‘Your sister must have sneaked, after all,’ said Ivy, to Edith, looking cross.
‘She didn’t,’ said Edith shortly. ‘Whoever told Miss Potts that we were in here, I can assure you that it wasn’t Lizzie.’
Faith, meanwhile, had unlocked the door, with trembling hands, and now she opened it and stood aside to let Miss Potts in.
At once, everyone fell silent, their heads bent and eyes downcast, as Miss Potts’s keen eyes took in the remnants of the feast and she saw at a glance what had been going on.
‘Well!’ she said in a stern voice. ‘Not content with breaking one school rule by holding a midnight feast, you have broken another by holding it in a room that is out of bounds. Have you anything to say for yourselves?’
As head of the form, Faith stepped forward and said, ‘We are awfully sorry, Miss Potts. But you see, it was Katie’s birthday, then Ivy’s, and – ’
‘And you thought that was a reasonable excuse to flout the rules,’ said Miss Potts scornfully. ‘I am very disappointed in you all.’
The girls hung their heads, then Miss Potts said, ‘How did you manage to get hold of a key to this room? I suppose that you took it from the housekeeper’s room?’
There was a long silence, and Violet’s knees began to tremble.
‘Well?’ said Miss Potts sharply. ‘I am waiting for an answer.’
‘You’ll have to own up, Violet,’ whispered Daffy. ‘It can’t be helped.’
So, feeling quite faint, Violet said, in a shaking voice, ‘I took the key from Miss Lacey’s study, Miss Potts.’
The mistress stared at Violet incredulously. Then she said, ‘This just becomes more and more serious! Well, it is too late to deal with you now. Go back to bed, all of you, and report to Miss Grayling’s office immediately after breakfast tomorrow.’
‘But, Miss Potts, we haven’t finished clearing up,’ ventured Daffy in a small voice.
‘You will give up your break and do it tomorrow,’ said Miss Potts severely. ‘And see that you make a good job of it! Now, off to bed with you at once. Edith, why are you standing rooted to the spot?’
‘You see, Miss Potts,’ said Edith hesitantly. ‘There is something else. My sister, Lizzie, is locked in the shed down by the swimming-pool, and I really think that someone should go and let her out.’
Miss Potts stared at Edith as if she couldn’t believe her ears! Had her form taken leave of their senses tonight?
The first formers looked at one another in surprise too, for it was the first they had heard of Lizzie being locked in the shed!
‘Am I to understand, Edith, that you locked your sister in a shed?’ asked Miss Potts in a carefully controlled tone.
‘Oh no, Miss Potts,’ said Edith, shaking her head. ‘It wasn’t me. I meant to, for I knew that she intended to spoil our feast but, as things turned out, I didn’t need to. You see, it was Miss Lacey who locked her in. I saw her.’
For a moment, Miss Potts wondered if Edith was being foolish enough to try to make a joke. Then she looked at the girl’s earnest expression, and realised that she was serious.
Faintly, the mistress said, ‘Miss Lacey locked Lizzie in the shed.’
‘That’s right, Miss Potts,’ said Edith. ‘I know it sounds quite incredible, but please believe me, for it’s the truth.’
Well, Miss Lacey had certainly been behaving very strangely a little while ago, thought Miss Potts, on whom the evening’s events were beginning to take their toll. Perhaps she had taken leave of her senses, and really had imprisoned Lizzie.
‘Very well,’ she said wearily. ‘Edith, you come with me to the swimming-pool, and the rest of you get to bed.’
‘Yes, Miss Potts,’ chorused the girls, sounding very subdued.
‘And if there is one more sound from your dormitory tonight, whatever punishment Miss Grayling gives you tomorrow will be increased ten-fold,’ she said firmly. ‘Violet, please give me the key to this room, so that I can lock the door when everyone has left.’
Meekly, Violet handed over the key, and everyone left the room, the first formers trooping silently back to their dormitory, while Miss Potts and Edith made their way down to the pool.
There wasn’t a sound coming from the shed, and Edith wondered if her sister had fallen asleep in there. Not that it would be a terribly comfortable place to sleep, for there was only a hard floor, and Edith wouldn’t be at all surprised if there were spiders in there – and Lizzie simply hated spiders. Her conscience, which had been troubling her a little all night, now came fully alive. Poor Lizzie must have suffered quite an ordeal.
