The Waffle House on the Pier - Tilly Tennant Page 0,31

a business card from his wallet and offered it to Ewan. Sadie was pleased to see that although he looked deeply sorry for the accident, he didn’t look intimidated by an obviously fuming Ewan. His expression was open and frank as Ewan took the card. ‘I can see that my presence is a bit, well… I’m probably not the most popular man in town right now. My number is on there if you need me for anything.’ He looked at Sadie again. ‘Anything at all; just call me and I’ll be glad to do what I can.’

Ewan gave a grim nod, gripping the card so tightly Sadie felt the urge to jump up and take it from him before he creased the information on there out of recognition. She realised she would do well to resist the urge though, because Ewan had gone into overprotective big brother mode and when he was like this it was better to let him get it out of his system in his own time. In a few hours he’d be back to his old amenable, affable self, full of banter and teasing at every opportunity. Although, sometimes Sadie wondered whether that wasn’t just as bad…

She found her gaze drawn to the card in her brother’s hand again. Everything that she wanted to know about the man she should have hated but instead found herself intrigued by was tantalisingly close. Nothing or nobody was prising it from Ewan’s grip right now, but maybe later, when things had calmed down, she might be able to get it from him.

‘I’m glad you’re OK,’ the man said, looking at Sadie again. ‘I really am so sorry for everything.’

Sadie didn’t get to reply, didn’t get to hear any more exchanges between the stranger and her family, and she didn’t even get to see him leave, because in the next moment she was smothered by a distraught Henny. Then Graham joined in, and by the time they’d finished fussing and checking her over with more than a little disbelief at her insistence that she was alright the man had gone, and the little boat that had caused so much trouble had gone with him.

Chapter Seven

Monday morning found Sadie back at Featherbrook School. Mondays seemed to come around so quickly – too quickly these days, especially when she was due to be in school. She’d always imagined that the work experience bits of her teacher training would be the best bits, but she was quickly beginning to view each approaching day in the classroom with dread. She’d discovered that she wasn’t good at discipline, easily fooled by the kids, not tough enough and that, really, she wanted nothing more than to be a friend to them all. But teachers couldn’t be friends as well – that’s what her university mentor kept telling her – but Sadie, despite this advice, had been determined to try it her way regardless. It turned out that her mentor had given her sound advice after all, and the lax start Sadie had got off to with the class had done her no favours. What was worse, the kids she’d tried so hard to befriend didn’t see her as a friend at all – they saw her as a pushover and once they’d spied the chink in her armour they’d continued to prise it apart, determined to make it crack wide open. Sadie had despaired, tried to backtrack and reintroduce the discipline she should have begun with, but it was too late – the damage had been done.

It wasn’t all of the class, of course, but the few more than made up for the diligence of the many. Sadie had known this Monday was going to be the worst one yet when she’d arrived at school to hear that the qualified teacher who was usually in class with her had been involved in a minor car crash and was currently sitting in accident and emergency at the hospital with severe whiplash. So, at the behest of an overworked and desperate head teacher, Sadie found herself, not for the first time, managing the class alone.

The head had promised to try to find someone who could spare time to come and support her, but Sadie had realised that not a lot of effort was being made in this quest. She’d seen three teaching assistants in the staffroom where she’d stored her belongings before school began who’d informed her as they sat and sipped coffee that they were all busy