Secretly Stealing Her Heart
True Life Trumps Nora’s Imaginings — A Web of Secrets and Lies #6
Here's the final part of the series“Nora? Nora love? I’m going now, There’s a cuppa here, don’t knock it over.”
Jimmy spoke softly, considerately. His fingers gently swept hair off her cheek. His voice seemed to come from the end of a long tunnel.
“Wha–?” Nora raised her head enough to see him leave, dressed in his ‘uniform’ of a smart tracksuit. A sideways glance at the alarm clock shrieked the news she was going to be late.
Her usual routine of getting ready for work needed some extreme corner-cutting, she settled for a messy half-bun and cereal in a bar, to be eaten as she drove.
Ruby, another classroom assistant, was nearly knocked over as Nora dashed along the corridor.
“Cutting it fine, Nora. Are you ok?!”
“I know,” she cringed. “Talk to you at break time.”
All night Nora had been plagued by worries over the robbery plans she believed she had uncovered. She’d also played out schemes, increasingly ludicrous in nature, for diverting said plans. The result being that she looked as if she’d downed shots of Japanese whisky, not Jimmy.
Nora quietly opened a door, hoping not to distract Miss Brewley from instructing the pupils of Year Five to get out their Egyptian project books. A neat pile of images was waiting for photocopying, and she took them with her into the corridor, glad of a mindless task to start the day.
Having programmed the machine to Xerox the first 30, Norma stood and waited, soothed by the copier’s whirr and whoosh. She stared sightlessly at the bright collage of drawings and reports of Year Two’s recent day out at a petting zoo.
She schemed: Ways to stop Stagelight Sparkles from coming to give dance lessons this Friday
Cancel the contract — claim to know something slanderous about the dance teacher: Thereby damaging Miss Przlomski’s business
Incapacitate / injure the dance teacher: Push Miss Przlomski off a ladder, trip her up, run over her foot. Any/ all would stop her teaching for weeks or months, depending on the injury
Immobilize her transport: Remove spark plug / let down the tires of her car. To do this before Miss P reached Bonneygrove, she’d need intel where she might park. Check the stolen file for an earlier dance class
Make her unfit to teach: Give Miss Przlomski a contagious disease. How? What? Consider incubation period to make it effective by Friday
“Ridiculous,” Nora muttered, taking warm paper copies from the collator.
“Were you talking to me?”
Robyn, the smart, bespectacled school secretary studied Nora over the partition that protected her modesty and the privacy of her workstation.
“Nope, just to myself,” Nora shook her head.
Before she turned to go, an idea popped into her head.
“I’ve been wondering about video doorbells,” Nora said, stepping into Robyn’s office. “Would they be something we ought to install at the front door? Y’know, allowing you to see and talk to any caller, even when you aren’t at the desk.”
“That’s a good idea Nora,” Robyn smiled “I’ll note it under ‘any other business’ for the PTA meeting.”
Nora hovered, uncertain how hard she could push.
“Not something for the staff meeting?”
“Maintaining the fabric of the school is the domain of the PTA or the board of governers, because we usually need funding.”
Nora nodded, biting her lip. “Will you attend the staff meeting?”
“I’m usually in and out. the Head takes her notes on the laptop, between us, we cobble together the minutes, why?”
“I had concerns about security,” Nora was balancing on a knife edge, “after watching a docu-drama” She shrugged. “How secure is the school on a Friday when Miss Przlomski holds her dance classes?”
“Urgh! I’ve said the same to the Head,” Robyn rolled her eyes. “But that won’t be a problem for the rest of the term; maybe longer.”
Nora’s stomach lurched. “Why? What’s happened?”
She wondered if a burglary had occurred at another school on the schedule. Maybe some arrests had been made. But Robyn made a motion as if zipping her mouth shut.
“Ask me at the end of the day.”
Then she turned her eyes resolutely to her screen and tapped gently at her keyboard. Nora returned to her classroom, where the pupils were lining up for a music lesson.
“Nora, please trim and stick those three images in each child’s project book,” Miss Brewley asked.
In the still of the empty classroom, anxious thoughts, clumsy like daddy-long-legs, battered Nora’s brain. She had to know what had happened, was Jimmy embroiled? She’d hate herself if another school had suffered for her inaction. But who could she ask?
She set to work with the guillotine and sticks of glue, only twice letting distraction cause her to paste an image upside down in a work-book.
Coffee break came and she made herself a hot beverage to take into the playground. Ruby was also on break-duty and if loose lips still sank ships, that young woman used gossip like a U-boat!
“How’s tricks Ruby?” Nora blew on her coffee.
They chatted and she explained away her lateness with a muted reference to an argument with Jimmy before she asked her real question.
