The Cold Cold Sea (11 page)

To Katie’s surprise, however, it was Derek Cameron, the biggest boy, who howled when the parents left, not Hailey. The little girl didn’t speak for the rest of the morning, but she seemed quite happy to sit matching fish cards with three other girls.

At lunchtime, Katie watched as Alison took the children to the dining room, then headed towards the staffroom.

Mark was sitting at the table with a packet of sandwiches. ‘How was it?’ he asked.

Katie poured herself a large mug of coffee.

‘Intensive. We have Julia who never stops talking, Hailey who opened her mouth exactly once, and Derek who was inconsolable when his mum left and has spent the rest of the morning shoving people out of his way. And a few others too. How about you?’

He grinned. ‘I gather I’m the first male teacher they’ve ever had. No-one uttered a squeak uninvited.’

Katie laughed. ‘That’ll soon change!’

She opened her own lunch and sat chewing silently, thinking about her new class. First impressions could tell you a lot, and her first impression of this class was that in Derek and Hailey she had already identified two children who might need more than the ‘normal’ amount of attention. Mind you, nervousness might well be the reason for both Derek’s aggression and his terrible stutter, and Hailey’s shyness.

That afternoon she read
The Rainbow Fish
to the children before letting them choose if they wanted to play or draw. Only three children chose to draw, quiet little Hailey and two boys who were soon giggling away over the same sheet of paper. Even after less than a day, Katie could see that Hailey wasn’t a child who made friends quickly, but she couldn’t let her smallest pupil draw all by herself for the next half hour. In the end she sent Alison to sit with Hailey and went to oversee the others in the play area.

Ten minutes later the assistant was back at her side.

‘Hailey’s fallen asleep.’

Katie looked over to the craft table and grinned. Hailey was sprawled over her drawing, out for the count.

‘Tiring business, starting school. We’ll give her half an hour.’

At half past three she called the children together. Hailey was awake now, looking more than a little rumpled. Quickly, Katie straightened the child’s headband, a whiff of lemon reaching her nose. She smiled round the group.

‘Well done, everyone. That was a very good first day at school. We’ll finish with a song now, and then the bus people can go with Alison, and Graeme and Hailey, you stay with me until your mums or dads pick you up.’

Most of the children knew ‘I’m a Little Fish’, which fitted in well with the first term’s theme of The Ocean. Katie led them through it twice, noticing in amusement that Julia sang the loudest and Hailey didn’t open her mouth. Trends had been set already. The children gathered round to say goodbye, and Katie realised that exhausted or not, this was definitely what she wanted to do in life. Teach little kids. She waved the bus people off before taking Graeme and Hailey out to the car park, where Graeme’s dad was already waiting.

Hailey’s face was bleak as she watched Graeme running to his father, and Katie patted the little girl’s shoulder.

‘Don’t worry, your mum’ll soon be here too.’

The little girl looked up with startled eyes. ‘My
mum’ll
soon be here,’ she echoed slowly, and stood staring expectantly down the drive. Katie smiled to herself. Hailey looked as if she was waiting for a bus that should have arrived hours ago.

The Marshalls’ BMW appeared at the bottom of the driveway, and Hailey turned to Katie, tragedy written right across her face.

‘It’s Mummy,’ she said, her voice trembling.

Katie hid another smile. You didn’t often see a child look so completely gutted to be going home from school. She certainly hadn’t expected it of this child.

‘It is indeed,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry, Hailey, you’ll be coming back to school tomorrow. We’ll have lots of time to play and learn things, you’ll see.’

She hurried Hailey across to the BMW and bundled her in before her poor pregnant mother could struggle out.

Katie stood waving as the big car set off down the drive. Well, her first day as infant mistress had gone pretty well, all things considered. She grinned at Nora and Alison, who were waiting inside.

‘It’s nice when they don’t want to go home, isn’t it?’

Nora laughed.

‘Definitely one of the perks of having a class of fresh new five-year-olds. It won’t last.’

Katie grabbed her jacket, aware that all she wanted now was to cuddle the cat on her sofa and watch something unchallenging on television.

‘Tell me about it. Alison, well done, and I’ll see you tomorrow at half eight. Thanks ladies.’

