Faintley Speaking

‘I had never thought of such a thing, naturally,’ she replied, ‘I trust my staff implicitly. One must. But the news of her death has been so disturbing, and the reason for it so mysterious that I am prepared to believe almost anything of her now. You mean that she was not necessarily an innocent victim? There were… reasons for her death?’

‘It begins to look like it. She is known to have taken parcels from Hagford to a small shop kept by a man named Tomson, who does not appear altogether to be persona grata with the police.’

‘Oh, dear! This is worse than I thought. It will be very bad for the school if all this comes out, as I suppose it is bound to do.’

‘I don’t know. Miss Faintley may have been a cat’s-paw. That is the theory at present.’

‘Then it doesn’t say much for her brains and character. Well, as I cannot be of further assistance…’

She smiled, to terminate the interview, and opened the door. Mrs Bradley collected Laura and informed her of the fate in store.

Chapter Eight

KINDLEFORD SCHOOL

‘And the treason, too long pent,

To his ears was evident.

The young deities discuss’d

Laws of form and metre just,

Orb, quintessence, and sunbeams,

What subsisteth and what seems.’

ralph waldo emerson – Uriel

« ^ »

The first person Laura noticed as she entered the school playground was Mark. She had not bargained for this. She would have to teach Mark; she might have to rebuke or even punish him; she would have to forget their previous alliance and the easy and confidential fabric of which it had been built, and, above all, she would have to forget (and, what was much more difficult, see to it that Mark forgot, too) that she and he had been together when she found Miss Faintley’s body.

Slightly to her resentment, it appeared that Miss Golightly had foreseen these complications and was prepared to deal with them in what Laura deemed to be her characteristic fashion.

Laura had acknowledged Mark’s salute and shy grin with a nod, and had gone straight to the head teacher’s room to report that she had arrived and was prepared to begin her duties. Miss Golightly greeted her charmingly, produced the school time-table, explained Laura’s part in it shortly and comprehensibly, showed her a list of school duties which included keeping a milk and dinner list, officiating in the playground during break, taking her turn at dinner duty, supervision of the cloakrooms, the banning of chewing-gum and strip-cartoon papers (for all), facial adornment (for the girls), lethal weapons (for the boys), fountain-pens (for both sexes), and likewise personal bottles of ink. There was also the more debatable matter of gymnastics on the cloakroom bars and pegs, and the shoo-ing off of all children from the school premises when school was over except for such as claimed to be (a) going to the lavatory because they were being put in detention; (b) required for choir practice, dramatic club, games practice or any other recognized out-of-school activity; or (c) waiting (a nuisance this, but unavoidable, it appeared) for the bus to take them to the outlying villages from which they were separated each school day.

‘Fun and games, in fact,’ commented Laura cheerfully. ‘All right, Miss Golightly. Fair enough. What a ghastly life kids lead, when one comes to think of it! Harried, chivvied, overruled and put upon! I’m glad I’m as old as I am. How do you feel about it?’

Miss Golightly smiled sourly, but Laura, accustomed to Mrs Bradley’s leering, intimidating grins, was not impressed. Miss Golightly sensed this, and her smile altered and became amiable.

‘I entirely agree with you, Miss Menzies,’ she replied.

‘Grand! Now, touching a matter of some slight embarrassment to himself and me —’

‘I shall see Street,’ said the headmistress. ‘You need anticipate no difficulty there. You get his form once a week only. Out of school there will naturally be no contact.’

‘Unless the police case calls for it,’ said Laura. ‘That seems to sum things up,’ she added brightly. ‘And now, what about the botany syllabus?’

Miss Golightly opened a drawer and handed over a typescript. Laura glanced at it.

‘Can do,’ she said. ‘How do you like it taught? – “How doth the little busy bee?” – or a list of natural orders, with appropriate information attached, all done out nice and proper in our little notebooks?’

‘You’ll soon see!’ snapped Miss Golightly, and, with this intensely human reaction, she gained a place in Laura’s affections which she was destined not to lose. ‘And it’s ten minutes to nine,’ she added. ‘Time you were in your little classroom! At break I will introduce you to the rest of the staff.’

She conducted Laura to a room on the ground floor of the school, introduced her briefly to a mixed class of twelve-year-old children and left her. Laura was equal to the situation.

‘All right,’ she said. ‘Who’s the form captain?’

Two children, a boy and a girl, stood up amid comments from the rest of the class.

‘Right,’ said Laura. ‘After break I shall want to know who are the window monitors, the milk monitors, the dinner monitors, the door monitor, the cupboard monitors, the general scavengers, the fort-holder, the flower monitor, the blackboard monitor, the hymn-book monitor, the teacher’s yes-man, the teacher’s pest, the liaison