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It was all so much to take in. In the space of one short day she’d found an idyllic home, and it looked like it was hers for the taking.
When she’d taken a temporary job at the school in Langtry Meadows, Lucy had had no intention of hanging around. She liked working in Birmingham, and as soon as the opportunity arose she’d be back there like a flash. Which was why she’d let her home out. But the village had got under her skin, and she’d soon found herself accepting the permanent position that Timothy Parry, the headmaster had offered. Now it was hard to imagine living anywhere else.
‘That’s fantastic!’ Charlie paused, his eyes searching her face. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Well yes …’
‘But?’ He frowned. ‘You’ve take a permanent job on here, and you can’t live in this place for ever, can you? I mean, what happens when Annie comes back? Selling yours means you can afford to look for a place, doesn’t it?’
Which was true, Annie had planned to be away for at least a year, but beyond that who knew? That had been fine when she’d only planned on staying a term, but it was a rather different situation now. She’d already been in Langtry Meadows for six months, what if Annie and her husband were back next spring? ‘Well yes, I mean I have got a job. But the school’s still got an uncertain future, even knowing it’s not on the list they’re considering closing this year.’ And it was the final step. Letting go of the security blanket that had cloaked her insecurities of the past.
‘That could be the same anywhere.’ His voice was gentle, with a question at the end of it. ‘What’s the real problem, don’t you want it to work out?’ The way he said it, the way he was looking at her with that slightly unsure edge to his voice, said it all.
He knew, they both knew, that the problem wasn’t just about letting go of the dreams she’d put in place to protect herself – the big school, challenging kids, promotion prospects. It was him. Charlie Davenport, and his daughter Maisie. Them.
Or more specifically, it was Josie. What would happen when Maisie’s mum came back?
It would break her heart if Charlie moved on, and she couldn’t follow. And it would be beyond awful if Josie moved back to the area, and made things difficult for them.
‘Of course.’ She squeezed his hand. ‘I do want it to work out.’ Those gorgeous brown eyes of his were studying her intently. He cared, she knew he cared, but that didn’t alter anything. ‘But it is complicated, isn’t it?’
He nodded. ‘It might be.’ She knew he’d understand, know she wasn’t just talking about houses, jobs. ‘But nothing we can’t handle.’
Lucy hoped so. ‘Well,’ she paused, ‘the other bit of my strange day,’ how much drama could a girl cram into one short day? ‘One of the little cottages opposite the green has just come up for sale. I could buy it.’
‘Wow,’ Charlie sat back, and ran his fingers through his hair, ‘you have had a busy day! But that’s perfect timing, isn’t it?’
She nodded slowly. ‘It’s gorgeous too, but, well, should I wait until …’ It was a massive step. She should do it, just for her. But he was part of her life.
He put his glass down, and gave her a funny lopsided grin which she didn’t quite understand. ‘Wait? Why? So you don’t want to commit to life here? I thought …’
‘You thought?’
‘Well, me and you, I thought you’d be around to help me with Maisie, and for, well, us.’
She felt like he was squeezing her heart. ‘I do want to be here for us.’ She wrapped her arms round him. Rested her forehead against his. ‘I do.’ But what if the immediate future didn’t have a Charlie and Lucy shaped gap? Loving Charlie was one thing, but coming between him and Maisie was something she’d never want to do. ‘But should I wait until Josie comes back, until we know …’
Charlie shook his head, his forehead brushing against hers, his dark gaze hitting her head on. ‘Josie’s dictated to me for long enough. You know Maisie means the world to me, I’ll never give her up, but you mean the world to me too, whatever we need to do to make this work we will. Yes? Do it, if it’s what you want to do?’
She nodded, looking at him through the tears she hadn’t realised had sprung into her eyes. ‘It is.’
‘Good.’ Then not even glancing up to check whether Maisie was nearby, he kissed her.
Chapter 3 (#u00bf11a6-4a10-5799-82d0-ce36c65c3a7e)
‘I wondered where you were!’ Jill smiled at Maisie, who was kneeling down in the playground, clutching Roo to her chest. The tears that had been building in her big brown eyes spilled over, as she sensed the inevitable. Her grip tightened on the little dog. ‘I need your help, Maisie.’