She stood for a moment at the door, looking round her classroom with some satisfaction. There would be a lot of tomorrows in here, just like she’d told Hailey. And what a very good feeling that was.

Jennifer turned into the coastal road and glanced across at Hailey. The little girl hadn’t spoken since saying goodbye to Miss McLure, and Jennifer gave a sigh of impatience. All she wanted was to have a happy, loving time with her child, and here she was frustrated already and Hailey hadn’t been in the car two minutes. Jennifer had been eagerly waiting to hear all about her first day at school, but now the wretched child was sitting there looking like a wet weekend. She didn’t appear at all glad to be on her way home and she certainly wasn’t bubbling over to tell her mother about her day. It was infuriating, pure and simple, and Jennifer hated feeling like this. It would be the pregnancy hormones of course but her moods were swinging all over the place. It wasn’t what she wanted from motherhood.

‘Well? What did you do this afternoon? And what did you have for lunch?’

Hailey’s voice sounded as if tears weren’t far off but her reply was prompt and the smile was back on her face when she spoke.

‘Miss McLure read us a story and then I did a drawing. It was spaghetti and meatballs for lunch.’

Jennifer nodded. ‘Very nice. I hope you managed to eat without making a mess,’ she said, turning left at the lights. ‘Did Miss McLure like your drawing? Whose was the best?’

Hailey shook her head. ‘It was just me drawing and two boys, but they were playing really. Alison was with me.’

‘Oh? What were the other children doing?’ said Jennifer, pulling into the driveway and turning to give Hailey her full attention. She didn’t much like the sound of this. Why had Hailey been working with the assistant? Wasn’t she able to keep up with her classmates? It didn’t seem like a very positive start.

‘They were playing shops,’ said Hailey. ‘I wanted to draw.’

Jennifer pursed her lips. The child had been awkward at school already. ‘Go inside. You can change into your pink dress and we’ll talk about this later.’

Hailey heaved her schoolbag out of the car and went upstairs without speaking.

Jennifer put the kettle on, wishing with all her heart that she could have something stronger. Dealing with Hailey took every bit of patience she had. And she was tired too, even though she’d been able to lie down this afternoon. She’d been constantly worrying about Hailey at school.

Teacup in one hand and the other supporting her belly, Jennifer lowered herself into the sofa. A framed photo on the bookshelf at her side caught her eye and she lifted it, smiling. There they were, the three of them, in Yorkshire. Phillip with a big proud smile on his face, Hailey aged two looking adorable in a yellow sundress, and herself in that blue silk suit they’d bought in Paris. Jennifer sipped her tea, content again. Such happy memories. She would sit here in her lovely new house with her lovely new schoolgirl and enjoy them.

Apart from the tiredness, the only downside about her life right now was that Phillip was still away, but at least when he did come home he wouldn’t need to start work straight away. He’d been a partner in a successful antiques business in Devon, and with the money he’d inherit from his grandmother he’d be able to start his own place. There would be a lot of money, and of course Phillip had already inherited a very sizable fortune from his parents. Jennifer stroked the deep blue softness of the velvet sofa cushion and smiled again. Life was going to be so good. She couldn’t wait to see Phillip’s face when he saw that she was pregnant.

Hailey slunk into the room and Jennifer sighed, replacing the photo frame on the shelf. Two-year-olds were a lot more adorable than five-year-olds, somehow. She pulled Hailey towards her and adjusted the pink dress before motioning the child to sit beside her.

‘Now, Hailey. Tell me all about you drawing while the other children were playing,’ she said, forcing herself to sound casual.

‘Miss McLure said we could choose. I wanted to draw,’ said Hailey, picking at the hem of her dress.

‘Stop fidgeting. And listen to me. You must
not
go off doing things by yourself,’ said Jennifer, hearing the sharp tone in her voice.

‘I wasn’t by myself. Two boys were drawing too and Alison was with me,’ said Hailey sheepishly.

Jennifer took a deep breath and made herself sound pleasant. ‘Listen very carefully, Hailey. Two things are important. One, you should join in with whatever the other children are doing. It doesn’t matter whether you want to or not, the important thing is that you don’t make yourself noticeable.’

The little girl nodded, blinking back tears, and Jennifer leaned forwards, taking hold of Hailey’s wrist. The child pressed herself back into the cushions.

