she was sure that the trip had been deliberate, she was also sure that Lucy was telling the truth.

"I want you to know that all the prefects will be watching you both very carefully." she said. She thought she saw a smirk on Heather's face, but the middle made sure her expression was neutral by the time Anna looked again.

"You may go." she said, seeing that she wasn't going to get anything from them. "Tell Christina to come in." They left the room, and a few seconds later Christina arrived, looking nervous.

Anna seated herself on a desk and smiled at the younger girl.

"Do you have anything you want to tell me?" she asked. Christina hesitated.

"Um...I don't...I think...no."

"Are you sure?" Anna asked. Christina nodded.

"You know where to find me if you change your mind." Anna said. "We'd better go to Abendessen."

She reported to Cecily and Lois later in the evening. Cecily looked serious.

"This is bullying." she said. Lois agreed.

"But we can't do anything unless we catch them or Christina comes and reports them." she said. Cecily nodded.

"But we'll watch them." she said. "I can't go to the Abbess with nothing, but I'll watch and I'll get something. There was no bullying when Mamma led this school, and there was none when Len had this study. There will be none while I'm here."

The other two looked at her, realising quite how angry she was.

"It's half term next week." Lois said. "We'll keep an eye on them until then and do something about it afterwards if we can." Cecily nodded.

"Tell the others." she said, as the clock began to strike and they got up to prepare for bed.

The following morning, lower third had Geography first. Miss Ferrars was not pleased with them, due to the disturbance the week before, and her tone was cold as she instructed Bethany to collect in the prep. Heather smiled. It was Christina's geography prep she has taken the night before, and she had no illusions about how the failure to hand it in would appear. She watched with anticipation as Christina opened her desk, rummaged around, and then, to Heather's disbelief, produced the book and handed it over.

Heather immediately opened her own desk lid and began to rummage. However, it contained nothing but her own books, and she put the lid back down, confused. Someone must have taken the book from her desk and put it back in Christina's. She looked across at Lucy, intending to let her know something had gone wrong, but Lucy seemed absorbed in her books and refused to catch Heather's eye. Disappointed, Heather slumped back in her seat with an audible sigh.

It was half term. Most of the school had gone off on excursions. The two sixth forms, with the invite to Marie's party, were scattered around the platz. Christina, whose parent were visiting Switzerland, was spending the week in Interlaken with them, and, to the amazement of the three senior prefects, Lucy. It appeared that Lucy's parents were friends of Christina's, and the two girls knew each other well from home, so Christina's parents had invited Lucy to join them. Needless to say, thus had caused hot debate in the prefect’s room about Lucy's action through the first half of the term. Unfortunately, the only girl who could have shed some light on this was Meg van Brandt, who was not a prefect. She had been washing her hands on the Tuesday afternoon when she had overheard two girls in the middles splashery.

"Did you take that book out my desk?"

"Why are you asking? Does it matter?"

"Did you?"

"It's not fair. She was my friend."

"Well, you're my friend now, understand? Don't start standing up for her, you've done enough already this half term to get in serious trouble. Forget she was your friend. She's just a snivelling little brat who needs to be put in her place. Thinking she can be friends with me!"

The bell had rung then, and Meg had put the conversation out her mind. She was still feeling sore about not being made a prefect, and judged that she had no right to interfere. She meant to tell Cecily later that evening, but she had forgotten, and with the excitement of the party no one was even thinking about the middles over half term.

It was an unusually warm autumn, and Anna, Cecily and Lois were lying on the Freudesheim lawn chatting together. Charles was reading in a deckchair on the opposite side of the hedge, and amusing himself with the snatches of their conversation that he caught. The three girls was well aware that he could hear, but they were not particularly concerned.

"If I ever marry, I want to marry a man who will be good looking, and who will understand what my music means to me. He will come with me when I tour, and so he'll have to have loads of money, because he won't be able to work." The other two laughed, and Charles raised his eyebrows.

"I won't ever marry." Lois said, defiantly. "It never did mother any good and it won't do me any good. Eventually, Nick will get Dragon House, so I'll be able to travel around the world."

"What about you, Anna?" Cecily asked.

"I'd like to marry." Anna said. "I want to teach though, so I'd want to marry a man who didn't expect me to stop working and look after his house."

"Well, it's possible." Cecily said. "Look at Reg! Now, Anna, what did your mother say about the Courvoisier’s party?" The party! Charles had almost forgotten it. He had received an invite, along with several of the other young doctors, but he hadn't been planning on going. He could hear Anna speaking again.

"She said it would be fine, as long as I had someone I knew to take me and bring me back. That way she knows who I'll be with" Anna said. "She didn't want me going unaccompanied to socialise with all the strange young men." There were noises of delight from Cecily and Lois.

"Did you find someone?" Lois asked. Charles held his breath.

"Pierre offered." Anna replied.

"Good." Cecily replied. "Your mother likes him, lucky he managed to come."

"I like him too." Anna said. The other two laughed at her, but Charles felt his heart sink into his boots.

"What about you, Lois? Any one taking you?" Cecily asked.

"No. That Doctor Jacobs asked me, but I didn't want to go with him. I shall go alone!" Lois finished.

"And you?" Anna asked Cecily.

"Nick's asked me." she replied.

"Nick?" Lois screeched. "My brother?" Cecil jumped up.

"Mamma's calling." she grinned, racing off across the grass with the other two following in her wake. Charles was left alone.

"Pierre de Bersac." he murmured. Well, Pierre was far nearer her in age. And he would inherit that enormous Chateau. There was nothing a poor doctor like himself could do to compete. Not that he was going to anyway, he reminded himself. He loved Claire, and his sister's friends were off limits.

The three girls shut themselves in Cecily's room after dinner to dress. This was the event of the term for the young people on the Platz, and they were very excited. Downstairs, Joey consoled Maria James, who had come over for coffee.

"She'll be fine, Maria. Pierre will take good care of her, and she'll have a wonderful night. She needs to go out more with her friends; otherwise she's going to be completely out her depth when she goes to university. Times are changing now, and we need to accept them. I mean, when I grew up on the Sonnalpe, Madge and Jem would never have dreamed of letting a young man escort me to a party, but now we accept our girls doing that as a matter of course. And if you know who she's with, then you know nothing can happen. Yes, Anna?"

"Bitte, Madam, the telephone." Joey jumped up to answer it, leaving Maria feeling slightly happier. After all, if Anna was accompanied by young men that she had agreed to, then Joey was right. Everything would be fine.

Joey came back in looking worried.

"That was the Pension Caramie. Pierre has slipped on the stairs and twisted his ankle. He won't be able to take Anna tonight."

"She's not going alone." Maria said. "She won't be safe." Joey opened her mouth to argue, but at that moment the three girls came down the stairs, dressed to go out. Cecily wore a pale pink which contrasted with her long black hair and her dark eyes. Lois wore green, and Anna a pale cream. Her long curls fell loose down her back, and he eyes were shining with excitement.

"Anna, Pierre has phoned." Maria said. "He has hurt his ankle and can't accompany you. You will have to stay at home. I am not having you going alone. Anything could happen and you’d have no one to bring you home." The faces of the three girls fell. Tears brimmed in Anna's eyes but she blinked them away resolutely. Prefects didn't cry over silly things.

Just then, Charles appeared from his father's study, carrying a pile of books. He regarded the little scene in the hall, but beyond noticing how pretty Anna looked saw nothing else. Cecily, on the other hand, saw him as the saviour of the evening.

"Chas! Go and get changed, quick, and come and escort Anna to this party. Pierre's gone and twisted his ankle and she can't go otherwise." Charles looked from his sister to his mother to Anna to Maria.

"Would that be ok, mother?" Anna asked. Maria nodded. If anything, Charles was an even better option than Pierre. Being so much older, he would naturally be even more gentlemanly and polite. He could be trusted to look after Anna.

"Chas?" Joey asked. "Will you do it?" He nodded, ran up the stairs two at a time and returned within ten minutes, to find that Nick Gellibrand had also arrived, so they set off immediately for Aldersnest where the Courvoisier twins were waiting to welcome their guests.

It had all happened so quickly that they were at Aldersnest and Charles had provided Anna and himself with glasses of wine before he quite realised what he was doing. They settled themselves in a corner and watched Cecil and Nick dancing. Lois was on the other side of the room, chatting merrily to Marie Courvoisier, so they were alone. Anna sipped at her wine, feeling rather uncomfortable. She hadn't been alone with Charles since the morning of her birthday, and in all her imaginings she had been perfectly at ease with him, chatting comfortably and looking wonderful. Charles was similarly uncomfortable. He wondered if he should ask her to dance, but before he could work up the courage, Jean Courvoisier came over and drew her away into the dancing crowd. Kicking himself, Charles exited through the open French doors and stood on the veranda in the cool evening air, staring out at the panorama of mountains before him. He had been standing barely five minutes when Eugene Courvoisier arrived beside his younger colleague.

"Something stronger?" he asked, offering a bottle and glass. Charles smiled and Eugene poured him a drink. He turned to speak, but was interrupted by his wife calling. "Back in a bit." he laughed. "Help yourself." he added, indicating the bottle. Charles had no idea how long he stood there, or how much he drank, before he heard footsteps coming towards him, and Biddy Courvoisier arrived.

"Charles! I though you couldn't make it!" she smiled.

"I had to come to accompany Anna James, but she's dancing." he replied briefly.

"Why isn't she dancing with you?" Biddy asked, innocently.

"Someone else asked her first." he sighed.

"She's a beautiful girl." Biddy remarked. Charles smiled and turned away as Biddy continued indoors. A few minutes later, Anna, tired of dancing, appeared beside him.

"Charles!" she exclaimed. "I wondered where you'd gone. I haven't seen you for ages. You haven't danced with me yet."

"I'm not very good at dancing." Charles replied, without looking at her.

"You can't accompany me to a party and not dance with me though." Anna persisted.

"I don't like dancing!" Charles snapped. Anna drew back.

"I'm sorry." she said, coldly. She turned to walk away, and Charles, suddenly feeling remorse, called out.

"Anna! Wait!" She turned and stared at him.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I'm sorry." Charles said. "I didn't mean to upset you. Why don't we sit out here for a bit?" Anna shrugged.

"If you want. I'm tired with dancing anyway." They sat down on a bench in a corner.

"It can't be very much fun for you tonight, having to come with me." Charles remarked. "It would have been better if you could have come with someone closer to your own age."

"You're not that much older than me!" Anna protested.

"Eight years is quite a bit." Charles pointed out. He was beginning to feel the effects of his drinking, and was having difficulty concentrating on what Anna was saying.

"I don't feel like you're eight years older than me." she said. He smiled.

"Maybe I don't behave like I'm eight years older than you."

"Maybe." Anna agreed. She shivered, and Charles put out his hand and felt her arm.

"You're cold!" he exclaimed. "Let's go in." Anna shook her head.

"I like it here." she protested. Charles hesitated for a second, then stood up and removed his jacket, wrapping it around her shoulders. "Thank you." Anna smiled. Then, "Charles?"

"Yes?" He liked the way she always called him by his full name, unlike most other people. He realised that he had missed her next comment, and cursed himself for drinking so much. He was hardly a good escort if he got drunk! "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I said, can I ask you something?"

"Of course."

"Why did you come back here to work? Why didn't you stay in England? I thought you were going to be a GP."

"I was." Charles replied. Then, without realising he was doing it, he told her all about Claire, and his change of plans. Anna listened sympathetically, and when he was finished they sat in silence for a while, and then Anna yawned.

"I'm sorry, I'm tired." she explained. "I should get home." Charles rose immediately, then regretted it instantly as the world spun around him and he felt suddenly sick

"Get a grip on yourself!" he muttered, holding out his hand to help Anna to her feet, and taking her arm as much to give himself support as her. In the main room, they found Nick and Cecily also preparing to leave, and Nick offered to escort Cecily back to Freudesheim while Charles took Anna back to the Elisehutte. Lois had gone home an hour before with a headache. Charles accepted gratefully, aware that he was unlikely to be able to maintain a sober front for much longer, and he and Anna set off into the night. They had barely gone any way at all when the heavens opened and the rain poured down. They both broke into a run, and any further opportunities for conversation were lost.

Nick, meanwhile, was only in slightly better state than Charles. Eventually, Cecily, realising how much he had had to drink, took his arm, and, laughing at him, helped him home through the pouring rain.

"You go and get changed and go to bed, now." Cecily said in an undertone when she left him at the top of the stairs. Nick nodded and disappeared in the direction of Mike's room, which he was using for the night to save the walk back to the pension. Opening the door, he stumbled in and glanced around. His overnight bag sat on top of the bed, and he tried for a few moments to open the zip. 'Go to bed', that's what Cecily had said, he thought to himself. And lying back, still fully dressed in his damp clothes, he fell asleep.

The Elisehutte was in darkness when they reached it, still running. They hesitated together in the porch. The run had loosened Anna's hair and it was plastered flat to her head by the rain, while her coat and dress were soaked through. Charles was reminded of Claire, coming into the restaurant soaked, but was surprised that he didn't feel any sadness at the thought. Anna unlocked the door and turned to face him.

"Sorry I can't ask you in." she smiled. "I know it's a horrible night to walk back to Freudesheim, but I'm afraid mother would think it improper for you to wait even until the rain has gone off." Charles nodded.

"That's ok. I understand. I hope you had a nice night."

"Thank you for coming with me." she replied. "Goodnight." Rising on her tiptoes, she kissed him gently. Charles was too shocked to respond, and after a second she pulled away looking hurt and entered the house without looking back. Charles stood for a few seconds at the door, and then, realising that she might be watching, turned and strode down the path and out of the gate. As soon as he was out of sight of the house, he stopped, supporting himself against the nearest tree. Now that Anna was home safely, the amount of alcohol he had drunk hit him like a wave. The Platz spun around him, and he sank to the ground by the side of the road, groaning and feeling very sick. He had no idea how he made it back as far as Freudesheim, remembering only that he had had to stop regularly to be sick, but there it was. Charles stumbled towards the front door, and into the Hall, where Cecily, hearing the noise, came out to meet him.

"Did you get very wet?" she asked. "Will I make us some coffee? Lois is asleep and I think Nick will be too." she turned on the lights and looked at him. "Oh, Chas!" she exclaimed. "How much did you drink? Come on." She took him by the hand and led him upstairs, turning on the bath as she helped him out of most of his clothes, then pushed him in the direction of the bathroom. When he emerged, slightly more like himself, Cecily escorted him to the door of his bedroom and presented him with a large glass of water before retiring to her own. She paused for a moment outside Nick's door, but there was no noise from within, and she decided against entering.

Anna, meanwhile, was sitting on the wide windowsill in her bedroom, wrapped in her dressing gown and holding a large mug of cocoa. She was replaying the events of the night over and over again in her head. She had been so sure...but he hadn't responded at all. She watched the rain, which was still pouring down, and slowly tears began to trickle down her cheeks. She had made a fool of herself, she realised. The best thing to do would be to put the entire night out of her head - if only she could. She didn't feel tired. Resting her head against the window frame, she spent the night staring out across the garden and eventually fell into a fitful and uncomfortable sleep, from which she awoke as the sun was rising.

The following morning the house was empty when Cecily and Lois arose. Cecily went downstairs to make some coffee while Lois decided to treat herself to a warm bath. Cecily had put the coffee on, when she remembered that Charles and Nick might still be asleep. She ran upstairs to check. Charles room was empty, the bed made and the window wide open, but as soon as she opened the door to Nick's room she realised that something was wrong. Nick lay, fully dressed, on top of his bed. His breathing was hoarse and he was mumbling constantly to himself. Putting out her hand to touch his, she realised that he was burning hot, and her worst fears were realised. Just as she
considered what to do, the door downstairs slammed.

"Papa?" she called, desperately. "Chas? I need you!" There were light footsteps on the stairs.

"It's me, will I do?" her brother-in-law asked, before he spotted Nick.

"Oh Reg!" she exclaimed. "It's Nick Gellibrand!" Reg pushed past her and took in Nick condition in a quick glance

"OK. Right, Cecily, go and phone the san, tell them to have a bed ready. Find Lois - she'll have to come until her mother can fly over. And then phone Len and tell her what's happened and I'll be home as soon as I can." Cecily ran to do his bidding, but Lois appeared at that point, and immediatly assumed her usual response to any problem.

"What's wrong? What's happened? Can I do anything? What are you doing? Cecily? Will he be ok? Why is he going to the san?" Luckily, Jack and Charles returned with Bruno from their walk and the three men between them got Nick changed and into the car. Cecily bullied Lois into her clothes and bundled her in beside them, then stood waving as the car pulled away.

A few hours later, Charles returned, looking tired. Cecily was waiting for him.

"How is he?" he demanded. Charles studied his younger sister closely, noting the worried expression on her face and the tearstains on her cheeks.

"He's ill." he replied. "Very ill." he continued, interrupting her impatient exclamaition. "You know he's not been well, that's why he was here. It was preventative, to start with, but now Papa is worried. Jesanne is flying over immediatly, and Lois refuses to leave his side." Cecily went pale, but held herself together.

"Thank you." she replied. "I will speak to Papa when he gets here." She turned and left the room, going upstairs to her own room where she knelt at the little prie-dieu beneath the window, taking her rosary beads in her hands. She ran them automatically through her fingers, feeling for each of the small wooden beads as she recited the well-known prayers in her head. Her room was above the saal, and as she knelt silently, taking comfort from familiar actions, the clouds around the Jungfrau broke and a shaft of sunlight hit the mountain, making the glaciers sparkle and lighting up the shadows. There was a light step behind her and she turned to see her mother
standing in the room.

"Cecily?" Joey asked softly. Cecily got to her feet.

"Mamma - Nick. He's very ill and.."

"I know darling. I've spoken to Chas." Joey said, still in the same soft tone. She sat down on the bed and patted the space beside her. Cecily took it, but continued.

"No, Mamma, you don't understand! It's my fault."

"Your fault?" Joey asked. Cecily nodded.

"I knew how much he'd drunk, we were laughing about it coming home. And I should have gone to check he'd gone to bed, but I was too busy with Chas, and then I was so tired. But oh, Mamma, if he dies it's my fault! I made him ill! And..." She tailed off, unable to speak even to her mother of the deepest things in her heart. Joey put an arm around her daughter, realising how upset she was. Normally Cecily was a composed young woman - only Len could rival her in keeping her temper and emotions under control. This was the most upset Joey had seen her for a long time.

"You did your best darling." she said. "No one is going to blame you. Anyone who could deal with two drunken young men at that hour of the morning, without waking up the entire house, can be excused for not realising one of them wasn't doing what he was told. Cecily, you need to remember, you cannot look after everyone. I know how hard this is for you darling, but remember, you will always find the strength to cope if you pray for it. God will help you, if you are not too proud to ask for His help. And whatever happens will be because of His will. Do you understand?" Cecily nodded. Joey stood up and gave her a hug. "Good. Now take yourself along to the Elisehutte with Bruno and tell Anna and Maria what has happened. They should know." Cecily smiled, and, glad of the chance to be on her own for a while, collected Bruno and left the house. Joey sighed. One unhappy child partially reassured, one to go. And even after almost a year she couldn't find the words to get Charles to speak to her.

