And it wouldn’t have taken an MI5 codebreaker to read between the lines and work out what that meant, either.
* * *
Rory had pupils’ books at home which she needed to collect and bring into school. The house was empty when she got there. Charlie and Belle had gone to Sheila’s because Rory would be working into the night. A bit of spoiling by Granny would do Belle the world of good, and the two of them could comfort Sheila too. She’d practically adopted Charlie as her grandson.
Rory got a warm fuzz of contentment every time she walked into this hallway. John had done such a good job of it – and the rest of the house. There was no way she could have done all this on her own. The painting she’d done quite a bit of, and she had even given the wallpapering a go. But the plastering, the flooring, and the coving – that would have taken her years. She pushed an image of Sheila nodding knowingly at her from her mind.
Rory had got used to having John around the place. He’d helped her in so many other ways. Looking for Belle last night. Being so great with Charlie. Making her laugh when she was having a bad day.
She put her bag down in the sitting room and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. This was fast becoming her favourite room. When no one was there, she liked to lay out ingredients along the counter and pretend she was on a cooking show. The shiny cabinets. The granite worktops. She was so in love with it, she was even managing to keep it clean.
But there was something not quite right in here. She couldn’t put her finger on it. The taps weren’t on – she’d made that mistake before – and the cooker was off. Her eyes trailed around the room. What was it?
It was the same in the sitting room. A nagging feeling. Was something missing? Maybe it was just the lack of both Belle and Charlie. The house wasn’t usually this quiet. Or was she just feeling unsettled by everything at school?
There was a knock at the door.
‘Oh. Hi. I wasn’t sure you’d be in.’ John waved a set of keys as he followed her into the kitchen. Her keys. ‘I just came to give you these back.’
Automatically, Rory started to fill the kettle. Strong tea, two sugars. She didn’t need to ask. But she was confused about the keys.
‘Why are you giving them back to me?’
He put the keys down onto the counter. ‘I don’t need them any more. You’re all done. I came and cleared up this morning.’
John swept out a hand, encompassing the kitchen and the sitting room. That was it. That’s what was missing. Tools. Boxes of tiles. Bags of plaster. There was nothing anywhere.
For the last two months, there had been a work in progress somewhere in the house at all times. Whether it had been a half-painted wall, a part-tiled floor or a bigger job like the boxes of kitchen cupboards they had all had to limbo around, something had always been awaiting completion. But not any longer.
Rory felt a fluttering in her chest. ‘Are you sure? I mean. Everything?’
In her head, Rory visited every room in the house. The three bedrooms were painted. The upstairs bathroom was done. The kitchen. The sitting room. John was right; everything was done.
John smiled. ‘Yep. Hard to take it in, isn’t it? You finally got rid of me and my mess.’
This wasn’t right. She needed time to take this in. To say the right thing. She hadn’t even had time to think about what she might want to say. Whatever she had told Belle, Sheila or Susie, there was a small part of her which had… hoped? She had tried to trample it down. To remind herself that she was a customer and John Prince was just doing his job. But somewhere, at the back of her brain, the bottom of her stomach, the edges of her heart, she had wished that maybe, something might happen. She needed time to work this out. She needed to say something before it was too late.
But not now. She had to get back to school. The others were waiting for her. There wasn’t a teacher in the land who wouldn’t be squirreling away into the early hours the night before a school inspection.
John pulled a crumpled envelope from his back pocket. He didn’t meet Rory’s eye as he leaned over to slide it onto the kitchen counter. ‘This is the embarrassing bit. My invoice. There’s no rush at all.’
Rory swallowed. What had she been expecting? That he was going to work for free? Of course he had to give her an invoice for his time. Hadn’t she been the one who had been so repeatedly insistent about paying him? Life is not a fairy tale, Rory.
‘Of course. I’ll… I’ll get on to it straight away.’ She picked up the envelope. Was he saying goodbye? Was this the last time she was going to see him? She needed to say something. Anything. Why was her mind completely blank? Think, Rory, think!
