The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

Author:Rumer Godden [Godden, Rumer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781447206330
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Chapter Five

Fourteen pairs of girls’ eyes watched Mr Fraser’s car drive Kizzy and Miss Brooke away. That evening, at home, everyone of the fourteen felt her heart leap each time the telephone rang or anyone knocked at the door. They had seen Doctor Harwell’s car drive to the cottage; later Admiral Twiss came. ‘Is she very ill then? Will she die?’ They stole in one to the other, gathered in groups – and waited.

‘It was Prue and Mary Jo,’ whispered Susan, who really was a coward. ‘It was Jennifer and Anne. When my Mum finds out I shall tell her it was them . . .’

‘It was all of us.’ Mary Jo was more honest and the anxious questions went on. ‘What will they do?’ ‘What will Miss Brooke?’ ‘Mr Fraser?’ ‘Admiral Twiss?’ ‘How can we go to school tomorrow?’ ‘But we’ll have to.’ ‘I feel sick,’ said Susan. ‘What will they do?’

It began to seem they would do nothing, which made the girls more nervous. ‘Wait till my Mum and Dad hear,’ Sally had said, but it seemed a miracle was in being: the village did not hear. Then was nobody going to tell? ‘Remember the time some money was stolen?’ said Prue. ‘Mr Fraser sent for the parents.’ Wouldn’t he send for them now? It seemed not; fathers and mothers were going about their ordinary and everyday affairs. ‘Is Kizzy not well then?’ asked Mrs Cuthbert.

‘I’m keeping her in bed for a day or two,’ Miss Brooke said smoothly. Then was Miss Brooke not going to tell?

Oddly enough the silence made Susan feel sicker and even Prudence felt filled with unease. The village naturally talked. ‘What has happened to the Lovell child now?’

‘She fell out of a tree.’

‘No, a tree fell on her.’

‘She is being X-rayed.’

X-rayed – the girls did not like the sound of that.

When Kizzy opened her eyes to find that, once more, she was in bed but with her head singing and throbbing, two tears had squeezed themselves out from under her lids; only two.

‘Cry Kiz,’ said Miss Brooke. ‘It will do you good.’

‘Won’t cry for . . . them,’ quavered Kizzy.

‘She has a tough little nut,’ said Doctor Harwell. ‘Fortunately for her – and for them. She’ll be all right. Little brutes. I should like to give them all a good tanning.’

‘So would I,’ said Miss Brooke. ‘It would do them good, but it wouldn’t help Kizzy.’

‘But these are nice children,’ Mr Fraser had said in bewilderment. ‘Most of them are very nice.’

‘Until they gang up,’ said Miss Brooke.

‘Yes,’ Mr Fraser sighed. ‘One can’t understand but one sees it again and again. They gang up on a particular child – probably he or she is nice too. If one clamps down as Mrs Blount did, it goes underground and it’s worse for the victim. How can it be dealt with?’

‘I think it’s dealt with already,’ said Miss Brooke. ‘For a moment they thought they had killed Kizzy They won’t forget that, and Kizzy, too, isn’t quite innocent.

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