Page 7 of The Girl from the Tea Garden
‘To your houses, girls! That includes you, Nina Davidge.’ She gave the tall blonde girl a warning glare.
The girl stood her ground. ‘Shall I show MrJackman around the school, miss?’
‘No, thank you, Nina. I shall be doing that after lunch.’
Nelson took that moment to swing down from the car and scamper towards the girls. Nina shrieked as the monkey grabbed her school tunic. Sam lunged forward and pulled Nelson away. Nina and the other pupils fled with screams and giggles.
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Gertrude. ‘I don’t know what’s got into them today. My girls are not usually so unruly.’
‘No, I apologise for Nelson’s ungentlemanly behaviour,’ Sam said, putting Nelson on his lead and keeping a tight rein.
‘Perhaps, dear sister.’ Norman said with a laugh. ‘I shouldn’t have brought such a handsome young man into their midst. But maybe they will all perform their plays twice as well for the camera.’
‘And he’s got gorgeous hazel-brown eyes,’ Nina told her enthralled classmates, ‘and a wicked smile. He’s some sort of film director. Absolutely divine– apart from his horrid little monkey that smells of the bazaar.’
Adela listened from across the room; even though most of the girls were speaking to her again (including Margie when Nina was out of earshot), she was no longer part of the gang. She and Flowers kept each other company and had been secretly practising their routines in Miss Bensham’s linen room. The house mother must have felt sorry for them because she was allowing them to use her wind-up gramophone and had added their mystery act on to the programme. They were going to perform a slapstick imitation of Charlie Chaplin that turned into them throwing off their hats and blazers and dancing the Charleston, a more old-fashioned dance than they had wanted, but Miss Bensham’s record collection was limited.
Nina was still going on about the good-looking film-maker who had brought DrBlack.
‘I’ve never heard of a film director with a monkey,’ Adela chimed in. ‘Can’t be anyone famous.’
‘Nobody asked you, Tea Leaf,’ Nina snapped. ‘Anyway, it doesn’t concern you, since you’re not in our play.’ She turned to the others. ‘And I could tell he liked me– he gave me a wink!’
‘And directors don’t do their own filming,’ Adela persisted. ‘If he didn’t bring a cameraman with him, then he’s not a proper director, is he?’
Nina stormed across the room and jabbed Adela hard with a long finger. ‘Nobody cares what you have to say. You’re just jealous that I’m going to be filmed, aren’t you? I’m the one who will be famous one day– not a little Tea Leaf from the back of beyond. So shut up, two annas!’
Adela stared her out, not flinching from the painful jab or answering back.Just wait and see,she thought defiantly. She, not the hateful Nina, would be the star by the end of the day.
Sam good-humouredly followed in the wake of the formidable Gertrude Black and filmed what she thought potential benefactors of the school would like to see: the gothic chapel, the hockey field, the science laboratory, with its test tubes and wallcharts, and the moderately well-stocked library.
Norman had long got bored and disappeared off to talk to the pupils.
‘Don’t you think your supporters would like to see pictures of the girls engaged in their everyday life?’ Sam suggested. ‘Eating in the dining hall or playing chess in the common room – that sort of thing. I can’t do sound, but I can edit-in explanatory titles.’
‘Our benefactors will want to know of the good work and education– Christian education– that we give the girls at StNinian’s. It’s not a holiday camp.’
‘No,’ Sam murmured, ‘I can see that.’
She gave him a sharp look. ‘What I mean is we don’t want people to think this is some sort of finishing school. Our girls are being equipped to go out into the world to be useful young women– teachers and administrators, or at the very least intelligent wives and mothers for the Empire.’
Sam laughed. ‘The Empire’s on its way out, surely.’
Her look was scandalised. ‘I hope not. You’re not one of those radical young Englishmen who support the Home Rule for India lobby?’
Sam shrugged. ‘I believe what my old dad used to say: India belongs to the Indians and we’ve just got it on loan.’
‘I can’t agree,’ Gertrude replied. ‘We have so much more to give India,so much good we can do– men like my brother giving unselfish service. We can’t just abandon the Indians, give up and go home.’
Sam, seeing her flustered, said more gently, ‘We’re moving towards more self-governance for Indians, Miss Black. I believe it’s a matter of when, not if, we go. But perhaps it won’t happen in our lifetime. Things grind mightily slowly on the Brahmaputra, as my old dad also used to say.’
‘You seem very fond of quoting your father; do you not hold opinions of your own?’ Her stare challenged him. ‘And what are you going to give back to India, MrJackman, after the benefits you’ve had of a first-class imperial education?’
He gave a rueful laugh. ‘Help you and DrBlack make a film promoting StNinian’s.’
Gertrude’s stern face twitched in a smile. ‘Enough of filming buildings then. You are right about showing the girls at recreation. The inter-house play competition will demonstrate how they put their knowledge of history, geography and literature into live performance. Let us go to the central hall;I suspect that’s where we’ll find my talkative brother.’
Sam fell into step behind the headmistress. He could do with a drink. He hoped the competition wouldn’t take all afternoon and that he could make a swift departure. Nelson, who was chained up in the games shed, would not stand his confinement much longer either.
