Last Term at Malory Towers Read online

  Matron looked out of the door. She saw two figures in the distance - Deirdre and Jo, talking together earnestly.

  A light dawned on Matron. Of course! Jo! Some of her wealthy relations had been providing her with illicit pocket-money again. But twenty-five poundsl How foolish Jo's people were. They were ruining her with their silly, extravagant ideas!

  Jo must have dropped them. Matron stood by the door and frowned. Had Jo any more money than this? She shouid, of course, have given ii in to Matron - that was the strict rule. She saw Jo pull at her tunic and slip her hand into her pockel. Ah - so that was where the money was kept!

  And then, of course, Jo found the hole - and no notes! She gave a cry of horror and alarm.

  Matron disappeared. She went; back to her room. She put the money into her safe and wrote out a notice in her firm, clear handwriting.

  Meantime Jo looked at Deirdre in horror when she discovered her money was gone. 'Look - there's a hole in my pocket! I must have dropped the notes. Come on, quickly - we must look for them! They can't be far away/

  But, of course, the money was gone. Not a penny could poor Jo find. She wept in dismay, and Deirdre tried to comfort her.

  Jo met June, Felicity and Susan coming down the corridor, looking very pleased with themselves. They had made a verv nice little plan, with the magnet as the centre o! it! lo rushed up lo them.

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  'I've lost my money - all of it! Do you know if anyone's found it?'

  'There'll soon be a notice put up on the big board, if anyone has,' said Felicity, and the three went on, not at all inclined to let Jo weep on their necks.

  'Beasts! Unkind beasts!' said Jo. 'Why did I ever come here? Deirdre, you're the only decent person in the school - the only one I can depend on. I've a good mind i(i run away!'

  Deirdre had heard this many times before. 'Oh no/ she said comfortingly. 'You mustn't do that, Jo, dear. Don't say things like that!'

  Felicity and the others laughed to see Jo on her knees m the corridor, still searching for the notes, when they uime back. They had already seen Matron's notice on the big board. What a shock for Jo when she knew who had found her money!

  'Look on the notice board,' said June. 'Someone has lound your money, Jo, you'll be glad to know. You can get it back in two minutes!'

  Thankfully Jo got to her feet and rushed off with Deirdre to read the notice. June laughed. 'I wonder what Matron will say lo Jo,' she said. 'That is - if Jo dares to go and ask for the money!'

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  But Jo didn't interest them tor more than a minute. They were too pleased with their plot to forget it lor long, riiev had been looking for Nora to tell it to. Nora would be sure to laugh her head off!

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  They lound her at last. 'Listen, Nora,' said June. 'You know my cousin Alicia? Well, she saw our magnet today and she said if she had had it she would have played a much better trick than we did - and she was moaning and groaning because she's in the sixth and they're too pnggish to play tricks any more.'

  So we decided we'd give the sixth form a treat,' w^ke in Felicity. 'And one of us is going to appear in

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  their room with a message to Mam'zelle Dupont, when she's taking a lesson there - and extract all her pins, and then go!'

  'And Mam'zelle will think one of them has been up lo something,' said Susan. 'They simply won't know what to do!'

  'We thought we might do it twice or three times, just to show the sixth we play our tricks as well as they could,' said June.

  Nora went off into squeals of laughter. 'Oh, let me be the one to go,' she begged. 'Do, do, do! I swear I won't giggle. It's only when I'm with the second form I keep wanting to laugh, and can't stop. I'll be as solemn as a judge if you'll let me go.'

  'Well, we thought we would choose you,' said June. 'Mam'zelle might suspect us - we've played tricks on her before - but she'd never suspect you - you're one of her favourites too, so she'll be quite pleased to see you.'

  Nora was the fluffy-haired big-eyed type that Mam'zelle always loved. She twinkled at the three plotters. 'I'll do it!' she said, with a chuckle. 'I'll do it three times if you want me to!'

  'Oh no - somebody else must do it next,' said June. 'We don't want Mam'zelle to get suspicious - and she would if you kept on appearing!'

  'Especially if her hair fell down each time,' giggled Susan. 'Golly, I wish I was going to be there!'

