by Lyn Gardner
As soon as everybody was back in their places, Miss Hanbury said, “Right everybody, let’s begin. Breathe in…”
Chapter Thirty-One
They had just finished the first exercise when Katie raised her hand. “Sorry, Miss Hanbury,” she said sweetly, holding up her hand as if she was clutching something in it. “I’ve just remembered I had my mum’s diamond and pearl earrings in my pocket. They’re very expensive, I mustn’t lose them. My mum would kill me.”
“Well, hurry up and put them on the window sill with everybody else’s valuables, Katie,” said Miss Hanbury impatiently. “You really shouldn’t bring such precious things to school.”
Katie ran to the window and appeared to place something on the sill, but nobody took much notice of her because Miss Hanbury was already in full flow, explaining the next breathing exercise. Katie returned meekly to her place and lay down, feeling smug. Everything was going to plan.
The class continued for thirty minutes, during which everybody worked hard. “Right,” said Miss Hanbury. “We’ll take our normal five-minute break and then we’ll start again.” She swept out of the room, which emptied after her as the pupils went to get a drink or use the lavatory. Only Olivia, Georgia and Katie were left.
“Come along, little Miss Jones,” said Katie.
Georgia slid down the wall and shook her head, not looking at Katie.
Katie loomed over her. “Georgia, move it. I told you to come with me.” Georgia stood up reluctantly, still avoiding Katie’s gaze.
“Georgia, you don’t have to do everything Katie tells you to,” said Olivia quietly. Georgia flung her a grateful smile.
“But she likes to do what I say because she knows what’s good for her,” said Katie. Georgia turned pink and followed her meekly. At the door, Katie turned back and looked at Olivia. She smiled nastily and spat out, “Loser. That’s what you are, Liver Marvell. A loser.”
Georgia followed Katie numbly. She thought back over the term. It had begun with such promise; how had everything gone so wrong? She knew that she had acted like a complete coward and she felt tired, and empty, and close to tears. She was overcome by a sudden rush of guilt at how much pain they had all inflicted on Olivia, and she thought that if she was having a miserable time, how much worse must Olivia feel. She went to turn back, but Katie clutched her firmly by the hand and pulled her down the stairs as if she were a rag doll.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Everyone returned to the room after the break, chattering and laughing. “Right,” said Miss Hanbury, clapping her hands, “let’s recommence. Back in the same places, please.”
“Miss Hanbury!” Katie’s hand was in the air. “Miss Hanbury!”
“What is it now, Katie?” asked Miss Hanbury, her voice tinged with impatience.
“It’s my earrings, Miss.”
“What about them?” snapped Miss Hanbury.
“They’re gone!”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“They’re not here, Miss. I put them on the window sill.” Katie looked around at the class, her blue eyes wide. “You saw me, didn’t you?” she pleaded and several people nodded, even Miss Hanbury. “But they’re not here now.”
“They must be,” said Miss Hanbury, striding over to the window sill. But although Aeysha’s chain, Georgia’s ring and the little piles of money were still there, the earrings had gone.
“Somebody has taken them,” said Katie, and her eyes filled with tears. She gave a little gasp. “Miss Hanbury, it must be the same person who took all those other things, including the gold chain your fiancé gave you.” She paused dramatically before adding, “That means the thief must be in this room. She must be one of us.” Everyone including Miss Hanbury stared at her, shocked.
“Or he,” said Tom. “The thief could just as easily be a boy.”
“Oh, I’d never wear diamond earrings. They don’t suit me,” said William Todd. There was a ripple of laughter.
Miss Hanbury glared round the room. “Has anybody seen Katie’s earrings?”
Everyone shook their heads and muttered, “No.”
“You do realise how serious this is, don’t you?” said Miss Hanbury, her face grim.
“Please, Miss Hanbury,” said Katie. “I know they were there on the window sill before break because I almost put them in my pocket when I went downstairs. If only I had taken them with me!”
