First term at fernside, p.15
First Term at Fernside, page 15
‘I was only …’ But nobody was listening to Fran and, with a miffed sigh, she subsided.
‘Daddy beat him for it.’
Everyone gasped, and Enid looked uncomfortable.
‘Not hard,’ she said. ‘Just a few whacks. Then he tied him up and we think he chewed through the rope. He was gone when we got up this morning.’
‘I don’t blame him,’ Fran said hotly. ‘Your family doesn’t deserve a dog. I’m going to report you to the USPCA.’ She half rose, as if about to march off and do just that.
Robin pulled her down. ‘That’s not helping us find Rudy,’ she said.
‘I don’t think he should be found,’ Linnet said. ‘I hope he’s run away somewhere lovely and found a family that appreciates him.’
Fran nodded. ‘Exactly.’ She glared at Enid. ‘I could see your family hadn’t a clue how to look after a dog,’ she said, ‘but I didn’t know you were actually cruel.’
‘It – it was Daddy,’ Enid stammered. ‘He lost his temper because—’
‘You shouldn’t lose your temper with animals,’ Fran shouted.
‘Or with people,’ Robin said. ‘This isn’t helping. And the bell will go for French in a minute. Let’s think of something sensible. Linnet, you could look out of the attic window to see if you can spot him anywhere about. Linnet’s extremely observant,’ she explained to the others. ‘She notices things most people ignore.’
‘And we can ask Josie,’ Linnet suggested.
Robin nodded. ‘She seems to know everything that’s going on locally. Remember she told us about animals going missing?’
‘I did too!’ Enid said. ‘Remember I told you about Bertie McGeown’s greyhound? I’d forgotten.’ She wrinkled her nose in deep thought. ‘Ellie was allowed to go to the shop on her own the other day and she came back full of some silly story about a stolen billy goat, but I didn’t pay it much heed. She’s always talking nonsense. Oh, gosh, I hope Rudy hasn’t been stolen!’
Linnet gave a little squeak, but whatever she was about to say was drowned out by the bell.
On the way back into school, Robin hung back and caught Linnet on her own.
‘D’you know something?’ she asked. ‘About the goat?’
‘I might,’ Linnet said. ‘Look, there’s too many people around. I’ll sneak up to the attic now and you ask Mademoiselle if you can go and look for me – say I felt sick or something. And follow me up there. Then I can – maybe – show you.’
‘It seems risky.’
‘If we get caught, I’ll take the blame.’ And before Robin could argue, Linnet was pulling away, determinedly making for the back staircase, her plaits swinging.
When Mademoiselle looked concerned at the non-appearance of la petite Linette, Robin, praying the French mistress would believe her, said, ‘She was upset at breaktime, Mademoiselle. May I go and look for her?’
‘Ah, la pauvre! She has the sensitive nature. Yes, my dear, you may go.’
This was almost too easy, Robin thought as she sped to the bottom of the back stairs and flew up them as quickly and quietly as she could. And of course she had a ready excuse – and a mistress’s permission – should she be unfortunate enough to run into Matron. Her luck held, and she found Linnet, as promised, looking out the attic window.
‘I thought you weren’t coming.’ Linnet sounded unusually excited. She made room, and pointed to the right. ‘Rowanbank,’ she said. ‘See the stableyard? In the middle, behind the house? No – further right. You have to sort of twist your neck until it hurts.’
Robin had been in the stableyard at Rowanbank several times, and had played hide-and-seek there in the golden days before Doctor Flynn. It was a ramshackle, neglected place, full of dust, with dandelions poking up between the cobbles, and some of the doors hanging off the stables. You couldn’t see any of that from here. It was all so tiny and clear, it reminded her of something – she had been very small, and Linnet had been there too, and she had cried …
‘Your farm!’ she said. ‘It looks like your toy farm.’
‘You remember it too?’
‘Your mother said you had to share, and you cried because you didn’t want to.’
Linnet flushed.
Robin giggled. ‘I’ve just remembered – I stole one of your ducks. I hid it in the pocket of my pinafore. I didn’t even want it. I just did it for badness.’
‘I knew there was a duck missing!’ Linnet sounded indignant. ‘I remember telling Mummy there should be six and I could only find five. She didn’t believe I could count to six; she told me not to be silly.’
