Murder at Malory Towers

CHAPTER FOUR: ROUGIER'S WRATH

Upon facing the stern French teacher, Alicia almost lost her bravado. It wouldn't be quite so easy to get Rougier to talk about what happened last night.

"Allez les filles," whispered Rougier menacingly, her jet-black eyes boring into the girls behind her thick glasses. "Time for dictée."

The first-formers stared at the French mistress. In all the excitement, they had forgotten that they had a French exam that morning. Blow, this was going to be even harder than she thought, but they had to try.

"Mam'zelle!" Alicia raised her hand.

Mam'zelle Rougier had an intense dislike towards Alicia. She sensed something brazen and unbreakable about the girl, and she preferred girls who could be broken into submission. Her eyes swiveled towards Alicia and her mouth curled into a sneer.

"What eez it?" she snapped.

"We were just wondering... if we could have the dictée tomorrow instead. You know, because we really are quite shaken up by what happened to Mr. Young," Alicia said falteringly.

Rougier hissed. "That dreadful man. It eez perhaps a good thing that I will not have to sit next to him ever again."

The Pi sisters clasped their hands in mock horror. This was really too much, even for the frightening French teacher. Clearly, Mr. Young had not been very popular at Malory Towers.

"Er, yes, we did notice that you were sitting next to him actually," Alicia soldiered on. "Did you see anything unusual happen when the tea was served?"

"Apart from the man's hideous table manners?" hissed Rougier. "But that is not unusual, non. Every day he slops his food over his face like a disgusting Eenglish pig. All over his moustaches. And then he always turns his face to me and starts talking with disgusting Eenglish food spitting out!"

Irene seemed like she was on the verge of one of her explosive giggles. The other girls were also trying not to smile.

"Yes - er - apart from that, nothing unusual then?" said Alicia hastily.

"To add to zis man's foul manners, Miss Grayling was also being very Eenglish yesterday. She is usually quite well-mannered. But I noticed a foul stench emanating from her behind many times during dinner and I was quite disturbed."

This was more information than any of the girls had asked for. 

"Let's have the dictée then," hurried Gwendoline.

Rougier stared. Gwendoline Mary was asking to start a dictée? This was most unusual. Had she said something wrong? She could never tell with the English and their sense of propriety.

Five minutes later, however, the test was interrupted by a rap on the door. Kathleen, a second-former, poked her head into the classroom.

"Sorry to interrupt Mam'zelle, but the head wants a word with the first-formers," she said. "They're all to go to her office immediately."

Mam'zelle sighed. The girls shot up from their seats and headed out the door. Whatever could Miss Grayling want?