by Penny Jordan
From her tormentor maybe, she allowed half an hour later as she stood motionlessly staring out of the window of her small office, but not from the torment itself.
She had seen the looks—from pity right through to very unpleasant salacious curiosity—on the faces of the parents as they’d watched her reaction to Myra’s disclosures. She knew that Myra had the power to make life very difficult and uncomfortable for her and for her family. The other members of the board were naturally going to be concerned about the probity and the moral standing of their school’s head teacher, and, although Jodi did not think that any legal disciplinary action would be taken against her, naturally she did not relish the thought of being at odds with the governors or indeed of having her lifestyle bring disrepute on the school.
And as for Myra’s remark about the education authority, well, Jodi suspected that had just been so much hot air, but she also knew that her own conscience would not allow her to stay on at the school against the wishes of the parents, or in a situation where they felt that she was not the right person to have charge of their children. Jodi’s heart sank. If that was to happen...! If she was to be put in a position where she felt honour bound to step down from her post, after everything she had done, all her hard work. But what could she say in her own defence? she reminded herself bleakly. And that jibe Myra had made about her maternal concern for the moral welfare of her son had really hit a raw nerve.
Jodi’s head was starting to ache. She had deliberately made herself eat a heavy breakfast this morning, just to prove to herself—not that she had needed it—that she most certainly was not suffering from the nauseous early-morning tummy of a newly pregnant woman. The meal was taking its natural toll on her now.
She felt distinctly queasy, but surely because she was so tense with anxiety and misery? She tried to reassure and comfort herself, but harrowing tales of members of her sex who had found themselves in exactly the position she was dreading kept being dredged up by her conscience to torment her. And the unfortunate thing was that she was prone to having an erratic cycle, especially when she was under stress.
Myra’s comments had all but obliterated the original discomfort she had felt on learning that, contrary to what he had told her, Leo had actually decided to keep the factory open. Why had he let her accuse him like that?
* * *
It was almost lunchtime before Leo learned what was happening to Jodi.
He had been tied up with his accountants most of the morning, swiftly renegotiating finance packages to accommodate the changes he had made to his business plans for the factories he had taken over.
His bankers had shaken their heads over the discovery that he intended to set up his own haulage and distribution business and then admitted ruefully that, being Leo, he was probably going to make a very profitable success of it.
But all morning what he’d really been thinking about, worrying about, had been Jodi and the row they had had the previous day. Why had he let her go like that?
He had a meeting at the factory, and when he arrived there he discovered that Jeremy Driscoll was waiting to see him.
Furiously angry, he confronted Leo, telling him, ‘I want to collect some papers I left here, but the cretins you have left in charge have refused to allow me access to the storeroom. God knows on whose instructions.’
‘On mine,’ Leo told him equably.
There was a copy of the local paper on the desk, and Leo frowned as he caught sight of it and saw Jodi’s photograph on the front page.
Jeremy had obviously seen it too, and he sneered as he commented, ‘Little Miss Goody Two Shoes. Well, everyone’s going to know what she is soon enough now.’
‘What do you mean?’ Leo demanded tersely as he recognised the malice glinting in Jeremy’s pale blue eyes.
‘What do you think I mean?’ Jeremy grinned. ‘She was spotted leaving your suite, creeping out of the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Good, was she?
‘Well, you might have been impressed but somehow I doubt the parents of the brats she teaches are going to be when they learn what she was up to. Their head teacher, tricking her way into a man’s hotel suite and not leaving until the morning...’ Jeremy started to shake his head disapprovingly. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if they demand her resignation.’
As he listened to him Leo’s heart sank. Jeremy was too sure of himself, swaggeringly so, in fact, to simply be making a shot in the dark. Someone obviously had seen Jodi leaving his suite.
Leo’s brain went into overdrive as he sought furiously for a way to protect her. There was only one thing he could think of doing that might help.
Fixing Jeremy with a cool, bored look, he told him calmly, ‘Oh, I hardly think so; after all, what’s so wrong about an engaged couple spending the night together?’
‘An engaged couple?’ Jeremy was staring nonplussed at him, but to Leo’s relief he didn’t immediately reject Leo’s claim; instead he challenged, ‘If that’s true then why doesn’t anyone know about it?’
‘Because we’ve chosen to keep it to ourselves for the moment,’ Leo responded distantly, ‘not that it’s any business of yours or anyone else’s. Oh, and by the way,’ he continued, giving Jeremy a nasty smile, ‘I understand from my accountants that they’ve been approached by the tax authorities regarding some anomalies in the accounting system you put in place here after the fire that destroyed the previous records. Of course,’ Leo continued smoothly, ‘my accountants have assured the Revenue that we are prepared to give them all the help they might need.’
* * *
Miserably Jodi stared across her desk. As luck would have it, the school’s parents had a meeting this evening at which she was supposed to be speaking about her plans to increase the range of extra-curricular activities provided for the children. Jodi gave a small shudder. She could guess what was going to be the hot topic of conversation at that meeting now!
And she could guess, too, just how much criticism and disapproval she was going to encounter—deservedly so, she told herself grimly.