Lucy stood back. Yesterday morning, the little girl had been more than a little reluctant to leave her dad and dog, and she was sure there had been a muttered ‘you’re not my mummy’, so today she had decided to use different tactics.
‘Our guinea pig isn’t at all well, and I’m sure somebody told me you were the best person to help. But, if they’re wrong I can always ask one of the other children.’ Maisie’s grip loosened on the dog, and she stood up, taking the hand that Jill was holding out.
Lucy could practically see the whoosh of tension leave Charlie’s body as his daughter disappeared into the school building.
‘Morning.’ Lucy smiled at Charlie. ‘You’ll go bald if you’re not careful.’
He gave a wry smile, but stopped running his fingers through his hair.
The first few days of the new school year had been chaotic and Lucy had been glad the term had started on a Wednesday and they hadn’t had a full week to cope with. The children, and staff, had been exhausted by the end of Friday. And now they were already into the second week, and were starting to settle into a routine. Apart from Maisie.
‘She seemed fine last week, but this week …’ He shrugged, looking at a loss.
‘I know. She was very quiet over the weekend though. She’s bright Charlie, she was mulling it over.’
‘I thought bringing Roo with us might help, but if anything it’s made her worse.’ The little terrier looked up at the sound of his name, and Lucy patted his head.
‘She’d be hanging on to you if Roo wasn’t here. She’ll be okay, honest. She just needs time, and Jill will keep a close eye on her.’
‘I hope so.’
The school bell rang, and the last of the children started to make their way towards the entrance door. ‘Shoo, go, and make sure you bring Roo with you when you pick her up!’
‘I wanted to bring Roo in to school.’ Maisie was looking down at the desk, and Lucy knew it was to hide the shine of tears. ‘Roo will be sad.’
‘I’m sure he will.’ Lucy squatted down. ‘Daddy will look after him though, and he’ll be very happy to see you this afternoon, won’t he?’
‘Daddy’s busy.’ She gave a large theatrical sigh, but Lucy was glad to see that the threat of tears seemed to have abated. ‘He’s always busy. Why can’t dogs come to school?’
She was just trying to formulate the best answer to that, when Rosie chipped in. ‘They can.’ She was doodling away industriously at what looked like a picture of a sheep, or it could have been a legless dog, or even a very hairy guinea pig, and didn’t even look up. ‘Our other teacher let us have a pet day. We always have one. I brought my rat in. Do you like my picture, Miss?’
Lucy stared, and wondered if looking at it from a different angle would help. ‘Very good, I thought we were all drawing our favourite animals?’
‘He is.’ She scribbled harder until the point of her pencil snapped off. ‘He’s the furry caterpillar I found on the fence on holiday, he was enormous.’ She picked up a brown crayon. ‘We stayed in a big caravan. But Mummy wouldn’t let me bring him home. That’s why,’ she glanced up at Lucy, ‘I’ll have to bring our rat to pet day. It’s pet day tomorrow, isn’t it Miss?’ She nodded at Maisie knowledgeably. ‘You can bring Roo, as long as he’s not going to try and eat my rat.’
Lucy looked up at Jill, who shrugged apologetically, then pointed to the large calendar.
How on earth had she forgotten that tomorrow was pet day?
‘My mam says caterpillars are a bleeding nuisance.’
‘Sophie, we don’t say that, do we?’
‘A bleeding’ she paused, and frowned, ‘pest. They eat our lettuces.’
‘I wish my mummy was here.’
Lucy put an arm round Maisie, swallowing down the lump in her throat. She remembered wishing her dad had been there when she wasn’t that much older than Maisie. The little girl was only six, what kind of mother just upped and left her child for six months? Josie had to have a good reason, she had to. ‘Draw her a lovely picture of Roo, and you can show her on skype can’t you? I’m sure she’s missing you and Roo.’
‘Lunch time meeting.’ Liz Potts stuck her head round the door, then was off before either Lucy or Jill had time to question her.
‘What’s that about then?’ Jill raised an eyebrow.
‘Your guess is as good as mine.’ But even as she said the words, Lucy felt a twinge of anticipation. It was Tuesday, the children had been back at school five days now, and five days into the new school year had an ominous ring to it. It was the earliest date that the Ofsted inspectors could come calling.
Lucy sank down with a sigh onto one of the comfortable staffroom chairs. Would anybody notice if she put her feet up on the table?
