Keepsakes from the Cottage by the Loch (Loch Cameron #6)

Chapter 10

TEN

‘You’re so kind to help me with this.’ The woman took a paperclip from between her lips with a frown and slid it onto a stack of handouts, then picked up a new sheaf of papers to do the same. ‘I can imagine your mum’s keeping you pretty busy at the Inn.’

‘She is, but it’s nice to have a bit of a break, to be honest.’ Tara stapled a stack of paper together into a booklet and reached for the next one.

‘I love that this is your break. Stapling handouts.’

Tara had been walking past Loch Cameron Primary school, on her way back from posting some letters for her mum, when she had stopped to watch some building work which was happening in the grounds. It was strange to see her old primary school, and she’d stood there for a moment, taking it all in: the little concrete playground and square stretch of green grass behind it, with the small building itself squat in the middle. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it held good memories.

It was funny, how when you were a kid, school seemed so big. Yet, in reality, it was a tiny little place, with a school hall no bigger than a large dining room, and the classrooms really only big enough for ten or fifteen children at a time. Luckily, the class sizes at Loch Cameron Primary had always been small, as there weren’t that many children in the village. Or, there hadn’t been, once upon a time. Clearly, things were changing.

As she’d stood there, lost in her memories, a woman with a shoulder length black bob and white denim dungarees had come out of the building and walked over. She’d introduced herself as the Headmistress, Emily Cargyle, and when Tara had explained that she was an ex-pupil, Emily had invited her in for a cup of tea.

‘You aren’t any good with making posters, are you? I’m trying to design one for our Variety Show event but I’m absolutely rubbish.’ Emily led Tara into her office and busied herself with a kettle and some mugs in the corner.

‘I’m not bad. D’you want me to take a look?’ Tara offered.

‘Goodness, yes. You’re a lifesaver.’ Emily placed a mug of tea in front of Tara and spun the screen of a laptop around to show Tara what she was working on.

LOCH CAMERON’S GOT TALENT

PRIMARY SCHOOL FUNDRAISER

HELP US FUND A NEW CLASSROOM

SINGER, DANCER, COMEDIAN? WE WANT YOU!!

There was an image of the old-timey World War One man from the recruitment poster at the bottom of the poster, and some fairly cringeworthy clip art graphics under that, showing people dancing and holding a microphone.

‘What do you think?’ Emily asked, frowning. ‘It’s a work in progress.’

‘Errr… It’s good!’ Tara said, brightly, like she would to one of the kids in her class. ‘Maybe the World War thing is a bit strong for a talent contest? Just a thought.’

‘You don’t have to be kind. I don’t know what I was thinking.’ Emily sighed. ‘Since I’ve been a headteacher, I don’t really do this kind of thing anymore. Not that I was brilliant at it before.’

‘I teach Primary. In Glasgow, though. I’m just here for the holidays,’ Tara said.

‘Oh, what a coincidence! I feel like this is fated.’ Emily winked at her. ‘Do you want a job? There’s one going. Two, actually.’

‘Ha. No, but do you want me to have a go at the poster? I quite like doing stuff like that.’

‘Please. I need all the help I can get.’

Tara sat down, tilting the laptop towards her.

‘The thing is,’ Emily sipped her tea, ‘if we can’t recruit two new teachers by the start of next term, we may have to close.’

‘Close the school? Surely not!’ Tara changed the font of the poster to something that looked fun and readable, instead of Emily’s boring block font in black, and swapped out the aggressive image for a friendly rainbow background.

She looked up, appalled.

‘It’s the last thing we want to do,’ Emily told her with a sigh. ‘But, Miss Bly is leaving at the end of term, and we’re also having to accept a double form entry for the first time this year, because of the increased demand. Hence the new classroom. It’s one thing for the powers that be to build new houses, but the community has to shift to accommodate the needs of all those new people.’

‘The new houses on Gyle Head?’

‘Yeah. I’m not against having more people in the village, but when you build new homes, you have to allow for the local infrastructure to support it,’ Emily said. ‘The laird and the developer have been great, overall, but I don’t think they thought about the school. Just sort of expected us to cope.’

‘That’s always what people do with schools. And hospitals.’ Tara replaced the clip art images with some more sophisticated ones, and reordered the text a little. ‘Progressively take away our resources and just expect us to continue doing everything to a high standard, out of the love in our hearts. Thing is, we do.’ She shook her head. ‘In a way I wish all teachers and nurses would just give up overperforming so that the powers that be would realise just how much of society is being run on good will and kind hearts.’

‘Oh. Agree, one thousand per cent. Are you sure you don’t want the job?’ Emily made prayer hands.

Tara laughed. ‘I’ve got a school in Glasgow to go back to. I’m just here for the summer helping my parents out.’

Not that I’m not tempted. Tara thought of the icy atmosphere in the staff room back at Lomond Primary with a shiver.

‘Of course.’ Emily nodded. ‘Well, if you change your mind, I need two of you. So…’

‘I’ll think about it. And keep my ear to the ground if any teacher friends need something,’ Tara offered. ‘There. How’s that?’ She turned the screen around to Emily.

‘Oh, my sainted aunt. That looks a thousand per cent nicer! Thank you, Tara!’ Emily cooed. ‘You are a lifesaver. I can tell you’re a primary teacher. I just threw that at you and you ran with it.’

‘It’s all right. Happy to help. So, the fundraiser is for the new classroom? Can you get one built in that time?’ Tara asked. In fact, it was nice to do something school-oriented. She didn’t mind helping out at the Inn, but even though she disliked the politics and the pushy parents at Lomond Primary, she was missing her pupils. The children were lovely, and she’d always liked all the crafty class prep you had to do as a primary teacher. Teaching wasn’t the problem: it had always been a joy.

