by Anne Digby
'And what?' said Rebecca.
'The police are wondering now. A boy phoned them about nine o'clock. He said he was in the box opposite the Hotel Metropole and some youths were breaking into a white Mercedes car there. Then the line went dead! They sent a patrol car down straight away but the white Mercedes was still there and everything was peaceful, so they just assumed it'd been a hoax . . .'
'That would have been Robbie!' said Mara, aghast.
'The toughs must have spotted him in the phone box and . . .' Tish felt sick and couldn't go on. Virginia was already rushing out of the room again, back to the phone.
'I'll tell Daddy he's not here! For heaven's sake go to bed, you lot. You shouldn't be up. There's nothing any of us can do. It's up to the police now!'
As soon as she'd gone, Rebecca put on wellington boots and threw her dark blue school cape on over her pyjamas. She raised the sash window and put one long leg over the sill.
'Where are you going?'
'The beach hut! If he's hurt, that's where he'd make for!'
'But why?' asked Tish. 'That would be crazy. Why not just wait for the police to arrive –'
'How does he know he's in the clear now? He's not supposed to be here! He thinks nobody knows! Don't forget the College sent him home a week ago and he didn't go and that's pretty serious . . . quick, chuck me your torch, Sue!'
'Wait for us!' shouted Tish, but Rebecca was already sprinting off across the courtyard.
She ran all the way down to the beach in the darkness, torchlight bobbing ahead. There was a heavy swell on the sea after the day's rain and she could hear the waves thundering and crashing on to the shore, somewhere down there in the blackness.
Robbie wasn't in the beach hut.
Rebecca flashed the torch all round the beach, feeling more and more anxious.
Then suddenly, the beam caught something. A figure, slumped forward beside some rocks –
'Robbie!' She ran and came up behind him.
He was kneeling down by a rock pool, dousing his face over and over again in the cool, still water. He turned towards her –
'Rebecca!'
Shining her torch, she saw that his lip was swollen and his nose seemed to have been bleeding. He was hurt, not badly, but all the hope had drained out of him.
'Robbie!' she crouched beside him and put her arm and part of her cape round his shoulders. 'Look at you! Report them to the police!'
'How can I, Rebeck! It wasn't the three villains I've been watching all week – it was some other louts. I wouldn't even recognize them again. I've had it now! I've run out of money and time –'
'Robbie!' Rebecca tried to tell him.
'– Dad gets back tomorrow. In the morning I'll catch the first train and go home and face the music . . .'
'Robbie, your housemaster knows you're here. He's frantic. He's been out looking for you –'
'Slade?' Robbie looked furious. 'How –'
'I phoned him and told him–'
'You what?'
'– because I've found out who really took his car! I don't think anybody cares about you breaking the window now. I don't think they're going to hold it against you. After the way David Driscoll's behaved –'
'David Driscoll?' said Robbie in disbelief. 'David Driscoll?'
There came a shriek of excitement from somewhere across the sand. A row of bobbing torches were coming this way.
'Robbie's here!' cried Tish. 'He's all right! Rebecca's found him!'
Margot and Elf raced back ahead of the others to see Mrs Barrington and warn her that Robbie had been found and was cold, tired, hungry and in need of first aid.
Virginia Slade heard the commotion and she was waiting outside Court House when they brought him up from the beach.
'Robbie!' she ran forward. 'Thank goodness! Oh, your poor face!' She gazed at him, then lowered her eyes hurriedly, overcome with shame. 'Robbie – you've no idea how awful I feel . . . I was so wrong about you – so was Daddy. We all were. No wonder you got so mad!'
She reached out her arms and hugged him tight and buried her face in his shoulder.
'Sorry, Robbie. Sorry, sorry, sorry.'
Robbie Anderson looked unspeakably happy.
Tish looked at Rebecca and gave an ironic shrug of the shoulders.
Rebecca just turned away. 'I'm going to bed,' she told Tish. 'I'm dead tired. See you in the morning.'
Robbie caught up with her in the hall and took her arm.
'Rebeck, you've been marvellous. You've done so much.'
'It's all right, Robbie.' She was dead tired – achingly tired – she just wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a thousand years. 'See you.'
If only he knew how much! she thought, as she passed on down the hall.
When Rebecca woke, quite late on Sunday morning, she was stiff from all the tennis. She also felt achingly miserable and for some reason started to cry the moment Tish and Sue mentioned Robbie's name. It was some kind of reaction setting in.
'What's wrong?'
Her two best friends came and sat on the bed.
