But Daffy was afraid that her courage might fail her if she went away, and she said, ‘Please, Miss Grayling, I need to speak to you now. It is very important, for it is about the fire last night.’
Miss Grayling and Miss Potts exchanged glances, and the Head said, ‘That is exactly what we have been talking about, so I suppose we had better hear what you have to say. Go on, Daphne.’
So, haltingly, with a great deal of prompting from the two mistresses, Daffy confessed to hiding Willow, and sending the note that had lured Violet to the shed last night. As she had promised, she kept Katie’s name out of it and shouldered the whole blame herself. The Head and Miss Potts both looked extremely grave by the time she had finished, and Miss Grayling said heavily, ‘You are very lucky, Daphne, that your prank did not end tragically.’
‘I know that, Miss Grayling,’ said Daffy, her voice trembling. ‘That is why I had to get it off my conscience.’
‘Well, that is to your credit, I suppose,’ said the Head, looking very stern indeed. ‘Though it doesn’t alter the fact that you behaved very foolishly.’
Daffy hung her head, and Miss Potts asked, ‘Daphne, why did you take Violet’s cat?’
Daffy hesitated. She couldn’t mention the feast, or all of her form would be in trouble. So she said, ‘I don’t like her, Miss Potts. And I wanted to get back at her for something she had done to me.’
‘I see,’ said Miss Potts. ‘So your motive was a desire for revenge.’
‘Yes,’ said Daffy, thinking that it sounded rather horrible when Miss Potts put it like that. ‘I suppose it was.’
‘Nothing good ever comes out of vengeance or vindictiveness,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘When a person is motivated by spite, someone always gets hurt. Sometimes it is the person who that spite is directed at, but often it hurts the person who is taking revenge just as badly. I trust that you have learned that, Daphne.’
‘I have, Miss Grayling, and it is a lesson that I will never forget,’ said Daffy with feeling.
Miss Grayling did not doubt the girl’s sincerity. She had received a huge shock, and had shown great courage in owning up. But what she had done was so serious that it could not go unpunished.
An uncomfortable silence stretched, as the Head considered what she should do with Daffy. At last, the girl could bear it no longer, and she blurted out, ‘Are you going to expel me, Miss Grayling?’
‘I am not going to make that decision,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘Violet and Alice are. They both need to rest today, so I shan’t tell them about your confession until tomorrow. But your fate is in their hands. You may go now.’
Daffy went, feeling sick at heart. She remembered the time she had pulled Violet into the swimming-pool, and Alice had accidentally fallen in, too. The two of them were sure to want her expelled, and the girl couldn’t find it in her heart to blame them!
Alice, meanwhile, was delighted to receive a visit from Felicity, who arrived bearing an enormous bouquet of flowers, which the whole of the sixth form had clubbed together to buy.
‘How beautiful!’ exclaimed Alice, thrilled. ‘I really don’t deserve them.’
‘You most certainly do,’ said Felicity, arranging the flowers in a vase that Matron had given her. ‘You’re a real heroine.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Alice gruffly, turning red. ‘Anyone would have done what I did.’
‘I’m not so sure,’ said Felicity. ‘Anyway, the point is, anyone didn’t do it, you did, and we are all very proud of you.’
‘How is Violet?’ asked Alice, who was back in her little room and hadn’t seen the girl since last night. ‘And Willow, of course?’
‘Both fine,’ said Felicity. ‘Violet escaped without any burns, though she has a very sore throat from all the smoke. As for Willow, Miss Grayling has allowed her to stay for the rest of the term, and she’s having the time of her life being thoroughly spoilt by absolutely everyone!’
Alice laughed at this, which brought on a fit of coughing, and Felicity patted her on the back, saying, ‘Poor thing! How is your hand?’
‘Sore!’ said Alice. ‘But the doctor said it should heal nicely in time.’