Charles himself was also watching the sunlight on the Jungfrau, and thinking over the night before. He was slowly beginning to accept the idea that in his affections Claire had sunk to a back seat, and the woman - or girl – who occupied his dreams had long black curls and sparkling blue eyes, and could be pictured in her shorts, paddling in the stream, or lazing on the grass outside Freudesheim, or scrambling up the mountain paths. In her school coat and hat, drawing back on the path and greeting him so formally. Or in an elegant dress, dancing among the crowds, or with her eyes pooling with tears as they had the evening before. Thinking back, he knew now that what had made him run and change and go to the party the night before was the need to remove those tears, and he wanted to ensure that they would never return. He shook himself firmly. She was a school girl, and he was a grown man. That hould be the end of it. The front door swung open and he went to ask his father for the latest on Nick, but he couldn't completely banish from his mind the picture of her laughing face as she tried to get him to dance.

He pulled himself together. He was due a few weeks holiday from the san. He would take them now. He made a few phonecalls, spoke to his father, and returned to the san to ensure all his case notes were in order. He said goodbye to his patients, and forcing himself not to glance in the direction of Anna's home, walked back to Freudesheim, packed his case, and took a train to Interlaken, where he changed trains and set off on a long journey through the night.

The following morning as Anna put on her school hat, kissed her mother goodbye, and set out on her bicycle to the school, Charles got off the train at Geisalm, and set out to walk around the lake to Die Blumen. He was tired, but he felt happy and content here, with memories of so many family holidays and exciting times. He had no doubts that the Richarson family would be up - with their three young children it would be hard for them to sleep late, and sure enough, when he knocked on the door Con opened it and hugged him.

"Chas!" she exclaimed. "How nice to see you! I had no idea you would get this early. Come and see the girls!" she pulled him inside and into the bright airy room where her family spent most of their time. Her six year old twin daughters were sitting at a low table, eating breakfast, and their year-old sister sat in a playpen, banging her s***n against the bars.

"Jo, Eve, do you remember Uncle Charles?" she asked. The twins, both the image of Con herself, looked up and smiled shyly. "And this is Katharine." Con finished, picking up her youngest daughter and cuddling her. Charles smiled, and knew he was going to enjoy himself here. And indeed, he spent a very enjoyable week with Con and her family. He played with his neices, took long walks around the lake and the surrounding mountains, and found it very relaxing. At the end of the week he set out again, and the following day alighted from his train in Paris. He stood for a few minutes, looking around the station and accustoming himself to the speed of city life after the idyllic days at Tiernsee, when he heard a voice calling.

"Chas? Chas!" he looked around, and grinned at the tall fair man who was running towards him. "How are you?" Stephen asked, taking the case. "I've got the car outside." he explained. A short while later he pulled up outside the appartement building where he and Adrienne lived, and sat back with a sigh.

"I still hate driving in cities." he explained, as the got out and mounted the stairs.

"Charles!" Adrienne cried, when he entered. "How good to see you." She added, embracing him. "How are you? You are still too thin!" Charles smiled ruefully.

"So Con told me." he said, successfully diverting her away from his well being and on to the subject of Con, Roger and their daughters.

It was a few nights later when the three of them were sitting in front of a roaring fire in the lounge, sipping glasses of wine. Charles stared moodily into the flames, aware that his holiday was drawing to a close, and that he would soon have to return to the platz and his job, and Anna. He had thought the two weeks break would have helped him sort out his feelings, but it hadn't worked. Instead of forgetting her, he had pictured her beside him at the Tiernsee, scrambling up the mountains, and wandering around Paris with him. She had been in his thoughts almost constantly. He jumped, as Adrienne reached across and poked him.

"Are you OK?" she asked. "You haven't heard a word we've said."

"I'm sorry." he replied. "I was thinking."

"About Claire?" Adrienne asked, sympathetically. Charles looked surprised.

"No, as it happens. I haven't thought about Claire since - before I left home, I think."

"Well, what, then?" Steve asked. "Or would you rather I left before you said?" Charles shook his head.

"No, no. You might as well stay. I was thinking about Anna James, if you must know." Steve looked puzzled, but Adrienne was quicker.

"Cecily's friend? Small dark girl, quite pretty, lives on the Platz?" Charles nodded.

"Thats her."

"What were you thinking about her for?" Steve asked. Again, Adrienne jumped in.

"What's happened?" she asked. "Have you done something silly?" Charles nodded. Something silly, that was one way of putting it.

"What have you done?" Steve asked, curiously. Charles felt his face burn, with what he hoped was the heat from the fire.

"I think I've fallen in love with her." he replied, quietly. Steve looked shocked. Adrienne bounced up and down in her chair and clapped her hands. Both men stared at her.

"I hoped you would!" she explained. "She was such a nice girl and you got on so well when we saw you in the summer. I'm pleased."

"Yes, that's all very well and good." Steve said. "But there is a problem." Charles nodded.

"I know there is."

"Well I'm sorry." Adrienne said. "But I'm afraid I can't see it."

"Don't you remember Len and Reg? The old cats round about talked of nothing else for months. There were all sorts of rumours. Len was at university but Reg and Mamma suffered for a long time. And there are nearly as many years between Chas and Anna as there are between Len and Reg." Steve pointed out.

"It's also ten years later." Adrienne argued. "And if they love each other then they can come through, can't they?" Steve and Charles looked doubtful. "Don't you think they talked when we got married?" she continued. "We lived in the same house for years! You have to accept that these people will talk regardless."

"There is another problem." Charles said, and briefly explained the events of the party, including his refusal to dance and his drunkeness. Steve stared at him.

"You have a talent, don't you?" he said.

"For what?" Charles asked, puzzled.

"Making a mess of things with women." Steve said bluntly, but Adrienne hushed him.

"You'll just have to ask her, and see how she feels about you." she said. Charles looked horrified.

"I can't do that!"

"You've got nothing to lose." Stephen backed up his wife. "What's the worst that can happen?" Charles thought about it.

"Well, I'll give it until she's finished school." he said. "Then, if I still feel the same, and I think she does too, I'll speak to her." They talked for another few hours, and then retired to bed.

 


#3:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:44 pm


The following morning the two brothers set off together for the train station. As they waited on the platform, Steve returned to the previous night's conversation.

"Listen, Chas, you know what I said last night?"

"What?" Charles asked.

"About you being useless with women."

"Oh. Yes."

"Well, I'm sorry, but you are. Please try and not spoil things this time."

"I didn't" Charles snapped "spoil things the last time! She did, remember? I know Mike told you."

"Don't get angry, I'm only trying to help." Stephen said, "I just want you to be as happy as Adrienne and I are. And you don't have a great track record." Charles considered this. It was true that before Claire there had been strings of girls throughout his university career, and even in his last years at school. For some reason girls seemed to like him, and he hadn't ever objected to that. Stephen was the only one who knew the full extent of Charles' romantic history.

"OK, I don't. So what?" he replied, still annoyed.

"I just...this is Cecily's friend, Chas. Please don't do anything unless you're totally sure. And for goodness sake try and stick to just one woman at a time just now!" Charles grinned at this reference to some of his earlier exploits.

"I haven't even looked at another woman since before the summer." he said, honestly. "I've made my mind up this time, Steve." And there the converstion rested, as the Paris-Basel express thundered into the station and with a quick goodbye Charles joined the crowd around one door.

It wasn't until he was on the train that Charles opened a letter which had arrived that morning. He recognised Cecily's handwriting on the envelope

Dear Chas,

Hope you're fine and all the family is too. Wish I could just take off for weeks whenever it suited me! Oh well, after I have my degree...

But anyway, to return to the point, and rather bluntly, I'm afraid. I know there is something going on between you and Anna. I don't know if its just mutual attraction or something more serious, and she doesn't tell me. But she's been different since half term - shes gone quiet and she only seems to be listening half the time I'm talking. (I know, you're thinking that anyone who listenes to even half the talking I do deserves a medal!) But seriously, did something happen - or not happen - at Marie's party? I think that was when she went like this. I know you like her. I can see it every time you look at her. Please do something about it, Chas. You can't be happy knowing you've made her miserable, and she is quite a lot of the time.

To be honest, it's murder here just now. With Anna behaving like this and Lois forever dashing off the to san to see Nick (he had pneumonia by the way, did you know? They think it might have affected his chest quite seriously.) I don't know what to do with myself. Anna and I have been busy with the Christmas Concert (a carol concert this year, thanks to the arrival of baby Katherine). Some bright spark had decided we have to sing solo's, so we're practising all hours, and you know we're both involved with the choir.

You know what I told you at half term - about me and Nick? Well, it looks like it's all over. He sent me a letter to tell me that it wasn't fair to me to be involved with someone who might never be well again. To be honest, I'm pretty miserable about it. I really liked him, Chas, and I don't know what to do now. He say's I'm not even to go and see him at the san. and I don't know what to do! I hope you come home soon. It's weird not having you around - and I know Anna misses you, even if she won't say so. Shes nuts about you, Chas. (Have to admit, I can't see why.)

Anyway, I have to finish, I have prep to take.

All my love,

C.

Charles sat back, glad he was alone in the carriage, as he was sure he was grinning insanely. Cecily had given him hope that it might be possible to salvage something from the mess they had made of things so far. Staring out of the window at the French countryside, he began to plan.

By the time Charles returned to the Platz, it was well into November and rehearsals for the Christmas Carol concert at the school were in full swing. Anna and Cecily both had solo's to sing, and as the two most musical of the seniors had been given responsibility for the training and accompanying of the choir and the various performers. Lois, who described herself as the most unmusical person ever to pass through the school, had charge of the Hall decoration. They were all working hard, and other than the regular visits Lois paid to Nick, who had now recovered slightly but remained in the san, had no time for out of school activities.

Charles, meanwhile, was looking after a young woman his mother had introduced him to when he arrived home.

"Chas, this is Madelaine. She's a daughter of one of Tante Simone's friends, and she's going to be staying out here for the next few months. Will you look after her, and show her around? You could teach her to ski as well." Charles had agreed, wondering if this was one of his mother's matchmaking attempts. There was no doubt, however, that Madelaine was a beautiful girl, and, as the days passed, he found her very friendly as well. He spent most of his free time showing her around the Platz and the surrounding area, and became concious that she wanted more than just friendship from the relationship. At one point he would have responded eagerly, but he realised with a slight shock that he wasn't the least bit interested in her.

Joey, however, noticed Charles' happier mood and greater enthusiasm for life and relaxed, assuming it was Madelaine who was having the effect and grateful that she had managed to concieve a plan to bring her unhappy son back towards what he had been before.

One Friday morning while Lois was coaching tennis, and Cecily was having a special coaching, Anna sat alone in her study, feeling miserable and tired. She had woken up late the previous night, hearing someone crying. Getting out of bed she had gone straight to Cecily's cubicle. It was the second time she'd had to get up for the same reason and she sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Come on, Cecily." she said softly. "You need to stop crying, you're going to make yourself ill. What is it?"

"Nothing." Cecily said, her voice muffled by her pillow. Anna sighed and pulled her dressing gown tighter around her.

"OK, nothing it is." she agreed. "In that case you can stop crying and go to sleep. Come on, sit up until I turn over your pillow. It's soaked." Cecily sat up and Anna rearranged the pillows and then gave her friend a hug. She was shocked at how thin Cecily felt, and decided to make enquiries the following day about how much her friend had been eating. She had sat beside the bed, talking quietly, until Cecily had fallen asleep, then returned to her own. As a result she was tired and cross the next morning, and in no mood to pay attention to the French Translation she should have been doing.

She was also beginning to think that she had been mistaken about Charles. She had passed him a few times while the school had been walking, but he had said no more than "Good morning" and she was beginning to think that his friendliness the night of Marie's party had been due to the wine he had drunk and nothing else. And the wine she had drunk must surely have been responsible for her kissing him! How often had her mother drilled it in to her that good girls did not behave like that? And yet, when she had seen him standing there, soaking wet, she had been unable to resist. And the worst thing about it was, even although she knew she shouldn't, even although he hadn't responded the last time, and even although her mother would be horrified, she wanted to kiss him again! The worst thing was that Cecily had written to him, telling him what she suspected. She'd only mentioned it afterwards, and she'd told Anna what she'd written, but it was enough to send him running, surely. But there was that girl. Anger stirred in her as she thought of the pretty blond haired girl who was so often with Charles now. Someone he had brought back from Paris, no doubt. She had heard them talking French. She had just reached this point when her attention was caught by voices outside the door.

"No. I'm not going."

"We have to. Before the others get back from the walk and she comes looking for us."

"But they'll never listen. They think I'm a bully."

"Well you were. But you're not now. Come on!"

"I can't."

"Just knock."

"No."

"Well I will."

"But you haven't."

"Nothings going to stop if we don't tell someone. You said yourself Anna wasn't as scary as Cecily."

"I've changed my mind."

"You're not allowed to. Come on."

"No."

Despite herself, Anna smiled. She didn't recognise the voices through the closed door, but she decided they needed some encouragment. Getting to her feet, she crossed the room and opened the door.

"Can I help you?" she asked. Christina and Lucy froze.

"Will you help us?" Christina asked, eventually.

"Of course." she replied. "What do you need help with?"

"We have to tell you about everything." Christina said.

"Come in, sit down and start at the beginning." Anna instructed, pushing her own problems to the back of her mind. The two middles crushed together in Lois' armchair, and Christina began again.

"We were friends at home." she began. "Really good friends. Our parents put our names down for here, and we should have both started this term."

"But my parents had to go abroad," Lucy put in

"So she came last term."

"And Heather was friendly with me and then I though when Christina came,"

"That we would all be friends together."

"But Heather didn't like her and she said,"

"That if Lucy wanted to be my friend she couldn't be hers and if she was her friend then she would be horrid to me."

"But I couldn't be, even though I tried, and she was getting worse and worse and I could see how upset Chris was getting," Lucy stammered, dissolving into tears. Christina put an arm around her and continued,

"Then Heather started saying that she would be horrid to Lucy if she wasn't horrible to me, and we didn't know what to do, and after half term it got worse and worse and we didn't know where else to go and we knew you hadn't gone to the san with Lois and Cecily so..." she started to sob as well and for a few seconds Anna stared at the two little girls, steadily working her way through the confusion of pronouns and feeling nothing but pity for them. They were only twelve after all. When she was twelve, she reflected, she didn't know what the world outside her garden looked like!

"We'll deal with this, girls." she said softly. "I'll have to tell the other prefects, but it will probably go to Miss Annersley and she'll have to decide where it goes from there, but don't worry, Lucy, nobody is going to blame you. You shouldn't have allowed Heather to lead you so much, but you didn't really do anything wrong." Lucy looked up, her face tear stained.

"The water...on her prep." she managed between sobs. "It was an accident." Anna nodded. She had guessed so much as soon as Lucy had appeared at the door.

"I'm going to take you both to the san." she said. "Then you can have a sleep and you'll feel much better when you wake up." Putting one arm around each of them, she carried out this plan, and, with the nurse's permission, sat between the two little beds until both girls had fallen asleep. Then she took a deep breath and went downstairs to the prefects’ notice board in the main hall, and using her privileges as second prefect, pinned a note to it.

"All prefects to attend an urgent meeting immediately after Mitagessen today."

Anna arrived in the prefects room at the appointed time, to find all her aolleagues but Cecily present. Assuming she would be on her way, the girls took their seats and chatted quietly, until Lois suddenly realised that it was a quarter of an hour since the end of mittagessen. She leant across the table and touched Anna's arm, then gave a meaningful lok at the clock and inclined her head towards Cecily's chair. Anna's eyes widened as she realised the time, then Lois gestured towards her and then the empty chair.

"You have to." she hissed. "She's obviously not coming. It's your job." Her heart pounding, Anna moved around one seat and took the head of the table. Immdeiatly the other girls stopped talking and all eyes turned to her. She took a deep breath, and started

"Obviously Cecily has been detained somewhere, so I'll take over for now. Daphne, would you mind acting as secretary?" Daphne nodded and moved around the table to Anna's now empty seat and picked up her pen. Anna gave a summary of the story Christina and Lucy had told her and then sat back. The other girls all looked very grave. Normally at this point Cecily would take the lead, but she wasn't there to open the discussion. Anna had been worried about her - she was pale and losing weight, and it was only a matter of time before Matey noticed how often she pushed her meals around her plate rather than eating them.

"It is bullying." Gretchen said, finally, when no one else seemed to speak. "We cannot deal with that. It is too big." Her twin agreed.

"I remember Carlotta once said that her Tante Gisela had told her that the mark of a Chalet School Prefect is to know when something is too big. And she should have known." They all nodded. Gisela Marani was the first name on the school honours board, and they all knew she was Carlotta's Aunt.

"I think we need to go to the Head." Anna proposed when it became apparent that no on else was going to speak. "I propose that Cecily, Lois, Gretchen, Marie and I go after Abendessen tomorrow evening. She's out today at a meeting in Interlaken." Marie and Gretchen, who had both noticed similar events in their prep as had occurred in Anna's agreed, as did Lois.

"Will Cecily bother to turn up?" Frances, one of the sub-prefects asked.

"Of cours she will." Lois snapped. "She's just forgotten the meeting or been held up, thats all."

"I think that's that then." Anna said, interrupting before Frances could argue. "I'm sure Miss Annersley will be able to clear it up. Now, if you'll excuse me?" She got up and hurried out of the room.

Becca sighed as she closed the door.

"Gone to see Cecily." she said. Beth nodded.

"Cecily is very distant these days. She's hardly been paying any attention to what's been going on in the school and the kids are starting to notice." Joanna agreed.

"They are getting worse. She needs to be on top of things and she's not at the moment. She did so well last half term too!"

"Anna's doing most of the choir training." Marie observed. "And she's been accompanying the orchestra as well. Cecily keeps forgetting to turn up."

"Anna doesn't look very well either." Lois put in.

"Cecily hasn't been eating." her cousin stated. "She'll be in trouble with Matey if she gets spotted."

"She'll be in trouble with more than Matey if she doesn't pull her socks up." Beth said sadly. "Miss Annersley won't want a Head Girl who doesn't care any more, and she doesn't seem too."

"Should we tell Mamma?" Phil asked. Her cousin rounded on her.

"No!" Daphne snapped. "You can't solve everything by telling Auntie Jo. If Cecily wanted her to know, then she would have told her herself. You run to her for everything Phil and its about time you learned to stand on your own feet!" Phil was silenced abruptly, and Frances gave her a sympathetic look.

"Anna might be able to get through to her." Lois said hopefully.

"I hope so." Marie said as the bell rang for afternoon lessons. The girls with classes hurried to their respective rooms and the others pulled out their books.

Meanwhile, in Cecily's study, Anna was angry.

"Do you want to tell me what's wrong with you, or do I have to guess?" she asked. Cecily, startled out of her daze by the unaccustomed note of anger in Anna's voice.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Anna groaned.

"You pay no attention to your job, your duties, your work or the school. Lois and I are picking up half the things you should be doing, while you spend your time floating around in a daze! And now you don't even turn up for a prefects meeting? Did you not see the notice I put up? Now are you going to tell me why?"

