Julia's door was open and he found her sorting through a number of packets of seeds on her desk.
"For the garden?" asked Ned, somewhat unnecessarily.
"Yes," smiled Julia. "A donation from one of the boys' grandmothers. Most of them are a bit old, but with any luck at least some of them will germinate."
"I popped by because I need to postpone our trip to the cinema," Ned said. "An old friend from the States has just arrived unexpectedly and invited me out for dinner tonight."
"No problem."
"Could you make tomorrow night instead?"
"Sure."
Ned's glance fell on the photograph of Pagan, smiling out of the frame on Julia's desk. He had almost forgotten about his conversation with Luke in the wonder of Meredith's reappearance.
"Do you know what's going on with Pagan and Luke?"
"In what way?"
"I was talking to Luke earlier and he says that they've split up."
"Have they? Well, he didn't come over for lunch yesterday and Pagan's been in a foul mood, I know that. But she hasn't talked to me about it. Gwen told me she had to patch him and Benjamin Wharton up after that fight they had this afternoon. Is he much hurt?"
Ned shook his head. "Just a scratch to his face. Nothing like what happened in the summer."
"Thank goodness. What was it all about?"
Ned ran his hand over his head. "How long have you got?"
Julia gestured towards her electric kettle. "That's just boiled. I've got time for a cup of tea."
Over their tea, Ned told Julia about his encounter with Luke. "I was all ready to give him grief for getting into that fight with Wharton," he explained, "but the next thing I know, he's giving me grief and saying it was all my fault anyway for putting him in an impossible position. I didn't have a clue how to react."
Julia sipped her drink and waited for him to continue.
"I've been dealing with kids and their problems for the last eight years and I've never felt at a loss like that. He's obviously very upset about splitting up with Pagan and I had no idea what he'd been going through, or that I might have been the cause of it."
"Welcome to parenthood," said Julia. "All the experience in the world with other people's children doesn't count for anything when it comes to dealing with your own. Look at how badly I messed up with Pagan last year, and we're still trying to sort that one out.
"You and Luke have got a particularly unique relationship and it's going to take you both a while to find out how best to make it work. There's always going to be a few hiccups like this along the way while you establish the ground rules and set a few boundaries."
Ned nodded his agreement. "Thanks for listening, Julia. What would I do without you?"
"It's what you pay me for, remember?" teased Julia. "How long is your friend over for?"
"About a month, I think," replied Ned. "She's a specialist in international law and she's got meetings all around the country. It was quite a shock to see her, to be honest. We split up just before I left the States, but we'd been together for nine years before that."
"Oh, I see."
Silence fell between them and Ned drained his cup of tea, burning his throat on the still-too-hot-to-drink liquid. "I'll be off then," he said.
Julia gave him a slightly tight-lipped smile as he ducked out of the room.
*
Luke was relieved when the bell signalled the end of what seemed to have been the longest school day ever. Jay turned off his computer and stood up.
"Coming to the Forum?" he asked Luke.
"In a minute, I'm just gonna email Pagan in case it was her texting me before."
"I forgot you've lost your phone," said Jay. "I'll see you up there."
"Yeah, see you in a bit." Luke smiled at Jay, still grateful to be back on speaking terms with him.
He wrote a long email to Pagan, explaining the loss of his phone and going on to apologise for the way he'd acted on Saturday. He decided not to mention the fight with Wharton, in case she got annoyed again about that - he'd had as much hassle on that subject as he willing to take for one day - but he did ask Pagan whether she had ever heard Ned mention Meredith. He figured that Pagan would be even more curious about her than he was.
It took him a while to compose the email and by the time he joined Jay in the Forum, the room was fairly full of relaxing Romans. As Luke walked through the door, his mind on the English homework he still had to complete, he was startled by the beginnings of a ragged cheer from the year sevens in one corner. This was taken up by the year eights and nines and he soon found himself surrounded by the younger students, all thumping him on the back and congratulating him on the fight with Wharton. The Romans seemed to think that the Viking's black eye was evidence of Luke's victory in the brief contest.
Luke wasn't so sure that he'd actually won the fight but there was something very gratifying about basking in the jubilation of his fellow Romans. He looked across at Jay and the delighted grin on his best friend's face went a long way towards making up for the rest of day. Somewhere at the back of his consciousness there was a guilty feeling about continuing the Roman/Viking feud, but he squashed it down, choosing to believe that his actions today had drawn an emphatic line underneath that particular episode, instead of opening a new chapter in it.
Luke extricated himself from the mêlée and crossed to where Jay was sitting, his homework nearly finished in front of him. Luke sank down at the same table and opened his own books, finally ready to forget about his own problems and start considering Romeo's instead.
But Jay had other ideas. "How come you got sent to Kelly and Wharton didn't?" he asked.
Luke sighed. "It was just bad luck. I ran into him in Death Alley on my way to IT."
"It's not been your day, has it?" observed Jay, sagely.
"That is the understatement of the century," agreed Luke, turning back to his homework.
