Village Secrets by Rebecca Shaw Read Free Book Online Page B

loved it and I think—’
    Kate held up her hand for silence. ‘Well, I think the rector could do just as good services here too. What do you think, Peter?’
    ‘I prefer the church but then the school is yours so we must do as you wish.’
    ‘Thank you. We’ll see you Friday then, in here at nine o’clock.’
    Hetty objected. ‘It seems to me that, bit by bit, you are abdicating your responsibility for the religious teaching in this school. I’m to take prayers, you take meditation; whatever it is children of this age have to meditate on, I don’t know – possibly who won the FA Cup or who’s got the most Cub badges or something, or praying Dad will win the lottery this week and what they’ll do with the money. Now we’re told we can’t go into church which we all know the rector prefers.’
    ‘Hetty, may I remind you that I am Head here.’ Kate’s voice was hard.
    ‘I don’t need you to remind me. I know , only too well. I don’t agree to this move at all, I’m sorry.’
    Peter intervened. ‘It isn’t as if the children are not getting any religious instruction, Hetty, is it?’
    ‘No, Rector, but it’s being diluted.’
    ‘I’m sure Kate doesn’t—’
    Kate interrupted Peter with a brusque, ‘We have to move with the times.’
    Hetty’s face flushed with anger. ‘That is the classic excuse for not keeping up standards. Mr Palmer would never have agreed …’
    ‘Mr Palmer isn’t Head here, I am . And I shall run the school as I see fit.’
    Hetty Hardaker stood up, her voice heavy with sarcasm as she said, ‘Time for the bell. May I ring it, or shall you as it is your school?’
    Before Kate could answer, Liz Neal rushed into the hall. ‘Anyone seen Beth come this way? She’s disappeared again.’
    Beth had missed Peter and gone to look for him. She’d tried the rectory door but couldn’t reach the bell, and Sylvia, who was upstairs, hadn’t heard her knocking. So now she had nobody, nobody at all. Finding Muriel’s door open, she went in.
    Ralph found her in his study, sitting on a chair in the window rocking backwards and forwards sucking her thumb, sobbing.
    He shut the front door and locked it to keep her safe while he went in search of Muriel. She was on her knees in front of her china cabinet, giving it a good clear-out.
    ‘Muriel, my dear, we have a problem.’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘Beth is sitting in my study, crying.’
    ‘Oh dear. Bang the school, they’ll be looking for her.’ She got up from her knees and headed for the study. Over her shoulder she said, ‘Ring the rectory, too. On the upstairs phone, then she won’t hear. I’ll sit with her.’
    Muriel’s heart bled when she recognised the utter desolation Beth was feeling. ‘Oh, my dear. Will you let Moo sit you on her knee?’
    ‘Moo, Moo, where’s my mummy?’
    When Muriel had got her safely seated on her lap she answered, ‘Well, Beth, before your mummy got you, she was a doctor, you know.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘And she was a very good doctor, too. Everybody loved her.’
    ‘Mummy love me?’
    ‘She does, darling, yes, she does. Very much. You and Alex.’
    ‘And Daddy?’
    ‘Oh yes, and Daddy too. Well, now your mummy has the chance to help poorly people again. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, for Mummy to help poorly people?’
    ‘Little girls too, Moo Moo?’
    ‘Oh yes. She gives medicine to little girls and little boys to make them better. So that’s good, isn’t it?’
    ‘I need medicine. I’ve got a tummy ache.’
    ‘Oh dear.’
    ‘A really truly bad tummy ache.’
    Ralph, meanwhile, had heard the bell and opened the door to Peter. ‘She’s in my study with Muriel,’ he said, reassuringly.
    ‘Very sorry about this. Thank you so much for taking her in.’
    ‘She came in by herself. I’d left the door open for a moment and in she popped.’
    ‘Thanks anyway. It’s terribly worrying.’
    ‘Daddy, got a truly bad tummy ache, need Mummy’s medicine.’
    ‘Well, I’ve got some