School Run by Sophie King

was it that your own kids were always so much nicer when they were with other people?
    Yet now they were gone she felt guilty at her lack of patience that morning. If she was ill, would they remember her as a mother who was always snapping and trying to meet deadlines?
    As she ran upstairs to get dressed, she vowed she would be nicer to everyone – providing she had the chance. Quickly, she slipped into a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, then fastened on Gus’s silver necklace. She had worn it all the time since he had given it to her on her twenty-first birthday at university. Sometimes Derek bought her (cheaper) necklaces and occasionally she wondered if he was testing to see if she would swap loyalties. But she couldn’t do that, and if it annoyed him he never showed it.
    ‘Hi! Anyone at home?’
    Pippa dusted her face with powder, ran a brush through her hair (once blondish, now light brown) and flew downstairs. Harriet had wandered in, as she usually did in the summer, through the conservatory that was joined on to the kitchen. The sitting room was on the next floor where, in theory, Pippa and Derek could have some peace. In practice, there was never time for that.
    Harriet was in the kitchen, leaning against the range. Pippa gave her a hug. ‘You got my message?’
    ‘What message?’
    ‘I asked you round for coffee.’
    ‘Actually, no. I thought I’d just pop in to see how you were. Better not be catching or we’ll have a great start to the summer.’
    Pippa tried to smile. ‘I don’t think it is. It’s just a . . . well, a kind of funny feeling.’ She stopped, wondering whether to go on. ‘To be honest, Harriet, I . . . Oh, don’t cry, Harry. It’ll be all right.’ Shocked, she led her friend to the checked sofa (a Good Housekeeping offer) next to the french windows and put her arm round her while Harriet sobbed into her shoulder.
    ‘I’m sorry, Pippa, but I’m so scared. I don’t know what Charlie’s going to say when he comes back and I’m frightened. Suppose he wants us to split up? Suppose he is having an affair?’
    Pippa tightened her grip. ‘Then you’ll have to be brave. It happens, sometimes, but you’ll get through it and I’ll help you.’
    Harriet raised her tearstained face.
    She was so pretty, thought Pippa. That bastard didn’t deserve her.
    ‘So you do think he’s having an affair?’
    ‘I didn’t say that,’ said Pippa, carefully. ‘I just think you have to face the facts. Some woman sent him a text. He’s been away for two months.’
    ‘But he wanted time to think,’ said Harriet. ‘I can understand that.’
    She doesn’t want me to point out the obvious, thought Pippa. And she certainly couldn’t burden Harriet with her own problem now. She stood up. ‘How about that coffee? Look, I’ve even got some yummy pains au chocolat from the new bakery. Fancy one?’
    ‘No, thanks.’ Harriet looked as though she might be sick.
    ‘I can’t eat much at the moment. I never can when I’m all churned up. But I’d love a cup of tea – with sugar.’
    ‘You never take sugar,’ said Pippa.
    ‘I need the sweetness.’
    ‘I’m the same but I eat too. It’s why we’re different shapes.’
    Pippa looked down ruefully at her comfortable size-fourteen figure and across at Harriet’s size ten. Harriet smiled through her tears. ‘That’s better,’ said Pippa. ‘Damn! That’s my mobile.’
    ‘You’ve changed the ring tone.’
    ‘No, Lucy did. She also spent ten pounds on downloading a new one for herself.’
    ‘She didn’t!’
    ‘Unfortunately, yes. I only found out yesterday and I went mad. Derek said it showed initiative. There, it’s started again. I’d better get it. Here, have a look at the paper. I won’t be a minute.’
    Pippa ran upstairs with the mobile in her hand. She waited until she had reached the sitting room before she answered. She knew who it was, of course, from the screen.
    ‘Hi, Gorgeous, how’s it going?’
    Pippa relaxed. Only Gus