A Genius at the Chalet School (20 page)

   Hilary, who was listening, chimed in. "Tom wasn't in the least like a girl. Her dad brought her up like a boy and she
stayed
 like a boy, even after she came here - to the school, I mean. She was wizard. We all liked Tom! She loathed sewing and things like that, but she'd had lessons in carpentry and woodwork and she made marvellous things. She never used nails. All her things dovetail - Oh, we're moving at last. We'll tell you the rest later."

   They were indeed moving and now they came to rest before the house.

   Tom
had
 done them proud! The house stood four feet high, and was three feet long and three feet deep. It opened on all sides and the front not only had the little balcony Betsy had noticed, but there were four steps leading up to the front door which opened and shut. The roof was made out of tiny shingles, painted red to simulate tiles. Tom must have put in hours of work on them, for each was fixed seperately. The windows were sash windows and pushed up and down in the proper way. There were three sitting-rooms and a kitchen on the ground floor; a drawing-room over the dining room and the little hall; three bedrooms finished off that floor and in the roof were an attic bedroom, day and night nurseries and a storeroom which contained tiny trunks made out of jeweller's boxes. The staircase went up with two half-landings and on one was a bathroom. Underneath the house was a garage with sliding doors containing a clockwork car and a coal cellar stocked with shining black beads for coal. It was fully furnished, down to carpets, pictures and even electric lights, for Tom had fixed a bell battery to one side which you could switch on and off. The one snag was that when it was on, the whole house was lighted up.

   "How on earth did Tom manage that?" Bride Bettany asked, awestruck.

   They learnt later that one of the boys in the Boys' Club run by her father's church was an electrician by trade and he had seen to it for her. Her parents had helped when they could, and various friends had done all the needlework part for her. Others had given assistance with the furniture. Tom had bought half a dozen little dolls and her mother had dressed them. When Carola gently opened one of the little wardrobes, they found that it was full of tiny frocks and coats. For a girl who was working hard at the university in term time and a busy rector and his equally busy wife, it was a marvellous piece of work.

   Tom had even fixed a litlte tablet over the door with the name "Red Tiles" painted on it. It was a toy fit for a princess and the girls reckoned delightedly that it would bring a substantial addition to their takings.

   "This," said Julie Lucy as the school finally scattered to take up the various duties of the day, "is
the
 house of houses! The kid who gets
that
 is jolly lucky - that's all I've got to say!"

   And everyone agreed with her.

CHAPTER 19

By the time the girls were at their posts, the first visitors had begun to arrive, among them three or four Old Girls who were now married and living in Switzerland. Among them were Mrs. Graves, wife of Dr. Graves and, as Hilary Burn, first pupil and then P.T. mistress at the school. With her, came one of Joey's oldest and dearest friends, Frieda von Ahlen, once Frieda Mensch. She had her elder girl, Gretchen, with her, but had parked the two babies, Carlotta and Andreas, at Freudesheim in the nursery with the Maynard twins.

   "It's too bad," she protested to the two Heads who came to welcome her. "Here have I been hoping for a full reunion of our quartette and Joey has to have her ninth baby a week before the Sale and Marie and Simone are both held up, too!" Still, she added more cheerfully, "I
have
 seen Joey
and
 her little Cecily. And it will be fun to meet Elisaveta after all these years. How fortunate that you were able to get her to come and do the opening for us!"

   "I fancy we shall be seeing a good deal more of Elisaveta in the future," Miss Wilson said cryptically. "Oh, I'm telling you nothing more at the moment, Frieda. You go and look round the stalls. And don't forget to let Gretchen have a good look at Tom's latest. As our one and only Mary-Lou remarks, it's the best yet!"

   She turned away to greet someone else, so Frieda laughed and went off with Gretchen to examine the show.

   At five to eleven, there was a stir of excitement in the room. The ex-Crown Princess of Belsornia, Princess Elisaveta, had arrived. When it was found that she had brought her entire family to grace the scene, the excitement became terrific.

