He went back to his chair and a smile twitched on his lips. ‘Can’t send you away with nothing inside you,’ he said. ‘Have you eaten?’
‘Not since breakfast.’
‘Hmm. You’ll waste away if you carry on like that.’ He looked at her gravely. ‘While we’re waiting, tell me about yourself. Humour me. Even though you’ve turned down a job I haven’t yet offered you.’
Lana couldn’t help a small smile. He had a dry sense of humour, which she liked. She explained a little of her circumstances without mentioning Dickie but again, as though he knew she was holding something back, he barked: ‘Husband? Boyfriend?’
‘I had a fiancé,’ she said with only a faint tremor.
‘Had?’
‘His ship was torpedoed by a U-boat only a few days after leaving Liverpool. Most of them survived but not Dickie.’
‘Bad luck. How long ago?’
‘Forty-one. He left on 23rd August and went down on the 28th.’ She swallowed hard, desperate not to allow her voice to waver. His mother and father had told her as much as they knew, both of them with tears pouring down their cheeks. She’d never spoken about it to anyone else, not even her own parents, except to say he’d drowned.
Mr Shepherd’s eyes widened. ‘On the Otaio?’
Lana gave a start. ‘Yes. How on earth did you know?’
‘I was also Merchant Navy. That’s how I got this gammy leg.’ He appraised her for a minute. ‘Why didn’t you join up? Help get the buggers.’ He grinned. ‘And this time I won’t apologise for swearing in front of a lady. It’s the only name that suits them.’
She gave a weak smile back. ‘I agree. I wanted to but failed the medical in the ATS.’
‘Oh? On what grounds?’
‘Flat feet,’ she mumbled. It was as though she had something to be ashamed of, she thought, crossly.
‘Sorry to hear it but of course it wouldn’t affect your teaching abilities.’
There was a knock at the door and a maid entered holding a tea tray.
‘Please thank Cook and ask her for a round of sandwiches for the lady,’ Mr Shepherd said.
‘Yes, sir.’ The girl bobbed her head and vanished.
‘You’re very kind,’ Lana murmured.
‘Not at all. I just want to know what I can do to persuade you to stay here and do the vital job of educating children.’
‘Teaching is what I love,’ Lana said cautiously. ‘It’s just that Liverpool is so far away.’
‘From your parents?’
Lara nodded.
‘Are they ill?’
‘My mother’s been very ill but she’s much better now. No, it’s not that. They own a grocer’s shop and it’s too much for them now the assistant’s joined up and my mother is having to run the house as well as do the bookkeeping.’
‘They could always sell up and come to Liverpool. Be near their daughter.’
‘They couldn’t do that. You see, my mother doesn’t even go out, so she’d never move.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘She has a condition. Agoraphobia.’ She rarely told anyone this as they had either never heard of the condition or found it impossible to understand, and she was tired of hearing people say her mother should buck herself up. But she felt she owed Mr Shepherd an explanation for all his trouble.
‘She was always on the nervous side,’ she continued, feeling his gaze on her, ‘but going through the Blitz has made her far worse. She began to get nervous attacks and now she’s too frightened to catch a bus into town on her own – or even go into our village by herself.’
‘I’m sorry to hear that,’ George Shepherd said, steepling his hands. ‘Not a nice thing to have to deal with. But she wouldn’t want that to hold you back, would she?’
‘Oh, no,’ Lana said truthfully. ‘She wants me to live my life to the full. In fact, both my parents encouraged me to apply for this job, even knowing it was near Liverpool.’
‘Well, then …’
They were interrupted again with the welcome sound of the maid bringing in a plate of sandwiches. George pushed the plate over to her.
‘Yours,’ he said. ‘And Cook’s custard tarts. You’ll feel completely different with one of those inside you.’ He chuckled. ‘Don’t talk. Just enjoy it.’
He poured her a cup of tea and she drank it down gratefully. The two triangles of egg and cucumber sandwiches slipped down easily, and Mr Shepherd was right about the cook’s custard tarts. He insisted she eat the second one as well. They were delicious.
‘Better?’ Mr Shepherd said.
‘Much. Thank you.’
‘Well, then, why don’t I show you round. It’s an interesting building and you’ve come all this way.’
She loved seeing different schools, getting a measure of how they ran, seeing if there was anything they did that would improve her own school – not that the headmaster at her last school had ever taken any notice of her suggestions.
‘I’d like that,’ she said as she rose from her chair.
‘I’ll show you a couple of the classrooms,’ he said, limping by her side. ‘This one’s Miss Booth’s mathematics class.’
Lana peered a few moments through the glazed door to see a blur of children sharing desks. An older girl suddenly caught her eye. She sat at the side of the class halfway between the children’s desks and the teacher at the front. The girl raised her head and looked through the glass. To Lana’s surprise she threw Lana a look of utter despair, then bent her head down again, scribbling rapidly in her notebook.
She was obviously extremely nervous about something. How odd. She was a pretty child, but those eyes had registered such misery for someone so young.
Just as Lana stepped back, the door opened and a young woman stood there, brown eyes warm with welcome.
‘Do come in,’ she said. ‘Are you the new headmistress? Oh, I do hope so.’ She didn’t stop for Lana to say otherwise. ‘The children are so excited to have a new headmistress. They weren’t all that fond of Mr Benton. He was terribly strict. Like some Victorian master.’ Her hand flew to her mouth. ‘Oh, dear, I shouldn’t talk like this in front of you, Mr Shepherd. You’ll get me sacked.’
‘I doubt that.’ George Shepherd smiled as he lightly touched Lana’s arm to guide her in. ‘Teachers aren’t two a penny any more, so we may be stuck with you.’ The teacher chuckled. ‘Anyway, I’ve brought Miss Ashwin to have a look round the school. And yes, I’m trying to persuade her to take the position of headmistress.’
With a loud scraping of chairs thirty-odd children scrambled to their feet. Lana noticed the older girl was the last one to stand up.
‘Children, this is Miss Ashwin, come to say hello.’
‘Good afternoon, Miss Ashwin,’ they chorused.
The older girl didn’t move her mouth.
‘Sit down, children,’ the teacher said in a raised voice. She smiled and put out her hand, saying quietly, ‘Wendy Booth. Seriously, please think about the position. We’re a friendly bunch when you get to know us, and we need someone like you desperately.’
‘I haven’t made up