Meanwhile, Shannon o’Hanrahan was showing Keira the gymnasium. Keira was dressed in a summer dress; in fact one that she and Connie had acquired that first day out. Shannon was in shorts and a tee shirt. As the school was still on holiday, she was allowed to wear her own clothes all the time.
“It’s relatively new. I think it was built about four years ago. The Lambster keeps harping on about what things were like in her day, and we don’t know how lucky we are. I hate PE, and they make us go for runs when the hockey pitches are too muddy or frosty,” she said, with her soft Irish accent very obvious.
“The Lambster?”
“Oh, that’s the nickname for the Head. She’s all right, I suppose; a bit too Jolly Hockey Sticks for me.”
“She seemed pretty switched on to me,” Keira observed.
“Oh, that’s for sure,” agreed Shannon. “You can’t put much past her.”
“Do you board?” Keira asked.
“I certainly do; you won’t get me going back to Dublin every weekend. I’ve been here for a week already.”
“How come?”
“Family problems at home, so I was staying with an aunty near Maidstone. She had to go home to Dublin for some family problem, so I asked the Lambster if I could come here. She’s been very good about it.
“What’s it like?”
“Boarding or Dublin?”
“Boarding.”
“It’s okay. Because we’re all seventeen or eighteen, we’re treated like young adults. We each have our own room, which we can decorate more or less how we like. There are rules, but they’re mostly for our safety and to make life easier. I was in a good school in Dublin, but me Dad decided that I needed to get away from the distractions so I could get to Oxford or Cambridge.”
“Did he attend one of them?”
Shannon laughed heartily. She was a pretty girl with red hair and green eyes that twinkled mischievously.
“Me Dad? You have to be kiddin’ me. He’s what they call an entrepreneur, but I call him a wheeler-dealer. He made a fortune in scrap metal and dealing in dodgy property deals back in the eighties. To be honest, I don’t get on with him, and he doesn’t know how to take me. The main reason I’m here is to try to get some English culture to rub off so I might attract some better class of men than them that usually sniff around. It’s the fellas that he calls my distractions.”
“I was under the impression that the Irish don’t exactly love the English,” Keira said cautiously.
“You’re thinking of them up north. To be honest, most of the south don’t give a shit either way. That’s all in the past. We’ve shown that we can fuck up all by ourselves and so we can’t blame it on the English, can we?” she said, referring to the recent financial crisis in Eire.
“I find it all rather confusing,” Keira admitted.
“So do I, to be sure, but all the troubles are because they just can’t live with each other in the north. It’s like me dad and me. We’re fine when we’re apart, but when we’re together, we fight because we’re too alike.”
“Like my parents,” Keira said.
“Divorced, are they?”
“Heading that way.”
“Mine too. My Mum pissed off years ago, and I don’t blame her, as me Dad is a right shit.”
Keira had never met anyone quite like Shannon before. When they were first introduced, outside Mrs Lambert’s study, the Irish girl had been sweetness and light, appearing almost so butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Now, she swore like a trooper and was as down to earth as one could want.
“So, no boys here?” she asked, somewhat wistfully.
“There’s a boys’ school up the road a way, eight or nine miles; just too far to walk. Anyway, we get together for the dramatic and arty-farty stuff, and things like the Christmas Disco. Are you into all that shit?”
“Not really. I’m into computers, and I like sports.”
“Do ye?” Shannon asked, looking at Keira as if she said she liked biting the heads off puppies.
“Yes, I like to keep fit, so I run and swim and stuff. I have played a bit of tennis, but never seriously. My Mum met her lover at the local tennis club.”
“Juicy, was he?” Shannon asked with a grin.
“No, she was the wife of a friend of my Dad.”
Shannon looked a little shocked, and then grinned.
“Cool!”
“Anyway, I’ve never played hockey or that other one with the butterfly nets.”
“Lacrosse; it’s a fucking lethal game. Makes psychopaths out of anyone that plays the damn game; I tried it once and got sent off for trying to kill someone.”
Keira laughed, feeling like she belonged here.
Doreen stood up and announced that she would give Graham a short tour of the main school.
“I’m sure a man of the world like yourself already knows what a gymnasium and a hockey pitch looks like, so perhaps if I show you the conditions in which the girls live might give you a good idea as to how Keira will be living while she is here.”
Graham took that as a positive sign.
They left the study and she showed him the main dining hall and library. Judging by the amount of hi-tech PCs around the place, Keira would be in seventh heaven. He said something like that to his hostess.
“Ah, a bit of a wiz on the old computer, is she?” Doreen asked as they started up the stairs.
“Just a bit. Put it this way, when I have a problem, I go to her. She’s built at least three systems, to my knowledge, and they always seem better than the shop deals.”
On the landing, they walked past a large bay window that overlooked the beautiful grounds. Two girls were walking past the window and they were laughing. It was Keira and the girl who was showing her round the school, Shannon.
Doreen watched Keira for a moment. She was a very pretty girl, displaying no hint whatsoever of any gender confusion. Tall and with an athletic figure, rather than what one would call voluptuous. She was, however, well endowed in the chest department, without being too big, and had the height to carry it.
The two girls walked over to where a car was parked and spoke to an attractive older woman who was sitting on a bench reading a book.
Doreen turned to Graham with a quizzical expression.
“Ah, that’s Stephanie, my, ah, new partner. We thought it better if just Keira and I came in.”
They watched and there did not seem to be any reservation on behalf of Keira in relating to Stephanie.
“They get on well?”
“Very well; in fact, Keira gets on better with her than with her mother. We all went on holiday together.”
“May I ask about your own relationship with her; you mentioned an ex-wife?”
“Indeed; to be brutally honest, it’s amazing that Keira is as well adjusted as she is. I’m a consultant in the financial services industry, and up until recently have been employed by one of the biggest, most prestigious companies in London. Linda was, or probably still is an interior designer with one of the most exclusive design companies. Neither of us was aware of it, but I don’t think we were there for Kenneth, as Keira used to be called. I suppose one gets so drawn into the cycle of success and achievement that one loses sight of what is important. That’s why I’ve left my old company and now work from home with a handful of clients. Keira has gone through a tough time, so I want to be there for her.”
“And her mother?”
“Isn’t. Sorry, that must sound quite harsh, but Linda has formed a relationship with another woman and does not want anything to do with Keira or me. I’ve not heard from her for a couple of months; letters from the solicitors, yes, but not from her.”
“What does Keira feel about that?”
“You’d have to ask her. However, I don’t think they were close.”
“The school she has been in is co-ed, yes?” Doreen asked.
“Yes.”
“Am I to understand from Mr Pettifer that she has not attended there as a girl?
“No.”
“How awkward for her; I can understand why she is seeking a fresh start. I hesitate to ask a personal and rather sensitive question, but...”