  'Here comes Jo!' whispered June. 'My word, she looks petrified!'

  Jo was petrified! She had gone to the notice board and had seen Matron's notice at once.

  Will the person who dropped twenty-five pounds in five pound notes along the corridor please come to me?

  Matron

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  Problems |or Awitfwta

  Poor Jo lamented loud and long to Deirdre about her bad luck. To think that Matron had the money! How in the world could she explain to Matron that she had had twenty-five pounds - twenty-five pounds - and not handed it in for safe custody as usual?

  'Jo, you'll just have to go and tell her,' said Deirdre, anxiously. 'If you don't, you might not get the money back, ever. If Matron doesn't know who it belongs to, how can she give it back?'

  'Well, I suppose I'd better,' said Jo. But she had no sooner got to the door than she came back. T can't,' she said to Deirdre. 'I daren't lace her. Don't think me a coward, Deirdre, but honestly I shake at the knees when Matron puts on that face of hers and says the most awful things.'

  Timid little Deirdre had never had any awful things said to her by Matron, but she knew she would feel the same as Jo if she had. She stared at Jo. How were they to get out of the difficulty?

  'Jo - I suppose you couldn't slip into Matron's room when she's not there, and just see if the money is lying anywhere about, could you?' she said, in a half whisper. 'After all - it's yours. You would only be taking what belongs to you!'

  Jo's little eyes gleamed. 'Yes!' she said. T might be able to do that - if only Matron has got the money somewhere loose. I know I've seen some tied up m neat packages on hei table sometimes - 'petty cash, I suppose She might

  have put mine there, too, ready to hand out to the loser.'

  'She wouldn't hand it out,' said Deirdre. 'You know that. She'd keep it and dole it out. All the lower-formers have their pocket-money doled out to them. You'd probably get just a bit of it each week, and the rest would be handed back to you when you go home for the holidays.'

  Jo frowned. 'I meant to spend that money on a terrific least,' she said. 'It's my birthday soon, you know. I simply must get it somehow.'

  'Shh,' said Deirdre. 'Someone's coming.'

  It was Felicity. She poked her nose round the door and grinned. 'Got your money back yet, Jo?' she said. 'Or are you going to make a present of it to Matron? I know / wouldn't care to go and own up to having twenty-five pounds - especially if I had been careless enough to lose n too! What an ass you are '

  'Shut up, Felicity,' said Jo. 'I've had enough of people getting at me all the time. I can't think why you're all on to me every minute of the day. Anyone would think I wasn't fit to be at Malory Towers.'

  As this was exactly what most of the second-formers did think, Felicity made no reply. Jo never would fit, she was certain. If she had had parents who would have i>acked up the school, and helped Jo, there might have been a chance lor her.

  But they laugh at the rules of the school, they tell Jo not to bother to keep any rule if she doesn't want to, ihey send her parcels of things she's not supposed to have, and far too much money, thought Felicity, going oil to practise serving at tennis. Her lather keeps saying she's only to enjoy herself, and not to bother to work hard - he was always at the bottom of the form, and yet now he's rolling in money - so he thinks it doesn't matter if Jo's at the bottom too
!

  It was puzzling that some parents backed up their

  children properly, and some didn't. Surely if you loved your children you did try to bring them up to be decent in every way? And yet Jo's father seemed to love her. It puzzled Felicity. If he really did love her, how could he encourage her to break rules, to be lazy, to do all the wrong things? How could he laugh when he read dis¬approving remarks on Jo's reports?

  Jo said he clapped her on the back and roared with laughter when he read what Miss Parker had written at the bottom of her report last term, remembered Felicity. What was it she wrote, now? 'Jo has not yet learned the first lesson of all - the difference between plain right and wrong. She will not get very far until she faces up to this lesson.' Gosh - if I'd had that on my report, Daddy would have been broken-hearted, and 1 should have got the most awful rowing. But Jo's father only laughed!

  Felicity found Susan, who was going to take her practice serves. Soon they were on a court, and Felicity was lamming the balls hard at the patient Susan. Amanda wandered up after a time and watched. Felicity redoubled her efforts at serving well.

