Secret Journal

by Laura Sieveking

  I smiled and pulled the chair out.

  ‘My name is Ella. I was taken by your brooch,’ I said. ‘It’s so … unique. I was wondering where you had gotten it from?’

  She stroked her fingers over the brooch.

  ‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ she said wistfully. ‘My father made it.’

  Her father? But that would mean …

  Speechless, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the matching brooch. As I lifted it up, her eyes widened. Her mouth dropped open a little and she gasped.

  ‘But … but, how?’ she asked, reaching out to touch it. I passed it to her. ‘My father only made two. This one I am wearing belonged to my sister, who sadly passed away many years ago. My brooch I lost decades ago … Can it be?’

  ‘So, you are … you are Elena?’ I asked in a shaky voice.

  ‘Why, yes! How did you know?’

  I felt the world spinning around me. Everything had finally come together. But I still had so many questions.

  ‘Elena!’ I breathed. ‘I found your journal. It was hidden in the bell tower. I hope you don’t mind that I read it—I found it all so intriguing!’

  ‘Oh, the bell tower!’ she exclaimed, clutching her hand to her chest. ‘My memory is not so good now. I knew I had hidden it in a wall, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember where!’ Elena spoke in an accent much the same as Zoe’s Italian Nonna.

  ‘Yes! And your journal led me to …’ I leaned in closer and whispered, ‘the secret tunnel. It’s where I found your brooch!’

  Elena leaned in and put her hands over mine. ‘So the tunnel does still exist!’ she laughed. ‘My grandson dropped me here today and I made him come with me into the bushland earlier to try and find the entrance! I wanted to show him that my story was true. But we couldn’t find it. He thought I was quite batty!’

  That must have been who I had seen in the bush when I was looking for Zoe’s anklet.

  ‘But Elena, where did you go? Your journal ended so abruptly,’ I said.

  Elena nodded. A wave of sadness washed over her face.

  ‘Ella, there have been dark times in human history. Times which bring out the worst of human nature. And, sadly, war is one of those times.’

  ‘You wrote your journal during World War II,’ I said, remembering what I’d learned in the library.

  ‘Indeed. And in that war, Italy and Australia were on different sides. I will tell you, bambina, the seed of suspicion in peoples’ hearts can grow into a very dark thing. It can grow from doubt into unkindness and even, sometimes, into hate. It was a hard time for my family here. Girls in the school—lovely girls who were not bad people— were led to distrust people from nations on the other side of the war. People in the city stopped going to my father’s jewellery shop. Then one day, someone smashed his store window. It was at that moment he admitted the war had divided us and decided to take us home to Italy, while he still could.’ Tears welled up in her eyes.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said, clasping her hands. ‘My best friend Zoe is Italian.’ I pointed to the front of the room where she was standing. ‘I can’t imagine her being an outcast simply because of where she is from. It’s so sad.’

  ‘It was not all so bad,’ she said, dabbing her eyes with a tissue, which she’d pulled from inside the cuff of her cardigan. ‘Moving home to Italy meant we were back with the rest of our family. When the war ended, I spent many a happy year there.’

  ‘So, what has brought you back?’ I asked.

  ‘Well, would you believe, it was when I was living in Italy that I fell in love with an Australian man. He had been in the war as a soldier—just a young boy of 18 at the time. He loved it so much over there that he stayed when the war ended. We met when I was a grown adult and we fell in love and married in my uncle’s vineyard.’

  I smiled.

  ‘And then, in time, we decided to move back to Australia. In many ways, it was like coming home again. While a piece of my heart will always be in Italy, Australia is my home, too.’

  ‘How did it come to be that you are here at the Alumni Luncheon?’ I asked. ‘Do you have family at Eden?’

  ‘No, I don’t,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘But I have been invited today because I am the oldest living Eden Girl. I am 95 years old! Can you believe that? I can’t. Inside, I still feel like the same little girl who spent her days in the bushland by the tunnel. Yet here I am—an old lady.’

