‘The Call’ is known to all teachers. The school inspectors are required to phone a school before midday on the day before they arrive. When that call comes, it sends a school into panic. Susie told Rory that the whispers had gone around during Period One: ‘We got the call! We got the call!’ When Rory arrived at school, the senior leadership team were congregated in the head’s office – not to be disturbed. Occasionally, one of them would scuttle out and collect some folders or ask someone a question. Then they would scuttle back into the enclave. No one saw Derek Brown or Nathan Finch until lunchtime. Rory imagined them with a huge floor plan of the school laid out on the conference table, pushing miniature versions of the teaching staff around with a long stick.

When they did emerge, it was to make an announcement in the staffroom at lunchtime. The room was packed. You could smell fear. Derek had readjusted his tie about three times, but Nathan Finch was the picture of calm. He was the one who led the briefing.

‘As you may have heard, we had a call this morning from the inspectors to let us know that they will be arriving at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Their visit will last either one or two days. On the first day, they will visit lessons and meet with myself, Mr Brown and the rest of the senior leadership team. The lead inspector would like me to underline to you that you are not to change anything that you were planning to do tomorrow; they would like to see your lessons delivered as planned.’ He looked slowly round the room with a face which contradicted that last sentence in its entirety. ‘But I would also like you to know that we are keeping the school open until ten o’clock tonight, in case you have any work you would like to get finished before you go home tonight.’

And it wouldn’t have taken an MI5 codebreaker to read between the lines and work out what that meant, either.

---

Rory had pupils’ books at home which she needed to collect and bring into school. The house was empty when she got there. Charlie and Belle had gone to Sheila’s because Rory would be working into the night. A bit of spoiling by Granny would do Belle the world of good, and the two of them could comfort Sheila too. She’d practically adopted Charlie as her grandson.

Rory got a warm fuzz of contentment every time she walked into this hallway. John had done such a good job of it – and the rest of the house. There was no way she could have done all this on her own. The painting she’d done quite a bit of, and she had even given the wallpapering a go. But the plastering, the flooring, and the coving – that would have taken her years. She pushed an image of Sheila nodding knowingly at her from her mind.

Rory had got used to having John around the place. He’d helped her in so many other ways. Looking for Belle last night. Being so great with Charlie. Making her laugh when she was having a bad day.

She put her bag down in the sitting room and walked into the kitchen to get a glass of water. This was fast becoming her favourite room. When no one was there, she liked to lay out ingredients along the counter and pretend she was on a cooking show. The shiny cabinets. The granite worktops. She was so in love with it, she was even managing to keep it clean.

But there was something not quite right in here. She couldn’t put her finger on it. The taps weren’t on – she’d made that mistake before – and the cooker was off. Her eyes trailed around the room. What was it?

It was the same in the sitting room. A nagging feeling. Was something missing? Maybe it was just the lack of both Belle and Charlie. The house wasn’t usually this quiet. Or was she just feeling unsettled by everything at school?

There was a knock at the door.

‘Oh. Hi. I wasn’t sure you’d be in.’ John waved a set of keys as he followed her into the kitchen. Her keys. ‘I just came to give you these back.’

Automatically, Rory started to fill the kettle. Strong tea, two sugars. She didn’t need to ask. But she was confused about the keys.

‘Why are you giving them back to me?’

He put the keys down onto the counter. ‘I don’t need them any more. You’re all done. I came and cleared up this morning.’

John swept out a hand, encompassing the kitchen and the sitting room. That was it. That’s what was missing. Tools. Boxes of tiles. Bags of plaster. There was nothing anywhere.

For the last two months, there had been a work in progress somewhere in the house at all times. Whether it had been a half-painted wall, a part-tiled floor or a bigger job like the boxes of kitchen cupboards they had all had to limbo around, something had always been awaiting completion. But not any longer.

Rory felt a fluttering in her chest. ‘Are you sure? I mean. Everything?’

In her head, Rory visited every room in the house. The three bedrooms were painted. The upstairs bathroom was done. The kitchen. The sitting room. John was right; everything was done.

John smiled. ‘Yep. Hard to take it in, isn’t it? You finally got rid of me and my mess.’

This wasn’t right. She needed time to take this in. To say the right thing. She hadn’t even had time to think about what she might want to say. Whatever she had told Belle, Sheila or Susie, there was a small part of her which had… hoped? She had tried to trample it down. To remind herself that she was a customer and John Prince was just doing his job. But somewhere, at the back of her brain, the bottom of her stomach, the edges of her heart, she had wished that maybe, something might happen. She needed time to work this out. She needed to say something before it was too late.

But not now. She had to get back to school. The others were waiting for her. There wasn’t a teacher in the land who wouldn’t be squirreling away into the early hours the night before a school inspection.

John pulled a crumpled envelope from his back pocket. He didn’t meet Rory’s eye as he leaned over to slide it onto the kitchen counter. ‘This is the embarrassing bit. My invoice. There’s no rush at all.’

Rory swallowed. What had she been expecting? That he was going to work for free? Of course he had to give her an invoice for his time. Hadn’t she been the one who had been so repeatedly insistent about paying him? Life is not a fairy tale, Rory.

‘Of course. I’ll… I’ll get on to it straight away.’ She picked up the envelope. Was he saying goodbye? Was this the last time she was going to see him? She needed to say something. Anything. Why was her mind completely blank? Think, Rory, think!

He took the envelope out of her hand and slid it back onto the counter, before turning to look at her. ‘Don’t look at it now.’

This was the moment. The moment when the hero took the princess in his arms and told her that he’d been in love with her all along. The moment when he’d proclaim that he’d been waiting for her all his life. The moment that…

Her mobile rang.

Susie sounded like she’d climbed to the top of the stress tree and couldn’t get down. ‘Rory! What are you doing? We need you back here. Penny is a mess.’

She had no choice. She couldn’t let her friends down. ‘I’ll be right there.’

John raised his eyebrow. ‘Everything all right?’

How many times had Rory seen that expression on his face lately? His ‘ready to help’ expression. She was really going to miss it. ‘It’s school. We’ve got an inspection tomorrow. I’m sorry. I have to go.’

John hopped off his stool. ‘Of course. I’ll… er… I’ll see you around.’

Rory had no idea where she would see him ‘around’. Apart from their initial meeting at B&Q and his random rescue the night she lost Belle’s shoe, she had only ever met him at the house. And now the house was finished. When would she see him again? Come on, brain.

‘I can drop the cheque round to you later in the week?’

John tapped the envelope on the kitchen counter. ‘You can just pay it online. All the details are in there.’

Damn technology. ‘Oh. Right. I’ll do that, then.’

They stood there. Neither saying anything. Rory remembered telephone conversations with boyfriends in her younger days: ‘You hang up. No, you hang up.’

John took a deep breath…

Rory’s phone rang again. Belle.

‘Mum, I know you’re busy, but can you drop Charlie’s phone to Gran’s because he’s left it at home?’

John was getting his coat on.

Rory ended the call as quickly as she could. ‘Yes. Got to go. Bye.’

John started to walk towards the door. ‘I can see you’re in a rush. I’ll catch up with you later. I can see myself out.’

Unless she threw herself in his path, there was nothing that Rory could do to stop him. Had he been about to say something, or was she just inventing that in her own mind because she wanted him to? Damn Susie’s panic call. Damn Charlie’s forgotten phone and damn, damn, double damn the bloody school inspectors.

The front door banged closed. The same front door John had fixed for her all those weeks ago.

Rory shook her head to clear her mind and ran up the stairs to find Charlie’s phone. Right now, she needed to forget about John and get herself into school.