Ending of Book 2

Abbie spoke first.
“I’m happy with that if I can sit beside her. She has acted more like a leader in the orchestra than anyone else I’ve seen.”
Moyra just said that she agreed. The Head smiled.
“I will announce her as leader for the project. It will be hard work to get it right and the three of you will have to work together. Now, let’s get to the theatre and start the last term.”

Chapter 1

The three girls followed the Head to the theatre, where they stood with her out of sight. Gina was playing Bach and stopped when Reverend Jack walked out on stage. He gave a blessing for success in the new term, led the prayer, and then nodded to Gina to start the hymn. He went and stood beside the organ. As the hymn finished, the Head looked at the girls.

“Follow me and stand in a line beside me. When I nod, go and stand with the choir.”

She strode out to the microphone, with three girls behind her. For Willow, it was one thing performing to a crowd, but another to be on stage in front of the whole school. They took up their places to one side. The Head welcomed the school to the new term and the last one of a very successful and tumultuous school year.

“The year will not be any less exciting as it ends. In the middle of next month our combined orchestra will be performing the Saint-Saens concert in the Cathedral. This will be filmed by the BBC for later viewing and a DVD. At the end of the month, we are involved in a big charity dinner dance at the Football Stadium. It will feature the Blue Coat School Dance Band, led by Willow Rose and Gina Summer. It will, like the Cathedral concert, be advertised through the school website.”

She paused as there was some murmuring.

“During the summer holidays, the optional project will only be open to the drama students. This is because the Music School will be preparing for one of the days of the Proms in Albert Hall. It will be the Monday of the last week, actually the first day of the new term, and we have yet to agree on the content. I’m certain that whatever is chosen will be excellent. These girls beside me – Moyra, Abbie, and Willow, will be crucial to this, with Willow playing the organ, and the others leading the orchestra. When we start the first term of the new school year, we will continue to have a combined orchestra as we have agreed to perform Handel’s Messiah in the Cathedral on the first weekend of December. This is a huge undertaking and will require a lot of rehearsals to get right. We will be joined by the Cathedral Choir and some soloists. Orchestra leader for that performance will be Willow Rose, aided by Moyra and Abbie.”

She nodded to them, and they went to stand with a group of animated singers.

“I don’t usually comment on activities outside the school, but as this involves school students, I will tell you that the first weekend of next month will see a pop concert in the Belgrade Theatre. It will include G-Force, mostly fourth formers, and Summer Rose, all second formers. It will also have another Coventry band, Rick Sacks and the Hikers. This will be filmed for one of the commercial TV stations. I applaud our scholars for presenting quality music to the public. Links to their websites will be on our own site. Now to other things….”

When she finished and dismissed the assembly, Willow walked off with the others, many hurling questions to which she had no answer, yet. Gina joined her and they went to the first lesson.

“Thrown in at the deep end, friend.”

“Without a costume. I’ll need all the help I can get. We’ll need to start planning the rehearsals for the Messiah before term starts, so we can structure them. The orchestra first, I think, before adding the soloists and choir. If we get Tom in, can you play scales to get the voices graded?”

“Happy to, my leader. Just appointed and already ahead of everyone else! Who are the soloists?”

“Margaret for alto, and Sally for soprano, as long as she’s up to scratch with her breathing. The others will have to be found. There may be a celebrity tenor or bass out there that the Head knows, or else we could put up a notice in the school advertising auditions. There must be guys in the senior years with good voices.”

“I like that idea. If we do it towards the end of this term, they could be in place at the beginning of next.”

They went into the first lesson. Lunch was hectic, with many coming up to their table with questions about the pop concert or the orchestra. Geoff came over with Zara to thank Willow for the chance to get on the stage at the Belgrade. He told her that the discs were with Peter, but nothing has been said yet. After that, things calmed down. On the way home, Wendy looked at Willow.

“You’re calmer now. Why the stress this morning?”

“I’ve been getting emails from the Head, telling me to see her first thing. Then, when I got there, the two leaders of the two orchestras were there. We were tasked with making sure the Cathedral concert and the Proms performance go well, and I was nominated as the leader for the Messiah. What was scary was that she had us stand beside her on the stage during her address to the school.”

“That shouldn’t bother you, with your experience.”

“But I didn’t have a keyboard to hide behind!”

The others laughed. They spoke about the modelling session on Thursday after school. When Jacob was dropped off Willow opened her door to let him give her a quick kiss. When they got to Gina’s house, they all went in. Wendy and Maisie had spoken about the big move, and Maisie had been collecting her things up. The first things to go over to the new house would be her sewing room. Both Wendy and Ashley were going to come with their cars to help transport everything, with Willow staying at the old house and Gina at the new, so that they didn’t have to lock up all the time.

