‘Now, now, Rosy, where’s your gumption? And more importantly have you been listening to me at all?’ Marion stood in the doorway of Rosy’s office in a rather nice green dress dotted about with fuchsia petals, her demanding tone boomeranging off the walls.
‘Probably not, Marion, did I mention I was tired?’
Marion smirked and Rosy was taken back to the night of the sequinned red dress and she softened a little. Rosy still couldn’t quite believe she had witnessed this paragon of middle-class motherhood in… well… as she had. She realized now that the smirk was not as malevolent as people believed.
‘Yes, you did. And I quite understand it.’ Rosy was not convinced because still Marion continued at breakneck speed. ‘However, this really is important – you do know that the TV show is aired on Friday evening, the first episode? The whole meet-the-kids, when Magnificent Matt handed out the tools, all of that will be aired. You want to hope they’ve cut your evil stares…’
‘Have you been talking to Katie? It was one! One slightly bad-tempered stare.’
‘Katie? No, anyway keep listening, this is our time to shine. This is when we capitalize on all the work we’ve done. We need a launch party, we’ll invite Magnificent Matt…’
‘Could you stop calling him that, please?’
‘Well, he is.’ The force of Rosy’s glare was so strong it managed to quell even Monster Marksharp. But only for a second. ‘He may well have another engagement, I expect he’s in great demand. But he seems very committed to the school so we’ll invite him anyway, maybe some of the crew, get local news down, make sure that if Edward Grant didn’t know about it before—’
‘Ah, now I want to talk to you about him. Listen to what I’ve found out.’
Marion didn’t. Obviously.
‘—he certainly will soon. This is going to be huge! And this launch is a necessity, Rosy, a necessity. I’ll stake my life on it. Don’t look like that, you’re not getting rid of me that easily. We’ll have all the local media there, it may even get picked up by national – I’ll have a word with a couple of friends in London. We’ll throw a damn fine celebration of the school and all it provides for the children and the community on the night it’s aired and then we can all finish by watching it together. I’ll send out an emergency newsletter. I have the perfect dress for you to borrow, a beautiful cerise number, Magnificent Matt won’t be able to keep his hands… what?’
‘Marion, Marion! You need to hear what I have found out. And thank you, but it’s a no on the dress.’
‘But… OK! I don’t want to speak out of turn but those eyebrows of yours can be really quite alarming. Go on, what have you found out?’
‘All right, I now know which schools Edward Grant has placed on his list to amalgamate, and when you first look at the list there doesn’t seem any obvious reasoning behind it. They’re not the closest schools to the new site, nor the poorest performing schools. But as I rang around and played sleuth to find out who had had a meeting, who hadn’t, etc., etc., then one thing, my original theory, became very clear.’
‘Do come on, Rosy, cut to the chase. I have an awful lot to do, you know.’
‘OK, well every single head on the list of closures is female…’
Marion’s mouth dropped. ‘Are you saying what I think you’re saying? Surely not? Surely he wouldn’t be so blatant? He must have included St Ewer, everyone knows Mr Doughty is a complete incompetent. That school is in dire need of improvement and new leadership.’
‘Well, deeper research shows that Mr Doughty is also a member of the same golf club as Mr Grant. Mr Doughty, interestingly, is chairman there.’
‘Are you absolutely sure about this, Rosy? Not a single headmaster’s school is on that list?’
‘Yep, only headmistresses, but most of them would be over the moon to be moved to a brand new school. Mrs Trewithen says Sanding Bridge is falling to pieces around her ears and she’s worried about the safety of the children if they continue to stay there longer than a couple more years. Mrs Pascoe added that she’s got a couple of teachers who are so bad at their jobs that the TAs are doing most of the teaching and she’s having to invent tasks for the teachers outside the classroom just to keep them busy. An amalgamation would be the perfect opportunity for her to offer them redundancy. Really, it’s only us unhappy to be on the list. But it’s still a list drawn up based on gender prejudice, regardless of whether they’re happy to be on it or not.’
‘And you’ve checked and double checked?’
Rosy stared her down.
‘Of course you have. Right, Richard is having drinks with Dave French on Wednesday.’ Marion named the chief executive of the Local Authority. ‘I will prime him and make sure he slips this information in. You’ve done an amazing job, Rosy. I can’t see how, with this information, combined with the new sky-high profile of Penmenna School, we can’t have won this battle. And get Edward Grant’s professional practices examined a little closer. You’ve done it!’
‘We’ve done it, or at least I hope so. We won’t know for a while yet, I suppose, but if you get Richard to do his bit, and yes, we launchGreen-fingered and Gorgeousin the way you want us to, Marion, then I reckon we’ve got a pretty good chance of getting off that list.’ Rosy knew deep down that, despite her desire to hibernate for a day or two, Marion was right, and the school deserved a party.
‘Of course we have, Rosy. Who was possibly going to take on the two of us and win?’ And with the utter confidence that cloaked Marion from head to toe, she gave one of her most dazzling Marion smiles and waltzed back out of the office.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Rosy was up on Friday as the sun made its appearance. She hadn’t slept properly and was tired of repeated thoughts chasing themselves around and across her mind. She needed to shake herself, get dressed and make sure she looked the part. The launch was tonight and Rosy had to concede that the children, who had been beside themselves all week, deserved a celebration of their hard work and achievements up at the hall. The production company had OK’d their early viewing of the first programme during school hours, the idea being that it could then be featured on local news and hopefully help attract even more viewers than it would usually. Both Radio Cornwall and Spotlight South West were heading down. Rosy knew Marion was champing at the bit to get her say on television.
A super-quick shower and she found herself pulling her favourite dress out of the wardrobe. The dark green meant it drew out her eyes and complemented her colouring perfectly. A plunging neckline and silky fabric meant it clung in all the right places before flaring out beautifully in the skirt – she knew it was the most flattering thing she owned. Wearing it elevated her levels of self-confidence to skyscraper levels. And sky-high confidence would be helpful today. She would not be wearing cerise!
She blow-dried her hair and then carefully applied her make-up, taking time to get the lines perfect, the shading just right, making her eyes pop and her lips look film-star gorgeous. Twirling and swirling in front of the mirror, she knew she couldn’t look better than she did; she’d cracked it and was now ready for work. And she hadn’t thought about Matt once whilst she was getting ready, not once. That had to be a good sign.
There was no point lying to herself. It wasn’t the pressure of saving the school but panic about talking to Matt today that had kept her awake. Her drinks with Katie had been eye-opening and she couldn’t dispute anything her friend and colleague had said. Which, in a nutshell – Katie was blunt – was that Rosy was her own worst enemy and by allowing her fear to dictate The Rule (which Katie had deemed stupid and self-sabotaging) then she had handed Josh the power to influence the rest of her life.