He took the envelope out of her hand and slid it back onto the counter, before turning to look at her. ‘Don’t look at it now.’
This was the moment. The moment when the hero took the princess in his arms and told her that he’d been in love with her all along. The moment when he’d proclaim that he’d been waiting for her all his life. The moment that…
Her mobile rang.
Susie sounded like she’d climbed to the top of the stress tree and couldn’t get down. ‘Rory! What are you doing? We need you back here. Penny is a mess.’
She had no choice. She couldn’t let her friends down. ‘I’ll be right there.’
John raised his eyebrow. ‘Everything all right?’
How many times had Rory seen that expression on his face lately? His ‘ready to help’ expression. She was really going to miss it. ‘It’s school. We’ve got an inspection tomorrow. I’m sorry. I have to go.’
John hopped off his stool. ‘Of course. I’ll… er… I’ll see you around.’
Rory had no idea where she would see him ‘around’. Apart from their initial meeting at B&Q and his random rescue the night she lost Belle’s shoe, she had only ever met him at the house. And now the house was finished. When would she see him again? Come on, brain.
‘I can drop the cheque round to you later in the week?’
John tapped the envelope on the kitchen counter. ‘You can just pay it online. All the details are in there.’
Damn technology. ‘Oh. Right. I’ll do that, then.’
They stood there. Neither saying anything. Rory remembered telephone conversations with boyfriends in her younger days: ‘You hang up. No, you hang up.’
John took a deep breath…
Rory’s phone rang again. Belle.
‘Mum, I know you’re busy, but can you drop Charlie’s phone to Gran’s because he’s left it at home?’
John was getting his coat on.
Rory ended the call as quickly as she could. ‘Yes. Got to go. Bye.’
John started to walk towards the door. ‘I can see you’re in a rush. I’ll catch up with you later. I can see myself out.’
Unless she threw herself in his path, there was nothing that Rory could do to stop him. Had he been about to say something, or was she just inventing that in her own mind because she wanted him to? Damn Susie’s panic call. Damn Charlie’s forgotten phone and damn, damn, double damn the bloody school inspectors.
The front door banged closed. The same front door John had fixed for her all those weeks ago.
Rory shook her head to clear her mind and ran up the stairs to find Charlie’s phone. Right now, she needed to forget about John and get herself into school.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Before she went to her classroom, Rory stuck her head in the door of Penny’s.
‘Thank goodness you’re here,’ Penny breathed out. ‘I’m panicking about being observed tomorrow.’
Rory walked in and gave her a quick hug. ‘Don’t be. You are very unlikely to get a visit. Think of us poor English teachers; they’re always all over us.’
Penny smiled. ‘Looks like it’s too late to give Nathan Finch a taste of his own medicine.’
‘What do you mean?’ Rory sat down behind one of the pupil desks and placed her splayed palms in front of her. ‘Getting him to teach a lesson in
front of the inspectors would be perfect.’
Penny’s hand went to her neck. ‘Surely not, Rory. We can’t do that to him.’
Rory winked and then ran her eye over Penny. ‘How’s your stomach been today?’
Before Penny could answer, they were interrupted by a knock on the – open – door to Penny’s classroom. ‘Ah, there you are, Ms Wilson. Can I have a word?’
* * *
At Nathan’s request, Rory followed him to his office, leaving her open-mouthed colleague behind her. How much had he heard? He motioned for her to precede him into his office and then closed the door firmly behind them. There was no offer of coffee.
Now seated behind his desk, he looked distinctly uncomfortable. ‘I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how important this inspection is to the school.’
He meant to him, but it was important for all of them. ‘Of course.’
He tapped his fingers on the surface of the desk. ‘And if anything should go… badly. It would not be good for any of us.’
This was ridiculous. If he had overheard her, Rory wanted to know. ‘What are you trying to say?’
Nathan almost crumpled before her eyes. ‘I heard what you were saying to Penny just now, Rory. And I know what’s happened. I know you’ve rumbled me. And I wanted to say, it’s fine. You win.’
