Finally they arrived at a white-walled room with tall sash windows overlooking the box garden. Alicia stood on the window seat and gazed down at the maze of box hedges that sat bathed in the golden light of evening. A fat pheasant stood in the middle, pecking at the grass. She thought of Florien and the chicken and smiled. She wondered whether he shot pheasants, or whether he wrung their necks. ‘You can choose your bed, Alicia,’ said Miss Reid, who still held Midge under her arm.
‘I’ll have this one,’ she replied, sitting on the one closest to the window. ‘That way if there’s a fire I can jump out.’
‘Let’s hope you won’t have to,’ said Miss Reid. She turned to Leonora and her expression softened. She instinctively understood the relationship between the two girls and was pleased she had had the foresight to place them in different dormitories. Leonora was clearly in the shadow of her sister who basked in far too much sunshine. ‘Now, Leonora, you’re next door. Come with me.’ The child stepped forward, leaving her mother admiring the view with Alicia and Aunt Cicely. Miss Reid showed her into Milne where the walls were rich brown oak, darkened with age and smelling of centuries of wear and tear. ‘Caroline Stainton-Hughes is also in this dormitory,’ she said, watching Leonora’s timid face open into a small smile. ‘She already knows the ropes because she has two sisters here. She’ll look after you, I’m sure.’ Leonora liked Miss Reid. She was the sort of woman who commanded respect but was fair and kind. She had that rare quality in a teacher that made the children want to do well for her. Leonora already wanted to impress her.
When Audrey entered with Alicia and Cicely she was heartened to see her more sensitive daughter standing contentedly by her bed talking to Miss Reid. ‘Right,’ the headmistress ordered, rolling her r and accentuating her t, ‘Bob and John will bring up your trunks and then I suggest, Mrs Forrester, that you leave the girls to settle in.’ She raised her eyebrows at Audrey before walking briskly back through Dickens. Cicely smiled encouragingly at her sister-in-law. Audrey felt her eyes begin to well with tears and her chest compress with panic. This was the moment she had been dreading for the last three years. She had lived for this, made all her plans for this, but she had never thought about afterwards. There hadn’t been an afterwards. She hadn’t had the courage to envisage it. As she passed Alicia’s bed she cast her eyes out of the window. It was now dark and empty, like her heart. Tomorrow Alicia would wake to the dawn breaking through that window. Tomorrow she would look out onto a different world. If she felt homesick or frightened she would have to suffer it alone. When Leonora slipped her hand into her mother’s Audrey thought she would choke with grief. But she forced herself to be jolly. She couldn’t show her children how miserable she was because if she broke down they were sure to follow. ‘Right,’ she said, imitating the headmistress’s way of speaking. ‘Let’s go and find Bob and John.’ Audrey smiled down at Leonora but she was too stunned to smile back. The reality of her situation was slowly sinking in. Her mother was leaving her here amidst all these strange people in this frightening old house. She tightened her grip and walked back downstairs in silence.
It was cold when they returned outside. Miss Reid had disappeared but two burly men in dungarees waited by the car. Leonora saw a few cars leaving up the drive, their headlights swallowed into the night. She blinked back her anxiety and stood biting her nails as her mother opened the boot and showed Bob and John the trunks. ‘The first night is the worst,’ said Aunt Cicely gently to Leonora. ‘But tomorrow it’ll be so exciting you won’t have time to think of home. You’ll be riding, playing netball, constructing camps down the avenue of chestnut trees they call Chestnut Village. There’s so much to do. You’ll be very busy. Just don’t forget to write to us, will you? Your mother will want to know how you’re getting on. We’ll write to you too.’ She didn’t place her arm around her niece’s shoulders because she instinctively knew that the child would disintegrate. She glanced over at Alicia who hopped about from foot to foot with impatience as if longing for her mother and aunt to leave. Cicely hoped Audrey wouldn’t drag out the goodbyes; it would only make the parting more agonizing.
‘Well, darlings, we’d better be off,’ said Audrey, trying very hard to mask her unhappiness. But Leonora wasn’t fooled, she heard the quiver in her mother’s voice and she crumpled into tears.
‘I don’t want you to leave me here,’ she sobbed, clutching Saggy Rabbit to her chest. Her shoulders rose and fell as her breathing was reduced to a pant. ‘Don’t leave me here, Mummy.’