He was half-facing her, but talking to a group of sailors and she couldn't catch his eye. It did give her an opportunity to study him, though. He looked even more handsome in a Navy uniform and Sarah had thought she was immune to the girly idea of finding men in uniform handsome. He looked a little older, as she would expect, but time and the war hadn't been too unkind to him.

Just as she was debating whether to go over there, and if she wanted to speak to him again at all, his eyes met hers. The rest of the world melted away, as if they were back in the Tirol again. She held his gaze, trying to work out from it what his reaction to seeing her again was, but she could discern nothing in his expression.

He said something to his friends, then came over to where she was waiting for him, a little way down the quayside. She smiled to cover her nervousness and then accidentally dropped her pen. Before she could pick it up he had bent and got it for her.

"Thank you," she said, just as if he had been anyone.

"I didn't expect to see you here." His eyes looked over her, as if assessing her and she was almost surprised to find it didn't make her feel uncomfortable.

"Story," she said, holding up her notebook in confirmation and taking the pen from him.

"Then I should leave you to work." He turned away, obviously still unwilling to talk to her but she couldn't just let him go.

"No!" She reached out and grabbed his arm.

He stopped, but didn't turn, instead going absolutely still. She bit her lip and took her hand back, hoping she hadn't done anything wrong.

"I mean, I've got all I need, so I have time to talk if you want to." She did. She so desperately wanted to mend the hurt she had caused him, but she could understand he might just want to forget her.

"Over here." He led her away from the groups of sailors to a bench where they sat side by side.

"I heard you joined the Navy," she began, unwilling to get right to the subject straight away.

He nodded. "During the war. Which you covered." His expression looked worried.

"I realised if something happened to you I'd have to find out from Joey." She'd kept up with Joey all this time, and since Joey had married Jack not long after Sarah left Austria, she knew Harry and Jack also wrote to each other. So Sarah had heard all of Harry's news through a proxy, although it hadn't occurred to her that information had gone both ways. She didn't mind, now that she knew.

"I also wanted to make sure everyone who had a friend or relative in danger knew what was happening to them."

His smile was the proud one she'd seen on him before, even if it was rarely and one she had forgotten existed until now. "I wasn't fighting, I was just a doctor."

"I still worried." He had been in danger, after all.

"Not as much as I worried about you when you disappeared off the face of the Earth for two years."

She bit her lip. How could she explain about the Doctor in a way that he would understand or believe? "I'm sorry," she said, hoping it would be enough. He'd never know the truth of his words, though. She took his hand.

He squeezed it. "Are you happy?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Yes, I am." She smiled, realising that she spoke the truth despite what she felt upon seeing him again. "I love what I do." She didn't regret that she'd kept on trying to have this career. Much as she had enjoyed her year spent teaching, it wasn't something she could have done forever. "If I'd married you I would have been unhappy thinking about what might have been. You know that, don't you?" Suddenly it was very important that he did; that she knew hurting him had been for the best and he would have suffered either way.

He nodded. "Not at first, but I do now."

Still, when she first moved to London she lay awake missing him and wondering if she had made the wrong decision after all. But the memories she had of their time together had only included the good times and what she felt was more nostalgia than anything else and she had moved on during the past ten years without noticing.

They'd both changed too much since then to go back to the way they were.

"I have to go," he said, as he looked over her shoulder.

When he stood she followed suit. "We can still be friends, can't we?" They hadn't been in the last ten years, but perhaps now it had been long enough that they could go back to the friendship they'd had before they'd got into this whole mess.

"I'd like that." He smiled and she was relieved. She'd been half-afraid his answer would be the same as the last time she'd asked.

So she returned his smile and stood up on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. "Write to me." She wanted to hear his news directly from himself. She couldn't be sure just what Joey was filtering out of her letters, even if it was to avoid hurting her. Since he was wearing gloves she couldn't tell if Harry wore a ring. Joey had never mentioned he'd met anyone else, but Sarah hated that she might have made him so unhappy he'd never been able to get past her.

He nodded. "Only if you promise to write back."

"Of course I will." Just try and stop her - after all, writing was what she did best. "Goodbye, Harry." Somehow, they'd never quite managed to say the words when they last parted.

"Goodbye, Sarah."

She watched him walk away from her, but this time it wasn't out of her life.

He knew, from what Sarah had told him, and from the snippets he heard at Kaffee und Kuchen every week, that they had to be careful what they said in front of the pupils because they were apt to repeat everything and ascribe their own meanings to what they heard. Before long all sorts of crazy rumours went around the school.

So Harry settled for returning Sarah's smile in greeting and watching her out of the corner of his eye as he checked his patients and told them this week's story concerning Christmas in London and a ship crashing. They lapped it up and, as usual, Sarah's expression never changed from one of scepticism. But he was used to that by now.

Once it was time for Kaffee und Kuchen Harry breathed a sigh of relief because at least here they could talk quietly and although they still had to be careful, no one would be any the wiser about what they were talking about, except Juliet and Grizel who sat nearby.

"How was your Christmas?" Sarah asked as she poured out their coffees. "I was expecting you sooner."

"Bad weather, I'm afraid. I was in Scotland and we were snowed in. Couldn't get in or out." He sipped his coffee and found it was just right, as always.

She frowned. "I thought your family lived in London."

"They do but I was visiting someone in Scotland." He almost referred to her as a friend, but he wasn't sure about that any more. Although he and Esther had drifted apart she had been more willing to change that than he was, and hadn't taken the news that well. "But I'm glad I went." He had missed the place too. Austria was similar in some ways, but not quite the same and as much as he loved his new home, he still missed his old one. "How about yours?"

She took a sip of her coffee and was smiling by the time she put the cup back down. "It was nice to have so many people about on Christmas Day. Often it was just me and Aunt Lavinia."

"As long as there were no arguments." He had very vivid memories of the sorts of things his family used to say over the dinner table. It was guaranteed to keep some of them away for the rest of the year.

She shook her head. "No, no arguments. Just three children underfoot and lots of chatter."

The three children in question included Jem's son David and his wife Madge's brother's twin children, Peggy and Rix. He had found them very well behaved whenever he visited, but three small children in a small place could easily create chaos, as he saw from their nursery. "The cold has completely gone, hasn't it?" He was fairly sure it had, but sometimes these things could linger.

"Oh, yes, I'm much better. Have been since before you let me out of the San."

Her tone was partly accusing and partly teasing, so he just smiled in return, unrepentant. As long as she was better he didn't care.

"I did a lot of writing with my free time and then sent a lot of articles off."

"Any of them accepted?" She had once complained that he had a far too an high opinion of her abilities, so had shown him something she'd had rejected. He'd read enough newspapers and articles to have some idea of the standard expected, and he honestly couldn't tell why hers weren't good enough in the eyes of the editors.

"I haven't heard back from all of them yet." She tore her bread twist apart, scattering crumbs over the tablecloth, but he thought he heard a hopeful note in her voice.

"There's still plenty of time," he said, trying to reassure her.

But she sighed. "If I could get enough articles accepted I would quite happily go freelance, then I wouldn't have to fit it around this job. I either need that or a contract, but I've got nowhere on either front so far. What's wrong with me?" As she spoke her voice grew louder and the poor bread twist was sacrificed to the tablecloth.

She rubbed her face with her hand, and he caught it on the way down. Instantly, she looked down at it and he wondered if he'd done the wrong thing. For a moment he could think of nothing else except the speed his heart had starting beating at, and the feeling of her small, soft hand in his. Whatever he had been planning on saying to comfort her went out of his mind completely.

So he settled for, "I'm sorry," and squeezed her hand before releasing it.

It seemed to do the trick, though, because she smiled.

That was the end of Kaffee und Kuchen and Sarah brushed the crumbs off the table into her hand before dropping them in her now-empty coffee cup.

"Do you have a lesson now?" Harry asked her quietly.

She nodded. "At least it'll take my mind off it."

He got up when she did and watched her as she went down the corridor to the classroom. Only when she was out of sight did he turn to make his way back to the San. Yet he couldn't put her or the touch of her hand out of his mind.

Now that he was free to be more than just friends with her he knew he was helplessly in love with her, and he had been for some time. He just wasn't sure what her feelings were. He didn't want to lose her friendship by doing the wrong thing, and yet if he could have more than just friendship with her he wanted it desperately. It would take him some time to decide what to do next, he thought. It didn't matter though; there was no rush.

~*~*~

It was Sarah who had suggested the first aid lesson to Harry, the last time he had been at the school. It was February and the weather was still too bad to go out much. She had been thinking of an activity to do to occupy their minds and bodies to avoid them getting into too much trouble, and this sounded like the perfect thing. Young girls had a habit of getting into all sorts of accidents, so it made sense that they should have a basic idea of what to do, other than fetch a grown up. She, Juliet and Grizel would benefit from a reminder too. They couldn't always rely on Matron being available.

The hall was the best place to do it, since it could fit them all in easily. Harry had come over specially to teach, since this wasn't his usual day for check-ups. As soon as Sarah had suggested it he had agreed at once what a good idea it was and either he wasn't very busy or he was able to fit them in somehow. Sarah liked to think it was because it was she who asked, but she didn't think their friendship was quite that close. Not for him, anyway.

She wasn't really listening to what he was saying about burns. Since she had burned herself more than once she knew the drill, so could justify her mind wandering. Instead she was studying Harry as he talked. He was quite handsome and he was very good with the girls: making their check-ups into something they looked forward to with his outrageous stories of experiences he couldn't possibly have had. He was always thoughtful and considerate, yet kept her on her toes, flinging back insults at her as fast as she slung them at him. If nothing else, he kept her brain working.

The only problem was that he had someone else back in Scotland, so he would never think of her the same way she thought of him. That was something she could do nothing about and it frustrated her.

"Miss Smith."

Sarah jerked upwards with the sound of her name and judging by the expressions on the faces of the girls, who were all looking at her, it wasn't the first time Harry had called it either.

"Since you're not paying attention," he began, and his eyes laughed at her as he spoke, so she worried what she'd missed, "perhaps you'd like to volunteer."

"Ah..." She had no idea what she might be volunteering for but didn't want to admit it and thus prove her inattention.

When Harry raised his eyebrows she realised it wasn't really a question. So she had no choice but to stand up and make her way past the girls who sat in front of her, to the front of the hall where he stood.

"This is a simple bandage," he said, and he held up his hand to show it to her. It had been there all along, she realised, she just hadn't seen it. "Roll up your sleeve and hold out your arm."

She chose the one nearest to him, which happened to be her right. She had an idea of what he was going to do and it wouldn't matter either way. It took a minute to undo her cuff and roll the sleeve up so it wouldn't fall down.

"Let's pretend Miss Smith has cut herself here." With his finger he indicated a line running across her arm just above her wrist. He barely touched her skin and she got goosepimples as it tickled.

"The first thing we need to do is cover up the wound." He took her elbow with his left hand, and she was glad she hadn't rolled her sleeve up enough to bare it because she shivered at the proximity of his hand. He gave her a quizzical look, but she pretended nothing had happened and he carried on, pressing the bandage to her arm. One end of it trailed down one side, the other he still held rolled up.

"If you don't have a bandage, you can use a handkerchief, as long as it's clean."

Sarah was trying not to look at Harry too closely, so she saw a few girls squirm in their seats. They were the ones known for never quite managing to keep their handkerchiefs clean. She couldn't blame them - she had been just the same at their age, and even now they never lasted as long as they ought to.

"Now you wind the rest of the bandage around the arm." He did so as he talked. "Make it tight enough to stop the bleeding, but not so tight you cut off the blood flow to the arm." He looked up at the girls, pausing with his bandaging for a moment. "Can anyone tell me what colour blood is?"

Most of them held their hands up and Harry nodded at Melanie, who replied, "Red," in a voice just loud enough to carry to where Sarah and Harry stood.

Sarah bit back a smile. Melanie was very shy and when Sarah asked the class a question she would only give the answer if she was asked specifically, she never volunteered. It was typical that Harry had managed to make such an impression on her. It made equally as much of an impression on Sarah too, which didn't help.

"So, if I wound this too tight," he held up Sarah's arm, and she just let him, it was simpler, "S-Miss Smith's arm would go white."

There was the sound of tittering and whispering from their audience and Sarah glared at Harry for slipping and nearly saying her name. When she was younger she knew exactly what that meant, even if it was reading too much into it.

Harry gave her a quick smile and finished his bandaging, tying off with a neat bow that she wouldn't have expected of him. "How does that feel?" he asked, releasing her arm and making her feel cold all of a sudden. "Not too tight?"

"No, that feels good." She touched her other hand to the bandage.

He nodded. "Well, I have some bandages here so you can all give it a try." He reached behind him and Sarah saw he had a picnic basket full of what must be slightly old bandages, judging by their colour. "Divide into pairs and collect one bandage per pair. When you're all finished, there might be a prize for the best." The girls were already chattering and he raised his voice to be heard. "Remember, not too tight, not too loose."

It wasn't long before a line of girls began in front of Harry. While he was involved in handing out bandages Sarah untied the bow and unwound hers. She couldn't help but smile as the girls began, after decisions on which arm to bandage and who got to go first. She could also hear complaints they were too loose or too tight and some of them had to start again after an inspection from Juliet or Grizel.

Harry took the bandage from her and wound it up while he watched them. "I hope they never need it," he said softly.

"There are first aid kits here and we always take one on any expedition. So they shouldn't. But you never know." She really hoped they wouldn't. Being out in the snow with Cecile was enough excitement for one year.

He nodded. "No, you don't. And even the smallest piece of knowledge can save a life."

Her eyes flicked to the crowd of girls all laughing and having fun. "I'm glad you agreed to do this. Especially in this weather." Although even on days no one in the Annexe would go out, the doctors all managed it somehow.

"It was a pleasure." He smiled at her.

Sarah smiled back, although she really wished he wouldn't do things like this, because it just made it harder not to fall in love with him.

