Her Happy-Ever-After Family. Barbara Hannay

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      The child swung to Tess and Tess smiled at her. ‘It’s true. Don’t you think it’s lovely to come to a place where everyone wants to be friends with us? And weren’t we talking just last night about all the things we like about living in Bellaroo Creek?’

      ‘You like the fresh air.’

      ‘I sure do.’ She nudged Krissie’s shoulder with a grin. ‘And I’m finding I have a big soft spot for sultana cake.’

      Krissie giggled. ‘And I love Fluffy and Ty loves Barney. And Louisa and Suzie are really nice, and so is Mrs Bennet,’ she added with a shy glance at her teacher.

      ‘So you don’t need to get upset about anything anyone says, all right?’ Tess said.

      Krissie pursed her lips and finally nodded, obviously deciding to trust her aunt. ‘Okay.’

      ‘How about you run back to class now, Krissie?’ her teacher said. ‘Mrs Leigh is teaching everyone a new song and you wouldn’t want to miss out on that, would you?’

      With a hug for Tess, Krissie started for the door. Cam suddenly realised he still stood there staring. He tried to duck out of the way, but he wasn’t quick enough. ‘Cam!’ Krissie hugged him, grinning up at him with those big brown eyes of hers before disappearing down the corridor to her classroom.

      He gulped and turned back to Tess and Stacy. ‘Sorry, I was coming in to talk to you about that lower field. I didn’t mean…’

      ‘Well, as you’re here now you may as well come in.’ Stacy waved him in as she walked back behind her desk. ‘You’ve obviously become good friends with your new neighbours if Krissie’s reaction is anything to go by.’

      The collar of his shirt tightened. He didn’t know what to say, so he entered the room and sat on the sofa beside Tess, careful to keep a safe distance between them. ‘You okay?’ he murmured.

      ‘Sure.’ Tess sent him a wan smile before turning back to Stacy. ‘Mrs Bennet, I’m so sorry. I—’

      ‘Stacy, dear, please…at least when the children aren’t present. And let me assure you there’s no need to apologise. There were always going to be a few teething problems. I knew that the moment I read your application and discovered Ty and Krissie had recently lost their parents.’

      Tess’s breath whooshed out of her. ‘That didn’t put you off accepting us into town?’

      ‘Absolutely not! We think you’re perfect for Bellaroo Creek. And we think our town has a lot to offer all of you too. What are a few teething problems in the grand scheme, anyway? So don’t you go making this bigger in your mind than it ought to be. The children will settle in just fine, you’ll see. What we need to do now is sort you out.’

      ‘Me?’ she squeaked.

      ‘But before we move on to that, I just want to let you know that if Krissie has another little outburst like that, then we’ll deal with it in-house rather than calling you in.’

      ‘Oh, but—’

      ‘Believe me, Tess, it’ll be for the best. I thought it important you came today, just so Krissie knows she can rely on you, but from hereon we’ll deal with it.’

      ‘But what if—?’

      Stacy held up a hand and Cam heard Tess literally swallow. ‘Oh, I’m making a hash of it, aren’t I?’

      His jaw dropped. He turned to her. ‘What are you talking about? You’ve been brilliant!’

      ‘Cam is right, Tess. You’re doing a remarkable job in difficult circumstances. I sincerely applaud all you’ve achieved.’

      Tess shot him a glance before turning back to Stacy. Her spine straightened. ‘Thank you.’

      ‘Believe me, you can be the natural mother of twelve children and still feel utterly clueless some days.’

      Tess stared, and then she started to laugh. ‘I’m not sure that’s particularly comforting, but it makes me feel better all the same.’ She leant forward, her hands clasped on her knees. ‘Okay, so what did you mean when you said you needed to sort me out?’

      ‘Do you really think you’ll find it satisfying enough just keeping house and looking after the children?’

      ‘Well, I—’

      ‘My dear, I think you’ll go mad. So what I want to propose is for you to run a class or two for our OOSH programme.’

      ‘OOSH?’

      ‘Out of school hours,’ Stacy clarified. ‘The classes would only run for forty minutes or so. The school has a budget for it, so you would be paid.’

      Tess opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

      ‘It’ll be a great benefit to the community during term time and great for the kids. More important, however, I expect it will help keep you fresh and stop you from going stir crazy.’

      Tess stiffened when she realised exactly what kind of classes Stacy was going to ask her to teach—music classes. Cam stared at her and recalled the way she’d tensed up when Helen had co-opted her for the summer school. He frowned. Surely with her experience and expertise teaching music classes would be a cinch. If she had a passion for music, wouldn’t she be eager to share it?

      He didn’t want to ask any awkward questions. At least, not in front of Stacy, but…

      Silence stretched throughout the office. Finally Tess smoothed back her hair. ‘I know you’re thinking of my piano and guitar training,’ she said quietly. Too quietly. ‘But piano isn’t really appropriate to teach to a large group. As for guitar, that will only work if everyone has their own instrument.’

      Stacy grimaced and shook her head.

      Tess’s hands relaxed their ferocious grip on each other. He stared at them, and then opened his mouth. He could donate the funds needed to buy the school guitars.

      ‘I figured that might be the case,’ Tess said.

      He closed his mouth again, curious to see what she meant to propose.

      She pursed her lips and pretended to consider the problem. He stared, trying to work out how he knew it was a pretence, but he couldn’t put a finger on it. He kept getting sidetracked by the perfect colour of her skin and the plump promise of her lips.

      ‘I could do percussion classes,’ she said. ‘It teaches timing and rhythm and the kids would love it.’

      ‘Sounds…noisy,’ he said.

      ‘Which no doubt is part of the fun,’ said Stacy. ‘What equipment would you need?’

      ‘Any kind of percussion instrument the school or the children have lying around—drums, cymbals, triangles, maracas, clappers. Even two bits of wood would work, or rice in a plastic milk container.’

      ‘We can make some of those in class.’

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