Lily stretched out her hand to the wicker basket on the front of her bicycle and rested it on her handbag. ‘I’m not sure I would want to know,’ she said quietly.

‘Mebbe not, Miss Briggs,’ Edna nodded sagely. ‘’Cause ah’ve ’eard she tells it ’ow it is.’

In the staff-room Vera was holding forth while John and Lily listened intently.

‘Now don’t forget you are all invited to this evening’s soirée at the vicarage. It’s to celebrate the end of another successful school year. Joseph and I have invited staff, governors and one or two special friends. So we’ll expect you at half past seven for drinks and nibbles.’

‘Thank you, Vera,’ said John, ‘we shall look forward to it.’

‘I’ve asked Millicent to come along, Lily, so she can give you a lift.’

‘That’s helpful,’ said Lily. ‘You seem to have thought of everything.’

Vera looked down at the list in her pocket notebook. ‘Well, yes, I hope so. This evening should be fine.’ She gave John a demanding stare. ‘However, there is much to do today, as I’m sure you are aware. We have notes to parents to send out informing them that school reopens on Monday, the seventh of September, plus the advert for the new teaching post to be forwarded to County Hall.’

John nodded and looked at Lily. ‘Also the children’s reports have to be taken home at the end of school,’ he said. ‘We shall need those in sealed envelopes.’

‘All in hand, Mr Pruett,’ said the ever-efficient Vera. ‘Lily has already completed hers.’

John, slightly nonplussed, hurried off to prepare the morning assembly and ring the school bell.

Joseph arrived for assembly along with Elsie Crapper, who accompanied a rousing rendition of ‘When a Knight Won His Spurs’. This was followed by Lily’s school choir singing a sweet version of ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’. John told the children his own version of Oscar Wilde’s tale ‘The Selfish Giant’ and Lily realized that perhaps she had misjudged him, for he was clearly a gifted storyteller.

After Joseph had led the children in the Lord’s Prayer, John wished the school leavers every success when they moved on to Easington Secondary School. It was then that Phoebe Fawnswater looked around with curiosity as she realized that when it was her turn to leave Ragley School she would be separated from all her friends. She would be driving into York with her mother to commence her secondary education at the Time School for Girls, with its smart uniform, straw hats and hockey sticks. Phoebe suddenly wasn’t sure she liked the idea.