"I'm not having a very nice time at the moment." Cecily replied lamely. Anna stared at her.

"You're not having a nice time? Lois is watching her twin brother struggle to get better, and she doesn't know if he ever will. I'm seeing...well, never mind. Do you want to tell me why you "aren't having a nice time"?" This last almost bettering Miss Wilson for sarcasm.

"Lois isn't the only one who cares about Nick." Cecily replied, sullenly.

"I know that." Anna said softly. "We all care. But you can't let it take over your life. You have other responsibilities." Cecily looked sullen and Anna changed her tune. "Look, Cecily, I'm going to be blunt. The middles and the juniors are running riot because you don't know whats going on. It's only a matter of time before Matey spots that you're not eating. Equally before Miss Annersley realises you're not behaving like a head girl should. You could lose everything, Cecily. I'm your friend and I don't want to see that happen. Now there are going to be questions asked if you don't come to the study with us tomorrow. If you want to talk to me before then, I'll be in the music room - I have to do some practice. But I'm warning you, Cecily, this can't go on." she walked out, leaving Cecily, with tears pricking at the back of her eyes, to pull out a letter from her desk drawer. Lois had delivered it unsuspectingly, but it had brought Cecily's world crashing down around her shoulders.

"Dear Cecy,

"Sorry I have to write, but I don't think I could trust myself to say this to your face. You know how things stand. There's no guarantee I'll ever recover fully, and I might have to stay up here for most of the rest of my life. So all those plans we made over the summer, and during half term – we can't do any of them. I've ruined them by my own drunken stupidity. I'm sorry darling. How can we travel if I have to stay here? I know you're going to need to travel, with your career and all - and if I can't come with you then what's the use of what we planned?

"Go to London and Paris, and become as famous as I know you can. You'll be great, I know you will. I'll be watching you - I might even come and hear you play someday. Don't come to the San again now. I've told the nurses that only Mum and Lois are to get in, so don't even try. I don't think I could cope to see you - you have to see that it's for the best.

"Please don't be sad. You will still have a wonderful life and a tremendous career. Maybe - when it doesn't hurt so much - we could be friends again. You have to see that I'm trying to do what's best for both of us, and this has been the hardest letter I've ever written.

"Nick."


She read it through again and again. He didn't want her. He had changed his mind. She considered taking to to show Anna. She knew her friend was only trying to help. Thinking of this, she burst inot tears and sobbed for ten minutes continuously. Feeling sligtly better afterwards she made her way to the music room where she knew Anna would be. She paused outside to listen. There was no point in going in if Anna was still in a temper. She listened for the loud, crashing music she expected, but instead realised Anna was working on something of her own compostion, which sounded quiet and relaxed. Entering quietly, she stood just inside the door watching her friend play. Anna had her eyes shut and she looked much calmer than she had a quarter of an hour before. Cecily waited until she had finished playing before speaking.

"Anna?" she asked, a sob catching in her throat. Anna got to her feet and hugged her tightly.

"I'm sorry." she said. "I shouldn't have shouted. I was worked up about this stuff with Charles, I suppose. Do you want to talk?" she asked gently. Cecily nodded and pulled a chair beside the piano stool. Wordlessly she handed over the note and Anna read it quickly.

"Oh Cecily." she said softly, when she had finished. "Why didn't you say anything?" Cecily shrugged.

"What was there that anyone could do?" she asked.

"We could have listened." Anna said.

"I couldn't tell Lois."

"No, maybe not. But you could have told me. I'm glad you have, now."

"What do you mean?" Cecily asked. Anna smiled.

"If you can interfere in my love life, then I can interfere in yours. I've spend at least half of every holiday for the past three years with Nick, and I know him. I could see how much he liked you. I couldn't tell if you liked him though - you were too good at hiding it. This letter is a load of nonsense. Will you cover my prep this afternoon?" Cecily nodded. "Thanks." Anna said, giving her a hug. "I'm going out."

"I'm sorry about the meeting." Cecily said, honestly. "I'll apologise to the others as well. I just was thinking and I didn't realise the time." Anna smiled.

"It's fine." she said. "I managed." Then she picked up her music books and hurried out to the san.

A short time later the San receptionist vaguely noticed a young woman in Chalet School coat and hat pass. She was busy arguing with a young man on the telephone and paid no attention to her. Anna hurried through the corridors, trying to remember where Lois had told her Nick's room was. She found it reasonably quickly and let herself in. Nick was sitting up in the bed, a book in his hands, but was staring idly at the wall. He looked round, expecting a nurse.

"Anna!" he exclaimed, as she threw off her coat and hat. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to see you." Anna replied, looking him over. He was thin and pale, and for a moment she felt sorry for what she was about to do. But the memory of Cecily's red eyes and the despair in her voice spurred her onwards.

"Have a seat." he suggested, waving towards one. Anna pulled it up to the side of the bed.

"I'm here about Cecily." she said, going straight to the point. Nick's face fell.

"You shouldn't know anything about it." he said, "And I don't want to talk about Cecily."

"You don't have to." Anna replied. "I'm going to. She's making herself ill, Nick. She's not eating, she's not sleeping, she's pale and she's lost weight. And it's your fault."

"Its not." he replied, looking uncommonly like Lois in one of her bad moods. Luckily Anna had had over three year’s experience of dealing with the Gellibrand twins and she ignored it.

"It is. She's been unhappy since you sent her that note. Now I don't know what you were referring to in it, but I can guess, and to tell her by letter - in fact to tell her at all - was well out of line. Do you know she blames herself for you being in here? She thinks she should have checked on you that night after the party and because she was too tired she didn't and you got ill. Twice I've had to get up at night when I've found her crying herself to sleep. It doesn't take a genius to see that she’s mad about you, Nick. If you don't come round then she really is going to be ill."

Nick looked concerned, and Anna left him to think about her words while she wandered around the room, tidying up some things and looking at the cards he had received. Tucked into one she found a small photo of Cecily, and she took it and placed it on the small table beside his bed. He reached out and gripped her wrist as she went to turn away.

"Are you sure she cares?" he asked. Anna nodded. "But I'm...I could have to spend all my time...I might never get better! Dr Maynard said that the pneumonia has weakened my lungs further and they don't know if I'll ever be completely strong again. How can I ask anybody to live with that? Who would want to?" Anna knelt down beside the bed and took his hands in hers.

"Nick, if it was Cecily who was lying here, what would you do?" He looked at her with a glimmer of understanding. "She wants to be with you, Nick, not anyone else. She's miserable without you. Just let her come and see you?" he nodded.

"She can come. I'm not promising to change my mind about the things I said, but yes, I would like to see her." Anna smiled and hugged him.

"Thank you." she said. "Now, I have to go. I'll see you tomorrow; I don't suppose Cecily will want to come along here herself. I'll leave you in peace, though!" she laughed, and was rewarded with a smile that looked almost like one of his old ones. After a few more words she departed, and he was left alone. He slept better that night than he had for a long time, the vague feeling of guilt having lifted. When he opened his eyes the next morning the first thing he saw was the photo of Cecily, and he felt a surge of joy. Nearly five weeks since he had seen her! Cecily, when Anna broke the news of their afternoon trip, was similarly pleased, although apprehensive about visiting.

"Are you sure he wants me to come?" she asked, for the tenth time, as they made their way along the road.

"Of course he does." Anna replied. But there was something else worrying Cecily.

"Anna? Can we stop a minute?" Anna obediently halted, though they were running late and she knew Nick would be anxious.

"I haven't seen anyone in hospital since Phil was ill when she was young." Cecily said quickly. "What is he like? Does he look...bad?" Anna thought for a second.

"He's very thin and pale. You can see he's been ill. But he's still just Nick, Cecily, I promise." Slightly reassured, Cecily continued on.

Nick, meanwhile, was watching the clock. He had agreed to get up that day and was sitting in an armchair beside the window. Three o'clock came...and passed...ten past three...

"Where are they?" he muttered, but just as he did so there came the tap of feet in the corridor and he stood up, holding on to the arm of the chair as Anna opened the door. She smiled at him, but Nick had eyes only for Cecily, who came in behind her.

Cecily herself came forward rather nervously, and sat down beside him. Anna decided that it would be a good time for her to leave, and made her way to the cafeteria, where she sat down with a coffee beside the window.

"If only things worked as well for me." she murmured.

"Penny for them?" asked a voice in her ear. She knew who it was instantly. No one else made her stomach feel like it had just turned over.

"They're not worth it." she smiled.

"Do you mind if I join you?" Charles asked.

"Of course not, Doctor." Anna replied primly. Charles nearly hit his head off the table, then remembered Adrienne's words. 'What have you got to lose?' he thought.

"Please, Anna." he said. "Don't start this again. Surely - after that night at the party - you can call me Charles. Aren't we friends?" She nodded.

"I'm sorry." she said. "I...I wasn't thinking about that night." She hesitated over the lie.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, to change the subject.

"We came to see Nick - Cecily and I."

"Cecily?" he asked, glancing around.

"She's with Nick." Anna said, meaningfully. Light dawned on Charles.

"I see." he said flatly.

"Don't interfere, please!" Anna said, conveniently forgetting that that was exactly what she had been doing.

"Interfere?" Charles smiled. "What makes you think I would?"

"She's your little sister." Anna said. "I know you'll say something to him. Please, just leave them alone." Charles laughed.

"Alright, alright!" he said, pulling his chair around towards her to let someone past. She looked up into his face, and was acutely conscious of how close he was. At once the desire to kiss him returned, and she struggled against it, not realising that beside her Charles was struggling against the same feeling.

"Anna?" He began. She looked up, but before he could go any further a nurse dashed in to the room.

"Doctor Maynard? Doctor Maynard! We need you!" Charles leapt to his feet, overturning his coffee cup and ran out of the room after her, leaving Anna alone. She mopped up the coffee and then realised that it was time for her and Cecily to leave. She collected her friend and they walked back to the school, Cecily talking most of the way, which meant that Anna's silence went unnoticed.

The next few weeks flew past. The Carol concert was a tremendous success, with Anna conducting the choir and Cecily as accompanist. For Cecily's solo they switched places, and Anna accompanied. The last days of term had past and it was a cold and windy morning when Cecily, Phil, Claire, Anna, and Lois made their way to Freudesheim for the holidays. Maria had invited Jesanne and Lois to spend Christmas with her and Anna, but Joey had then invited them all to Freudesheim and they had accepted, and the girls were all heading there from school initially.

They found their mothers drinking coffee in the saal, and after greeting them and chatting for a while, Joey suggested they should go upstairs where Rosie and Megan Entwhistle were making the acquaintance of their Richarson cousins, Con and Roger having arrived that morning for Christmas. Anna and Cecily accepted, while Phil and Claire went off on some plan of their own and Lois accompanied her mother to the san. They were hoping to bring Nick to Freudesheim for Christmas, and were going to see if arrangements could be made. Nick himself was almost fully recovered and was beginning to protest at spending all his time in the san. He was eager to return to Freudesheim, where Joey had offered to put him up until he was well enough to travel to England or other arrangements were made.

Anna and Cecily were soon involved in a riotous game of hide and seek with the children, which kept them occupied until the bell rang for lunch. At one point Anna, running along the upstairs corridor, tripped and crashed into Charles who was coming out of a small room. He put his arms out automatically to stop her fall and she landed against him.

"Sorry." she gasped, standing up. "I wasn't looking where I was going."

"It's OK." Charles replied quietly. He hadn't released his hold and she hadn't tried to pull away. His resolutions and conversation with Adrienne forgotten in an instant, he bent his head towards her.

"Got you Anna!" Rosie Entwhistle shrieked, appearing round the corner. Anna quickly pulled herself free.

"Not fair." she protested. "I tripped and your Uncle Charles was just helping me up. You should give me another chance!"

"No!" Rosie shouted, taking off down the stairs again. "I caught you!" Anna considered turning back, but Charles had had a chance to pull himself together and had vanished.

"Probably just imagined it anyway." she muttered to herself. "I've got so obsessed with kissing him I think he's interested in me too."

 


#4:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:44 pm


The gong rang for lunch just then and she hurried to make herself tidy.

"He's coming tomorrow!" Lois shrieked, as soon as she spotted her friends. "And your hair's coming down Cecily and Anna has something on her cheek and what have you been doing? Come on, be quick, lunch is ready!" she talked incessantly while they were tidying themselves up and was only silenced during the meal by a sharp look from her mother. After they had finished Anna contrived to draw Cecily off by herself.

"Does she know anything about you and Nick yet?" she asked. Cecily chewed her lip.

"No." she admitted finally.

"Don't you think it’s about time she did? She's hardly likely to not notice when the two of you are in the same house."

"I'll tell her." Cecily said, but she didn't sound as though she meant it.

"You have to." Anna said. "She'll go up the wall otherwise; you know what she's like!" Cecily nodded. It was true that Lois was unreasonably possessive where her brother was concerned.

"What about you?" she demanded. "What are you doing about Charles?"

"Why should I be doing anything about Charles?" Anna asked, as innocently as she could. Cecily rolled her eyes.

"Don't start." she warned "I know there's something going on."

"There isn't." Anna replied, perfectly truthfully if somewhat ungrammatically.

"Well there should be!" Cecily said. Anna shrugged.

"You need to talk to Lois." she said calmly. "Don't panic. I'll tell you if anything happens, ok? But it won't." she added. Cecily grinned.

"That's what you think!" she said.

Cecily found Lois in her room, unpacking her bag.

"Lois? Can I have a word?" Lois looked up.

"Of course! What's up?" Cecily sat down on the bed.

"It's...well, it's about me and Nick." she said. Lois' smile vanished.

"What do you mean, it's about you and Nick?" she asked suspiciously. Cecily took a deep breath.

"It's...well...we...we like each other." she finished lamely. Lois looked angry.

"Are you trying to tell me that you're going out with my brother? My twin!" She was slowly turning red. "How could you! You're supposed to be my friend!" Cecily flinched. She hadn't expected this level of anger from Lois. Silently she nodded her head. Lois began picking up the things she'd unpacked and stuffing them back in her bag.

"What about Anna? Did she know?" she demanded. Cecily nodded again.

"How could you!" Lois shouted again, beginning to cry. Her voice attracted Jesanne from downstairs. "How could you do that? And you all kept it a secret! You and Nick and Anna! You're supposed to be my friends! And you've stolen my brother!"

"What are you doing, Lois?" Jesanne asked from the doorway.

"Getting out!" Lois said, rapidly becoming hysterical. "I don't want to be in the same house as any of them!" and picking up her bag she pushed past her mother and ran down the stairs. After a few seconds they heard the bang of the front door.

"She'll be at the Elisehutte. Nice and cold by the time Maria and I get there." Jesanne smiled. "Don't worry about her. Are you ok?" she asked, coming over and putting her arm around Cecily. Cecily nodded her head, and then shook it, as Anna appeared in the doorway.

"Was that Lois?" she began, before she spotted Cecily and Jesanne. "She wasn't impressed then?" she asked, taking the space on Cecily’s other side and putting her arms around the weeping girl.

"Were you telling her about you and Nick?" Jesanne asked. Over Cecily's head, Anna caught her eye and nodded. "He told me yesterday when I was visiting." Jesanne explained, as Cecily slowly calmed down. "Don't worry about it Cecily, Lois will come round in the end."

The following morning, Charles cornered his sister in her room. It had taken him a long struggle with his pride to go to her for help, but he had finally realised he was getting nowhere relying on chance encounters.

“Cecily?” he asked, sticking his head round the door. “Have you got a minute?”

“For my favourite love struck big brother? Of course.” she said with a grin, looking up from her book.

“If you’re going to tease I’m going away.” he said. She shrugged.

“Go away if you like. You need my help – I don’t need yours.” he realised the sense in what she said.

“Alright, you can tease.” he said, coming in and sitting down on her bed. “I need you to help me.”

“What do you want?” she said. “I won’t tease. If you weren’t serious you wouldn’t still be here.”

“I want some time alone with her.” he said, desperately. There was no need to specify who. “Please Cecily. Just five minutes.” she nodded.

“I’ll see what I can do. And I’ll do it as soon as I can.” he smiled.

“Thanks.”

“No problem.” Cecily said. “My reward is that you don’t quiz Nick at all – and you stop Steve and Felix doing it as well.” He laughed.

“As long as he treats you well, then.” he said, with a smile at his favourite sister and left the room. Cecily turned her mind to her new problem, her book lying forgotten at her side.

Lois remained in her bad mood for the next few days, and only agreed to come back to Freudesheim on Christmas Day. Most of the Maynard family was present and it was a riotous day. The snow had been falling overnight, and it was freezing as they piled into the car which Charles had brought to pick them up. The morning was spent at Church, and exchanging and examining presents. After lunch they all settled down with books and games and spent a quiet afternoon.

Jack Maynard sat back in his chair and watched the young couple with their heads bent together over a book Charles had received for Christmas. Then he started as he realised what he had just thought. Young couple? His eyes flicked anxiously to Maria, but she was deep in conversation with Jesanne and appeared far more relaxed than normal.

"Chas, can I have a word in the study?" he asked.

They settled into Jack's armchairs and Jack poured them both a drink.

"What did you want?" Charles asked. Jack seemed to be deep in thought.

"Do you know when I fell in love with your mother?" he asked. Charles shook his head, feeling rather uncomfortable and wondering where this was going. "She was at school, in her final year." Jack began, and Charles suddenly knew exactly where this was going.

"That was over 30 years ago." he pointed out. "This is 1970 - nearly 1971, in fact."

"Morals shouldn't change with time, Chas." Jack said. "The point I am trying to make, and that you seem to have picked up, is that Anna is a schoolgirl and you are a grown man with your own life! You cannot get involved romantically with her."

"It was ok for Len and Reg." Charles pointed out. "I don't want to get engaged to Anna. I don't think that’s fair until she's been somewhere where she can live her own life and decide what she wants. But if we want to be friends then there's nothing anyone can do about it."

"Chas, don't be so stupid." Jack groaned. "I appreciate what you're saying, and I respect the mature stand that you're taking on this. But you know what Maria James is like. Stefan was your friend, you must know."

"Did you sack him? Did she ask you to?" Charles asked in a low voice. It was true that his friend had been paying Anna attention at the beginning of the previous summer, and had left the san. shortly afterwards. Jack shook his head.

"Stefan was a good doctor, Chas. I wouldn't have sacked him. What I did do was ask him not to be so friendly with Anna because it was making her mother uncomfortable. He left of his own accord. He handed in his resignation the next day."

"I see." Charles was thoughtful. "I don't think you should have done that." he said eventually. Jack shrugged.

"Maybe not. But it's done now. My point is that Maria is not going to take any more kindly to you than she did to Stefan."

"If that's the case I'll deal with it when it arises." Charles said. "I'm not being stupid, Dad. I appreciate what you're trying to say. And thanks for the warning. I'll be careful. But I'm going to live my life my own way, not the way you did at my age." Jack nodded.

"I see. There's nothing more to be said then." Charles got up.

