Page 58 of Lessons in Life

Janice patted her leg as Eloise began to rise. ‘No, don’t be daft…’ She broke off as four navy-overalled men in their early twenties walked past, the girls’ attention now thankfully off Eloise and her smelly sandwich.

‘Ooh, Janice, you’ve gone all red.’ Jean elbowed the girl.

‘No, I haven’t.’

‘Haven’t you got anywhere with him yet?’ Susan spoke through her too-ambitious mouthful of Wagon Wheel biscuit.

‘She’d have told us if she had,’ Jean said. ‘Y’aven’t, ’ave you?’

‘I’m doing my best,’ Janice said, pulling at her long dark fringe to hide her red face. ‘He’s off to the Regent Rooms on Saturday night. I asked him.’

‘I wouldn’t bother with him, Janice,’ Gail said. ‘Now that Paul McCartney’s free again.’

The others turned. ‘What? He’s finished with Jane Asher?’

‘She finished with him. On the telly. On Saturday night. On the Simon Dee show.’

‘No!’

‘Yes, didn’t you know?’ Gail nodded. ‘Don’t supposeyouknow Jane Asher?’ She turned to Eloise who, having demolished the overloaded sandwich, was now wishing she’d brought a drink with her. ‘I mean, you’re a posh lass like her.’

‘’Fraid not,’ Eloise said.

Attention away from herself and back on Eloise, Janice said, ‘So, are you just here for the summer? Helping out? Are you going back to school in September?’

‘Golly, no, I’ve left school now. I came back from Switzerland last week.’ Eloise shook crumbs of Gorgonzola onto the grass.

‘Switzerland? Were you on holiday?’

‘No, I was at school there. Just for a year.’

‘One of them finishing schools?’ Janice asked. ‘See, I said you could be a model. Did you walk around all day with a pile of books on your head?’

‘Well, notall day.’ Eloise smiled. ‘I hated it, to be honest. I was really homesick. I missed my granny.’ Eloise reached for her camera. ‘It was Granny who bought me the camera.’

‘Blimey, a bit different from St Mede’s Sec Mod, I bet?’ Susan stared. ‘What did you learn? What were you finishing?’

‘Herself, you moron.’ Janice laughed. And then, turning back to Eloise, ‘What did you learn there, love?’

‘Oh, you know…’

‘No, tell us.’ All the girls leaned in.

‘Well, primarily the school taught etiquette, manners, how to manage a household. Some cooking – which I wasn’t wonderful at – a lot of French, which, again, I’m probably no better at speaking than when I went there. Deportment and how to dress.’

‘Department? Like Lewis’s department store in Leeds? I’m after a job there actually. Must be better than this place.’ Then, remembering it was Eloise’s dad who owned this place and handed over the brown paper packet with her wages every Thursday afternoon, Gail shut up.

‘Deportment.’ Eloise smiled.

‘What’s that, then?’

‘Oh, you know, how to carry yourself, alight from cars without showing your pants and the like. How to cut a pineapple and eat an avocado…’

‘Avocado…?’ Gail pulled a face.

‘How to find a rich, suitable husband. And what to do with him once you’ve found one – which I most certainly haven’t. You know, the best way to be a good wife and look after and support your husband.’

‘Hmm, not doing much to help the fight for gender equality and education there, then.’ Kath, one of the older girls, pulled a face.

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