*
Julia arrived home after work determined to get to the bottom of Pagan's row with Luke. She was expecting her daughter to be as grouchy and uncommunicative as she had been for the last few days and was therefore quite surprised to be greeted with a smile as she opened the front door of the cottage. Pagan was curled up on the sofa with her laptop perched on the arm of the chair.
"Hi Mum, how was your day?" she asked, cheerfully.
"Fine," replied Julia, turning away to hang up her coat in an effort to hide the fact that she was startled by this friendliness. "D'you fancy going getting fish and chips for dinner tonight?"
"I thought you were going to the cinema with Ned?"
"He's postponed it," said Julia, a little abruptly. "So I thought I'd catch up with my daughter instead."
"Fine by me," said Pagan.
"Have you finished your homework?"
"Yes, I was just messing around on Facebook," replied Pagan, shutting the lid shut. "And emailing Luke."
Julia sat down in the armchair, sensing a chance to satisfy her curiosity. "Is he OK?"
Pagan looked puzzled. "Why shouldn't he be?"
It occurred to Julia that Pagan had not yet heard about Luke's fight with Wharton and that perhaps it wouldn't be a good idea for her to be the one to tell her about it.
"Oh, just because he didn't come for lunch yesterday," said Julia, airily.
"I was annoyed with him about something," admitted Pagan. "But he's apologised and I think it's all OK again now."
"Good," said Julia absently, still wondering why Luke had neglected to mention the dramatic events of the afternoon.
"Luke said he met someone called Meredith at the school this afternoon," commented Pagan. "He wondered who she was."
"Oh," said Julia, startled by the question. "She's an old girlfriend of Ned's who arrived unexpectedly today. He's going out for dinner with her tonight, so that's why we're not going to the cinema."
"Did you meet her?"
"No, why?"
"No reason. Just that Luke said she was very smartly dr
essed."
"Well she must have been, for Luke to notice what she was wearing," laughed Julia. "Are you hungry?"
*
"Have you eaten here before?" Meredith asked Ned as their first courses arrived.
"No, but I've heard good things about it," Ned replied, smiling at their waiter. "How did you find out about it?"
"I asked the hotel reception staff for the name of the best local restaurant," said Meredith.
"Direct and to the point, as ever."
"What else?"
The waiter left them and Ned started on his soup. It was excellent, but the fine flavour was not enough to distract him from the curiosity he carried about Meredith's motives.
"And your reason for wanting to take me out to dinner in the best local restaurant?"
Meredith smiled. "You want me to be direct and to the point?"
"What else?"
"Well, okaaaay. Do you remember why we split up?"
"We split up because I wanted us to start a family and you didn't," said Ned.
"Yes. And now I've changed my mind," replied Meredith.
There was a long pause.
"Whoa," said Ned, eventually.
"You asked me to give it to you straight," Meredith told him. "Well?"
"I'm…I'm flabbergasted."
"And?"
"And I don't know what to say."
"You've met someone else," Meredith stated, flatly.
"It's not that. It's just that things…things have changed since we were together."
"You mean you don't want kids any more?"
Ned laughed.
"What's so funny?" Meredith had never like being laughed at and her tone was defensive.
"I'm sorry, Meredith. It's just that my life has got much more complicated in the last year." Ned lowered his soup spoon and reached across to pat Meredith's left hand. "You see, I've discovered that I already have a child, right here in England."
Utter confusion registered on Meredith's face.
"How…?" Then the confusion was replaced with indignation and her voice rose in a crescendo as she said: "You mean you were unfaithful to me?"
Other diners started to look over at their table.
"No!" Ned hastily reassured her, casting an embarrassed smile around the restaurant. "This happened before I came to the States. I wasn't much more than a child myself."
Meredith appeared to be mollified by this news. "So this kid would be quite old by now?"
"Yes, he's fourteen."
Understanding dawned over Meredith's features. ""Oh my God!" she exclaimed, "it's the kid you were talking to this afternoon, isn't it? He looks just like you!"
"Yes, precisely so," said Ned, gesturing with his hands for Meredith to lower her voice. "But it's not common knowledge."
"Does he know?"
"Yes, Luke knows. But we're really only just getting to know each other and it would be hard on both of us if I were to move back to America now."
"He could come stay with us!" said Meredith. "It would be a great opportunity for him – he could come out every vacation."
Ned shook his head. "You need to let me think about it, Meredith. You've obviously had lots of time to consider all this but just coming back into my life so suddenly and expecting me to make a decision…You're asking an awful lot. For now, why don't we just enjoy our dinner."
Meredith pressed her lips together, as though she had plenty more to say on the subject but was having to physically restrain herself from doing so. Ned asked questions about their mutual friends and acquaintances until their conversation became a more natural, normal dinner time chat between two people with a long shared history.
Meredith drove Ned back to the school after their meal.
"I'm in Oxford until Friday," she told him. "But I'll be free next weekend. Can I see you?"
Ned hesitated. "I've got a meeting all day on Saturday," he told her. "But I'm free that evening."
"I could fix us both a nice dinner," she purred, persuasively. "If there's a spare key I could borrow…"
"My kitchen isn't as well equipped as our one in Boston was," warned Ned, remembering the elaborate dinners Meredith used to prepare when she was in the mood to impress their friends.
