He grinned at the councillors.
‘And if it works at Elm Heath, I’m hoping we can do similar projects at other local schools. I’d like to make them into proper hubs for the area, putting the schools right at the heart of the communities they serve.
‘Of course, the Elm Heath multi-use centre won’t be as profitable immediately as developing the site along the lines proposed by Texo would be. But it’s a long-term scheme and I like to think that with this plan, everyone wins.’
He looked across at me and I felt my stomach twist with emotion. It took everything I had not to jump up from my chair and run over to him, and throw my arms round him.
‘Everyone wins,’ I said.
Chapter 48
Lizzie
There had to be a vote, of course, but Danny’s proposal had won the council over and it was just a formality. The motion to allow Watkins & Co to develop the waste ground was carried and just like that, Elm Heath was saved.
The whole room erupted in a huge cheer. Nate, Pippa, Celeste and the others all bundled around me and squished me in the middle of a huge group hug. Paula wiggled into the middle and joined in.
‘We did it,’ I said. I couldn’t quite believe I was saying the words. It felt like a wonderful dream. ‘We actually did it.’
‘Thanks to you,’ said Nate, but I shook my head.
‘Absolutely not. This was everyone.’
With a bit of difficulty, I untangled my arms from the bundle of limbs, beaming from ear to ear.
‘Who fancies a drink?’
There was another big cheer.
‘Three Kings in an hour?’
‘See you there,’ Nate said. ‘Are you okay for getting back?’
‘I’ve got my car.’
He blew me a kiss and he and the other staff all headed off. The councillors were packing up and the crowds were thinning now. I grabbed Paula as she was sneaking out of the door with Chris.
‘Don’t you dare go without explaining what just happened.’
She grinned. ‘I promise I only found out about it all this afternoon,’ she said. ‘Chris has been seeing quite a lot of Danny but he said he was just stopping him moping over you. I didn’t question it.’
She bounced up and down on the balls of her feet.
‘Brilliant, isn’t it?’
‘I’m overwhelmed.’
‘It was your idea,’ Paula said. ‘Tell her, Chris.’
Chris had been talking to Denise, but now he turned round and nodded. ‘Totally your idea. I mentioned it to Danny …’ He looked a bit sheepish. ‘And by mention, I mean forwarded all the emails you sent me asking questions about how to find investment for your ideas. He picked it up and he ran with it.’
I let out a tiny squeak of joy. ‘Are you coming to the pub to celebrate?’ I asked Chris.
‘Wouldn’t miss it.’
‘Great.’
I looked round. ‘Where is Danny?’
He’d disappeared somewhere in the throng of people that had rushed to me after the vote. I felt deflated as I realised I’d not seen him since his presentation, but as I looked across the room, one of the councillors moved aside and there, behind him, was Danny. He was grinning at me across the room and I felt my heart soar at the sight of his smile.
‘We’ll leave you to it,’ Paula said. ‘See you in the pub.’
Danny walked towards me and the rest of the room fell away as I gazed at him.
‘Hi, Lizzie,’ he said. ‘Can I ask you something?’
‘Anything.’ I couldn’t stop smiling.
‘You couldn’t give me a lift home, could you? My car’s in the garage.’
I stared at him for a second then laughed. ‘Course I can,’ I said. ‘Come on.’
We didn’t talk as we made our way downstairs and out into the street. Just exchanged smiles.
‘This is safe, isn’t it?’ Danny said as I led the way to my car. ‘Only the last time I was in a car park with you, you tried to run me over.’
‘You deserved it,’ I said mildly, beeping to unlock the door. ‘Get in.’
Once we were out of Blyton and on the road to Elm Heath, I glanced at him.
‘So, what on earth happened? I’m thrilled, obviously, but you owe me an explanation.’
Danny sighed. ‘You happened, Lizzie. It was you.’
I frowned as I indicated to turn off towards Elm Heath. ‘What do you mean?’
‘I felt awful after that last meeting. Fucking awful. I’ve done some shit things in my time, but not telling you I was working with Texo on the development was right up there with the worst.’
‘Got that right.’
I shot him a quick glance.
‘How did it happen? Your company was involved in the investment?’
Danny adopted a sort of fake modest expression.
‘Texo were trying to get me to join the school development project,’ he said. ‘Because like I said, I had the local knowledge, and the truth is, Liz, I’m really good at what I do.’
A sudden memory popped into my head. ‘Was that what you were arguing with Chris about at the barbecue?’
‘You saw that?’
‘I was watching you.’
He raised an eyebrow at me and I chuckled.
‘I’m going to park at mine and we can walk round to the pub,’ I said, though I was a bit sad the journey was almost over. I was enjoying having Danny to myself.
‘Sounds good.’
‘So, Texo wanted you and you went?’
‘It wasn’t that simple,’ he said. ‘They wanted me for this particular project because of my contacts and whatnot. Obviously, I said no at first, more than once in fact. But Texo are a big company and Vanir is fairly small. If there was a whiff of them going elsewhere, it’d have been big trouble. My boss put pressure on me, and when I didn’t respond, he offered me a lot more money.’
‘So it was just about the money?’
