by Anne Digby
Today, Friday, Rebecca was relieved that Mrs Barrington had allowed her to be driven to Exonford by Robbie – Joss travelling separately with her father who, taking the day off, had driven over from Clifford to pick her up at Norris House after breakfast.
Rebecca had won her quarter-final in two sets easily and then been rather more stretched by Madeleine Marks in the semifinal, though still winning in two sets, 7–6, 6–2. Joss had had rather softer competition in her quarter and semifinals and came through easily.
'But that's no bad thing,' Robbie had said, during the long break for lunch. 'She won't be half as tuned up as you, Rebeck. That match with Madeleine was just what you needed. I've noticed something. With the grass still being slightly damp, Joss isn't handling balls with heavy top spin at all well. I was watching her earlier.'
There'd been some rain during the night. Heavily sliced balls were lethal to deal with. So that's what Rebecca was practising now; it provided a gentle limbering-up session before the big match.
After a while, Mrs Seabrook, the county tennis scout, came across.
'Time to get ready, Rebecca,' she said, tapping her watch.
Robbie walked with her as far as the pavilion.
'I'm nervous, Robbie,' she said.
'Calm down,' he said. 'Joss has got the big reputation, even if it's a bit tarnished at the moment. She'll be more nervous than you are. It's much worse for her. And the first set's going to be the worst one, as far as Joss is concerned. Give it everything you've got, try and get the upper hand in the very first game.'
He went off to the car to find Biffy and Rebecca dived into the changing rooms. Under her track suit, she was wearing a new tennis dress, with pink edging. She had a pink and white headband to match. She washed and talced and got every last wisp of hair back under the headband, gazing out of the changing room window.
She saw the film cameras over by Number One court and quite a lot of people gathered. The referee and umpire were talking to the line judges. Joss was sitting on a bench with her father, their heads together, deep in conversation.
Rebecca felt a pang of envy. How wonderful to have a father who knew so much about tennis – Mr Vining had played at county level himself when young – who could drive you around everywhere you needed to go. Take you to the States with him, even! Her own parents didn't know the first thing about tennis. Might you get to junior Wimbledon this year, Becky? they'd asked her in a recent letter. What did they think she was? Only the world's top juniors got accepted there! They weren't in the least bit clued-up. Completely out-of-touch.
But they'd be proud of her if she got to Eastbourne; really proud. And they'd be home to watch her! The British Junior Grasscourts Championships were in August and they'd be home on annual leave. Oh, wouldn't that be wonderful . . .
It would be a bit more help having someone like Mr Vining for a father though, wouldn't it?
But when she walked down the pavilion steps, two tennis rackets under her arm, her five friends were waiting for her. They surrounded her, Tish waving Biffy the bear, having just grabbed him from Robbie.
'Come on Rebecca!' exclaimed Sue.
'Lots of luck!' said Mara and Elf in unison.
'You can do it – and then you'll be on television, like me!' laughed Margot.
'Come on, Rebeck.' Tish hugged her. 'You know you can do it.'
And suddenly Rebecca felt okay.
'First set to Miss Mason, six games to three. Miss Mason leads by one set to love,' said the umpire. 'Change ends please.'
As the girls towelled down and snatched drinks, on opposite sides of the umpire's chair, Mr Vining called out, rather sharply: 'Come on, Joss. Get it together.'
But Rebecca didn't even hear. Some of the juniors were calling out in piping voices: 'Well played, Rebecca!' – that was Holly Thomas, or 'Come on, Joss!' – Sarah Butters. Rebecca still heard nothing.
She was concentrating her thoughts, with pounding heart:
I can do it, I can do it. I can beat Joss Vining. She isn't invincible. She's losing her touch! Sometimes she's brilliant, sometimes she's not. If I can keep steady, I can win, I can win.
In the second set, Joss made a comeback. Face set, teeth gritted, she started coming into the net, sending searing volleys past Rebecca. But then Rebecca hung back and hung in, chasing everything, retrieving everything, and took the set into a tie-break with two superb smashes.
