GRAINNE O’Malley opened her eyes and looked around her. It was early summer, and in the Bernese Oberland, light came early. The dormitory was still and quiet as her room mates continued their slumbers, but Grainne had almost forgotten where she was. Silently- she had long since learnt to move quietly- she pushed back her blanket and swung her legs from the bed, and moved to look out of the window, not realising how unusual it was for a new girl to get one of the coveted window cubicles at the Chalet School.
The School, now based at the Gornetz Platz in Switzerland after various migrations, had been established by an Englishwoman named Madge Bettany in the Austrian Tyrol some years before the outbreak of the Second World War. Whilst in its birthplace, the School had flourished and developed a cosmopolitan intake that was naturally reflected in its attitude towards the teaching and learning of modern language.
Furthermore, almost from its inception the Chalet School had had a close relationship with the great Sanatorium established by a Dr James Russell near to Breisau, where the School was. Many of the School’s pupils were relatives of patients being treated for Tuberculosis at the ‘San’ and this in turn meant that the staff at the School had a greater awareness of health issues than was customarily the case in boarding schools at the time.
The School-San relationship had been initially cemented by the marriage of Madge Bettany to Dr Russell, and later reinforced with the union of Madge’s younger sister, Joey, who also boasted the honour of being the School’s first pupil, and Dr Jack Maynard, partner to Dr Russell and twin brother to the School’s first Mathematics mistress.
Circumstances had forced both the Chalet School and the San to flee from Austria during the Nazi annexation of that country, and both had subsequently settled first in Guernsey, and in England itself. The connection had between the two establishments was maintained during their years of ‘exile’ in Britain, and some fifteen years before this story opened, both institutions had finally been able to relocate to the Gornetz Platz in the Oberland, where they had remained ever since, with Joey and Jack Maynard and their long family living next door to the School. Jack acted as Head of the Swiss San, whilst his brother in law Jem Russell continued at the English branch.
As the School’s newest pupil considered her surroundings for the first time, her breath came out as a long, satisfied sigh. To call the view panoramic was putting it mildly, and Grainne thought that never had she seen anything so beautiful as these grand Alps. Perhaps- just perhaps- things would work out for her here, she thought wistfully.
It had been a shock leaving the Holy Family Convent, where she had boarded for as long as she could remember, but she was an honest girl and knew well that she had little real emotional attachment to the place except that which comes from long familiarity. Naturally quiet and uncertain in manner, she had had few friends, preferring instead to withdraw to the security she found in her books. She read almost obsessively, and while this had given her the upper hand in lessons, she had learnt little about how to interact with others, and this had made her unusually innocent for her age, and consequently the butt of cruel jokes, some of which she had not completely understood. Her family circumstances had not helped; her father worked at the Dail Eireainn, and her mother was a dedicated socialite. They were wealthy, but neither had much time for their only child.
Grainne’s difference was further underlined by her appearance. Although average in most ways, she knew all too well that most people looked at her and saw the wild mop she was cursed with for hair. Coarse, frizzy, unruly, even freakish, were words she used to describe it to herself, and this had been reinforced by the comments of others. Neither she nor her tormentors registered that she had an exceptionally clear complexion, or that her eyes were beautiful in their own way, with the clear shifting of colour and mood that they revealed. Her feelings about her appearance helped in part to contribute to her deep insecurity, and the aridity of this particular branch of the Holy Family Convent School did little to appease it.
Therefore, she had been in some part of herself glad to know that she was to leave the Convent, leave Ireland, and come somewhere completely different, although not being stupid, she had also known that to her parents, it was a punishment; for what, she was not sure. “Pssst!” The sound made her jump, and she spun around to see the cause. A girl of her own age, strikingly pretty with her delicate features, dark eyes and curls, grinned at her. Vaguely, Grainne remembered seeing her the night before, when they had all arrived, but she had been too tired from travelling to notice much.
“What’s the matter?” hissed the other girl.
Grainne shook her head and smiled. “Nothing,” she murmured back. “I woke up and couldn’t sleep again.”
The other girl grinned again. “I know the feeling,” she replied confidentially in an undertone. “But never mind- the bell will go in a moment. I’d better go back to my own cubey. If the dormy pree catches me here when the rising bell rings, I’ll be in trouble already, and I don’t want that on first day! I just wanted to check that you were OK.”
Grainne smiled again, rather taken aback by this open friendliness, and the other girl flashed her a matey grin and a wink before quietly withdrawing to her own abode. The next moment, the bell rang, and the reluctant sounds of stirring appeared, together with the dormitory prefect’s demand that all inmates should ‘show a leg’. Almost immediately, Grainne’s friend of a minute ago materialised. “Hi again!” she began breezily. “I’ll be your sheepdog today, OK? What’s your name again?”
“Grainne,” replied the new girl, a little uncertainly. What was a sheepdog?
“Well, I’m Cecil Maynard. Cecilia Marya, really, but no-one ever calls me that! I like your name, by the way. I’ve never heard of it before!”
“It’s an old Irish name,” Grainne returned shyly. “I’m named after an Irish queen from the sixteenth century,” she supplemented, wondering if she was pushing her luck by volunteering so much.
Cecil appeared to have forgotten where she was and what she was supposed to be doing in her interest. She was about to ask the new girl another question, when the dormitory prefect, one Marie von Eschenau, appeared.
