More Trouble at Trebizon

by Anne Digby

  'What does it mean at the bottom of the ticket, in aid of the I C F Concert expenses?' asked Elf. 'What's the I C F Concert?'

  'A very big affair!' announced Curly. 'It's going to be in our school theatre, at half-term. Famous performers of all different nationalities are coming, and they're giving their services free. To raise money for the International Children's Fund – I C F.'

  'Curly, needless to say, is on the committee,' commented Mike.

  'Curly!' Mara gazed at him in disbelief. 'Are you really?'

  'Yep.' He grinned, banged his chest and looked quite proud of himself. He was, in fact, the youngest person on the Concert Committee, which consisted mainly of senior boys, masters and their wives.

  'He's even got a title,' Chris said, solemnly. 'Assistant Publicity Officer.'

  'Curly!' exclaimed Mara again, more impressed than ever.

  What Curly Watson lacked in height he made up for in drive and energy. As he explained his ideas for publicizing the big concert, Rebecca began to realize that he was quite a livewire. He was hoping to raise enough money from the disco to build a travelling box office for the I C F concert!

  'A travelling box office?' exclaimed Tish.

  'The plan is to hire an open lorry well before the concert and turn it into a decorated float and ticket office,' explained Curly. 'It's got to be really colourful and eye-catching, of course, and we'll need some of you beautiful girls on the back in various national costumes . . . that's to fit in with the international theme of the concert. We'll have a three-piece band as well. Then we'll tour the town and all the surrounding villages selling tickets as we go and make sure the show's an absolute sell-out.'

  'Seriously?' asked Rebecca. 'I like the sound of that!'

  The boys nodded.

  'The committee say okay if Curly can raise enough money to cover expenses,' Mike pointed out. 'So you'd better take those disco tickets back to school and sell the lot!'

  'It's marvellous!' exclaimed Mara. She'd put her tickets in the pocket of her cape and now she clapped her hands with pleasure. Her face was shining. 'I shall sell mine and try and come back for more, Curly. A mobile box office! Can I travel on the float in a national costume – can I – can I?'

  'He wants you to be the star attraction!' said Mike.

  'That's right, make the rest of us jealous!' laughed Elf.

  'Oh, it's all marvellous,' continued Mara breathlessly. 'So the disco is only the beginning! This term is going to be such fun, I know it is . . .'

  She stopped dead. She was staring at the door. Rebecca was sitting with her back to the door, opposite her. For a moment she wondered if Mara had seen a ghost.

  'What's wrong, Mara –?' began Tish, at the same time twisting round to look. 'Oh, no –'.

  Her voice dropped to a whisper. Glancing back over her shoulder, Rebecca saw the huge figure of Papaconstantopoulos standing in the open doorway. He was beckoning to Mara, his bald head gleaming. The car was parked outside.

  '– it's the phantom of the opera,' finished Tish.

  'Don't look round!' hissed Mara. 'Pretend he isn't here! Just ignore him!' She gave Curly a hard nudge. He was staring at Papa, open-mouthed. 'Stop staring. Tell a funny story or something –'

  'Well, it was like this,' began Curly. 'Once upon a time –'

  Elf started to giggle, from sheer nervousness. Papa was walking straight towards their table with slow, heavy steps.

  He reached the table and stood towering above them all. His arms were folded and he fixed his large, friendly eyes on Mara.

  '. . . a Scotsman, and an Irishman . . .'

  Curly's voice trailed away to nothing. It was really rather difficult to ignore somebody so large.

  'Mara?' said Papa. 'Come, please.'

  'No!' hissed Mara. She shook her head furiously, rebellious tears in her eyes. 'Go away, Papa! Please go away!'

  The friends all held their breath. People at other tables were beginning to stare. What happens now? wondered Rebecca.

  She soon had the answer.

  'Excuse, please,' said Papa.

  He bent forward across the table and lifted Mara clean out of her chair as though she weighed no more than a naughty three year old –

  'Put me down!' shouted Mara furiously, kicking her legs.

  Papa strode through Fenners, carrying Mara like a babe in arms – straight out of the door and into the night. Some boys in the corner cheered and clapped. Rebecca caught a glimpse of Anestis opening the back door of the car as Papa placed the kicking Mara inside. Then – the roar of the car engine – and they were gone.

