The nodding heads are becoming even more furious in their agreement. Eddy knows that in this moment they’d probably give up their firstborn to get what they want. He wants to leave but something keeps him there, some instinct to protect Blake and even protect Seb and Rosie. He knows that if he leaves now, they’ll all be completely alone.
Anna takes a deep, theatrical breath in, sighing out immediately. ‘We …’ Anna glances at Eddy, changes her mind and says, ‘I … found out that on two occasions, Seb paid for sex with a prostitute.’
Lotte’s hands fly up to her mouth while Vita lets hers hang open, her eyes swivelling, reptilian, to catch the others’ reactions. Martin murmurs, ‘Oh my God!’ And someone else goes a few steps further with, ‘Fucking disgrace!’
Anna’s eyes are wide, righteous and apparently full of sorrow that this heavy burden has been placed on her shoulders. She opens her mouth to say more and seems a little surprised that no one’s looking at or listening to her any more. Instead, they’re all luxuriating in their own shock, their own delight.
‘What a complete arsehole!’ Vita says.
‘Didn’t he say that what he did wasn’t illegal? Is that even
‘I think it is legal, it just depends on, like, the circumstances,’ Clarissa explains. ‘Like, if the woman is being controlled or whatever. If it was between two adults and was consensual then I don’t really see what the …’
A couple of women recoil, their eyes thin slits of disdain. One of them says, ‘He’s a
Anna is holding up her hands, saying, ‘Guys, guys, I know it’s upsetting …’ But, for the first time, she’s ignored.
‘It’s a position of responsibility, respect. How can we possibly respect him now?’
‘Yeah, but he isn’t always a head teacher, is he? Like he said in the assembly, he has a right to live his life outside of the school, doesn’t he?’
‘Ah, yes, he does, but,’ Anna interrupts, ‘I’m afraid it gets worse.’ Eddy watches as eyes widen, become livelier with possibility – imagining all the titillating, exotic, disgusting things Seb could have done to make it worse.
‘He used a school laptop.’ The eyes become blank; brows furrowed. Anna ploughs on, ‘To look for her, I mean. He searched for prostitutes using school property and most likely while he was at school. Which means, as a public employee, we are literally paying for him to spend his time fuelling a cruel and abusive industry.’
Everyone’s listening again now; Anna is on to something. ‘That’s what I was alluding to when I talked about him being unsafe, that he was putting our kids at risk. I mean, imagine if one of the children saw some of the sick things he was looking at on his
Clarissa is the first to look away, her face twisted in thought. ‘Sounds pretty unlikely that one of the kids would see,’ she says, but the others ignore her because Lotte suddenly looks like she’s about to burst into tears as she says, ‘He’s a monster, an absolute monster.’
Vita turns to hug Lotte, who whimpers over her shoulder for a moment before pulling away and saying, ‘I can’t believe I trusted him, really. I thought he was so safe, so wonderful.’
Others coo, pat and soothe Lotte, who first checks her mascara hasn’t run before looking at the whole group and, shifting with impressive agility from sadness to venom, saying, ‘He’s a pervert. We need to get him away from our children.’
Anna looks up at Eddy and for a moment he sees that she’s scared and alone. The realization settling in that she’s doing this. That she’s done this. She reaches for his hand, and he lets her take it. Their palms are cold; there’s no warmth between them any more. He pulls his hand away. He wants to get out of here, wants to go home and guard Blake and Lily. Even though Anna hasn’t mentioned Abi’s name she’s just one slip away.
‘It’s toxic patriarchy, is what it is – men abusing women for their own gratification and …’ She doesn’t get to finish because Lotte’s voice is louder.
‘No, it’s complete perversion. Dangerous. He’s a pervert and a pervert has no place anywhere near a school.’
‘Oh, that’s a bit strong …’ Martin counters. ‘I mean, I thought the same at first, panicked – especially when I heard those rumours that children were involved – but, you know, we live opposite Rosie and Seb, and I always thought he seemed like a good guy. Always stops for a quick chat.’
‘Would you be comfortable leaving your girls in his care knowing what you now know?’ Vita asks, lifting her eyebrows at Martin.
Martin looks away, says nothing, which Lotte interprets as a ‘no’.
‘There you go, then. You just proved our point. We don’t know what other perversions he’s hiding.’