'mr brandon?' the secretary looks in tentatively. 'you have an urgent message to call your office.'

'i'm so sorry.' luke looks surprised. 'it must be very important for them to interrupt me. excuse me.' as he heads out of the room, i grab the prospectus and flick randomly to a page.

'so!' i say hastily. 'when you say the children read every day, what exactly do you mean by that?'

thank god. for about five minutes mrs grayson talks about reading schemes and i nod intelligently. then i ask a question about the science building and i get another three minutes, and i'm about to move on to netball when the door opens.

i gape at luke in surprise. his face is glowing. he looks like he's won the lottery. what on earth ...

oh my god. elinor's done it!

ok, now i'm dying to check my texts.

'i'm so sorry,' luke says politely to mrs grayson. 'i've been called back to my office on unavoidable business. but becky can stay and do the tour.'

'no!' i jump to my feet as though i've been scalded. 'i mean ... i'd rather see it with you, darling. i'm so sorry, mrs grayson ...'

'that's quite all right,' she says, smilingly. 'and may i say again what a pleasure it is to see you, professor? you know, your advice regarding little ernest cleath-stuart was invaluable.'

beside me, i can sense luke prick up his ears. 'what's this?' he says politely.

'all in a day's work,' i say hastily. 'it was nothing to speak of ...'

'i have to disagree! professor bloomwood cleverly spotted the potential of one of my pupils at st cuthbert's,' harriet grayson tells luke. 'a young boy who was having a few ... difficulties, shall we say? but he's really come out of himself since we gave him the art award. he's a different child!'

'ah.' luke nods in sudden understanding. 'i see.' his eyes are softer as they meet mine. 'well, professor bloomwood's very good at that kind of thing.'

we head along the corridors and out of the school without speaking, slide into the car and look at each other for a moment in the silence.

'so.' luke raises a quizzical eyebrow. 'professor.'

'luke-'

'don't tell suze.' he nods. 'i got it. and becky ... good for you. except we can never send minnie to this school now, you realize?'

'i know,' i say gloomily. 'and i really liked it.'

'we'll find another.' he squeezes my knee, then reaches for his phone and dials. 'hi, gary? i'm coming straight in. i know, incredible news!'

surreptitiously i turn on my blackberry and it bleeps with incoming texts, the first from elinor.

i have spoken to bernard. kind regards, elinor.

just like that. sorted, with no fuss. the more i get to know elinor, the more i realize she's an incredible woman. i think luke must have got some of her genes. the determined, steely, crush-every-obstacle ones. not that i'll ever say that to him.

'so, what's up?' i say innocently as luke starts the car. 'what's the big excitement at work?'

'you remember that trip to paris?' luke looks over his shoulder to reverse. 'it's off, i'm afraid. we're not meeting christian scott-hughes after all - we're meeting the main man, this afternoon. sir bernard just decided to give us half an hour, out of the blue! sir bernard cross himself!'

'wow!' it's lucky i'm good at acting. 'how amazing!'

'it's unheard of.' luke nods, his eyes on the road. 'everyone's in a state of shock.'

'well, congratulations! you deserve it!'

thx elinor, i'm texting back. you are a total star!!!!!!!!

'what i do think ...' luke pauses as he negotiates a tricky roundabout, '... is that someone has pulled some strings for us. this kind of thing doesn't just happen out of the blue.' he glances at me. 'someone, somewhere is behind it. someone influential.'

my heart seems to jump right into my mouth. for a moment my throat is too tight with panic to answer.

'really?' i say at last. 'who would do that?'

'i don't know. difficult to say.' he frowns thoughtfully for a moment, then flashes me a tiny grin. 'but whoever it is, i love them.'

for the rest of the afternoon i'm on tenterhooks. it's all going to plan - as long as each bit of the plan works out. as long as the meeting goes well; as long as luke doesn't decide to go to paris anyway; as long as no one at the office blabs ...