"Thanks." he said, awkwardly, as he left the room. It had stopped snowing earlier in the afternoon and over the course of the afternoon and evening the snow had frozen. When Charles got back to the saal, Cecily pounced on him.

"Chas! Anna and Nick and I are going for a walk. Do you want to come?" Charles looked uncertain. He knew what Cecily was doing and wanted very much to join them, but with his conversation with his father fresh in his head he wasn't sure if he should.

"Would you mind, Charles?" Jesanne asked. "I'd feel happier if you could keep an eye on Nick."

"Who is not a child and does not have to be spoken about like he's not here." that young man himself put in. "Do you want to come Lois?" She shook her head without looking up from her book. She hadn't forgiven any of them yet for not telling her about Cecily and Nick, and she was almost unbearably jealous that she was no longer first in her brothers eyes. Charles agreed to join them and after changing into suitably warm clothes the little group set out.

"Now Chas." Cecily said, as soon as they were out of sight of Freudesheim. "I know you're supposed to be keeping an eye on Nick, but I'm sure you can do it admirably from over in that direction." She waved a mittened hand towards the edge of the Platz. "Especially since Nick will be in that direction." another mitten was waved towards the path which led around the back of the mountain. Charles, who had been expecting something of the kind, laughed and agreed that it did indeed seem to be a good observation point, and Cecily tucked her hand through Nick's arm and pulled him away.

"And you're stuck with me again." he said to Anna as they wandered towards the edge of the mountain.

"I don't mind." she replied, feeling almost unbearably nervous. Her stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots and she was trembling. She cast a glance back in the direction they had come, but Freudesheim was out of sight around a corner. 'She can't see you.' she thought firmly to herself. 'She’s having a glass of wine with Jesanne, she doesn't know what’s going on.' Charles caught her glance and saw her lips moving.

"Did you saw something?" he asked.

"Talking to myself." Anna replied. "Isn't it lovely here in the snow? I don't think I could ever get used to it." Charles smiled.

"I've lived here for twenty years and never got used to it." he replied. "Come this way." He put his hand on her arm and drew her through the trees and out almost to the fence which ran around the edge of the shelf, and Anna gasped at the view. The clear sky and the reflection of the moon and star light on the snow meant that they could see for miles, and the panorama of snow covered mountains stretched out before them was breath taking. The Chalet school was not in the habit of allowing its pupils out at night at any time, let alone in the snow, and Anna had never seen the mountains at night before.

"Steve and Adrienne found this place when they were keeping things secret." Charles continued. "It's good because its out of sight of Freudesheim, and the school, and the san, in fact everywhere and you can't see it from the road either..." he stopped, aware that he was babbling. 'Get a grip on yourself!' he thought angrily 'you've never behaved like this with any other woman - why Anna?' 'because every other woman has been chasing you rather than the other way around' said a tiny voice of truth at the back of his head. Charles ignored it. "Will we sit down?" he asked "I know its cold but we could sit for a bit if you want."

"Sit down?" Anna asked. "In the snow?"

"No." he replied "here" and he moved a few feet into the trees, and seated himself on a large rock that was lying there. Not sure now if she was trembling with nerves or excitement, Anna went to sit beside him. Slowly and nervously Charles put his arm around her. Anna moved slightly closer, and it was then that he felt her shaking.

"Are you cold?" he asked, concerned. She shook her head.

"No, not at all. Are you?" He looked surprised.

"No, why?"

"Because you're shaking too." she replied. "Why?"

"Because I'm nervous." Charles replied honestly, deciding just to get things over with. Anna looked like she expected him to continue. "I owe you something." he continued. "Two things in fact."

"Do you?" she sounded puzzled, but he was sure she wasn't. Surely she must know how he felt. And then it suddenly struck him that if he was shaking through nerves then so was she, and his confidence increased slightly.

"Yes." he continued. "I owe you an apology for the way I behaved at the party at half term. I got drunk and made a fool of myself, and if we'd stayed at the party any longer then it would probably have been in front of you."

"It's alright." Anna replied.

"The other thing I owe you..." he began again, and she suddenly realised what he meant as he turned her face towards him and pushed back the fur lined hood she was wearing before he bent his head and kissed her gently.

"I shouldn't have done that." he said, a few minutes later.

"Why not?" Anna asked.

"Because you're only 18! You're still at school!"

"So?" she asked, beginning to sound angry.

"And I'm not." he continued

"Do you think I care what age you are?" she asked, on the verge of losing her temper. "Do you think I wanted to go to the party with you for a joke? I kissed you then - and here - for fun? Do you think you can just do what you like with me, Charles Maynard?" she had pulled away from him and now crossed to the fence again, leaning on it. As he approached he realised she was crying and kicked himself for bringing up their age difference.

"Anna." he began, nervously. She didn’t move and he walked up to her and put his arms around her. She turned in his grasp until she was facing him and buried her face in his jacket.

"Don't say anything like that again." she said. He shook his head.

"I won't, I'm sorry."

"I don't care what age you are. I don't care how many times you tell me." He held her tightly as she spoke. "Do you know how long I've liked you for?" she continued. He shook his head. "Over a year," she answered her own question. "Since just after you moved back here. Do you really think you're going to change my mind by reminding me that you're older than me?" she looked up and he was relieved to see she was smiling.

"I suppose not." he replied, and kissed her again.

Nick and Cecily wandered towards the back of the shelf, their arms around each other. Cecily was chatting as they walked, and Nick looked down at her - Cecily, at 5'6" was the smallest member of her family. Her eyes were shining, her cheeks and the tip of her nose red, and the ends of her black curls were escaping from under her hat.

"How could I ever have thought I could let you go?" he asked. "It would be like cutting off my arm!" Cecily smiled.

"Thank God for Anna." she said softly. Nick laughed.

"Yes. Although that was the last thing I thought when she turned up in my room that day. I was feeling awful and I just wanted sympathy, and Anna bounced in to give me one of her tongue lashings!"

"She fixed things though." Cecily said. He nodded.

"I'll always be greatful to her for that. If only Lois could be fixed so easily."

"Do you think she'll ever come round?" Cecily asked, sadly. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I know what she's like. She'll come round in the end. I think it's worse because it's you - you're her friend and I'm her twin. She's just stubborn. She's probably sitting back there desperate to be friends but no knowing how to go about it. She never was any good at saying sorry."

"She's still not going to like it though, is she?" Cecily said. "I mean, she might outwardly be ok with it, but she'll never be happy for us."

"She might." Nick said. "Give her time. Did I tell you, I'm trying to convince your Dad to let me go to University next year after all? I did all my exams last year, same as you all, so I could get in alright so long as I get cleared medically."

"What's he saying?" Cecily asked.

"Not just now...We'll see...Nearer the time," Nick replied. "You know the stuff."

"Chas says Dad's really out of date with some things." Cecily replied. "I've heard them arguing over cases before." Nick shrugged.

"I don't really know anything about it."

"I'm getting cold." Cecily said. "Do you reckon we've given them enough time?" Nick shrugged.

"Depends on how much courage Charles has got." Cecily laughed.

"They'll be there all night." she giggled. "Chas is desperate to ask her, but terrified she’s going to say no. Come on, we'll turn round and by the time we get back they might be done."

"What about your mother?" Charles asked, as they made their way back to meet Cecily and Nick.

"Don't say anything." Anna implored. "I'll tell her when I think she'll take it ok. We'll keep it a secret."

"Will you tell Cecily?" he asked, unsure if he wanted his little sister dissecting his love life.

"Of course." Anna replied with a quick smile. "Unless there's anything you don't want me to tell her?" He shook his head, realising suddenly that he felt deliriously happy, and didn't really care who knew about anything. They were still alone, and far enough from Freudesheim that it didn't matter, so to Anna surprise he picked her up and swung her round in a circle before kissing her again.

As they resumed walking again, they heard voices behind them and turned to see Cecily and Nick running through the snow towards them. Charles cast an anxious eye over Nick when they arrived, but other that a shortness of breath he would not previously had had he didn't see any problems. Nick, however, saw the look.

"I'm fine!" he muttered as they fell in behind Anna and Cecily.

"I'm just doing my job." Charles replied quietly. "And I could be making your life hell just now." he added, with a meaningful glance at Cecily, "so just let me get on with it." he finished with a grin which Nick returned.

"Fair enough." the younger man said. "I don't have to like it though!" Cecily herself turned at the point and pulled Charles forward to walk with her.

"I'm not going to ask." she said, as they walked on.

"I'm not going to tell you." her brother replied.

"Fine. But if you want to get away with it I'd wipe that grin of your face before we get back home. Mamma might have had too much wine by now but Steve and Adrienne will be on you like a flash." Charles took her advice and tried his best to remove the grin from his face, failing utterly. Cecily shrieked with laughter at the faces he was making, and the other two caught them up just as they reached Freudesheim again.

"Tell me, tell me, tell me!" Cecily demanded, bouncing on her bed in her pyjamas, as soon as they were alone. Anna finished removing the pins from her hair and shook it out, then smiled, picked up her washing things, and vanished to the bathroom, leaving her friend with her curiosity unsatisfied. Left alone, Cecily began to brush out her own hair, then caught sight of the empty bed in the corner of the room. Lois and her mother were both here tonight, but Lois was sharing Felicity's room, much to that young lady's disapproval. Cecily made a decision, threw down her hairbrush and ran along to her sister’s room, where she found Lois alone.

She walked in and picked up Lois bag.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lois demanded.

"Moving you to where you should be." Cecily replied. "It's not fair on Fliss and you have to speak to us eventually. Plus we have things to tell you." She began to leave, carrying the bag. Lois stayed where she was.

"Look, I'm sorry." Cecily said. "I didn't mean to upset you. Why don't we all sit down tomorrow and talk about it sensibly?" Lois nodded reluctantly. She was a naturally friendly person and she had been very lonely for the past few days. "So you'll come and hear Anna's news?" Cecily asked. Lois gave in.

"Come on then." she smiled. "I'm sorry too." The two girls went arm in arm back down the hallway to Cecily's bedroom.

Anna was making her way back to the bedroom when Charles made an appearance.

"Though I'd come and say goodnight." he said. She smiled at him but as he kissed her they heard footsteps. Charles spun her around swiftly and they both found themselves in the big linen cupboard as Joey passed by the door with Maria, taking her to one of the guest bedrooms.

"That was close." Anna whispered. Charles nodded agreement. "Weren't we...in the middle of something?" she asked, shyly. He smiled and resumed the kiss.

"I'm sure this isn't proper." Anna said as he hugged her and ran his fingers through her loose hair.

"No, probably not." Charles agreed, wondering what his father would say if he could see them. "Do you care?"

"Not really." she replied, cuddling in to him. "I should go, though." he nodded.

"Don't let anyone see you coming out the cupboard." he advised, and she giggled.

"I'll try."

She was surprised to see Lois waiting when she returned to the room but decided against saying anything. It had been Cecily and Lois' argument, she decided, not hers.

"Well?" Cecily asked.

"Well what?" Anna replied calmly, getting into bed and beginning to braid her hair into two long pigtails.

"What happened?" Lois demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Anna said, trying to keep her face straight. Cecily gave a howl of frustration and leapt across the room to land on the bed.

"Did you, Anna James, or did you not, kiss my brother?" she demanded.

"Which one?" Anna asked, biting the inside of her lip to stop herself laughing. Lois gave up the struggle and collapsed on her bed giggling as Anna pushed Cecily off her legs and lay down.

"You know which one!" Cecily said, laughing herself. "Now if you don't answer I'm going to keep you awake all night until you tell me." Anna relented.

"Yes." she said. "Now can I go to sleep?"

"No!" Lois replied. "We want to know more!" Anna sighed, and gave them a brief summary of her walk.

"Is that OK?" she demanded.

"Does your mother know?" Cecily asked. Anna shook her head.

"No. So don't you two say anything to anyone, understand?" They both nodded.


The following morning they woke to blizzard conditions. The party from the Elisehutte resigned themselves to being stranded at Freudesheim for the time being, Anna and Nick with considerably more pleasure than their mothers and Lois. Jack Maynard promised Maria and Jesanne that as soon as it was possible, either he or Charles would take them home, and with that they had to be content.

Lois, Nick and Cecily barricaded themselves in a room and while raised voices could often be heard, they all remained there, so it seemed that Lois was keeping her promise to hear them out. Anna settled herself on the window seat in the saal with a book and drew the curtains around her to stop anyone disturbing her. She had a lot to think about, not least how she was going to break the news to her mother, and she wanted privacy to do it in. By the time the other three emerged, however, Nick looking harassed and the two girls with traces of recently dried tears of their cheeks, she was no further forward with either her book or her thinking, and she gratefully gave it up for the time being.

She and Charles managed to spend the afternoon together by escaping to what had once been known as "the railway room" and was now Charles' study, where after gentle prompting she managed to tell him some of the things that had been worrying her, and realised that it was refreshing to get a male perspective on her problems. The snow had stopped by early evening, and Jack drove the little group back to the Elisehutte, promising to return to collect them on New Years Eve if the snow had stopped them seeing each other until then.

As it turned out, New Year's Eve was a cold and clear night with a hard frost and they were able to walk to Freudesheim, which had lights blazing at every window and, as Jesanne observed, just about everybody from the English colony on the Platz there. The house was full, and Anna had been there for almost half an hour when she realised she hadn't seen Charles anywhere. A quick enquiry to Cecily informed her that he was there, but hadn’t been seen for a while. Anna set out on a search of the house. Over the previous week they had seen each other a few times, mainly going out for walks. As she searched it occurred to her that Charles was also working at the San, and she wondered how he was fitting everything in. Having reached the second floor, she knocked hesitantly on his bedroom door, then pushed it open when there was no answer.

Charles was crouched in front of the stove in the corner with a medical textbook on his knee. As she watched he removed two small pieces of paper from it, placed on to one side and then slowly pushed the other one into the stove, where it caught fire immediately. He picked the other piece back up and replaced it in the book, before standing up and catching sight of her.

"How long have you been standing there?" he demanded.

"Not long." she answered. "I missed you at the party so I thought I'd come and find you." he relaxed and crossed over to her, closing the door before he took her in his arms and kissed her.

"You've had too much to drink." she said, when he pulled away. He smiled at her.

"Maybe a little. Come on. We've got a party to go to!" They contrived to stay out of sight of their parents for most of the night, and at around five minutes to midnight Charles drew Anna out of the room and into an alcove in the hall beside the telephone. He pulled the curtain across, allowing them to be private.

"I want you to myself." he explained, putting his arms around her. She leant against him, resting her head on his chest as Jack turned on the big radio and the chimes of Big Ben rang out through the house.

Happy New Year." Charles whispered, kissing her.

In the middle of the third week of their holidays they woke up to find the snow that had been falling since New Years Day had frozen and before breakfast Cecily had phoned the Elisehutte to tell them that she, Charles and Felix planned to spend the day skiing and would the others like to join them. All three agreed with enthusiasm, Lois in particular because Felix would be there and she wouldn't feel so much 'like a spare part' as she phrased it. Jesanne looked rather doubtful when Nick agreed to the plan, but he had been going from strength to strength since he left the san and she couldn't find any grounds for objecting, so the trio changed into their ski suits, packed themselves some lunch and set out for Freudesheim, where they walked straight into the middle of a blazing row. Jack and Charles were arguing with the study door closed, but, as Cecily pointed out, when both were shouting at the top of their voices it was hardly worthwhile.

"It is my considerably more experienced medical opinion that he should not be spending a day skiing!" Jack thundered, "He is not strong enough!"

"And it is my considerably more modern medical opinion that he will be fine!" Charles responded, at equal volume.

"Is that me?" Nick asked, sitting down on the stairs to wait. Cecily nodded.

"They've been going at it about ten minutes." she said. "At this rate we'll never get skiing."

"What do you know about it?" Jack demanded, losing his temper completely.

"Enough that you gave me a job!" Charles responded. "Or was it just because I was your son?" Jack said something they couldn't make out.

"I don't want a job on charity!" Charles said. "I want a job because I'm a good doctor - and if I can't have that here I'll get it somewhere else!" And with that, Charles left the study and slammed the door behind him. He stood for a few minutes outside, breathing heavily, and Anna, after a quick look round at the others, hurried down the passage to stand beside him.

"Are you ok?" she asked. He nodded, slowly getting his temper back under control.

"I take it you heard that." he asked. She nodded.

"We couldn't really not." she pointed out. He gave a weak smile, and then seemed to pull himself together and gave her a hug.

"It'll be ok." he promised. "I'll sort it out when we get back."

"You've probably just lost your job!" she exclaimed.

Joey, who had been listening from the dining room, appeared at the moment and looked at them for a long moment. Charles' eyes met his mothers over Anna's head and he gave her a pleading look. She smiled at them and continued on.

"I'll get another one then." Charles replied. "I meant what I said. If he's only employing me because I'm his son then I'll go somewhere else where they want me because I'm good at what I do." He felt uncomfortable however, knowing that both he and his father had said unforgivable things, and was very quiet as they piled into the families van, which they had been given permission to use, and with Charles at the wheel made their way carefully off the Platz and round the mountain to the area they used for skiing in the holidays, for the simple reason that it had ski lifts fitted, unlike the areas the school used.

Five minutes later, Joey Maynard put on her nailed boots and set out for the Elisehutte.

They spent a glorious morning racing each other, with Lois and Felix generally fighting each other for each victory. Felix had recently been appointed captain of his University's Skiing team, and Lois had a natural aptitude for most sports, coupled with large amounts of practice. Nick shared her aptitude, but was weaker as he had fewer opportunities to practice. Cecily and Charles both enjoyed skiing, and although neither was particularly sporty long years of practice had made both more than usually competent. Anna was the weakest of the group, but Felix spent an hour giving her some intensive tuition, and by the time they stopped for lunch she felt she had come on a lot.

"Shame Fliss didn't come." Cecily said as she shared out sandwiches and Charles poured soup out of a big flask.

"When you dance leading roles with the Royal Ballet, you can't risk skiing." Felix replied, sticking up for his twin. "Might break your leg. You OK?" This last was to Nick, who was leaning back against Lois and looked tired.

"I'm fine." he said. "Just not as fit as I was."

"Nothing hurts?" Charles demanded. "No cough?"

"Can you hear one?" Nick demanded, with point.

"Leave him alone, Chas, it's your day off." Cecily protested, handing him a mug of soup. They chatted as they ate, making plans for the afternoon, and once they had finished Charles got to his feet and challenged his brother to a race.

"You must be joking!" Felix laughed. "I'll wipe the floor with you!"

"I'll chance it." Charles retorted and they prepared and set off at Cecily's count. They flew down the slope side by side, both building up more and more speed, with the girls and Nick cheering them on. Suddenly Charles' ski caught on a hidden rock, he was thrown into the air, and came crashing down among the pines at the side of the run. Felix stopped instantly and turned up the slope, where the others were already struggling into their skis. Anna was fastest, and within seconds was flying down the slope with a skill she hadn't known she possessed. Throwing them off, she ran across the slope and threw herself on her knees at Charles' side.

 


#5:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:45 pm


"Charles." she gasped, her face pale. "Speak to me, please!"

Joey marched up the the door and knocked sharply. Jesanne answered, and invited her inside. Once all three women were settled with cups of coffee and cakes Joey opened the subject.