'Tell us, Becky.'
She told them exactly what had taken place between her and David Driscoll.
'The rotten so-and-so!' said Sue, angrily.
'I hope he gets sent to prison!' exclaimed Tish, in a fury. 'As for Robbie, that boy's just born lucky to have someone like you . . .'
There was a tap on the door.
Sara Willis, the games mistress, put her head into the room. She'd just washed her hair and it was full of bounce and she looked in one of her cheerful moods.
'Good news, Rebecca! Still in bed?'
'Uh?' said Rebecca, wiping her pyjama sleeve across her eyes.
'Mrs Seabrook's just phoned me! You're in!'
'In?' asked Rebecca stupidly. 'In what?'
But Tish and Sue were already whooping.
'The junior D. You've been promoted! You're going in a county squad in the new year!' said Miss Willis, smiling patiently. 'I don't have to tell you how pleased and proud I am.'
'It was decided last night –?' gasped Rebecca.
'That's right. It was a close decision between you and Madeleine Marks. But apparently David backed you all the way. And David has the last word! He's been coaching the reserve squad, so he should know!' she added happily. 'Time to get up, Rebecca!'
She was gone.
'Well . . .!' said Rebecca.
'Well, well!' said Sue.
'Well, well, well!' finished Tish.
When the six of them went off to Moffatt's to celebrate, and discuss the whole story, Mara alone refused to be surprised.
David Driscoll didn't go to prison. He didn't even get reported to the police. Virginia Slade was a little bit annoyed about that.
'Robbie actually pleaded for him!' she told Rebecca on the Sunday evening. She'd been having tea with her parents and had just got back. 'Dr Simpson had Daddy bring them both to his study this morning. Daddy was all for handing David over to the police but David told them some terrific hard luck story about how he'd lose this job he's going to! So then Dr Simpson asked Robbie what he thought and Robbie actually stuck up for him! So all that's going to happen is that he's got to pay for the damage when he starts earning. Did you ever hear anything so ridiculous! What do you think, Rebecca?'
'I just think Robbie's nice,' said Rebecca.
'Yes.' Virginia thought about it for a moment. 'He is, isn't he?'
At tennis training the following Saturday, Rebecca saw David Driscoll for the last time.
He was very brisk all afternoon. Everything was very formal between them, as though nothing had happened.
When it was time to go, Rebecca went to find him. He was sorting out some tennis balls at the back of the practice court.
'Thanks for what you did,' she said. She felt very awkward. 'Goodbye, David.'
He couldn't bring himself to look at her. He just kept on sorting out the balls.
'Thank Robbie Anderson next time you see
him,' he said. 'just say thanks, from me. He'll understand.'
'Okay. Goodbye, then.'
'Goodbye, Rebecca.'
It was surprising how quickly things returned to normal. Rebecca enjoyed the last two weeks of term. She was coming out top of III Alpha in English and French. In maths, after a long session with Miss Hort one dinner hour, she'd at last mastered simultaneous equations.
Christmas was approaching and there was a festive atmosphere at Trebizon, with decorations going up in the dining hall, the Christmas play to look forward to and then the Christmas carol concert. Margot, Sue and Mara were all in the choir this year.
Lessons with those teachers who couldn't keep order – and there were regrettably few of them at Trebizon, to Tish's way of thinking – were rapidly becoming riotous. Mrs Leonard, the hapless biology mistress, found herself firmly fixed to the bench in the science lab one morning, when a girl clamped the trailing end of her cardigan to the bench while she was leaning back on it and lecturing them on invertebrates.
For the six friends, the episode of the missing car passed into legend and made for a whole new stock of private jokes. Tish got teased a lot about Margaret Exton – and Rebecca about the time she did Robbie's washing. There was something else that they all found amusing.
'To think we questioned every single girl in Court about whether they'd heard anything peculiar, that night the car disappeared!' said Sue. 'And all the time Rebecca was the one who'd heard something peculiar and she never connected it!'
They wondered if there might be any mysteries to solve next term.
'I hope so!' said Mara, little knowing then what she was saying.
At the very mention of the next term, Rebecca felt a thrill of excitement. She'd written to her parents to tell them that she'd been selected for junior county tennis training and matches.
Her name had been read out in assembly, too!
'I used to think you wanted to be a writer!' Pippa said to her that day. She'd produced a beautiful issue of The Trebizon Journal that term and at long last Jenny Brook Hayes had had something published in it. 'In fact I was hoping you might submit something to Helena King for the Journal next term. But it looks as though you'll be too busy playing tennis. Perhaps you'll become a famous tennis player one day, instead!'