‘Yes and no,’ he said. ‘It all happened when Sophie was in hospital. I was in a bit of a state, thinking about how I’m all Cara has, you know? I need to make sure she’s okay, Liz. It was hard to say no to.’
I pulled up outside my little cottage and turned off the engine.
‘I understand that,’ I said honestly. ‘But it was a shitty thing to say yes to.’
Danny leaned his head against the headrest. ‘I know that. And when we got together, it seemed even shittier. Especially when you explained what had happened with Grant. I knew I had to tell you but …’
‘But?’
‘I was really falling for you and I didn’t want to ruin it.’
I rolled my eyes.
‘I know,’ he groaned. ‘You can’t make me feel any worse than I do.’
He reached over the gearstick and took my hand. I let him, enjoying the feeling of my fingers in his. They were a perfect fit.
‘At first, I thought I could wriggle out of it, and you’d never know the truth, then you overheard my conversation with Vanessa.’
‘Except I jumped to totally the wrong conclusion,’ I said. ‘But what about New Year? Why did you let me think everything was okay?’
‘Because it was, as far as I was concerned. I’d gone back to my boss and virtually threatened to hand in my notice if he didn’t take me off the project. I thought I was home and dry. But then they found a clause in my contract that meant I had to be at the meeting.’
‘That was really awful,’ I said. ‘I felt like you’d pulled my heart out of my chest and stamped on it.’
‘Can you forgive me?’
I gave him a small smile. ‘I’m working on it.’
Danny ran his thumb over the back of my hand. ‘It was Cara who made me realise I had to act,’ he said.
‘Really?’ We’d been careful not to let the little girl get wind of our romance so far.
‘She came home from school and told me about how some lad had been annoying her, teasing her about not having a mum …’
‘Stevie
. I remember.’
‘She said you’d told her some things are worth fighting for. And I realised in that second that you were one of the things that I should fight for but my job wasn’t.’
I smiled more broadly this time. ‘That was the same time I decided Elm Heath was worth the fight and you weren’t.’
Danny laughed. ‘You were right. Totally right.’
‘But what about Watkins & Co?’ I said. ‘How did that happen? Chris said it was my idea.’
‘It was your idea.’
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’
‘Honestly. I had a beer with Chris one night and he told me you’d come up with this idea to use the waste ground but you were struggling to find investors. He said, half as a joke really, that you could use my help, forwarded me the emails you’d sent him outlining your ideas, and that was it. I put out some feelers, Chris agreed to help and I got Marc on board to sort out the designs.’
‘You’re incredible,’ I said, shaking my head in disbelief. ‘And infuriating.’
‘What did you say? Sometimes the fight is part of the fun?’
‘It was Esther who said that.’
Danny shifted in his seat so he was closer to me. ‘She knew what she was talking about.’
His lips touched mine gently.
‘Nope,’ I said, staying close to him. ‘I’m done fighting.’
‘We’ve got lots of fights to win still. First of all, I need to persuade you that I’m sorry for all the shit I’ve caused. How is that fight going, by the way?’
I smiled. ‘I think you can safely assume you’ve won that one.’
Danny did an air-punch and I laughed.
‘Then we need to sort out the MUC.’
‘And come up with a better name.’
‘Definitely, and we need to make sure it’s doing what we need it to do.’
‘Okay.’
‘We need to win Sophie’s approval, which frankly could be easier said than done.’
‘True.’
‘And,’ he said. ‘At some stage I’m probably going to need to persuade you to move in with Cara and me, and maybe even convince you to say yes when I propose.’
‘I don’t want to get married again.’
‘See? That’s something worth fighting for, right there.’
We both laughed and then we were kissing again, and I was wishing we’d not agreed to go to the pub with everyone. My heart was pounding and the blood rushed round my body making my ears ring. Unless …
‘Someone’s banging on the window,’ Danny said against my lips.
‘What?’
‘Someone’s banging on the window of the car.’
We broke apart and sure enough there were Nate and Paula banging on the window of the passenger side door. I turned my head and saw Chris on the other side, waving gaily.
‘Come on, lovebirds,’ Paula shouted. ‘There’s enough time for that later. We need to celebrate.’
Danny gave me another quick kiss and we undid our seatbelts and got out of the car.
‘I’ll get the first round,’ Paula called. ‘Come on!’
Danny and I grinned at each other, and hand in hand we followed our friends into the pub.
Epilogue
Esther
1971
I slept a lot these days. So much that I couldn’t always tell the difference between my memories and my dreams, as I drifted in and out of sleep.
Agnes’s daughter Meg was with me most of the time, bustling around my bedroom. She was grown-up now, an old lady herself, with lines around her eyes and grey in her hair, but sometimes I still saw her as the little girl I’d met all those years before when I moved in with her family. I’d never felt sad about not having my own children because I’d had Meg, John and Pearl in my life.
I sighed, pulling the sheets up around my shoulders, and felt my eyes closing again. Some people might have thought of me as a lonely old spinster but I’d never been sorry that I hadn’t married or become a mother. And I’d never been alone. Not really.