Miss Potts was turning the key in the padlock and, as she opened the door, Edith gave a cry – for the shed was quite empty! But how on earth could Lizzie have escaped, for there wasn’t so much as a small window in the shed. Or had Miss Lacey returned and let her out?
Miss Potts turned her stern gaze upon Edith, who said hastily, ‘Miss Potts, Lizzie really was locked in the shed, you must believe me!’
Miss Potts did, for it was quite obvious that the girl was telling the truth, and she said wearily, ‘Well, she is not there now. Hopefully she is safely asleep in her dormitory. I shall go and check on my way back to bed. I trust that, in the morning, we will get to the bottom of all these strange events.’
Miss Potts escorted Edith back to her dormitory, then went to see if Lizzie was in her bed. Fortunately, the girl was, fast asleep and looking none the worse for her ordeal. Miss Potts was pleased, for she really felt quite exhausted now and didn’t think that she could deal with any more extraordinary events that evening. But there was still one more thing that she had to do before she could finally retire. On the way to her own bedroom, the mistress stopped outside Miss Lacey’s room and, very quietly and carefully, she pushed open the door.
Miss Lacey lay in bed, breathing deeply, her eyes closed, and her clothes hung neatly over the back of a chair. That was odd, thought Miss Potts, frowning, for they weren’t the clothes that Miss Lacey had been wearing a little while ago. But she was too relieved that the teacher had ceased her nocturnal wandering to worry about that now. Closing the door softly behind her, Miss Potts went back to her own bedroom and fell into an exhausted sleep, where she dreamed of midnight feasts, girls locked in sheds and sinister, shadowy figures who roamed the corridors at night!
14
Miss Lacey’s strange behaviour
In fact, Lizzie had been released from her prison by Felicity and Alice.
Alice had been woken by a ray of moonlight coming in through a chink in the curtains. When she had got up to close the curtains properly, she had seen that Lizzie’s bed was empty. Oh well, the girl had thought, perhaps she had just gone to get a glass of water, for it was a very warm evening. But, when Lizzie did not return, she began to feel a little uneasy, and decided that she had better go and look for the girl.
As she was donning her slippers and dressing-gown, a voice in the darkness whispered, ‘Alice, is that you? What are you doing?’
‘Oh, Felicity,’ whispered Alice. ‘Lizzie isn’t in her bed, and I’m going to look for her. I’m a little worried, because I think she has had something on her mind the last few days.’
‘Well, you can’t possibly go wandering round on your own,’ Felicity said, sitting up. ‘I’ll come with you. Go to my bedside cabinet, Alice, and you’ll find a torch there. We’ll take that with us.’
Soon the two girls found themselves at the little side door, through which Edith had let herself out earlier. But, on letting herself back in again, Edith had been in such a hurry that she hadn’t closed it properly, and now it stood ajar.
‘This is very odd,’ said Felicity, with a frown. ‘The maids are usually so thorough about locking up at night.’
‘I wonder if Lizzie could have let herself out though this door?’ said Alice. ‘But whatever can she be doing outside?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Felicity. ‘But we had better try to find her quickly.’
The g
irls’ search eventually took them to the cliff path that led to the swimming-pool and, as they walked down it, Alice stopped suddenly, grasping Felicity’s arm.
‘Did you hear that?’ she said. ‘It sounded like somebody yelling. Listen! There it is again!’
‘Yes, I heard it that time,’ said Felicity. ‘It seems to be coming from that shed. Come on, Alice, let’s go and investigate.’
Lizzie could have almost wept with relief when she heard the voices of the two girls outside her prison, and she fell into Alice’s arms as the door was opened.
‘Lizzie!’ cried Felicity in astonishment. ‘What on earth happened?’
‘She’s frozen,’ said Alice, chafing the girl’s hands.
Indeed, Lizzie was shivering dreadfully, for although it had been warm earlier, the night had turned very chilly, and the dark little shed was cold.
‘Let’s go back to my study,’ said Felicity. ‘I’ll make us all some hot cocoa, then Lizzie can get warm.’