This was a side to Nathan that she’d never seen before. A vulnerable one. ‘Sorry. What do you…’
He held up a hand to stop her. ‘I confess. I'm not a natural teacher. I'm better at the bigger picture. As soon as I could get out of the classroom into a management role, I did.’
But this didn’t explain how he had got those management roles if he couldn’t perform in the classroom. ‘You still taught lessons before that. You must be able to teach?’
‘The school I was in had a very prescriptive curriculum. We were given lesson plans to follow. Textbooks to work through.’ He sighed. ‘Rory, what you have, this teaching ability – not everyone has it. That’s why we need strict rules that everyone can follow. Consistency makes for better teachers.’
He still didn’t get it. ‘That’s just not true, Nathan. I agree that some teachers have an extra something. But anyone can improve. And making people teach like robots is not the way to do it.’
Nathan loosened his tie. He looked like it was choking him. ‘My remit here is to improve teaching and learning. I can put new procedures and processes into place – I’m good at that. But the touchy, feely stuff… The coaching and cajoling of staff into doing things the right way…’ He looked intently at Rory. ‘That’s where I was hoping you would come in. That’s why I was in your classroom so frequently. I was checking you out.’
Rory choked back a laugh at his expression. Nathan flushed. ‘Sorry, bad choice of words.’
‘No, I’m sorry. It’s just that 10-G thought you were checking me out for a different reason.’ The atmosphere in here needed lightening. It felt like Nathan might cry. It was unsettling.
But Nathan didn’t laugh. ‘No, it wasn’t you I…’ He suddenly remembered himself. ‘I mean, my interest in you was purely professional. I needed to work out if you could bring the skills that I was lacking. I was supposed to put together an action plan for improving teaching. But now the inspectors are coming in the morning and I haven’t had time to…’ His elbows thumped onto the desk and he planted his face into his palms. Was he trembling? ‘I’m going to lose my job. No one will take me on this late in the year. Who’ll take on a failed deputy head who only lasted two months?’
Rory shuffled in her seat. ‘They’re not going to fire you.’
A haunted face came out of Nathan’s hands. ‘How do you know? The governors were very specific. I gave them a whole raft of ideas about improving teaching practice and now…’ He offered her his open hands. ‘And now the inspectors are coming and I’m not ready. Nothing is ready.’
Rory may not have known how to install a kitchen or plumb in a bathroom, but when it came to teaching, she was confident. It was time for her to be the helper. On her terms. ‘Well, it can be. I will help you. I can write a coaching programme for tomorrow. But only if I have your word that you will be more flexible on some of these new ideas. If you want teachers to be professional, you need to treat them like professionals. Let them decide what works with each of their classes.’
Nathan groaned and sat back in his chair. ‘I don't know, Rory. How will I measure their progress?’
He still didn’t get it. ‘Not everything can be measured in numbers on spreadsheets. Sometimes you've got to use your own eyes and ears.’
Nathan ran his fingers through his hair, so that it was standing up in tufts. He looked like a young boy. ‘But the inspectors are coming in the morning.’
Rory nodded and stood. ‘If I have your word on this, I can spend tonight writing up a coaching programme which will knock their inspectorial socks off.’
Nathan stared at her for at least fifteen seconds. Then he nodded.
* * *
As the next day dawned, the school was unnaturally quiet. The caretakers had cleaned the place with a toothbrush; there wasn’t a crisp packet or a piece of chewing gum to be found. Teachers stood in their doorways, ready to hook in any badly-behaved corridor clowns. The worst-offending pupils were being traded like the last day of the transfer window.
Rory had worked at school until 10 p.m. and then at home until the early hours, producing a coaching plan which would impress the most data-driven, hard-nosed school inspector. She had also knocked up a day of lesson plans which would secure her reputation as the model teacher to provide that coaching.
Annoyingly, no one came to observe any of these amazing lessons. However, an inspector did spend twenty minutes in Penny’s lesson, which he later proclaimed to be ‘innovative and exemplary’. Rory would enjoy reminding Nathan Finch of that for the rest of the year.
