17 rumours and tales

nobody heard the two girls coming back. no one guessed that darrell and ellen had been out of their beds and back again. darrell, furious and excited, lay awake for some time, debating whether or not to wake sally there and then and tell her what had happened.

“no, i won’t,” she decided, reluctantly. “it would only wake all the others, and i must get sally alone and tell her.”

she suddenly fell asleep, and, tired out with excitement, slept very soundly indeed. but ellen could not sleep at all. this was nothing new for her. most nights she did not sleep until the early hours of the morning. now she lay on her back in bed, quite stunned by all the night’s happenings. but gradually she ceased to worry about them for a bigger trouble came upon her. her headache grew so bad that she thought her head must surely burst! red hot hammers seemed at work inside it and at last the girl grew really frightened.

what was happening to her? was she going mad? was this what it felt like? she lay perfectly still with her eyes closed, hoping that the pain would die down. but it didn’t. it got worse.

at last it was so bad that she began to moan softly. the thought of kind, comforting matron came to her. matron! matron had been kind to her in the san. she would be kind now. ellen felt that if she could only have one small bit of kindness from someone she would feel better.

she sat up painfully, her head spinning round. the moon was now shining fully into the dormy. she could see all the white beds with their eiderdowns slipping off, or neatly pulled up. the girls lay in various positions, fast asleep.

ellen got out of bed slowly, because any quick movement made her head hurt unbearably. she forgot about her dressing-gown, she forgot about her slippers. she made her way slowly to the door as if she was walking in her sleep. she passed out of it like a little ghost in pyjamas.

how she found her way to matron’s room she never remembered. but matron suddenly awoke from sleep to hear a soft knocking at her door that went on and on.

“come in!” she cried. “who is it?” she switched on the light. but nobody came in. the soft knocking went on and on. matron was puzzled and a little alarmed.

“come in!” she called again. but nobody came. matron leapt out of bed and went to the door, a sturdy figure in a voluminous nightdress. she flung the door open—and there stood poor ellen, drooping like a weeping willow tree, her hand up as if she was still knocking at the door.

“ellen! what’s the matter, child? are you ill?” cried matron and pulled her gently into her room.

“my head,” said ellen, in a tired whisper. “it’s bursting, matron.”

it didn’t take matron long to deal with ellen. seeing that the girl was in great pain, and that she could hardly even open her eyes, matron soon had her in a warm and comfortable bed in a little room opening off her own. she gave her medicine and a hot drink. she put a comforting hot-water bottle in beside her. she was kind and gentle and spoke in a very low voice so as not to jar ellen’s aching head.

“now you go to sleep,” she said. “you’ll feel better in the morning.”

ellen did fall asleep. matron stood by the bed and looked down at her. she was puzzled. there was something wrong with this girl. she was worrying secretly about something, and she had been worrying before, when she was in the san. perhaps it would be better for her to go home for a while.

in the morning darrell woke up with the others when the dressing-bell went. she sat up, remembering all the excitement of the night. she glanced at sally. she must somehow get her alone.

then sally gave an exclamation. “where’s ellen? her bed’s empty!”

everyone looked at ellen’s empty bed. “perhaps she got up early,” suggested emily. “we’ll see her at breakfast-time.”

darrell felt a little bit worried. had ellen got up early? where was she?

ellen was not at breakfast, of course. the girls looked at the empty place, and darrell felt distinctly uncomfortable. surely—surely ellen hadn’t run away in the night and not come back! mam’zelle was taking breakfast that day and darrell spoke to her.

“where’s ellen, mam’zelle?”

“she is not coming to breakfast,” said mam’zelle, who knew nothing more than that. miss parker had told her hurriedly as she passed her in the corridor. “i do not know why. perhaps she is ill.”

now alicia began to feel uncomfortable too. she remembered how she had accused ellen so bitterly the day before. where was ellen? she too began to wonder if the girl had run away home. she ate her porridge rather silently.

the next piece of news came from a first-former, katie. she had heard miss parker talking to miss potts, and had caught a few words.

