Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Anna Margaret? Could you come over?” Isabelle called.
Anna Margaret had just installed her laptop so she could read a few things, but that was not the only reason why she was reluctant to be involved. “I only know about dysfunctional families,” she answered. She would rather stay out of other people’s family business, because she had nothing sensible to add.
“I need to ask you something.”
“But it’s not my family.”
“Yes, it is.”
Anna Margaret decided her reluctance stemmed in part from the fear that getting involved in their family business had consequences. The involvement would be reciprocated. “But if I do that, you will do it to me. Someone will stick their nose into my business at all times.”
“We’re already doing that,” Isabelle said matter-of-factly. “I need an objective look – and Frederick might have told you what he thought. Because I think he tells you things.”
“He did.” She thought the other two teachers were too near. If she was going to say anything she would have to walk over.
“Do you think he was right?”
All right, blast it, she would walk over. She left her coat and her laptop. “He said it was your health,” she said, not sitting down. She was going to return in a second. She was not good at this family business. Most of the time she preferred to stay out of things and keep it more superficial. In her own family of course that had led to trouble.
“But how could Charlotte know? We didn’t tell her until recently.”
“Frederick’s guess is that she picked something up anyway. I have no opinion on it,” she said, in case she was asked to give it. “But Frederick thought it was very plausible.” And she made to return to where she had been sitting.
“It could be.” Isabelle pondered it.
Anna Margaret returned her attention to her laptop, but found it difficult to focus. That was exactly why she should not get involved in such things, she told herself in annoyance. After a while she saw Cecilia walk to a phone and make a call.
“Charlotte will be coming up,” Isabelle announced, standing beside her. “What’s your schedule?”
“As if I could do anything about it.”
“Not in the best of moods today, are you?”
“Well, you practically abducted me and you’re forcing me to give my opinion on things I’m not qualified to give an opinion on.” She took care not to speak too loudly.
“Did you have a short night?”
Anna Margaret scrolled through the document she was trying to read. She wondered if Charlotte had had the same problems – trying to read something and finding it impossible to make sense of the words. She did not know if she was crabby because of the shorter night or because her coffee had not kicked in yet, or maybe because she was here against her will. She checked the time. There was still a while until her next appointment, although it was a bit inconsiderate of Isabelle to have abducted her in this manner.
“I didn’t want to do this alone, but Philip had to go to the bank. He still sometimes thinks teenage girls are aliens, but at least he would have known what
I wanted.”
There were lots of people who would have been a better stand-in than she, Anna Margaret thought. She stayed where she was, although it was more a question of principle than anything else. “You’ll be fine.”
It had taken Isabelle fifteen minutes to speak to Charlotte. They had done so in front of Cecilia, which had made Anna Margaret wondered how much about Isabelle’s health had been revealed. Just when she was contemplating catching a bus, the conversation seemed to be over.
“Done,” Isabelle said curtly as she walked to the door. Charlotte had already escaped.
Anna Margaret had seen the signs and was already busy sliding her laptop back into her bag. She had to hurry to catch up, wondering if she was going to be forced to catch a bus anyway. Of course if she asked how it had gone, she would be told she could have joined in, so she did not.
“I don’t think we lost much time,” said Isabelle. “Although really you could tell anyone it was my fault if you were late to something and they would all accept the excuse.”
“Well…” It was not really other people’s reactions that were her problem, but the fact that she had had no say in being abducted.
“Well what?”
“I don’t know. From not involving close family in your…er…things,” she said for Cecilia’s benefit, “you went to involving innocent bystanders.”
“Innocent bystanders?” Isabelle exclaimed. “Do you call yourself an innocent bystander?”
“I’d like to be.”
“Too late, you’re producing one of their cousins now.”
“Oh!” Anna Margaret exclaimed. Apparently it was all right to reveal
her pregnancy. She did not doubt that Cecilia knew what this meant. It might even have been revealed to her before, although she could not quickly see why. But she was being too nice, she decided. “And here I was, trying to be discreet about
your condition.”
Isabelle stopped in her tracks. “Er… well…”
Anna Margaret stopped as well. She had no experience with cat fights herself, but she wondered if Isabelle was the type.
“I suppose,” Isabelle said with some resignation, “that it sounds a lot better than making me sound terminally ill or on the brink of a divorce. Although your sitting with us could have prevented that impression from being given.”