“What are you playing at, Cecil?” she demanded. “You were supposed to be after Celine for bath, and here you are, nattering! Do you really want to start the term off with a row?”
“I’m just talking to the new girl, Marie,” Cecil protested aggrievedly. “I’m her sheepdog!”
Marie gave the younger girl a sceptical look. Cecil Maynard was not a known mischief maker for nothing. “When did you find that out?”
“Yesterday afternoon when I came over to unpack. I had to help Deney in the office and she told me then,” Cecil explained, still sounding annoyed, and the prefect suppressed a smile.
“How come you didn’t know her name then?” Marie demanded, with point.
“Deney didn’t tell me it, that’s why!” Cecil was getting irritated now. Marie glanced at her and decided to end it.
“OK. You’d better get moving then, hadn’t you?” she asked pointedly. “You do that, and I’ll look after- what is your name?”
“Grainne,” replied the owner of the name, looking a little scared. She hadn’t planned on getting involved with the prefects at this early stage!
Marie smiled, and it dawned on Grainne how very lovely she was. She had no time to ponder it further, however, for Marie was talking. “Welcome to the Chalet School! I’m Marie, and I’m the dormy prefect in here. Run and have a bath- we’re a little late now, so the list doesn’t matter- and then get dressed. I’ll help you with the cubey work later and explain to Matron, OK? Fifteen minutes be enough?”
Wordlessly, Grainne nodded, and, grabbing her towel and toilet articles, she followed Marie to the bathroom. She was dressed and ready in the designated time, and Marie nodded at her approvingly.
“Well done! We might just make it now,” she commented. She raised her voice. “Line up, everyone, the bell is about to go!” and the five girls who made up Daffodil this term obeyed her instantly. Cecil dragged the new girl in front of her, and gave her a chummy grin that made Grainne feel somehow warm inside.
As soon as the bell sounded its clang across the cluster of chalets that constituted the school, Marie led her little line of charges down to the great hall they used as a dining room, and Grainne looked eagerly about her.
She saw a long, large room that was filled with light. Long tables were laid down the length of the room, and at one end a table was set width wise. Girls were pouring in and sitting down, evidently in accustomed places, and a low hum of happy chatter was beginning to fill the hall.
Cecil grabbed her arm again. “I looked at the list earlier,” she explained, “and it said that you’re to sit next to me and Celine here,” and she flashed her smile at the dark girl, obviously French, who had followed them. Grainne then found herself propelled with considerable determination towards one long table filled with girls of her own age. She noticed, with appreciation, the pretty checked tablecloths, but her attention was more focused on the large baskets of bread and pastry she saw.
“Is this what we get for breakfast?” she asked rather hesitantly, as Cecil drew a basket towards her, and doled out bread and pastry for herself and the new girl.
Cecil nodded her curly head vigorously. “Oh yes. Ever since we came back to the Alps. Only we don’t call it breakfast,” she finished as an afterthought.
Grainne, almost forgetting her shyness, gaped at her. “What do you call it then?”
“Fruhstuck. It’s German for brekker. We use all German names for meals, here, ‘cos we’re in the German speaking part of Switzerland. And we call this the Speisesaal. That’s German for dining room. Do you know any, by the way?”
“German?” The new girl shook her head. “I don’t know a word of it! I can speak some French, though,” she added.
Celine, who had been listening quietly on Grainne’s other side, gave a sudden grin.
“ ‘Some’ won’t get you very far in this establishment,” she declared. “But don’t worry about it,” she added kindly. “You’ll soon pick it up. Everyone does!”
Grainne looked as she felt, a little scared. What kind of place was this? “Pick what up?” she asked faintly. Before either Celine or Cecil could enlighten her, the tall girl who headed the table and was doling out the bowls of milky coffee that was the main drink here, glanced over at her. “Haven’t you read the prospectus? I’m Felicity Maynard, by the way. What do you call yourself?”
“ G-Grainne.N-no, I haven’t.”
“Ah. Well, to put it briefly, we specialise at languages here. Everyone needs to speak German, French and English with equal fluency, and so we spend two full days a week speaking one of each. I mean,” the prefect added, with a smile, “on Mondays and Thursdays we speak German, on Tuesdays and Fridays French, and on all of Wednesdays and part of Saturday, English. Lessons and everything. Did you really not know?”
Grainne’s look of horror spoke for itself.
Felicity laughed. “Oh dear! Well, as Celine says, it’ll come to you eventually. I’ll leave you to her and my young sister. Try not to scare her too badly, will you, Cecil?”
Before Cecil could respond to this, a bell rang out across the room, and silence fell immediately. Grainne turned at once to look at the table at the front of the room which she had assumed was the staff table. A tall woman whom she guessed to be the Head was standing there, looking calm and elegant in her tailored blue dress.
“Grace,” said the woman, and Grainne warmed to the sound of the lovely voice that repeated the simple Grace the school always used. When the Head had finished, a low hum began to rise from the girls once more, but she raised a hand and it was instantly hushed.
“I’ve got a quick announcement to make before you return to your dormitories. After you have cleared away your crockery, go straight to Hall for Prayers. Then you may return to your dormitories and do your work there in the normal way.” She stopped and flashed a smile at them. “That’s all I have to say to you for the moment. You’ll hear the rest at Prayers!” and with that, she turned and led the rest of the Staff from the room.
