Блейз Клемент - Cat Sitter Among The Pigeons

Miss Bulstrode knew all about her new pupil who had just come from a school in Switzerland, but was a little hazy as to who it was escorting her. Not the Emir himself, she decided; probably the Minister, or a charge d'affaires. As usual when in doubt, she used that useful title Excellence, and assured him that Princess Shaista would have the best of care.

Shaista was smiling politely. She also was fashionably dressed and perfumed. Her age, Miss Bulstrode knew, was fifteen, but like many Eastern and Mediterranean girls, she looked older - quite mature. Miss Bulstrode spoke to her about her projected studies and was relieved to find that she answered promptly in excellent English and without giggling. In fact, her manners compared favourably with the awkward ones of many English school girls of fifteen. Miss Bulstrode had often thought that it might be an excellent plan to send English girls abroad to the Near Eastern countries to learn courtesy and manners there. More compliments were uttered on both sides and then the room was empty again though still filled with such heavy perfume that Miss Bulstrode opened both windows to their full extent to let some of it out.

The next comers were Mrs. Upjohn and her daughter Julia.

Mrs. Upjohn was an agreeable young woman in the late thirties, with sandy hair, freckles and an unbecoming hat which was clearly a concession to the seriousness of the occasion, since she was obviously the type of young woman who usually went hatless.

Julia was a plain freckled child, with an intelligent forehead, and an air of good humour.

The preliminaries were quickly gone through and Julia was dispatched via Margaret to Miss Johnson, saying cheerfully as she went, “So long, Mum. Do be careful lighting that gas heater now I'm not there to do it.”

Miss Bulstrode turned smilingly to Mrs. Upjohn, but did not ask her to sit. It was possible that, despite Julia's appearance of cheerful common sense, her mother, too, might want to explain that her daughter was highly strung.

“Is there anything special you want to tell me about Julia?” she asked.

Mrs. Upjohn replied cheerfully:

“Oh, no, I don't think so. Julia's a very ordinary sort of child. Quite healthy and all that. I think she's got reasonably good brains, too, but I daresay mothers usually think that about their children, don't they?”

“Mothers,” said Miss Bulstrode grimly, “vary!”

“It's wonderful for her to be able to come here,” said Mrs. Upjohn. “My aunt's paying for it, really, or helping. I couldn't afford it myself. But I'm awfully pleased about it. And so is Julia.” She moved to the window as she said enviously, “How lovely your garden is. And so tidy. You must have lots of real gardeners.”

“We had three,” said Miss Bulstrode, “but just now we're short-handed except for local labour.”

“Of course the trouble nowadays,” said Mrs. Upjohn, “is that what one calls a gardener usually isn't a gardener, just a milkman who wants to do something in his spare time, or an old man of eighty. I sometimes think... Why!” exclaimed Mrs. Upjohn, still gazing out of the window, “how extraordinary!”

Miss Bulstrode paid less attention to this sudden exclamation than she should have done. For at that moment she herself had glanced casually out of the other window which gave onto the rhododendron shrubbery, and had perceived a highly unwelcome sight, none other than Lady Veronica Carlton-Sandways, weaving her way along the path, her large black velvet hat on one side, muttering to herself and clearly in a state of advanced intoxication.

Lady Veronica was not an unknown hazard. She was a charming woman, deeply attached to her twin daughters, and very delightful when she was, as they put it, herself - but unfortunately at unpredictable intervals, she was not herself. Her husband, Major Carlton-Sandways, coped fairly well. A cousin lived with them who was usually at hand to keep an eye on Lady Veronica and head her off if necessary. On Sports Day with both Major Carlton-Sandways and the cousin in close attendance Lady Veronica arrived completely sober and beautifully dressed and was a pattern of what a mother should be. But there were times when Lady Veronica gave her well wishers the slip, tanked herself up, and made a beeline for her daughters to assure them of her maternal love. The twins had arrived by train early today, and no one had expected Lady Veronica.

Mrs. Upjohn was still talking. But Miss Bulstrode was not listening. She was reviewing various courses of action, for she recognized that Lady Veronica was fast approaching the truculent stage. But suddenly, an answer to prayer, Miss Chadwick appeared at a brisk trot, slightly out of breath. Faithful Chaddy, thought Miss Bulstrode. Always to be relied upon, whether it was a severed artery or an intoxicated parent.

“Disgraceful,” said Lady Veronica to her loudly. “Tried to keep me away - didn't want me to come down here - I fooled Edith all right. Went have my rest - got out car - gave silly old Edith slip... regular old maid... no man would ever look at her twice... Had a row with police on the way... said I was unfit to drive car... nonshense... Going to tell Miss Bulstrode I'm taking the girls home - want 'em home, mother love. Wonderful thing, mother love...”

“Splendid, Lady Veronica,” said Miss Chadwick. “We're so pleased you've come. I particularly want you to see the new Sports Pavilion. You'll love it.”

Adroitly she turned Lady Veronica's unsteady footsteps in the opposite direction, leading her away from the house.

“I expect we'll find your girls there,” she said brightly. “Such a nice Sports Pavilion, new lockers, and a drying room for the swim suits...” Their voices trailed away.

Miss Bulstrode watched. Once Lady Veronica tried to break away and return to the house, but Miss Chadwick was a match for her. They disappeared round the corner of the rhododendrons, headed for the distant loneliness of the new Sports Pavilion.

Miss Bulstrode heaved a sigh of relief. Excellent Chaddy. So reliable! Not modern. Not brainy - apart from mathematics. But always a present help in time of trouble.

She turned with a sigh and a sense of guilt to Mrs. Upjohn who had been talking happily for some time.

“... though, of course,” she was saying, “never real cloak and dagger stuff. Not dropping by parachute, or sabotage, or being a courier. I shouldn't have been brave enough. It was mostly very dull. Office work. And plotting. Plotting things on a map, I mean - not the storytelling kind of plotting. But of course it was exciting sometimes and it was often quite funny, as I just said - all the secret agents following each other round and round Geneva, all knowing each other by sight, and often ending up in the same bar. I wasn't married then of course. It was all great fun.”

She stopped abruptly with an apologetic and friendly smile.

“I'm sorry I've been talking so much. Taking up your time. When you've got such lots of people to see.”

She held out a hand, said goodbye and departed.

Miss Bulstrode stood frowning for a moment. Without knowing exactly why, she felt uneasy. Some instinct warned her that she had missed something that might be important.

She brushed the feeling aside. This was the opening day of summer term, and she had many more parents to see. Never had her school been more popular, more assured of success. Meadowbank was at its zenith.

There was nothing to tell her that within a few weeks Meadowbank would be plunged into a sea of trouble; that disorder, confusion, and murder would reign there, that already certain events had been set in motion...

Cat Among the Pigeons

Chapter 1

REVOLUTION IN RAMAT

About two months earlier than the first day of the summer term at Meadowbank, certain events had taken place which were to have unexpected repercussions in that celebrated girls' school.