  Since Amanda had taken on June and was training her so well, every lower-former hoped to be singled out for a little attention from the big sixth-former. Felicity sent down one or two fast serves, and Susan called out to Amanda.

  'She's good, isn't she, Amanda?'

  'So-so,' said Amanda, and turned away, not appearing in the least interested.

  'Beast!' said Susan, under her breath. 'Moira would at least have said yes or no - and if Felicity was doing something wrong she'd have set her right, and if she was doing well, she would have praised her.'

  Actually Amanda had hardly noticed Felicity's play. She was thinking hard about something. About two things, in fact. She was worried about June -- not about

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  her progress, which was, in fact, amazing. Amanda knew how and what to teach, and June was a very able and quick pupil - but June was getting tired of Amanda's strictness and lack of all praise. She was becoming annoyed with the sharp commands and curt orders, ft had never been easy for June to knuckle under to anyone, and to be ordered about by someone she really disliked was getting a little too much for her.

  She had said so to Amanda the day before. Amanda had taught her a fast new swimming-stroke, and had insisted on her thrashing her way up and down the pool, up and down. Then she had gone for June because she hadn't paid attention to some of her shouted instructions.

  'You deliberately swam all the way up the pool using vour legs wrong,' she said. 'I yelled at you, but you went · n and on.'

  'Do you suppose I can hear a word when water is in my ears, and my arms are thrashing over my head like 1 bunder?' demanded the panting June. 'It's true that even the school could probably hear your voice, and no doubt they could even hear it at the post-office, a mile away - it's always loud enough! But I couldn't, so you'd better get a megaphone. Though I grant you your voice is better than any megaphone, at any time, in any place. Why, even at church . . .'

  'That's enough,' said Amanda, angrily. 'I don't take cheek from a second-former.'

  'And I'm beginning to feel I won't take orders from a sixth-former,' said June, drying herself with a towel. 'I've had almost enough. So I warn you, Amanda -'

  Amanda was about to say something really cutting, but stopped herself. She had begun to be very proud of June. June was a most marvellous pupil, although un- Iriendly and usually silent, h would be a pity to stop the caching now that June was almost as perfect as she could hope to be at tennis and swimming. She was quite good enough for the second team now, and Amanda meant to ask to have her tried out for it in a week or two's time.

  So Amanda turned away, fuming inwardly, but trying not to show it. June grinned to herself. She knew quite well that Amanda didn't want to give up the coaching now that June was proving her right in what she had said to the others. All the same, thought June, I'm getting tired of it. This is a most unpleasant term, slaving like this. Do f really, honestly, care enough about being in the second team to go through all this? I'm not sure that I do!

  That was June all over, of course. If she took enough trouble, and cared enough, she could shine at anything. But there seemed to be a flaw in her strong character that caused her not to care enough about things.

  June was one of the problems that occupied Amanda's mind. The other was her own swimming. Swimming was perhaps her most magnificent achievement in the sports line. To see Amanda hurtle across the pool was a sight in itself. Nobody could swim even one half as fast. Even the small first-formers stopped their chattering when Amanda look to the water.

  And what Amanda was thinking hard about was her swimming. The pool wasn't enough for her. She wanted to swim right out to sea. How could she get enough practice lor really long-distance swimming il she didn't swim in the sea? The pool was wonderful - wide and long and deep - but after all, it was only a pool. Amanda wanted to swim lor at least a mile! Two miles, she thought, exultantly, three miles! I am strong enough to swim the Channel, I really do believe.

  At Trenigan. where her old school had been, the sea coast was safer than the treacherous Cornish coast at Malory Towers, with its strong currents, and vicious rocks on which great waves pounded day and night, liut Amanda was sure she could overcome even a strong current.

  No one was allowed to swim right out to sea at Malory Towers. That was an unbreakable rule. Anyone ,>anting real sea-swimming from the shore could go in a narty to another beach some way along, and swim in safety from there. But no one was allowed to swim out trout the shore at Malory Towers.

  No one even wanted to! Enormous waves ran up the rocks to the pool. Even on a calm day, the blue water surged and heaved, and swept with great force over the oeks. Amanda, who loved the strength ol water, longed ;o battle with the tierce sea here. She was quite fearless n all physical things.