“Well, we must search for them,” said Miss Hanbury. “Can everybody please look around carefully in case they’ve fallen on the floor.” Everyone started looking but without much hope of finding the earrings. Katie and Aeysha were by the cupboard.
“Look in there, Aeysha,” said Katie nonchalantly. Aeysha opened the door.
“There’s only an old suitcase that someone’s left,” said Aeysha. She went to close the door.
“Might be worth looking inside,” whispered Katie firmly.
Aeysha shrugged and pulled the case out of the cupboard. As she did so, Katie moved towards the other side of the room. Olivia suddenly realised what was happening and that her tightrope wire was about to be discovered.
“Hey, that’s mine, leave it alone!” she shouted. But it was too late. Aeysha already had the suitcase open and had tipped it upside down. Out fell the wire in a heap on the floor, swiftly followed by the earrings. For a second, everyone stared at the earrings and then everyone looked at Olivia.
Olivia put her hands to her face and took a step backwards
Chapter Thirty-Three
“I didn’t … I wouldn’t…” Olivia’s voice faltered. The sea of faces all around her were either hostile or, in the case of Tom and Georgia, puzzled.
“Is this your suitcase?” asked Miss Hanbury.
Olivia nodded mutely.
“Can you explain how Katie’s earrings came to be inside it?”
Olivia shook her head miserably.
“Katie, let me get this clear because it’s important,” said Miss Hanbury. “You are quite certain that the earrings were on the sill before break but they weren’t there afterwards?”
“Yes, Miss Hanbury.”
“So they must have gone missing during break.” Several people murmured their agreement.
“Did everybody leave during break?” People started to say, “Yes,” before Miss Hanbury interrupted. “Perhaps it would be easier to ask if anybody stayed here during the break?”
There was a tense silence and then Olivia said in a very small voice, “Yes, I did. I was here.”
There was a buzz of excitement in the room.
“She’s the thief, Miss Hanbury. She took my earrings and all those other things that have gone missing too,” said Katie.
Several others shook their heads in disbelief. Miss Hanbury looked worried.
“Olivia, I hope for your sake there has been a dreadful mistake of some kind. Sit down, everybody, and don’t move. Abbie, you wait here with the children and don’t let anyone leave. I’m going to get Miss Swan.”
Everyone shuffled around the suitcase and its spilled contents as if trying not to examine the evidence too closely, and found themselves a space to sit down. Olivia moved towards the window and sat there all alone. Everyone else was at the other end of the room. It was as if she had some terribly contagious disease. Nobody would look her in the eye, except Tom, who suddenly stood up, detached himself from the rest of the group and walked over to Olivia. He sat down next to her and squeezed her hand.
“I don’t believe you’re a thief, Liv,” he said loudly.
Olivia gave him a wan little smile, then she closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall
Chapter Thirty-Four
All was silence in the room, but it wasn’t a comfortable silence; it was like the quiet before the first thunderclap of a terrific storm. Suddenly the silence was shattered. There was a flap of wings, a sudden “Caw” and then a flash of black and white feathers in the window. A bird swooped down on to the sill and grabbed something in its beak. There w
as a glint of topaz and garnet as it flew off.
There was a shocked silence. Nobody could quite believe what they had just witnessed. Then Georgia stood up and ran to the window. “My ring. That bird has stolen my mother’s ring!” she cried. She burst into tears.
Everyone stood up and crowded around the window, making Olivia and Tom shuffle aside. The bird did a circuit in the sky and then it swooped down and sat on the edge of the building, the ring still quite clearly visible in its beak. It eyed the children cheekily as if it was taunting them by being so close and yet so far. Then it hopped down into its nest, deposited the ring, and flew off again.
“It’s put the ring in its nest!” shouted William. “We’ll have to go next door and get on to the roof.”
“We can’t,” said Aeysha. “The building is derelict and it’s all boarded up. There’s no way in.”
Georgia was still sobbing quietly. “I’ll have to tell my mum I’ve lost her ring and she’ll be so disappointed in me. I’ve let her down.” Aeysha put an arm around her comfortingly.