“i say! what’s up with ellen wilson?” she demanded. “i heard nosey tell potty that she was going to be sent home! what’s she done?”

sent home! the second-formers looked at one another. did that mean that the staff had found out about ellen—had perhaps discovered she had been stealing? and she was to be expelled! good gracious!

“she’s either been found out by one of the mistresses, or else she’s gone and confessed,” said alicia, at last. “we’d better not say too much about what we know. it’s not much to the credit of the school. i expect it will be all hushed up.”

“do you mean that you really think ellen is being sent away—expelled from the school—because she stole those things?” said daphne, looking suddenly white. “surely she won’t!”

“she jolly well will,” said betty, and there was such scorn in her voice that daphne looked quite startled. “and a good thing too! fancy having that kind of girl at malory towers!”

darrell was bewildered by the turn things had taken. now she didn’t know whether to report the happenings of last night or not. if ellen was to be sent home for stealing, then there didn’t seem much point in telling anyone that she, darrell, had caught her cheating—taking the test-papers to look at before the test. because certainly ellen wouldn’t take the tests now, and why blacken her name even more, now that she was apparently being sent off in disgrace?

darrell was a generous girl, even to those she considered her enemies. she thought over the night before. she had certainly given ellen a good deal of punishment for cheating! she felt rather hot when she remembered how she had slapped ellen’s face, pummelled her and knocked her down. that was her temper again, of course. sally wouldn’t have done a thing like that. sally would have dealt with the whole thing in a dignified, calm way, and would have made ellen show her the test-papers without a lot of undignified rough behaviour that ended in both girls rolling on the floor!

“i don’t manage things very well, somehow,” thought darrell, rubbing her nose with her hand. “i just go off the deep end with a splash! i fly off the handle, i go up in smoke! well, what am i going to do? tell sally or not?”

she decided not to. there didn’t seem any point at all in complaining about ellen, and making her character still worse if she was really going to be sent home. so darrell held her tongue, a thing that not many of the second form would have done in the circumstances, for most of them dearly loved a gossip.

still, there was plenty of gossip in the second form about ellen. everyone seemed to take it for granted that somehow or other it had been found out by the staff that ellen had taken the purses, money and brooch and possibly other things as well, and was being expelled for that.

curiously enough, one of the girls who seemed most distressed about this was daphne. “but surely they won’t expel her without some proof?” she kept saying. “sally, darrell, you said to alicia yesterday that there was no real proof that ellen had stolen anything. what will happen to ellen? will another school take her?”

“i don’t know. i shouldn’t think so,” said alicia. “she’s finished! serve her right!”

“don’t be so hard,” said jean. “don’t think i’m standing up for her—i’m not. but you always sound so hard and unmerciful, alicia.”

“well, i was right yesterday when i accused ellen, wasn’t i?” demanded alicia. “you were all so soft you didn’t want to have it out with her! good thing i did.”

the second form decided to say nothing about ellen to the staff. if miss grayling was going to expel the girl, she would want to keep it quiet. so the less said the better.

so, rather to miss parker’s surprise, nobody asked about ellen at all. “curious, this lack of interest,” she thought, and she said nothing either. the girls had no idea at all when or if ellen had gone home, though somebody passed round a rumour that a car had been seen in the drive that morning. perhaps it had come to fetch ellen!

it hadn’t. it was the doctor’s car. he had been called in to examine the girl, and he had spoken gravely to matron and miss grayling. “there’s something here i don’t understand. is the child worried about anything? is there anything wrong at her home? has anything upset her at school?”

neither matron nor the head mistress could give the doctor any information. as far as they knew there was nothing wrong at ellen’s home, and there had been no upset in her form. miss parker was called in and she too said that as far as she knew ellen had not been in any trouble in any class, except for mild tickings-off for not doing work up to standard.

