The Dream House by Rachel Hore

Author:Rachel Hore [Hore, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781471127168
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2012-11-22T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Kate wasn’t able to read any more of Agnes’s diaries until after the children had gone to bed that evening. There was one interruption after another.

First of all, after lunch, the phone had rung.

‘Mrs Hutchinson – Kate – it’s Gwyneth Smithson here. I wonder whether you’ve time to pop into my office before school ends this afternoon? I just want to show you this letter Mr Overden and I have drafted. And I need to check, would you be able to make a meeting next Thursday evening? That’s when the clerk from Education can come and see us.’

‘One moment, Mrs Smithson,’ said Kate and put the phone down on the table. ‘Joyce?’ she said, putting her head round the kitchen door. ‘You wouldn’t be able to look after the kids next Thursday evening, would you? Or would you like me to ask Michelle?’

Joyce dried her hands on a tea-towel and came to squint at the calendar hanging in the hall.

‘I’ll give them their baths first and get them in their pyjamas,’ Kate put in quickly, feeling guilty that her mother-in-law was having to babysit so soon after having the children for the weekend.

‘Well, I’ve got no plans that evening, so, yes,’ said Joyce.

Kate mouthed her thanks and picked up the phone again. ‘Hello? Yes, that Thursday should be all right.’ Her voice sounded more breezy than she felt. Who knew what next week would bring at the moment? Would she still have a husband, for a start?

‘This is the list of parents who’ve volunteered to help,’ said Mrs Smithson later that afternoon. Good, Sebastian’s father and Debbie were on the list, and Stuart from the post office. More of a mixed blessing in Kate’s eyes was Jasmin Thornton. Jasmin, the mother of eight-year-old twin boys, was a bossy woman with an Alice band, too-pale make-up and a voice sharp enough to shatter bottles at fifty paces. She was always highly organized – the twins’ lunch boxes with their home-made organic avocado and chickpea rolls and chocolate puddings were the envy of those mothers who cared about such things, and if costumes were called for, Jasmin’s boys were the stars of any show with her imaginative and beautifully turned-out creations. On top of these achievements, Jasmin held down a job as partner of a solicitors’ firm in Ipswich. How did she fit it all in?

Kate had to admit that, although Jasmin made her feel inadequate she would be incredibly useful with her list of contacts and her formidable organizational abilities.

The letter, inviting parents to attend the meeting the following week, was a no-nonsense call to arms. A Mr Keppel from the Education Department would be in the hot seat and there would be plenty of opportunity for questions. It was hoped that all parents would attend.

‘We’ve invited the vicar, as well,’ said Mrs Smithson, ‘and some of the parish council. We need all the help we can get.’

‘We surely ought to get the committee together to start work the week after,’ said Kate.

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