  'Well –' gasped Curly, at last recovering his powers of speech.

  'What was all that about?' asked Mike.

  Tish was the first to jump to her feet. Rapidly – gazing out to where the car had been – she explained who Papa was.

  'Only, it seems to be worse than we thought,' she added.

  'Much worse,' agreed Rebecca. 'Poor Mara! We'd better get back as fast as we can!'

  The boys scraped chairs back and let the girls out and Rebecca led the rush to the door.

  'Tell Mara I'll ring her,' called Curly.

  'We will.'

  'And don't worry about the tickets!' Sue said, over her shoulder. 'We'll sell them okay!'

  Outside, Mara's bicycle had gone. Anestis had stowed it in the big boot of the car. Rebecca dried her saddle with a corner of her school cape and then mounted. Trebizon High Street – winding downhill towards the railway station – looked rather like a Christmas card. The pale stone buildings glowed here and there in the street lights and there was a thin covering of snow on the pavements. She turned her cycle round, pointing it out-of-town.

  It had stopped snowing now.

  The five friends pedalled back to Court House, as fast as they could go.

  Papa drove the car up to the Barringtons' front door, round at the side of Court House. The house mistress and her husband, who was Trebizon's Director of Music, lived in a private wing attached to the main boarding house. Papa left the engine running.

  'I shall be angry with you if I miss my train because of this!' Anestis said to his sister, hauling Mara out of the car. 'It was lucky I phoned!'

  'I wish you hadn't bothered!' said Mara tearfully. 'I hate you!'

  'Oh, Mara, can't you guess why I phoned? I wanted to talk to you! There isn't time now. Please try and see, I don't like this any more than you do. But father is father and you must obey him. Promise me –'

  The front door opened and Anestis deposited Mara with Mrs Barrington. They exchanged a few brief sentences and then Anestis ran back to the car. He had less than fifteen minutes in which to catch his train.

  'My bicycle!' screamed Mara, as the car shot away. She could see it sticking out of the boot. 'I need it!'

  But the car had gone.

  'Please calm down, Mara,' said the house mistress in a sensible voice. 'You know perfectly well that you won't need your bicycle this term. You know exactly what your father's instructions are.'

  She led Mara along the hall and then straight through a communicating door into the main part of Court House.

  Alison Hissup, a Fifth Year, was just coming down the pine staircase.

  'AIison!' she called. 'Mara is tired and overwrought. I want you to see that she has some cocoa, a warm shower and an early night.'

  'Yes, Mrs Barry.'

  Dejected, Mara allowed the older girl to take her by the arm. She couldn't even be bothered to resist.

  'And Alison –'

  'Yes?'

  'When Mara's gang get back from the town, please tell them to come and see me at once. As soon as they've put their bikes away.'

  'And this girl who was kidnapped – Linda Grigoris – is Mara's cousin?' exclaimed Rebecca. 'I don't remember reading about it in the papers.'

  She remembered Mara's mysterious reference to 'the Grigoris affair' in her letter and had been meaning to ask her about it. Now she understood.

  'There've been so many k
idnappings on that particular holiday island in the last few years,' commented Mrs Barrington. 'It only made a few lines. Linda was spending Christmas there with her family and the bandits took her from the garden of their holiday villa in broad daylight and up into the mountains. She was released, completely unharmed, after six days. Mr Grigoris paid quite a hefty ransom, one gathers.'

  'So what,' said Tish.

  Mrs Barrington glanced round at the five girls, uneasily. They were all seated in her private sitting-room. She was a little perturbed by their rebellious attitude.

  'Now, listen, girls, I want you to take this seriously. Mara is very lucky to have been allowed back to Trebizon this term. She's lucky to be here at all! Her father wanted to keep her in Athens, but Miss Welbeck had a long telephone conversation with him last week and they've come to this arrangement. She also had a chat with Mara's brother, when he brought her back to school this afternoon.'

  So that's why they went over to the main building first, thought Rebecca.

  'What arrangement?' asked Margot.

  'You know perfectly well,' said Mrs Barrington. 'You're not trying to pretend to me that Mara hasn't explained it to you?'

