Hilda Annersley, Headmistress of the Chalet School, gave her secretary a rueful smile and leaned back in her chair. "We aren't having much luck so far, are we?" she observed.
Rosalie Dene, a slight fair woman some years younger than the Head, nodded her head in agreement. "It's a shame Sharlie had to leave at just this time," she lamented. "It's always seems more difficult to find suitable mistresses in the summer term, and no-one we've seen so far is even remotely fitted for the position of a junior form mistress!"
Miss Annersley began to laugh. "Certainly the woman we've just seen would be hopeless! They would run rings around her, and, personally, I prefer keeping our juniors in some kind of order. Dear knows they make up for early discipline later! Anyone else, Rosalie?"
Miss Dene consulted her list. "Yes, one more. A Miss Hastur, it says here. Will I send her in?"
Hilda sighed and brushed a wisp of hair back from her forehead. "Yes, you may as well, I suppose. She's worth trying, at least!"
A moment later a tall, slender woman around Hilda's age, with flame red hair and grey eyes not unlike Hilda's own entered. Hilda, always immaculate herself, was startled to see that the other woman had gone against fashion orthodoxy and was clad in a beautifully cut suit of dark crimson. On most red-headed women, Hilda reflected, it would have looked odd. On this one, however...
The Head rose and extended her hand, and after the slightest of pauses, Miss Hastur extended her own. All the same, the handshake was anything but hearty, and Miss Hastur's fingers did little more than brush Hilda's palm.
"Did you have a pleasant trip?" the Head enquired politely.
"It was very comfortable," Miss Hastur replied gravely. She appeared to be squinting, and the Head noticed.
"Is this light too bright for you?" she asked, concerned.
Miss Hastur flashed the other woman a quick, comprehensive glance that made Hilda wonder, and nodded her head. In response, Rosalie moved quickly to shut the blinds and consequently dim the hotel room significantly. Only then did the prospective junior mistress appear to relax.
"Thank you." For the first time she smiled, and the other women realised that she was, or had been, astonishingly beautiful.
Hilda, with a feeling of strangeness she could not identify, attempted to bring this interview to some kind of normality. She collected the papers she held and looked straight at Miss Hastur, piercing grey eyes meeting piercing grey eyes. "Shall we begin?" the Head asked, and the interview commenced.
Leonie did not find the interview difficult. Rohana Ardais had easily agreed to tell her kinswoman all she had gleaned from Magda Lorne about Terran customs, and what was expected of a teacher on Terra. When Leonie, uncharacteristically uncertain, had pointed out that she had never dealt with young children and did not know how to do so, Lady Ardais had pointed out firmly that that was nonsense. Since Leonie had been Keeper, she had trained large numbers of young girls and boys in the use of their laran, and what was that if not teaching?
Furthermore, Rohana had facilitated a meeting between Magda and Leonie, and the Keeper of Arilinn had found herself being given a crash course in Terran Standard. Not that that was difficult; like most telepaths of her power, Leonie was a gifted linguist since she could hear the thought before the words. After that, Magda had provided several books with which she had advised that the Lady Leonie be completely familiar before she arrived in Terra. The space voyage, she suggested, would provide the perfect opportunity for Leonie to do the reading, and also learning something more about Terran life.
Now, she was devoutly grateful to both Rohana and Magda, for Miss Annersley was asking her what experience she had had in teaching.
"I have been teaching since I was little more than a girl myself," Leonie told the Head. "I am experienced in it, I can promise you that."
Hilda smiled. "I am glad to hear that, Miss Hastur. Could you give us some indication of what your experience has encompassed?"
For a split second, Leonie stared at her, and in that moment, Hilda Annersley suddenly found herself seeing a room in a Tower with several young girls...there were instruments Hilda had never seen before, but she knew, somehow, that they were matrix relays...and there was Leonie, in long robes of the same crimson she wore now, sitting beside a young girl with hair as red as Leonie's own...
Shaken, Hilda shook herself mentally. What was that? She made eye contact again with the other woman, and noted that the grey eyes facing her were thoughtful. To her surprise, her prospective new mistress gave her a gentle, reassuring smile, and for a moment, Hilda saw that somewhere, somehow, the woman in front of her was accustomed to great power and authority...
"Do you wish to see my references?" Leonie asked in the soft voice that Hilda had already noted.
Wordlessly, she nodded, and Rosalie Dene gave the Head a furtive glance. What was going on between those two!
Hilda smiled and nodded and glanced quickly at the character reference provided by Rohana Ardais and the 'teaching' reference that Janine Leynier had added, and, after a moment, pronounced them satisfactory.
"I don't think there's anything else," she observed after a long moment. "Miss Hastur, you are unquestionably the best candidate we've had today. If you wish to take up this position, it's yours. Term starts in three weeks."
Leonie rose slowly, and smiled. "Thank you very much, me- Miss Annersley. I will see you then." Hesitantly, she put her hand out to the other woman, but when Hilda extended her own hand, Leonie did little more than brush the Head's fingers. Leonie smiled again and left, leaving Hilda confused again. For a spilt second as their fingers had touched, Hilda was certain she had- well, heard something, but the words had meant very little.
Leonie had thought, Lorill was right. This school could be a valuable source of laran-gifted girls...
What, Hilda wondered, was laran?