‘Not in time for September. We’re having to bring in a temporary classroom for a year, or until we can get it built. The laird can cover that, he says, but ideally, if we can help out with the costs for a new classroom it would help him out. The developer can contribute, but he says he didn’t have money in the budget for that.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Tell me something I haven’t heard before.’

‘I’m happy to help more, if I can,’ Tara said.

‘That would be great. We’d asked your mum if we could do the Variety Show at the Inn and she said it was okay.’ Emily nodded. ‘I can see from your face that she hadn’t mentioned that to you yet, though.’

‘No, but I’ll ask her about it when I get home,’ Tara chuckled. ‘I expect she’d love to have something to think about. Take her mind off the leg.’

‘Hm. How is the leg?’

‘Fine, really. I mean, she’s in pain of course, bless her, but she’s being brave, overall.’ Tara sighed. ‘Mind you, I do love my mum, but she is an absolute nightmare as a patient. Last night she had me folding napkins into swans just in case anyone ordered room service. I’m not sure why swans were vital.’

‘That’s mothers for you.’ Emily grinned. ‘Mine keeps telling me that my biological clock is ticking. Only a few years left for me to be a grandmother, Emily Sue .’ Emily rolled her eyes. ‘I’ve told her a million times, I don’t want kids. I have enough of them at work.’

Tara laughed softly, nodding. What she didn’t say was that Dotty and her didn’t have that conversation, because Dotty – as much of a gossip as she was – knew how much Tara had wanted a family of her own. And how deeply it had hurt her to have lost Ramsay.

‘Mums,’ she agreed, noncommittally.

Tara felt a sense of strangeness: the ghosts of the past had returned, and being back at her old school certainly wasn’t helping. It was weird to be there: she felt like she could turn a corner and see her child self – skipping, dancing, laughing. She felt a pang of homesickness for that little girl.

Though it felt odd to be at the school, it also felt nice to be there: a way for her to be with that little girl part of her, and to be with her memories of Ramsay, too. Their childhood together had been so pure. Being in the school again, Tara found that she was able to separate those memories from what came after. It wasn’t little Tara and little Ramsay who were at fault now, or who had created difficulties by deserting each other. Their love was as pure and innocent as it had ever been, and Tara realised that it was good for her to know that.

‘I’m sorry for the noise.’ Emily nodded to the window of the classroom, where a group of builders were digging the foundations for the new classroom with a big yellow machine.

‘How long are they going to be at it?’ Tara asked.

‘Ugh. Months. We need them to get as much as they can get done in the summer holidays, but they’re going to need to be on site in term time too.’ Emily rolled her eyes. ‘Still, we can’t use the temporary classroom that long. Those things aren’t built for long term use, though I remember going all the way through primary school in one when I was a kid.’

‘I can believe it.’ Tara peered out of the window at the builders. ‘With schools, it’s always a question of how long can we make this work ? not what’s the ideal situation here ?’

‘Hmm. You get it.’ Emily finished pinning together her papers and stood up, going to the window. ‘Sure you don’t want to come and work here? I’d love to have you.’

‘I don’t think I can,’ Tara replied apologetically. ‘I’d miss my kids. And… there’s some personal stuff going on that might make it a bit difficult to be here.’

‘Oh?’ Emily turned to her. ‘Spill the beans. I could do with some intrigue in my life, even if it’s secondhand.’

‘Oh, it’s kind of complicated.’ Tara didn’t want to talk about everything she was feeling just yet. ‘Maybe another time.’

‘Of course. I’ll butt out. Always happy to lend an ear, though.’ Emily returned her gaze to the window, frowning. ‘What on earth are they doing out there? They’ve all stopped and are staring at the ground. Hey!’ she knocked on the windowpane and held up her hands questioningly. ‘What are they up to? The classroom’s never going to get built if they keep taking extended coffee breaks.’

‘I think that guy’s waving us over.’ Tara looked out to the excavation site outside. ‘Shall we go and see what he wants?’

‘Oh, for goodness’ sake,’ Emily tutted, irritated. ‘Fine. But, really, are they not capable of doing anything without supervision? Come on.’

Tara followed Emily outside onto the playground and towards the field, which she remembered so well from her own childhood at the little primary school.

‘What seems to be the problem?’ Emily approached the group of builders, who were looking down into a large hole. ‘I don’t want to play the bossy headmistress card here, fellas, but we are on a bit of a deadline. You know we want to get as much of the new classroom done by the time term starts, which is in…’ she consulted her phone ‘Three and a half weeks. Ah, Ramsay. Can you explain what’s going on?’

Ramsay?

Tara looked up.

Surely , it couldn’t be.

It wasn’t that common a name, but there could be another Ramsay in Loch Cameron. It didn’t have to be him.

It didn’t have to be the man who had broken her heart so finally and completely, ten years ago, and left her a husk of a woman.

It didn’t have to be the only man that she still compared all other men to. The one that they failed to measure up to in every way.

But, it was .

Ramsay Fraser was approaching the building crew, wearing a hard hat and carrying a clip board. Tara looked around her frantically, but there was nowhere to go.

‘Oh. Tara,’ he said, as he saw her, his expression unreadable. ‘Hello.’

If she could have jumped in the hole in the ground in front of her right then, and, somehow, magically disappeared, then she definitely would have.

‘Hello, Ramsay.’ She nodded, politely, feeling a blush creep up her neck.