As it happened, Leonie did not need to approach either Len or Flavia, for events overtook them. At the beginning of the following week, the Head announced that she wanted to call a staff meeting that afternoon in her private salon, and the information she imparted to the staff was enough to distract even Leonie.
"Keep a close eye on Flavia Ansell?" Nancy Wilmot repeated incredulously. "But, Hilda- why?"
The Head sighed. "It would sound too fantastic if I were to tell you everything. Simply accept that the girl is in danger of being kidnapped, and watch her carefully!"
"Elisaveta again, I suppose," Sally Denny interjected cheerfully.
"In some ways, yes. Although I can assure you that to the best of my knowledge, Flavia is not a member of any royal house!"
"I do hope not," murmured Jeanne de Lachennais. "I was not here at the time, but from what I have heard, that was not a pleasant experience!"
"Elisaveta- or the kidnapping?" Miss Annersley asked with an amused smile.
Her Senior Mistress returned the smile. "The kidnapping, of course! Is there anything special you wish us to watch for?"
The Head looked thoughtful. "Just to let me know if anyone asks after a Flavia Letton, or, alternatively, is particularly interested in the red-headed girls."
"Send Leonie out with that crowd then," irrepressible Nancy suggested with a chuckle. "Then they won't know where to begin looking!"
Leonie smiled, a little self-consciously, at the joke, and raised a hand to touch the heavy hair that was coiled low on her neck. It was not as red as it had been, she knew, but it was still red enough to come close to rivalling Copper's.
"Don't tease, Nancy," Kathie Ferrars scolded. "Leonie has lovely hair. I only wish mine was such a colour. I'm just brown all over!"
Nancy grinned. "She's our little wren, isn't she?"
Whereat Kathie reached behind her for a cushion, and pummelled her friend with it until the Head indicated that the tomfoolery should cease.
"That's all for now, I think," she said firmly. "So, if Nancy and Kathie can refrain from damaging my belongings any further, you're all very welcome to stay for coffee. Jeanne?" and Mlle rose to get the coffee pot.
Leonie thought about the Head's words very carefully. Unlike the others, she knew almost exactly what the Head feared for Flavia Ansell. Not because of prying- like all telepaths, Leonie had a horror of deliberately reading another's mind without their knowledge or consent- but because Hilda Annersley had been so anxious that she had, effectively, 'broadcast' her worries.
In Darkover, Leonie would have exercised her authority and insisted that the Head learn to construct better shields; here, she knew that would be inappropriate. As far as the School and Terra were concerned, she was merely the newest junior mistress, although not even Nancy Wilmot had suggested, even as a joke, that the Lady of Arilinn should become 'staff baby.'
Even so, the Head thought over Nancy's suggestion that Leonie accompany the Middles on their rambles, and found it good. It was true that another red-head would confuse matters further, and just to give the muddy waters an extra stir, Len Maynard also found herself allocated to Middles rambles for most of the first fortnight of term.
"I wish I knew what the Head was playing at!" she wailed one day to a select audience composed of Ted Grantley, Rosamund Lilley, and Len's own triplet sisters, Con and Margot.
"What do you mean?" Con asked, her brown eyes wide and alert for once.
Len settled herself comfortably on her desk, and prepared to expound.
"She's only grabbed me and told me I'm to be attached to those beauties in Upper IVa when we go for walks and rambles until half-term!"
Ted's eyebrows shot up. "That's not like her. Why should you get all the dirty work? Even," she continued with a grin, "if it does mean that at least the Staff can guarantee good behaviour from Jack and Co.!"
Len glared at her friend. "Don't talk such rot! And be careful who you say that 'round. That sounds almost like you think I can handle the brats better than the staff can!"
"Never mind her," Con interjected peaceably. "Didn't the Head tell you why? Like Ted says, it's not like her to put one of us with the same crowd for so long. Especially since that crowd have some of the worst sinners in the entire school!"
Len shook her ruddy head. "She didn't say a thing. Only-well – " She paused and looked puzzled.
Margot, who was not noted for her patience, joggled her sister with her arm. "Well- what? Go on, Len!"