Alice was so pleased to have company that she seemed to have lost some of her shyness, and chattered away. And, as Felicity listened, she could hear traces of Jo Jones coming through. Jo had been a dreadful chatterbox, bumptious, boastful and conceited. No one could call Alice bumptious, boastful or conceited, but she was gaining confidence, and that, thought Felicity, was a very good thing. She had made up her mind not to tell Alice that the sixth form knew her true identity just yet, for the girl had enough to deal with at the moment. But, in the end, Alice gave herself away.
The two girls were talking about June, and how great a success she had been as games captain. Alice, feeling more relaxed than she had since she started at Malory Towers, forgot to guard her tongue, and said, ‘Who would have thought it? I remember her so well as a bold, mischievous second former ….’
Then Alice’s voice died away as she realised what she had said, and she turned pale. And Felicity knew that this was the time to bring Alice’s secret out into the open.
‘It’s all right, Jo,’ she said. ‘We know who you are. By the way, which should I call you – Alice or Jo?’
Alice turned even paler, hardly able to speak for a moment, but at last she said in a strangled voice, ‘Alice.’
‘Very well,’ said Felicity pleasantly. ‘Alice it is.’
‘How long have you known?’ asked Alice, her voice hardly more than a whisper, and her eyes wide behind the glasses.
‘Only since yesterday,’ said Felicity. ‘Though you’ve had us puzzled for quite a while.’
She went on to tell the girl about the photograph she had seen in Matron’s room, then asked, ‘Why did you come back to Malory Towers, Alice? And why the change of name?’
Alice was silent for a moment, then she began quietly, ‘I went to several schools after Malory Towers, you know. And at each one, I realised more and more what a splendid school this was, and what a marvellous opportunity I had wasted. And I began looking at my own behaviour, and realising why I didn’t fit in here, and why people disliked me so. I decided that I didn’t want to be Jo Jones any more, that I wanted to change myself completely.’
‘Heavens!’ said Felicity, listening to this in amazement. ‘And how did your parents react to that?’
Felicity remembered the girl’s parents well, especially Mr Jones, who had been every bit as loud and bumptious as Jo herself!
‘Father didn’t like it, of course,’ said Alice. ‘He liked me as I was, for I was just like him. And when I decided that I didn’t want to be like him any more, he thought that it meant I was ashamed of him.’ The girl took a deep breath, and said, ‘Well, I was ashamed of him in many ways. You know what he was like, Felicity, always pushing himself forward and airing his opinions, and not showing any respect for people’s feelings. I couldn’t see it when I was younger, but I do now. Of course, I still love him dearly,’ she added. ‘I just wanted him to learn to be a little less full of himself, and more considerate of other people, as I was trying to be.’
‘Well, you have succeeded very well indeed,’ said Felicity. ‘But what about your father?’
‘He really has improved a lot,’ said Alice with a smile. ‘Remember I told you that he helped me to study for School Cert by asking me questions? Well, that was true. A few years before, he would have told me not to waste my time studying, for he never did. That just shows how much he has changed.’
‘It certainly does!’ said Felicity, astonished. ‘Alice, how did you get Miss Grayling to agree to give you another chance at Malory Towers?’
‘I telephoned her myself,’ said Alice. ‘I knew that it was no use asking Father to do it, for although he has changed a lot, he can still be tactless at times. Miss Grayling listened to what I had to say, though, and knew that I was sincere. So she agreed that I could join the sixth form at Malory Towers. Of course,
she knew how unpopular I had been with you others, so she agreed to me using my middle name, Alice, and my mother’s maiden name.’
‘You have changed your appearance, too,’ said Felicity. ‘You were fair when you were in the second form.’
‘Yes,’ said Alice, flushing a little. ‘That wasn’t my real colour, though. I used to dye it! Shocking, wasn’t it?’
‘Shocking!’ agreed Felicity with a laugh. ‘And you have lost an awful lot of weight, too.’
‘Yes, I was a tubby little thing in those days,’ said Alice, grimacing. ‘I feel much healthier now.’
Felicity looked hard at Alice for a few moments, then she asked suddenly, ‘Are you happy, Alice?’