“What’s going on with Stagelight Sparkles?”
“I’ve only heard bits and pieces,” Ruby gushed, “but it’s quite the scandal.”
Nora raised her eyebrow, she didn’t have to fake that she was agog.
“Apparently she’s run off with one of the parents.”
“Who? Miss Przlomski?”
“Yeah, with a father whose daughter takes dance lessons. They’ve been meeting in secret. The lid blew off because someone saw them, now they’ve packed up overnight.”
“Does the girl — the daughter,” Nora clarified, “go to our school?
“This guy is mega-rich I assume, because he’s relocated to Guernsey as a tax dodge. His daughter attends a private school, Kentwell.”
“Oh,” Nora said, stunned.
Ruby looked delighted to have floored her with the news. Before Nora could ask any more questions, a child came over crying, claiming another pupil had pushed her. Ruby took the girl to wash her scraped knee.
Nora was left to mull over this development and her fortune at being able to abandon plans to push the dance teacher down steps or inject germs into her water bottle. It was laughable that she’d seriously considered the plots of old spy movies.
When Nora opened the front door, the smell of delicious food greeted her. Jimmy appeared at the top of the stairs, almost obscured by a huge bouquet.
“Forgive me Nora, I was an ass,” he used his most panty-melting smile.
“You were,” she grinned, taking the blooms and admiring their subtle fragrance. “What’s in the oven?”
“A posh dinner for two, plus some plonk chillin’ in the fridge.”
Jimmy looked hopeful, like a dog that’s fetched its owner’s slippers.
“That sounds lovely,” she admitted, putting her bag over the newel post.
He pulled out her chair at the table for two in their kitchen.
“Candles?” she exclaimed.
“You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” Jimmy put the food on plates and poured the wine.
Nora was determined to have everything out with him, otherwise this apology was on shaky foundations.
“There was major gossip at school today,” Nora said. “The dance teacher who uses our school hall for her lessons has run off with one of her pupil’s dads!”
Jimmy nodded and chewed. “I ‘eard about that.”
“You heard. How?” Now Nora’s heart was beating fast. She hoped he was going to come clean.
“The mother of that pupil,” he swirled the wine in his glass before meeting her gaze, “is one of my clients at the gym.”
For the second time that day, Nora was genuinely surprised.
“I didn’t tell you on Friday night, ‘cos you were looking smokin’ hot in that lace thingy,”
“Bodystocking,” she supplied.
Jimmy nodded, a faint glint in his eye. “She stopped me on my way home; asked me if I would follow the dance teacher and try to get some photographs as evidence for her divorce lawyer.”
“Did you say yes?” Nora needed to hear it from his mouth.
“Yeah I did, although I didn’t wanna. Me and Evangeline, that’s the wife who’s been cheated on, ‘ave a bit of history.” He looked down at his plate.
Nora’s pulse drummed loudly in her ears. “You slept with her? While you were with me?”
“No and no!” Jimmy’s eyes widened, glittering with sincerity.
“When we worked out she used to flirt, but it was fun and harmless, I would never take it any further. That was before I met you. She hasn’t been my PT client for over a year.”
“If you’re lying Jimmy, everything we have is ruined.”
“I know, but it’s the truth. It meant that we grew close, so when she wanted someone to trail her husband, because she suspected he was cheating, she came to me.
“Evangeline gave me the dance school’s schedule so I’d know the times in between classes they might meet: Places to watch and wait. She offered to pay me a decent wedge.”
Jimmy reached for Nora’s hand across the table. “I want to take you to Paris, so I agreed.”
“Did you get any evidence?” Nora asked, overwhelmed with a rush of affection. She felt entirely foolish for all the crime ring imaginings she’d entertained.
“A few photographs outside a cafe on the day they were recognized. Now everything’s got out of hand. Evangeline sent the images to her solicitor, but I dunno if she’ll pay me.” Jimmy shrugged, his posture despondent.
“It doesn’t matter if we don’t go to Paris,” Nora soothed him, rising from her chair to crouch beside his.
She put her arms around his waist and studied his face. She was trembling with relief, and unused adrenaline, but brimming with love after his momentous revelations. Everything Jimmy had done, had been doing, was for her, to treat her better, and she’d read him all wrong.
“What’s most important to me is that you’ve been honest; about Evangeline, the job, everything. I need to trust you, Jimmy.” Her throat tightened, “and you’ve proved that I can.”
“You’re quite a girl, Nora,” he unfastened her claw clip and ran his fingers through her hair. “It’s the easiest thing in the world to love you.”
“I love you too Jimmy,” she whispered, eagerly kneeling up as he leaned down to kiss her. “And I’m sorry I didn’t trust you sooner.”
~ The End ~