Page 103 of Lessons in Life

‘Oy,’ I said now as Fabian stood with his binoculars searching for the pair of swans that nested on the village pond, ‘you’ll be arrested if you keep standing at the window with no clothes on. They’ll think some naked pervert has moved in. And, you could try bringing toasted crumpets and a pot of coffee back to bed with you,’ I went on. ‘I think that might go a long way as compensation for my having to witness another woman wrapped round you in The Alchemist in Leeds.’

‘It wasn’t easy, Robyn,’ Fabian said, turning back to me, and not for the first time I marvelled at his bloody gorgeous body. ‘We’d been working all day on Joel’s case and I couldn’t say anything to Alex in the office – not professional at all for us to be discussing our personal relationship. I suggested a drink so that I could break it to her as gently as I could that any relationship we might be having…’

‘Relationship you might be having?’ I asked crossly, sitting up in bed.

‘…would be purely professional to help Joel. That I’d only taken on this case because of Sorrel. I’d see it through but after that, I don’t care what it takes or where it takes us, Jess and I are going into the restaurant business together?—’

He broke off as my phone rang.

‘Leave it, Robyn,’ he said, coming over, raining little kisses down my back, reaching a hand to lift my hair as his mouth moved to that little hollow above my collarbone he’d discovered was my downfall…

‘Hang on, it’s Mum,’ I breathed reluctantly. ‘Just let me take it. You do breakfast and I promise, after that I’ll give you my undivided attention… sorry, Mum, I was talking to Fabian then… sorry, you want to dowhat…? Today…? Why now…? You and Jess are going over…? And Sorrel as well? Right, OK… yes… yes… I’ll come as well… don’t think you’ll get anywhere though…’

Mum carried on talking for another five minutes, one minute slightly tearful, one minute animated. I put the phone down, lying back on the pillows, but my phone rang immediately once more.

‘Hi, Jo… You OK…? Today…? Later this morning…? I don’t know wherehereis, Jo…’ I laughed. ‘Oh, I didn’t realise you were in Beddingfield too. For some reason I thought you lived near school… What’s up…? OK, tell me when I get there…’ I quickly wrote down the address she gave me. ‘I promised I’d take Boris for a walk… I’ll call in on my way if you’re OK with a Goldendoodle…?’

‘Who’re you talking to?’ Fabian, followed by a salivating Boris, was back with a tray piled high with breakfast goodies. ‘Hang on, let me get this dog back downstairs.’

‘Mum…’ I said, biting into a crisp crumpet, butter running down my chin. ‘God, I don’t know how you manage to get these crumpets just right, Fabian. Mine are always soft and floppy…’

‘Neverhave I countenancedanythingfloppy.’ He grinned, leering lasciviously like a dirty old man, and I started to laugh through my mouthful of crumpet.

I took another wonderful bite. ‘Not even floppy disks, years ago?’ I mumbled.

‘You had floppy dicks, years ago?’ Fabian started laughing. ‘No wonder you were hot on my heels in Leeds last night looking for what you knew you’d be missing…’

‘And then Jo from school on the phone – you know, who’s trying to work out Mum’s family history for us? I said I’d pop in when I’m out walking Boris. I know you’ve some work to do.’

‘Is your mum grounded?’ Fabian was slightly indignant. ‘I can’t believe you allowed her to go off with the enemy.’

‘Grounded?’ I stared as a picture of Mum, ordered to her room for daring to fly off with Kamran Sattar, flashed before me. ‘Oh, you mean, literally!’ I laughed. ‘We were hoping Mr Sattar might spill the beans about what he’s up to with both Hudson House and St Mede’s.’

‘And did he?’

‘That’s what we’re hoping to find out. But—’ I swallowed, reaching for my mug ‘—Mum says she wants to go over to the Foleys’ herself.’

Fabian swallowed his last bit of crumpet, both he and Boris – who’d crept back upstairs – looking longingly at my remaining one, and whistled. ‘Why?’

‘No idea, unless it’s because Jess and I have already tried to get things out of them and failed. She’ll feel a lot braver facing them with the three of us behind her.’

‘Jesus, I’d like to be a fly on the wall when this Foley woman opens the door on all four of you Allen women.’ Fabian pulled a scared face. ‘One of you at any one time is more than enough, but the four of you on the doorstep…?’ Fabian exhaled. ‘Good luck with that one.’

* * *

‘Whoa, he’s a big boy.’ Jo Cooper, Head of History at St Mede’s, laughed as Boris, ordered to sit, quivered excitedly, desperate to greet her. ‘Bring him in, he’s fine.’

‘Watch your ornaments,’ I cautioned. ‘He’s a bit like a bull in the proverbial.’

I followed her into a tiny kitchen and then through to a beautiful but untidy sitting room where a woman, probably in her mid-seventies, was attempting to clear the papers and books from every surface. She looked up and smiled, her arms full of back copies ofThe Guardianas well as piles ofFamily TreeandFind Your Ancestors. A large Mac computer was drowning under a deluge of school planning, papers and marking. Three piles of St Mede’s red history exercise books were open, obviously awaiting Jo’s attention.

‘Jo, how the hell do you work like this?’ The older woman tutted before smiling at me and bending to give Boris the attention he craved.

‘God, sorry,’ I said as Boris scattered two of the piles in his eagerness to greet the woman.

‘Oh, don’t worry!’ Jo laughed. ‘The Year 9 essays on the Treaty of Versailles probably make as much sense with a few paw prints on them… Mum, this is Robyn from school. Robyn, my mum, Janice. Mum used to teach at St Mede’s twenty-five years ago.’

‘Oh, really?’

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