~*~*~

Although the snow had melted and spring had finally arrived up at the San, the excitement was eclipsed by the new baby, even if it mean they were all working longer hours to make up for the time Jem was spending with his wife and new daughter. Sybil Margaret Russell, as she was eventually named, had been born the night before half term started at the Chalet School. It mean their house, Die Rosen, had been full of people, so it was a while before the doctors were invited over to see her.

Jem had talked at length about what the baby was like, so Harry almost felt as if he knew her already. More interesting, was his account of the naming party they'd had and the names the girls had come up with for Sybil, none of which were chosen anyway. Joey had apparently complained the baby was ginger and Harry knew her well enough by now to laugh and shake his head when he heard.

Things had settled down a little by the time Harry was invited for Kaffee und Kuchen and baby viewing, although Jem still walked with his head held high. There were so many people fond of Madge and babies that they'd had them over in shifts and today was also Sarah's turn, it appeared. Harry suspected a conspiracy, but wasn't going to complain at a chance to see her.

"Is she all right?" Harry asked Madge, over their coffee. "She was early, wasn't she?" Although he hadn't worked in that area recently, he could give a list of things that could go wrong with premature babies if asked. Although if there had been anything he felt sure he would have heard by now.

"She's perfect," Madge answered, with the same grin on her face Harry had seen often on Jem.

The perfect baby in question let out a yell and Madge excused herself to see what she wanted. Until now she'd been asleep and Madge hadn't wanted to disturb her. Harry had been wondering whether they'd get to see her at all, but it seemed like Sybil had her own ideas on that.

"Don't you know?" Sarah asked after Madge left. "Didn't you learn about babies in medical school?"

"Of course I did, but the effects of a premature birth vary greatly." It was a direct quote from a medical textbook. He hoped she didn't want him to recall any more of it - he didn't want to scare Madge with the list if she hadn't picked up anything from Jem.

"I've never seen many babies," Sarah admitted, setting down her now-empty coffee cup.

"Neither have I." He'd seen enough to know they were hard work, but it didn't stop him from wanting one in the future.

The crying had stopped and Madge was soon back with the now-quiet Sybil. "Come into the salon."

They followed her out of the Speisesaal and into a bigger room with more comfortable chairs around it.

"Do you want to hold her?" Madge asked Sarah.

Sarah bit her lip and nodded. "She's not going to scream again, is she?"

Harry had to hide a smile behind his hand. He hadn't seen Sarah scared of anything - or nothing she would admit to anyway, so it was amusing to see her fear of such a small baby.

Madge just ignored the question and directed Sarah to a chair. Once Sarah was in it, Madge, with the practised ease of someone used to babies, held Sybil with one arm and used the other to position the cushions. Then she put Sybil into Sarah's arms, arranging the baby just so.

As Harry stood and watched he felt there was a great deal more to babies than he previously thought. His eyes were drawn to the picture Sarah and Sybil made. Sybil looked up at Sarah with fascination, and Sarah smiled down at her and said, "Hello, Sybil." If it wasn't for the ginger hair, and he had to admit Joey was right about the colour, he could almost imagine the baby was Sarah's own.

He went over and perched himself on the arm of the chair. When he touched the palm of Sybil's hand she fastened it around his finger. For a minute he was lost in the wonder of this baby.

It was Sarah who broke the mood, saying, "She's so tiny,"

"She didn't feel it, believe me," Madge said, and Harry almost jumped: he'd forgotten she was there.

He laughed, and Sybil transferred her gaze to him. "Hello, Sybil. I heard what your aunt said about you."

Sarah grinned, and he guessed she had heard the same thing.

Before she could say anything, though Sybil wriggled and Sarah cried out, "oh," in surprise. Madge swiftly drew in and plucked the baby from Sarah's arms, and Sybil immediately calmed down.

Sarah jumped up. "I should really get back."

Harry raised his eyebrows. She had obviously had enough of babies for one day. He felt sure that she would feel differently if it was one of her own. "I'll walk you back." He stood up as well.

She still wore a thoughtful expression as they went outside into the sunshine and Harry wondered what was on her mind. Or rather, what aspect of Sybil she was thinking about. With the touch of his hand on her arm, she stopped and looked at him. Before he could get too nervous, he bent his head and touched his lips to hers. Although it was just the briefest of kisses she didn't immediately pull away.

Despite his heart beating fast at what he had dared to do he had a new-found confidence and admitted, "I've been wanting to do that for such a long time." Possibly it felt like longer than it was.

She frowned. "But you have... I mean, there's someone else...."

He shook his head. "Not since Christmas." He'd missed Sarah far more in the time he was away from Austria than he'd missed Esther in the month before that, so he knew he'd made the right decision.

"You should have said. I thought..." But what she thought he was never going to find out because she reached up and pulled his head down to hers with one hand on the back of his neck.

Her lips were soft beneath his and tasted faintly of milky coffee. He pulled her closer with his hands on her waist and never wanted the kiss to stop.

~*~*~

"Someone to see you, Miss Smith." Sarah looked up from where she was puzzling over a piece of marking while taking prep. Since the Annexe only had twenty two pupils they all had prep together in the largest form room. In the main school the older pupils were trusted enough to do their prep on their own and the younger ones were supervised by the prefects. But here even the eldest was too young to take on that duty.

So Sarah, Juliet and Grizel each took prep one day a week in turn. In theory, it was a quiet time to get some marking done, or writing in Sarah's case, but in practise there were always girls wanting help with something. For that, Sarah had suddenly found herself revising mathematics rather hurriedly. It was fortunate that the level wasn't above that which she understood.

There were also occasions when someone chose prep time to get into mischief. At least that wasn't every evening and didn't usually depend on which mistress was in charge of them. Today Sarah had been attempting to decipher some particularly vicious handwriting, so wasn't altogether sorry at Grizel's interruption.

She frowned at her, though, wondering who Grizel could possibly mean. If it was Harry then Grizel would have said, and anyway, she wasn't expecting him. He knew better than to try and see her when it wasn't her evening off.

Although none of the girls looked up, and at first sight appeared to be scribbling furiously, Sarah knew from experience that their attention was more on the two mistresses than on their work. Grizel gave no indication of who she meant and Sarah wasn't going to risk asking when she didn't know her reasons why.

So she just nodded and stood up. "Will you take over for me, Miss Cochrane?"

Grizel didn't have much of a choice, and her scowl showed what she thought of having her evening interrupted. From the way she was dressed, Sarah wondered if she had been on her way out somewhere. Grizel slipped into the seat Sarah had vacated, and Sarah vowed to be back quickly. It was always best to avoid Grizel's sarcastic tongue. Sarah'd had enough of that when they were at school.

It was looking as if the Annexe would have twice as many pupils next year, but for now they didn't use all the rooms, it was just too expensive. Juliet didn't spend much time in her office, so they mainly used it as a place to greet visitors. Since Grizel hadn't said where Sarah's visitor was, Sarah assumed correctly he was in the Head's office.

Inside was a tall man who looked to be in his forties. Sarah didn't recognise him, but he looked vaguely familiar, although she couldn't put her finger on why.

"Good evening," she said, cautiously.

He turned to face her properly. "Miss Smith?"

She nodded and closed the door behind her.

He held out a hand "Mr Stevens. Amy and Margia's father."

She shook his hand, politely, but all the time wondering why he wanted to speak to her and not Juliet. At least now she knew why he looked familiar: Amy obviously took after him in looks, even if she was younger and feminine. "What can I do for you, Mr Stevens?" She motioned him to sit down, and took the Head's chair for herself.

"It's more something I can do for you."

She frowned.

He reached into the inside pocket of his blazer and pulled out a sheet of paper, which he passed to her.

She took it and unfolded it. She was impressed by the letterhead, but then she already knew Amy Stevens' father wrote for a big London newspaper; it must be this one. "This is offering me a..." she checked the letter again, in case she'd imagined what it said the first two times she read it through. She'd dreamt of similar before but it had never happened in real life. "An unpaid job for the Easter holidays." She looked back up at him.

He smiled at her. "Amy talked to me about how much she liked you and your lessons and mentioned that you were looking for a journalism job. I thought this might help. I hope she wasn't prying."

She shook her head. "No, not at all. But Mr Stevens, you don't even know me." She knew well enough that the journalism business relied heavily on knowing the right people, and that's what she had spent her three years at university doing. She had hoped to make Mr Stevens' acquaintance before now, but every time she had a chance something would interfere to prevent her.

"No, but I've seen some of your articles. I know enough to know you'll go far. You just need a start, that's the hardest part."

Some probably meant all - she hadn't had that many published. He must have done his research well. There were tears building in her eyes. "Ah, I... I don't know what to say." Nothing she had done with her job here was in order to get a start in her chosen career. She'd done it because she wanted to and she enjoyed seeing her pupils learning.

"Thank you?" he suggested, with a twinkle in his eye.

She smiled as the tears faded away. "Thank you."

He stood up. "I must go. This was just a flying visit, so to speak."

Sarah stood too, wondering just why he was here and whether he had seen Amy or Margia. She suspected not, given the absence of information in Grizel's message and the lack of response from Amy. She wasn't going to ask, though, as much as she wanted to: she didn't want to risk him taking the letter back. "It was good to meet you, Mr Stevens. Amy is a credit to you."

"Why, thank you." He gave her a small bow.

After she saw him out she leant back against the front door, hugging the letter to her chest and smiling. Occasionally she glanced at its contents, which only broadened her smile. She didn't linger too long, though, not wanting to leave Grizel resenting Sarah's unexpected time off tonight.

She took a deep breath, stood up straight and walked along the corridor, trying to act as if nothing much had happened. It was the thought of Harry that sobered her. Although the Easter holidays were short this year, so they could finish the summer term before it got too hot, she had been hoping to spend more time with Harry. It hadn't been very long since their kiss outside Die Rosen and their time together consisted mainly of snatched moments. Now it looked like that wouldn't change, since they would once again spend the school holidays in different countries - she couldn't imagine he would get so long off again. Not when Jem had a new daughter to spend his time with and Harry wouldn't begrudge him that.

Harry would understand, she was sure, since this was hardly an opportunity she could pass up. Although she had been editor of the university newspaper as well as doing unpaid work on the local newspapers, that hadn't got her anywhere. This, though, was a big, well-known paper and their recommendation would go a long way. Perhaps if they liked her work they would even employ her.

She would miss Harry, of course, but she was giddy with the excitement coming up.

~*~*~

"Harry!"

He had barely turned round, his mind still on the patient he had just come from, and the heat of summer in May, when he was assaulted by someone small, soft and smelling of soot: Sarah. He pulled her closer, pressing the file he carried against her back and burying his nose in her hair. She had probably come straight to the San without even stopping to wash and his heart skipped a beat thinking what that meant.

She hadn't been away for Easter for much more than a week, but it felt like longer and he never wanted to be apart from her that long again. After spending some time spending thinking about his relationship with Esther and what he felt for Sarah he was much more sure this time. So much so that he'd gone to the shops in Innsbruck on his day off. He had almost regretted that instinct once he got back and he resolved to wait until the end of the school year before he asked her. For now a small velvet box lived in his desk drawer and no one but he knew it was there.

As he heard footsteps coming down the corridor towards them, Harry pulled himself away from her reluctantly. He really wanted to be even closer to her, but that would have to wait a few months yet, at least. "Come into the office and tell me about your holiday."

She took hold of his hand, threading her fingers through his and smiled up at him as they walked.

Once they had some privacy she pressed one hand to his chest and pushed him against the nearest bookcase to kiss him thoroughly. His file dropped from nerveless fingers and he tangled his hand in her hair. When at last she released his mouth they were both a little breathless.

"What was that for?" He was always gentle with her, afraid that his feelings would scare her away and she had responded in kind. Although he wasn't used to this kind of forcefulness from her, he had enjoyed it anyway and rather hoped she would do more of the same in future.

"It's so good to be back." She smiled up at him and stroked the back of his neck, making it very difficult for him to think clearly.

"Didn't you have a good time?" He half-hoped she had spent the whole week wishing she was with him, but he hated the idea of her being miserable.

"Oh, Harry, it was amazing," she said with a sigh and released him, as if she had more important things to think about.

"It is rather hard to tell. After all, you never wrote." His tone wasn't as harsh as his words sounded: he knew how long it took the post to get from England to here, although he had expected she might send a postcard to tell him she had got there safely. After all, that might have arrived here before she did.

She took his hand, and rubbed her thumb over the back of it, before giving it a tug and leading him over to his desk before he could retrieve his dropped and now half-forgotten file. "I'm sorry, I was just so busy."

He nodded at that, wanting to ask her if she'd had any time to think of him at all, but saying nothing in case her answer wasn't what he wanted to hear. He began to worry that the ring had been a terrible idea when she moved a few things on his desk with a sweep of her hand and perched herself on the edge.

"It's not built for that, you know."

Her only reply was a cheeky grin and another kiss. It was a while before either of them were far enough apart to speak again and Harry reconsidered his opinion of a few minutes before.

"So, what did you get up to that filled all of your time?" he asked, not letting go of her this time.

"First they had me making the tea." She made a face at that and he laughed. He wished he could have been there to hear her express her opinion of it to the people at the newspaper.

"But then a lot of stories happened all at once," she went on, "and they were short of reporters. So they sent me." She sat up straighter.

"Good for you." He absently counted the vertebrae he could feel beneath his palm.

"Then once I'd written it the Deputy Editor completely re-wrote it." She sighed and slumped a little.

With his other hand he ran his fingers along her cheek. "Sorry, old girl."

"Don't call me that. I know Dr Jem calls Madame and Joey 'old lady' all the time, but that doesn't mean you have to copy him." Although she was telling him off it didn't stop her from moving her hand from his waist down to his hip, slowly.

He smiled and pressed his lips to hers again. When he didn't call her 'old girl' for a while she asked him if there was anything wrong, so he was hardly going to stop, no matter what she said. She never quite complained in a serious voice, anyway.

"I just refused to leave his office until he told me why he'd done it. And then he made me a cup of tea."

He laughed and she smiled along with him. He knew Sarah's tactics well when she tried to get her own way. The poor man probably had no chance, or fancied her rotten, and Harry couldn't blame him for that.

