08 Silent Night
Page 27
‘Jack, I’m back with my parents,’ said Beth. She sounded out of breath. ‘John’s fine and I’ve lots to tell you.’
‘You’ll have to speak up,’ I said. ‘We’ve got a big storm up here.’
The windows shook. My world was full of electric echoes and the boom of thunder.
‘Jack . . . Jack,’ shouted Beth. ‘Can you hear me now?’
‘Yes – just. What’s the news? How are you and how did it go?’
‘I’m fine. It’s been an eventful day . . . intriguing, you might say.’
Lightning forked down to the hills and briefly split the black velvet sky.
‘Intriguing . . . how do you mean?’
‘Jack, you’ll never guess . . . they’ve offered me the job.’
Thunder rolled across the heavens like a giant avalanche.
‘What did you say?’
‘I have another meeting with them tomorrow morning – things to discuss – I’ll explain it all when you come down.’
‘Did you say they had offered you the job?’
‘Yes.’
I sat back in my chair. I had sown the wind . . . now I was reaping the whirlwind.
‘And did you accept?’
There was a long pause.
For a few moments the storm was still.
In a world of whispers the silence was deafening.
Finally she spoke. Her words were soft like the caress of silk.
And in a heartbeat I knew our two worlds had collided.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jack Sheffield was born in 1945 and grew up in the tough environment of Gipton Estate, in north-east Leeds. After a job as a ‘pitch boy’, repairing roofs, he became a Corona pop man before going to St John’s College, York, and training to be a teacher. In the late seventies and eighties, he was a headteacher of two schools in North Yorkshire before becoming Senior Lecturer in Primary Education at Bretton Hall College of the University of Leeds. It was at this time he began to record his many amusing stories of village life as portrayed in Teacher, Teacher!, Mister Teacher, Dear Teacher, Village Teacher, Please Sir!, Educating Jack and School’s Out!
Silent Night is his eighth novel in the Teacher series and continues the story of life in the fictional village of Ragley-on-the-Forest. He lives in York and Hampshire.
Visit his website at www.jacksheffield.com
Also by Jack Sheffield
Teacher, Teacher!
Mister Teacher
Dear Teacher
Village Teacher
Please Sir!
Educating Jack
School’s Out!
For more information on Jack Sheffield and his books, see his website at www.jacksheffield.com
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First published in Great Britain
in 2013 by Bantam Press
an imprint of Transworld Publishers
Copyright © Jack Sheffield 2013
Jack Sheffield has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.
This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Version 1.0 Epub 9781448110735
ISBN 9780593069714
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