The group was suddenly alerted by a noise behind them. They turned round. Olivia walked towards them, her dark eyes burning in her white face, tugging one end of the wire. The other she had already attached to the hook by the door. There was something about her face that made the crowd of children part immediately to let her pass. She strode to the window sill, leaned out and expertly threw the wire so that the hook at the end slid over the spike on the roof of the building next door. Then she tugged at the rope to make sure there was no slack, and jumped on to the window sill. Tom moved swiftly close beside her.
“No, Liv,” he said fiercely. “You can’t do it, it’s too dangerous.”
“No, Olivia, no,” cried Abbie, suddenly realising what was about to happen. But it was too late. Before anyone could stop her, Olivia had stepped nimbly over the edge of the sill and was perched on the wire above thirty metres of thin air. Aeysha screamed, and several others gasped or cried out.
“Quiet,” said Tom. “She needs absolute quiet.” The ensuing silence was so intense it was as if everyone in the room were holding their breath. Even Katie looked scared.
But Olivia moved lithely across the narrow gap between the two buildings as if she was taking a stroll in the park, seemingly oblivious to the dizzyingly drop beneath her. She reached the edge of the derelict building and stepped without difficulty over the ledge and on to the roof. Everybody in the room clapped and whooped admiringly.
Olivia tried to block out the noise. She had to keep concentrating. She looked around to check that the bird was nowhere near, then she leaned over the parapet and reached down into the nest. She felt around with her fingers and touched something. It wasn’t a ring, it was a bracelet. She held it up.
“It’s Aeysha’s bracelet, I recognise it,” shouted William. Olivia found something else. It was a thin gold chain.
“I’m sure that’s Miss Hanbury’s chain,” cried Aeysha. Katie was beginning to look uncomfortable. Georgia bit her lip. Olivia was feeling around in the nest. She pulled up her hand and called out, “I’ve got your ring, Georgia.”
Georgia cried out in relief. “Oh, thank you, Olivia! Thank you so much,” she said.
Olivia continued to feel around in the nest and soon she had filled her pockets with assorted coins and bits of jewellery. A plop of water landed on her head. She looked up. It was starting to rain. Great big spots. The wire would become slippery very quickly. She climbed back over the parapet and on to the ledge. She took a deep breath and once more stepped into thin air.
Twenty-five pairs of eyes watched her intently. She edged her way back towards them, trying to ignore their tense, expectant faces and the terrible drop below her. She thought of nothing except taking one step after another. She could hear her own heart thumping. She was just centimetres away from the sill when the door of the rehearsal room flew open abruptly and in strode Miss Swan, followed by Miss Hanbury and Eel.
Olivia stood still as a statue. For a second, grandmother and granddaughter stared at each other, wide-eyed and white-faced. Then the bird, angry at having its space invaded and nest ransacked, swooped down from the sky and dived straight at Olivia.
“No!” shouted Alicia desperately. Eel screamed and everybody else cried out. Olivia tried to block out the noise but her concentration was broken, and the wire was wet and treacherously slippery. She took one final step towards safety, and as she did so she stumbled and began to fall…
Chapter Thirty-Five
There was a terrible silence in the rehearsal room. Everyone’s faces were grave. Several people were crying with shock. Alicia had turned the colour of chalk, Miss Hanbury was shaking and Eel’s face was wet with tears. She was sobbing uncontrollably and being comforted by Aeysha and William. Katie looked seriously scared.
“You could have died, Olivia,” whispered Alicia, and she shivered as if she was watching Olivia’s body tumble off the wire and plummet to the ground like a stone.
“Yes, I could have done, but I didn’t. It was just lucky that Tom pulled me over the window ledge.” She grinned at him. “Thanks, partner.”
“You fell over it all by yourself, more like,” said Tom, rubbing his bruised head ruefully “I just broke your fall.”
“Olivia,” said Alicia, “you must promise me that you’ll never do anything so dangerous again.”