"Maria, how often has Charles been to see Anna this last week or so?" Maria thought for a few seconds.

"I don't know - every few days? They've been going out for walks together some evenings after he's finished at the san." Jesanne, with a sudden idea of the purpoes of Joey's visit, sat up and prepared to defend the young couple.

"This morning, I came across them looking - very friendly in the hall." Joey said. Maria looked confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't...oh!" she stopped, looking angry.

"Are you implying there is a problem with this?" Jesanne asked. Joey helped herself to another cake.

"Not in my eyes, no!" she said. "Charles had been thouroughly miserable since he came back to Switzerland and if Anna can make him happy then I'm delighted. My son is not a child - which I am going home to point out to his father - and I can't tell him what to do any more. Neither is Anna a child. She is a schoolgirl, yes, but she is over eighteen and therefore as much of an adult as Charles is. No, I came to tell Maria since I guessed - it seems correctly - that Anna hadn't managed it yet. I like Anna - she's a nice girl. I thought I would spare her the worry."

"She hasn't told me because she knew I would forbid any further contact with him, which I shall." Maria James said sharply. "Your son's happiness is none of my concern - I will not have my daughter getting involved with young men while she is under this roof. She will not behave in the way your Cecily does."

"Don't you think you're being a bit unreasonable, Maria?" Jesanne asked sharply, but Joey waved at her to be quiet, and when she spoke again, her voice was soft.

"Don't you think we all have some responsibility for each others happiness?" she asked. "However, it is your concern. You may forbid Anna from seeing Charles if you so desire, but my son is not so easily put off as his friends have been in the past. And if I am not wrong, Anna is going to university with Cecily next year?" Maria nodded, looking surprised.

"I am sure you will be much happier when she is having a relationship with a young man in London of whom you know nothing, then." Joey said, and for the first time an undercurrant of anger was audible in her voice. Maria started.

"And on behalf of my son, I would like to protest at your criticism of Cecily." Jesanne added. "She is a lovely young woman, with excellent manners, who has calmed Nick down considerably." Joey smiled and nodded at her.

"Anna will not be involved with young men while she is as university." Maria said. Jesanne raised her eyebrows. Joey laughed outright.

"I'm sure she won't, Maria." Jesanne said. "Just like Lois won't when she goes off on her travels." Maria looked at her friend sharply, and Jesanne nodded her head. "Yes, I am being sarcastic." she said. "Anna and Cecily and Lois are young women, and it is only natural that they are interested in young men. You can't stop that, and if you try, you will only drive your daughter away."

"She's all I have left." Maria said slowly. Joey nodded.

"We know." she said gently. "That's why you have to let her grow up, and this is part of that. Charles won't hurt her, Maria. He's crazy about her." Maria sat in silence for a long time, and then said finally,

"I don't have to be happy about it." Jesanne shook her head.

"Just accept it Maria." her friend nodded slowly.

"Very well. She may have my permission to see Charles."

"Thankyou." Joey said. "I'm sure that someday, you will be glad you gave that permission. Now, I have to get home. It's almost lunchtime and Jack will be waiting."

Cecily and Nick were there a few seconds behind her, and Cecily was promptly sick at the sight of her brother. He had a cut on his temple, from which blood was running freely, and both his legs were twisted in ways they most definitely shouldn't have been. Nick had his hands full with her for a few minutes, and when she was feeling slightly better he came to Anna's side. That young lady had pulled herself together and was working her way through her first aid, thanking her stars that Mrs Graves had insisted on teaching it all her guides.

"He's alive." she said, without looking up. Nick looked relieved.

"You need to do something." he said in a low voice. She nodded.

"Give me the first aid kit for his head." she instructed. "And find something to keep him warm." He hurried to do her bidding and she set to work to clean and dress the cut on the side of Charles' head.

Charles lay still. There was a terrific pain in his head, he couldn’t seem to move his legs and it hurt to breathe, he realised. He heard voices, recognising one of them as Anna's, and struggled to open his eyes, to let her know her was alright. He felt her cool fingers on his face, pushing back his hair, then a sharp stinging pain as she bathed the cut on his head which woke him properly. Nick came back and dropped the two thin blankets which Felix and Lois had been carrying in their bags in case of an emergency, as Charles gave a groan and opened his eyes, squinting against the glare of the sun. Anna threw a blanket over his legs, and then hunted around in the snow until she found his glasses, which she put on him.

"Anna." he groaned, as she deftly taped a dressing in place over his cut.

"Yes, I'm here." she said, keeping her voice low. "It's ok. You've had a accident, but it's going to be ok." she repeated, trying desperately to keep the terror from her voice when she thought of his legs.

"Stay here." Charles instructed weakly.

"I'm not going anywhere." she replied. "Lois and Felix have gone for help - the helicopter will be here soon."

"Can I sit up?" he asked. She looked doubtful.

"I'm not sure if you should." she replied. "Have you hurt you back at all - can you feel anything?" He nodded, and used his arms to slowly push himself to a sitting position.

"You see?" he said, with the ghost of a smile, although his face was twisted with pain. "Better not...to lie...in the snow." he said slowly. "Hypothermia." She slipped an arm around his shoulders to support him, but he suddenly groaned.

"What is it?" she asked, anxious.

"Feel...sick." he responded, his face going paler. Hastily Anna emptied the first aid box and handed it to him, just in time. He was badly sick for a few minutes, and when the attack was over he lay back against her, grey faced and exhausted. "Sleep." he said, suddenly. Anna sat up, pushing him more upright.

"No, Charles." she said firmly. "You are not to go to sleep, do you hear? Help will be here soon. Please, stay awake." she begged. He struggled to do as she said, and managed to wake himself up slightly.

"It's cold." he said, and she suddenly realised he was shivering violently. She wrapped the other blanket round him, then looked around for more inspiration. Nick and Cecily were further up the slope, watching anxiously for any sign of the helicopter, but their bags lay a short distance away,with a bundle of skis and poles.

"Do you think you could drink some soup?" she asked. He nodded slowly and she propped him up with the backpacks while she poured it out into one of their cups. "Here." she instructed, holding it to his lips. He sipped at the hot liquid and she was relieved to see some of the greyness leave his face as he drank.

"Anna." he said, when the cup was empty.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I'm really badly hurt, aren't I?" he asked.

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor." she replied, stalling for time.

"But I am." Charles replied with a weak smile. "I can feel the pain from my legs, that’s a good thing. But the amount of pain isn't. I'm diagnosing myself with two badly broken legs, a couple of broken ribs and probably concussion."

"They're pretty bad." Anna acknowledged.

"I'm not noble, Anna. I can’t behave like Nick." he said as she sat back down beside him and put her arms around him. "I can't tell you to go away. If you want to leave me, you're free to go and I won't blame you. But if you don't, please stay with me. I'm...I'm going to need you."

"I'm not going anywhere." she replied firmly, realising how much the last admission had taken, coming from Charles with his independent spirit. "I'll be right beside you all through everything." he smiled and tried to turn his body to look at her, alarming her considerably as he promptly passed out again from the pain of the action. By the time she had brought him round again there was a great deal of noise from Cecily and Nick, and the sound of the Mountain Rescue helicopter's blades.

"They're here." she said, greatly relieved. The team rapidly surveyed Charles' injuries and after a few minutes, but a great deal of pain he was being slowly stretchered back to the helicopter.

"You go with him." Cecily told Anna. "You look all in. Nick and I will ski down, pick up Felix and Lois and meet you at the San, ok?" She nodded and scrambled in to the helicopter, seating herself beside Charles and slipping her hand into his. He had his eyes closed but tears of pain ran down his cheeks as Laurie Rosomon, who was the doctor on call, examined his legs.

"They'll need an x-ray, Chas." he said, eventually. Charles didn't seem to hear him. He was moaning softly and his knuckles were white as he gripped Anna's hand.

"Can't you give him something so stop it hurting?" she demanded, tears in her own eyes as she watched him. Laurie shook his head.

"I can't give him anything strong enough to make a difference." he said. "He needs to be able to tell us what hurts and how when we get him back, so that we can try and do something about it then." Anna bit her lips.

"What about his legs, then?" she demanded. Laurie looked doubtful.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you." He said.

"Tell...me," Charles instructed. Laurie took a deep breath.

"The left one is broken in at least two places. The right - I don't know, Chas. You couldn't have done any more damage if you'd gone at it with a sledgehammer." Anna looked horrified, but before any of them could say anything else the pilot called Laurie to the front and they were left alone.

"Seem to have made a good job of it." Charles muttered.

"I suppose that's one way to put it." Anna replied, guessing correctly that the pain was subsiding slightly again. "Doesn't it hurt so much now?" he shook his head gingerly.

"Only when I move - or somebody moves me." he said.

"You seem remarkably cheerful, given the circumstances." she said. He smiled up at her.

"It could have been much worse." he pointed out. "I could have broken my neck - or done my back in. At least this way I will eventually get back on my feet - I hope." he added with a sudden frown. "Depends how bad my right leg is." She hastened to reassure him.

"It'll be fine, I'm sure. You get there." she paused and then added rather shyly. "We'll get there." He squeezed her hand, his eyes lighting up, then gave a gasp as they dropped rather sharply towards the san.

"They're going to have to move you again." she said softly. He nodded, his face pale.

"It won't hurt as much as Laurie's examination." he said. "I'll swear he had it in for me." The paramedics arrived at that moment to lift the stretcher and he closed his eyes again. The jerk as he was lowered from the door made him cry out, but Anna jumped down behind him and took his hand again, walking alongside the stretcher.

"Hold on." she said. "It's ok, you're nearly there. It's ok. That's it. Nearly there now." she repeated the words over and over until they carefully placed the stretcher down on a table in the x-ray room, Laurie having calmly moved his patient to the front of the queue. Anna had to wait outside, and sat down in the corridor, trying to stop herself crying now that Charles no longer needed her to be strong. She barely noticed people sitting down beside her until an arm was slipped around her shoulders and a voice said,

"It's alright, Anna. You can cry. You did wonderfully, Cecily phoned to tell me. I'm proud of you." She looked up, her eyes swimming with tears, into her mothers face, as the voice on her other side added,

"Don't you worry about my boy, Anna. He's got determination and he's brave. He'll come through. And now he's got happiness as well. Thank you my dear, for making my boy happy." At that moment, the door opened and the stretcher was wheeled out.

"Ward Nine" Jack Maynard said over his shoulder, and Joey and Anna both jumped up to follow them.

"I'll wait for the others." Maria said. "They shouldn't be long now." Anna barely heard her as she hurried after Charles, Joey's arm still around her shoulders.

As it happened, it was over an hour before they were allowed in to see Charles. Maria had brought Anna some clean clothes so she could change out of the bloodstained and damp ski suit, and Joey had sent everyone back to Freudeshiem. Only she, Jack, Anna and Felix remained at the san, Felix having refused to go home. He hadn't seen Charles after the accident and was anxious to assure himself that his brother wasn't too badly hurt.

"I shouldn't have raced him." he kept saying, over and over, until Joey and Jack eventually took him to one side to calm him down, leaving Anna alone outside the room when Laurie came out and allowed her entrance. She went in rather nervously, but Charles was propped into a half sitting position and smiling at her.

"How are you now?" she asked, sitting down.

"Better." he smiled. "Probably because they gave me painkillers. How do I look?"

"Awful, to be honest." she said. "But better than you did - you're not grey any more." He laughed.

"Thanks. I think. Where's everyone else?"

"Your mum and dad are calming Felix down. He was climbing the walls because they wouldn't let him in. Thinks you're half dead, I think." Charles nodded.

"He would." he replied soberly. "I'll see him in a bit."

"What did they say?" Anna asked, hesitantly. "Will you get better?" Charles shrugged, and then winced at the pain in his ribs.

"They don't know yet." he replied. "It'll depend on how things heal." Seeing that he was looking rather upset, Anna hastened to change the subject and he was happier again by the time Joey and Jack arrived with a now calm Felix.

"There but for the grace of God." Felix murmured as he regarded his brother. "I'm sorry Chas. It could have been me."

"It's not your fault!" Charles protested. "It was an accident, and it's just as well it wasn't you. You've got a degree to finish, remember? Don't worry, I'll be fine. Listen - will you do me a favour?" Felix nodded.

"Anything."

"Take Anna home. She's had enough. Tell her I said she's not allowed back until tomorrow." Felix agreed, and left the room, leaving Charles alone with his parents.

Anna returned the next day carrying a pile of books she had gone to Freudesheim especially to collect. Laurie Rosomon intercepted her before she got to Charles' room.

"He not as well today." he said gravely. "Don't be shocked when you see him - and if you can try and get him to sleep. He refused any more painkillers and I think he was awake most of the night. He wouldn’t see Joey and Jack - don't you give him any choice." Anna agreed, though she felt rather overwhelmed by the task he had set her.

When she got to Charles' room, she was shocked despite Laurie’s words. Line of pain crossed his face and he was deathly pale. He opened his eyes when she came in.

"Go away." he said weakly. "I don't want anyone."

"No." she said, placing the books on the bedside table. "You said you needed me. We said we would get through this together. I told you yesterday, I'm going nowhere." She sat down beside him, and he turned his head away, trying to hide the tears that had sprung to his eyes. "Why no more painkillers?" she asked, putting her hand on top of his.

"Don't want them." he responded.

"Did you sleep?" she demanded.

"A bit." Charles said, turning back to face her. His face was white and there were red circles round his eyes.

"How about we try for a bit more?" Anna asked, remembering the things she
had done for her mother when she was ill. He shook his head.

"Too sore."

"Try." she insisted. "Close your eyes." he obeyed. She got to her feet, switched out the light and drew the curtains across the window, plunging the room into semi darkness.

"That's better." he said softly, as she took her seat beside the bed again.

"Don't talk." she instructed, reaching out a hand and smoothing his hair back. The bandage had been removed from his forehead and she noticed that the cut, which hadn't been deep, was healing.

"Can I do anything to make you more comfortable?" she asked softly.

"A pillow - from the cupboard." he said. She fetched it and carefully helped him sit up slightly while she tucked it under his head, realising as she did so that the other one was soaked, either with sweat or tears, she wasn't sure which.

"Try and relax." she said, keeping her voice low. She began slowly to massage his face with her fingertips, smoothing out the pain lines that were appearing. Charles felt himself relaxing as she did it, trying to focus on the motions of her hands and not the pain in his legs. Anna watched closely, hearing his breathing deepen and seeing him relax. Eventually, when she judged he was asleep, she removed her hands and sat back. She knew she could stay as long as she wanted, so she picked up one of the books she had brought for Charles and moved over to the window, where she opened the curtain just enough to allow her light to read. She read for a couple of hours, checking on Charles regularly, then deciding that he wouldn't wake any time soon she kissed him lightly and made her way home.

She visited regularly for the next few days, but Charles continued to sleep. The others doctors told her not to be concerned and it was just the day before she was due to return to school that Charles finally awoke.

She was sitting by the side of his bed again, in almost the same position that she had been when he fell asleep, when he suddenly opened his eyes.

“Good morning.” she smiled. He tried to speak but his throat and mouth were dry. She helped him into a sitting position and gave him a glass of water to sip.

“How long have I been asleep?” he asked.

”Four days.” Anna replied. “How are you feeling?” He opened his eyes wide.

“Four days?” he asked in disbelief. She nodded.

“How are you feeling?” she repeated. He thought for a second.

“My head doesn’t hurt any more.” he said, slowly. “And my ribs feel better.”

“And your legs?” she asked.

“Sort of a dull ache – like bruises.” he said. “Better than they were.” He looked rather embarrassed. “Look, I’m sorry about all that carry on – while we were in the snow and the afterwards. Fainting and what not.” he said. She stared at him.

“What carry on? You’re not at some posh public school any more!” she exclaimed. “You had every reason to behave like you did and you don’t have to be ashamed of it. I don’t have any use for men who think they have to keep a stiff upper lip all the time. I’d like a man with some emotions.” he flushed

“I’m sorry.” he said. “You’re right – English public schools aren’t the best place to learn what’s allowed and what isn’t.” Laurie put his head round the door.

“Morning Chas.” he grinned. “Nice to see you looking a bit more life like – I haven’t seen you so bad since that summer you had appendicitis at the Tiernsee. I’ll be back in a bit. Anna – you need to go soon. It’s nearly five.”

Anna sighed and picked up her book, putting it away in her bag. Charles grabbed her arm.

“Don’t go.” he said. She was surprised to see the expression on his face.

“I have to.” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“I…I can’t think about it all positively when you’re not here.” he admitted. “That first night – after I made Felix take you home – all I could think about were the bad things.” She leant forward and kissed him.

“I have to go.” she said. “You’re a doctor – you know how much quicker you’ll get better if you stay positive. Please try.”

“I’ll try.” he agreed, reluctantly letting her go.

She returned to school the following day after a long talk with her mother. Maria had not been happy about her daughter’s relationship with Charles, but a long talk with Joey had helped her to realise that it was better for Anna to have her first serious relationship with someone that they knew, rather than a stranger. As a result of this conversation, Maria also called on Hilda Annersley with the request that Anna should be allowed to visit Charles in the San as often as possible. Miss Annersley had been unsure about the idea, but Maria had calmly insisted and she had finally agreed that Anna could go, providing the weather was ok and she was still doing her prep and prefect duties.

Maria had informed her daughter of this over the breakfast table on her last morning at home, adding,

“If there are any problems then we’ll withdraw you as a boarder and you can be a day girl for the remainder of the year.” Anna stared at her.

“Do you mean it?” she asked. “You would do all that just so I can see Charles?” Her mother nodded.

“We’ll make arrangements.” she said.

“Thank you.” Anna replied, quietly. “I appreciate it. And Charles will too.”

She had therefore returned to school in a much better mood than she had expected to, and enjoyed the first few weeks of the term, cycling the three miles along the Platz every few days to visit Charles. There was regular winter sporting and all three girls participated, albeit reluctantly at first. Joey, at Charles' request, had also sent Felix and Nick back out skiing one day before Felix returned to university. He had been reluctant but had allowed himself to be persuaded, and they hoped that only Charles would bear mental scars of the accident, although Joey and Jack were hopeful that in time, these too would fade. Nick was also a regular visitor to Charles, knowing from experience how boring it was to be stuck in the san with nothing to do. Charles himself was improving slowly, and rapidly running out of patience with everyone around him, although he had so far managed to restrain his temper when Anna was there.

"The sixth form girls from Glendower House will be coming here for a month of winter sporting next week." Miss Annersley announced, at the first prefects meeting of the term. The girls were too well bred to interrupt, but glances were exchanged at this departure from the norm. "They will - naturally - be in your classes and your dormitories. I expect you to make them welcome."

"Of course, Miss Annersley." Cecily said, speaking for them.

"Thank you." her headmistress replied. "I'll leave you to get on with business then." As soon as the door closed a murmur of talk broke out around the table.

"Glendower House!"

"Coming here?"

"Next week!" Cecily banged on the table for attention.

"Excuse me!" she called. "Are we or are we not having a prefects meeting here?" The girls came to order and the meeting got underway.