‘I am happier than I was when I was cocky, conceited Jo,’ answered the girl, after considering this for a minute. ‘But I’m not completely happy, for I feel that I don’t know who I really am. You see, Felicity, Jo wasn’t the real me – although I thought she was at the time. But really, I was just acting the way that my father wanted me to act, trying to please him. Do you understand?’
‘I think so,’ said Felicity. ‘But what about Alice? Isn’t she the real you, either?’
‘Parts of her are,’ answered the girl. ‘But, inside, I am not really as meek and timid as I have made out.’
‘I can tell you one thing that is real,’ said Felicity. ‘And that is your bravery last night. You can’t possibly pretend to have courage like that.’
‘To be honest, I didn’t know I had it in me to act like that,’ said Alice. ‘But once I knew that Violet was in danger, I didn’t even stop and think that I might be hurt.’
‘You probably have all sorts of hidden qualities, if only you will be yourself, and let them come to the fore,’ said Felicity. ‘I think that is what you should do, Alice – just be yourself.’
Alice felt as if a weight had rolled off her shoulders after her talk with Felicity. She hadn’t felt comfortable about hiding her identity from the others, although she had done it with the best of motives.
Felicity had assured her that the others didn’t think any the worse of her for her deception, adding honestly, ‘June wasn’t too sure at first, but your courage in saving Violet convinced her that you deserve to be given a chance. Everyone thinks you’re a proper heroine.’
The girl felt warmed by these words, and found that she couldn’t wait to get back to the sixth form tomorrow. And she was going to take Felicity’s advice, and be herself!
Before she joined the others in class the next morning, Alice was surprised to be summoned to the Head’s room.
Miss Grayling greeted her with a charming smile and said, ‘How are you feeling today, Alice?’
‘Much better, thank you, Miss Grayling,’ answered the girl.
‘I am pleased to hear it,’ said the Head. ‘My dear, your courage the other night averted a great tragedy, and I am very proud of you indeed.’
Alice, feeling as though she might burst with pride, turned very red, and stammered out a thank you.
‘And now I am going to ask you to do something else, which requires a different kind of courage,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘I think that it is time for you to tell the others who you really are.’
‘Oh, but they already know, Miss Grayling,’ said Alice. ‘Felicity came to see me yesterday, and she told me that – thanks to an old photograph in Matron’s room – the girls had discovered my true identity.’
‘Well,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘I always knew that the sixth formers were very shrewd. They are very kindhearted and just, too, generally speaking.’
‘Felicity has already assured me that I will be welcomed back with open arms,’ said Alice, smiling at the Head.
‘I am glad to hear it,’ said Miss Grayling, smiling back at the girl. ‘But before I let you join them, I need you to make a decision, Alice. It won’t be an easy one, for someone else’s future rests on it.’
Alice looked very puzzled indeed, and rather alarmed, but before the Head could enlighten her, a knock came at the door and Miss Potts entered, followed by Violet and Daffy.
Violet looked just as puzzled as Alice felt, while Daffy looked very subdued and unhappy. The girl’s eyes looked suspiciously red, as if she had been crying. But surely not, thought Alice. What could the happy, carefree Daffy have to cry about?
Miss Potts left to go back to her class, and Miss Grayling said seriously, ‘Alice and Violet, Daphne has something to say to you both, and when she has finished I want you both to make a decision. That decision will be whether or not Daphne remains at Malory Towers.’
19
A marvellous end to the term
Unable to meet the eyes of the two girls, Daffy confessed to them, as she had confessed to Miss Grayling the day before.
Violet could not contain herself when she learned that it was Daffy who had taken Willow, and burst out, ‘You mean beast! You knew how worried and upset I was. You could have put me out of my misery in an instant, but you didn’t.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Daffy, looking Violet in the eye for the first time. ‘If I could only turn back the clock, I would. I have never felt so dreadful in my life as when I knew that the shed had caught fire, and that you and Alice had been hurt. And I hope that I never feel like that again. I’ve learned my lesson, but I shan’t blame either of you if you want me expelled. I should probably feel the same if I was in your shoes.’
Miss Grayling, who had listened in silence, never taking her eyes off Daffy, turned to Alice and Violet now, saying, ‘Well, girls?’