   In the days when the Chalet School had been in Tirol, she had had one joyful year as a pupil. Since then, she had had many adventures, most of them unpleasant. Now that Belsornia had been annexed to the Soviet Union, she was anxious to drop her title but so far the government in exile had refused to agree. Her father, the King, was living in Australia at the moment, but the Princess and her husband, the Duke of Mirolani, had been in America. He had been killed in an air accident five years before this, leaving her with their five children to educate and bring up. Mercifully, much of the Belsornian investments and especially those of the Royal family, had been in British Empire concerns, so she had enough to manage. Business affairs connected with her husband's estate had brought her to Switzerland and when she found that she was likely to be detained there for at least a year, she had sent for her family and they were all living at Arolla at the moment. She and Joey had always been close friends and it had been Joey's idea that she should be asked to open the Sale. So here she was, attended by the three boys and two girls and looking, despite everything, not so very greatly older than the Elisaveta of earlier days.

   Dr. Maynard as Chairman introduced her in a few words and she rose, first to accept the bouquet of spring flowers presented by little Janice Chester, and then to open the Sale in a speech that proved to be unique in the annals of the school's Sales.

   "You know," she said plaintively, "coming back like this makes me feel that I simply must mind my p's and q's! It's almost as if I were back at school again and no older than Frédéric here!" She indicated her eldest son who gave her a broad grin. "For I was just his age when I came to the school as a pupil - twelve and a bit. As soon as my girls are old enough, they're coming - if Miss Annersley and Miss Wilson will have them." This time, she beamed at the two pretty little girls standing with their brothers at one side of the dais. "Only," she then confided to her startled audience, "I hope they're going to be luckier than I was, for I mean them to have at least seven years at school and I only had one. Still, it was good while it lasted!" She paused again and the school began to clap loudly. Some of their best-loved legends were concerned with that year. And they had two or three connected with a Guide camp that had been held in the lovely land of Tirol.

   The Princess gave them their heads for a minute. Then she held up her hand. "I haven't finished yet and I haven't opened the Sale properly, either. Give me a minute or two longer, please."

   They calmed down and she spoke her conclusion. "I want to say that during that year I had standards and ideals held up to me that I've tried to live up to. All I learnt then has helped me during the years after we had to leave our homeland. It;s gone on helping me over hard places that I, like everyone else, have had to face.

   "I learnt then to think about other people and not put Elisaveta first. This very Sale is an example of that. And it hasn't been a flash in the pan, either, for I know that year after year the school has held a similar one in aid of the free beds for sick children and each year has tried to do more in that direction. When you know all this, you must see why on this occasion, I'm urging everyone here to do what they can to make this Old English Fair the biggest success of them all. Ladies and gentleman, I'm not going to keep you any longer, for I'm sure you're all aching to pull out your purses and invest in some of the wonderful goods you can see on every hand. You want to try your luck at the competitions' booth and make a guess at what that amazing dolls' house will fetch and attend all the entertainments - and for me to stop talking and let you get on with it! So I'll just declare it open and say that I hope it beats the biggest success the Chalet School has had up to date."

   She sat down amidst a hurricane of laughter and applause and Miss Wilson rose at once to propose a vote of thanks which was seconded by Dr. Groves. The final clapping died away and the Princess left the dais with her children and the selling began.

   "A most unorthodox speech!" Jack Maynard said severely when he could talk to her.

   "Oh, I think it was a very good one," she said blandly as she stopped at the merry-go-round to inspect the needlework. "Most opening speeches are too boring for words. You can't accuse me of
that
! You go away and leave me to do my duty by these fascinating things. My family has gone off to try its luck at skittles and competitions but once they come back, I shan't have any time to myself. I want to see Joey later, so you can take me over to Freudesheim and we'll talk then. I suppose your triplets are hard at work here and I know the two elder boys are at school; but I want to see all the babies later. Freddy and Carl are going to the same place as your two after Easter, by the way. I don't want them to become Americanized and it looks rather as thought I have a long visit here before me. And José and Guita are quite definitely coming here. José will be ten in September and will begin then. Guita's only seven, so she must wait a little longer." She turned to inquire the price of a traycloth and he left her to tour the room and be pestered by his daughters who were in charge of the house, to make a guess at what it would bring.

