Gifted and Talented (34 page)

The scales had fallen from her eyes in a manner more dramatic than even Olly could have hoped for. And he had further hopes of Isabel, even though things were at an early and delicate stage between them. Partly still in shock at the ease with which De Borchy had deceived her, Isabel was understandably cautious about starting another relationship. And, when she wasn’t being cautious, she was locked in the library trying to make up lost academic ground.

Olly was giving her time. He could afford to. He was busy himself, happily occupied now the
Post
was going full throttle.
Press Baron’s Son In Drugs Shame
. What a great first-day front-page it had been. That Jasper De Borchy had been the missing link in the university drugs ring had been a discovery beyond Alastair’s wildest dreams.

And then there were Olly’s landlords. The Stringer household was on the up. Hero had not only started going to school again but had taken a weekend job at the dogs’ home where Coco the ever-escaping poodle was supposed to be incarcerated. She could be seen about town on Saturdays, taking Coco for walks. Scrubbed of make-up, hair shining, she was unrecognisable from her former incarnation. And she seemed to bear him no grudge about his outburst – on the contrary, she seemed almost grateful.

Dotty’s clients were building slowly up again – although thankfully the Lintles had not returned. David’s career too was gradually righting itself. Hero had also, by way of apology, revamped her father’s online presence; it now looked better than any rival lecturer’s.

Olly supposed it was good news that Amber Piggott was making progress in hospital. And Isabel was definitely thrilled about the relationship between the Master of Branston and her friend, Diana, the college gardener. She had, apparently, moved into the Lodge and it looked like a florist’s inside, these days, according to David, who, with Dotty, had been invited to the dinners the Master kept giving for his students and staff. Also according to David, Richard Black had a permanent smile on his face.

Press Baron’s Son In Drugs Shame.
Diana put the newspaper with its enormous – really,
really
enormous – headline back on Richard’s desk. Dramatic times, she thought. The paper dated from some months ago – the week before last Christmas, in fact – but it brought it all back.

Feeling a wave of sudden nausea – she was sicker this time round than when pregnant with Rosie – she sat down. Beneath the
Post
on the desk were many other papers containing stories relating to Branston. They were awaiting insertion in the cuttings book, the maintenance of which was the responsibility of Flora. But she and the Bursar were still on honeymoon.

Diana moved a few papers. Exposed were the bills for the post-alumni dinner clean-up operation in college. It had taken weeks for the wreckage to be entirely removed from the Incinerator, and college claret had proved impossible to remove from concrete floors. Elsewhere, a black smoky patch recalled the fact that there was a corner of Branston College that would forever be Sara Oopvard.

Sara’s departure was only one, Diana thought, of the many unexpected ways the alumni dinner had been a blessing – to the college as well as herself. Among the students it had attained a notorious, even legendary status and Diana sensed the hope bright among them that something even worse would happen next time.

As a result, Flora – when she came back – had an enormous number of volunteers to help work through the updated alumni list. Those potential donors to whom news about the dinner had got out seemed to be newly interested in their alma mater as a result. Money was flowing in.

Some of this had been invested in a new website. There were sections on the college staff – as Head Gardener and soon-to-be wife of the Master, Diana had been put at the top, just underneath Richard himself. The designer had put in a special section on the
Gesamtkunstwerk
and there was another – admittedly small – on celebrity alumnae: ‘Famous Picklers’. As a result, applications were firmly on the up, including one from David Stringer’s own daughter who was, according to Richard, especially promising and wanted to be a lawyer.

Diana stood and walked to the window. Glossy grass rippled in the breeze. Little green buds were appearing on all the trees. There was laburnum along the lawns and lilacs in white and purple – lilac and laburnum that she had freed from ivies, from rubble, from shadow.

There was so much to look forward to. Gradually, over the next few weeks, the sun would get hotter and the leaves grow bigger. The days would start to smell warm, filled with perfume and butterflies. Her delphiniums would explode in slow motion, that blue row of rockets she had looked forward to seeing for so long. And she had other plans for the garden too, but those might have to wait for a while. She pressed her belly and smiled.

The only cloud in her happy blue sky had been leaving the Campion Estate to move into the Master’s Lodge. But then a job as Sally’s deputy in the housekeeping department had come up and Debs had not needed Diana’s urging to apply – successfully, as it turned out.

So there was no need to lose touch with her old neighbours; besides, Shanna-Mae and Rosie were joined at the hip and both wildly looking forward to the baby, who Shanna-Mae hoped was a girl and Rosie hoped was a boy. Both had eagerly volunteered for babysitting. And both would be bridesmaids at the wedding, registry office though it was. Neither she nor Richard wanted a fuss. Nor a wedding in the egg-shaped chapel, however newly committed to Branston Richard now was.

Who could have imagined it would all turn out so well? She opened the window, breathing in the fresh air. It was the most beautiful spring she could remember; certainly the loveliest there must ever have been at Branston. The bulbs she had planted the previous autumn had transformed what had been scarred, scabbed and unloved grass into a dancing fairyland of pale yellow and soft blue flowers: narcissi, bluebells, primroses and daffodils. A path wound through it.

Diana closed her eyes. Voices floated over to her and she opened them again to see Isabel walking along the path between the primroses with Olly. He had his arm round her and they were laughing.