The thought of hot cocoa was very welcome indeed to Lizzie, but she said, ‘I must go and find Miss Potts first. You see, the first formers are having a midnight feast.’
‘Do you mean to tell me it was one of those little first-form wretches who locked you in here?’ said Alice angrily.
‘No,’ said Lizzie. ‘It was Miss Lacey, though why she should have done such a thing beats me.’
Felicity and Alice exchanged glances, for Lizzie didn’t seem to be making any sense at all.
‘Lizzie, you are coming back to my study for a hot drink, and that’s an order,’ said Felicity firmly. ‘Then you can tell Alice and me exactly what happened.’
Lizzie protested, but Felicity and Alice resolutely bore her up the cliff path and into school.
‘Well,’ said Alice, when the three of them were comfortably settled with mugs of hot cocoa. ‘What’s all this about, Lizzie?’
Lizzie told them the whole story, the two girls frowning in disapproval when she related how she had been lying in wait for the first formers to begin their feast. And when she told them that Miss Lacey had pushed her into the shed, their eyes grew wide with astonishment.
‘Either you got hold of the wrong end of the stick, or the first formers were having you on,’ said Felicity, when she had finished. ‘There was no feast going on at the pool tonight, that much was obvious.’
‘I know that they are having a feast,’ said Lizzie stubbornly. ‘Edith as good as told me so when I caught her hiding some food she had bought.’
‘Well, what if they were?’ said Alice. ‘Goodness me, there’s no harm in an occasional midnight feast! What a spoilsport you are, Lizzie.’
Lizzie turned red and said, rather stiffly, ‘I think that there is a great deal of harm in it. Edith should be concentrating on her studies, not on pranks and feasts.’
‘Lizzie, you really have got a bee in your bonnet about all this,’ said Felicity, frowning at the girl. ‘Midnight feasts are part and parcel of boarding school life. Yes, they are against the rules. But this is a rule that all schoolgirls break at some time or other, for it is just a bit of harmless fun.’
‘Oh, you don’t understand!’ said Lizzie, becoming agitated. ‘If Edith gets into trouble, or doesn’t do well here, it could mean no more Malory Towers for both of us.’
‘Whatever do you mean?’ said Alice curiously. ‘I say, Lizzie, this isn’t something to do with that uncle of yours, is it?’
‘What uncle?’ said Felicity. Then she saw that Lizzie was looking uncomfortable, and said, ‘Look here, Lizzie, if there’s something you want to get off your chest, you may be sure that neither Alice nor I will betray your confidence. Isn’t that so, Alice?’
Alice nodded emphatically and, at last, Lizzie said, ‘As I told you, Alice, our uncle pays our school fees. But what I didn’t tell you is that he expects Edith and me to repay him, once we are old enough and are making our way in the world.’
Neither Felicity nor Alice knew quite what to say to this, and Lizzie went on, ‘Mother impressed on us that we had to work hard and pass all our exams well, for that is the only way that we will be able to get good jobs and pay Uncle Charles back when we are older. If he thinks either of us is wasting our time here, there is a good chance that he will refuse to continue paying the fees, then Edith and I will have to leave, and I will probably have to go out and find a job. But I know that I shall be able to get a much better one if I finish my education first.’
‘Well, I see now why studying is so important to you,’ said Felicity, frowning. ‘And why you are so hard on young Edith at times. But I’m sure that your uncle wants you both to have fun here too, and be able to look back upon your time at Malory Towers with enjoyment.’
‘Perhaps,’ said Lizzie. ‘You see, neither of us know Uncle Charles awfully well. He is Father’s older brother, and he lives a long way from us, so we never see very much of him.’
‘Personally, I always found it easier to study if I had a little fun and relaxation in between,’ said Alice. ‘You sort of come back to it with a fresh mind then, whereas if you sit poring over a book for hours on end, everything ends up getting all muddled in your mind. At least, it does in my mind.’
‘Yes, I suppose you are right,’ said Lizzie thoughtfully. Then she sighed, and said, ‘I wonder where Edith and her friends are holding their feast tonight? I overheard Daffy and Katie talking about it, and distinctly heard them say that it was tonight, by the swimming-pool.’
‘They probably knew that you were listening, and were leading you up the garden path,’ said Alice drily.
