Chapter 22

Victoria did not forget to ring Serena. She rang her at six, as soon as the cheap calls were available. Elspeth answered the phone.

"Hello, Lady Bowers, it's Victoria back again. Please may I talk to Serena?"

"Yes, of course, my dear but on one condition." She put on a school-mistressy voice. "You're a big girl now so you call me Elspeth."

Victoria giggled. "Yes, Miss," she said and Elspeth giggled too. "Thank you, Elspeth."

"Cheeky wench," Elspeth chuckled.

"So that's where Mark got it from."

"Probably, my dear, probably. We've been calling Serena that for years. Hang on, I'll call her."

"Victoria! Hello! How are you? Gosh, I haven't spoken to you for ages."

"Fine, thanks. Bet you're looking forward to the end of term."

"Not half and I'm thrilled that Mark's going to be able to make it."

"It's Mark I want to talk to you about. Serena, I'm really am falling in love with him. It's something much more than four years ago."

"Don't blame you."

"I was worried about age and Daddy being his boss but I talked to Mummy and she was totally unruffled."

"So, what's the problem?"

"You, my dearest Serena."

"Why?"

"Because you've known how I felt about him yonks ago and told me you felt the same way except you couldn't marry him because he's your brother."

"No change as far as I can see."

"But I'd be taking him away from you."

"Oh, Victoria my sweet, you could never do that. You'll never destroy the bond between us and it will never affect the love I hope you will have for each other. I only want the best for him and, as things stand, that's you. But I'll tell you what I told him: if you hurt him, I'll be after you."

"I don't think I ever could."

"Not at the moment, but Mark can be an obstinate devil and it's not because he's stupid but high-minded. So watch out!"

"I know what you mean. There are various things he's told me that reinforce what you say. Do you know I asked him for his help in finding a stables to work at last Friday night and he'd got me a job with some super people by Sunday afternoon! They're very, very nice people and..."

She was off and Serena listened to her with growing pride in her brother.

That evening Mark took Victoria to a delightful, beamy pub which exuded atmosphere. It was warm enough to sit outside to have a drink before they ate. From where they sat they could see most of the old part of the village which sat in a valley. There was a small flintstone church with a red brick Victorian rectory up the hill behind it. They could just make out a similar building, partly hidden by trees, that Mark told her was the Manor Farm House. Through the village ran a small river, which was dry at this time of year, and the road ran on both sides of it. Along it were a variety of houses, old and rather newer, the new ones fitting in very well. Victoria was enchanted. She also enjoyed the friendliness of the other pub users of whom she met a variety including a ploughman, a shepherd, the owner of a car repair shop in Salisbury and a retired Army officer. In all, a mixed and cheerful bunch.

Over a simple but beautifully prepared meal they were able to talk quietly to each other and found themselves doing so as easily and enjoyably as they had done four years previously. They teased and laughed but they both learned much more about each other.

Victoria had had a switchback ride at school. Her effervescence had often been her undoing and she got into a lot of trouble. But, that and her strength of character had ended up with her being head of school.

"That made life awfully difficult," she said with a grin, "because I so often had sympathy with the girls who had done something wrong. School rules can be so stifling."

"I know what you mean," said Mark. "Piffling things like not walking on grass or how many buttons on your jacket have to be done up."

"Don't you believe it! Girls' schools are even worse and so much is to do with sex. Talking to men or, even worse, to boys, is utterly verboten. We'd been so beaten down that when we had a friendly tennis match against a boys' school and had tea afterwards none of us did anything except smile and say 'Yes, please' or 'No, thank you'."

Mark chuckled. "You could always have stuck to 'Yes, please'"

Victoria laughed. "We could but it wouldn't have helped. We'd still have got caught with all those repressed females on the staff."

"You say that," said Mark, "but I used to run the house Saturday cricket side and we also used to play tennis and, in one case, cricket as well against two or three girls' schools. We went to one. The entire school was turned out to watch and the headmistress was there as well. Half way through the first set the heavens opened and there was no sign that it was going to stop any time soon. So, the headmistress ordered the sports mistress to organise Highland Dancing for the two teams. She was a young woman in her early twenties, I'd guess. Anyway, she did as she was told but was led away by our head of house so the rest of us had a great time."

"All right," she said smiling. "They weren't all repressed but we did have trouble with older brothers who would descend on the school and mob things up. There was one girl who was summoned by the headmistress because her knickers, complete with nametag, were recovered from the clock tower. She was totally innocent because her brother had pinched them from a drawer at home but the poor girl was teased something wicked."

"Were you head girl at the time?"

"Yes, and I smacked it down quickly."

"How?"

"By pointing out that the girl concerned had been equally surprised, that her brother's friends were the brothers of other girls in the school, and then asking whether any girl would want that to happen to her. There was, what you might call, a deafening silence."

"Well done you! Did the headmistress say anything to you afterwards?"

As ever, when talking about a major achievement, Victoria was reticent. She looked down at the table.

"Yes," she said. "She called me in and said that she hadn't said anything at assembly because she was pretty sure I'd react anyway. She said that whatever I said would probably have greater effect than anything she said. And then she said, 'I was right. Well done.' I was thrilled. And then she gave me a hug and said, 'Set a thief to catch a thief. I knew you'd make a great head of school.' That did it and I burst into tears. She held me and comforted me and I knew then that she had faith in me and that I could always rely on her for support."