In the tie-break, Joss's long match experience showed. She kept icy calm whereas Rebecca's nerve failed with two bad service returns.
'Second set to Miss Vining, seven games to six. One set all!
As she walked out for the final set, Rebecca saw her friends with their faces pressed against the wire, waving to her, almost willing her to win. She noticed that Robbie had Biffy again, tucked inside his track suit top, furry face just peeping out. It suddenly made her smile. Robbie smiled back and made a 'thumbs-up' signal.
As she took up her position on the base line, ready to serve, she caught sight of Joss's agonized face.
The truth slowly dawned on Rebecca.
Robbie was right, it was much worse for Joss. She was the one who'd always had the big reputation; she was the one who had everything to lose.
To make a comeback at this stage in the season she'd needed two crushing and authoritative victories. Her match with Rachel Cathcart had been inconclusive last week. So now, to crush Rebecca had been her best hope. A year ago, when Rebecca had been such a raw new talent: that would have been a simple task.
Not any more.
And whatever Joss did in this final set, it wasn't going to make any difference. Rebecca already had twelve games to her ten. Joss might still be allowed to play at Eastbourne, but she had lost her chance of making it a certainty.
With the film cameras whirring the whole time, the tennis played in the final set was of a superb quality. But it was Rebecca, the more determined and confident of the two, who finally ran out the winner, nine games to seven.
'Game, set and match to Miss Mason.'
A great cheer went up as Rebecca ran to the net to take Joss's outstretched hand. What a match!
'I feel as though I've dreamt all this, Joss. I never thought this could ever happen!'
'Well, it just did, Rebecca!' Joss said. There was nothing cool about her handshake. It was respectful and genuine. She even managed a smile, too; a very rueful one. 'You were great. Thanks for a great match.'
'Cut!' said Mark Coughlin and the cameras stopped whirring.
As she came off the court and donned a tee shirt, Robbie came and swung her off her feet and kissed her. 'We'll have a bit of a party tonight, to celebrate!' he said. Then her friends surrounded her and then a crowd of juniors, wanting to clap her on the back.
They all stayed to watch Rebecca receive the cup, then had to dash off to the coach, which was waiting to take them back to Trebizon.
'Did you mean that about a party, Robbie?' asked Tish, just before she got on the coach. Rebecca was still by the courts, talking to some of the other county junior players, with Mrs Ericson hovering and waiting to speak to her.
'Of course I did,' replied Robbie. 'I'll ask old Slade when I get back. You can't come, though. You've got to get an early night.'
Tish had now had her entry accepted for the 1500 metres event at the West of England athletics meeting. She would be running in the race the following evening, the night of the Commem Ball.
'Don't be silly!' said Tish indignantly. 'It won't be that late!'
But Robbie was joking, of course.
'Bring Sue,' he said suddenly. Sue was already on the coach and out of earshot. 'And I'll make sure Justy comes. He's getting really anti-social these days. It's bad.'
The driver honked, so Robbie pushed his sister on to the coach then walked back to wait for Rebecca.
Silent Eye Productions Ltd had parked their big white van right next to Robbie's car, Rebecca noticed. She had to squeeze along the side of it in order to reach the passenger door, w
hen the time came for Robbie to drive her back to school.
As she stood waiting for Robbie to lean across and open her door from the inside, she felt a prickly sensation down the back of her neck.
Looking round quickly she saw a heavily made-up face framed in a mass of blonde hair. The eyes behind the huge sunglasses seemed to be boring into her. There was something very hostile about the expression on the young woman's face.
Throughout the filming, Miss Angel had not been in evidence at all. But here she was, sitting behind the steering wheel of the white van, presumably waiting for the men to come and load up the film equipment. Had she been there all afternoon?
She quickly turned away as Rebecca returned her gaze.
'Come on, Rebeck!' Robbie was easing the passenger door open. 'Jump in!'
As they drove out of the car park, he said: 'Didn't know the glamorous Miss Angel was here this afternoon.'
'I got the funniest feeling just then,' said Rebecca, glancing back over her shoulder. 'I got the feeling there was something nasty about her. D'you know Tish has the feeling she's seen her somewhere before?'