For a moment Robin thought of the forthcoming half term: what would it be like to have Linnet at home with her for a whole week? But she couldn’t worry about that now: there was a limit to how long they could safely stay away from class.
‘So what am I looking for?’ she asked.
‘Bottom corner, in the paddock.’
She looked. ‘A goat!’ she said. ‘Oh! D’you think it’s the one Enid was talking about?’
‘How many goats do you see in suburban Belfast?’
‘It is nearly the country.’
‘But it’s a coincidence, isn’t it? With the hens too.’
‘You mean – you think Doctor Flynn is stealing people’s animals? But why?’
Linnet shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But there’s something else strange. I’ve been coming up here – well, from time to time – and I’ve seen him three times now.’
‘Doctor Flynn?’
‘I’m not sure. The man I’ve seen is in a wheelchair. Could you be a doctor in a wheelchair?’
‘I don’t know,’ Robin said. ‘Mabel and I heard a terrible noise from Rowanbank this morning – like the one you and Sadie heard. It was horrible.’ She shivered at the memory of that anguished cry. Something else tugged at her memory. A sound. A trundling, screechy sound, like wheels on gravel. ‘Linnet,’ she said. ‘Do you remember the day we cut through there with Sadie and Babs? Someone called the dog, and we only just made it through the fence.’
‘I remember.’
‘We heard a funny noise. I didn’t know what it was then, but it could have been wheels, couldn’t it? It sounded like a bike but yet not quite like a bike …’
Somewhere below a clock struck the half hour.
‘We’d better get back to class,’ Robin said. ‘Can you make yourself look like you’ve been in one of your states? Rub your eyes so you look like you’ve been crying.’
Linnet obeyed, and luckily she had the kind of skin that blotched easily, so that when, as they slipped down the stairs, they ran into the grim and unwelcome figure of Matron, she accepted Robin’s stammered explanation that Linnet had been feeling upset and she had gone to find her.
‘And where did this “feeling upset” occur?’ Matron demanded, regarding Linnet with disdain.
Robin swallowed, but Linnet said, ‘In the dormitory, Matron.’
‘A conduct mark each, for being out of bounds.’
Robin’s stomach somersaulted. She heard Miss Curran’s warning: Anyone receiving bad reports will automatically lose her place in the team. And what would Mother say then?
She gulped, but before she could say a word in her defence Linnet said clearly, ‘But Matron, Robin was only coming to find me. Mademoiselle said she could. It’s not fair to give her a conduct mark,’ Linnet said. ‘I don’t mind taking one.’
Matron’s eyes bulged at Linnet. ‘You may take an extra one, Linnet Grey, for presuming to tell me what is and isn’t fair. Now get along to class.’
‘But does Robin have to take a bad conduct mark?’ Linnet persisted. ‘Because she …’
Matron’s face reddened, and Robin thought she might explode. But after a long huffing breath, she said, ‘Hmmm. Well. I suppose if Mademoiselle sent you. But another time I won’t be so lenient.’
‘There won’t be another time. Thank you, Matron,’ Robin said, feeling her insides settle.
‘Get along to class, then,’ Matron barked.
They obeyed. But before they entered the lower-fourth form room, Linnet said, ‘There’s definitely something going on in Rowanbank. And I think it’s all connected. Maybe with Rudy too. Let’s meet in the garden after lunch and tell the others.’
Robin remembered Mabel telling Fran that you could be right, but sort of wrong too. And though it might be the right thing to look for Rudy, and even to investigate Rowanbank, a voice inside her, not unlike Mabel’s, told her it could be very much the wrong thing too – at least for someone who didn’t want to get into trouble. She had wriggled out of that bad conduct mark – or Linnet had managed it for her – but she couldn’t expect to be so lucky another time.
‘I don’t think we should …’
‘Of course we should,’ Linnet said fiercely, the way she had told Matron she didn’t mind about getting the bad conduct marks. And Robin, who minded very much, knew that once Linnet and Sadie and Fran got together, there would be no stopping them. And who knew where that would lead?
Chapter 29
Vanished into Thin Air
‘Linnet Grey, don’t bolt your food.’