Wendy and Willow went home and prepared a light meal for when Ashley arrived. Afterwards, with them all in working gear, Willow wearing jeans, they went back to the removal evening in the two cars. Because they had three cars, the removals went surprisingly well, with the sewing things taken in one big push, then most of Maisie and Gina’s clothes, and then the kitchen equipment in the third, only leaving a toaster and some stuff for the morning. It would be as Gina had foretold. On Tuesday, she would be picked up from the old house and taken home to the new.

Tuesday morning was chapel, with Willow on the organ. Reg spoke to her as she sat down.

“So, you’ll have the experience of playing the ‘Voice of Jupiter’ this summer.”

“What’s that, sir?”

“The organ in the Albert Hall. It was the biggest in the world when it was built and takes up about as much space as your average terrace house. It has four keyboards and a hundred and eleven stops. It will be a privilege just to be beside it to help you understand enough to play what you need to.”

“Thanks for giving something else to worry about, sir.”

The day went as normal and then there was the orchestra session after school. Mister Bamborough spent most of it going through what was coming up and making plans. They were told that they would be taken to the Cathedral by coach from the school and brought back on the three days of the concert, now set at Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. They would be taken there on Thursday afternoon to set up and rehearse with a sound check for the BBC. He had a Q and A session and brushed over the Proms event as there was not enough information on that yet.

Then, he started talking about the Messiah and the make-up of the orchestra. He had decided that the strings would be enlarged to nine firsts, nine seconds, and six violas. There would be six cellos and three double bass.

“We will have a grand piano, with Stella from the seniors playing it, and an organ with Gina playing. The leader will be, as you’ve been told, Willow. This is because of two things. One is that she is good enough as a violinist to sit in that seat, the second is that the Bishop wants her somewhere prominent to base some advertising on, seeing that she’s played organ for him as well as being part of Summer Rose. Willow, would you like to say a few words?”

She put her clarinet down and went to stand beside him.

“It is truly an honour to be leading you for this project. As the Head told you, Abbie and Moyra have a big part of making this work. I won’t try to fool you; this is a huge piece of work. It goes for two and a half hours, and we’ll take it as three parts with two intervals. We have the players, and we have some of the choir. We’ll be needing about thirty voices, so there’s a chance for anyone who doesn’t have a playing part to have a singing part. Gina and I will be conducting auditions for the extra places before summer to see how many we can add. We’ll also be looking for a good tenor and a good bass soloist. There will be a notice on the board, and I’ll see if we can add it to the website to find any celebrity who doesn’t mind working hard. And I do mean hard. It will take every session of next term to perfect the fifty separate movements. Most are short, but very demanding. When we present this, I know that I will come away with relief that we got it right, and pride that I had been part of it. I suggest that if you haven’t heard it, get yourself a copy of it and listen carefully.”

She went and sat down. Mister Bamborough told them that the school had a few CDs and that he would get Xavier to make some copies. Then they finished off the session with ‘Danse Macabre’.

When she got home, after seeing Gina’s new home now that Maisie had been sorting things out, the family had dinner and she went to her room to check her emails. There was one from the Cathedral, giving her the schedule for the Easter services. It was cc’ed to both Gina and Reverend Russell. She emailed a reply with the others cc’ed.

‘I’ll take Thursday evening after appointment in city. Gina, can you do Friday morning while I do St. Marys. I’ll do the two Sunday sessions as normal.’

She sent another to Gina.

‘Friend, can you get your mother to pick you and Jacob up at the Cathedral on Thursday. My Mum will have to stay to bring me home.’

Then she rang Jacob to tell him of the plans. He told her that he would talk to his parents but already knew that they wouldn’t mind him getting in late after experiencing the service. He said that he would let her know in the morning.

Five minutes later, an email came in from Gina telling her that she would be staying in the Cathedral as well. Willow went downstairs to tell her mother of the change in plans. Then she went to look at the others. There was one with the record label as the header.

‘Willow, thank you for the second discs. I’ll let Marcus give me them in his own time but will push him for them. The Other Side is so different, it could be a different band. It is very marketable, and we will make plans for when we’re allowed to run with it. We will be launching ‘Journey into Womanhood’ in the week after Easter. Full saturation of the radio stations and clips to the TV. We will expand to Europe after a month and see where else interest comes from. Expect some requests for personal appearances, stores and music shops, and some expectation for TV appearances, either as a band or as yourself and Gina. We notified Peter and Marcus on Monday afternoon and requested the digital material of ‘Coventry Carpentry’ to add as a bonus album for a short period before selling it separately.’

