Assignment 4

Analysis of the conflict driving the plot

by

Kate Kirk

ladyblue@iquest.net

word count = 1,910

Nine Coaches Waiting

By

Mary Stewart

The protagonist in this novel, Linda Martin, a young woman in her mid-twenties, was orphaned 10 years before the story begins. Although raised in France as a child, after her parent's untimely deaths, she wound up in an English orphanage, then in a series of dreary jobs in English boarding schools. Linda yearns to return to France. Desperately unhappy, she has dreamed of France all of these years and has longed more than anything to return. The rest of the plot grows out of Linda's decision to return to France any way she can.

The first scene of the book depicts Linda's arrival at the airport in Paris. The previous information is revealed. Also revealed is the information that Linda is travelling to Paris because she has accepted a job as a governess with a French family. Believing that she would not get the job if she revealed her fluency in French and knowledge of things French, she concealed her French background and fluency in French from her new employer, Madame de Valmy. The requirement that the governess be English through and through was stressed enough that Linda, although puzzled by her impression that total Englishness was so important, concealed her background to ensure that she would get the job. The seeming necessity of concealing her background troubles Linda, an honest young woman, but her need to return to France is greater.

In the second scene of the book, Linda goes by her old address in Paris. The surroundings spark a memory of her parents discussing the de Valmy's. Monsieur de Valmy, she recalls, was crippled in a polo accident years ago when her parents were alive. It was expected that he would never walk again. Thus, she has independent knowledge of her employers, and her parents moved in somewhat the same circles as the de Valmy's. Linda, of course, conceals these facts as well.

It is Linda's decision at the beginning of the book -- to return to France by concealing her knowledge of French language and culture -- that allows the rest of the plot to develop. It turns out that Monsieur de Valmy, husband of Madame de Valmy, intends to murder Linda's young charge, his 9-year-old nephew Count Phillipe de Valmy. Why? So that he can inherit the family estates, which he has poured all his money and effort into, and also so that he can become Count de Valmy.

Phillipe is the late-begotten son of Monsieur de Valmy's older brother, the previous Count de Valmy. Belatedly having a child after all expectation, the previous Count and his wife were killed in an automobile accident. Then, Phillipe's other uncle, an archeologist who is Phillipe's usual guardian, must attend an archeological dig, considered to be an unfit place for Phillipe. This leaves the young Count in the care of the uncle who always fancied the family estates and expected to inherit the title. Monsieur de Valmy lived for that expectation, particularly since the polo accident left him without the use of his legs and confined to a wheelchair. But his hopes were dashed by the unexpected birth of Phillipe. Now, with Phillipe in his care, Monsieur de Valmy plans to do away with him, hopefully making murder appear accidental.

Thus, Linda's impulse to conceal her French background was correct. The de Valmy's were, in fact, eager to find a person who would be alone in the world and unable to communicate or even defend herself should a scapegoat be required. Thus, an orphan supposedly unfamiliar with the French language, someone who would be oblivious to the de Valmy's plans for Phillipe, was specifically sought. Linda's desperate decision to get herself back to France by concealing her knowledge of French allows the plot to develop as it does because Phillipe could not be rescued without Linda's presence.

Because of Linda's wish/desire/decision to return to France by concealing her upbringing, Linda discovers clues that all is not as it should be. Some of the clues would not have been revealed without her knowledge of French. As the plot unfolds, we discover the clues with her.

Although the Valmy's are usually polite and speak English when Linda is present, she does hear French comments that she shouldn't, comments that she must then pretend not to have heard. When she first meets Monsieur de Valmy, for example, she is forced to lie about how she knew he was disabled, and she overhears his French comment to his wife that perhaps she has made a big mistake in hiring Linda.

Also, the minute she enters the Valmy chateau, she overhears a French conversation about weak stonework on a balcony. Some chapters later, she notices the weak stonework and shoves a ladder across the weak place, fearing Phillipe could fall onto the sharp wrought-iron fencing below. Phillipe later runs out on the balcony and is saved by the ladder when the stonework fails. Thus, she foils one of the booby traps set for Phillipe by Monsieur de Valmy.

She hears French conversations which show Madame and Monsieur de Valmy's unconcern for Phillipe, and one in which Phillipe's uncle unreasonably baits a frightened young Phillipe, his dislike unconcealed. She realizes, more than she might have without her knowledge of French, that Phillipe's aunt and uncle do not treat Phillipe as they should. She begins to actively keep Phillipe out of his uncle's way.