  The girls were silent, their expressions giving nothing away. They had no intention of getting Mara into any more trouble. But they listened.

  'Let me spell it out quite clearly, just to make sure. Mara is confined to school.'

  The others didn't move a muscle but Rebecca and Tish exchanged startled glances. The truth was out – the truth that Mara had tried to hide from them! Of course, they'd begun to suspect this strongly, but it was still a shock to have it confirmed.

  'It's not fair!' Rebecca cried. 'It's like being a junior again.

  'It's stupid,' said Elf.

  'Come, come.' The house mistress was striving to keep on top of the situation. 'It's not as bad as all that. She's not allowed to go out on her own. But, after all, if there's anything she really wants to do, she only has to phone Mr. Papaconstantopoulos at the Trebizon Bay Hotel and he'll come and take her by car and stay with her and bring her back . . .'

  Tish just laughed out loud. 'Some hopes of her wanting to do that!'

  'That's enough,' said the house mistress sharply. 'I don't want to discuss it further. Kindly see that there's no repetition of tonight's behaviour and do all you can to help Mara obey her father's instructions.'

  She dismissed them.

  As soon as they'd gone, she telephoned the principal at her house in the school grounds.

  'This Leonodis business is going to be a real headache. Mara's friends think the whole thing is quite silly.'

  'So do I,' said Miss Welbeck. 'But we're just going to have to make the best of things and hope it blows over.'

  When the friends were back in the boarding house, they went straight to the room to see Mara, but she wasn't there. They stood around her bed talking, the door wide open. Across the corridor, the opposite door opened and Lucy Hubbard came out, jingling some money.

  'Mara's night things have gone – and her shower cap,' said Margot.

  'She must be getting ready for bed,' guessed Elf.

  'Let's wait for her here then,' said Rebecca. 'At least we've got the whole picture now. Poor Mara! She must be feeling depressed!'

  They were talking loudly and Lucy could hear them.

  'Fancy Mara not telling us everything,' mused Sue. 'About her cousin being kidnapped and how she's not supposed to go out –'

  'But can you blame her?' said Tish and Rebecca nodded in agreement. 'She decided to break out and she wanted to take the whole thing on her own shoulders and not involve us!'

  'Maybe we should have guessed,' said Rebecca.

  Lucy Hubbard suddenly appeared in the doorway. She looked smaller than ever in pyjamas and dressing gown. She was obviously bursting to speak to them.

  'I guessed! she said. 'I read about her cousin in The Times and I realized who she was the minute she arrived, and why she needed a bodyguard.'

  'The Times – get that,' said Elf, in an aside.

  'None of us can read at Trebizon,' explained Sue, acidly. 'All our text books are in picture strips.'

  'Nonsense!' said Lucy, just like a miniature grown up. 'There are some specially gifted girls at this school. That's why I've been brought here . . .'

  'Coo!'

  'Cor!'

  '. . . you see Mummy says my last school didn't stretch me enough.'

  'If you go around talking like that,' said Rebecca, gently, suddenly feeling almost sorry for the girl, 'you'll get stretched all right – on a rack or something.'

  Directness was Tish's style.

  'Why don't you shut up and stop showing off and mind your own business?'

  'I'm not showing off!' protested Lucy. 'I did guess about your friend and it's fortunate I did. And it's fortunate I answered the telephone when her brother rang up! Otherwise –' Her eyes grew big and round. 'Well, just think, she might have been kidnapped by now.'

  The friends all gazed at her incredulously and then exchanged despairing looks with one another. Tish was the first to recover. She walked over to the door and closed it gently, but firmly, in Lucy's face.

  'Off you go! Night, night. Time for beddy-byes!'

  Then they started to laugh. They just couldn't help it.

  'How can somebody who's supposed to be so clever be so stupid?' asked Sue.'

  'She's just a baby, if you ask me,' said Rebecca.

  Out in the corridor, Lucy could hear them laughing. She was completely baffled. Didn't they realize how dangerous it was for their friend to be wandering around the town in the dark, without any grown-ups? Was that all the thanks she got?

  She didn't think she was going to like it at Trebizon.

