‘Thank you for telling me,’ said Miss Young, and Nancy heard a steely note in her voice. ‘I shall be keeping an eye on the situation.’
As Nancy came away, she saw Rosie running around the playground, screaming with laughter with Tilly as they waited for their mothers to finish talking. She felt a sudden smoking rage. She turned away and led Lara out of the gates towards home.
FOURTEEN
Monday 7 September
‘Did you see her hand?’ said Imogen to Dylan as she chopped vegetables at the kitchen counter. Her husband had just come in from work and had been greeting Rosie in the living room where she was watching TV.
‘She showed me. It’s a bit of a nasty scrape but it’ll heal,’ said Dylan. He put his bag of books down on the floor, right by the fridge, where Imogen knew it would be in the way. Like he always did. Even though she always asked him to move it. She resisted the urge to ask him to move it yet again.
‘But did she tell you how it happened?’ she asked instead.
‘Something about Lara treading on it.’
Imogen waited for a sense of outrage, but none came.
‘On purpose,’ she added forcefully.
‘It was probably an accident.’
‘Did she tell you it was an accident?’
‘No. But it’s easy to misconstrue things.’
Imogen couldn’t quite believe how calm her husband was being. ‘Lara deliberately walked up to Rosie, looked at her meanly, trod on her hand and then sauntered off.’
‘What?’ Dylan screwed up his face.
‘Exactly,’ said Imogen.
‘No, I mean, is that what she told you?’
‘Yes!’
‘Hmm.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Nothing. I just think Rosie is upset. Maybe she’s being a little dramatic.’
‘I think she’s telling us what happened. And the point is this other child has hurt Rosie. Again.’ Imogen stirred the soup then put down the spoon, wiped her hands on her apron. ‘I’m going to call James.’
‘It’s half seven at night. He’s not going to want to be bothered with it now.’
‘Bothered? This is our daughter.’
Dylan took her hands gently. ‘I know. And I don’t like seeing her upset any more than you do. But let the man have his evening. You can call tomorrow.’
Imogen thought. James would be at home with Carol. It might be difficult to talk. ‘OK.’
‘And...’ continued Dylan, ‘I think we have to be careful.’
Imogen removed her hands from his. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Rosie’s upset about leaving the house, her room, her pony. We know this. She’s not going to be that enamoured with the child who’s taken over her old home. Especially when they’re in the same class. I think we need to factor that in when she tells us about these run-ins with this other girl.’
‘Are you suggesting she’s making it up? Treading on her own hand?’