It was signed, Clive Battersby, A&R Executive.

She saw an email from Peter that had come in while she was at school, and cc’ed to all the others.

‘Great News! ‘Journey’ has been taken up for national distribution by a major label. This will mean national exposure and some need in the future for personal appearances. They have agreed that you will not be able to tour before you finish school, but I will work with them for performances during your holidays. They will cover all the manufacture and packaging, with the band getting four pounds per album clear. It will be less per item than selling through the website, but a wider exposure. Marcus will be going to see them after Easter with the discs for the other two bands. If they take them as well, they may have early copies of the albums for sale at concert. More news as it comes.’

She printed both emails and took them downstairs. Wendy read them both and looked up.

“How much of what you did on Sunday lead to this?”

“All I did was to allow them to see the band perform live. They were worried that someone was pulling the wool over their eyes and showing a bunch of kids miming to an established band. One of the guys told me that it was a done deal on Sunday night. I sat on it until that was verified.”

“What difference will it make to your share?’

“Depends on sales, Mum. We’ve sold about seventy thousand double disc album downloads so far, at ten pounds apiece. Gross is seven hundred thousand less deductions. We can still sell the new album through the website as a download but would have to have a link to the new distributors to buy the physical products. As actual sales go up, download sales go down, so it probably evens out. If the CD goes Golden, then that’s a half a million sales, so we would share two million, and that’s before the DVD sales. It really all depends on how it’s received.”

“If the last track becomes wanted as something to play at a wedding, that song alone could give you a steady income.”

Before she went to bed, her laptop had received gleeful emails from all the other band members. She wrote an email to them all, after creating a team, congratulating them for all that they had put into Summer Rose with their talent.

Wednesday morning, the trip to school was full of joyful banter, the thought of being distributed nationally being a big lift in their spirits. At lunch, the other members of the band came over and there was much hugging and back-slapping. Zara asked what was going on and was told that they had been picked up in a record deal. None of the band was very attentive in lessons that day, and before they were picked up, Miss Russell sought Willow out and asked her what was going on.

“We were notified, yesterday, that Summer Rose and our new album will be available in the shops and would have a marketing campaign to launch it in the week after Easter.”

“Well, that’s something to be happy about. Just make sure that you all get back to studying as soon as possible.”

That afternoon, before dinner, Willow emailed the manager of the music store that had offered help, telling him of what was happening and the known dates of performances, with Peter’s contacts if he wanted to extend his generosity. Before going to the club, she also looked at the information that the accountant had given her on properties.

She took those with her and looked at them while Gina played for the choir. He had included the one she had seen before and marked it as a solid investment property. The others were more expensive, but she could see why he had included them as both were vacant possession but run down enough to be cheaper than they should be. Malcolm sat down beside her.

“I see that you’ve started to learn how to delegate. It will give you time to make plans. Edie popped in before you came in. She told me that your album, that I watched being recorded, will be in the shops next week. It’s sad that they don’t do vinyl these days. The old records looked so much better on the wall when they’re gold. The CDs are just too small.”

“I bet that you’ll find space behind the bar if I let you hang mine up. You can put a notice ‘Recorded here in the Stoneleigh Studio’.”

She spoke to the choir and Tom after they had finished their session. She spoke about The Messiah and the possible involvement of some of them, if not all. Most of the village ladies ruled themselves out of the project immediately. Margaret queried her place and was told that they would have the soloists sitting in a line and would just stand where they were instead of going up next to the conductor, so she wouldn’t have to move. Sally appeared to have grown up since they had first met. She was more serious and confident. Willow gave her a hug and told her that she was happy for her.

Before she went to bed, she emailed the agent for the property, asking if it was possible to inspect it on the Tuesday after Easter, after six-thirty as she and her business partner had other commitments before that. She sent it through the Google account and signed as WJ Rose.

Thursday was back to normal at school. They had the lessons and had lunch, but with some extra visits to their table as news of a record deal spread through the school. When Wendy picked them up, they went around a couple of corners to a building in the Bilton Industrial Estate. There, they went in and met Madame Francesca, of Francesca Fashion House, who was told that Willow needed to be in the Cathedral before seven-thirty to play the organ.

That created a whirlwind of activity, with the three friends quickly made-up to highlight their youthful features and change into the first outfits. They were changed and photographed for two hours and were finally told that it was finished. Jacob was allowed to wash his face, but not before Willow gave him a kiss and told him he looked better with some rouge. They were allowed to pick one outfit each, which they all changed into, with their school clothes in bags. Before they left, they were shown some rushes from the session and asked if they minded being in the brochure. They all agreed that the pictures did them justice and signed a form with Wendy as the responsible adult.