The first week of the new school year was always a killer. After a long summer of late nights, lie-ins, walks and general lazing about it was nice in a way to get back into a normal work routine. At her previous school, the first few days were always hard work, particularly when you had a new class, over thirty new names to learn, personalities and capabilities to assess. Behaviour to manage. Here though, even after only a few short months of working at the school, she at least knew most of the children by name – and she was carrying on teaching the class she’d had last year. It was a small school, and several of the classes had been merged, which meant she had Class 1 and Class 2. But there were a few newcomers, a few changes, and the children always seemed to grow over the summer and learn new tricks. Even the sweetest of children liked to test the boundaries, in fact the butter-wouldn’t-melt ones were often the ones who pushed hardest. And then there was Maisie. Sweet little Maisie who had giggled her way infectiously through the summer, but now wasn’t quite sure why she was still here in a strange place, without her mummy.
Lucy tried to force the frown away and relax, and found herself yawning.
‘Keeping you up?’ Jill, her classroom assistant, laughed. ‘Budge up. Any idea why Timothy has assembled the troops?’
‘Nope. I was hoping you’d be able to tell me.’
Jill shook her head, then nodded towards Liz Potts, the school secretary who had just bustled in with an armful of papers. ‘Looks like Liz knows.’
‘Thank you for getting here promptly everybody.’ Timothy Parry, head of Langtry Meadows Primary School coughed, straightened his bowtie and tugged at the cuffs of his shirt which were peeping out of the sleeves of his tweed jacket. ‘I won’t keep you long, I do appreciate how much, er, fun, the first couple of weeks back are. Now,’ he motioned to Liz, who handed over the papers. ‘I have a copy here of our SEF, which Lucy very efficiently updated at the end of last term.’
Lucy grimaced as her stomach hollowed in anticipation. With the small village school still at risk of closure they’d all thrown themselves into making sure they were fully prepared to hit the ground running before they’d closed for the summer break. The school’s self-evaluation form had been updated, a new improvement plan put together, and every file in Mrs Potts’s system gone through to ensure they were ready for anything. Anything, it seemed, involved an early Ofsted inspection.
A small smile twitched at the corner of Timothy’s mouth. ‘As I think Miss Jacobs has already guessed,’ they all turned to look at her, ‘we have been informed that the Ofsted inspectors will be calling rather earlier than anticipated. We appear to be in demand, top of the list.’
A ripple of a groan spread round the staffroom, peaking when it reached their youngest member of staff, who clamped her hand over her mouth as she realised she’d gasped rather louder than she’d meant to. Liz patted her arm comfortingly.
‘Don’t worry dear, it’s not all bad, they’re not the ogres they used to be.’
‘Says who?’ Jill whispered rather too loudly in Lucy’s ear.
‘Ahem.’ Timothy coughed to restore order. ‘After the huge success of our summer picnic I pretty much think we’re on track to safeguard the future of our school, but a good report would be the icing on the cake. Which reminds me, the Right Honourable George enjoyed his visit so much that he sent us a rather delightful letter. Liz has very kindly framed it and put it on the wall so that we may remind ourselves how wonderful we are,’ he paused, ‘if the need arises.’ He glanced around the room, his face serious, but something Lucy was sure was mischief danced in his eyes. ‘George always did like to make himself heard, which I think Lucy has done a splendid job of utilising.’
Lucy blushed and studied her hands. It had really been Elsie Harrington and Jim Stafford who had been responsible for the reintroduction of the Summer Picnic – without their help the idea would never have occurred to her. She would never have known that so many past attendees of the school, like George, now had rather prominent and influential positions on the numerous councils that had the power to control the future of the school. But Elsie, a colourful, elderly villager who seemed to know everybody’s business, and school governor (and councillor) Jim who had a finger in every pie, had soon pointed her in the right direction. She still wasn’t quite sure if she’d been manipulated, or made the decisions, but it didn’t matter.
How could George recommend Langtry Meadows Primary School to be the next closure, after the nostalgic reminder of his childhood? As guest of honour George had excelled himself, his speech had been longer than a presidential inauguration, and had definitely made prolific use of the word ‘great’.
‘I rather thought we should invite him back to the school nativity, and ask him to switch on the lights if nobody has an objection? Keep him in the loop, as it were.’
‘Nativity?’ Lucy hissed to Jill who had a broad smile on her face.
