‘Oh, I meant to tell you, Mrs Cole was having a right old ding-dong with Elsie at the library the other day.’

‘Elsie? She’s the loveliest person in the village,’ Caro said. ‘What was she supposed to have done?’

‘Mrs Cole was accusing her of deliberately miscalculating her library fine.’

‘Elsie wouldn’t do that. Isn’t it all done electronically now anyway?’

Bella nodded. ‘What happened in the end?’

‘Elsie let her off the fine. She’d had that book for four months but couldn’t be bothered to bring it back. Poor Elsie was as red as a beetroot – you know how she gets. I nearly went over and gave Mrs Cole a slap for being so rude to her. She’s a good girl, Elsie. Never does any harm to anyone and doesn’t deserve that grief.’

As much as Bella wasn’t happy with Amias’s behaviour recently, she didn’t entirely blame him for it. Something had certainly triggered it and she needed to find out what. Perhaps she’d ask Mrs White for some advice about speaking to his parents.

After helping herself to cheese and crackers, Bella looked at the next form. It was the one for Nick that Freddie had handed to her. She’d enjoyed her conversation with Nick at the launch. He’d revealed more of himself in that short time than in all the years they’d been neighbours. As she typed up the details and wrote the tag, something strange happened to her heart. It seemed to grow in her chest, filling up all the space in her ribcage. She exhaled slowly, thinking it would ease the pressure, but it didn’t. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling by any means. In fact, it made her feel quite happy.

Cynthia began to probe Nina for more details of her date with Johnny and Bella listened intently, glad that romance was blossoming for her friend. She took the next form and worked through her process. With so much to get through she couldn’t let her thoughts linger on anything, or anyone, else.

Chapter 14

‘I’m not sure I can take any more of this,’ Johnny said, rubbing his hands over his eyes.

The next day, they were in the school hall rehearsing the Christmas play. They weren’t quite at the dress rehearsal stage, but they were getting scarily close, and Mrs Brody had stepped up her mania. The large Christmas tree had now been placed at the back of the hall and was covered in decorations the children had been making during the various wet plays they’d had.

Excitement in the village was almost as high as in school as everyone prepared for the Christmas parade and as it was the end of November, the time was growing ever closer when decorations would be strung up indoors and outside, and the whole of Meadowbank would be transformed into a winter wonderland.