2006 - Wildcat Moon by Babs Horton Page B

Later she would ask William Dally the gardener to walk down to the village and post them.
    She smiled to herself then. She was very much looking forward to meeting young Romilly Greswode. She was quite intrigued to know why the Greswodes had thought of choosing Nanskelly for their daughter considering the bad blood between Nanskelly and Killivray House in the past Still, the past was the past and maybe it was time to bury old enmities.
    She wondered if Romilly’s mother was the actress Margot Lee Greswode. She and Hermione had seen her once in a play in a London theatre; a most talented and charismatic young woman and quite exquisitely beautiful too. And yet she’d played the part of a very old woman and very convincing she’d been too. Hermione had thought that she would achieve great heights on the stage, and then suddenly she had disappeared from public life.
    Miss Fanthorpe stood up and stretched, then made her way down the stairs and out of the front door. It was her habit each morning to take a stroll while the girls of Nanskelly still slept.
    She made her way across the lawns, past the hockey pitch and the peeling sports pavilion and on down the steep steps carved from the rock that led down to the beach.
    She walked slowly along the sand, stooped to pick up a shell, turned it over in her hands and marvelled at its beauty. Further round the coast she could see the small houses in that peculiar little place that was built on the rocks; it really was quite amazing it hadn’t been blown away years ago.
    She could see wisps of smoke rising from the chimneys and washing already pegged out on washing lines down on the beach.
    Then she noticed half a dozen cigarette butts wedged into a crack between the rocks along with an empty bottle of whisky.
    That really was most odd This was a private beach and the main access to it was from the path down which she had come. It was possible to get down to the beach if one walked from the opposite direction but it was one hell of a climb down and whoever had managed it must be very fit indeed. And who would make such a journey to drink and smoke themselves silly?
    She walked back along the beach then climbed slowly up the steps, pausing halfway up on the viewing platform to catch her breath.
    When she arrived back at the school the rising bell had gone and the girls were up, the building filled with the sounds of frantic scurrying between washrooms and dormitories.
    Hermione Thomas greeted her from the doorway of the library.
    “Eloise, dear, I’ve been to call Miss Moses and it seems she’s unwell this morning and won’t be able to take the girls on their morning run.” She edged closer to Eloise and whispered, “Personally, I think she takes a little too much strong liquor before retiring and hence finds the mornings difficult.”
    Eloise Fanthorpe smiled. Hermione Thomas, despite her diminutive form, could knock back several very stiff gin and vermouths most evenings!
    “I’m sure she’s just got a chill or an upset stomach and she’ll be back on her feet in no time at all. Why don’t we take the girls down onto the beach for a walk, ifs a wonderful morning.”
    Fifteen minutes later the fifty girls of Nanskelly School, resplendent in their scarlet uniforms, set off down towards the beach. Miss Thomas was leading the crocodile line and Miss Fanthorpe bringing up the rear. Halfway down Miss Thomas stopped on the viewing platform and gathered the girls around her. She was about to wax lyrical on the beauty of the morning when one of the smaller girls standing dose to her gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth, eyes wide with surprise.
    “What is it, Eveline?”
    This first gasp was followed swiftly by a ripple of stifled giggling from the gathered girls.
    “Silence, girls, please. This behaviour is most unbecoming.”
    The girls of Nanskelly bit their lips and covered their mouths with their hands but their shoulders shook with the effort of not laughing.
    Miss