Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Lucy
True to her word, Lucy got up early to make breakfast for the retired couple while Juliet slept in.
The bacon was a bit blackened in parts and the eggs were runny, but at least the coffee was good.
Lucy drank a mug of it while the couple gathered their things to conquer Scafell Pike; she’d gotten used to the ebb and flow of B the original building was Victorian, but there had been various additions built over the years that meant you had to go through one classroom to get to another, and a hallway might dead-end against a newer wall.
Alex walked with quick assurance, weaving through empty hallways and classrooms before he stopped in front of a door.
“This is our old resource room,” he explained.
“We acquired a new computer room in the latest renovation, so this room is a bit redundant.” He opened the door and ushered her in.
It was a long, narrow room in the older part of the building with a table in the middle and an old stone sink in the corner.
A couple of flimsy cupboards of prefabricated wood lined one wall.
“Who knows what it was a hundred years ago?” Alex said with a small smile. “Maybe part of the kitchens.”
“Mmm.” Lucy glanced around, trying to summon an expression of interest in the empty room when she had no idea why Alex had brought her here.
“The thing is,” he began, and to her amazement he actually sounded a little nervous, “we don’t have any specialist teachers. No budget for them, I’m afraid.”
“Specialist?”
“You know, things like PE, French, music.” He paused, his gaze resting meaningfully on her. “Art.”
“Art—”
“The teachers have to do it all themselves, and frankly some of them have trouble with it. It’s all right for something like PE, when all you have to do is grab a ball and head outside. But music and art require a little knowledge, a little skill.”
“I suppose . . .”
“You have both, Lucy. And you’re good with children.”
“No, I’m not—”
“You are,” he insisted. “I’ve seen you when one of them gets a bumped head or a scraped knee. They like you. People like you.”
Yes, but they don’t love me. Thankfully those words didn’t pop out. She had an easy time making friends; it was the more important people that she failed to win over..
“So what are you suggesting?” she asked warily.