The Forget-Me-Not Sonata(84)

Alicia was used to people staring at her. She was a beautiful child and unusually for a little girl of ten she was well aware of her own allure and the power it gave her. She strode into the hall and sniffed the smell of polish and old wood like a dog familiarizing itself with its new territory. A group of girls crowded around a notice board which was pinned up in the entrance to the great hall where long tables formed a large square, already laid up for supper. A waft of boiled cabbage floated in as the doors to the corridor and kitchen opened and a fat cook in a white apron and hat waddled off into the shadows wielding a wooden spoon. Alicia joined the huddle of girls and saw that they were looking at lists of names typed out beneath highlighted names of writers, such as Shakespeare and Marlow, Milton and Shaw. She searched for her name and found it beneath Dickens. She was about to look for Leonora but a light tapping on her shoulder stopped her in her tracks and she turned around.

‘And who might you be?’ said a tall, thin woman with short silver hair and hooded brown eyes. Her tone was commanding but gentle and Alicia knew instinctively that she was someone very important.

‘Alicia Forrester,’ she replied. The lady raised her eyebrows and nodded.

‘Ah, one of the twins. I’m Diana Reid, your headmistress,’ she said in a clipped English accent.

‘Hello,’ Alicia said boldly, looking at her steadily. The headmistress was disarmed by the child’s self-assurance. This one’s going to be trouble, she thought to herself.

‘You’re in Dickens and your sister’s in Milne. They’re next to each other.’

‘Bedrooms?’

‘Dormitories. Ten beds in Dickens and eight in Milne. They look out onto the box garden. Very pleasant. Now where’s your mother?’

Alicia led Miss Reid outside to where Audrey was listening to Dorothy Stainton-Hughes and Cicely reminiscing about their school days. ‘Absolutely nothing’s changed,’ they were saying. When they saw Miss Reid they both stood to attention like soldiers, suddenly on best behaviour.

‘Dotty and Cicely, you were in the same year, were you not?’ said Miss Reid, looking at them as if they were still pupils of hers. They laughed and nodded. ‘Do you still ride, Cicely?’

‘Not really, no,’ Cicely replied apologetically.

‘Shame, you were rather promising if I remember rightly.’ Then she looked down at Alicia. ‘I found this little stray in the hall, whom does she belong to?’ Audrey smiled and nodded her head.

‘Me. Audrey Forrester, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Reid,’ said Audrey, who recognized the headmistress from the photograph in the brochure.

‘Please call me Diana.’ She bent down stiffly to retrieve a scruffy-looking terrier who was scratching at her stockings. ‘This is Midge,’ she said. ‘Midge gets overexcited by all the other dogs then collapses with exhaustion. I think he’s just about had enough, haven’t you, Midge?’ Midge licked his mistress’s nose and wagged his thick little tail.

‘This is Leonora,’ said Audrey, putting her arm around her daughter’s shoulders. Leonora’s cheeks flushed pink, but Miss Reid’s face softened into a kind smile. She was used to new girls and understood their fear. Beneath her icy shell blazed a compassionate soul.

‘Ah, the other twin. Why don’t you all come with me and I’ll show you to your dormitories.’

‘Which are they in, Miss Reid?’ Cicely asked, winking at Dotty.

‘Dickens and Milne.’

‘Oh, I was in Milne!’ Dotty exclaimed in excitement. ‘Do you remember Shoddy Hambro, she used to hide her sweets in the secret cubby hole. Do they still do that?’

‘I’m sure they do. One turns a blind eye occasionally,’ the headmistress replied, walking into the toothless yawn.

They followed her up the front stairs, shiny polished oak steps that creaked like old bones and Cicely recounted how she was always in trouble for sneaking up them instead of the backstairs which were for the children. ‘These portraits used to give me the creeps,’ she laughed, ‘especially this one.’ She pointed to a dark painting of an aged bishop whose cold eyes stared straight out at them. ‘Wherever one looks his eyes always follow.’ As they walked across the landing Audrey glanced back at the painting and saw that Cicely was right. His gaze pursued her so that when she turned away she still felt his stare on her back.

Diana Reid led them through a string of large dormitories that would once have been elegant reception rooms with ornate marble fireplaces and heavy mouldings on the ceilings. Each one was more beautiful than the last. Audrey looked at the rows of iron beds and tried to envisage what it must have been like as a private home. Diana Reid stopped every now and then to greet a parent or a child and comment in her firm but kind voice on a teddy bear placed lovingly on a pillow or to quieten a cluster of overexcited girls happy to be back after the long break. Leonora stayed close to her mother while her sister strode forward asking questions without compunction.