Both Dickon and she were in Miss Booth’s class. Florentina knocked on her office door just before school began. ‘Note from Simone.’ She was a child of few words like her brother. Kate waited until Florentina had left and then she opened the note. It was scribbled on the back of a leaflet advertising the start of a mobile hairdressing service visiting the villages. On the blank side, Simone had written ‘Eleven p.m. tonight. Rendezvous to be advised. Come.’ Well, she wouldn’t. Not any more. Gilbert was right: she’d too much going for her. Kate tore the message into little pieces and dropped it in her waste bin. This afternoon after school she was going fund-raising and the first person she was trying was Mr Fitch. The appointment was for four o’clock and she would be going up there full of charm and persuasion. She’d get him to buy the computers if it was the last thing she did. She’d wear her most demure dress because she felt that was what would impress him, being the kind of man he was.