* * *
Susie and Penny came back to Rory’s for a glass of wine. ‘Do you think we did it?’ Penny was still glowing from her positive feedback.
Susie chinked her glass against Penny’s. ‘Stop worrying. It was a good inspection. We’ll get a decent rating and the parents and governors will be happy. Plus, the inspectors won’t be back again for another couple of years at least.’
‘I’m so grateful to you for your support these last few weeks. Both of you.’ Penny’s eyes filled. ‘You are good friends.’
‘Get away with you.’ Rory nudged her. ‘You’re the one who is innovative and exemplary.’
Belle wandered into the sitting room. ‘You lot seem happy.’
‘We managed to turn the bad guy into a possible good guy for once.’ Rory patted the seat beside her. ‘Come and celebrate with us.’
Susie sat up straight. ‘You’re absolutely right. We need to celebrate. Properly, I mean. Not just with this Aldi bubbly. Why don’t you have a party?’
Rory realised that Susie was looking at her. ‘A party? Here? No.’ Rory shook her head. ‘Not my thing.’
But it was Belle’s thing. ‘That’s a great idea! Oh Mum, please let us have a party. We need to have a housewarming anyway, to show everyone our new home now it’s finished.’
Finished? Rory thought of the unopened envelope on the worktop. Her stomach flipped. It would be nice to show the place off, but she wasn’t in the mood for a houseful.
‘No, Belle, I don’t think…’
But Belle and Susie were already making a list.
‘I can bring Jim. Might get him off my sofa and out. Don’t worry, I won’t bring his awful mate.’ Susie winked at Rory. ‘Unless you need a date?’
Dragon Man? Did she really have to have him in her house? What other undesirables would she have to have trudging across her nice new floors? ‘No thanks. I think I’ll pass.’
‘Can I bring someone?’ Penny was hesitant.
Susie looked at her as if she was crazy. ‘Of course! We want to meet this man of yours at long last.’
Penny smiled. ‘And c
an I bring Colin? The librarian? He never gets invited to work parties.’
Susie winked at her. ‘Is it because he’s too much of a party animal? Rory has just painted these walls.’
Penny slapped her with the back of her hand. ‘He’s a very nice man. Clever and funny.’
‘You lost Susie at clever.’ Rory pretended to speak behind her hand. ‘That’s never been at the top of her list. What are his arms like?’
‘I think she was talking to you, Rory; I have a boyfriend, remember?’ Susie flicked the bottom of her hair with her hand and poked her tongue out at Rory.
‘We’ll invite John Prince, of course.’ Belle was still making a list. ‘We can’t not invite him when he’s the one who’s done most of the work.’
Her over-exaggerated look of innocence made it clear that she hadn’t given up on setting up Rory with John. On the one hand, Rory was pleased that Belle’s unpleasant experience with The Nobhead – as Alfie was now unaffectionately known – hadn’t robbed of her romantic notions entirely. On the other, she wished she’d direct them elsewhere. It was almost painful. She swallowed. ‘He might not want to come, Belle.’
Susie frowned. ‘Of course he will. Why wouldn’t he? Has something happened between the two of you?’
‘No. It’s just that the work has finished now and he’s probably busy starting a new job. I mean, it’s not like we were friends or anything.’
The three of them studied her. Susie spoke first. ‘Of course. Everyone’s builder saves them from choking on an apple.’
‘Or rescues them from their upstairs window.’ Penny nodded slowly.
‘Or helps to find their missing children.’ Belle tapped the tip of her nose with the pen.
They managed to hold their faces straight for another ten seconds, then burst out laughing.
‘Ha, ha. You are all so very funny.’ Rory shook her head at them. Let them enjoy their joke. It was fine for them to assume that John liked her but, if he did, why had he never said anything? Why had he just left yesterday without even a backwards look?
Happily Never After_A laugh-out-loud romantic comedy Page 23