  ‘My Nanna Kate says that the body ages, but as long as your soul still sings, your heart will not grow old,’ I said.

  Elena nodded. ‘And even though my days at Eden were tainted with sadness, I did love this place: the teaching, the Australian bush.’

  My heart swelled in my chest. I couldn’t believe it. I had found Elena. And I had finally heard the end of her story. It all made sense now—if she had to leave quickly during the war, that was why she wasn’t in any records at Eden College. She had already left by the time they had taken the photographs for her year group. She had been here such a short time that she had existed in the school without ever leaving a trace. Like a ghost.

  ‘Ella, shouldn’t you be in the kitchen?’ a voice said behind me.

  I turned and saw Saskia walking back towards her table, which was filled with all her alumni relatives.

  ‘Oh,’ I said, gathering myself.

  ‘No!’ Elena said, grasping my arm before I could stand. ‘She is with me.’

  Saskia shook her head, confused, but walked off to her table.

  I smiled at Elena.

  ‘She’s got lots of Eden relatives,’ I said, nodding in Saskia’s direction. ‘It’s like she’s Eden royalty. I don’t have anyone here, so I really should be in the kitchen.’

  Elena smiled with her kind eyes. ‘It’s not who your relatives are that makes you special, you know.’ Elena was still holding the brooch I had given to her. She gently lifted her hands and opened the clasp on the back. Then she reached out and pinned it to my uniform.

  ‘For you, my friend, Ella,’ she whispered.

  ‘Thank you, Elena,’ I smiled, astonished at her generosity. ‘You know, I was in your secret passage just today! I used it to help my friend, Zoe,’ I said, pointing up to the lectern again. ‘She lost something very precious in the bush, so I used your tunnel to find it.’

  ‘That was very brave, bambina,’ Elena said. ‘You could have been in trouble. But you did it for your friend?’

  I nodded.

  ‘You have a good heart,’ she said, squeezing my arm.

  The microphone made a light squeal as Zoe and Lauren stepped back up to the podium. Zoe cleared her throat and began to speak. ‘It is my great honour to introduce our next guest to you. This guest is our oldest living Eden alumni. Please welcome, Ms Elena Partridge.’

  I looked at Elena in surprise. I hadn’t expected that she would be giving a speech today. She strained as she tried to stand, so I jumped up and helped her. I supported her arm and walked her up to the podium, then pulled the microphone down to her level, as she leant on her cane.

  She nodded her thanks as I sat back down in my seat.

  ‘It is a great honour to be here today,’ she said in her quiet crackly voice. ‘I don’t have a lot to say—which is probably a relief to many of you, who do not wish to listen to the ramblings of an old lady.’

  Everyone in the room laughed politely.

  ‘It’s a curious thing to come back within the walls of Eden College. When I was here as a girl, it was a troubled time. It was during the war, and, as many of you know, war breeds darkness, and the softest of hearts can turn to stone. But it’s also a great pleasure to be here today. I have been reminded that while I was here a long time ago, there are still strands that connect us all—strong cords that transcend history and time. And the strongest of those is something that was very precious then and very precious now. And that is friendship. It is my honour to introduce to you my very special friend, Ella. She is a true Eden Girl, because she is strong and b
rave and kind.’

  My heart leapt in my chest as Elena said my name. She beckoned me up to stand by her side at the podium. The room applauded for Elena as she raised her glass to everyone in the room.

  I looked around and saw Saskia sitting at her table in utter shock. Even though she was there with all her relatives, it was me who was standing up at the podium with Eden’s most special guest.

  Maybe Saskia was wrong about what made someone special at Eden College. Maybe it had nothing to do with who you were related to. Maybe, just maybe, it had more to do with the friendships you made. And the size of your heart.