‘I wouldn’t be at all surprised,’ said Felicity. ‘I must say, I’m much more concerned about Miss Lacey’s part in this than anything the youngsters might be up to. Lizzie, are you absolutely certain that she was the one who locked you in the shed?’
‘Absolutely,’ said Lizzie firmly. ‘She was acting awfully strange, and even her voice seemed peculiar – sort of hoarse.’
‘You know that you will have to report it to Miss Grayling,’ Felicity said soberly. ‘And she will have to decide what is to be done, though I can’t imagine her wanting to keep a mistress at Malory Towers who goes around locking up the pupils!’
‘It’s been a jolly odd sort of night,’ said Alice, putting a hand up to her mouth to stifle a yawn. ‘And now I suppose that we had better turn in, or we shall never be able to get up in the morning.’
The three girls made their way back to their dormitory, letting themselves in very quietly, so as not to disturb the others.
Alice and Lizzie fell asleep at once, but Felicity lay awake for a little while, puzzling over the evening’s events, and Miss Lacey’s part in them in particular.
‘I remember Darrell saying that Gwen could be sly, and that she played some mean tricks on Mary-Lou when she was in the first form,’ thought Felicity. ‘But surely she has grown out of that kind of spiteful behaviour now? And what possible reason could she have for locking Lizzie in the shed?’
But Felicity couldn’t come up with any reason at all for the mistress’s extraordinary behaviour and, at last, she fell asleep too.
‘Come on, sleepyheads!’ said Susan, the following morning, as Felicity, Alice and Lizzie had great difficulty in getting out of bed. ‘Anyone would think that the three of you had been up all night at a midnight feast, or something.’
‘Nothing so jolly,’ said Felicity, sighing as she left the comfort of her bed. ‘Though we did have rather a disturbed night.’
‘Do tell!’ said Nora, who was standing in front of a mirror, brushing her hair.
So, with much prompting from Lizzie and Alice, Felicity told the sixth formers what had taken place last night. The others were very shocked and surprised, of course.
‘Well! How very strange!’
‘I’ve heard of girls playing pranks on teachers, but never teachers playing pranks on girls!’
‘I would never have thought Miss Lacey capable of such a thing!’
‘It doesn?
??t surprise me in the slightest,’ said Amy with a sniff. ‘I always thought there was something rather odd about her.’
‘Well, I think that Miss Lacey deserves a great big pat on the back,’ declared June, giving Lizzie a scornful look. ‘For she saved the first formers from having their feast ruined. You might call it looking out for your young sister, Lizzie, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re no better than a sneak.’
Lizzie turned red, and Pam said hastily, ‘My word, I wouldn’t like to be in Miss Lacey’s shoes when Miss Grayling hears about this. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if she is dismissed immediately.’
In fact, Miss Grayling already knew about Miss Lacey’s behaviour, for Miss Potts had gone to the Head’s study as soon as she was dressed and reported it.
‘This is a very grave accusation, Miss Potts,’ said Miss Grayling, looking at the mistress with a serious expression. ‘You are quite certain that the person you saw in the corridor was Miss Lacey?’
‘It certainly looked like her,’ said Miss Potts. ‘Edith actually saw her push Lizzie into the shed and lock the door. Apparently Miss Lacey spoke to Lizzie before she locked her in, though Edith was too far away to hear what she said. I haven’t spoken to Lizzie myself yet, Miss Grayling, for I thought that you would want to do that.’
‘Yes, and I will certainly need to see Miss Lacey,’ said the Head. ‘That is not likely to be a pleasant interview, for if it is true that she imprisoned one of the girls I have no alternative but to send her away.’
‘No, I don’t suppose that you do,’ said Miss Potts with a sigh. ‘It is a great pity, though, for while I never had much time for Gwen when she was a pupil here, I was beginning to think that she had changed her ways and was actually making a go of things as a mistress.’
‘Yes, so was I,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘How very disappointing it is to know that we were wrong! Miss Potts, send Miss Lacey to me at once, would you? I don’t want her going into breakfast with the girls, for she must stay away from them until this matter has been resolved one way or another.’
‘Of course, Miss Grayling,’ said Miss Potts. Then she went off to knock on the door of Miss Lacey’s bedroom.