"I'm sure I'll manage. It'll be like old times."
"I'll leave word with the caretakers that you'll be coming to collect the spare key on Saturday," said Ned, making up his mind. "Thanks for a lovely meal tonight." He leant towards Meredith, kissed her cheek and quickly exited the car.
*
Tuesday turned out to be much better than Monday. Luke suspected that there was some universal law that pretty much guaranteed this anyway, but this Tuesday the contrast was particularly pronounced. There was a lot of good-natured joking from other students about his fight with Wharton. Even Normans and Saxons were coming up to congratulate him on Wharton's black eye. Luke had a sense that his stock of popularity was on the rise again after a period of decline. He still had to face whatever punishment Mr Thomas was devising for him and Wharton, but at least he could draw comfort from the fact that Wharton would have to suffer it, too.
Pagan had sent him back a chatty, friendly email and was suggesting meeting up that evening. He retrieved his confiscated phone from the office at lunchtime and found that the previous day's text message had been from Pagan, too. It simply read:
See you tonight?
Just three words, but their arrival had been enough to set off one of the most eventful days that Luke could remember. Luke smiled down at the text before carefully putting his phone away in his locker. Today might have turned out brilliantly, but there was no way he was going to run the risk of having another day like Monday.
*
"What happened to your face?" Pagan put her hand up to the scratch on Luke's cheek when he called at her house that evening.
"Boxing injury," Luke told her, mostly truthfully. He suspected that their reconciliation would be short-lived if he were to tell her about the fight with Wharton, especially as he had been the one to throw the first punch.
"Poor you," said Pagan, making Luke feel particularly dishonest. He was relieved when Pagan led the way back into the house and up to her bedroom, introducing a significant period of time where there was no need for conversation at all.
Later on, they curled up on the sofa in front of the television.
"Where's your mum tonight?" asked Luke.
"Out with Ned," replied Pagan. "They were supposed to be going out last night but he went out with that Melody woman instead."
"Meredith," corrected Luke.
"What was she like?"
Luke shrugged.
"Oh, come on Luke. You must have noticed something. Was she old, young, fat, thin, ugly, pretty?"
"Youngish, I suppose. Pretty. Not fat, but quite, you know..."
Pagan transferred her full attention from the television to Luke. "No, I don't know."
"Well, shapely, I think you'd call it." Luke traced an outline of Meredith's curves in the air with his hands, earning a sharp slap from Pagan in return.
"Trust you to notice that. What do you think she wants?"
Luke didn't care. "Dunno."
Chapter Twelve
On Saturday afternoon, Luke reluctantly left the game of football that he had been playing and went back to Death Alley. The door to the deputy head's office was open and Wharton was already there.
"Excellent," said Mr Thomas when he saw Luke. "Let's go."
He led the boys downstairs to the library, where they were met by Mr Hannaford, who was looking more solemn than he usually did.
"As you know," began Mr Thomas, "Speech Day is coming up and each year we put on displays on each of the subjects taught here for the parents and guests to look at in the entrance hall."
Luke had missed Speech Day the previous year, as it had taken place while he and Pagan had been recovering in hospital, so this was news to him.
"This year I've decided to delegate my re
sponsibility for the history display to you two."
Luke and Wharton looked at each other, their faces mirroring expressions of extreme doubt.
"Eye contact! You see, you're making progress already!" remarked Mr Thomas. "I want you to create a display focusing on some aspect of the history of Hawley Lodge. Mr Hannaford has quite a collection of materials that will help you and has kindly agreed to come in on his afternoon off to show you what there is."
Well that explains why he's not looking very happy, thought Luke.
"Here are your display boards," Mr Thomas indicated three large, free-standing, cloth-covered panels. "What you put on them is up to you, but I do expect the end result to tell a coherent story, so it will certainly help if you are able to communicate with each other. It has got to be something that you will be proud to show your parents on Speech Day, which means you need to have it finished three weeks from today. How you organise your time on this is up to you and the only other stipulation is that you must work on it together at the same time." He paused. Luke and Wharton said nothing, although the resentment emanating from Wharton was so strong that Luke could almost see it.
Mr Thomas clapped his hands together in a burst of enthusiasm which was shared by nobody else in the room. "Well, you're obviously anxious to get started, so I'll leave you to it."
Sullen silence fell on the library as Mr Thomas made his exit. The boys looked to Mr Hannaford for further guidance. The librarian indicated a pile of ten cardboard boxes on the table next to him. "Photocopies of information from the local archives about the school. Seventy years' worth of photographs, newsletters, newspaper cuttings and the like. Yours to do with as you choose. The only additional rules I have are that you make scans or photocopies of the things you want to display and put the originals back exactly where you found them. If anything is out of place when you've finished then I will be telling Mr Thomas about it. Understood?"
Nods of assent from Luke and Wharton.
"Well you'd better get started then," finished Mr Hannaford. He turned away from them and headed to his desk at the other end of the library. Luke and Wharton stared at the enormous pile of boxes with a distinct lack of zeal.