Linda also must conceal her ability to read French. She almost gets caught reading French books she should not understand. She must feign ignorance of French with the French-speaking maid, Berthe, who helps care for Phillipe. She also must pretend to have no French when she speaks with the townspeople in the nearby town, who believe that she is totally English. Actually, she has a good time pretending to know no French with the townspeople. Further, her faked English school-girl command of the language leads her to meet a visiting English forester, a character who helps Linda out later in the book.

The plot abruptly thickens when Linda meets de Valmy's son Raoul. Strangers, they meet when Raoul almost runs her down with his car on the foggy drive up to the de Valmy chateau. Raoul, afraid that he has injured her, yells at her in French, and Linda yells back in the same language. When Raoul demands to know who she is, Linda realizes she has given her secret away. Raoul has not figured out who she is because the governess is supposed to be English, but Linda has appeared to be French to Raoul. She asks Raoul to keep her secret. So the love interest is introduced as Linda inadvertently reveals her secret.

The next day, the plot thickens again. While walking in the woods, Phillipe takes a spill over a tree root. As he falls, a rifle cracks and a bullet hits the tree. Only his lucky fall has saved him from being shot in the head. Phillipe is scared, but not hurt. Believing the shot accidental, Linda calls out in French to the shooter to stop shooting because people are present. Then she comforts Phillipe in French. Phillipe now knows her secret, too.

After this episode, Linda is forced to confess her knowledge of French to Monsieur de Valmy. But even though he laughs off her concealment, Linda is uneasy. She still feels it was important that she know no English. She also believes that he knew before her confession that she was fluent in French, and wonders how he knew.

Linda's wish/desire/decision that opens the conflict -- her decision to return to France while pretending to know no French -- allows the plot to continue to develop even after her deception is revealed. She converses and interacts with various characters, including Raoul, thus developing the plot, and her knowledge of French allows these interactions to occur without difficulty. Most importantly, because of her French upbringing and command of the language, Linda saves Phillipe from Monsieur de Valmy's final attempt to dispose of him -- by poison.

After Raoul de Valmy's passion for Linda is proclaimed, Monsieur De Valmy intends to cast Linda as the money-grubbing, hopeful fiancée, plotting to kill Phillipe because of what she will gain as Raoul's wife -- not just money, but an eventual title as Countess de Valmy. This plot is foiled because Berthe's boyfriend, who is in on the plot, gets drunk and brags to Berthe of the great living he will make for them after Monsieur de Valmy pays him off for his help in killing Phillipe. Berthe, who loves Phillipe too, is horrified, and wakes Linda up in the middle of the night, warning of the plot. This warning could not have occurred if the governess spoke no French because Berthe speaks no English. And Linda was hired only because she concealed her ability to speak French, so Linda's initial decision once again drives the plot. Despite Berthe's desire to protect Phillipe, Linda and Phillipe flee the chateau because Berthe will not turn her dishonest boyfriend in to the police.

The fugitives' flight to the safe haven of Phillipe's archeologist uncle's home is greatly assisted by her French upbringing. For example, she knows how to operate a French pay phone, which requires the purchase and use of special tokens. She pretends to be a giggly French girl when she attempts to enlist the help of the visiting English forester, convincingly leaving messages at his usual haunt. She and Phillipe pass for locals on a day-long trek from the Valmy castle to the archeologist uncle's home. They meet a farmer who gives them a ride, and they later have dinner in a café, yet escape the notice of the locals at least in part because of Linda's French appearance and fluency.

The way the plot develops is dependent upon Linda's initial decision to return to France by concealing her fluency and knowledge of things French. The story would not have been possible without Linda's wish to return to France and her decision to do so under false pretenses. She would not have been present to save Phillipe if she had not concealed her French background and her knowledge of French from the de Valmy's. And her ability to save him was, in large part, because of her knowledge of French and the culture of France. Thus, Linda's initial wish and desire to return to France at any cost, as introduced in the first scene, and her decision to do so by concealing her French fluency and background, allow the rest of the plot to develop and grow the way that it does. Without that wish/desire/decision, the book could not have developed the way it did. It is the foundation upon which the story rests.