Breaking into Leo’s suite, getting drunk, falling asleep in his bed and then, as though all of that weren’t enough...
She wasn’t fit to be a teacher, or to hold the responsible position she did, Jodi decided wretchedly, and Myra Fanshawe had been right when she had warned Jodi that the parents would take a very dim view of what she had done.
If only that photograph of her had not appeared in the local paper. But it had, and— She tensed as she heard a soft knock on her door, her face colouring as Helen Riddings, the more senior of her co-teachers, popped her head round the door to ask uncertainly, ‘Are you all right? Only...’
Only what? Jodi wondered defeatedly. Only you’ve heard the gossip and now you’re wondering if it’s true and, if it is, just what I’m going to do about it?
‘I’m sorry, it’s my turn for playground duty, isn’t it?’ Jodi answered her, avoiding the other woman’s eyes, knowing perfectly well that her colleague had not really come to her office to remind her about that.
‘Oh, but you haven’t had any lunch,’ Helen protested, obviously flustered. ‘I can do the playground duty for you if you like.’ She stopped and then looked acutely self-conscious as she told Jodi, ‘Myra Fanshawe is in the playground with some of the other parents...’
‘It’s all right, Helen,’ Jodi told her quietly when she broke off in embarrassment. ‘I can guess what’s going on. I expect that you and the other teachers will have heard the gossip by now...’ Jodi could feel her courage starting to desert her.
‘You don’t look very well,’ Helen commiserated, obviously genuinely concerned for her. ‘Why don’t you go home?’
Before the situation became so untenable that she had no option other than to retreat there—permanently? Was that what Helen meant? Jodi wondered bitterly.
‘No, I can’t do t
hat,’ she responded.
She was beginning to feel acutely ill. Gossip, especially this kind of gossip, spread like wildfire; she knew that. How long would it be before it reached the ears of her friends and family? Her cousin...his parents...her own parents...?
Jodi’s stomach heaved. Her mother and father, enjoying their retirement, were on an extended trip around America, but they would not be away indefinitely. Her family were so proud of her. So proud of everything she had achieved for the school. What could she say to them when they asked her for an explanation? That she had seen Leo Jefferson in the hotel foyer and fallen immediately and helplessly in lust with him?
In lust. As Helen left her office and closed the door behind her Jodi made a small moan of self-disgust.
But it wasn’t lust she felt for Leo Jefferson, was it? Lust did not affect the emotions the way her emotions had been affected. Lust did not bring a person out of their dreams at night, crying out in pain and loss because that person had discovered a cruel truth about the man they loved.
Her stomach churned even more fiercely.
She wasn’t going to be sick, she wasn’t. But suddenly, urgently, Jodi knew that she was!
It was tension, that was all, nothing else. Jodi assured herself later when she was on her way to take her first afternoon class.
She wondered if it was too soon to buy one of those test kits; that way she could be completely sure. Jodi flinched as she reflected on the effect it would have on the current gossip about her if she was to be observed buying a pregnancy-testing kit. No, she couldn’t take such a risk!
Was it really only such a short time ago that she had been a model of virginal morality, basking in the approval of both the parents and the school authorities? And she’d been in receipt of an offer of employment from the area’s most prestigious private school... She felt as though that Jodi belonged to another life! How could she have got herself into such a situation? She had heard that falling in love was akin to a form of madness.
Falling in love! Now she knew she was dangerously close to losing her grip on reality. No way did she still think she was in love with Leo Jefferson. No way!
* * *
Leo looked at his watch. He had been in meetings for the whole of the afternoon, but at last he was free.
He was acutely conscious of the fact that it might be politic for him to warn Jodi about their ‘engagement’, but after the way they had parted the last time they had met he doubted that trying to telephone her was going to be very successful.
School must be over for the day by now. He could drive over to the village and call on her at home, explain what had happened, tell her that once the furore had died down they could discreetly let it be known that the engagement was off.
Just the memory of the salacious look in Jeremy Driscoll’s eyes when he had taunted Leo this morning about the gossip now circulating concerning Jodi was enough to make Leo feel murderous and to wish that he had the real right to protect Jodi in the way that he wanted to be able to protect her. And, so far as he was concerned, the best way to do that was for her to have his ring on her left hand—his wedding ring! He really was far more Italian than he had ever realised, he recognised grimly as he headed for his car, which reminded him—he ought to telephone his parents. The visit he had promised his mother he would make to see them again soon would have to be put back, at least until he was satisfied that Jodi was all right.
* * *
‘I take it that you will be attending the meeting this evening?’
Jodi tensed warily as Myra Fanshawe stepped past the other parents grouped at the school gates to confront her.
‘Only, now that you’ve got a wealthy fiancé to consider, I don’t imagine you’re going to be particularly concerned about the future of the school or its pupils, are you?’
A wealthy fiancé. Her? What on earth was Myra talking about? Jodi wondered wearily.
She couldn’t remember ever feeling so drained at the end of a school day, but of course this had been no ordinary day, which no doubt explained why all she wanted to do was to go to sleep, but not until after she had had some delicious anchovies... For some reason she had been longing for some all afternoon! Which was most peculiar because they were not normally something she was very keen on!