Len frowned. "I'm not certain of it, so don't quote me on this, but- I have a feeling that it's something to do with that new kid Copper. Don't ask me why, but- that's what I thought when Au- the Head- had finished talking, and then she turfed me out before I had a chance to say anything."
"Why would you think that?" Ros Lilley demanded.
Len shrugged. "Don't know, so don't ask me. Well, I suppose it'll all come out in the wash!" and the prefect departed to prepare for the day's ramble up at the Rosleinalp.
It was a pleasant day- perfect for a ramble- but Leonie felt decidedly uncomfortable. It was partly that she did not really know these Middles, partly the feeling that something would happen on the walk, and partly the brightness of the day. Even after a couple of months on Terra, Leonie still found the bright light disconcerting, although it was no longer as painful as it had been to start with. She was happiest in her own little room, for she had been able to alter the formation of the light bulb in the bedside lamp so that it glowed red with a light that reminded her of the distant Bloody Sun.
They had just met up with the girls of St Hilda, and were walking along the track, when Leonie found herself walking next to Len Maynard, and the new mistress glanced carefully at the girl. Sensing Leonie's thoughts, Len turned and smiled.
"This is gorgeous, isn't it, Miss Hastur?"
Leonie smiled in response. "It is indeed lovely, but I am not used to living in the mountains, so it is very new to me."
Len laughed. "Oh, I am. I've been living here now since we three were ten, although before that we lived mostly at Howells in Armishire."
Leonie smiled again. "You love it now, though, I can see! You will miss it when you leave," she continued.
Len's mouth dropped. "How did you know that?" she gasped. "I've never told anyone that, but part of me dreads going to Oxford and being away from all- all this!" and her hand flung outwards to encompass the panoramic views.
Leonie smiled and said nothing, but inside she was cursing her own stupidity. This girl was very sharp, and Leonie was becoming increasingly certain that everything she had told Lorill was true, but that did not mean to say that she was prepared to confront Len with her own story, or to make Len face up to her Gifts.
After all, the girl was clearly in her late teens. If she was going to have threshold sickness, she would have had it by now, so the situation was not imperative. Yet- 'an untrained telepath is a danger to herself and everyone else'. For the first time since she had taken the Keeper's oath, Leonie was finding herself constrained professionally, and she did not like it.
Anxious, Leonie walked in silence. After a moment, sensing she wanted to be alone, Len drifted away to be hailed by Jack Lambert and her extended gang, which included various girls from St. Hilda's. Leonie walked on. She was jolted out of her private thoughts when she sensed the presence of a fellow telepath, someone who was fully aware and in control of their laran, and, cautiously, Leonie checked that her own shields were as firm as they could be. Then, thoughtfully, she disarmed the damper that was built into her matrix, and awaited events.
She did not have long to wait. Walking close by the Gang and Len, she heard Len call some girls back, indignantly, and warn them about running on. Vaguely, she heard their responses, and Len's laugh floated towards Leonie.
"I thought that would do it!" the prefect said to Flavia, who was walking beside her with Wanda von Eschenau. "I must go and talk to Kitty and Mary from St. Hilda's. Don't you become so absorbed in the view that you forget and do a neat walk over the edge yourself," she finished with a chuckle before going off.
Some five minutes later, they met up with Ted Grantley and her party, all of whom were complaining bitterly about the flies, who were particularly rampant this year, even though it was nearly October. Len the weatherwise reminded them that the temperature would begin to drop shortly.
"We may expect night frosts, once October comes in," she declared. "That puts paid to the flies. Oh! I beg your pardon!" and Leonie, walking a little behind, snapped to attention as she heard Len say in a slightly different tone, "Can we do anything for you?"
The smartly dressed woman lost no time. "I wondered if you could tell me the nearest way to the station," she said, her voice overlaid with a heavy American accent. Only Leonie recognised it as false. "I guess I've missed the road, way back in the woods," the woman went on. "I don't want to be benighted up here and wandering alone among trees don't appeal to me. Which way is the shortest to the railway?"
Len, trained from babyhood to politeness, helped the woman as best she could. The stranger then departed, and she brushed past Leonie as she moved towards the station. Then, the leronis heard, to her alarm, the woman's thoughts.