Six weeks ago, Linnet would have been mortified by this public scolding; now she just said, through a mouthful of apple crumble, ‘Sorry, Nell.’
‘And don’t talk with your mouth full! You lower fourths have the table manners of guttersnipes.’
At last lunch was over and they could carry out their plan, though Robin had gone very quiet about it. It was a cold day, and most people preferred to stay indoors, so the garden was quiet apart from some hardy second formers having a noisy skipping game.
‘Enid’s going to meet us beside Mim’s tree,’ Sadie said. ‘We won’t be overheard there.’ She was fingering her notebook as though she couldn’t wait to start jotting down notes.
Babs said, ‘I bet Enid comes back from lunch and tell us he’s found – mystery over. Not that it ever was one.’
It seemed as though Babs might be right, because no Enid appeared.
‘I bet she’s scoffing bread-and-butter pudding with Rudy begging under the table,’ Babs said.
Before Fran could say that dogs shouldn’t be encouraged to beg, Sadie said, ‘Here’s Josie with scraps for the compost heap. Good chance to talk to her.’
‘We can’t all go,’ Babs said. ‘Linnet – you go; you’re nice and gentle.’
Linnet was torn between pleasure at the compliment and fear at having to tackle Josie alone, but she got up obediently.
‘I’ll go too,’ Fran said. ‘Two heads are better than one at remembering stuff. No, Sadie, don’t come with your notebook! You make the poor girl nervous.’
It was easier talking to Josie without a crowd. Fran explained that Enid’s puppy had run away, leaving out the biting and the smacking.
‘We wondered if you saw anything on your way to work. I know you start early,’ Linnet said.
‘Six o’clock,’ Josie said. Linnet imagined her thinking, When you lazy madams are fast asleep. ‘No, I never saw nothing. I’m always half-asleep at that time. My ma says she doesn’t know how I get to work in one piece.’ Then she frowned. ‘Here – I never saw nothing, but I heard something. At the time I passed no remark, but I suppose it could have been the wee dog.’
‘What sort of something?’ Linnet thought about the noise Robin had reported – though that certainly hadn’t been at six o’clock.
‘Like a motorcar braking – and then a squeal. Could have been a puppy.’
You mean you ignored it?’ Fran demanded. ‘Why did you not go and see?’
‘I wasn’t sure,’ Josie said. ‘And’ – her face took on its narrow, stern look – ‘it’s easy for you to say. Cook would dismiss me for being late.’
Linnet thought back to Enid’s late arrival today: Miss West had been annoyed, but there were no repercussions. Even if Enid had been given one of those bad conduct marks Robin and Mabel were so bothered by, it wouldn’t have hurt. Not like losing her job.
Josie looked back over her shoulder at the kitchen window. ‘I can’t let Cook see me talking. Yous’ll get me into trouble.’
‘We don’t want that,’ Fran said. ‘Thanks, Josie – you’ve been really helpful.’
They dashed back to the others, who had been joined by Enid. One look at her face told Linnet that Rudy was not home.
‘It’s like he’s vanished into thin air,’ she said.
Fran and Linnet looked at each other.
‘We might have a clue,’ Linnet said, ‘but it’s not altogether a very hopeful one.’
‘It’s only something Josie heard,’ Fran put in quickly. ‘And she wasn’t even that sure.’ Quickly she outlined what Josie had said.
‘But if he’d been run over on Fernside Road, people would be talking about it,’ Enid said. ‘Mummy asked at the shop – she waited until it was busy – but nobody had seen or heard anything.’
‘He could have run into a hedge,’ Fran suggested. ‘When animals are hurt they often hide away. I bet if we looked in every hedge in this road we’d find him.’
‘I called him and called him,’ Enid said, her voice thick with tears. ‘All the way home and back again. That’s why it took me so long. It’s not that I was eating my lunch. I couldn’t eat a bite.’
‘If he’s in Fernside Road,’ Sadie said, ‘we’ll find him.’
‘Fine words, Sadie, but how?’ Babs demanded. ‘We’re not allowed out of the grounds except on Saturdays, and it’s Tuesday. Which means in precisely’ – she looked at her watch – ‘seven minutes, we’re expected to yomp up and down a netball court. Which, pardon me for saying so, Robin, is even more boring now that Miss Curran’s only interested in the team.’