‘Oh you’re going to love Christmas. But don’t worry about donkeys and the rest of the mayhem yet, we’ve got this half term and Ofsted to get through first.’
Which sounded ominous. ‘Donkeys?’
‘And cows.’
‘Right ho.’ Timothy clapped his hands together. ‘Let’s smash it.’
‘Smash it?’ Lucy raised an eyebrow at Jill as they made their way to the door.
Jill grinned. ‘He’s been spending too much time with his nephews over the summer. He’ll be high fiving us next and telling us how many Pokémon he’s caught. Don’t worry he’ll be back to normal within a couple of weeks.’
Lucy rather hoped he’d be back to normal by tomorrow, before the Ofsted team arrived.
Five minutes after they’d got to the classroom, the first of the children started to run in – hot and excited from running about in the sun, and within a further two minutes the head scratching began.
‘Looks like we’ve got little visitors.’ Lucy pulled a face at Jill. ‘Not only have we got bring-your-pet-in day tomorrow, we’ve also got head-lice now. Just what every Ofsted inspector likes to see.’ She automatically reached a hand up to scratch her own head. They definitely weren’t a welcome addition to her classroom.
Jill laughed. ‘I thought I saw one or two of them scratching earlier, but didn’t like to say. I think we’ve got more livestock in Langtry Meadows Primary School than there is in Charlie D’s waiting room.’
Lucy shook her head. ‘I’ll ask Liz to write a letter to the parents.’
‘Talking of Charlie,’ Jill watched as Maisie was escorted to her seat by Rosie, who seemed to have taken her under her wing, ‘is that man really going to let Josie waltz straight back in and take his daughter away from him again?’
Lucy frowned. Hoping the villagers wouldn’t speculate about the return of Charlie’s daughter had been a bit unrealistic. The daughter he’d kept a secret. The daughter his ex had said wasn’t his. She didn’t know how far that last nugget of information had spread, but she really hoped that it wasn’t a topic of conversation in the village shop.
She shook her head. ‘I hope not, I don’t think he’s going to give up without a fight, but who knows what will happen when she comes back from her travels. If she’s not his daughter though, will he have much say in the matter?’
‘He doesn’t know yet? He hasn’t had a DNA test?’
‘Nope, he says she’s his, whatever.’ It worried her, and she knew that it worried Charlie. He’d always been wary of Josie and her intentions, and they hung over them, a threatening black cloud.
‘Miss, Miss, I’ve just found a nit on Rosie’s head.’
‘And what are you doing messing with Rosie’s hair, Ted?’ Jill made her way over to the children and Lucy clapped her hands to get their attention.
‘Right, who is bringing in a pet tomorrow? Hands up!’
Chapter 4 (#u00bf11a6-4a10-5799-82d0-ce36c65c3a7e)
‘Guess what?’ Sally beamed, and actually did a happy dance on the doorstep when Lucy opened the cottage door. Sally, Charlie’s receptionist and right hand woman, was like that. She was unfailingly friendly and breezy in the vets (but always professional), and fun outside of it.
She’d also been the first person that Lucy had properly talked to when she’d moved to Langtry Meadows the previous spring, the person that had dragged her out of her new home and into the community. That made it sound like she was part of a rehabilitation programme, which in a way was true. A few months in Langtry Meadows had given her a new lease of life.
Sally didn’t wait for a response. She grabbed Lucy in a hug. ‘Piper is ready to come home!’
‘No!’ Lucy shrieked, peering round Sally to see if the puppy was actually with her, then pulled herself together. ‘Sorry, sorry, come in.’
‘Don’t worry, I’ve not got her with me, the weekend seemed a better idea. Look, I know you’ve only just gone back to work, Loo, but that’s a bit of an extreme reaction!’ Sally grinned and gave her friend another hug. ‘Bad start to the school year?’
‘No, well yes. We’ve got nits.’
Sally giggled. ‘At least it isn’t fleas.’
‘And it’s bring-a-pet-to-school day tomorrow.’ Lucy put her hands on her head, feeling like her brain was about to boil over.
‘Piece of cake when you’re used to herding Annie’s lot. What are you worrying about girl? I think a glass of wine is in order.’ She started to steer Lucy towards the kitchen.
‘I can’t drink!’
That got Sally’s attention. ‘You’re pregnant!’