  Chapter 20

  × −

  From:

  Ella

  Sent:

  Tuesday, 6:05 PM

  To:

  Olivia

  Subject:

  Elena at Eden

  Hi Olivia!

  I’m still spun-out about finding Elena yesterday. Did you tell Mum and Dad about it after I spoke to you on the phone? Elena even came back to the school today! Her grandson brought her in and I was able to give her back her journal and do a big interview with her, all about life at Eden during the war.

  It’s SUCH an interesting article and I can’t wait to publish it in Eden Press. I showed Ivy my draft and she loved it so much she made me show it to Mrs Sinclair and Monty. Mrs Sinclair cried when she read it, and I think I even caught Monty dabbing her eye with a tissue!

  The only bad thing that happened was that Monty found the secret passageway. And Grace, Zoe and Violet never even got to see it! I couldn’t get the panel to shut after I found Zoe’s anklet, and it was discovered. Turns out that the passageway was built in World War I as an emergency escape route. But everybody kind of forgot about it after the dorm was renovated sometime in the 1960s.

  Of course, I did get into a bit of trouble for using it without permission. I had to own up—Monty said she knew somebody had opened it and the guilty party had better come forward. But Mrs Sinclair said I wasn’t really in big trouble—she said if she had found a secret passage, she would have explored it, too!

  But in future, if I am ever to find any other ‘surprise structural anomalies’ at the school, I have to report them immediately.

  I wasn’t punished, but the sad part of the story is that they’ve closed up the access to the passageway. Some builders came and said it ‘lacked structural integrity’, which is just a fancy way of saying it wasn’t safe and could fall down. They had no choice but to close it up for good.

  So that’s the end of my secret adventures in there!

  Although you never know … this place is just full of surprises. Who knows what I might discover next time?

  Miss you.

  Love, Ella

  xx

  Out Now

  Ella has started at her new high school, and Eden College is everything she hoped it would be. She is getting to know her new friends and enjoying everything Eden has to offer.

  Until things start to get complicated. She accidentally insults Saskia, the school diva, there could be a ghost in the dorm and items have started to mysteriously disappear.

  Can Ella catch the Eden thief?

  Join Ella in the first book of this exciting new adventure!

  Coming Soon

  Eden College is putting on Enchantment the Musical!

  Ella and her friends are very excited, and throw themselves into auditioning.

  But then things start to go wrong at rehearsals. Could the problems be linked to stories of an old curse on the theatre? Ella has to investigate.

  Can she save the show before it’s too late?

  Look out for the third book in this fabulous series!

  About the Author

  Ever since she learnt to hold a pen, Laura Sieveking has loved creating stories. She remembers hiding in her room as a six-year-old, writing a series of books about an unlikely friendship between a princess and a bear.

  As an adult, Laura has spent the vast majority of her career working in publishing as an editor. After several years, she decided to put down her red pen and open up her laptop to create books of her own.

  Laura’s books revolve around all the things she loved as a child—friendships, sport and a little bit of magic. She has written series for early independent readers and middle grade fiction.

  She lives in Sydney with her husband and two children, and her fluffy dog who looks like a teddy bear.

  Published by Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd

  PO Box 579 Gosford NSW 2250

  ABN 11 000 614 577

  www.scholastic.com.au

  Part of the Scholastic Group

  Sydney • Auckland • New York • Toronto • London • Mexico City

  • New Delhi • Hong Kong • Buenos Aires • Puerto Rico

  First edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Ltd in 2020.

  This electronic edition published by Scholastic Australia Pty Limited, 2020.

  E-PUB/MOBI eISBN: 978-1-76097-917-1

  Text © Laura Sieveking, 2020

  Illustrations © Danielle McDonald, 2020

  Cover copyright © Scholastic Australia, 2020

  Laura Sieveking asserts her moral rights as the author of this work.

  Danielle McDonald asserts her moral rights as the illustrator of this work.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, storage in an information retrieval system, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, unless specifically permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 as amended.