"It did make sense." She sighed. "I've got more to learn than I thought. It's no wonder they didn't offer me a job."

"So it was all for nothing?" He frowned.

She shook her head. "Not completely. I have a lot more contacts now. You never know when they might be useful."

"No, you don't," he murmured, wondering what she would say to staying here with him. He wasn't going to ask until he was sure, no matter how long that took.

She brushed one hand up his arm. "I can think of better things to do than talking."

There was a playfulness in her tone that made him raise his eyebrows. His reply of "Better than words?" was lost in her mouth.

~*~*~

Sarah sighed and sunk into a chair, throwing her letter down as she did so. She sat with her head in her hands and didn't move until Grizel spoke.

"What's wrong? Bad news from home?"

She looked up to see Grizel looking down at her, a concerned look on her face. Sarah shook her head. "In a manner of speaking." She bent down and picked the letter back up, screwing it up into a ball. "The newspaper I worked for at Easter don't want me to work for them."

Grizel sat down opposite. "I'm sorry."

"I was so sure...." She stood up and threw the crumpled up letter into the bin a little harder than was strictly necessary. "If I don't have a job by the end of the year I don't know what I'm going to do."

Grizel shrugged. "Stay here and teach?"

"Maybe I'll have to." She gazed out of the window where there was a picturesque view of the Austrian Alps. They didn't soothe her as much as they usually did though.

"I thought you liked it here."

She turned back to face Grizel, leaning back against the windowsill. "I do, I just don't want to be stuck here forever."

"I know what you mean," Grizel said, with feeling.

Now Sarah sat back down. "Oh, Grizel, I'm so sorry, going on like that. But you'll find a way, I know you will."

Grizel gave a wry smile. "Maybe. But I was never one for patience."

Sarah smiled, remembering incidences when they were both pupils at the Chalet School. "Neither was I. But then, I never did know when to give up."

"There you go then. Perhaps someone will admire your tenacity and employ you."

Sarah smiled.

Before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door and it was pushed open. Sarah jumped up as Harry came in the room, carrying a basket. She stopped herself from approaching him because Grizel was in the room.

"Good news?" he asked.

Sarah shook her head. "They rejected me."

Harry frowned. "Who did?"

"The paper I worked for at Easter."

He didn't look any less confused. "I thought they already did that."

"No. They said they would get back to me and I hoped...." Despite what she'd told him there was always a chance, but she almost wished they had said no straight away and not left her hanging for so long. She bit her lip. "What have you got there?" She hoped he would get the hint that she didn't want to talk about it. She didn't even want to think about it at the moment. Harry's arrival was unexpected and she wanted to enjoy the time she spent with him, for however long he could spare.

"A picnic. I brought enough for two." He held the basket a little higher.

"Oh, thank you." She looked over at Grizel who was industriously pretending to read her book. "Let me get my sunhat."

They said their goodbyes to Grizel and stopped off at Sarah's room where Harry gentlemanly waited outside and Sarah collected her hat.

Outside, she took his arm and they wandered along the path up the mountain. She vividly remembered coming up here in the snow, chasing after Cecile. It had changed a lot since then, with long, green grass and plenty of wildflowers making the landscape colourful. The sun shone down from a blue sky and it was a good day for a picnic. "I'd forgotten how much I missed the summers here. And the winters." When she was dressed for them, anyway.

"They are very different from England," Harry agreed.

She cocked her head sideways to look at him. "Good different or bad different?" She couldn't tell whether he was that fond of the weather here.

He looked over at her. "Well, it is a little hot."

She smiled at that. It didn't help that he always dressed very properly, so wore more layers than were necessary at these temperatures. She wouldn't have minded seeing him wearing fewer clothes, but she never got the chance.

"But on the whole I think I like it." His gaze took in their panoramic view of the valleys.

"So you're planning to stay here?" She had wondered, when he first arrived, how long it would be before he wanted to move back to Scotland, or get married and bring his wife out here. Since neither had happened, she wasn't sure if she was enough reason to stay for now.

"For a little while. But who knows what the future will bring." He smiled down at her and she responded by reaching up for a kiss before they carried on walking.

She had expected to survive however long she spent here, not like it as much as she had. It wasn't as much as she had loved working on the newspaper for a week, but enough that she wasn't in quite as much of a rush to leave as she had been at first. Harry was responsible for a large part of that. "If I could stay here and write that would be perfect, I think." England paled in comparison to the Tirol.

He pulled her closer to him and she wrapped her other arm around his. "Can't you do that?"

She shook her head. "The Tirol isn't the right place to be for the things I want to write." Pleasant as it was, it was too far away from the action, and she wasn't well enough known yet to earn enough money that way.

Harry nodded and said, "Let's stop here."

They had reached a shady spot with soft, green grass and a good view of the other mountains. It was as good a place as any other. Harry unpacked the blanket for them to sit on and Sarah started on the rest of the contents of the basket.

"Is there anything exciting happening at the Chalet School at the moment?"

She wondered if he really didn't know or was just making conversation. The former seemed unlikely given the closeness of the San and the school and the latter was unlike Harry. But she answered anyway. "There is the trip to the Zillerthal for Madame's birthday next week. You must have heard about that." She watched him out of the corner of her eye as she laid out the sandwiches.

"Oh, yes. Jem mentioned something about it." He still sounded distracted, though, and he held a plate as if he didn't quite know what to do with it.

"Harry." She laid a hand on his arm. "Is everything all right?"

"What? Oh, yes." He came back from wherever his mind had been, and chose a sandwich. "It's not long until the end of term."

"Just over a month," she confirmed.

But Harry didn't elaborate on why he'd made that statement, just calmly ate his sandwich. So Sarah filled in the silence by telling him more about the trip as they ate. "The Juniors are coming here because it's too far for them to go, but Juliet, Grizel and I are going to the Zillerthal. Everyone's looking forward to it." Ever since the school started there had been an annual trip for Madame's birthday. In the year Sarah was there they had also gone to the same valley for a picnic and Sarah was looking forward to seeing it again.

"The river Ziller runs through it," she explained, "and we have to take the train to get there, which most of them find exciting." She grinned - travelling by train had rapidly lost its appeal for her after taking so many. She much preferred the destination to the journey itself. "When I was there we went to Mayrhofen and the pine woods there. The river was lovely and cool in the heat." She smiled, remembering how they'd looked for gold, although didn't find any, of course.

It turned out that Harry had heard a little about the place and asked her questions as they ate.

"I could have a nice nap now," Sarah said, yawning, after they'd packed everything away.

Harry laughed and pulled her closer to him with one hand around her waist. She rested her head on his shoulder and one hand on his leg. It was a better way to spend the day than fretting over her latest rejection. She didn't feel as badly about it now, although it was perhaps because she was becoming more immune to them. They never completely left her unaffected, though.

She still had a month to decide if she wanted to stay on next year. Juliet and Grizel were happy for her to stay, as were Madame and Joey. Sarah wouldn't be sorry to live in a place like this for a little longer but she had only intended to teach for a term, then it had turned into a year and she wasn't quite ready to give up on her dream yet.

If she was sensible, she would get herself a job in London where she now had more contacts, thanks to her Easter job. She wondered, if she suggested it, whether Harry would come with her. However, that was a little more commitment than she was prepared for just at the moment. So she would put the decision off until the end of term and hope for the best in the meantime.

~*~*~

Harry almost walked straight into her. He hadn't expected Sarah to try and accost him in the corridors of the San when he was at work. If he remembered her timetable correctly she had an hour off, but he hadn't expected to see her here. It was a nice surprise, though.

"Has something happened?" he asked her. He couldn't think of any other reason why she might be here.

"Oh, yes. Something wonderful."

He raised his eyebrows. She was practically bouncing and her smile was broader than the one she usually greeted him with.

"I wanted you to be the first to know."

"I'm honoured." Although he couldn't think what it was and didn't know where to begin guessing. "Don't keep me in suspense." Partly because he only had a few minutes free.

"I've got a job! It's a glossy magazine but they cover all sorts."

For a moment he couldn't quite take in what she was telling him. "So you're leaving?"

She nodded, obviously not thinking through the implications. "At the end of term."

He folded his arms and gazed over her shoulder at the wall beyond. "Congratulations," he said, in a flat tone. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be happy, he just didn't want it to be at the expense of his own happiness.

"What's wrong?" She frowned. "I thought you'd be pleased for me."

"How can I be when you're leaving me?" He stared hard at her and she bit her lip in response.

"I hadn't thought of that." Her voice was suddenly small.

He'd met Gertrud a few times, since he worked with her husband, and he knew Madge'd had to give up her job when she married. Harry wouldn't have minded waiting a few years if that was what Sarah really wanted and if he had a promise that it wouldn't be forever. He hadn't expected her to be that different to anyone else.

"But I still have a few weeks left, we'll just have to make the most of that time." She stretched out an arm to him, and he stepped backwards, out of her reach. He refused to be affected by her hurt expression.

He shook his head. "What's the use in continuing if we're only going to be parted?" Why had she even let him kiss her if she had no intention of following their relationship through to its natural conclusion?

"But I always meant to leave one day. I thought you knew that." She took a step closer to him.

Were they even on the same page any more, he wondered. "I thought you loved me. I thought...." He thought that she loved him more than her career, but clearly he was wrong. Perhaps he was just too much of a romantic, believing that love conquered all.

"I did," she said quietly. "I do, Harry."

He swallowed hard. "Goodbye, Sarah. Good luck with your new job." He turned round and walked back in the direction he had come from, even though it wasn't where he was supposed to be. If he'd tried going past her she would have reached out and stopped him and it was hard enough walking away from her as it was.

"You can't just leave it like this," she shouted after him.

He could, so he didn't stop, even when she called his name.

The office was mercifully empty and he sunk into the chair at his desk, head in his hands. For some time he just sat there, not moving, unable to work out what to do now.

When the door opened he sprang to his feet, turning to face the window, hands in his pockets.

"Harry?" It was Jack. "I've been waiting for you..." Harry heard him come closer. "Is something wrong?"

Harry sighed and turned round. "I'm sorry, old chap," he replied, trying to sound far more jolly than he was. "I'll be right there." Mustering something of a smile, he started towards the door.

Jack stopped him with a hand to his chest. "What's happened?"

They might not have seen each other for a few years, but Harry and Jack had been good friends at university and that still continued. If there was one person Harry wouldn't be able to shrug this off with, it was Jack. "Me and Sarah," he began, and then stopped to take a deep breath as he tried to decide what to say. "We're not together any more."

Jack frowned. "Why not? I thought the two of you were--"

Harry cut him off before he could say the words. "So did I, but she didn't. She's going back to England to start her journalism career."

"I'm sorry." Jack's expression immediately changed from worried to sympathetic.

"Will you take over my duties at the Annexe for the rest of the term?"

"If you want, but you can't just avoid her."

"Yes, I can." Harry slipped around Jack and opened the door. "Come on, we have patients to see."

He was glad Jack got the hint because he said no more about it and concentrated his talk on work. If the rest of the term went the same way and he never had to discuss Sarah again he might just manage to keep going.

~*~*~

Harry hadn't just been avoiding her, he was hiding, Sarah determined. She had ended up being more upset over getting a job offer than she had by any of her rejections, so she had decided to wait until Harry came to the Annexe for his usual afternoon of check-ups. Except he'd sent Dr Jack instead, who hadn't been very willing to discuss Harry with her.

So, once she had some time off when she was sure Harry wouldn't be working, she sought him out. When she enquired she discovered he had been working more often than not and now she was worried about him on top of everything else. She felt sure if they could just discuss it they could work something out, as long as she could find him first.

Boldly, she walked into the San and found him just around the corner from the front entrance. The next thing she knew he turned round and practically ran away from her. Undeterred, she decided on a more stealthy approach and following him without him noticing. Once he went into the office and the door swung shut behind him she knew he was trapped. She hadn't been able to follow him into patients' rooms, but here she could.

She had one hand on the doorknob when it opened suddenly and Harry stood immediately opposite her. For a moment she thought he might shut the door on her, he looked so shocked at seeing her.

"I just want to talk to you," she said, hoping that he might actually listen.

"I'm busy." He went round her, taking care not to brush past her at all.

"I'll wait then." She opened the door but didn't quite go in, waiting to see what he would do.

He sighed and looked back at her. "Five minutes," he promised.

She smiled at her victory, but not so he could see. She wasn't quite sure how long he would really be, but she was prepared to wait as long as it took. He would have to come back here some time. She sat herself down at Harry's neat desk: he didn't spend much time at it, so it wasn't a surprise that it wasn't more messy.

However, there was only so long she could sit there with nothing to do and she knew better than to poke through confidential files. The only books kept in here were medical texts, which were dull and dry and liable to put her to sleep. It had been longer than five minutes already and it occurred to her that there was nothing to stop him from leaving. Usually Harry was as good as his word, but she wasn't quite so sure any more. If she could just think of what to say to make things better she would write a note. Perhaps she would make a start and see if anything came to her - that had been known to work on occasion.

She looked around his desk for a scrap of paper she could use, but the only pile of paper on there was all used. So she opened the top drawer of his desk and cast about in there. The drawer looked like he'd thrown any old thing in it without much regard for what it was supposed to contain. Clearly his life wasn't as ordered as it first appeared. The paper was easy to find and when she took the notepad out she came across a pencil. On closer inspection she discovered it had only been sharpened on one side. With a sigh she put it back and watched as it rolled towards the back of the drawer and hit a small velvet box.

Frowning, she pulled it out and opened it curiously. Her mouth went suddenly dry as it revealed the ring inside. Her mind raced, trying to think of an explanation other than the obvious, but if there was one, she couldn't see it.

As she sat there holding it, the door opened and Harry stood framed in the doorway, just as still as she was. Gently, Sarah put the box down on his desk and pushed it closed, not wanting to see the ring any more.

Harry shut the door behind him, but didn't advance any further into the room. Sarah bit her lip, but for once she couldn't think of a single thing to say.