The following Monday Miss Annersley summoned Cecily, Anna and Lois to her study.

"The Glendower House girls will be here any minute." she informed them. "I've asked you three to come and make them welcome. If this is a success we hope to repeat it every year and forge closer links between the two halves of the school." As she finished speaking a coach was heard in the driveway and it took all Lois' self control not to run to the window. After a few minutes the sound of many footsteps in the entrance hall brought Miss Annersley and the girls from the study to welcome their guests.

"Hilda Annersley." she said, shaking hands with the young woman at the head of the crowd of girls. Cecily heard murmurs of 'Miss Annersley!' and 'The Miss Annersley' from the girls.

"Victoria McCallum." the young woman replied, "Quiet please, girls.”

"These and Cecilia Maynard, our Head Girl," - again murmurs from the English girls "Anna James, our second prefect, and Lois Gellibrand, our games prefect." Fewer murmurs greeted Lois' name but they were still unmistakably there. She briskly split up the girls from Glendower House into three groups and sent one to a dormitory with each prefect. Cecily found herself leading the Glendower House Head Girl, second prefect and games prefect to the room they were to share with their Swiss counterparts.

"I'm Cecily Maynard." she said, as they entered the dormitory.

"Elisabeth Wilson." the girl at the head said. "Excuse me asking, but are you one of the Maynards?" Cecily blushed, glad that Anna and Lois weren't there.

"I suppose I am." she said, embarrassed. It was strange to realise that her family were considered celebrities in the Chalet School world.

"Louise Winterton - games prefect and no distant relation to you at all!" the next girl said. "I'm a different Winterton entirely!" Cecily laughed.

"I didn't think Peg had any girls the same age as me." she looked at the third girl.

"Emily Saunders." she replied as Lois and Anna came in, having handed their charges over to their respective dormitories.

"Abendessen bell will go in a minute." Anna said, wriggling out of her school dress and into her velveteen evening frock. Lois and Cecily followed her example and each of the three new girls opened their cases and pulled out similar dresses, except that theirs were brown while the Swiss girls wore blue.

"Anna James." she said, holding out her hand, when they were all dressed. The three English girls introduced themselves again, and Lois bounced out her cubicle.

"Lois Gellibrand, daughter of Jesanne Gellibrand, former Head Girl, at you service." she drawled in a passable imitation of Meg's American accent, bowing low. Cecily threw a pillow at her.

"Must you behave like a junior?" she demanded. "I'm sorry - we do try to keep her under control but she just gets too much for us at times." The others all laughed, and Elisabeth added

"It's ok, Louise is exactly the same. It must be a Games Prefect thing." Over Abendessen they compared the two schools and were surprised to find that so many things at the English branch were still run the same way. After the younger girls were in bed Cecily invited the girls from her dorm for cocoa in her study before bed. She had taken a liking to the three senior prefects from the other school, and after ensuring that the others were being entertained by Daphne in the prefects’ room they retired to her study. Anna was late and appeared after a few minutes clutching an envelope.

"What you got?" Lois asked, from her position on the rug.

"Letter." Anna replied, taking a cup and sitting on the window seat.

"Who from?" Lois demanded. Cecily rolled her eyes as she appeared from a cupboard clutching a box of biscuits.

"Charles, of course!" she said.

"Who's Charles?" Elisabeth asked, interested.

"Cecily's brother." Anna said, as the other two said,

"Anna's boyfriend."

"Not the Charles Maynard?" Louise asked. Emily gave a sigh.

"For Heavens sake Louise - these are the famous Maynards. If we're going to be here a month you'd better get used to it!"

"You famous, Cec'ly?" Lois asked sleepily from the rug. Cecily poked her with a toe.

"Sit up! You can't go to sleep there! What's he saying, Anna?"

"Nothing I'm telling you!" Anna said, blushing as she read the letter Charles had occupied his afternoon with.

The following day they spent the morning skiing and the afternoon occupied with lessons. The English girls struggled slightly with the fast and well accented French of the mistresses and the other girls - although they themselves spoke reasonably well, their accents were not good and their vocabulary was not as fluent as the Swiss branch and Mlle Lachenais came away thankful that they were only there for the one month.

"They would need so much work!" she confided to Julie Berne when that lady arrived to take Latin lessons. In the evening there was dancing in the Hall and the English girls were fascinated by the honours boards with the names on them that they had heard in so many stories.

"This is almost like coming into a book for us!" Elisabeth explained to Anna, who was partnering her. "Gisela Marani... Josephine Bettany...Robin Humphries...Mary-Lou Trelawney...Len Maynard... we hear so many stories about them. And here they are - on the honours board in your Hall."

"You'll be going to tea with Joey - Mrs Maynard - at the weekend." Anna said. Elisabeth stared at her

"Really?" she demanded. Anna laughed.

"Yes, really. It's strange - normally we have new girls who want to meet her because of the books she writes. You all want to meet her because of what she done when she was at school. It'll be new for her. She'll be amazed that you know so much about her."

The first week with the visitors passed quickly, and they duly went to tea at Freudesheim on Saturday, escorted by the prefects with the exception of Anna, who set off on her skis for the san, where she spent the afternoon regaling Charles with stories from the week, being sure to tell him that he was known as the Charles Maynard. His cuts and bruises had all healed, he informed her proudly, and his ribs were healing fast. The conversation in the dormitory that night turned to plans for life after school.

"Anna and I are going to London." Cecily said. "I'm going to study music at the Royal Academy, and Anna's going to train as a nurse."

"Then what?" Elisabeth asked. The six girls were fast becoming good friends and she had no hesitation about asking the question.

"Cecily's going to be a concert pianist" Anna said

"We hope." Cecily said. Lois waved her doubts aside.

"Nonsense! Of course you are."

"What are you going to do?" Louise asked her. These two were becoming very close, their joint love of sport bringing them together and their friendship cemented by their other similarities. The other four declared they weren't good for each other and when Lois proudly demonstrated how Louise had taught her to turn back flips, while Louise showed off her newly acquired ski jumping ability this belief was held by the entire school.

"Travel!" Lois said. "You won't catch me in a University. I'm going to America and then where ever I feel like." Louise looked envious.

"Wish I could." she said. "I'll just be stuck at home until mum finds some guy to marry me off to."

"We're going to London as well." Emily said, interrupting what sounded like a well rehearsed speech from Louise. "Elisabeth's going to read languages and I'm going to do maths. We should get somewhere to live together!" This plan met with a chorus of approval, all four girls immediately resolving to ask their parents at the first opportunity.

 


#6:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:45 pm


"Charles." she gasped, her face pale. "Speak to me, please!"

Joey marched up the the door and knocked sharply. Jesanne answered, and invited her inside. Once all three women were settled with cups of coffee and cakes Joey opened the subject.

"Maria, how often has Charles been to see Anna this last week or so?" Maria thought for a few seconds.

"I don't know - every few days? They've been going out for walks together some evenings after he's finished at the san." Jesanne, with a sudden idea of the purpoes of Joey's visit, sat up and prepared to defend the young couple.

"This morning, I came across them looking - very friendly in the hall." Joey said. Maria looked confused.

"I'm sorry, I don't...oh!" she stopped, looking angry.

"Are you implying there is a problem with this?" Jesanne asked. Joey helped herself to another cake.

"Not in my eyes, no!" she said. "Charles had been thouroughly miserable since he came back to Switzerland and if Anna can make him happy then I'm delighted. My son is not a child - which I am going home to point out to his father - and I can't tell him what to do any more. Neither is Anna a child. She is a schoolgirl, yes, but she is over eighteen and therefore as much of an adult as Charles is. No, I came to tell Maria since I guessed - it seems correctly - that Anna hadn't managed it yet. I like Anna - she's a nice girl. I thought I would spare her the worry."

"She hasn't told me because she knew I would forbid any further contact with him, which I shall." Maria James said sharply. "Your son's happiness is none of my concern - I will not have my daughter getting involved with young men while she is under this roof. She will not behave in the way your Cecily does."

"Don't you think you're being a bit unreasonable, Maria?" Jesanne asked sharply, but Joey waved at her to be quiet, and when she spoke again, her voice was soft.

"Don't you think we all have some responsibility for each others happiness?" she asked. "However, it is your concern. You may forbid Anna from seeing Charles if you so desire, but my son is not so easily put off as his friends have been in the past. And if I am not wrong, Anna is going to university with Cecily next year?" Maria nodded, looking surprised.

"I am sure you will be much happier when she is having a relationship with a young man in London of whom you know nothing, then." Joey said, and for the first time an undercurrant of anger was audible in her voice. Maria started.

"And on behalf of my son, I would like to protest at your criticism of Cecily." Jesanne added. "She is a lovely young woman, with excellent manners, who has calmed Nick down considerably." Joey smiled and nodded at her.

"Anna will not be involved with young men while she is as university." Maria said. Jesanne raised her eyebrows. Joey laughed outright.

"I'm sure she won't, Maria." Jesanne said. "Just like Lois won't when she goes off on her travels." Maria looked at her friend sharply, and Jesanne nodded her head. "Yes, I am being sarcastic." she said. "Anna and Cecily and Lois are young women, and it is only natural that they are interested in young men. You can't stop that, and if you try, you will only drive your daughter away."

"She's all I have left." Maria said slowly. Joey nodded.

"We know." she said gently. "That's why you have to let her grow up, and this is part of that. Charles won't hurt her, Maria. He's crazy about her." Maria sat in silence for a long time, and then said finally,

"I don't have to be happy about it." Jesanne shook her head.

"Just accept it Maria." her friend nodded slowly.

"Very well. She may have my permission to see Charles."

"Thankyou." Joey said. "I'm sure that someday, you will be glad you gave that permission. Now, I have to get home. It's almost lunchtime and Jack will be waiting."

Cecily and Nick were there a few seconds behind her, and Cecily was promptly sick at the sight of her brother. He had a cut on his temple, from which blood was running freely, and both his legs were twisted in ways they most definitely shouldn't have been. Nick had his hands full with her for a few minutes, and when she was feeling slightly better he came to Anna's side. That young lady had pulled herself together and was working her way through her first aid, thanking her stars that Mrs Graves had insisted on teaching it all her guides.

"He's alive." she said, without looking up. Nick looked relieved.

"You need to do something." he said in a low voice. She nodded.

"Give me the first aid kit for his head." she instructed. "And find something to keep him warm." He hurried to do her bidding and she set to work to clean and dress the cut on the side of Charles' head.

Charles lay still. There was a terrific pain in his head, he couldn’t seem to move his legs and it hurt to breathe, he realised. He heard voices, recognising one of them as Anna's, and struggled to open his eyes, to let her know her was alright. He felt her cool fingers on his face, pushing back his hair, then a sharp stinging pain as she bathed the cut on his head which woke him properly. Nick came back and dropped the two thin blankets which Felix and Lois had been carrying in their bags in case of an emergency, as Charles gave a groan and opened his eyes, squinting against the glare of the sun. Anna threw a blanket over his legs, and then hunted around in the snow until she found his glasses, which she put on him.

"Anna." he groaned, as she deftly taped a dressing in place over his cut.

"Yes, I'm here." she said, keeping her voice low. "It's ok. You've had a accident, but it's going to be ok." she repeated, trying desperately to keep the terror from her voice when she thought of his legs.

"Stay here." Charles instructed weakly.

"I'm not going anywhere." she replied. "Lois and Felix have gone for help - the helicopter will be here soon."

"Can I sit up?" he asked. She looked doubtful.

"I'm not sure if you should." she replied. "Have you hurt you back at all - can you feel anything?" He nodded, and used his arms to slowly push himself to a sitting position.

"You see?" he said, with the ghost of a smile, although his face was twisted with pain. "Better not...to lie...in the snow." he said slowly. "Hypothermia." She slipped an arm around his shoulders to support him, but he suddenly groaned.

"What is it?" she asked, anxious.

"Feel...sick." he responded, his face going paler. Hastily Anna emptied the first aid box and handed it to him, just in time. He was badly sick for a few minutes, and when the attack was over he lay back against her, grey faced and exhausted. "Sleep." he said, suddenly. Anna sat up, pushing him more upright.

"No, Charles." she said firmly. "You are not to go to sleep, do you hear? Help will be here soon. Please, stay awake." she begged. He struggled to do as she said, and managed to wake himself up slightly.

"It's cold." he said, and she suddenly realised he was shivering violently. She wrapped the other blanket round him, then looked around for more inspiration. Nick and Cecily were further up the slope, watching anxiously for any sign of the helicopter, but their bags lay a short distance away,with a bundle of skis and poles.

"Do you think you could drink some soup?" she asked. He nodded slowly and she propped him up with the backpacks while she poured it out into one of their cups. "Here." she instructed, holding it to his lips. He sipped at the hot liquid and she was relieved to see some of the greyness leave his face as he drank.

"Anna." he said, when the cup was empty.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I'm really badly hurt, aren't I?" he asked.

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor." she replied, stalling for time.

"But I am." Charles replied with a weak smile. "I can feel the pain from my legs, that’s a good thing. But the amount of pain isn't. I'm diagnosing myself with two badly broken legs, a couple of broken ribs and probably concussion."

"They're pretty bad." Anna acknowledged.

"I'm not noble, Anna. I can’t behave like Nick." he said as she sat back down beside him and put her arms around him. "I can't tell you to go away. If you want to leave me, you're free to go and I won't blame you. But if you don't, please stay with me. I'm...I'm going to need you."

"I'm not going anywhere." she replied firmly, realising how much the last admission had taken, coming from Charles with his independent spirit. "I'll be right beside you all through everything." he smiled and tried to turn his body to look at her, alarming her considerably as he promptly passed out again from the pain of the action. By the time she had brought him round again there was a great deal of noise from Cecily and Nick, and the sound of the Mountain Rescue helicopter's blades.

"They're here." she said, greatly relieved. The team rapidly surveyed Charles' injuries and after a few minutes, but a great deal of pain he was being slowly stretchered back to the helicopter.

"You go with him." Cecily told Anna. "You look all in. Nick and I will ski down, pick up Felix and Lois and meet you at the San, ok?" She nodded and scrambled in to the helicopter, seating herself beside Charles and slipping her hand into his. He had his eyes closed but tears of pain ran down his cheeks as Laurie Rosomon, who was the doctor on call, examined his legs.

"They'll need an x-ray, Chas." he said, eventually. Charles didn't seem to hear him. He was moaning softly and his knuckles were white as he gripped Anna's hand.

"Can't you give him something so stop it hurting?" she demanded, tears in her own eyes as she watched him. Laurie shook his head.

"I can't give him anything strong enough to make a difference." he said. "He needs to be able to tell us what hurts and how when we get him back, so that we can try and do something about it then." Anna bit her lips.

"What about his legs, then?" she demanded. Laurie looked doubtful.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you." He said.

"Tell...me," Charles instructed. Laurie took a deep breath.

"The left one is broken in at least two places. The right - I don't know, Chas. You couldn't have done any more damage if you'd gone at it with a sledgehammer." Anna looked horrified, but before any of them could say anything else the pilot called Laurie to the front and they were left alone.

"Seem to have made a good job of it." Charles muttered.

"I suppose that's one way to put it." Anna replied, guessing correctly that the pain was subsiding slightly again. "Doesn't it hurt so much now?" he shook his head gingerly.

"Only when I move - or somebody moves me." he said.

"You seem remarkably cheerful, given the circumstances." she said. He smiled up at her.

"It could have been much worse." he pointed out. "I could have broken my neck - or done my back in. At least this way I will eventually get back on my feet - I hope." he added with a sudden frown. "Depends how bad my right leg is." She hastened to reassure him.

"It'll be fine, I'm sure. You get there." she paused and then added rather shyly. "We'll get there." He squeezed her hand, his eyes lighting up, then gave a gasp as they dropped rather sharply towards the san.

"They're going to have to move you again." she said softly. He nodded, his face pale.

"It won't hurt as much as Laurie's examination." he said. "I'll swear he had it in for me." The paramedics arrived at that moment to lift the stretcher and he closed his eyes again. The jerk as he was lowered from the door made him cry out, but Anna jumped down behind him and took his hand again, walking alongside the stretcher.

"Hold on." she said. "It's ok, you're nearly there. It's ok. That's it. Nearly there now." she repeated the words over and over until they carefully placed the stretcher down on a table in the x-ray room, Laurie having calmly moved his patient to the front of the queue. Anna had to wait outside, and sat down in the corridor, trying to stop herself crying now that Charles no longer needed her to be strong. She barely noticed people sitting down beside her until an arm was slipped around her shoulders and a voice said,

"It's alright, Anna. You can cry. You did wonderfully, Cecily phoned to tell me. I'm proud of you." She looked up, her eyes swimming with tears, into her mothers face, as the voice on her other side added,

"Don't you worry about my boy, Anna. He's got determination and he's brave. He'll come through. And now he's got happiness as well. Thank you my dear, for making my boy happy." At that moment, the door opened and the stretcher was wheeled out.

"Ward Nine" Jack Maynard said over his shoulder, and Joey and Anna both jumped up to follow them.

"I'll wait for the others." Maria said. "They shouldn't be long now." Anna barely heard her as she hurried after Charles, Joey's arm still around her shoulders.

As it happened, it was over an hour before they were allowed in to see Charles. Maria had brought Anna some clean clothes so she could change out of the bloodstained and damp ski suit, and Joey had sent everyone back to Freudeshiem. Only she, Jack, Anna and Felix remained at the san, Felix having refused to go home. He hadn't seen Charles after the accident and was anxious to assure himself that his brother wasn't too badly hurt.

"I shouldn't have raced him." he kept saying, over and over, until Joey and Jack eventually took him to one side to calm him down, leaving Anna alone outside the room when Laurie came out and allowed her entrance. She went in rather nervously, but Charles was propped into a half sitting position and smiling at her.

"How are you now?" she asked, sitting down.

"Better." he smiled. "Probably because they gave me painkillers. How do I look?"

"Awful, to be honest." she said. "But better than you did - you're not grey any more." He laughed.

"Thanks. I think. Where's everyone else?"

"Your mum and dad are calming Felix down. He was climbing the walls because they wouldn't let him in. Thinks you're half dead, I think." Charles nodded.

"He would." he replied soberly. "I'll see him in a bit."

"What did they say?" Anna asked, hesitantly. "Will you get better?" Charles shrugged, and then winced at the pain in his ribs.

"They don't know yet." he replied. "It'll depend on how things heal." Seeing that he was looking rather upset, Anna hastened to change the subject and he was happier again by the time Joey and Jack arrived with a now calm Felix.

"There but for the grace of God." Felix murmured as he regarded his brother. "I'm sorry Chas. It could have been me."

"It's not your fault!" Charles protested. "It was an accident, and it's just as well it wasn't you. You've got a degree to finish, remember? Don't worry, I'll be fine. Listen - will you do me a favour?" Felix nodded.

"Anything."

"Take Anna home. She's had enough. Tell her I said she's not allowed back until tomorrow." Felix agreed, and left the room, leaving Charles alone with his parents.

Anna returned the next day carrying a pile of books she had gone to Freudesheim especially to collect. Laurie Rosomon intercepted her before she got to Charles' room.