  She'd been hoping all evening that the 'phone would ring and she was on her way there now, some coins in her dressing gown pocket. Mummy had forbidden her, but she wouldn't think about that now. Mummy kept telling her how much she was going to like it here, but blow that!

  She reached the coinbox 'phone under the stairs and lifted the receiver. She pushed in the money and started to press the buttons. She'd get about six minutes and then could be rung back.

  It would be lovely just to talk to him!

  FOUR

  MARA CHEERS UP

  Alison Hissup brought Mara back, all clean and scrubbed in a dressing gown, and dumped her in the room with her friends.

  'Mrs Barry says she's got to get to bed early!' she shot at them and then fled. She'd already missed half her favourite TV show!

  'Mara!' They tried to surround her, but she broke free.

  She burst into tears and flung herself down on the bed, face in the pillow, a fist pummelling the sheet.

  'I'll never be able to go into Fenners again! I was the laughing stock! It was . . . humiliating!' She sobbed some more. 'I hate my father. I hate Anestis. Most of all, I hate Papa –'

  Tish and Margot sat on the bed and tried to soothe her while the others stood around helplessly.

  'It's stupid –'

  'Ridiculous!'

  That only sent Mara off into fresh spasms. Her legs kicked.

  'All the lovely things Curly's been planning . . . oh! He won't want anything to do with me now! He'll keep clear of me by miles! He'll cut me dead!'

  'Of course he won't, Mara!' protested Rebecca.

  'He's going to 'phone you!' added Sue. 'He said so!'

  'He won't! I just know he won't!'

  As Mara broke into more noisy sobs, the others conferred in whispers.

  'Shall we leave her to have a good cry? She'll feel better then.'

  'Let's all go and get ready for bed and then come back –'

  'We can bring the rest of the fudge!'

  As soon as they were out of the room, Sue said:

  'I know! I'll ring Syon and see if Mike's back yet.' Syon House was the name of the boys' boarding house at Garth College. 'I'll tell him everything! He can get Curly to ring Mara straight back – tonight –'
/>
  'Great idea!'

  'I think I'll wash my hair while I'm in the shower,' said Rebecca. 'It's filthy.'

  Later, when she was in the shower room in her dressing gown, just towelling her hair dry, Sue came rushing through.

  'Wait for me, Rebecca. Hold my glasses.'

  She dived into one of the shower cubicles.

  'Did you get Mike?' called Rebecca.

  'Yes!' There was the noise of water running and Rebecca could see steam rising. 'And guess what, Curly's rung back already and Mara's talking to him right now. I even heard her laughing!'

  'Thank goodness!' said Rebecca, relieved. 'Where are the others?'

  'In the room in their dressing gowns, with the fudge, waiting for her.'

  By the time Rebecca and Sue got along there, Mara was back from the' phone and sitting on the bed eating fudge with the others. In the space of twenty minutes, all her tears had changed to smiles.

  'Have you two forgiven me, too?' she asked.

  'Forgiven you?' began Rebecca.

  'I should have told you I was forbidden to go down town!' said Mara in a rush. 'But I couldn't! You might have stopped me coming!'

  'Oh, that,' shrugged Sue.

  'I got you into trouble with Mrs Barry,' said Mara. 'I'm sorry.'

  'We just told her what we thought of the whole idea,' said Rebecca, loyally. 'Honestly! Treating you as a junior again, just because of something that happened to your cousin! It's not fair!'

  'My father is crazy,' agreed Mara.

  For a moment her dark eyes smouldered and she nodded in the direction of the door, thinking of the new girl in the room opposite.

  'That girl – Lucy Hubbard – she gave me away! She's the one who should be treated as a junior. That's all she is! She's the one who needs looking after, isn't she, Sue?'

  'Why's that?' asked Rebecca, surprised.

  'She's been ringing up boys!' explained Elf. 'Sue heard her on the 'phone – tell Rebecca, Sue.'

  'Oh, yes, I could hardly believe my ears!' said Sue. It had been while she'd been waiting to 'phone Mike Brown. 'Kiss, kiss, into the 'phone – "I love you, too" – all that sort of thing.'

  'Well, it's a free country!' laughed Rebecca. 'I wonder if he's still in short trousers?'