"What would you have said if I'd asked earlier?"

Her gaze flicked to the box, but before she could say anything Harry spoke again.

"Don't answer that. I don't think I'd like either answer."

It was just as well because she knew she would have been terribly tempted to say yes. And after that, who knows what might have happened.

The silence grew between them until it almost became big enough to have a life of its own. At last, Harry broke it when he pulled a chair up to his desk and sat on it. "You said you wanted to talk."

She nodded. She had known exactly what she wanted to say, but now it just didn't seem to fit. "I thought we could still be friends." She'd never wanted to lose his friendship, and now she wished she had foregone the wonderful few months they had been more, so she wouldn't have had to lose him now.

He shook his head. "I can't."

Of course it wouldn't be easy, but he could at least try. "I can't leave it like this. I love you, Harry." It was the first time she said it and it sounded desperate. It matched how she was starting to feel.

"Then stay with me."

He sat so still and she wished he would do something to break the tension in the room. "I didn't mean for it to happen like this." She sat forward on her seat, remembering what she had wanted to discuss. "You could come to London with me."

"What for?" He frowned.

"We could keep it a secret; tell people you're my brother or something." If only it was possible for her to work and be married then they wouldn't have this problem. But it wasn't and she had to live with it, as much as she wished it was different. One day her writing would change the world, she hoped, but it could only happen slowly. And it wouldn't be fast enough for her to have a husband and a career.

He shook his head. "I won't lie to everyone. And we'd only be found out."

She sighed. She knew he was right but she had to try something. It wasn't as if they could carry on the way they were. One of her classmates at university had been thrown out when it was revealed that she was pregnant and unmarried. Sarah might not always toe the line when it came to doing what society expected of her, but that was too much of a scandal, even for her. Harry too, she suspected. "At least I'm trying to find a solution."

"You made your choice. Now we both have to live with it."

He didn't look like he was living with it very well. In only a few days he'd got thinner and had circles under his eyes. She wanted to go over to him; smooth over the wrinkles and kiss him better. She wondered what he would do if she tried it, but he wasn't sounding his most friendly, and she didn't dare.

Nothing she could say would make a difference. Maybe if she had more time, she could change his mind, but soon she would be far away and out of his life. Sarah wasn't a quitter but she knew when she had lost. She got up and made to leave. At the door, she turned back to make one last attempt at making things better between the two of them. "You will say goodbye before I leave, won't you?"

"I don't know." He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Of all the things I'll miss about this place...." She trailed off, sure he would understand without her needing to finish the sentence out loud.

As she hesitated on the threshold, he looked up and their eyes met. For a moment she couldn't remember why she was leaving; why she was leaving him. Perhaps he was right and they couldn't be friends.

~*~*~

Sitting at his desk, staring into space, Harry gradually became aware he was being watched. It was something he'd done a lot since the last time he saw Sarah. He was thinking of her, as always, but he'd never been found out until now. He look up to see Jem standing on the other side of the room. Harry didn't say anything, just waited for the other man to speak.

"You've been here for nearly a year now. I'd like to think we were friends."

Harry nodded. He wasn't as good friends with Jem as Jack was, but he liked and respected the older man.

"So if you won't talk to Jack, how about talking to me instead?"

Harry sighed. "There's no law that says I have to discuss my life with anyone." He came out a little harsher than he intended, but if it made Jem leave him alone, then he didn't mind. He just had to get through today, then he would apologise.

"You know Sarah's leaving today." Jem sat in the chair that Jack had left opposite Harry's desk yesterday.

"I could hardly forget."

"Aren't you going to see her off?"

They'd had a party to celebrate Sarah's new career, he remembered. Harry had offered to stay at the San so Jack and Jem could go, although he hadn't really got much work done that evening. "I've said everything I need to say." There were other things he could say, but nothing that would help. It was much too late for her to change her mind now. And yet, if she did, he would probably forgive her.

"You'll regret not going more than you'll regret staying here."

Harry sighed, giving in if only to shut Jem up. "All right, you've convinced me." He didn't have to get that close to her, or even speak to her. As long as he was out of the San he was safe from Jem's meddling, however well intentioned it was.

When he stood up, Jem got up too and pulled a key from his pocket. "Why don't you drive her to the station?"

Harry gave him a look. He was not happy about being blind sided like this.

Jem shrugged and held the key out. "Someone has to."

"All right, you win." Harry took it from him.

Jem didn't smile. "It wasn't a battle."

It was from Harry's perspective, but he admitted defeat graciously and walked down to the Annexe with Jem following. At least they went in silence - Harry hadn't been looking forward to hearing more of Jem's opinions on the subject. He'd had enough from Jack as it was.

Once there, Harry let Jem go on ahead, while he hung back. There was quite a crowd of people around Sarah, including Juliet, Grizel, Madge, Joey and Robin as well as Jack and Jem. Harry watched as Sarah hugged them and promised to write, smiling all the time. Usually he wouldn't be able to help himself from smiling at the sight, but today he swallowed hard and didn't take his eyes from her.

One by one everyone else melted away, or was dragged away in Jack's case, and it was impossible for Harry to stay unnoticed, if he ever had been. Slowly, he walked over to Sarah and picked up her case.

She frowned in the direction Jem and Madge had gone. "Dr Jem offered to drive me."

"And he volunteered me for the job."

She nodded and followed him to the car. Usually she would complain that she was perfectly capable of carrying her case herself, but she didn't and for once Harry wished she would. Their relationship had been teasing from the start and this forced politeness didn't sit well with him.

Sarah gazed out of the window as he drove carefully, since he was not as familiar with the roads as Jem. "I'm going to miss it here," she said, wistfully.

He refrained from pointing out that it had been her decision to leave - no one had forced her. "You can always come back sometime."

She looked over at him. "Can I?"

At least he had a good reason to keep his eyes on the road and not turn his head towards his passenger. "I won't stop you." No one could stop Sarah when she really wanted something, but still, it wasn't his place to tell her what to do. Although he wondered what would happen if she decided to come and pay a visit in a year's time. He could probably avoid her if necessary.

Their conversation faltered after that and Harry put all his concentration on getting them both to the station safely. When they arrived he opened the boot to pull her case out and their hands reached it at the same time.

"I can do that," she said, not letting go.

He wished he could do something about the way his heart still sped up at her touch. He gripped the handle harder. "I'll put you on the train if it's the last thing I do."

She took a step back at the venom in his voice. He hadn't intended it, but he was angry at what she had done, it was just easier to hide it when she wasn't around. She looked very small of a sudden and stood and watched as he manoeuvred her case from the car to the waiting train, all the while not saying a word.

When he stepped down he moved away from the door to give her space to board, but she stayed where she was.

"I'll miss you too," she said and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head on his shoulder, just as she had done many times before.

He knew he shouldn't, but he hugged her in return, pressing her close to him. It would be so easy to stay like this; to beg her to stay. He didn't dare say anything, in case the words slipped out without him meaning for them to.

When she lifted her head and looked up at him her eyes were watery. She leaned her head forward and for a moment she was close enough to kiss easily. But he knew if he did that he would never be able to let her go and it wasn't exactly easy now.

She turned her head to press a kiss to his cheek before turning and disappearing into the depths of the train.

He let out a sigh: half relief and half disappointment. He watched the train leave and when it was out of sight he touched his fingers to his cheek. He could still feel her warm breath against his neck and the wetness of her lips.

It had been three years since she was last in the Tirol. It wasn't that she didn't like it, but she had been so determined to be a journalist that she spent her university holidays hanging around journalists and their offices doing whatever work she could get. As long as it gained her some connections the pay never mattered. But it meant there had been no time for foreign travel. She'd always thought she could do that later, once she had some of her own money to do it with, but things hadn't quite turned out the way she'd expected.

The mountain air smelt fresh and even more healthy than she remembered. Her time recently had been filled with nothing but writing applications and trying desperately to get a job, so this journey had been a break. She knew once she reached the Annexe her first few days would be too busy for anything except for lesson plans. Teaching, she was feeling more apprehensive about, but she would just need to follow Madame's example and it shouldn't go too badly.

Since she'd never been up to the Sonnalpe before, she had some directions written on a piece of paper as to how to get to the Annexe. However, all the people round about knew of the school and the Sanatorium it was connected with, so it was hard to get lost. She greeted those she came across in the German she'd become much more fluent in after a year spent in Austria. Since it had come in useful in the past, she was grateful for Aunt Lavinia for giving her the chance to learn it so well.

There was no one outside the Annexe chalet. It looked big for just twenty two pupils, three mistresses and various support staff, but she supposed it had been chosen with expansion in mind. Inside smelt as fresh as the outside and looked spotless besides. Juliet and Grizel would probably be in here somewhere, but it was hard to tell where.

She had known them both well enough at school but hadn't especially been friends with either of them. But then Juliet and Grizel hadn't been that close either, so they were all going to have to make the best of it. Although given what Sarah had heard from Joey, they got on better now and Sarah was trying not to feel too much like an interloper in their midst even before she arrived.

Joey was the person Sarah had got on best with at school. Mind you, everyone liked Joey, but in Sarah's case they'd had a shared love of writing, although Joey's ambition was more towards fiction than journalism. Just about all the Old Girls wrote to Joey, it seemed, and where she got the time to write long letters back, Sarah never found out.

"Sarah!" Juliet came out of a room into the corridor ahead of Sarah. She was carrying a cardboard box folded shut, so Sarah couldn't see what was in it. "How was your journey?"

Sarah tried not to feel too much like a student and more like the contemporary of Juliet she was. "Fine, thank you." Although it wasn't a short trip from the North of England to Tirol, it had at least been uneventful. "Can I help with anything?"

Juliet shook her head. "We're nearly done, thank goodness. I feel like we've been unpacking for weeks, not days."

"Sorry I wasn't here sooner." It had been a rush to get everything ready and make the journey to the Annexe before term started.

"Don't worry about it, we've had plenty of help. Come on, I'll show you to your room so you can get cleaned up. Then it will be time for Kaffee und Kuchen." She started off down the corridor in the direction Sarah had been going.

"Thank you." As Sarah followed Juliet around the chalet she tried hard to remember the layout. It wouldn't do to get lost and be late to lessons.

On the way, Juliet pointed out a few rooms and Sarah was glad to see the staff room wasn't far away from her bedroom. So she wouldn't get too lost until later at least. Once at Sarah's room, Juliet left her to get settled in.

Her trunk was already here, but Sarah didn't quite feel up to unpacking just yet. So she just hung up her coat, changed her shoes and washed her face and hands. A quick glance in the mirror showed her hair to be tangled from the wind, so she had to stop and comb it. After that she was presentable, if tired. The rest of the soot she could wash off later.

When she reached the small staff room Grizel was pouring out coffee.

"Oh, Sarah," she said, when she turned round to see who had come in. "Have a cup of coffee." She held out the one she had just filled. "Did you find your trunk all right?"

"Yes, thank you," Sarah replied, taking the cup from her and sitting on one of the easy chairs arranged around the room. She took a sip of her drink and immediately felt the warmth of it. As much as she liked tea, she was fond of the milky coffee and bread twists that formed the mid-afternoon meal of Kaffee und Kuchen at the Chalet School.

She wasn't sure where all the furniture had come from, but the four chairs in the room were comfortable, and the table at the end of the room looked big enough for two of them to work on at a time. Most of the colour came in through the window but there were more important things about the room than how it looked.

The door opened again. "Ah, there you are Juliet. I thought you were never going to get here."

"All right, Grizel, I'm not that late." Juliet came in and accepted her cup.

"Is there anything else that needs doing?" Sarah asked, as Juliet and Grizel both sat down.

"The students don't arrive until tomorrow, so we have this evening to relax," Grizel answered.

Sarah was thinking that an early night would be just the thing, although she didn't expect to sleep that much from nerves.

"Which I'm so glad about. I've been meaning to write to Donal for the past two days and simply couldn't find a spare minute to fit it in."

"Spare minute, spare hour more like."

"When you're in love you'll spend just as long on your letters, mark my words, Grizel."

Grizel turned to Sarah, who had been listening to their conversation with interest, but not wanting to interrupt. "Please tell me you don't have someone back in England you're just waiting to marry."

Sarah smiled and shook her head. "I'm going to be a journalist, I don't have time to marry."

"Oh, thank goodness." Grizel put her hands to her chest and sighed dramatically. "You can be my island of sanity among the madness of young love."

Juliet rolled her eyes. "It's hardly as if I talk about Donal that often. And I'm a year older than you, young Grizel."

Grizel just waved her hand. It looked as if this was an argument they'd had often.

Sarah hoped she wouldn't get caught in the middle of it, as friendly as it was. "You are excited about being headmistress here, though, aren't you, Juliet?" she asked.

"Of course I am. But it's just temporary until I can marry Donal." She smiled and had a faraway look in her eyes.

"Everyone here's only temporary." Grizel sighed. "Except me."

Sarah frowned. "I thought you wanted to teach?"

"Yes, but PT, not music." She made a face.

Joey had been inclined to tell Sarah everything about Juliet and Grizel before Sarah came, but hadn't mentioned that point. Grizel had always been good at music when they were at school, but given the choice Grizel would have given it up. Her father was too much in control of her life to let her, though. "That's better than me at least." Sarah gave her a friendly smile, with some sympathy. "I'm scared to death I'll be terrible at it."

"We'll help you, don't worry about that." Juliet patted her knee. "And you can always ask Madame for help. She's only a few minutes away." When Madge taught at the Chalet School she had been known to all the pupils as Madame. Even now that held true and Sarah couldn't imagine calling her anything else. It was also a politeness, since Madge was still the owner of the school.

"Thank you. That is a great comfort." She smiled at Juliet.

"Well." Juliet put down her now empty coffee cup. "I'm off to write my letter, you two do whatever you want and I'll see you at Abendessen."

Grizel rolled her eyes and Sarah giggled. Juliet ignored them and walked from the room looking every inch a headmistress.

~*~*~

"Ah, there you are."