"He not as well today." he said gravely. "Don't be shocked when you see him - and if you can try and get him to sleep. He refused any more painkillers and I think he was awake most of the night. He wouldn’t see Joey and Jack - don't you give him any choice." Anna agreed, though she felt rather overwhelmed by the task he had set her.

When she got to Charles' room, she was shocked despite Laurie’s words. Line of pain crossed his face and he was deathly pale. He opened his eyes when she came in.

"Go away." he said weakly. "I don't want anyone."

"No." she said, placing the books on the bedside table. "You said you needed me. We said we would get through this together. I told you yesterday, I'm going nowhere." She sat down beside him, and he turned his head away, trying to hide the tears that had sprung to his eyes. "Why no more painkillers?" she asked, putting her hand on top of his.

"Don't want them." he responded.

"Did you sleep?" she demanded.

"A bit." Charles said, turning back to face her. His face was white and there were red circles round his eyes.

"How about we try for a bit more?" Anna asked, remembering the things she
had done for her mother when she was ill. He shook his head.

"Too sore."

"Try." she insisted. "Close your eyes." he obeyed. She got to her feet, switched out the light and drew the curtains across the window, plunging the room into semi darkness.

"That's better." he said softly, as she took her seat beside the bed again.

"Don't talk." she instructed, reaching out a hand and smoothing his hair back. The bandage had been removed from his forehead and she noticed that the cut, which hadn't been deep, was healing.

"Can I do anything to make you more comfortable?" she asked softly.

"A pillow - from the cupboard." he said. She fetched it and carefully helped him sit up slightly while she tucked it under his head, realising as she did so that the other one was soaked, either with sweat or tears, she wasn't sure which.

"Try and relax." she said, keeping her voice low. She began slowly to massage his face with her fingertips, smoothing out the pain lines that were appearing. Charles felt himself relaxing as she did it, trying to focus on the motions of her hands and not the pain in his legs. Anna watched closely, hearing his breathing deepen and seeing him relax. Eventually, when she judged he was asleep, she removed her hands and sat back. She knew she could stay as long as she wanted, so she picked up one of the books she had brought for Charles and moved over to the window, where she opened the curtain just enough to allow her light to read. She read for a couple of hours, checking on Charles regularly, then deciding that he wouldn't wake any time soon she kissed him lightly and made her way home.

She visited regularly for the next few days, but Charles continued to sleep. The others doctors told her not to be concerned and it was just the day before she was due to return to school that Charles finally awoke.

She was sitting by the side of his bed again, in almost the same position that she had been when he fell asleep, when he suddenly opened his eyes.

“Good morning.” she smiled. He tried to speak but his throat and mouth were dry. She helped him into a sitting position and gave him a glass of water to sip.

“How long have I been asleep?” he asked.

”Four days.” Anna replied. “How are you feeling?” He opened his eyes wide.

“Four days?” he asked in disbelief. She nodded.

“How are you feeling?” she repeated. He thought for a second.

“My head doesn’t hurt any more.” he said, slowly. “And my ribs feel better.”

“And your legs?” she asked.

“Sort of a dull ache – like bruises.” he said. “Better than they were.” He looked rather embarrassed. “Look, I’m sorry about all that carry on – while we were in the snow and the afterwards. Fainting and what not.” he said. She stared at him.

“What carry on? You’re not at some posh public school any more!” she exclaimed. “You had every reason to behave like you did and you don’t have to be ashamed of it. I don’t have any use for men who think they have to keep a stiff upper lip all the time. I’d like a man with some emotions.” he flushed

“I’m sorry.” he said. “You’re right – English public schools aren’t the best place to learn what’s allowed and what isn’t.” Laurie put his head round the door.

“Morning Chas.” he grinned. “Nice to see you looking a bit more life like – I haven’t seen you so bad since that summer you had appendicitis at the Tiernsee. I’ll be back in a bit. Anna – you need to go soon. It’s nearly five.”

Anna sighed and picked up her book, putting it away in her bag. Charles grabbed her arm.

“Don’t go.” he said. She was surprised to see the expression on his face.

“I have to.” she said. “What’s wrong?”

“I…I can’t think about it all positively when you’re not here.” he admitted. “That first night – after I made Felix take you home – all I could think about were the bad things.” She leant forward and kissed him.

“I have to go.” she said. “You’re a doctor – you know how much quicker you’ll get better if you stay positive. Please try.”

“I’ll try.” he agreed, reluctantly letting her go.

She returned to school the following day after a long talk with her mother. Maria had not been happy about her daughter’s relationship with Charles, but a long talk with Joey had helped her to realise that it was better for Anna to have her first serious relationship with someone that they knew, rather than a stranger. As a result of this conversation, Maria also called on Hilda Annersley with the request that Anna should be allowed to visit Charles in the San as often as possible. Miss Annersley had been unsure about the idea, but Maria had calmly insisted and she had finally agreed that Anna could go, providing the weather was ok and she was still doing her prep and prefect duties.

Maria had informed her daughter of this over the breakfast table on her last morning at home, adding,

“If there are any problems then we’ll withdraw you as a boarder and you can be a day girl for the remainder of the year.” Anna stared at her.

“Do you mean it?” she asked. “You would do all that just so I can see Charles?” Her mother nodded.

“We’ll make arrangements.” she said.

“Thank you.” Anna replied, quietly. “I appreciate it. And Charles will too.”

She had therefore returned to school in a much better mood than she had expected to, and enjoyed the first few weeks of the term, cycling the three miles along the Platz every few days to visit Charles. There was regular winter sporting and all three girls participated, albeit reluctantly at first. Joey, at Charles' request, had also sent Felix and Nick back out skiing one day before Felix returned to university. He had been reluctant but had allowed himself to be persuaded, and they hoped that only Charles would bear mental scars of the accident, although Joey and Jack were hopeful that in time, these too would fade. Nick was also a regular visitor to Charles, knowing from experience how boring it was to be stuck in the san with nothing to do. Charles himself was improving slowly, and rapidly running out of patience with everyone around him, although he had so far managed to restrain his temper when Anna was there.

"The sixth form girls from Glendower House will be coming here for a month of winter sporting next week." Miss Annersley announced, at the first prefects meeting of the term. The girls were too well bred to interrupt, but glances were exchanged at this departure from the norm. "They will - naturally - be in your classes and your dormitories. I expect you to make them welcome."

"Of course, Miss Annersley." Cecily said, speaking for them.

"Thank you." her headmistress replied. "I'll leave you to get on with business then." As soon as the door closed a murmur of talk broke out around the table.

"Glendower House!"

"Coming here?"

"Next week!" Cecily banged on the table for attention.

"Excuse me!" she called. "Are we or are we not having a prefects meeting here?" The girls came to order and the meeting got underway.

The following Monday Miss Annersley summoned Cecily, Anna and Lois to her study.

"The Glendower House girls will be here any minute." she informed them. "I've asked you three to come and make them welcome. If this is a success we hope to repeat it every year and forge closer links between the two halves of the school." As she finished speaking a coach was heard in the driveway and it took all Lois' self control not to run to the window. After a few minutes the sound of many footsteps in the entrance hall brought Miss Annersley and the girls from the study to welcome their guests.

"Hilda Annersley." she said, shaking hands with the young woman at the head of the crowd of girls. Cecily heard murmurs of 'Miss Annersley!' and 'The Miss Annersley' from the girls.

"Victoria McCallum." the young woman replied, "Quiet please, girls.”

"These and Cecilia Maynard, our Head Girl," - again murmurs from the English girls "Anna James, our second prefect, and Lois Gellibrand, our games prefect." Fewer murmurs greeted Lois' name but they were still unmistakably there. She briskly split up the girls from Glendower House into three groups and sent one to a dormitory with each prefect. Cecily found herself leading the Glendower House Head Girl, second prefect and games prefect to the room they were to share with their Swiss counterparts.

"I'm Cecily Maynard." she said, as they entered the dormitory.

"Elisabeth Wilson." the girl at the head said. "Excuse me asking, but are you one of the Maynards?" Cecily blushed, glad that Anna and Lois weren't there.

"I suppose I am." she said, embarrassed. It was strange to realise that her family were considered celebrities in the Chalet School world.

"Louise Winterton - games prefect and no distant relation to you at all!" the next girl said. "I'm a different Winterton entirely!" Cecily laughed.

"I didn't think Peg had any girls the same age as me." she looked at the third girl.

"Emily Saunders." she replied as Lois and Anna came in, having handed their charges over to their respective dormitories.

"Abendessen bell will go in a minute." Anna said, wriggling out of her school dress and into her velveteen evening frock. Lois and Cecily followed her example and each of the three new girls opened their cases and pulled out similar dresses, except that theirs were brown while the Swiss girls wore blue.

"Anna James." she said, holding out her hand, when they were all dressed. The three English girls introduced themselves again, and Lois bounced out her cubicle.

"Lois Gellibrand, daughter of Jesanne Gellibrand, former Head Girl, at you service." she drawled in a passable imitation of Meg's American accent, bowing low. Cecily threw a pillow at her.

"Must you behave like a junior?" she demanded. "I'm sorry - we do try to keep her under control but she just gets too much for us at times." The others all laughed, and Elisabeth added

"It's ok, Louise is exactly the same. It must be a Games Prefect thing." Over Abendessen they compared the two schools and were surprised to find that so many things at the English branch were still run the same way. After the younger girls were in bed Cecily invited the girls from her dorm for cocoa in her study before bed. She had taken a liking to the three senior prefects from the other school, and after ensuring that the others were being entertained by Daphne in the prefects’ room they retired to her study. Anna was late and appeared after a few minutes clutching an envelope.

"What you got?" Lois asked, from her position on the rug.

"Letter." Anna replied, taking a cup and sitting on the window seat.

"Who from?" Lois demanded. Cecily rolled her eyes as she appeared from a cupboard clutching a box of biscuits.

"Charles, of course!" she said.

"Who's Charles?" Elisabeth asked, interested.

"Cecily's brother." Anna said, as the other two said,

"Anna's boyfriend."

"Not the Charles Maynard?" Louise asked. Emily gave a sigh.

"For Heavens sake Louise - these are the famous Maynards. If we're going to be here a month you'd better get used to it!"

"You famous, Cec'ly?" Lois asked sleepily from the rug. Cecily poked her with a toe.

"Sit up! You can't go to sleep there! What's he saying, Anna?"

"Nothing I'm telling you!" Anna said, blushing as she read the letter Charles had occupied his afternoon with.

The following day they spent the morning skiing and the afternoon occupied with lessons. The English girls struggled slightly with the fast and well accented French of the mistresses and the other girls - although they themselves spoke reasonably well, their accents were not good and their vocabulary was not as fluent as the Swiss branch and Mlle Lachenais came away thankful that they were only there for the one month.

"They would need so much work!" she confided to Julie Berne when that lady arrived to take Latin lessons. In the evening there was dancing in the Hall and the English girls were fascinated by the honours boards with the names on them that they had heard in so many stories.

"This is almost like coming into a book for us!" Elisabeth explained to Anna, who was partnering her. "Gisela Marani... Josephine Bettany...Robin Humphries...Mary-Lou Trelawney...Len Maynard... we hear so many stories about them. And here they are - on the honours board in your Hall."

"You'll be going to tea with Joey - Mrs Maynard - at the weekend." Anna said. Elisabeth stared at her

"Really?" she demanded. Anna laughed.

"Yes, really. It's strange - normally we have new girls who want to meet her because of the books she writes. You all want to meet her because of what she done when she was at school. It'll be new for her. She'll be amazed that you know so much about her."

The first week with the visitors passed quickly, and they duly went to tea at Freudesheim on Saturday, escorted by the prefects with the exception of Anna, who set off on her skis for the san, where she spent the afternoon regaling Charles with stories from the week, being sure to tell him that he was known as the Charles Maynard. His cuts and bruises had all healed, he informed her proudly, and his ribs were healing fast. The conversation in the dormitory that night turned to plans for life after school.

"Anna and I are going to London." Cecily said. "I'm going to study music at the Royal Academy, and Anna's going to train as a nurse."

"Then what?" Elisabeth asked. The six girls were fast becoming good friends and she had no hesitation about asking the question.

"Cecily's going to be a concert pianist" Anna said

"We hope." Cecily said. Lois waved her doubts aside.

"Nonsense! Of course you are."

"What are you going to do?" Louise asked her. These two were becoming very close, their joint love of sport bringing them together and their friendship cemented by their other similarities. The other four declared they weren't good for each other and when Lois proudly demonstrated how Louise had taught her to turn back flips, while Louise showed off her newly acquired ski jumping ability this belief was held by the entire school.

"Travel!" Lois said. "You won't catch me in a University. I'm going to America and then where ever I feel like." Louise looked envious.

"Wish I could." she said. "I'll just be stuck at home until mum finds some guy to marry me off to."

"We're going to London as well." Emily said, interrupting what sounded like a well rehearsed speech from Louise. "Elisabeth's going to read languages and I'm going to do maths. We should get somewhere to live together!" This plan met with a chorus of approval, all four girls immediately resolving to ask their parents at the first opportunity.

 


#7:  Author: EilidhLocation: Macclesfield PostPosted: Wed Apr 26, 2006 8:47 pm


It was the middle of the night. Lois was woken by someone putting a hand over her mouth and hissing her name in her ear.

"What is it?" she demanded, struggling free and sitting up.

"I heard someone moving." Louise replied. Lois swung her feet out of bed and began to put on her dressing gown.

"Where?" she asked.

"Downstairs." Louise replied. They crept out of the dormitory, neither considering for a moment waking their friends.

"Do you think its a midnight?" Louise asked softly. Lois shrugged.

"It's a cheek if it is - with twice the usual number of prefects here." she said.

"Or maybe it's a burglar!" Louise added, her eyes shining with excitement.

"And maybe it's not." Lois replied, trying hard not to carried away with Louise's excitement.

"We would be like before, when the two prefects chased the burglar who was looking for the secret plans." Louise's enthusiasm was infectious and Lois found herself tiptoeing as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Where first?" Louise whispered. Lois headed towards the common rooms, her friend following behind. She paused outside each door in turn, but there was no sound.

"Are you sure you heard something?" she demanded. Louise nodded.

"I did! I was awake and I heard a noise. Let's check the form rooms." They made their way along to the form rooms, but again, there was nothing to be seen. Lois had by now become completely caught up in Louise's enthusiasm, so much so that she didn't even hesitate when Louise suggested checking the study and the staff quarters.

The Entrance Hall was deserted, and both girls stepped as lightly as possible on the polished floor. Lois stopped outside the study door, and turned to Louise, her eyes wide. From within came the unmistakable sounds of someone moving around.

"Go in." Louise said, her mouth next to Lois' ear. "We can stop whoever it is between us!" Fired up by excitement, the two prefects threw open the study door and ran in, Louise throwing her arms around the slim figure by the fireplace and knocking them to the floor while Lois threw the blanket from the sofa over their head.

"Girls!" said a rather muffled voice, which was nonetheless immediately recognisable to Lois.

"Miss Annersley!" she exclaimed, horrified.

“Lois Gellibrand!” the Headmistress exclaimed, getting to her feet. “I might have known. And Louise Winterton. You really shouldn’t have too much to do with Lois, Louise – she has a knack of attracting trouble. I will see you both in the morning – before frustuck.” she added. Her face burning red, Lois made her curtsey and left, Louise at her heels.

The following morning the two girls dressed quickly, Lois giving the others a summary of the evening’s happenings as she did so, and then made their way to the study where the Head was sitting behind her desk, waiting on them.

“Sit.” she instructed, indicating two chairs opposite her. They obeyed. “I would like an explanation.” she said. The two prefects looked at each other.

“It was me.” Louise said.

“It was I.” corrected Miss Annersley. Louise flushed.

“Sorry. I woke Lois because I thought I heard a noise downstairs. We went down to investigate – she thought it might be some of the middles having a midnight feast.” she stopped, and the Head looked to Lois.

“I fail to see hpw this resulted in my being attacked in my study.” she said.

It was the beginning of April when Anna cycled along to see Charles on a Saturday afternoon. The snow was gone and she was delighted to notice spring flowers appearing as she crossed the Platz. As she approached his room she was surprised to hear loud voices and as she stopped in the door she saw Charles engaged in an argument with one of the other doctors, who was simultaneously attempting to take his blood pressure. Anna abruptly turned her back on the room to find a seat, almost crashing in to one of the ward assistants who was hurrying past.

"You here to see his lordship?" the young woman asked. Anna nodded, and she gave a contemptuous sniff. "Hope you can teach him some manners." she said. "Barely civil he is at times." Just afterwards the doctor who had been with Charles pushed past her and stormed off, obviously in a temper and Anna went in to the room.

"You're here." Charles said, sounding pleased. Anna surveyed him from the foot of the bed. "Don't I get a kiss?" he asked. She shook her head.

"Not until you tell me why everyone is complaining about you - and why you spoke like you did to that doctor." Charles blushed as he recalled the language he had been using.

"I didn't realise you would hear." he said, ashamed.

"It doesn't matter if I can hear!" Anna exclaimed. "I know you're fed up, but there's no need to take it out on everyone else! They're only trying to help!" He looked even more ashamed.

"I'm sorry." he said. "I'm just sick and tired of this bed!"

"That's no excuse." Anna said firmly. "And it's not me you need to apologise to." he looked uncomfortable. "You're out of order." she continued, pushing her point home. "And until you write to me and tell me you've apologised I'm not coming back." His face fell.

"I'll apologise, I promise. Please don't do that. You know how much I look forward to seeing you." she relented slightly and sat down.

"How are you, anyway?" she asked. He shrugged.

"They've taken the plaster of this leg" he indicated his right "But I cant do anything with it for about another month, I think. I'm getting massage on it but not often - they're really busy. I'm getting physiotherapy for the other one - have been for a few weeks, but they can't do much while I'm lying on my back." Anna looked thoughtful, and said hesitantly.

"Mother taught me massage - when Mark was bad. So that she didn't have to do it all - he needed so much. If you want..." she left the question unfinished but Charles leapt on it.

"Would you?" he asked. "The nurses will give you anything you need." Rather shyly she got up and went to find someone, returning a few moments later with a bowl of steaming water and a pile of towels.

"Can you lift yourself up?" she asked. "I'd rather not soak the bed." he managed and between them they spread the towels over the sheets. She then dipped the rest in the hot water and rung them out, before placing them on his leg. He gave a sigh of relief as the heat began to work on his tight and sore muscles. Anna left them to work for a few minutes then removed some of them and began to work. He cried out at first but gradually the pain began
to subside and they were able to talk.

"Who’s Mark?" he asked. Anna's hands tightened involuntarily and he gave a gasp.

"I'm sorry." she said. "I didn't mean it. He's - I mean - he was my brother."

"I'm sorry." Charles said gently, noticing the tears that had sprung to her eyes.

"It's ok." Anna replied. "I would have liked you to have known him. He wouldn't have been much older than you - the same age as Steve. I think you would have liked him."

"Tell me what’s been happening at school." Charles instructed, trying to cheer her up.
She updated him on family and school news, and remembered to tell him about the spring flowers she had seen on her way along. To her surprise he looked miserable about this.