‘And two, even more important, Hailey, and we’ve said this before, you must be very, very good. If you do anything silly, Miss McLure will punish you in exactly the same way as I would. Is that clear?’

Hailey nodded, her face white.

‘Good. I’m glad we understand each other,’ Jennifer said, loosening her grip on the small wrist. ‘Daddy and I want you to learn your lessons and show everyone what a nice, clever little girl you are. Now bring me your school folder and we’ll see what the homework is.’

The homework was to copy three fish and colour them in. Jennifer watched as Hailey drew unsteady lines on the worksheet, but the end result was more or less satisfactory.

‘There! Just make sure you always do as well as this,’ said Jennifer, sending the little girl upstairs with her folder. ‘Now bring me down your hairbrush.’

She relaxed back into the sofa. It was going to be more work than she’d thought, having a daughter at school. In a way things had been easier back at the farmhouse, where life had consisted of eating and learning how to behave properly. And of course the child had spent a lot of her time there asleep, too. But then, that had been down to Hailey’s magic pills. They had tamed her, she had behaved just like... well -just like Hailey.

Jennifer drummed her fingers on the arm of the sofa. Forget the bad times. They had never happened. Hailey had been there all along. The Bad Patch had made her doubt her own capabilities, but everything was fine. No-one had ever been lost.

Katie glanced at the clock above the classroom door. Ten past twelve. It was nearly time to clear up for lunch.

‘Five more minutes!’ she called, and the children groaned, bending over their paintings with frantic last minute enthusiasm.

Katie smiled, watching them. It was still only the first week, but her classroom was looking more homey by the day. Those paintings would look great on the ‘theme wall’ by the door. She had bought some plants to scatter around, and she was planning to start a fish tank as well. Amazingly, only four of her fifteen pupils had a pet at home.

‘Time to stop!’ she called, and the children groaned again.

Katie walked round the table. ‘Well done, everyone. Leave your pictures where they are to dry, please, put the water beakers on the rack, then wash your hands for lunch.’

Chairs scraped across the floor as the children carried out these tasks, chattering loudly. Katie stood in the doorway to make sure that no-one was knocked down in the rush for the cloakroom - another bonus to working here, each class had their own private cloakroom with two loos and a long, low sink. When everyone was busy washing hands or struggling out of their overalls, she turned back into the classroom.

Hailey Marshall was sitting hunched up in front of her painting, her eyes brimming with tears. Startled, Katie went back to the craft table and sat down beside her. Up until now, Hailey had done everything she’d been told on the dot, though both Katie and Nora Wilson had noticed that not only did the child rarely speak, she didn’t often make eye contact either. It was only the first week of term, of course, and some kids needed longer than others to settle down to school life, but still, Hailey was by far the most introverted child Katie had ever taught.

‘What’s the matter Hailey? Haven’t you finished your painting?’ she asked, putting her hand on Hailey’s head, where thin strands of dull brown hair had escaped the confines of the band. To her dismay the child immediately flinched away before shaking her head, her gaze still fixed on the table.

‘You can carry on with it this afternoon, Hailey. Lots of the others aren’t finished either. Come along and get changed now.’ She stood up and held out a hand. Hailey glanced at her, blinking the tears away. Katie saw anxiety in the child’s eyes. Anxiety, and what looked like fear. It wasn’t the sort of expression that anyone would want to see on a five-year-old face.

‘I’m wet,’ whispered Hailey.

For a brief second, Katie didn’t understand what she meant, then realisation dawned and she grimaced in sympathy.

‘Did you have an accident? Never mind, sweetie, these things happen and it’s easily put right. Let me see.’

Shivering now, Hailey stood up and displayed a large damp patch at the back of her skirt. Katie smiled reassuringly.

‘Okay, Hailey. Sit down again until I see the others off to Mrs Wilson, then I’ll give you a hand.’

She strode through to the cloakroom, where the rest of the class was almost ready. Alison was still on her lunch break, but the children would manage to take themselves along to the dining room.

Katie clapped for silence. ‘Off you go, and remember not to run in the corridor today. Julia, will you tell Mrs Wilson that Hailey will be along in a minute, please? Her skirt got wet while she was painting and I’m just going to dry her off.’