We Don't Know Where We're Going Quiz

Answer: The Anschluss of Austria

At the beginning of the book, Robin overhears Jem and Madge Russell talking about the situation in Austria. Jem later holds a meeting with the Chalet School teachers and Jo to inform them that Germany is looking at expanding its territory into Austria, and it may affect the school.

As the Sanatorium is up at the Sonnalpe, he suggests the school move into a former hotel up there, as that way the predominantly female staff and girls will have men around to protect them. Sure enough, the Anschluss is formalised, and a German official secretly warns Jem that he and Madge must let their Austrian and German staff and pupils go, or the government may interfere. During the Easter holidays, the German and Austrian girls' parents write for their daughters to return home and most of them are forced to leave the school, though Maria Marani's parents insist on her staying.

The Austrian staff at the Chalet School and Sanatorium also choose to stay.

Answer: They are overheard by a Nazi spy.

While Madge does give the girls a speech encouraging them to be brave and keep the Chalet School flag flying, it happens after they get off the train and arrive at the school. There are more teachers on escort duty than usual, and Hilary and her friends wonder why. Giovanni Rincini makes cryptic remarks about a 'disease' affecting Germans, and a woman outside the door - later revealed to be a Nazi spy - eavesdrops on their conversation. Polly Heriot stands in front of the door to block the view and the girls rearrange their seats in case the woman sees them and suspects Giovanna.

Answer: Robin's Cave

Joey, Jack Maynard and a group of girls go on a picnic to hide the document, and met Frau Eisen - whom Hilary recognises as the woman on the train - and her son Hermann. Giovanni Rincini does not go with them as everyone worries it would be potentially dangerous for her.

The Eisens follow them and during the picnic, Hermann spies on the girls. While they play hide and seek, Hermann follows Hilary and Robin to the cave. Jack starts to worry when Joey, Hilary and Robin are late coming back, but Joey turns up with Hermann in tow, and is panicking because she found him outside the cave. Joey, Jack and the girls go into the cave, but cannot find the document, or the other two girls.

Answer: Jack

Robin and Hilary, unbeknown to Jo, are safe and manage to escape through the cave when they find an opening. They do not use the original hiding place for the document as they know Hermann has followed them, and they worry he might come back or tell people. Hilary spots a cleft in the rock, and Robin climbs up and finds an opening, while Joey enters the cave elsewhere. Hilary cuts through a bush and decides to head home, although Robin is worried about Joey.

By the time they get out, it is dark and Gottfried Mensch gives them a lift home. Jack brings Joey home and when she hears that Robin is safe, she faints.

When she wakes up, she starts crying and calls Jack 'a solid lump of comfort'. Madge realises that there is definitely something going on between them.

Answer: Emerald

Joey and Jack are engaged, although they keep it quiet. It is revealed that they got engaged on the night of the picnic. Robin tells Grizel Cochrane the news, but Grizel refuses to believe her until Joey herself appears, and Grizel notices that she is wearing an engagement ring with an emerald on it. Grizel is also rather mean to Robin about the possibility of Jack 'putting her nose out of joint', as she has always been jealous of Robin's closeness to Joey.

She still congratulates Joey on her engagement, and Joey tells her that she and Frieda can be bridesmaids, with Robin as chief bridesmaid.

Answer: A Gestapo officer visits and threatens Joey with arrest.

The Gestapo officer accuses Joey of espionage and threatens her with arrest. Jeanne le Cadoulec, Cornelia Flower, Evadne Lannis, Hilary, Robin and Jack are also named on the warrant. Mr Hanson negotiates with the officer and offers to put him in touch with the girls' parents; Cornelia and Evadne's fathers are both millionaires, and Jeanne's father is a French politician, and all three have powerful connections, so Jeanne and the English and American girls are safe, although Jack is temporarily detained. Mr Hanson warns Jem that he will have to close down the school, as it is under suspicion and the staff and pupils both risk arrest if they step out of line, and Madge is devastated. Jem wants to move his sister Margot and her daughters out of the country, along with the Bettany and Russell children, and tells Madge that he will be sending them to Guernsey where the parents of Jacqueline le Pelley, a former pupil, have bought a house in his name. Madge decides that the school should move to Guernsey.

Answer: Biddy O'Ryan

The party involved consists of Joey, Miss Wilson, Evadne, Jeanne, Hilary, Cornelia, Robin, Daisy Venables, Maria Marani and Lorenz Maico. While they are having coffee, they notice a mob of men ganging up on an old man, who Joey recognises as Herr Goldmann, a Jewish watchmaker.

She and Cornelia shout at the men to leave him alone and Robin protects him. Miss Wilson fears for Joey and Robin's safety and hands Robin over to Herr Borkel, a friendly innkeeper. Vater Johann, the parish priest, signals for her to get inside his church and she leads the girls through the crowd, though she loses her hat and coat while doing so. Vater Johann reveals that there is a secret passageway in the church that leads into the mountains, and sends the group down there while he hides the Blessed Sacrament.

Answer: It turns white.

Miss Wilson's natural hair colour is chestnut - but not for much longer. The group follow the passage until it opens out into the mountains, and Joey realises that they are right next to Robin's Cave. She figures out that the secret passageway in the church must have been for Catholic priests, and the cairn of stones in the cave was an altar. Miss Wilson notices Joey and all the girls staring at her, and realises her hair has turned white.

Answer: Gottfried Mensch

The Borkels take Robin home, while Daisy goes home with some herdsmen whom the group trust. The group stay in the cave and Jem comes to visit with food. He also reveals that Herr Goldmann has been killed by the Nazis, and that Vater Johann has been shot and is dying, and that the school has been forced to close.