Anna Margaret guffawed. “You won’t let that go, will you?”
Isabelle turned to Cecilia, who clearly did not know whether to move away or to stay with them. “Tell me, you thought I must have cancer or something like that, didn’t you?”
“It was one of the things that crossed my mind, Madam,” Cecilia admitted, although she still looked as if she had no idea what the situation really was. “Divorce is also a frequently disruptive factor for our students.”
“For a teenager this seems to be far worse.”
“Not Aurelie,” Anna Margaret reminded her.
“See? That’s why you needed to sit in. Maybe you can take the girls to the cinema during the Christmas holidays again. Under the circumstances I don’t think I should ground her for not passing me important notes from school. Of course she
will have a lot of schoolwork to catch up on.”
“I’ll see if I have time.”
“I trust,” Isabelle said to Cecilia, “that the particulars of a student’s home life is not considered something to be freely shared with colleagues. In this case I’d rather you didn’t. Not yet. If you have to discuss her with other teachers, just say the issue has been resolved and that she will be put to work in the next few weeks.”
“Of course, Madam,” Cecilia nodded.
“And my sister-in-law is still resisting assimilation, but we keep trying.”
Anna Margaret raised her eyebrows.
“I’ll be in touch,” Isabelle said to Cecilia, shaking her hand.
Anna Margaret shook her hand too. “Thanks for the coffee.”
“I see why a dinner all the way in France wasn’t so appealing.”
She gave that a wan smile. “Obviously I don’t do well with evening parties anymore.”
Isabelle put an arm around her. “Come sister, or else your critics will say you’re my lapdog.”
“Or your critics will say you’re desperate to become a princess. Little do they know!” Isabelle said in the car.
“I have no particular –“
“We know,” Isabelle reassured her. “But we like you anyway.”
She did not doubt that, really. “Even if I refuse to – if I insist on minding my own business?”
“You’ll come around. We’re nice. Although I think that woman thinks we are very odd,” said Isabelle. “Did she get it or not, do you think?”
“She got the reference to
me.”
“I did perhaps not think that through very much before I spoke, although I don’t know how else I could have explained why you can’t not be one of us. You’re quite stubborn. Which is your job’s fault, of course. You can’t be seen to drop everything because of some teenage angst.”
No, she supposed not.
“But we didn’t waste any time. Of course I forced you to come, so for some people that equals forcing you to increase our allowance to two million per year.
Do I get an increase if I have another child, by the way?”
“That’s likely.”
“And Frederick too. Oh, brace yourself, sweetie.
Someone is bound to say you got pregnant so he could have more money.”
She was not much later when she got to her office than if she had had her meeting at the Palace. Isabelle’s car had dropped her off there and secretly she was glad she had not had to walk. It was cold this morning. She hoped her fitness was not already declining. There was still so much time to go and December was a busy month socially.
She survived until lunch and although she had never set any time aside for it specifically, just taking it the way it came, she now always made sure to eat something at regular intervals. She ate something in the restaurant – Frederick would say she should bring something from home, but taking her lunchbox there was taking it just a little too far, she thought – and spoke to a few people, and then it was time to get into the car for a work visit.
When she felt like sleeping she wondered if it was a good or a bad thing not to have too many of them anymore. On the one hand she might be able to doze off in the car, but on the other hand she would not be at her brightest. She checked the speech she was to give; fortunately she had it on paper and it had been written a while ago. They never left that until the last moment. If she was too tired to think she would at least be able to follow it to the letter, something she did not do if she was particularly alert.
Because she was going to a diploma ceremony, she might have to talk to a few graduates afterwards. They were supposed to be sharp and she would not get away with dull questions. That might pose a problem, but at least she could always try to let them talk.
“Madam, we’re arriving in two minutes,” someone said when she had half fallen asleep and she had had a succession of strange thoughts.
Anna Margaret sat up straight. It would not do to wake up only on arrival. Luckily she did not have the type of hair that became a mess, but she brushed it down with her fingers anyway. She was to be one of the first in the hall – before the students and their families anyway – and hopefully she could squeeze in a visit to the toilet as well.
Before the ceremony and after the drinks. It was not always comfortable to have a growing baby pressing down on your bladder and to have a job in which people did not seem to pee at all. It had been rather new to her staff in any case.
After the birth she might need to have them schedule in or requests even more breaks. She wondered what they would say to that.