Robin, who hadn’t spoken the whole time – it was very unlike her, Linnet thought – gave a tight smile.
‘That’s it!’ Linnet said. ‘If Miss Curran doesn’t care about the rest of us, why don’t we search for Rudy instead? If we poke about under all the hedges, and ask anyone we see, we’re bound to find him.’
‘Even if he’s dead,’ Fran said, ‘which is quite likely, you’d rather know, wouldn’t you?’
Enid gulped but nodded.
‘So all we have to do is get permission,’ Linnet said. ‘I don’t mind asking Miss Rea.’
‘I don’t think Miss Rea would approve of her girls poking under hedges,’ Babs said.
‘She’d approve of us helping a classmate and an injured puppy,’ Fran said.
‘We don’t know that he’s injured.’
‘We don’t really know anything,’ Sadie said. ‘Which is why we need to investigate.’
Chapter 30
Under the Hedge
Miss Rea set down the papers she was reading and smiled. ‘What can I do for you, Linnet?’ she asked. ‘No more upsets, I hope?’
Linnet explained, rather haltingly.
‘I see.’ Miss Rea looked thoughtful. ‘Barbara is correct in thinking I would not like you girls running amok on Fernside Road.’
‘But we wouldn’t be! We’re very serious about finding the puppy.’
Miss Rea looked serious. ‘Linnet, if what you tell me is true – that there’s some evidence to suggest the dog was in a motor accident, you do know that—’
Linnet nodded. ‘We might find a dead body. But we mightn’t – and if he’s injured, then the sooner we take him to a vet the better!’
‘Remind me: who is involved?’
Linnet told her.
Miss Rea looked thoughtful. ‘So Sadie is joining in?’
‘She joins in everything she can.’
‘Excellent. And Enid of course – I’m troubled that the daygirls and boarders don’t mix as much they could. I’m sorry Robin can’t be with you – such a sensible girl.’ Linnet stored up this description to tell Robin later. ‘And Fran?’
‘She knows all about animals,’ Linnet said. ‘She wants to be a vet.’
‘Very well,’ Miss Rea said. ‘You may look for the dog. But you must promise not to leave Fernside Road.’
‘Oh, thank you!’ Linnet’s heart soared with triumph, and a little with the excitement of escape for an afternoon.
‘And of course, you must be supervised.’ Linnet’s heart sank again. Miss Rea consulted the big timetable on the wall behind her desk. ‘Hmm, it’s a difficult afternoon. No mistresses free. I wonder if Matron …’ Linnet’s heart went lower than she knew hearts could go, but lifted again when Miss Rea frowned and said, ‘No. It will have to be a prefect. I’ll find out who’s free and she will meet you at the front gate in – let’s see, ten minutes. Make sure you wear coats and hats, and behave sensibly. I’ll speak to Miss Curran about your missing netball.’ Her mouth twitched. ‘It’s very public-spirited of you to give up your games afternoon.’
‘Oh, we all hate games,’ Linnet said. ‘Well, Sadie doesn’t, she’d love to join in, and Fran doesn’t hate them, she just likes other things better. But I’m hopeless, and Babs despises them, and—’
‘Quite.’ Miss Rea looked slightly bemused. ‘Well, off you go and remember what I said. Oh, and Linnet – this is most important – I don’t want any of you being bitten. If you find the dog, you must send someone to fetch me. Don’t try to move him. If he’s hurt, he’s likely to bite. Will you promise?’
Linnet nodded.
Ten minutes later, the five girls – Sadie was trying, despite Babs’s squashing, to call them the Fernside Five – waited by the front gate, watching for the prefect.
‘Please not Nell,’ Sadie said, echoing what they all felt.
‘It won’t be Lucy on a games day,’ Fran said.
A tall fair girl, looking very fed up, made her way down the drive.
‘Catherine,’ Babs said. ‘Remember she walked us to Enid’s? She’s not exactly overbrimming with love for her juniors.’
Catherine said, as soon as she joined them, ‘This is not how I’d planned to spend my afternoon. I’m preparing for Cambridge entrance and Dr Bell will be incensed if I haven’t finished this.’ She pulled a red cloth-bound book out of her coat pocket.