They stopped for fast food on the way to the Cathedral, with them all getting some admiring glances. At the Cathedral, Willow went up to the organ and sorted the music, today playing without a practise. The service finished at nine, and by a quarter past, they were on their way home.

As they were going down the expressway, Jacob remarked that he had been ogled in the fast-food joint for the first time in his life. Willow laughed.

“Don’t you see the girls gazing at you while you’re on stage?”

“But that’s usual for an entertainer. This was in normal life.”

“Better get used to it, Jacob, it will only increase when you’re a Rock God.”

As they were leaving the farm, Wendy smiled.

“I suppose that you two didn’t notice some of the boys undressing you with their eyes.”

“But we’re girls, Mum. We get that all the time. It must have been these clothes, though, as that was far more intense. I want to order more when the line is for sale.”

“I’ll talk to Madame Francesca and see if she would outfit you for your performances, I think she would like a couple of teen star ambassadors.”

When they arrived at Gina’s home, Maisie called them in to see how the two girls looked.

“My, my! You two look a couple of years older in those outfits. It must be a good fashion house.”

“It’s Madame Francesca Fashions. She gave me a few cards, here’s one for you, Maisie.”

“I’ve heard of that line, it’s quite expensive. That’s why the girls look so good.”

“She said that some of her clients have told her about your creations and had shown her pictures. She was quite impressed and hoped that you worked for her. She also said that she thought that Gina looked a lot like a girl she went to school with. She asked me to ask you if you ever met a Francis Hamilton.”

“Frankie the Ham. Yes, I do remember her. We were the best students in dressmaking. Well, well, well. She has done well for herself.”

“She said that if you were that girl, to give her a call and get together.”

They left and went home.

“That was an interesting day, Willow.”

“It was, Mum. It’s also going to be a busy weekend. At least I get one of the days off. Next week is going to be interesting as well. The launch of the album. I’m a bit worried that we have no say in things. At least it’s not Peter running the show.”

That night, as Willow added the new outfit to her growing wardrobe, she contemplated on being able to buy really good clothes. She had never been a fashionista before coming to Stoneleigh, but was developing a taste for looking good, rather than just dressing to cover up one’s body.

On Friday, Willow walked over to the church, finding what hymns were to be sung, and went up to turn on the organ. She played the Bach, something she could now do with her eyes shut, until the church filled. It was an uplifting service, about a new beginning after a great deal of pain. For some reason, she listened to the Reverend and the words resonated with her. It was too near to her own pain and the rebirth with that girls school outfit.

When she walked home, she wondered about the future. She was going to be busy, that was a certainty. She would have responsibility, another certainty. What wasn’t certain was whether things would work out. A lot depended on hard work and the application, as well as having her friends around her. She was determined to look after her friends as well as she could.

At home, she sat with her parents for lunch. They decided to go for a drive and look at the outside of the three properties. The one that she first thought of looked the best, so she was looking forward to seeing the inside.

Saturday, it was the housewarming with Maisie and Gina. When they arrived, there were a lot of people there already. Old neighbours, new neighbours, friends from the club and the church, the Epstein’s. It was a fun afternoon, with a lot of laughter. Most of the guests left in the late afternoon and the Roses and the Epstein’s stayed on, grazing on the food that had been brought and talking about the future.

Rosalie said that they would pay Maisie for her old house the following week, and move their things in after that, with Racheal slowly taking over the farmhouse. Wilhelm said that he was getting contractors in to finish the barn for Jacob. Jacob joked that Willow could visit him and both sets of parents said, “No way!” in unison.

Maisie said that she had spoken to her old friend, Frankie, and that they were going to meet next week. Gina grinned.

“How did she get the name, Frankie the Ham?”

“She was an excellent actress. She was always acting as if she had come from a royal family from Italy, putting on an accent. She, like me, was from Stoneleigh.”

“She has perfected the act. We had no idea she was anything but an Italian Countess.”

Gina took Willow and Jacob to explore the house and the surroundings. It was close to the Stoneleigh Village Hall. Willow and Jacob took the time away from their parents for only a short kissing session, as Gina was with them.

“You looked good in those clothes, Jacob. Good enough to eat.”

“You girls looked amazing! It will be interesting to see how we look when we get prepared for the big shows. They do have dressers and make-up artists for TV shows. We may look like clowns on the Belgrade stage but good on TV.”

“Come on, young Mister Epstein. Girls in make-up look nothing like clowns. Queens, Princesses, femme fatales, but never clowns.”

Marianne Gregory © 2025