“I promise, Gran, I’ll never do anything so dangerous again … unless I feel that I have to,” said Olivia firmly.
Alicia said nothing, she just looked at her granddaughter with a wry smile on her face. She knew she had met her match. She also knew now where Olivia had been during her long absences. She felt guilty that the child had thought she’d needed to keep such a secret from her.
“Miss Swan,” said Miss Hanbury apologetically. “We must clear up the matter of the earrings.”
“Ah, yes, the earrings,” said Alicia, her eyes flicking around the room and coming to rest on Katie. The girl tried to hold her gaze but couldn’t. She flinched; Miss Swan’s gaze was as penetrating as a searchlight. Alicia walked over to the table where the pearl and diamond earrings rested alongside all the money and jewellery that Olivia had rescued from the nest.
“If I’m not mistaken,” said Alicia, “all the items reported missing are on the table. So that means the thief we thought was operating in the school was in fact our feathered friend here. Some birds are well known for their love of shiny things and this one has proved itself a most skilful thief.” Everyone nodded.
“But,” continued Alicia smoothly, “that still doesn’t account for the missing earrings, does it?” Everyone looked puzzled. “It seems to me that there are only two explanations. One is that we have two thieves: the bird, who we know took all the other things, and Olivia, who has been accused of taking Katie’s earrings. It does seem rather mysterious that she took the earrings, and only the earrings, and left behind all the other valuables that were there for the taking on the sill.”
Alicia let what she had said sink in, and then she continued: “The other explanation is that we have only one thief: the bird, who is quite clearly guilty, and something else entirely is going on with the earrings.” She paused, and then she said pointedly, “Perhaps they were never missing at all.”
A little gasp escaped from Katie’s lips, a sort of half-cry and half-whimper.
“Whatever the truth, I intend to get to the bottom of it,” continued the headmistress.
Miss Swan looked at Olivia and Katie. “You two are to come with me to my office. If anyone has any further information that they would like to offer, perhaps they would speak now.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The silence seemed to go on for eternity. Alicia looked around the room. “Anyone?”
Katie was gazing fiercely at Georgia as if willing her to remain silent. Georgia met her eye, and then she turned and smiled at Olivia, saying very clearly, “I’ve got something to say. I should have spoken up before. Yesterday Kat
ie told me that Olivia was in for a nasty surprise and then today I saw Katie coming down the stairs before the lesson began. Katie threatened to tell everyone about a lie I’d told if I said anything about it.”
Katie’s colour rose and her eyes flashed with fury. “Don’t believe a word she says. She’s a terrible fibber! She makes things up all the time,” she shouted.
“Yes,” said Georgia quietly, her voice breaking with emotion. “I did make something up. And I’m really ashamed. I said that my mum was rich and that we were going to New York for Christmas. But we’re not. We’re poor; I wouldn’t be able to come back next term if Miss Swan hadn’t given me a scholarship. It was a silly lie and I only said it to make myself feel better, but it just made me feel worse and it made me weak because Katie used the fact she knew it wasn’t true to make me do what she wanted.” Her voice choked. “So there, now you all know, I’m a liar and not to be trusted.”
There was a tiny bubble of silence, then Aeysha stepped forward, taking Georgia’s hand tightly. “Yes, now we know,” she said, “and I for one don’t care. I like you, Georgia, for who you are, not for how much money you have. And you really deserve to have a scholarship.”
“You do, Georgie girl,” said Tom. Others crowded around Georgia. Katie watched, standing all on her own, her face white with rage.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Abbie and Sebastian Shaw knocked on Miss Swan’s study door. Inside, Alicia put down her pen and sighed. It had been a long and mostly unpleasant day. Her nerves still hadn’t recovered from seeing Olivia almost plunge to her death from the tightrope wire, and her attempts to contact Jack, who she felt should know what had happened, had proved fruitless. Not only that, but she was mortified to discover that so much had been going on in the school without her knowledge and that Olivia had found her so unapproachable she had kept her tightrope-walking a secret.