There was a moment’s silence, then Alice said, ‘Miss Grayling, when I was not very much older than Daffy, I was sent away from Malory Towers in disgrace. Only after I had left did I realise what a splendid school it is.’
Of course, this was news to the two first formers, who stared at Alice open-mouthed.
‘I was lucky enough to be given a second chance,’ the girl went on. ‘Though I had to wait several years for it. So I am certainly not going to deny Daffy her second chance. I vote that she should stay at Malory Towers, and sincerely hope that she will come to realise what a marvellous school it is, as I did. And I also hope, Daffy, that – if you stay – you take the opportunity to show that you are truly sorry, and to do better in the future.’
Daffy felt a small – a very small – glimmer of hope. It was all up to Violet now.
The girl had listened intently to what Alice said, and now she turned to Daffy, as she began, ‘Daffy, I think that what you did was low and mean and nasty,’ she said. ‘But, while I’ve been lying in the San, I have had time to think about my own behaviour. And I have come to realise that I can be a boastful, conceited little beast at times.’
Daffy gasped, while Miss Grayling and Alice exchanged an amused glance at Violet’s frankness.
‘I can understand why you wanted to take me down a peg or two,’ went on Violet. ‘Though the way that you went about it was quite wrong. But I am in no position to judge you, and I agree with Alice. I think that you should be given another chance at Malory Towers.’
‘Thank you, girls,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘Daphne, I echo the words of Alice and Violet. You have been very lucky indeed, for few people are given the chance to start afresh. Make the most of it.’
‘I shall,’ said Daffy fervently, feeling quite weak with relief. She really had thought that she was going to be expelled, and the thought of leaving Malory Towers, and of her parents’ pain and disappointment, had weighed heavily on her. ‘Thank you, Miss Grayling. And as for you, Alice, and you, Violet … well, I can’t find the words to tell you how grateful I am to both of you. I do realise what a fine school Malory Towers is, and I mean to make myself worthy of my place here. I shall own up to the others, of course, and I daresay they will send me to Coventry, for a bit, but – ’
‘Daphne, that isn’t necessary,’ interrupted Miss Grayling in a firm tone. ‘You have owned up to the two people who were affected by what you did, and they have forgiven you. I see no reas
on for you to make your fresh start here difficult by setting the first formers against you.’
‘Miss Grayling is quite right,’ said Violet, as Daffy turned this over in her mind. ‘I shan’t tell any of the others, you may be sure of that.’
‘Nor shall I,’ said Alice.
‘Then the matter is settled,’ said Miss Grayling. ‘There is no more to be said. You may go.’
‘Miss Grayling, there is something else I would like to say, if I may,’ said Violet. Miss Grayling nodded, and Violet turned to Alice.
‘I haven’t had a chance to thank you yet, for what you did the other night,’ she said. ‘You risked your life to save mine and Willow’s. Just saying thank you doesn’t seem enough somehow.’
‘It’s more than enough,’ said Alice, giving the girl a pat on the shoulder. ‘And now, I rather think that Miss Grayling would like to have her study to herself.’
The Head fell into a reflective mood after the three girls had left. It had been a dramatic term, but, on the whole, a good one, she thought. Felicity Rivers had done a first-rate job as Head Girl, but then, Miss Grayling had never doubted that she would. And Alice – or Jo, as she had once been – had proved that she was a very worthwhile person indeed, with more in her than the Head had ever suspected.
The first formers had been very troublesome this term, but it looked as if Violet was beginning to see the error of her ways, and Miss Grayling hoped that it would help her to change them. According to Miss Potts, Faith, too, was changing, beginning to show signs of leadership, and the others were starting to respect her. The Head was very pleased, for this would stand Faith in good stead in the future. As for Daphne Hope – the girl had a lot of good qualities, and could do well for herself and the school. But she also had a lot of faults, and would have to strive to make the good cancel out the bad. She was a strong character, though, and Miss Grayling knew that – with a little guidance – she could do it. On the whole, decided the Head, things had worked out very well indeed.