When they arrived outside the schoolroom door at the time designated for them to meet their new governess, Miss Crichton, no one answered the door when they knocked, and when they looked round the door, the room was empty.
‘Perhaps,’ said Mary, ‘Miss Crichton is lost in the house. Perhaps we should go and find her.’
‘Or perhaps,’ said Colin, mimicking her tone, ‘we should wait here for her like we’ve been told to?’
‘Well I think the sensible thing is to look for her,’ Mary said. ‘I’m going, whether or not you are. I think it will be a fine adventure to save her from being lost in the corridors. You can stay here on your own if you prefer.’
‘Oh, very well then. I suppose I’ll come with you,’ he said, grudgingly.
They didn’t have to go very far before they found her. They had set off towards the housekeeper’s room to see if Mrs. Medlock might know where she was, and as they approached the door, they could hear voices inside. Mary held up a hand to stop Colin from bursting into the room. They weren’t exactly trying to listen, but the voices were so loud that it was difficult not to overhear what was being said in the housekeeper’s room.
‘… obvious that the children have been thoroughly spoilt.’ A voice which made Mary shudder, like the sound of nails on a chalkboard. Miss Crichton, no doubt.
‘They have not been spoilt, not one jot!’ That was Mrs. Medlock speaking bluntly, her Yorkshire accent stronger than usual, which meant that she was agitated. ‘They’ve both had more than their fair share of troubles. He never left his bed for nearly ten years. And she was found alone in a house of cholera. I’d say they were to be pitied, not spoilt.’
‘But you have not been employed to teach them, I have. From everything Mr. Craven told me, I determine that they have been most thoroughly spoilt, allowed to run riot, and I shall put a stop to all that. A little discipline, that’s what is needed.’
‘Is that what the master said?’ Mrs. Medlock sounded sceptical.
‘It is not what he said but what he meant that is important.’
Mary and Colin looked at each other. Mary felt that perhaps they should go back to the schoolroom right now, and she motioned Colin to follow her.
‘I’m sure father said no such thing,’ he whispered to her as they started to creep away down the corridor. However, his whisper had been rather louder than he intended and the door to Mrs. Medlock’s room was flung open.
‘Well, well, well. What have we here?’ Miss Crichton looked them up and down, as Mary and Colin stood poised between fight and flight. ‘Mary and Colin, I presume? Not a good start – a pair of nasty little eavesdroppers!’
‘They’re not nasty!’ Mrs. Medlock protested, appearing in the doorway behind her, but unable to pass the governess.
‘May I remind you, Medlock,’ said Miss Crichton, as if she was the lady of the house speaking to a housemaid, ‘that according to Mr. Craven’s wishes, you report to me from now on.’
‘I … I …’ Mrs. Medlock stuttered in surprise. Nobody ever spoke to Mrs. Medlock like that!
‘And we weren’t eavesdropping,’ Mary protested. ‘We came to look for you. We were worried you might have got lost.’
‘Got lost? Why would I get lost?’
‘It’s a big house, and if you’re not used to it –’ Mary began, remembering times when she had got lost in the maze of doors and passages.
‘Are you trying to imply that I am not used to big houses? I, who have been a governess to the greatest families in the land, and lived in castles and palaces?’
‘She only meant that you’re not used to this one!’ Colin stood up for Mary.
‘Be that as it may, I do not get lost. I have a perfect memory and a perfect sense of direction. And now perhaps you two will stop wasting time and get yourselves back to your schoolroom? You will wait for me there, as you were told to, and find yourselves some educational reading while I organise everything I need for your first lesson.’
Liz Taylorson 