   It was not till the afternoon that the Princess sought himout and insisted on his taking her to Freudesheim to visit Joey and the babies.

   "I'm leaving my family to enjoy itself," she explained. "They're a good crowd on the whole and Freddy can keep them in hand."

   "What will happen when he goes to school?" he asked, glancing down at the slim woman beside him.

   "Oh, I can deal with them myself. But oh, Jack, it's very hard to bring boys up without a father! Raoul would have been so good for them!"

   "You'll be good for them yourself, my dear," Jack said, deep sympathy in his voice. "You're very wise to send Freddy and Carl to school. I suppose little Raoul will follow later?"

   "Oh, of course. But he's not six yet."

   "Then here's an idea for you. Come here and live with us. We've plenty of room, goodness knows. And I know Beth Chester is complaining that Mike needs companionship of his own age, but he's not six yet, either, and we don't want to send him off yet awhile. Or if you prefer it, there'll be the Elstob place in September. I know Joey told you about that poor kid, Leila. She's doing well and we all think a long sea voyage best for her now. Shall I speak to Mrs. Elstob for you? The Elisehütte will be to let for a twelvemonth at least. And," he added with a grin, "I'll be at hand to whack the boys if they need it. You think it over. At least you don't have to decide at once. Talk it over with Joey. If you do decide to come here, our new governess - when we get her! - can take on the three kids along with our own Mike and, in any case, Freddy and Carl won't be going to school
quite
 friendless!"

   "Oh, I'm not worrying about that," she said quickly. "They're both good mixers. And luckily, there doesn't look like there being any question of a throne for either of them. I hope not. Freddy is mad on engines and Carl has made up his mind to be a doctor. Far better for them - though if things had come back to what they were, Freddy, at any rate, would have had to change his ideas. I'll think it over, Jack. It would be lovely to be with all of you again and my father doesn't want us out in Australia, or I'd go to him. By the way, I hope the underground Regency Council is going to see sense at long last and let me give up. In that case, I shall take my husband's family name of Helston and be Mrs. Helston. However, we must wait a little still. This the house? Oh, I like it! Come on and take me to Joey and then you'd better get back to duty again."

   "Right! But don't tire her out with too much talking. Cecily's just a week old to-day and if you won't know what Jo is by this time you ought to!"

   He left her with his wife and went back to Hall where he found plenty to do.

   Meanwhile, the girls were all hard at work selling. Quite a number of people had come, including all the staff who could be spared from the Sanatorium, as well as Jo Scott's people from Lucerne and Mary-Lou and Verity's father and mother from the Rösleinalp and various friends the school had made during its nearly two years in the Oberland.

   Va were surrounded, for Matron always contibuted a large supply of home-made jams and marmalade and the girls themselves had spent three days of the previous week in concocting cakes, buns and scones of all kinds, not to mention toffee, fudge and various other sweets. Lesley Bethune had spent a whole afternoon making shortbread and black bun; and Jill Ormsby, who came from Yorkshire, had a pile of red Yorkshire parkin.

   Nina was hard at it, weighing out brandysnaps, which Lesley Malcolm had had sent from her Alnwick home. She looked a different girl these days, for the Alpine air had whipped the colour into her face and friends of her own age had helped to turn her thoughts from inside herself to other people. She was still slight, but the hollows in her cheeks had vanished and as she turned to answer Margot Maynard's demand for "one of the bags of that
luscious
 scrunchy stuff", she looked more like a jolly schoolgirl than she had ever done before.

   A big man who had just come in at the door grasped this at once, and his lips pursed in a soundless whistle. "By jove, what a change! I swear you'd never know her for the washed-out misery I took home to Brettingham at Christmas! What have you done to her, Miss - Miss Wilson, isn't it?"

   Bill nodded. "She has every moment filled up here and she has friends of her own age to keep her occupied. And then, Sir Guy, though it's a truism, time
is
 a great healer. I don't mean that she has forgotten her father nor her grief. Her sense of loss is still there. But she has no time for brooding over it now and her sorrow has become a natural, healthy sorrow. But she'll never forget. Things go deep with Nina. Wait here a moment and I'll send her to you."