“we think, ellen,” said miss grayling gently, when the doctor had gone, “we think you should go home when you feel well enough. that would be the best place for you now.”

she was startled by ellen’s response to this suggestion. the girl sat up and pushed back her hair in a despairing way. “oh, no, miss grayling! don’t expel me! please don’t!”

“expel you!” said the head, in amazement. “what do you mean?”

ellen had broken into sobs and matron came hurrying up at once, making signs to miss grayling to go. “she mustn’t be excited in any way,” she whispered. “so sorry, miss grayling, but i think you’d better go. i’ll deal with her now.”

miss grayling, very puzzled indeed, went quietly out of the room. why should ellen think she was going to be expelled? there was something here that needed looking into.

it took ellen a long time to calm down. she really thought that miss grayling’s suggestion of going home meant that she was telling her she was to be sent away from malory towers—expelled in disgrace. perhaps darrell had been to her and told her about the cheating? or perhaps alicia had told her that they all believed she had been stealing, and miss grayling had decided to expel her because of that. ellen didn’t know. she began to worry all over again and matron was alarmed at the quick rise in her temperature.

some of the second-formers were upset at the thought that ellen might have been already expelled, and had been sent home without even saying good-bye. mary-lou especially was upset. she hadn’t liked ellen very much, but she was very sorry for her. she spoke to daphne about it at break.

“daphne, isn’t it awful? what will poor ellen say to her parents when she gets home? do you think she will have to tell them herself that she’s been sent away for stealing?”

“don’t!” said daphne. “don’t let’s talk about it, mary-lou. look, we’ve got about ten minutes, haven’t we? i’ve got a most important parcel to send off this morning, and i can’t find any string anywhere. be a dear and get me some. i’ve got the brown paper.”

mary-lou sped off, wondering what the important parcel was. she couldn’t seem to find any string at all. it was astonishing, the total lack of any string that morning! when at last she got back to daphne, the bell went for the next lesson.

“haven’t you got any string?” said daphne, disappointed. “oh, blow! well, i’ll see if i can find some after the morning lessons, and then i’ll slip down to the post with the parcel this afternoon. i’ve got half an hour in between two lessons, because my music mistress isn’t here today.”

“is it so very important?” asked mary-lou. “i could run with it for you, if you like.”

“no. you’d never get there and back in time,” said daphne. “it’s a long way by the inland road. you could manage it by the coast road, but there’s such a gale again today you’d be blown over the top! i’ll go in between lessons this afternoon.”

but she couldn’t go after all, with her “important parcel”, whatever it was, for the music mistress turned up, and daphne was called away to her lesson. she left the parcel in her desk.

“oh, dear!” she said at teatime, to gwen and mary-lou. “i did so badly want to take my parcel to the post—and i had to have my music-lesson after all—and now i’ve got to go to miss parker after tea for a returned lesson, and after that there’s a rehearsal for that silly french play.”

“what’s so urgent about the parcel?” asked gwen. “somebody’s birthday?”

daphne hesitated. “yes,” she said. “that’s it. if it doesn’t go today it won’t get there in time!”

“well, you’ll have to post it tomorrow,” said gwen. mary-lou looked at daphne’s worried face. what a pity she, mary-lou, couldn’t take it for her. she always liked doing things for daphne, and getting that charming smile in return.

she began to think how she might do it. “i’m free at seven, after prep,” she thought. “i’ll have half an hour before supper. i could never get to the post-office and back if i take the inland road—but i could if i took the coast road. would i dare to—in the dark and rain?”

she thought about it as she sat in afternoon school. “people don’t mind what they do for their friends,” she thought. “they dare anything. daphne would be so thrilled if i went to the post and got her birthday parcel off for her. how kind she is to want it to get there on the day. just like her. well—if it isn’t too dark and horrible, i might run along tonight for her. i mustn’t tell anyone though, because it’s against the rules. if sally got to know, she’d forbid me!”

so timid little mary-lou planned to do something that even not one of the seniors would do on a dark, windy night—take the coast road on the cliff, whilst a gale blew wildly round!