Harry looked up when Jem came into the office. He'd been at the Sanatorium a week now and was well acquainted with the staff and patients there by this time. He was also getting to know the other people who lived up on the Sonnalpe. This was the first time he'd had a letter from Esther, though, and he was sitting at his desk, re-reading it. He stood up as Jem came over.

"How are you settling in?" Jem was not much taller than Harry, although fairer, so the two looked much like opposites. Harry had been in awe of the other man when he first arrived, since it was Jem who had founded the San. Jack Maynard, who was Jem's deputy, had been one of Jem's students at university. Harry had known Jem, although not very well, but he was friends with Jack. Just as Jem had asked Jack to work here, Jack in turn had asked Harry. As jobs were scarce at home, and disappearing with the Doctor for a week or two hadn't helped, Harry hadn't been able to say no.

"Very well, thank you." He smiled. He was liking it here so far.

Jem nodded. "Now that the girls have had a chance to settle in, I think it's about time to introduce you to your charges."

"Righto." After putting the letter down, Harry followed Jem out of the office.

The Chalet School Annexe was only a few minutes walk away from San. Although the weather was still hot, it wasn't too unpleasant this far above sea level. When he first got here, Harry had wished they weren't as far away from the sea he loved, but working in the heat made him appreciate the San's location more. On the way, Jem pointed out the mountains to him and talked about which ones he'd been to. Harry rather fancied taking a look at some of them on his days off.

The school was in a chalet, just as many of the other buildings round here were. The gardens surrounding it probably looked better in spring when the grass was greener and the flowers grew, rather than wilted, but it was a wide open space, which would be good for school girls to run about in. A dozen young girls sat cross-legged on the ground, close to the front of the chalet, in the shade it offered. All had exercise books and were scribbling away at them, although a few looked more thoughtful and sucked on the end of their pencils.

"Hello!" Jem called as they neared, and at once all the girls looked up. Many of them called out "Dr Jem!" delightedly and somehow still managed to bounce sitting down.

Harry couldn't help grinning along with Jem at their reaction. He only hoped he could make himself as popular with them.

"Dr Jem." A young woman stood up from where she had been kneeling beside one of the girls, correcting her work. She was short and dressed in the local fashion, although a lock of hair had fallen from her bun and was instead tucked behind one ear. She looked too young to be a teacher, but she held herself with a confidence that suggested she was older than she looked. She was the complete opposite of Esther in looks, but Harry thought she was just as pretty.

She came over to where they were standing.

"Sarah. It's good to see you too." With a hand on her shoulder, Jem said, "Let me introduce you to my colleague, Harry Sullivan. He's just joined us to take care of the girls here. Harry, Sarah Jane Smith."

She turned her smile on him and shook his hand. "Have you ever been to the Tirol before?" she asked him.

Harry shook his head. "Never even been to Austria."

"Well, then you're in for a treat."

He smiled. From what he'd seen so far he agreed with her.

"Let's get down to business." Harry turned his attention back to Jem. "Harry and I will give all the girls a check-up today, and they can get to know Dr Harry." He nodded at Harry with a smile. Harry hadn't quite known what to make of the nickname by which he'd seen the girls greet Jem, but now he was hoping they would come to call him by it. "And after that it'll be all up to him."

"Do you want to start with my class?"

"It's as good a place as any."

The lesson had been disrupted anyway, so their check-ups hardly made it worse. Jem knew many of the girls and their entire medical histories by heart and Harry marvelled at his memory. As he wrote notes, Harry tried to remember as many names as he could, so he could match the girl to them afterwards. He was encouraged to see Sarah hesitate as she introduced some of them to him, so he wasn't alone and he knew she must be new here too.

Not all of the girls were entranced by Jem's presence. Those that weren't must be new to the school and hadn't met him before. He noticed one, Emilie, who spoke with a French accent, bit her lip and looked very nervous as Jem tried to examine her. So Harry stopped writing and started talking instead.

"Emilie, have you heard of the Loch Ness Monster?"

She looked over at Harry and nodded.

"Well, I saw it once."

She blinked at him and said nothing, but she looked interested, so he continued.

"Once, I was on the banks of the loch and there was a man walking along ahead of me, eating an apple. To impress the young lady he was with, he threw it as far as he could out into the lake. Before it even hit the water there was an almighty splash and out of the water came an enormous monster." Harry paused for effect and noticed, out of the corner of his eye, that all the girls were listening to him. "Nessie opened her mouth, showed us her teeth, and they were bigger than you are. She picked the apple out of the air and swallowed it whole."

"What did you do?" The voice came from a taller girl somewhere beyond his left shoulder.

Harry looked over at her. "I ran, of course, before she decided I made a tasty meal too."

That got the right reaction, as the girls laughed. Emilie, he noticed, when he turned back to look at her, had eyes as wide as saucers, but had entirely forgotten what Jem was doing. After that, Harry found the story worked well with other groups of pupils and by the time they were done he was already thinking of what to tell them next time.

Since it took a while for them to get round all twenty two students, the two doctors were invited for Kaffee und Kuchen afterwards. All the pupils and the teachers (although Harry soon learned they were called mistresses here) had it together in the hall. There was a mixture of ages on the tables the girls sat at, but the staff had a table of their own, out of earshot of the girls, as long as they talked quietly. Jem sat with the pupils, which he treated as a great honour, but Harry was ushered to the mistress's table. Although he had also been introduced to the other two teachers he was glad to find himself seated next to Sarah.

Although most of the girls talked eagerly to Jem, Robin in particular, who called him Onkle Jem, some of them called to Dr Harry, asking for more stories. Harry just laughed and told them they would have to wait until next week. He wanted some time to think first, but also he really wanted to talk to Sarah.

Fortunately, she came to his rescue. "So what brought you out here?" she asked.

Harry swallowed his mouthful of bread before he answered. "Jack recommended me for it. I was in need of a job and the San was in need of another doctor. "

"That's what happened to me too. I needed a job and the school needed a teacher at short notice. So they got someone they knew."

"Oh?" He hoped she would elaborate on that last part.

"I used to be a pupil at the Chalet School myself. Although," she lowered her voice, "if you ask anyone here they'll tell you I was quite wild at the time."

He raised his eyebrows. "And now you're a calm old thing, I suppose?"

"Well..." She grinned, mischievously. "I should set a good example. But I'm sure that between us, Juliet, Grizel and I have already tried any prank the girls can think of."

He laughed. "You've got your hands full here."

"So have you," she pointed out, before finishing her coffee. "But that was a good story you told."

"And what makes you think it wasn't true?" He put down his own cup.

She shook her head. "It's too fantastic to be true. I'll be keeping an eye on you in future," she teased.

Harry only smiled back. He wasn't sorry to be seeing her again and Kaffee und Kuchen ended far to soon for his liking. As the school went back to lessons, he and Jem had to return to the San.

"You're on your own next time, you know. So, it's up to you know, old chap." Jem clapped Harry on the back as they left the school.

Harry nodded and smiled. "I'm sure I'll get on fine." In fact, he was looking forward to it.

~*~*~

Each weekend brought another coach-load of Chalet School pupils to see the Annexe. It was now a few weeks into the term and their enthusiasm at the new part of the school hadn't been dampened at all. Even though it meant Sarah had seen some old friends from when she was a pupil herself, she was still looking forward to a little peace and quiet so she could get some writing done.

It had all meant that finding an empty classroom hadn't been as easy as she anticipated, and she'd ended up traipsing over most of the chalet, with Amy Stevens trailing after her, before she found one they could use. Once inside, she put the pile of papers she carried on the mistress's desk. Sarah had set her classes the task of writing something for the Chaletian, the school magazine. As a result they had rather a lot to look through, but she wasn't sorry, as all twenty two girls in the Annexe had contributed something and some of them had written more than one thing.

Amy was the editor for the Annexe, with Sarah overseeing her. Although Joey had been editor, Sarah had written for the magazine when she was at school, and then the newspaper at university, but it was a little different from the perspective of a teacher. She was only here to help, since the magazine was the girls affair, and it was hard not to put to use the skills she'd learnt and take control of the Annexe's submissions. However, she could claim some benefit of the job when talking to Editors, even if it wasn't quite as much of a direct link to what she really wanted to do.

Amy clutched a few sheets of her own, which she added to Sarah's pile.

"Goodness," Sarah said. "We almost have enough here for a magazine of our own." She was eager to begin before she forgot her good intentions. "Well, let's go through it." She motioned for Amy to pull up a chair and they began their arduous task.

Some of it was easy and had to go in, such as the Headgirl's report from Robin. Given the way the language was inconsistent throughout Sarah suspected some of the others had helped her with it. However, since there was nothing technically wrong with it, she didn't have a good reason for asking Robin to re-write it. Besides, Sarah was sure that if she started doing that they wouldn't have anything for the magazine. And it wasn't her place to choose entirely on the quality of the language, so it went in without a fuss.

"The handwriting on this is terrible," Sarah commented, studying the next one. She was tempted to ask that all future contributions be typewritten, but that was impossible since the only typewriter in the Annexe belonged to the secretary. Sarah had one, but it was her own personal one given to her by Aunt Lavinia.

"Perhaps there should be handwriting lessons," she mused.

Amy smiled shyly.

That probably wasn't the right subject to discuss with a student, even when she didn't feel much older than them herself. She made a mental note to talk to Florence Williams about her handwriting. Maybe she could suggest calligraphy lessons as part of art - it might inspire the girls to think more about their penmanship.

Fortunately, that was the worst of the contributions they looked through and all the rest were far easier to read. It would be the job of the Editor at the Chalet School proper to have the last say in what went in and what didn't, so Sarah didn't worry too much about weeding anything out, unless it was particularly terrible or outrageous. Fortunately, there weren't too many of those.

One stood out as being particularly interesting. Renee Lecoutier had written an article about the new doctor at the San. Sarah was glad one of the girls had thought of it - it would be something all the pupils would be interested in reading. All except the new girls knew Dr Jem and Dr Jack, and the other doctors they had little to do with. The Annexe pupils had got to know Harry well, so it was only fair everyone else did too.

Renee's description of him was flattering, without being untrue. "Do you like Dr Harry?" Sarah asked Amy.

"Oh, yes," she answered, nodding. "He tells good stories."

Sarah smiled at that. Harry's visits were the highlights of the week for the girls, as they got a different story each time. They were fast becoming the highlight of hers too, although not for quite the same reason. "I'm not sure you should believe them all," she cautioned.

"But they're still good stories."

Sarah couldn't argue with that.

"You like Dr Harry too, don't you, Miss Smith? Does he tell you all his stories at Kaffee und Kuchen?"

She couldn't really blame Amy for noticing Harry always sat by her. It wasn't even on purpose really, he'd just sat there the first time, and now that was his place. "Not just stories," she replied, not quite wanting to reveal to a young girl just what they talked about.

"But you do like him?"

"I do. He's..." Amy was eager for her opinion, so Sarah searched for the right word carefully. He was quite good-looking, which was nice, but not the most important thing, and not something someone of Amy's age would think about just yet. There were times when he wasn't quite serious and teased her, and she enjoyed teasing him back. But he also knew when to be serious and she appreciated that. "He's honest," she managed, eventually. Amy looked sceptical, so she added, "Not all men are. You'll learn that one day." Much as she hoped Amy wouldn't, it was probably inevitable.

The other contribution that stood out was the second to last on the pile that Amy shyly handed over. When Sarah read it, she found the poetry on it was very good. She knew Amy wrote well from the poetry she'd set in lessons, but for her age she was really very impressive. "Did you write these all by yourself?"

Amy smiled and nodded.

"They're very good." Sarah put the poetry down, wishing she could have written half as well as that as a child, but then she'd never been as interested in fiction writing.

"Thank you." Immediately Amy put the sheet on the pile to go into the magazine and Sarah dropped the subject, not wanting to embarrass her any further.

They were nearly finished and there was only one sheet left. Still caught up in Amy's poetry, Sarah pulled it across the desk. "What's this... Oh." She went red and quickly folded the paper up, putting it to one side and away from Amy - not that she thought for one minute that the girl would open it up and read it. But she rather hoped Amy hadn't seen what it was at all.

Given the way Amy sat on her hands and looked out at the empty classroom, Sarah realised her hopes had been dashed. She sighed. She hadn't meant this meeting to be uncomfortable, but so far it had been mostly that.

"Dad says they're good for science." Amy looked at Sarah out of the corner of her eye.

"They?" Sarah was confused for a minute, before she realised Amy must have seen the letterhead. "They are," she confirmed, giving in to the inevitable and having the conversation. "My aunt reads it. Is your father a scientist?" She wasn't sure how else she would know of it.

Amy shook her head. "My father is foreign correspondent for a big London newspaper."

Amy said it as if it was nothing special to her, which it probably wasn't. Sarah tried not to be jealous that if Amy wanted to be a journalist she would probably have a far easier time of it. It was a connection she could use, potentially. However, if she wanted to write to Amy's parents the school rules said Amy had to know. Sarah didn't want Amy to know she was being used, but neither did she want Amy to worry that Sarah was writing about her.

Since Sarah couldn't think of a good way of introducing herself to Amy's father by letter, she dropped that idea. However, if he was the foreign correspondent then he probably travelled all over the world. Perhaps he would come to a school event, such as the Christmas play, especially as Amy's older sister, Margia, was at the school. That was something she would have to investigate later, though, and for now she had to put her feelings to one side and finish what they'd come here for.

Amy hadn't quite answered the question of where she had heard of the science magazine, but her poetry made more sense now. "So that's where you get your writing talent from. You should carry on writing the poetry, you know, you'll be a great poet one day. And I'll be proud to say I taught Amy Stevens." She actually was, she realised. For the first time she was enjoying her temporary career.

Amy laughed. It didn't matter that she wasn't taking it seriously, though. There was plenty of time yet for her to decide what she wanted to do. "So how do you get scientific magazines to write to you?"

Sarah could hardly complain about Amy deflecting attention away from herself and her gift, or about her curiosity. She was only doing what Sarah would have done in the same situation. "I'm a writer too. I sent them an article to publish." And asked them for a job, but Amy didn't need to know that.