'I tell you, I think she's in films herself. Maybe just plays small parts.'
'Yes, that's what Tish has decided.'
'You've probably seen her playing somebody nasty on TV.'
'Probably,' murmured Rebecca. 'I wonder?'
She wasn't quite convinced.
Sue refused to come to the party at Syon House, saying that she wanted to wash her hair.
Justin didn't appear either, remaining upstairs and telling Robbie that he had too much work to do. Neither of Sue's brothers were able to come.
It would have been a rather quiet affair if it hadn't been for Mara. She'd decided to give her white dress a try–out. The strain of saving it all term for the Commem Ball had finally proved too much. 'Put some records on!' she told Curly Watson, in the big common room at Syon. 'I will teach you the tango and tomorrow we will be a sensation at the Commem Ball!'
She turned round and said to the others:
'Rebecca is a film star now! Tish is a film star! Margot is a film star! Tomorrow when they see Curly and I dance the tango, perhaps they will take some film of us! What do you think of my dress, Robbie? Oh, I must see myself in a film wearing this dress!'
'It's sensational, Mara,' he told her.
It was, too – and soon there were boys crowding into the common room to watch the lovely brown-eyed Greek girl teach Curly Watson the tango. The lemonade and cider had all gone by nine o'clock, there was much noise and laughter and all in all it was a thoroughly jolly evening.
But it wasn't quite the same, without Sue.
And Robbie was upset about Justin, too.
Rebecca and Tish were the last to go. Mrs Slade, the housemaster's wife, hadn't been able to get them into the first car load back to Trebizon, so Robbie made them a cup of coffee in the kitchen while they waited for her to come back and get them. Then he went upstairs and found Justin and brought him down, tired-eyed from poring over books.
'Come and have some coffee, Just. You should have come to the party, you hermit.'
'Hallo,' smiled Rebecca. She liked Justin's rather poetic face.
'No Susan?' he inquired, glancing round the kitchen. Oddly enough, he seemed slightly disappointed.
'Well, no,' said Tish, embarrassed. 'She thought she'd wash her hair and have an early night. Good idea. That's what I should have been doing. It's my race tomorrow. . .'
But Robbie couldn't be bothered with any of that.
'Come off it, Tish. You know perfectly well Sue's upset because Justy has never forgiven her – over Holly.' He looked at the other boy. 'And it's about time you did.'
That was too much for Rebecca.
'What's Sue done that needs forgiveness?' she exclaimed.
'Agreed,' said Robbie. 'It wasn't your fault that Holly followed you that day –'
'She was never in danger!' scoffed Tish. 'Anyway – she didn't have to stay out all night! I was all prepared to run with her on my back to beat the tide. Even if the water had been a bit deep I'd have got her through –'
'Well that sounds dangerous for a start!' said Justin.
'Oh, you're as bad as Sue,' replied Tish crossly. 'It's us who –'
'What do you mean?' he asked quickly.
But Tish was in full flow.
'– it's us who should forgive Holly. She got us into terrible trouble.'
'What do you mean, I'm as bad as Sue?' Justin persisted.
Rebecca saw how interested he was. There was a moment's silence. Rebecca had never told anybody the full story, not even Robbie. It put Tish in a bad light, in a way. It could only come from Tish herself, couldn't it? But now, quite deliberately, she prompted her –
'It's not strictly true to say that Holly got us into trouble, is it?' she murmured, looking at Tish. 'I mean, Holly was quite prepared to take a chance on it, wasn't she?'
'Yes,' nodded Tish. Up to now, she'd never told anybody the full story either, because she thought it put Sue in a bad light. But now, looking at Justin's face, she wondered. 'It was Sue who got us into trouble, as a matter of fact.'
'Susan stopped them,' explained Rebecca.
'Physically!' said Tish ruefully. 'Wasn't prepared to take even the teeniest tiniest chance because we had Holly with us –'
Justin's face was starting to brighten.