I had a lot of time to remember, now. Lots of hours spent with my thoughts. I wasn’t sorry about that, either. It was nice, going back through my memories – as though I was reading a book someone had written especially for me. I thought about Elm Heath Primary and all the children I’d seen come and go. I was so proud of the school and the pupils and even thought it had been a long time since I’d been a teacher, I loved when they invited me in to watch plays or hear the choir sing.
I thought about the suffragettes too. I thought about them a lot. The friends I’d made back then, the strength the women had showed and the support we’d shared. The fight we’d put up, the violence we’d suffered, and the victories we’d won. It really had been the best of times and the worst. Their fight had made me the woman I’d become.
Sometimes I thought about Joseph and what my life could have been like if we’d married. But it was all such a long time ago and I found I couldn’t imagine being a wife. Being his wife. Because that wasn’t who I was at all.
‘I’m a fighter,’ I murmured. Meg was sitting next to my bed, reading, and she looked up as I spoke.
‘What are you saying, Esther?’
I felt a rush of affection for her and her siblings and I reached out my hand to her from under the blanket.
‘I was so sad about the baby,’ I said as Meg squeezed my fingers gently. ‘So sad about the baby.’
‘I know, Esther,’ she said.
I squinted at her. She was silhouetted in the light from the window and I couldn’t see her face properly. For a moment I thought she was Agnes, sitting there.
‘Agnes?’ I said. ‘Oh, Agnes, I do miss you.’
Agnes – or was it Meg? – patted my hand softly.
‘Is Minnie coming?’ I said. ‘I’d like to see her.’
‘She can’t come because it’s too far for her and she’s not strong enough for the journey now. But she has been on the phone and she sent a card. Remember?’
I didn’t remember. I found it hard to remember things from today or yesterday. I couldn’t remember the names of the nurses or how old I was, or if I’d had breakfast.
Instead I remembered things from long ago, like Minnie and Gilbert coming to live with me in Elm Heath during the war and helping with the evacuees. I organised them all coming to the country, and arranged their billets, and gave them somewhere to go when they were homesick or scared. I loved that, just as I loved teaching. Every child who’d passed through my school held a special place in my heart.
I remembered Minnie’s heartbreak when her son Percy died in France. And I remembered Agnes’s terror when John was called up in the Great War and her joy when he came home safely. I remembered those fights, which now didn’t seem worth all the devastation and the fights that did. Like our fight for women’s rights.
‘A battle still not won,’ I breathed.
I remembered all that so clearly but I couldn’t remember if the woman sitting by my bed was my friend Agnes or her daughter.
I blinked at her, once, twice, and her face swam into view. It was Agnes. She was young again. So young. And she was smiling at me. In her arms was a bundle wrapped in a blanket, and she gazed down at her precious baby in wonder. Behind her was Gilbert, hand in hand with Percy, and my pupils who’d been lost in the wars were gathering – there was Lester Jacobs, who’d been one of my first ever students at Elm Heath, and who’d died in a trench in Belgium. And there was Jilly Atkins who’d been killed in an air raid on a day trip to London to buy fabric for her wedding dress.
With them was Mrs Pankhurst, regal in her fur stole, and Christabel, looking just as she had that day when she’d leaned out of a window to speak to a crowd and introduced me to the suffragettes. I could see Nelly who we’d met on that awful day in Westminster, but who’d become a good friend until she passed away last year. Oh it was so wonderful to see them again. So wonderful.
Agnes reached out to take my hand and I felt her finger
s clasp mine. I closed my eyes. And everything was still.
If Esther and Lizzie’s story had you cheering them on, you won’t want to miss Kerry Barrett’s moving and unputdownable The Girl in the Picture. When lonely Violet Hargreaves meets the mysterious and handsome Edwin on the beach, a chain of terrible events begins to unfold …
Click here if you’re in the US
Click here if you’re in the UK
Acknowledgements
I immersed myself in the world of the suffragettes while I was researching Esther’s story. The Museum of London was a wonderful resource. I visited their suffragette exhibit, and went on a very illuminating guided walk round London with one of their staff. The museum staff also helped me find newspaper reports of Black Friday from which I shamelessly plundered lots of the stories that made it into my novel. The women being thrown to the crowds is true. Esther’s placard cutting the policeman’s hand actually happened to a suffragette on the day, as did the invasive searches that some of the police were carrying out. Agnes’s sad experience on the day is, thankfully, fiction.
While I was living Esther’s story, I suddenly realised I knew nothing about the day-to-day role of a head teacher in 2019. So I need to thank the fabulous Sally Weeks, head teacher at Poverest Primary School, who took time out of her busy day (and believe me, it’s busy!) to speak to me and fill me in on everything she does. Many of the ideas that Lizzie and Paula come up with to save Elm Heath were copied from Sally’s great work at Poverest.
A huge thank you to my fabulous agent, Felicity, and my editors at HQ, Abi, Belinda and Dom. Also to my fellow writers who are always there to offer help, advice or simply a sympathetic ear, especially Aimee, Kath, Annie and Andi. And of course, to all my readers. Thanks for everything and I hope you enjoy this one!
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The Secret Letter Page 28