Chapter Thirty-seven
Despite all the lovely changes in Sylvie’s life, the world did not stop spinning on its axis, or explode into a hundred happy unicorns; instead it carried on its unrelenting trudge.
Luckily Sylvie’s unrelenting trudge was one she enjoyed immensely.
Getting Sam up in their cottage in the dark mornings and walking into school on days when the rain held off, stopping to pick up Ellie and Alex on the way, was her idea of heaven.
This morning had been crisp with its cold, the temperature having dipped drastically in the night.
As Sylvie and Sam marched stoically up the road, Sylvie wondered if perhaps she should have driven this morning.
It had been terribly tempting, but she and Alex had made a deal when she moved into the village that they would make the children walk every morning unless there was Flood (seriously heavy rain), Fire (unlikely) or Famine (impossible with the way Alex insisted on feeding them all at every turn).
She was just wondering if she could convince Alex somehow that extreme cold made her very cross so surely hit the criteria for Fury when she saw Ellie jumping about on her front step, fluffy ear muffs on and ladybird gloves, joined with a long piece of yarn and threaded through her coat – Alex had learnt the hard way.
‘They’re here!’ Her excited shriek resounded down the street and Sam speeded up. Instead of running to meet him as she usually did, Ellie raced inside and popped out again with two travel mugs, Alex behind her, also with two mugs and a pair of woolly gloves.
‘Morning.’ He leant in and gave Sylvie his usual morning kiss on the side of her cheek, and like every morning she wished she could angle her face (or her resolve) just a little so he hit her lips instead, and then she could open her mouth just a little and…
Anyway, she never did – the children were here and she had established that giving in to her feelings was not a good long-term plan.
She had her life on an even keel for the first time in years; she was waking up happy now, and feeling complete.
She assumed that’s what it was – that made the most sense, and it wasn’t really something she had felt before.
There was no way she was going to topple it, not even for…
Alex handed her a mug and she found herself glancing at his hands, well-worn and sinewy. For goodness’ sake!
‘Hot chocolate.’ His words broke her reverie and she realized she had been staring at the mug, or the hands offering it, probably with that lost lust-filled look she seemed to adopt a lot recently.
‘It’s blooming freezing so I thought we could walk to school with these and then I’ll bring them all home with me later. ’
‘You are a marvel.’
‘I know, I’m an absolute keeper.’ His whole face lit up and there was a teasing lilt to his voice.
‘Damn straight. You’re going to make someone very happy.’
Although, selfishly, she rather hoped it wouldn’t be for a while yet.
She smiled up as he shut the door and they walked along to school companionably with the two kids chattering away in front of them, Sam explaining fun facts he had learnt about crows from Matt the day before.
The two had taken to talking through the fence, Sam standing on the patio furniture, and they’d chatter for ages about plants, animals, birds and so forth.
Two old men putting the world to rights.
She could feel Alex keep glancing over at her; there was clearly something on his mind and she couldn’t quite work out what it was.
He might not be hers but they had become so close over the last few months, she couldn’t, didn’t want to, imagine her life without him in it.
She figured she had a couple of years at least before action and adventure called him back.
They reached the school and walked through the gates towards the quad and the entrance to the Reception Class.
Everyone they saw greeted them by name and yet again, she was filled with a sense of community.
And the niggling comprehension that ‘Alex and Sylvie’ and ‘Sylvie and Alex’ was such natural phrasing for everyone these days.
As they reached the classroom the two children handed Alex their empty mugs and Sylvie reached over to wipe Sam’s chocolate moustache, but seeing her intention he stepped back and did it himself.
Then both kids said goodbye and Sylvie waved them in and handed Alex her mug as she prepared to go to the PE cupboard to get the resources she needed for later.
But instead of walking her most of the way there as he left, he took the mug and stayed where he was. That seemed a little odd.
Not having time to question it too deeply, she headed off.
As she reached the other side of the quad she remembered that she had forgotten to ask Alex whether he and Ells would like to come to the cinema at the weekend.
Looking over her shoulder to see if he was still there, she saw both the children had come back out of the classroom and were huddled with him, outside in the cold, and most scarily of all, Marion Marksharp was with the three of them.
OK, she wasn’t delusional, something was up. She turned on her heel and prepared to find out exactly what was causing them all to be together and looking so conspiratorial.
‘Ooh, Sylvie. Perfect, I’m so glad I’ve found you. Could you come with me? I really need you.’ Harmony had appeared from nowhere and looked like she wanted to physically grab hold of her.
‘OK, I’ll be there in a minute, I just need to…’
Harmony’s voice crescendoed. ‘No, no, no! I’m afraid it’s an absolute emergency.
You must come now! Rafe Marksharp has locked Alice in the stationery cupboard and I was supposed to be keeping an eye on Amanda’s class as they came in whilst she was doing an early-morning parent meeting. You’re the only one he’ll listen to.’
‘Marion’s over there,’ Sylvie gestured across the tarmac. ‘She’ll sort it out.’
Harmony paled in front of her. ‘Oh, please, no! That’s even worse than getting Amanda.
With Mr Marksharp away so much she’s practically the chair of governors now, and she’s been trying to get rid of me for years.
She says I lack the gravitas needed to teach, and she tried to introduce a staff dress code because she said Penmenna School was not a Native American encampment.
She doesn’t have a compassionate bone in her body which is why she doesn’t recognize that some of us have soft skills that are far more important than her bullying style.
You have really good soft skills, Sylvie.
Please.’ Harmony’s words were delivered at such speed and with such genuine terror that Sylvie didn’t have a choice.
That stationery cupboard within that classroom was tiny – how Rafe had managed to squash Alice in was beyond comprehension – and she couldn’t have Alice running out of air.
Goodness knows how long Harmony had battled with Rafe before giving up and coming to search for help.
With a deep sigh, Sylvie accepted defeat, but she needed to find out what was being discussed on the other side of the playground, so she’d be hunting that man down later!