'– I could have killed her! So that's how we ended up spending the night on the island, and giving you all a horrible fright and getting a really bad black mark on our school records. And wasting the police's time! Honestly!' Tish began to get heated as she thought about it. She turned to Rebecca and avowed, as she'd avowed before:
'None of that would have happened if we'd run like mad and beat the tide, would it Rebeck?'
Rebecca put it into words at last.
'That's only one way of looking at things.'
'What d'you mean?' asked Tish.
Robbie had been keeping out of all this, just following the conversation very closely. But now he said –
'None of that would have happened if Susan hadn't had such a darned terrific sense of responsibility. That's the other way of looking at things, isn't it, Tish? That's what Rebecca means! Listen, supergirl, you should have explained all this before –'
Justin had gone rather pale.
'I got it all horribly wrong, didn't I?' he said in dismay.
At that moment Mrs Slade arrived to take the girls back. They went outside and clambered into the car. It was midsummer, still light. But just as the car was about to drive away, Justin came rushing out and tapped on the back window. Rebecca wound it down a little way. 'What's wrong?' she asked.
'Rebecca, it's all been a misunderstanding,' he whispered. He was still looking very upset. 'Can you tell Sue that? Can you tell her I'm sorry?'
'Tell her yourself, Justy,' said Rebecca coolly, and wound the window up again.
Justin did exactly that. He phoned Sue at Court House first thing on Saturday morning.
Rebecca was still asleep, enjoying an extra rest after all the tennis, with a party on top! They weren't needed in big hall for the Commemoration celebrations until ten-thirty.
She awoke to find Sue sitting on the end of her bed, her face shining with happiness.
'Justin's asked me to forgive him! He's asked if he can take me to the Commem Ball tonight!'
'What did you say?'
'Yes, to both, of course. Oh, Rebecca, I'm in desperate trouble!' She still looked radiant as she said it. 'What am I going to wear?'
Rebecca yawned and stretched. 'We'll find you something.' She felt rested now and suffused with happiness. The sun was streaming into the big room. It was Commemoration Day. Justin was going to take Sue to the ball. What a triumph! She, Rebecca, had played Joss Vining at last. Played her and won. She'd waited so long for that match. But she'd never dreamt that she'd win it! Mrs Ericson said she was almost certain for Eastbourne now. Another triumph! And tonight
Tish was going to run the 1500 metres at the big athletics meeting. She'd been wanting to do that all term.
As Rebecca collected her wash things and went along to have a shower, she could hear Sue singing somewhere.
Today's going to be wonderful! she thought.
The Mulberry Island incident was closed, at long last. They could all forget it now.
But Rebecca was quite wrong about that.
ELEVEN
SHOCK AT THE TREBIZON BAY HOTEL
To complete Rebecca's happiness, there was a letter from her parents waiting downstairs.
After her shower, she'd brushed her hair till it gleamed and then dressed. Commemoration Day was one of the occasions when full school uniform was required: dark royal blue skirt, long-sleeved white blouse, royal blue tie with burgundy stripe, long white socks and highly-polished black shoes.
Finally Rebecca had donned her Trebizon blazer, a deep rich burgundy colour with embossed crest, the pocket edged with her tennis team colours – a single white stripe. Tish had both purple and yellow stripes along her blazer pocket, showing that she'd earned not only first team hockey colours but athletics colours as well.
In pride of place on Sue's blazer, pinned to the lapel, was the lovely brooch with the monogram HC, denoting that she was the Hilary Camberwell Music Scholar of her year.
'Don't we look smart?' said Rebecca, laughing, as they trooped downstairs. They'd eaten their cornflakes in the little kitchen upstairs. A lie-in and a late, light breakfast was part of the ritual of Commem Day – there would be a sumptuous buffet lunch in the dining hall later. According to Tish it was put on to impress all the visitors. According to Elf it was necessary, anyway, to revive everybody after nearly two hours of solemn music, processions and speeches.
'Smart – and very distinguished!' Mara called up from the foot of the stairs. 'That I should share a room with such distinguished people!' She then walked across to the mail board in the hall. 'Oh, lucky Rebecca! You have a letter.'