told the dogs. ‘That took a bit longer than I thought.’
She didn’t feel too good: a little queasy, in fact. It was not an unfamiliar feeling; the price she paid for keeping herself well-informed was that sometimes she got too much information , as her cousin Laurence would say. It wasn’t exactly news to her that her parents weren’t having a great time, but that Mum was actually worried enough to talk to Uncle James about those… private things… Ugh . Olivia shook herself. Adults were so… gross sometimes. But after twenty minutes of running and playing with the dogs on the beach, she felt okay again. Restored to herself.
CHAPTER 4
The two cars pulled up outside Deborah’s house at almost the same moment, just as she was drawing the curtains in the bay window: Robert’s Volvo wagon, James’s Saab convertible. Both spot on time for the siblings’ meeting about their father. She watched them walking up the path together, chatting away, and Deborah heard James laugh his splendid easy laugh. Her diaphragm unclenched and she felt a sense of relief, even pleasure. Bless James, he got on so well with everyone, even anxious do-gooding Robert, who could set her teeth on edge with a couple of earnest sentences. Her anxiety about this meeting abated just a little. Now , she thought, if Meredith could just arrive at something resembling the time arranged, and sober…
‘Why don’t we all go out to the kitchen till Meredith gets here?’ Deb suggested after greeting her brothers. Angus had the kettle boiling, Olivia was putting together a plate of crackers and cheese.
‘So, Angus,’ Robert said. ‘How are things in the eyrie?’
Angus looked puzzled. ‘Airy?’
‘E-Y-R-I-E, eyrie. Well, you are the legal eagle in the family!’
Deborah made a small groan which James sought to cover byquickly asking Olivia about her animals.
‘Oh. Right,’ said Angus as Robert grinned expectantly. ‘Well, you know, it’s just a small community practice; we don’t get to represent axe murderers all that often. Mind you, it’s amazing what a dispute over a boundary fence can bring out in an otherwise amiable human being.’
‘I’m sure!’ Robert enthused with a little nervous laugh. ‘It can get pretty nasty at the old chalk face, too, believe it or not!’
‘I do, I do believe it. In fact, we mediated a surprisingly fraught dispute between a couple of parents and the head of a local primary school just recently.’
‘Really?’ Robert was immediately rigid with attention. Even his greying ginger beard seemed alert. ‘The principal? Was it a policy issue then? Or a teaching matter?’
‘Sorry, ah, I can’t really talk about it,’ said Angus apologetically. ‘The confidentiality thing, you know. But I was just meaning, yes, I do know how hard you teachers have it these days.’
‘Especially after the mess the last bloody government left the education system in,’ said Deborah. ‘Honestly, we’re working night and day to pick up the pieces, fat lot of credit we get for it. And as for the hospitals!’
‘So true. It’s been a nightmare for Vesna and her colleagues. A pretty fraught decade all round, the nineties,’ Robert said. He jammed his hands awkwardly into the pockets of his cardigan. Hand-knitted, Deborah suspected, by the admirable Vesna. ‘Glad that’s over, at least: not knowing where the axe was going to fall next. What miracles you’d be expected to work with fewer staff and less money. For about three years that was all anyone talked about in the staff-room: who’d be the next to go…’
‘Like Stalinist Russia.’
‘Oh, Deborah! You can’t compare Victoria, even under that lot, to Stalinist Russia!’ said Robert. Deborah stiffened.
‘But you hung in there,’ said James. ‘And thank god for that! Ifpeople like you and Vesna had left the schools and the hospitals, we’d all be goners. How could the new government have a hope of rebuilding this state without that backbone?
She didn’t feel too good: a little queasy, in fact. It was not an unfamiliar feeling; the price she paid for keeping herself well-informed was that sometimes she got too much information , as her cousin Laurence would say. It wasn’t exactly news to her that her parents weren’t having a great time, but that Mum was actually worried enough to talk to Uncle James about those… private things… Ugh . Olivia shook herself. Adults were so… gross sometimes. But after twenty minutes of running and playing with the dogs on the beach, she felt okay again. Restored to herself.
CHAPTER 4
The two cars pulled up outside Deborah’s house at almost the same moment, just as she was drawing the curtains in the bay window: Robert’s Volvo wagon, James’s Saab convertible. Both spot on time for the siblings’ meeting about their father. She watched them walking up the path together, chatting away, and Deborah heard James laugh his splendid easy laugh. Her diaphragm unclenched and she felt a sense of relief, even pleasure. Bless James, he got on so well with everyone, even anxious do-gooding Robert, who could set her teeth on edge with a couple of earnest sentences. Her anxiety about this meeting abated just a little. Now , she thought, if Meredith could just arrive at something resembling the time arranged, and sober…
‘Why don’t we all go out to the kitchen till Meredith gets here?’ Deb suggested after greeting her brothers. Angus had the kettle boiling, Olivia was putting together a plate of crackers and cheese.
‘So, Angus,’ Robert said. ‘How are things in the eyrie?’
Angus looked puzzled. ‘Airy?’
‘E-Y-R-I-E, eyrie. Well, you are the legal eagle in the family!’
Deborah made a small groan which James sought to cover byquickly asking Olivia about her animals.
‘Oh. Right,’ said Angus as Robert grinned expectantly. ‘Well, you know, it’s just a small community practice; we don’t get to represent axe murderers all that often. Mind you, it’s amazing what a dispute over a boundary fence can bring out in an otherwise amiable human being.’
‘I’m sure!’ Robert enthused with a little nervous laugh. ‘It can get pretty nasty at the old chalk face, too, believe it or not!’
‘I do, I do believe it. In fact, we mediated a surprisingly fraught dispute between a couple of parents and the head of a local primary school just recently.’
‘Really?’ Robert was immediately rigid with attention. Even his greying ginger beard seemed alert. ‘The principal? Was it a policy issue then? Or a teaching matter?’
‘Sorry, ah, I can’t really talk about it,’ said Angus apologetically. ‘The confidentiality thing, you know. But I was just meaning, yes, I do know how hard you teachers have it these days.’
‘Especially after the mess the last bloody government left the education system in,’ said Deborah. ‘Honestly, we’re working night and day to pick up the pieces, fat lot of credit we get for it. And as for the hospitals!’
‘So true. It’s been a nightmare for Vesna and her colleagues. A pretty fraught decade all round, the nineties,’ Robert said. He jammed his hands awkwardly into the pockets of his cardigan. Hand-knitted, Deborah suspected, by the admirable Vesna. ‘Glad that’s over, at least: not knowing where the axe was going to fall next. What miracles you’d be expected to work with fewer staff and less money. For about three years that was all anyone talked about in the staff-room: who’d be the next to go…’
‘Like Stalinist Russia.’
‘Oh, Deborah! You can’t compare Victoria, even under that lot, to Stalinist Russia!’ said Robert. Deborah stiffened.
‘But you hung in there,’ said James. ‘And thank god for that! Ifpeople like you and Vesna had left the schools and the hospitals, we’d all be goners. How could the new government have a hope of rebuilding this state without that backbone?
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