Tennis certainly seemed to be Rebecca's greatest interest in life these days.
When the boys in Robbie's house decided to hold a Christmas party and invited the girls of Court House over, en bloc, Rebecca didn't want to go. She was going over to Norris for the evening, she said. She and Joss were going to watch some international tennis on TV.
'Are you sure, Becky?' said Tish, standing in the hall of Court House in her red party dress. 'Come on, change out of those jeans, it'll be fun!'
Rebecca hesitated.
At that moment Virginia Slade came down the stairs with Alison Hissup.
Virginia looked delicately pretty in a gold dress embossed with a butterfly design. She had washed her hair and her eyes were sparkling.
Rebecca became very definite.
'Quite sure, Tish. I'm not interested in boys.. I'll just stick to tennis. Haven't I said that all along?'
THE TREBIZON SERIES IN READING ORDER
The TREBIZON series
A classic series which charts the progress and adventures of Rebecca Mason at Trebizon School in the West of England.
First Term at Trebizon
Second Term at Trebizon
Summer Term at Trebizon
Boy Trouble at Trebizon
More Trouble at Trebizon
Tennis Term at Trebizon
Summer Camp at Trebizon
Into the Fourth at Trebizon
Hockey Term at Trebizon
Fourth Year Triumphs at Trebizon
Ghostly Term at Trebizon
Fifth Year Friendships at Trebizon
Secret Letters at Trebizon
Unforgettable Fifth at Trebizon
'Viva Trebizon! Like other giants of the genre, Anne Digby recreates the genuine flavour of schoolgirl aspirations and anguishes, friendships and rivalries. Her Trebizon stories span the so-called generation gap' – COLLECTORS' DIGEST
MORE ANNE DIGBY TITLES
A HORSE CALLED SEPTEMBER
A moving story of the passionate friendship between two girls growing up together on an isolated Devon farm in the 1970s, the break-up of that friendship – and the horse that changed their lives forever. Anne Digby’s debut novel, now regarded as a modern classic.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0077EG830
The QUICKSILVER HORSE
An enthralling story of horsemanship and a bittersweet friendship between a girl and a boy from two very different milieux -- a small travelling circus and a big racing stables. And the conflict that arises between them.
“A very happy positive book about overcoming huge obstacles...brings a wonderful vibe” – AMAZON USA Review
www.amazon.com/dp/B00AWCMEB4
AND SOME OTHER FAVOURITES....
By Alan Davidson
QUEEN RIDER
Bonnie Wyndham is angry, difficult and apparently spoiled – but she excels at horse riding.
“The momentum begins to build from the very first page and never flags at all...Highly recommended” – REVIEWSHEET
“A great story – and not just for horse-lovers” – AMAZON UK Review
www.amazon.com/dp/B00873PF5C
THE BEWITCHING OF ALISON ALLBRIGHT
Davidson’s classic suspense novel from the 1980s.
“An irresistible combination of dream indulgence and unsettling nightmare” – Center for Children’s Literature, Chicago
“Can’t keep count of the number of times I’ve read this fantastic book” – AMAZON UK Review
“Haunted me for years... just as good as I had remembered” – AMAZON USA Review
www.amazon.com/dp/B0085383TY
MARINA IN A GREEN DRESS
A new suspense novel from the same author, about secrets and obsession. A fangirl from the backwoods is haunted by a lush London musical show, MARINA. By its boy star – its songs – but most of all by its storyline.
“Mesmerizing...beautifully woven...cannot recommend it highly enough” – AMAZON USA Review
www.amazon.com/dp/B00852PZUA
By Alan Davidson and John Richardson
The classic satire about imprisoned chickens, with 38 b/w cartoon-style illustrations.
ESCAPE FROM COLD DITCH
www.amazon.com/dp/B004R1QH3C
FREE DOWNLOADS, FACEBOOK & TWITTER
For lovers of crossover British humour, from Richmal Crompton to P.G.Wodehouse, we have now reissued all Alan Davidson’s ANNABEL BUNCE books in e-format. The opening chapters of the first collection of stories, A FRIEND LIKE ANNABEL, can be read in ePub at www.goodreads.com and in .mobi at www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00658N2GA.
FREE DOWNLOAD THE BUNCE SAGA, a complete story from the first collection, is FREE, click here: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MI2oXJDCYL0C { PDF and ePub formats}. [It’s also available as a mini-book in .mobi on Amazon but priced at 77p/$1].
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