"Will they?"

She sighed. "Probably not." Although the letter hadn't said no exactly, it had heavily implied it. They certainly weren't looking to employ her full time, so it was no help either way. She couldn't stay freelance forever, not at the rate she had articles accepted.

"Do you write science? Will you teach us some?"

She shook her head. "I write all sorts." Anything she could get printed - she wasn't fussy any more. "Perhaps I will teach some science." She quite liked the idea. There were plenty of experiments the girls would find interesting that wouldn't be particularly dangerous or need any special equipment. "I'll have to talk to Miss Carrick about it first."

Amy nodded. "Margia's doing science and it sounds like fun."

"Oh, it is. But there's plenty of time for you to do some too, when you're older and well enough to go back to the main school with your sister."

She smiled. "I'm getting better all the time, Dr Harry said so."

Sarah smiled at the simple faith the girl placed in Harry. That was quite enough talk about herself, though, she decided, and picked up the stack of contributions that were bound for the Chalet School. "We'll let Joey decide which of these she has space for."

"I can give these to Margia, she'll take them down tomorrow when she goes back."

Sarah passed them over. "Good idea."

The rest Sarah kept. If nothing else they'd given her plenty of ideas for things she needed to cover in her lessons. The science lessons she would definitely put to Juliet. After all, Grizel was here to teach music but managed to find time to teach some PT without anyone here minding and without anyone else knowing that she was secretly finding a way to do what she really wanted to do.

~*~*~

"Hello." Harry smiled at the girl Sarah had brought to the San, as he desperately tried to remember her name. Twenty two names shouldn't be hard after two months in the job, but sometimes the girls were hard to tell from one another, especially when he saw them out of context. Most of them were short with dark hair, which didn't give him many clues.

"Is Maman really ill, Dr Harry?" She looked up at him with big, sad eyes.

Now he knew. Her name was Cecile le Brun and she was at the Chalet School because her mother was in the San dying of TB. The same was true of quite a few other girls and his heart went out to all of them. He looked up at Sarah, who nodded at him and put a hand on Cecile's shoulder.

Since Cecile was only a small girl, Harry went down on one knee so he was level with her. "She is very ill." The San had a policy - one Harry entirely agreed with - not to lie to the relatives of patients. If her mother died she would be prepared, so although it looked cruel now, it would be better for her in the long run. At least that's what he told himself. He'd far rather be more positive and see her smile. However, there was nothing to stop him trying to soften the blow a little. "Dr Jem is the best doctor we have."

Cecile examined her shoes and picked at her dress.

"Do you know what your mother would like best?" Jack's voice came from behind Harry and Cecile immediately transferred her gaze to him. "To speak to you, of course." Jack held out a hand, which Cecile took and allowed Jack to lead her into the room her mother occupied.

Harry hung his head and sighed. "I hate this part of the job."

"Maybe you should have stuck to adults." Sarah grinned and offered him a hand up.

He took it but scowled at her. "I'm not that much older than you and quite able to get about, thank you." He'd seen her medical record once, so knew exactly how old she was. Not that he would ever let on he knew her age: it just wasn't done.

"And yet you needed my help to do it." It was only when Sarah slipped her hand out of his that he noticed he hadn't let go.

"No arguing in my San." It was Jem's turn to sneak up on them. "Or I'll have you both sent for a thorough medical."

Sarah's glare told Harry exactly what she thought of that, and he couldn't help grinning. She punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"No assaulting my staff either."

Sarah took Jem's words as good naturedly as they were intended. "I should get back to school anyway. It's Grizel's music lesson and I've left Juliet on her own." She kissed Harry on the cheek. "See you on Friday."

He nodded and smiled back, and watched her go. Once she was out of sight he turned to face Jem, who stood with his hands in his pockets. "What are her chances?" Harry asked.

There was no need to ask who he was talking about. "Not good," Jem admitted with a sigh. "Come on, let's go to the office. I could do with a stiff drink."

Harry certainly couldn't disagree with him there, so left Jack to worry about Cecile and settled down comfortably with a drink in hand. The office held all the patients' records and the medical textbooks in various languages that the doctors that worked there had brought with them. There were also desks they could work at, but a small corner held more comfortable chairs, that Harry sat on now.

Jem poured them out a glass of scotch each from the supply in his desk drawer, before he sat opposite Harry. "So what's between you and Sarah?" Jem asked, changing the subject completely.

Harry took a sip of his drink and frowned, wondering what he was getting at or why he was asking. "Nothing. We're just friends."

"Very good friends, very quickly," Jem pointed out.

Harry shrugged. "Maybe it's because we're both new." He hadn't really thought about it much. He hadn't been here very long and he and Sarah hadn't seen each other often, but at an afternoon a week the hours spent together soon added up. Not that he counted, he just enjoyed her company.

Jem sat forward on his chair. "You're sure there's nothing more to it than that?"

Harry sighed and sat up himself. He hadn't been expecting this interrogation. "Hardly, old chap. Have you forgotten Esther?" The one thing he'd brought to remember her by was a photo. He hadn't thought he needed anything else, and he didn't. Esther was not a girl who was easily forgotten.

"No, but I thought you had. When's the last time you wrote to her?"

Harry went red and examined the contents of his glass closely. He hadn't known Jem was monitoring that sort of thing, but then the post all came and went in one go, so it was probably something that was hard not to notice. "She hasn't written to me lately either," he said, as if that was some sort of excuse. It certainly wasn't if he loved her. He had been sure of that when he came to Austria, but lately he had been questioning it.

"Why did you come here?" Jem waved his glass around, sloshing the small amount of liquid left in it. "Scotland is a long way away from Austria and she can hardly visit for the weekend."

"She wanted me to come when Jack offered." Harry sighed. He had needed the job, but there was nothing to stop him from holding out for something closer, even if his previous employers had been less than happy about giving him references. It wasn't even as if he'd planned to go travelling around time and space, and he had returned at the first opportunity. "I think she liked the idea of moving out here one day. But...." He shook his head and drained his glass.

Jem finished his own, took Harry's glass and refilled them both. "Well, I think you should do something. Even if it's just to choose between Sarah and Esther."

"There isn't a choice to make." How many times did he have to repeat the message that he and Sarah were just friends and nothing more?

"Talking of romance," Jem said, and continued before Harry could point out that they weren't, "you should see Jack when Joey's around."

Harry frowned. "Joey?" He knew the name but couldn't place it.

"Madge's sister. Tall, dark haired and attached the Robin's side when she's up here." Jem handed Harry his now-full glass.

Now Harry knew who she was. He had met her a few times and Joey was a memorable person. "But she's still at school isn't she?" He could be wrong on that point.

"She won't be forever. Jack's prepared to wait. Aren't you, Jack?" he added when the man in question entered the room.

"What are we talking about?" Jack filled a glass of his own and took a seat beside Harry.

Jem took a sip of his drink before answering. "You and Joey."

"Oh, that." Jack sighed and drained his glass in one go.

"You have an uphill struggle there, I think. Joey's determined not to grow up if she can help it, despite being head girl this year," Jem added to Harry.

Harry smiled. "Well, if you think she's worth it."

"She is," Jack said, with a smile and a faraway expression.

"I've seen that look before." Jem pointed his glass in the direction of Harry.

Harry frowned, wondering whether he should ask whether Jem referred to his thoughts of Esther or Sarah, but decided it was prudent not to ask. He didn't want a repeat of their earlier conversation for Jack's benefit. He hoped Sarah wasn't getting the same thing from any of her friends.

He wondered if in future they should be more discreet, but then they weren't doing anything wrong. They really were just friends and while he still loved Esther, it wasn't going to be more than that. And he would hardly fall out of love with Esther - he just needed to get up the courage to ask her to marry him.

~*~*~

"I have a wayward student for you."

Sarah was lost in thought as she looked through her post, so she jumped at the sound of Harry's voice. When she turned round she found him grinning at her. "If I'd had hiccups I certainly wouldn't now."

He was saved from replying by Cecile, who stood next to him, holding his hand and smiling, even if it was a little one. "Dr Harry didn't meant to scare you, Miss Smith."

Sarah smiled back at her. She knew that, but wasn't going to miss an opportunity to tease him. It wasn't something she usually did in front of the girls, but Cecile was a special case at the moment. "Not this time, maybe. But he does have a habit of sneaking up to people with a stethoscope," she said, confidentially. She was looking down at Cecile, but could see Harry when she flicked her eyes up.

Harry raised an eyebrow and she grinned at him.

"The rest of your form are in arithmetic now. Do you want to join them?"

Cecile scrunched her face up and Sarah laughed. Juliet was a good teacher, she thought, but there were some people who never would like mathematical subjects. It was something she could understand.

"Go on then."

Harry put a hand to Cecile's shoulder briefly, and she trotted off. Sarah watched her go before she turned to Harry.

"She seems happy enough," she said. "I take it it was good news."

Harry's face quickly became serious. "Cecile had some time to say goodbye, but..."

Sarah slumped. "Oh, no." She shook her head. "It's just not fair." The San was supposed to heal people. She had known Cecile's mother must have been bad if Cecile had been called to her bedside, but Sarah had hoped the doctors would be able to work miracles. Sarah was more worried about Cecile now that she knew the girl was motherless, especially since Cecile was a delicate child: she wouldn't have been at the Annexe if she had been perfectly healthy. Although until now, the air up here had done her no end of good.

Harry interrupted just as Sarah was beginning to despair. "Does she have anyone else?"

She thought back, accidentally nibbling on the corner of an envelope before she realised what she was doing. "A father. But by all accounts he doesn't spend much time at home and she's hardly seen him." So he probably didn't count as a relative as far as Cecile was concerned.

Harry reached out and took her post from her. Sarah let him - it was probably safer that way. "Hmm. Perhaps that explains why he's not been to the San."

"Perhaps." If her parents had separated Cecile should live with her father. Sarah didn't know many people that had divorced, but as far as the law was concerned children belonged with their father. Since Cecile lived with her mother, Sarah thought that there was probably a lot going on there that Cecile didn't quite understand, so the school didn't know about.

"Will you keep an eye on her? I don't think she's quite taken it in yet and I'm a bit worried."

He wasn't the only one. She nodded. "Of course." Fortuitously, at that moment Robin came along the corridor toward them. Sarah called her over. "Robin, don't tell anyone else, but Cecile's mother has just died. Will you look after her?" Sarah knew she could trust Robin to be discreet.

Robin's expression immediately changed from looking purposeful to one of compassion. "Oh, poor thing. Of course I will."

Sarah smiled at her. "Thank you."

Robin returned the smile and then continued on her way. Apart from being head girl at the Annexe, Robin had lost her mother too. Granted, she had been a lot younger than Cecile was now, so probably didn't remember her mother, but she would at least have some idea of what it was like. And looking after the other girls was part of the responsibility of being head girl anyway.

After Robin was out of earshot she changed the subject to something happier. "You don't have to go straight back, do you?"

"Don't you have a lesson to be in?"

She rolled her eyes. "No, this is my free period. Honestly, Harry, do you really think I'd be wandering the halls if I was supposed to be teaching some of the little angels we have here?"

He smiled. "I suppose not. What have they been up to now?" He offered her his arm, which she took, and led him to the staff room.

"Oh, just the usual naughtiness when they couldn't get out because of the snow." Fortunately, none of them had tried anything spectacular. Given what she heard from others she was glad they didn't have any Middles, since they were always the most ingenious when it came to getting into mischief. "I have had them experimenting with using it to freeze things."

Harry frowned. "I thought you were the English teacher."

"There's nothing to say I can't teach them a little science now and again and have fun, is there?"

"Of course not," he said quickly, opening the staff room door for her. "But I'm surprised, if you're so interested in science you're not teaching that at the school proper."

She shook her head, and upon hearing the sound of footsteps, entered the room, with Harry following. "I have an English degree." She chose her favourite chair near the window to sit on. "And besides, I'm only here temporarily."

"Oh?" He frowned, as he sat down opposite her.

"I do love it here." More than she had the first time, even though she had to deal with young children, which wouldn't have been her first choice. "But I'm going to be a journalist. I'm just teaching for a while while I look for a job."

"So how long will that take?"

She sighed. "Forever it feels like." She turned her gaze away from him to peer out of the window at the white landscape. "Originally it was going to be one term but I'm no closer now than I was at the start of it." She shook her head and turned back round to face Harry. "I've applied to every newspaper and magazine in existence, or it feels like I have at least. I need this job just to keep me in stamps!" She didn't smile at her joke, though, and neither did Harry.

"You're not going to give up?"

"Not yet. I may as well give it until the end of the year at least. And then, I don't know." She sighed. She couldn't see herself teaching for the rest of her life, but she really didn't know what other career to try, she'd always been so keen on journalism.

"Well..." He paused and stood up, but didn't quite look at her as he continued. "I'm sure they'll recognise your genius soon."

She laughed and shook her head. He had never seen anything she'd written, and even if he had she felt sure he wouldn't know what was good and what wasn't. "Thank you, Harry." She stood too and kissed him on the cheek.

He went red. "What was that for?"

"Cheering me up."

Before he could get any more embarrassed, the bell went.

"I have to go. The Second Form await me and Shakespeare."

He nodded. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said, and handed her back her post.

She took it and watched him go, looking forward, as she usually did, to his weekly afternoon at the school. By the time she shook herself and went to the classroom she was nearly late.

~*~*~

"How's Cecile been?" Harry asked what had become his usual question at Kaffee und Kuchen for the past two weeks since her mother died. After the first time he came here it had fast become a custom for him to stay and sit at the staff table. It was nice to have some female company and different conversation once a week. That's what he told himself, anyway.

"Quiet, mostly, but that's nothing out of the ordinary for her." Sarah sipped at her coffee. "I think she is doing better, though."

Harry nodded. "I'm glad to hear that." He had kept a careful eye on her during his last two visits, but he couldn't be sure if the way she acted during then was how she normally was these days.

"Perhaps," Sarah said, thoughtfully, "it helps that so many girls at the Chalet School have lost a parent, so they know how she feels."