  She had hardly seen Felicity's tennis, as she stood by court, idly following the bail wiib hei eyes. Should she take a chance, and go swimming out to sea some time? She didn't much care if she got into a row or not. She wasn't going to stay very long at Malory Towers, and the rules didn't frighten herl She suddenly made up her mind.

  1 will go swimming out to sea, she decided. I've talked to Jack the fisherman, and he's told me what currents there are. If I went down to the edge of the rocks at low tide, I could dive off into deep water, and avoid the worst v urrents by swimming to the west, and then straight out. i should be all right.

  The thing was - when could she do this unnoticed? Not that she minded getting into a row - but it was silly to do that if it could be avoided. Amanda turned the matter over in her mind.

  Early morning would be best, she thought. Very early morning. Nobody would be about then. I could have about an hour and a hall's real swimming, it ' mid be heaven!

  Having settled that, Amanda felt happy. She wished she could settle the June business as easily. But that didn't altogether rest with her! She wasn't going to give in to June's ideas as to how she should be coached, and if June chose to be rude and make things difficult, then there might be a serious row.

  'I don't want one!' said Amanda to herself. 'But if June provokes one, perhaps it will clear the air, and let her know where she stands. I'm certainly not going to put up with any nonsense, and I think if it came to the point, June wouldn't be idiot enough to throw away her chance of being put in the second school teams.'

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  H^-term

  Half-term came and went. It was brilliant weather and i he parents thoroughly enjoyed themselves wandering over the school grounds and down by the sea.

  The enclosed garden, set in the hollow square in the middle of the four-towered building, was very popular. It was crammed with hundreds upon hundreds of rose- hushes, and the sight and scent of these filled the fathers and mothers with delight.

  'I'm glad Malory Towers is at its very best my last half- term,' Darrell said to her mother, as she took her to see the roses. 'I shall al
ways remember it like this. Oh, Mother, thank you a thousand times for choosing this school for me. I've been so happy here.'

  Her mother squeezed her arm. 'You've done very well indeed at Malory Towers,' she said. 'All the mistresses have been telling me how much they will miss you, and what a help you've always been. They are glad you have a sister to follow in your footsteps!'

  Gwen went by with her mother and Miss Winter. 'My last half-term!' she was saying. 'Fancy, my next half- term will be in Switzerland. I'm sure I shall be much happier there than I've ever been here.'

  Gwen's father had not come. Gwen was glad. 'I was afraid he might come and spoil everything,' she said to her mother. 'He was so horrid to us last holidays, wasn't he?'

  'He would have come,' said Miss Winter. 'But he's not well. He hasn't really been well for some time, Gwen. V>u should have written to him this term, you know. I

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  really do think you should.'

  'It's not your business/ said Gwen, coldly. 'Honestly, you can't always tell whether Daddy isn't well, or is just bad-tempered, can you. Mother? Anyway, we shan't miss him today.'

  'Where's Maureen?' asked Mrs Lacey. Maureen, so like Gwen, with her fluffy golden hair and big, pale-blue eyes, was quite a favourite with Mrs Lacey and the old governess. But Gwen wasn't going to have anything to do with Maureen that day! Maureen 'sucked up' to Gwen's people and they just loved it.

  'Maureen's got her own people here today,' she said. 'Poor Maureen - I'm sorry tor her, Mother. She's not going to a finishing school, or even to college of any sort. She's just going to take a secretarial course, and go into somebody's office!'

  .Jo's people came by, with Jo hanging on to her father's arm. The big, loud-voiced, vulgar man could, as usual, be heard all over the place.

  'Not a bad little rose-garden this, Jo, eh?' he said. 'Course it's not a patch on ours. Let's see, Ma, how many roses have we got in our rose-garden?'

  'Five thousand/ said Mrs Jones, in a low voice. She was always rather overawed by the other parents, and she was beginning to wish that her husband wasn't quite so loud and bumptious. She had caught sight of a few astonished glances, and a few sly smiles. She wondered if she had put on too much jewellery?