That longed-for meeting warmed Natalia’s cockles all evening as she hummed through dinner in smiling remembrance at the amusing conversation with the new Headmaster. It seemed the more they met, the more she emerged in full unfettered expression like a snail from a shell.

And it turned out Neill wasn’t married. After trying to imagine what his home, wife or girlfriend might be like, noticing his lack of wedding ring but never daring to ask, it turns he was all alone.

She’d laughed off his offer of coming for Saturday’s Open Day, but now groaned she’d lost out on an opportunity to cross paths - on a weekend - and right before the long blank week of Half Term that lay ahead! But what would she say? Stand and look awkward waiting for a wink whilst he extols Miss Barnes&rsquo...

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