He looked across at where the Annexe's pupils were eating and drinking and talking about what sounded like the story he'd told them today. "One or two I might expect, especially given how many have a parent at the San. But is it really more than that?"

Sarah shook her head. "Not at the Annexe. But Juliet, Grizel and I can only produce one parent between us."

"Oh, ah...." Harry sipped his coffee, watching her out of the corner of his eye. He wanted to ask if it was Sarah's but didn't want to upset her by the question.

Fortunately, Sarah took pity on him and with a small smile said, "It's Grizel's father. Although she does have a stepmother."

"I'm sorry," he said, with sympathy. "It wasn't recent I hope?" He felt slightly safer about asking that question.

"Oh, no. I was five." She shrugged. "I don't really remember much about my life before they died." She certainly didn't look like it had any effect on her.

"I was ten and I don't really remember my mother that well any more." His memories of her mostly centred around her being ill, much as he wished he could remember the stories his father told of her.

"I'm sorry." She looked it too. "Do you have anyone else?"

He nodded. "My father, stepmother and stepbrother."

"Quite a crowd!" She grinned.

"And my sweetheart can manage a brother and two parents," he replied, finishing off the last of his cake.

Sarah frowned and inspected her coffee.

That reaction was unexpected. Sarah had been perfectly happy to talk about her parents, and she had mentioned an aunt before, so he didn't think she was jealous of the number of relatives he could rustle up. Which made him wonder if it was his mention of Esther that did it. He hadn't spoken of her before, but then he wasn't sure there was anything between them any more. He'd been putting off talking to Esther about it until he could see her in person and he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to talk about her with Sarah either.

Despite the chatter in the room he felt an uncomfortable silence between them. He finished his coffee with an eye on Sarah and an ear on the conversation he could hear. He smiled as some of the girls debated the truthfulness of the stories he told, and he saw Sarah's mouth turn up too.

"Do you believe it?" he asked her, sure she would know what he was referring to.

She looked up. "Today's story?"

He nodded.

"It just sounds too fantastic to be true." She smiled to soften the blow.

He wasn't really hurt, though. "Sometimes the tales that are too unlikely are the very ones that are highly probable." This one, like all his stories, had a basis in truth at least. The real story would just sound even more improbable. It was best to leave time travel and alien planets out of the tales of his experiences.

She shook her head, but was still smiling. "Honestly Harry, sometimes I just can't work out what's real with you and what you're making up."

He paused, with his coffee cup halfway to his mouth. "You think I lie." It wasn't really a question, but was just too similar to something Esther had said in her last letter.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean..."

But he wasn't listening any more. He recalled the story of the boy who cried wolf and wondered if Sarah thought everything he told was a story. It wasn't: he made a distinction between the tales he told to children to cheer them up, and the facts he told Sarah, even if he didn't always tell the whole truth. They were still getting to know each other and there was plenty of time for that yet.

He drained his cup and wished it wouldn't be rude for him to leave now. When he looked at Sarah out of the corner of his eye she was looking worried and biting her lip. The room seemed to have quietened all of a sudden and he wasn't sure this was a conversation he wanted to have in front of the whole school.

Instead he spent the remainder of the meal listening to Juliet attempt to convince Grizel that Jack's interest in Joey was more than just platonic. Harry wasn't convinced he cared either way, just at the moment. Finally, after an age, the meal was over and he got up to leave.

"I'll walk you out," Sarah said by his ear - or rather his shoulder, since she was shorter than him.

He nodded and they walked side by side to the front door where he collected his coat, hat, scarf and gloves.

"I'm sorry," she said, once he was clad in his cold-weather gear. "I didn't mean you were a liar. I think you're too honourable for that."

"I wouldn't lie to you." He held her gaze, until she broke it by reaching up to kiss him on the cheek.

"You will be safe out there won't you?" Either she really did look worried about him going outside or she was still not convinced he had forgiven her.

He pulled an electric torch from a big pocket in his coat. "I'll be fine, old thing."

She scowled. "Don't call me that, I'm not a thing."

"Sorry, old girl." His grin showed the untruth in his words.

But she smiled too and shook her head. "Oh, get on with you."

With which pleasant words he set off out into the snow on his way home.

~*~*~

Sometime in the past few weeks Sarah had got better at putting off her marking. At first she had been keen to do the job well, since you never knew what sort of references you would need, after all. But there were so many more things she would rather be doing that weren't marking: writing articles for one. The more she wrote the more chance she would have of getting one of them accepted and having her name remembered when she applied for a proper job.

Today, however, she had reached the stage where she couldn't put it off any more. At least it was nearly the Christmas holidays when she would have plenty of time for more pleasant activities. Fortunately, she wasn't on duty, so she made her way to the staff room where a pile of paper threatening to spill over at too big a draft awaited her.

She couldn't help but be half-pleased when she came across Cecile le Brun in the corridor. "Cecile? What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in Hobbies?"

Although Cecile stopped she didn't look up. "I had to take a message to Miss Carrick."

Sarah frowned, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong. "All right, then, off you go."

Cecile went on her way and Sarah watched her until she turned a corner and disappeared from view. Then she shook her head and carried on her own way, hoping there wouldn't be any more interruptions before she really did lose her resolve to be good.

Before she reached the staff room she heard the front door close. They weren't expecting anyone and the snow that lay all about meant that visitors were rare. The doctors at the San had ways of getting anywhere in practically any weather, which was just as well. The locals had their own ways too, but mostly they kept close by their houses. Sighing, Sarah turned around and made her way to the front of the chalet. It might well be someone in need of assistance and if she could be of help she didn't want to ignore that.

The corridor in the vicinity of the front door was empty, though. Sarah looked around and saw no signs of anyone having recently come in and there was no snow on the doormat that she would have expected to fall from a person's boots. Someone, therefore, must have gone out, yet Sarah hadn't seen anyone around or known of anyone needing to go on an errand. There was Cecile, of course, but it couldn't possibly be her.
At least, she hoped it wasn't. It wasn't the right weather for a young girl to be wandering around in and goodness knows what could happen to her.

When Sarah opened the door, she immediately flinched back as the cold air hit her. The corridor wasn't that warm, being unheated, but it was balmy compared to the temperature outside. After getting over the initial shock, she stood on the doorstep and looked around. There was only one person to be seen and from her size she could tell it was Cecile. She was still in her uniform and the colours Sarah could see told her she had no coat on. Added to that she was rapidly disappearing up the mountain and out of view.

Smothering a curse in case anyone was around to hear it, Sarah raced for her own coat and put it on as she ran, not wanting to lose a minute. Once outside she pulled the door shut and stopped to do her coat up with trembling fingers, and only partly from the cold. As she ran after Cecile she thought she heard a voice come from the house, but it was still Hobbies and there wouldn't be anyone else in the corridors. She had more important things to worry about, anyway.

Fortunately, the snow was deep enough that Sarah could follow Cecile's footprints. She called her name, but the wind carried her words away and whipped her hair across her face. She made an effort to try and tuck it into her coat, but it wasn't long enough and didn't stay there. She hadn't wanted to risk losing more time and Cecile with it by picking up more warm clothes. Belatedly, she remembered she kept a pair of gloves in her coat pockets. At least she wouldn't get frostbite, but her hands still felt cold, even once she had put them on.

It was hard to run in ankle-deep snow, but Sarah was just glad it wasn't any deeper. She'd already passed the highest part of the village and was worried about just where Cecile was headed. They had gone up the mountain on a walk one day earlier in the term before winter had arrived. So she knew there was a hut about a mile away, but didn't think she was going to make it that far at this rate. Cecile, with no coat and shorter legs, surely had less chance.

Sarah was catching her up, though, despite Cecile's head start. She had to stop to breathe for a minute and looked up at the sky. What she saw worried her and she hoped the snow wouldn't fall until after she got Cecile back to school. She didn't dare stop for long. Footprints criss-crossed her path here, so she couldn't let Cecile out of her sight, now that she was close enough for Sarah to see. She'd tried calling to her, but the snow muffled all sound and the girl probably never heard anything.

Sarah sped up and was relieved to see she was getting much closer to Cecile. Once she was near enough to see clearly, she found that it was because Cecile had stopped moving entirely. Sarah called to her again, but there was still no reply.

Sarah put on a burst of speed, but even all this running didn't warm her up that much. Less than a minute later she was at Cecile's side, chest heaving, the cold air making it harder to breathe.

Cecile sat on a rock, although it was covered in snow, her legs curled up to her chest.

"Cecile!" Sarah called to her again.

This time there was a response. Cecile looked up and her cheeks were streaked with tears. "Mademoiselle."

"Oh, you must be freezing." She would have to deal with that first. Cecile was small enough that Sarah could probably carry her if she had to. How far was another question, though. She stripped off her coat and wrapped it around Cecile. It swamped the small girl, but at least it would warm her up a little. "What are you doing out here?" Sarah asked, folding her arms around herself and trying not to shiver too much.

"I wanted to see Maman." Cecile sniffed.

Sarah stooped down next to her, unwilling to sit on cold snow. "But Cecile, she isn't here."

"I know. She's in heaven and that's up there." She pointed up the mountain.

Sarah looked in the direction she indicated and as she raised her face to the sky the clouds she saw worried her even more. They didn't have time to debate this now. "Come on, let's walk." With her arms under Cecile's armpits, she picked the little girl up off the rock and set her down on the ground, hoping that if she had no option she would do as Sarah said.

When Cecile made no further move Sarah propelled her along with a hand on her back. She would have taken her hand, but since the arms of Sarah's coat were far too long for Cecile, Sarah wasn't sure she could find her hand inside it. "Heaven isn't part of this world. If you go there, you can't come back." She really wasn't sure what the right thing was to say, but she had to try something.

"I know." Cecile didn't look at her, but she did at least keep walking on her own.

Sarah bit her lip. She hadn't considered this when she accepted the job, thinking that she would always be able to call Juliet, who would be far better at it. But she wasn't sure how long they could be out here with one coat between them without getting ill. The only way she knew to get Cecile back was to keep her mind off the direction they were headed or fix the problem. Both would be preferable, but at the moment she wasn't fussy. She couldn't see the village very well from here, but they were headed in roughly the right direction at least.

"But you can't go to heaven, think of all the people who would miss you." Sarah sped up a little, hoping Cecile would be able to keep up.

"Maman went." Cecile wiped her sleeve across her face, and since it was the sleeve of Sarah's coat, Sarah winced, but chose not to say anything.

"I know, but she had to. She was too ill to stay here. There's nothing wrong with you." She hoped.

"I didn't... I didn't want her to." The last words were quieter and sounded more strangled. Sarah could tell without looking that Cecile was crying again.

Sarah was berating herself for thinking that Cecile was getting over her grief when, in reality, she had barely started. She had to keep her mind on the job in hand, though, and save the guilt for later. "I don't want you to go either. Will you stay for me? And Robin?" Since she'd asked Robin to keep an eye on the younger girl Sarah fancied a friendship had sprung up there. They seemed fond of each other, at any rate and Robin had confided to Sarah that she enjoyed looking after the girls that needed it.

Cecile finally looked up, nodded and gave Sarah a shy smile.

Sarah smiled back. "Come on then, let's go home." They already were headed in that direction, but Sarah didn't think Cecile had paid much attention to that. She wasn't sure she had fixed everything either, but at least back at the school there were other people Cecile could talk to.

With a perfect sense of timing, it started snowing.

Sarah had to bite back another curse. She hurried Cecile along and they ran down the mountain, Sarah with one hand on Cecile's shoulder. However, within minutes it was impossible to see where they were going through the blizzard. Moreover, there was a great risk of them tripping over something. So Sarah slowed their pace and pulled Cecile closer to her.

"I'm scared," Cecile said, as she snuggled closer to Sarah's side.

Sarah was too but she had to be strong for Cecile. "We're nearly there," she replied, with a confidence she didn't feel. She was cold and getting colder and wetter by the minute, the snow having an unerring tendency to find gaps and some of it melted against her skin. In truth she was no longer sure they were even going in the right direction.

~*~*~

Harry struggled to get his breath back as he laughed along with Jack. "I always thought girls weren't as naughty as boys," he said, between coughs.

"By all accounts Joey was worse in her day and just as inventive as any boy." Jack sobered himself. "I don't think she always meant to be though." A far-off look came over him that Harry was beginning to recognise whenever Jack talked about Joey Bettany.

Harry was about to ask just what Joey had done in the past when Jem burst into the office.

"Quick! Juliet's just rung up to say Sarah's been seen going out and hasn't come back. And Cecile le Brun is missing."

Harry jumped up at the mention of Sarah and he looked over to the window where the snow was coming down. "But the visibility's practically nil out there!"

"All the more reason to find them soon," Jem replied before rushing back out, assuming Harry and Jack would follow him.

He was right, of course, and no matter who it had been they would have done the same. "Right." Harry ran out after Jem.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Jack called after him, as Harry reached the front door and wrenched it open.

The snow blew in and he was forced to take a step back, but he didn't look behind him. "What?" Sarah was out there somewhere and she could be hurt. He was trying not to think of it, but it was hard not to.

"Your coat! Come on, Harry, think!"

"Ah, yes, sorry." Abashed, Harry turned his attention to the here and now and closed the door before he went back to put on the layers he would need to go out into the cold.

By the time he and Jack were both ready, Jem joined them at the door with medical supplies and a big pile of blankets. Jack and Harry took some each, while Jem readied himself. Harry bounced on his feet, impatient to go out, but knowing that he had to wait, otherwise they might need to send a search party out for him. He was worried as well about whether Cecile was out there and if Sarah was with her. Sarah had said Cecile was doing well, but anything could have come over her.

By the time they were all ready it was so long after Jem's call that Harry thought Sarah must be lost. Outside they picked their way slowly up the slope, each with torches and rope. Jem explained Juliet said they would look close to the school and she thought she'd seen Sarah go up the mountain, so that was the first place Harry wanted to look.