The group cannot come back to the Sonnalpe as it is being watched, so Jem sends Gottfried and Jack to meet the group, and Gottfried brings them peasant clothes and tells them to disguise themselves. Jack later arrives with Robin and reveals that they have both been recognised by Gestapo agents, and that they were only able to escape by Jack knocking the agents out. Gottfried knows a route into Switzerland and takes the group there, and they have a narrow escape when a group of men on horseback ride past and Joey pretends to be a Roma beggar.

After nearly a week, they make it into Switzerland and stay with Gottfried's aunt Anna.

Answer: She is uglier than her sisters.

If you've read the 'La Rochelle' series, you'll be familiar with Janie, Elizabeth and Anne and their families. Jack befriends Peter Chester, Anne's husband, and his daughters Beth and Nancy later become a pupil at the Chalet School, along with Janie's daughters Julie, Viola and Betsy, and Elizabeth's daughters Nella and Vanna. Elizabeth and Anne are both very beautiful, and Joey gets a shock when she meets Janie and sees how ugly she is. Luckily, Janie sees the funny side of it. Joey shows her around the school, which is now re-established and has 52 pupils, and some of the old staff have returned as well. Beth Chester becomes friends with Daisy, much to Janie's relief, as Beth's parents would not allow her to associate with the girls at her old school.

Answer: Hide the gardening tools

The girls have started gardening lessons and grow their own vegetables. Betty and Elizabeth, two naughty former St Scholastika's pupils, decide that Miss Everett would be easier to prank as she only comes to the school once a week. They do consider switching the seeds round, but decide to hide the tools instead. Miss Everett is angry and initially blames the Fifth Form until Robin and other girls explain that they carefully put the tools away.

When Miss Annersley questions the Fourth Form, Betty owns up and Miss Annersley tells them in no uncertain terms that their behaviour is unpatriotic.

Their punishment is to clean the tools - which have badly rusted - until they are usable again.

Answer: Gertrud Becker

Gertrud has been sent to spy on the Chalet School and find out what they were trying to hide around the Tiern See area. Robin becomes suspicious when she hears Gertrud talk, recognising her accent as being German or Austrian, and warns her friends not to say too much, especially about Maria - the new Head Girl - as it could get her family into trouble. Gertrud tries questioning Daisy, but Robin quickly intervenes.

However, she ends up genuinely enjoying the school and doing well in lessons, despite being worried about her mother.

When she receives a threatening letter that mentions her mother's disappearance, she runs away from school, hoping to escape to Denmark. She leaves a note behind with her real name confessing that she is a Nazi spy.

She tries to escape on a Guernsey fishing boat, but it is bombed and she is rescued by a British destroyer and sent back to the school. Her mother is revealed to be alive and about to leave for Denmark.

Answer: Mary Helena, Mary Constance and Mary Margaret

Joey gives birth to three red-haired baby girls (though as readers of the later books will know, none of them stay that way). She and Jack both joke about their names, but eventually decide to name them Helena after Miss Wilson, Constance after Miss Stewart and Margaret after Madge, although Joey wants to call her Margot for short in memory of Daisy's mother.

Helena and Connie will be Len and Connie (later Con) for short. They all have Mary as a first name. As Joey has converted to Catholicism, Miss Wilson and Miss Stewart will be the godmothers of the girls named after them, but Miss Nalder will be Margot's godmother as Madge is Protestant.

Answer: Maria, Cornelia and Violet Allison rescue two men from a burning plane.

As it happens, Biddy - along with Nicole de Saumarez, a local girl - are the only girls in their form who were NOT involved in a prank on Miss Wilson, where Elizabeth Arnett mixed pepper with one of the chemicals in the lab and caused a mass sneezing fit. Biddy and Nicole go with the Seniors on their trip to Pleinmont, while the rest of their form are punished by mending sheets.

At Pleinmont, a German plane crashes on the beach and Cornelia, Maria and Violet go to rescue the two men inside, while others help put out the fire. All three girls are injured; Cornelia and Maria's hands are badly burned and Cornelia suffers damage to her eyes, and Maria has a mental breakdown. Joey goes to visit the three girls in hospital and sings Maria to sleep.

The nurse is relieved, as Joey's singing has helped to calm her.

Answer: Rufus

Margot Venables dies during the timeskip as a result of the stress caused by the move from Tyrol. Mlle Lepattre, the former headmistress and Simone's cousin, dies after a long period of illness, and Cornelia is devastated as Mlle Lepattre was a mother figure to her.

Herr Marani is imprisoned in a concentration camp and his family receive no news for several months; eventually, when the school is in Guernsey, Frau Marani contacts Joey to tell her that his ashes have been sent to relatives (a practice which actually happened in real life), but Maria is not to know until she recovers. On a more positive note, Rufus, Joey's faithful Saint Bernard, is the only one of these characters who survives; Joey gets a welcome surprise when Jack reunites her with Rufus, who he reveals has been in quarantine for six months and was smuggled out of Tyrol by Jockel, a local handyman who worked for the school. Mr Flower finds them in France and has Rufus flown to England. Joey is also reunited with Frieda, her fiancé Bruno von Ahlen, and Friedel von Glück, Wanda's husband. Both men escaped from a concentration camp, thanks to three men.

As they are of Polish descent, they hope to fight for the Polish Legion. Frieda also reveals that one of the men had a sister who was a Peace League member, and is now in prison; the things she told him about the Chalet School made him have a change of heart, and Bruno and Friedel's lives were saved as a result.