"What is it?" she asked, in alarm.

"It's nearly Easter." he said, unhappily. "I've been in here since New Year. I can't even see outside. Almost our entire relationship has been based around this bed. I can't take you anywhere, I can't buy you anything, and we can't do anything together." She looked thoughtful.

"I have to go - there's a prefects meeting I need to be back for. If you start apologising to all the people you've offended tonight, I'll have a think about it and see what we can do.

She was busy over the next few days, and on the Wednesday it began to rain and continued until the Friday evening, so it was the following Saturday before she made it back to the san. She had had a letter from Charles saying that he had done as she asked, so she set out again on her bicycle the following week. She arrived at his room accompanied by Phil Graves and Laurie Rosomon, who looked distressed.

"Chas, I'm sorry. I didn't realise how bored you were in here. Anna's had an idea - come and see."

"I can't, can I?" Charles demanded irritably. Anna gave him a warning look as Phil and Laurie approached the bed.

"You need to get dressed." Phil told him firmly.

"I'll wait outside." Anna said quickly, realising that Charles wouldn't want her there for the next few minutes. A quarter of an hour later the two men emerged.

"Go in." Laurie said. "But leave it a bit before you do anything else - he's not as good as he thought he was." Anna went in, pushing the wheelchair she had appropriated from the san supply in front of her. Charles was sitting up in bed, dressed now, but pale and breathing heavily.

"Did it hurt?" she asked. He nodded.

"Stupid leg." he said. "I'll be alright in a minute."

"Good." she replied. "We've got all afternoon but we won't be able to get far if you can't move from there!" He looked at her and for the first time noticed what she'd brought with her, and his face lit up. It was difficult to get Charles from the bed to the chair. His fierce sense of independence meant that he refused all offers of help from her and tried to do everything himself. After a failed attempt which resulted in him landing hard on the floor and hurting himself, Anna stepped in. "Come on." she said, when he admitted that the pain had subsided again. She bent down and put her arms around him. He linked his hands behind her and between them they got him upright and standing with his weight on his left leg, leaning heavily on Anna. He was shaking with the effort even that took, and sank gratefully into the chair when she pulled it up behind him.

"Four weeks of physio and I can just about stand on one leg for ten seconds." he said unhappily.

"It takes time." Anna replied. "You can't expect just to be up and running about straight away. You have to take it slowly."

"It's too slow." he replied.

"You've done well today." she said. "You're dressed for the first time – out of bed, and if you'll stop moaning long enough we can go out for a while." he smiled up at her.

"I know. I'm sorry. Let's go." They made their way out of the san, Anna pushing the chair carefully. Once they were outside, however, Charles insisted on pushing it himself and did so with such skill that Anna was amazed. They made their way around the grounds of the san to an area overlooking the mountains, where she sat down and he pulled the chair up beside her.

"You're good with that." she said, indicating the chair. He laughed.

"Mike and I used to play in them when we were young." he replied. "We used to race up and down the corridors in there." She joined in his laughter and they sat together in the spring sunshine for a while, until Anna realised that it was time for her to go back to school. By the time the Easter holidays rolled around, Charles had been allowed back to Freudesheim, and was pestering his father to allow him to go back to work. He could now get about well using crutches, much to his delight, although his right leg was still too weak for him to put much weight on it at all, and he couldn't straighten it fully without a great deal of pain. He and Nick had appropriated Jack's car for their own devices, much to his father’s displeasure, but as they returned it daily without a scratch on it Jack eventually came round to the idea. Charles was continuing with his physiotherapy, but confessed to Anna that he thought it was making very little difference. Her mother had taken Jesanne to Italy for two weeks to help her relax after the stress Nick's illness had caused, and Anna, Nick and Lois had been installed at Freudesheim again as a result. Even with the additions, there was a smaller party than normal at Freudesheim, and Joey reflected sadly that her children would very rarely - if ever - all be in the same place again. Only Charles, Erica, Cecily, Phil and Claire were home for Easter. Geoff had stayed at school to study – he had important exams at the end of the year and not being blessed with his twin's brains had a great deal of work to put in. Felix had stayed in his lodgings for a similar reason.

"And the rest are scattered the world over!" she thought to herself towards the end of the holidays, feeling rather miserable.

As she sat alone she heard the sound of Charles approaching, and she turned
to greet him.

"Everyone else gone out?" she asked, trying to assume her usual cheerfulness. He nodded and collapsed beside her on the sofa.

"They went to the Auberge." he said. "Are you ok, Mamma? You look sad." She smiled at the simple way of putting it.

"A bit." she admitted. "I was just thinking about how you are all scattered so far across the world - and how you probably won't all be together again."

"We are a bit." he said, concentrating on the first half of her speech. "Con and Roger in Austria, Margot in Africa, Ruey, Felix and Geoff in England, Steve and Adrienne in Paris, Roddy in Australia, Mike on his ship somewhere, Felicity on her tour..."

"And Cecily off to London next year, and Phil the year after, and you going goodness knows where."

"I'm going nowhere for the foreseeable future." Charles said.

"But you will, Chas. I don't know what went wrong when you qualified – I never asked and I'm not going to now. But we knew that you coming back here was only temporary."

"It might be, it might not." Charles replied. "It depends..." he stopped short, but Joey finished his sentence for him.

"It depends what Anna wants to do?" she suggested. Charles blushed. "Are you going to ask her to marry you?" she asked. He shook his head.

"Not until I can walk up to her and say it standing on my own two feet." he said. Joey gave him a smile.

"That's my boy." she said. "Always something to work towards."

A clatter of feet and paws in the hall announced the return of the others from their walk and Joey got up to go and greet them, bringing the conversation to an end.

On the last night of the holidays Anna and Charles were together in his room. He was lying back on the bed and she was continuing her massage treatment.

"You're definitely getting better." She observed.

"Doesn't feel like it." he replied. "It's just as sore as it always has been."

"Look, though." she said, indicating his leg. Charles propped himself up on his elbows to do as he was asked and grinned in delight as he observed his leg straightened. She returned the grin and pushed him back into the pillows as she went back to work.

"Hey ho! This shall be the last time we go back to school, ladies." Thus Cecily, dragging her suitcase downstairs the following morning.

"But then its adventure! Excitement! America!" Lois said.

"For you, possibly. And if you tell us every time we have a last time all term then we'll never hear the end of it." Anna added. "Just enjoy it, for goodness sake." Cecily stuck out her tongue.

"Letters." Claire announced. "Two for Chas - Steve and Roddy, by the looks of it. Cecily - Phil - Me - Mamma - Papa - Papa - Mamma - and Lois." Lois seized the envelope with a cry.

"Louise at last!" she exclaimed. "It's about a month since I wrote."

"You don't have time for that." Cecily said. "Come on, we have to go."

They were back in their dorm before Lois got the chance to open her letter. When she did, she let out a shriek that brought the other prefects running from the surrounding dorms to stare - and well they might. Finding no other way of relieving her feelings Lois was turning cartwheels up the length of their long narrow dormitory, while Anna and Cecily stood and watched her, speechless.

Having run out of corridor to cartwheel in she let out another shriek, turned, saw her observers, and, waving the letter, proclaimed,

"They said yes!" Her fellow prefects looked at each other.

"Has she flipped totally this time?" Daphne asked, interested.

"Looks like it." Marie agreed. "Who said yes to what, Lois?"

"Louise's parents!" Lois explained, "Look!" she shoved the letter at Cecily, sat down on her bed, and began to scribble a reply at top speed. Cecily squinted at the letter which seemed to have been written in a tearing hurry, to judge from the writing.

"I can come! They said yes!" she read out "I told them I didn't want to stay home and get married and they said I could go with you! Can't wait! New York here we come! Must go, got to catch the last post! See you soon, Love Lou."

"Louise is going travelling with you?" Anna demanded. Lois nodded, beaming,

"Isn't it wonderful! I wrote and said why didn't she ask her parents and she has and..."

"Yes, yes we know all that." Cecily said hastily, before Lois managed another screech. "But do you really think you and Louise can travel the world together?" Lois looked puzzled.

"What do you mean?" she demanded.

"Between you you have to common sense of a ten year old." Daphne said. Lois looked hurt.

"Thats not fair." she said.

"Oh, leave them." Marie said, laughing. "But you have to promise to write and tell us everything, Lois. If nothing else it'll be fantastic entertainment." Lois nodded, cheering up again.

"I will." she promised, just as another voice asked,

"What is going on here?" Matron pushed her way into the room. "What are you all doing here?" she demanded. "Go back to where you're supposed to be. Lois - why are you sitting on that bed? What's been going on?"

"Nothing, Matron." Cecily said as the others disappeared. "Lois had just had some good news. We'll tidy everything up, don't worry."

"I'll be back to check that you have." the elderly woman replied.

"Matey looks awfully old now." Anna observed as they set to work repairing the damage Lois had done.

"She's retiring at the end of term." Cecily said. The other two looked shocked.

"How do you know that?" Anna demanded.

"And when did you find out?" Lois asked.

"She came to tell Mamma during the holidays and I overheard." Cecily explained. "She's been here for nearly forty years after all. I know I shouldn’t have repeated it but I thought we should be prepared to arrange something from the school." The others agreed.

"We'll think about it." Anna said, as the bell rang for Mitagessen.

By the end of the month the news that Matron would be retiring at the end of term was universally known, Miss Annersley having announced it, and the girls who were into their last term were realising how uncomfortably fast the term was passing. Some were saddened by the thought that their schooldays were almost over, others, like Lois, were looking forward to the next part of their lives. She and Louise exchanged almost weekly letters now, making plans for where to go and what to visit. Elisabeth and Emily also wrote regularly, and even Cecily was beginning to be quite excited about the following year. It was only Anna who was still unhappy.

"I'm going to be miserably homesick." she confided to Charles as they walked - he with the assistance of his crutches - around the Fruedesheim garden. "I've only been away from home for that one term, and I was so miserable. I'm going to miss mother, and you, and Lois, and the mountains and the snow..."

"You'll still have Cecily." he pointed out. "And Elisabeth and Emily. You'll have a great time." she shook her head.

"Why couldn't I have decided to study nearer home? It's going to be terrible."

"It is if you go away with that attitude." he said, pausing for a minute. "If you go off thinking about how awful everything is and how much you miss everyone you're going to be so miserable that Cecily's going to send you back home - and then bang go your teaching plans. You need to at least try and look at it positively. This is what you want to do - you love music.
You're going to spend a year - just a year - studying it intensively so that you can get a teaching job and do what you've always wanted to. Is that going to be so bad?" she shook her head reluctantly.

"Right. And do you think I'm never going to come and see you?" he asked. "I'll be over as often as I can get off - and I'll look forward to seeing you even more than I already do because it won't be so often. You're going to have a wonderful time - make the most of it." she had picked up the first part of his speech, however, and was concentrating on that.

"When you can get off?" she demanded. "Are you going back to work?" he nodded, smiling, and she threw her arms around him. "That's wonderful!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? When?"

"I haven't had a chance to tell you." he retorted. "And I'm staring back on Monday. I can't operate - obviously - but I'm going to be doing almost like GP work, seeing the people who come along for less serious things. Then I can either give them something or send them on to someone else."

"I see." she said. "I'm pleased they're giving you something to do."

"So am I." Charles replied fervently. "I'm sick of home, sick of my books, dad's books, everyone else’s books - except Claire's school stories, I haven't read them yet - and I’ve been longing for something else to concentrate on."

"Just don't overdo it." she warned. "The last thing we need is for you to end up flat on your back again through doing something stupid." he rolled his eyes at her.

"I'm working in a hospital." he pointed out. "Don't you think somebody would notice if I did that?"

After her talk with Charles Anna was slightly more optimistic about the following year and began to enter more into the general excitement which was pervading the Sixth. The staff commented on it one evening in the staffroom.

"The sixth are excited about leaving this year." Miss Annersley said sadly. "Even Anna seems pleased about the prospect."

"They're not excited about leaving, they're excited about what they're going to do next." Matron said wisely. "It's that Lois Gellibrand who's been the catalyst. Do you know I caught that girl doing back flips down the corridor the other day? When I asked why, she said, 'I'm excited, Matron." I asked for further information and she said. "It's the pyramids, you see, Matron." I left it at that." she concluded. The others giggled.

"I was in two minds about Lois being Games Prefect this year." Miss Annersley said. "But I think she's done a fine job, despite her - peculiarities. However, to return to what I was saying. Every year the girls have been getting less reluctant to leave."

"Because every year there are more opportunities for them to go to." Kathie Ferrars said. "It's not just leave school - go home - get married any more. They can do anything. Look at Lois - going off travelling."

"Jesanne always was a bit strange - letting a nineteen year old girl go off alone." Matron sniffed.

"But it's not strange any more Gwynneth - thats my point. Things are different." Kathie said, warming to her subject. "Even here - look at Len, Biddy, Hilary, Daisy - all working and good wives and mothers. Jesanne knows that Lois will be miserable if she insists on her staying here, so she's letting her do what she wants just now."

"I don't pretend to understand." Matron replied. "It's a good job I'm finishing up. The job will be better for being done by a younger woman who is more in touch with today's girls."

"On a similar note." Hilda Annersley said, removing her glasses. "I have written to Madame, presenting her with my resignation for the end of next year, and Miss Wilson has done the same." There were cries from around the staffroom. "Nell and I are both in our sixties." Hilda pointed out. "We will not be going far, but like Matron, and Frau Meiders last year we feel that
younger women should be doing our jobs. I am sure." she added with a twinkle "that some of you will apply for them. So we shall go and enjoy our retirement, and leave the school in the capable hands of our successors." She looked around the room. Kathie Ferrars and Nancy Wilmot both looked thoughtful, as did Jeanne de Lachennais. Several of the others just looked shocked.

"We shall miss you, ma chere." Jeanne said eventually. "But I am sure we all see your point."

"We shall miss you all too, I'm sure." Hilda replied. "It is not for over a year, however, so we don't need to think of it any more just now. How about some more coffee?" They all agreed, and the conversation moved on.

Half term rolled around quickly, quicker than most of the Sixth would have liked, despite their outward excitement.

"Our last few weeks of school." Gretchen said sadly when they returned from the Half term weekend. They were sitting in the prefects room, working on articles for the sale.

"It's all right for most of you." Cecily said. "You, and Joanna and Marie and about half the Lower Sixth are all going to be Millies. The rest of us are destined for the big wide world."

"Literally, in Lois' case." said Daphne, who was headed to Edinburgh to study Maths.

"Well, yes." Cecily admitted, her fingers flying over her embroidery.

"It'll be strange, all being split up." Anna said, concentrating on her painting. "Those of you left here for another year - Phil and Frances and Melissa - you'll have a whole lot of new prefects to train up."

"And one of you will probably be head." Marie said. The three sub prefects exchanged glances. This hadn't occurred to any of them.

"It will be strange." Joanna agreed.

The next excitement before the end of term was the arrival one night of Nick in Lois and Anna's study, where they were having cocoa with Cecily before bed. Lois almost jumped out of her skin when the knock came at the window, before hurrying to open it.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, helping her brother climb through.
"You're insane!" And indeed he looked it, with an enormous grin on his face
and his hands and knees filthy from negotiating the garden.

"I had to come and tell you!" he explained in a whisper. "Dr Jack just said it was ok!"

"Said what was ok?" Anna demanded in a low voice, with a suspicious look at Cecily. She appeared as confused as anyone else, however, and Anna relaxed slightly.

"For me to go back to England!" he replied. Cecily's face fell and Anna, seeing her, decided it was time things were taken in hand.

"Nick, you're not making any sense!" she complained. "Why are you going back to England now?"

"Not now!" Nick shook his head. "After the summer! With you two! To go to university!" Light dawned on all three girls. Cecily leapt to her feet and threw herself on him, delighted. Lois hung back slightly, but Anna was pleased to note that she was smiling. Nick released Cecily eventually and turned towards his sister, rather hesitantly holding out his arms. Lois smiled and stepped towards him.

"I'm so pleased for you." she said softly. "I know how much you wanted it - I'm so pleased you've got it after all this." she looked at Cecily. "You'd better look after him!" she said, tears welling up in her eyes. Cecily nodded mutely, realising that at last Lois was happy about their relationship, and the two friends embraced, tears running down both their cheeks.

"What?" Nick asked, waving a hand towards them. Anna smiled.

"You will never know." she said. "because unfortunately for you, you are a man." Nick made a face at her and climbed back out the window, as she piloted her two friends off to bed.

The second half of term flew by even faster that the first. Almost before they knew it, it was the last day of term and the entire school was gathered in the Hall.

"Well, girls, we are again at the end of another year." Miss Annersley said, facing them. "Today we say goodbye to most of our oldest girls, and to Matron Lloyd who has been with us almost since the very beginning. The following girls will not return to the school and we wish then all the very best and ask that they keep in touch. She read out the names and the girls
applauded. Cecily rose from her seat among the prefects to reply.

"On behalf of most of the two sixths, I would like to thank you all for all the memories you have given us of our time at school. I know that after we leave tonight to go on to other things that you will continue the traditions of our school and it will continue to be as good a school as it is today. To the girls who will be next years prefects - I would like to wish you luck and advise you to follow Miss Annersleys example and counter justice with mercy - know when it is reasonable to relax the rules. Finally I would like to thank you all - all the pupils, the mistresses, and the domestic staff - for all the things you have taught us and the wonderful years we have all had here. Thank you." she sat down and Anna stood up to take her place.
Kathie Ferrars watched her, interested, remembering the terrified fifteen year old Lois Gellibrand had brought into her Inter V class almost four years previously. She had come so far, Kathie reflected, from that day - with her pale face and her long black plaits, trying to hide behind Lois at every possible opportunity and not knowing how to deal with the other girls
- to today - a self-assured young woman with her hair coiled into a knot on the back of her head and a stare that could silence even the rowdiest middles.

"On behalf of the prefects and all the school I would like to particularly thank Matron for all she has done over so many years." she said. "We would like to present her with this" two of the juniors came forward, carefully carrying a large box - "as a memento of all she has done for us and all who were here before us, and we hope she has a happy retirement." Matron came forward from among the ranks of the staff to accept the gift, surprised that the girls had organised this for her, and Anna retired back among the prefects for the remainder of the assembly, which was brief.

Before they knew where they were Anna, Cecily and Lois were standing in the entrance hall alone. They were the last three to leave. Anna and Lois picked up their cases and headed for the door, but Cecily hung back.

"Are you coming?" Lois asked.

"You go on. I'll catch you up." Cecily said. "I've just remembered something." She waited until they were gone and slipped into Hall, where she walked across to the honours boards on the far wall. Her eyes skimmed down to the last few lines, which she read aloud to the empty Hall.

"Marya Cecilia Maynard, Head Girl and Winner of the Karl Anserl Scholarship. 1970-1971.
Anna Maria James, Second Prefect. 1970-1971.
Lois Jessica Gellibrand, Games Prefect. 1970-1971."


Then Cecily Maynard left the Chalet School for the last time and walked out into the sunshine where Anna and Lois were waiting for her, and all three moved on towards the rest of their lives.

 




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