Myra was standing in front of her now, her cold little eyes narrowing with hostility as she continued, ‘I hope you don’t think that just because you’re engaged to Leo Jefferson it means that certain questions aren’t going to be asked—by the parents if not the education authority,’ she sniffed prissily. ‘And—’
‘Just a minute,’ Jodi stopped her sharply, ‘what exactly do you mean about me being engaged to Leo Jefferson?’
She was starting to feel light-headed again, Jodi recognised, her face burning hot and then cold as she wondered how on earth Myra could possibly have got hold of such an outrageous idea—and quite obviously spread it around as fast and as far as she could, Jodi guessed despairingly as she saw the other parents watching them.
‘It’s a little too late for you to assume either discretion or innocence now,’ Myra told her disdainfully. ‘Although I must say that, as a parent, I do think that someone in your position should have made more of an attempt to employ them both instead of acting in a way that could bring the school into disrepute.’
‘Myra...’ Jodi began grimly, and then stopped as the small knot of parents in front of the gates fell back to allow the large Mercedes to pull to a halt outside them.
‘Well, here comes your fiancé,’ Myra announced bitchily as Leo got out of the car. ‘I just hope he doesn’t think because he’s bought Frampton at a ridiculous, knock-down price—virtually tricking the family into selling the business to him against their will, from what Jeremy has told us—it means that he’s got any kind of position or authority locally! Jeremy was very highly thought-of by his workforce,’ she continued, with such a blatant disregard for the truth that Jodi could hardly believe her ears.
Leo had reached them now, and for a reason she certainly was not going to analyse, Jodi discovered that a small part of her actually felt pleased to have him there.
Not that he had any right to be here, making a bad situation even worse by putting his hand proprietorily on Jodi’s arm, before bending his head to brush his lips lightly against her cheek as he murmured into her ear, ‘I’ll explain when we’re on our own.’ Then he moved slightly away from her to say in a louder voice, ‘Sorry I’m late, darling; I got held up.’
And then, without giving her an opportunity to say a word, he was guiding her towards his car, tucking her solicitously into the passenger seat, and then getting in the driver’s seat beside her.
Jodi waited until she was sure that they were safely out of sight of the gathered watchers, before demanding shakily, ‘Would you mind explaining to me just what is going on, and why Myra Fanshawe seems to think that we are engaged?’
‘Myra Fanshawe?’ Leo queried, puzzled.
‘The woman with me as you drove up,’ Jodi explained impatiently.
She felt tired and cross and very hungry, and the ridiculous temptation to beg Leo to stop the car so that she could lay her head on his shoulder and wallow in the cathartic pleasure of a really good cry was so strong that it was threatening to completely overwhelm her.
‘She’s a close friend of Jeremy Driscoll,’ she offered casually, ‘and—’
‘Oh, is she?’ Leo growled. ‘Well, no doubt that explains how she knows about our engagement.’
‘Our engagement?’ Jodi checked him angrily. ‘What engagement? We are not engaged...’
‘Not officially—’
‘Not in any way,’ Jodi interrupted him fiercely.
‘Jodi, I had no choice,’ Leo told her quietly. ‘Driscoll told me about the fact that you’d been seen leaving my suite early in the morning
. He was...’ Leo paused, not wanting to tell her just how unpleasant Jeremy’s attitude and assumptions had been. ‘Apparently—’
‘I know what you’re going to say.’ Jodi stopped him hotly. ‘I was seen leaving your room, so I must be some kind of fallen woman, totally unfit to teach school, to be involved with innocent children. For heaven’s sake, all I’ve done is to go bed with you twice; that doesn’t mean...’
To her own consternation her eyes filled with emotional tears, her voice becoming suspended by the sheer intensity of what she was feeling...
‘Jodi, I know exactly what it does mean and what it doesn’t mean,’ Leo tried to reassure her. ‘But that knowledge belongs only to the two of us. You do know what I’m saying, don’t you?’ he asked her gently.
When she made no response and instead looked studiedly away from him out of the passenger window he could see the deep pink colour burning her skin and his heart ached for her.
‘I didn’t think you’d particularly care for it if I were to take out a full-page advert in the local paper announcing that you were a virgin until that night in my suite.’
‘That doesn’t mean you have to claim that we’re engaged,’ Jodi protested.
‘I did it to protect you,’ Leo told her.
To protect her! How could he sit there and claim to want to protect her when he had already told her that he didn’t want to keep their child? Or was that why he was doing this? Jodi wondered wretchedly. Was this just a cynical ploy to make her feel she could trust him, to keep her close enough to him for him to be able to control her, and act quickly, if necessary, to...?
‘It isn’t your responsibility to protect me.’ Jodi told him fiercely.
‘Maybe not in your eyes,’ Leo retaliated, suddenly serious in a way that made her heart thud in pure female awareness of how very male and strong he was, and how she longed to be able to lean on that strength, and to feel she could turn to it and him for comfort and for protection and for love...
But of course she couldn’t! Mustn’t...