"Now have I been lucky or have I? What was it Dwight said about that kid? Long red pigtails- but they're easily cut off. Mind," the woman continued in her own mind, "there were that many red-headed kids there. The big one I spoke to had red hair herself. But it can't be her. She must be seventeen or eighteen and Dwight said the one they were after was twelve or thirteen; maybe a bit more. That settles it! I'm not telling Dwight until I'm sure. You watch your step, Lou Manley. Dwight is no man's pet when he gets mad. But- even if it's not her, it's no matter. All them red-headed girls. Surely one of 'em must have laran. The Empire'll pay us well for them!"
The woman moved on, and Leonie stood looking after her, a suspicion dawning. All the same, one thought kept recurring. Just how had a woman of the Domains gained such fluency in American idiom? Then Leonie smiled wryly. Like all telepaths, the other woman was undeniably linguistically gifted. That was not an issue. What was more worrying, at least to Leonie, was the question of what other powers the woman might have, and how she might use them against the Chalet School and, more especially, Darkover.
It was well that the rest of the trip was more or less uneventful. True, Len had to kill a viper, which created enough of a sensation and caused both Nancy Wilmot and Kathie Ferrars, to say nothing of Len herself, to look green, but that had been a natural event.
Or was it? Leonie thought very carefully. It could have been natural. In fact, it almost certainly was, she reassured herself. If it had been laran-conjured, only a matrix could have killed it. As it was, Len Maynard had done a rather good job of that, and she had not used any kind of psi powers in the process.
Stop worrying! Leonie told herself. If only she knew why Luisa Aldaran- even if she was calling herself Lou Manley- wanted Copper. That brief contact with the 'American' woman had told the Keeper all she needed to know about the woman if not her motives, and she was now seriously perturbed. But what could she do about it?
Once again, she reminded herself that she was only a junior mistress- more junior, even, than either Kathie Ferrars or Nancy Wilmot. She could not even mention it to Hilda Annersley. As far as she knew, the latter had no idea of Leonie's true origins, and the story behind the threatened kidnapping of Flavia was quite worrying enough for the Head, Leonie thought, without anything extra! All the same...
When they returned to School, the two younger mistresses had insisted on going to the Head, and Leonie did not demur. Miss Annersley treated their story lightly- on the surface, at least.
"My dear, don't let your imagination run loose," she told Miss Ferrars kindly. "If you are going to suspect every stranger who asks you the way or the time, you're going to have grey hairs before term ends. You were quite right to tell me; Flavia is a big responsibility; but keep your sense of proportion whatever you do." She went on to make a couple of comments about the snake and Len, and then dismissed them with a reassuring smile.
Nancy and Kathie departed quite happily. Leonie, however, lingered.
Hilda Annersley smiled again, rather cautiously this time.
"Did you want to speak to me, Miss Hastur?"
Leonie forced herself to laugh. "Oh, please do not call me that. I am not used to it! I am Leonie, please."
Hilda relaxed and laughed in her turn. "Very well, 'Leonie' it shall be. And, as I'm sure you now know, I'm Hilda. Was there something you wished to say to me?"
Leonie was silent for a moment. "It was just this: that, if I may, I will accompany all excursions that involve Upper IVa. Is that possible?"
Hilda looked startled. "Certainly, it's possible. But why should you want to? They are, by and large, a pack of young demons, and you're a junior mistress."
"I know that, but given the circumstances, I would rather be nearby. You see," Leonie continued, "I think that that woman we met today does have something to do with Flavia. It-it's a sixth sense, if you like," she finished, wondering if that was vague enough.
Hilda Annersley gave her a long look. "Sometime, Leonie Hastur, you must tell me more about yourself," she said at last. "In the meantime, if you wish it, certainly you may accompany Upper IVa. Extra supervision never does hurt that crowd, and I confess that knowing an additional mistress is with them will relieve my anxiety. Thank you, Leonie."
Leonie's eyes met Hilda's. "I know it will help," Leonie said softly. "I have my own reasons for wishing to stay near to Flavia. Someday, I hope you will understand them." With a nod that was almost a bow, Leonie removed herself from the study and left Hilda staring.