As they went they called both Sarah and Cecile's names, but their only answer was the howling of the wind. One scenario after another presented itself in Harry's mind, each worse than the previous one. Even if it hadn't been snowing there were too many places to look in; too long since the pair had gone missing; and the chances of anyone finding them were small. Not that Harry intended to stop looking until he found them, whatever state they were in.

He might have run ahead, but he knew he would be lost too, so he stuck to the slow pace that Jem set. Jem and Jack had far more experience of this sort of thing and he had to trust them. Usually he did, it was just that they didn't seem to be as frantic about it as he was.

Just as he was beginning to despair of ever finding them alive he thought he heard voices. Unable to tell whether they were real or his imagination he called, "Wait!" and Jem and Jack obediently stopped to listen.

The wind swirled around and the snow battered at them. Jem and Jack looked at each other, then back at Harry, but before they could say anything the voice came again.

"Not far now."

It was unmistakably Sarah's.

"Sarah!" Harry called excitedly, abandoning caution and running towards her voice. Although it was hard to tell her exact position any rough idea would do.

"Harry?" Her voice caught on the syllables and Harry knew that she was either at the end of her tether or she or Cecile were hurt. She had sounded like she was reassuring Cecile, so he hoped the latter was untrue.

"Are you all right?" he called back.

All of a sudden, before she could answer, she appeared in front of him, like an angel coming out of the mist. Harry rushed forward to wrap a blanket around her. She wasn't even wearing a coat and he wondered at that until he looked over at Cecile. Jem and Jack were already tending to the girl, so Harry kept his attention on Sarah.

She slumped against him. "I'm so glad you're here," she said, in a voice that sounded worryingly weak.

Harry tucked the blanket around her more securely and added the other he carried, making this one higher so it covered her head. "Are you hurt?"

She shook her head. "So cold." She yawned.

Having finished with the blankets, Harry wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him. He could feel her shivering, even through the layers they both now wore.

"You're nice and warm," she said, sounding better already.

"Can you walk? You'll be warmer if you can." Harry didn't want her to go to sleep either, although he would certainly carry her if he had to. She didn't look all that heavy.

"Yes." She stood up straight, although didn't move further away from him.

Harry gave her a reassuring smile as she look up at him, and they started back to the San. Jack and Jem followed behind, with Jem carrying Cecile.

Fortunately, the pair had wandered close to the San, so it didn't take long to get back. It felt like a lot less time than they had spent searching for them. Harry's only concern was getting Sarah back there, so she could warm up and he could assess her condition. Just because she was found didn't put her out of danger yet.

~*~*~

"How are you feeling?" Sarah asked, once Cecile had sat down next to her bed. A week after their adventure in the snow Sarah inspected Cecile and decided she looked better - much less upset and none the worse for wear after being lost in a snowstorm.

"Bien," Cecile replied shyly, examining the bed as if it was the most interesting thing in the room.

Sarah waited to see what Cecile wanted to say to her - the little girl had requested the visit - and considered the irony of Cecile not being ill at all after their adventure, despite her being far more delicate than Sarah.

Cecile shifted in her seat and plucked at the blanket Sarah lay under. "I'm sorry I ran off. I shouldn't have."

"Oh, Cecile." Sarah reached out a hand to Cecile's shoulder, and the girl finally looked up at her, although not releasing her hold on the blanket. "It's all right to be upset. But next time come and see me or Robin first, all right?"

Cecile nodded. Then almost out of nowhere she got up and threw herself at Sarah. Sarah hugged her back, smiling against her head and thinking that maybe teaching wasn't such a bad job after all.

"I don't think Dr Harry allows sitting on beds."

Sarah looked up to see Grizel standing in the doorway, with a smile on her face.

Abashed, Cecile sat back down. "Are you coming with us?" she asked Sarah.

Sarah frowned. She hadn't heard anything about what was going on - Juliet and Grizel refused to talk about school when they visited her. "Where are you going?"

Cecile looked over to Grizel, who came into the room to stand by her.

"We're all going down to the Chalet School for the last two weeks of term so we can rehearse the Christmas play properly."

"Oh." Sarah blinked, wondering if she would be allowed to go with them. She had forgotten about the Christmas play in the light of everything else that had happened. Since she'd only spent one Christmas at the school she had been looking forward to seeing this year's, especially as she had been involved in helping the Annexe pupils learn their lines and understand the play. Most of her English lessons had revolved around it, the girls finding it far more interesting than their usual texts.

"I'm still well enough to go, even if I can't teach," she said, in the hopes that saying it out loud would make it true. She felt better, anyway.

Grizel looked at her sympathetically. "That's not what I've heard."

"Quite right too."

As Harry came into the room Cecile gave him a brilliant smile.

"Harry, do tell her I'm well enough to get up, please."

"Of course I will, old girl, when you are."

Sarah sighed. It was harder to have an argument about it when Cecile was listening to their every word with apparent rapture. Sarah knew the conversation would be all over the school by the end of the day.

Fortunately, Grizel solved that for her. "Come on, Cecile, it's time to get back or we'll miss Mittagessen."

Sarah waited until they'd said their goodbyes and left before she spoke again. "This over-protectiveness is very sweet, but don't you think I'm the best judge of whether I feel better?"

Harry busied himself with making sure she was well tucked in. He wouldn't look at her, but she thought his face looked redder than its usual colour. "You might be all right in here, but you're not well enough yet for a long journey down to the school in the cold."

Sarah sighed. She certainly wasn't looking forward to being cold again; she'd had quite enough of that for the whole winter. But she had been hoping for the chance to talk to Amy's father and being in the San while he was further down the mountain would make that impossible. The next opportunity would be the Sale in aid of the San at the end of next term, and that was just too far away.

"At least you have plenty of time to read," Harry commented, nodding towards the pile of books on her bedside table as he sat in the chair Cecile had been in earlier.

It wasn't really much consolation, but she had been wearing Harry down about wanting to get out every day she was here and reluctantly, she had to admit defeat. "You can only read for so long, though." Not that she hadn't appreciated the time to rest or being able to chat to Harry every day, but she wasn't good at being inactive.

"Perhaps you'll be able to go home early for Christmas."

She shook her head. "I'm not going home for Christmas. Aunt Lavinia is in America so there's nothing to go home for." Grizel was staying here, so it wasn't too bad. And although Lavinia had been supportive of her attempts at following a career in journalism it didn't mean she always would and Sarah didn't want to push it.

He frowned. "You're not going to be here on your own, are you?"

"Oh, no, Madame has invited me to hers for Christmas and none of the doctors get the school holidays off." That was one benefit of her job: long holidays to spend time writing articles in. Even when she didn't have somewhere in mind to send them, she still itched to write. So she did. Besides, you never knew what might come in useful one day.

Harry looked down. "Except I'm going home for Christmas."

"You are?" She tried not to sound as disappointed as she felt. "I thought you would have to work."

"I'm not going for long. But there's someone I have to see."

He didn't say who, but she knew it must be his sweetheart. She had forgotten about her and had allowed herself to hope a little, based on his actions in the past week. That was dangerous though and she mustn't forget again. She twisted her hands up in the blanket and watched as the blue of the blanket wound around her fingers.

"I have to go now." He stood. "But I'll challenge you to another game of chess later."

She smiled at that. "That's something to look forward to." If nothing else she valued Harry's company and his friendship. The time he spent with her while she was in the San must be because he knew how bored she was.

"Maybe you'll even win this time." He smiled.

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"When you do that I have this terrible urge to pour medicine down your throat in response."

She laughed at that, and she heard his laughter too, as he left.

Madge Russell shook her head. "I don't think you two realise just how much hard work twenty two girls are." She was right. Although Juliet and Grizel had been in charge of small groups of Chalet School pupils before, it had only been for short periods of time. It was different being in charge of a whole school.

Madge had plenty of time to learn that in the four years since she started the school, along with her good friend Mademoiselle Lepattre. They'd left England because Madge's younger sister, Joey, was a delicate child and the Austrian air had agreed with her. Madge was delighted both that Joey was much stronger now, and that the school had been such a success.

Her companions in the discussion were Grizel Cochrane, who had been the school's second pupil, and Juliet Carrick, who had joined later. None of them were at the school at the moment, which was on the slopes of the Alps in the Austrian Tirol on the shores of the Tiernsee. It was closed for the summer holidays, so they met in the garden of Madge's house, Die Rosen, which was further up the mountain on the Sonnalpe. Here, Jem Russell, who Madge had married a year after moving to Austria, had a Sanatorium for TB patients.

"You did say you would come and teach too, Madame."

"Yes, but in the mornings for a little while, now that David is older." David was Madge's only child. She already knew he had a brother or sister on the way, but she and Jem had kept it to themselves thus far. "And I won't be able to after this term." She also looked after her niece and nephew, as her brother worked in India.

Grizel sighed: she'd thought her suggestion a good one.

This year saw a new venture for the school, as they were just starting up the Annexe for delicate pupils near the San. Tall, fair-haired Juliet had just got her mathematics degree and was to be head. Contrasting with her, Grizel was shorter with curly, brown hair. A year younger than Juliet, she was fresh from two years in Florence studying music and had also returned to teach.

Juliet spoke. "Well, we'll just have to manage as best we can for a while."

"Who's managing what?" Joey, long-legged and a senior at the Chalet School burst into the room with her usual whirlwind.

"Sit down, Joey and we'll tell you," Madge said kindly. Although Joey was still a pupil at the school Madge never left her out of any of her decisions.

"It's Gertrud," Juliet began. "She's got herself engaged and won't be able to teach after all. So it leaves us one mistress short at the Annexe."

Along with the two English girls, an Austrian one, Gertrud Steinbrucke, was to be another of the mistresses. However, she had recently become engaged to Dr von Ronschlar, a new doctor at the Sanatorium. Madge had hoped she would stay on until her marriage, just as Juliet was doing, but Gertrud had fewer good reasons to put hers off. It wasn't something they could compromise on either. It was 1934 and married women couldn't teach. The Depression that gripped most of the world meant that there weren't enough jobs for men, never mind women, so it made sense that married women were kept by their husbands, leaving the jobs for those that needed them more. On Madge's part, the choice between marriage and teaching had been hard, but not one that she regretted, so she could hardly blame Gertrud for hers.

"Blast her!" Joey shot up from her perch at the edge of an easy chair. "Why must everyone be in such a rush to grow up?"

Madge smiled fondly and didn't even rebuke Joey for her language.

"I'm sure you won't feel like that forever, Joey," Juliet said kindly, although this was a subject that had arisen often since Joey became a Senior and, in theory, more grown up herself.

Joey turned to Juliet. "Personally, I plan to be an old maid like Grizel."

Grizel shot Joey a dirty look, but Joey hadn't meant anything by it and didn't even notice. Juliet was engaged to Donal O'Hara, but they couldn't marry until Donal had established himself in his business. Given Gertrud's recent announcement, it made Grizel the odd one out amongst the Annexe mistresses.

"Anyway, I think I have the solution to your problems."

Joey's statement hung in the air as they all waited for her to finish. But Joey had a sense of the dramatics and just grinned at the looks she received.

Juliet was the first to give in. "Well, don't leave us in suspense."

"Hold on, I'll just get it." She rushed from the room, unheeding of her sister's call not to run.

"Get what?" Grizel had recovered from her perceived insult and was now on tenterhooks as much as the other two.

Joey never meant to do it; she just had a habit of having brilliant ideas and refusing to tell anyone until she'd thought them through. Which wouldn't have been in a bad thing in itself, but she did tend to leave them annoying titbits that told them nothing.

Fortunately, she was only gone as long as it took for her to go up to her room and come back, now holding a letter. "This just came yesterday," she began. "It's from Sarah Jane Smith, remember her?"

"Of course," Madge replied, with a smile.

Sarah had been hard to forget. She came to the Chalet School for her last year before she went to university. Although she excelled in English, her passion had been for science and at that time there was none in the school. The decision had been made by her aunt, who was spending some time in Europe herself and wanted Sarah nearby, yet taught in an English school. Despite Sarah's unhappiness at the decision she had eventually taken to the variety of people in the Tirol and she left the school a more rounded person than she had when she started.

Which, Madge suspected, had been her aunt's intention in the first place.

"Well," Joey continued, "she's finished university now and looking for a job."

"Does she still want to be a journalist?" Juliet asked. Although Sarah and Juliet were the same age they hadn't been the best of friends. It had been a small school, though, and all the pupils were always eager for news of Old Girls.

"Oh, yes, dead set on it." Joey consulted the letter briefly. "But unable to get a job."

"That is a pity. Does she say why?" Madge had been quite fond of Sarah, as she'd been one of her star pupils.

Joey shook her head. "Just that she's thinking of getting another job while she tries to get into journalism. But the only thing she's qualified for is teaching and it's too late in the summer holidays to get one now." Joey looked up from the letter. "Don't you see? We need a teacher and she needs a school." She shook the letter a little to emphasize her point.

"Well," Grizel began, "it certainly sounds like the perfect solution."

"But she was a bit wild," Juliet said. "Would she really settle down enough to teach?"

"It has been three years, people can change a lot in that time," Madge said. "Remember how different she was after a year here? Besides, there have been other girls at the school you could describe as wild and look how they turned out." She looked over at Grizel, and both Grizel and Juliet blushed. "I think we'll give her a try."

Joey grinned. "I'll write to her right away."

And that was how Sarah Jane Smith came to teach at the Chalet School Annexe.

Today, everyone's coats were on each others pegs in Inter V. Yesterday it was the Fourth Form who suffered from the old trick of sown up sleeves on pyjamas. The day before all the chalk had mysteriously gone missing from all form rooms except Lower IVa.

Miss Annersley had been heard to mutter "something in the water," and all were glad it was nearly the end of term.

When they were sure the patient would live, they retired to Jem's office and Jem pulled out a bottle he'd been saving for a special occasion.

When Jack mentioned the smile, all Jem said was, "Wait until you have children."

Since David was only a few hours old Jack considered that was a too early to tell. But, unbidden, an image formed in his mind of Jo with a baby in her arms, and he smiled too.