Saving Face (Mount Faith Series: Book 1)

by Brenda Barrett

  "Doesn't look good for you," Taj said simply. "Maybe I should be fearful you don't like me either. Maybe I am next."

  Bancroft looked over at him in mid swing and the ball fell uselessly at his feet. He was breathing hard.

  "I don't dislike you."

  "Are you serious?" Taj asked. "You told me I was annoying as a mosquito."

  "I don't dislike mosquitoes," Bancroft said. "They are needed to keep the eco system balanced."

  Taj raised his brows. "So how am I necessary?"

  "That psychiatry center is needed," Bancroft said, "I recognize that."

  "What about the presidency?" Taj asked acerbically. "Still don't think I can do it?"

  Bancroft looked at him speculatively. "Are you ready to be the chief executive officer of this business? Are you ready to take on the myriad of tasks that this institution comes with?" He shook his head, "I have been doing this for the past five years. I have been carrying Edward Carlisle's load. He was a lousy president. I am aware of all the facets of running an institution. Are you?"

  "This is not an interview," Taj said. "The official interview does not begin until November. Six weeks from now."

  Bancroft shrugged. "Lets hope Carter is available to conduct this interview."

  "Is that why you tried to kill him?" Taj asked.

  "For heaven’s sake," Bancroft wiped his brow and headed for his gym bag. "I don't have to answer that question—it's beneath me to!" He hung his head while he fiddled with the top of the water bottle. "As I said I am concerned."

  Taj sat beside him. "So what brings you out here on a Sunday?"

  Bancroft gazed at him a surprised look in his eye. "You are doing your psychiatrist thing on me, aren't you?"

  "Just a basic question," Taj said.

  "Nah," Bancroft said, "this is a defusing of the situation."

  "Are you going to answer the question?" Taj asked.

  Bancroft shook his head. "You won't believe this but I am a bit apprehensive about this whole presidency thing."

  "You are?" Taj asked surprised.

  "Yup," Bancroft said getting up. "Presidents are dying around here. I don't want to leave my children fatherless and my wife a widow…one has to be concerned."

  Taj looked at him thoughtfully, trying to work out if Bancroft was genuinely concerned or was playing a game with him to scare him.

  "Let’s play another one." Bancroft broke eye contact with him.

  Taj went home late that morning. There was a weak sun out and he was feeling famished. Bancroft had a lot of apprehension to beat out and he had taken Taj along with him, game after game. They had finally tied and had declared a rematch in the morning. Taj could feel his muscles protesting. After playing with Bancroft and chit chatting for a while he had wanted to accost him about the whole fatherhood thing but had barely restrained himself from doing so—not without finding out what the story was from Anne Carter.

  He walked through his gate gingerly; his leg muscles protesting. It was then that he saw a white hat peeping up from behind some hibiscus bushes. It was Anne Carter. She had a shear in her hand and was just getting up from the dirt where she was clipping some lower branches.

  She looked over at him and saw that he had paused and was looking at her and gasped.

  "Good mor...morning," She said stuttering.

  Taj waved,this is my mother, his head kept saying—the woman who gave birth to me. He searched her features for any resemblance to the one he saw in the mirror everyday and came up with nothing much. Maybe something was there in the shape of her mouth but otherwise nothing.

  He waved to her briefly and considered walking into his house—he was hungry.

  But then he realized that she must be very anxious to say something to him so he walked over to her gate.

  She stood up fully. Her slim body was encased in khaki shorts and a green t-shirt. She pulled off her white hat and her wayward curls sprung free. Just like his.

  He smiled at her faintly. "Morning."

  Anne said. "Taj, I am sorry you had to find out the way you did. Do you want to come inside…have some breakfast?"

  "Okay." He needed to talk to her anyway and satisfy his raging curiosity.

  Her kitchen was to the back of the house and was spotlessly clean. The whole house was clean to a fault and Taj silently wondered if she had an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Then he tried to think about her without his psychiatrist brain ticking. He glanced at her as she made chocolate tea and shared out breakfast on neatly arranged plates. She sat across from him and smiled nervously.

  "Daryl will be home today."

  Taj nodded. "Are you looking forward to that?"

  "Yes," she nodded shyly, "I...er... I don't know where to start with this whole story of your birth."

  Taj sipped the chocolate tea and slowly chewed the eggs and sausage but he barely tasted them. He was looking at Anne, sitting there, fidgeting like a schoolgirl and was wondering—with a sense of incredulity—if she was really his mother.

  "Start from when you met Ryan Bancroft."

  "We have always known each other. We came from the same community. His family lived up the road from mine."

  Taj nodded. "Natasha took me to the community last night. Lovely place."

  Anne laughed nervously. "Aesthetically I guess, in a rustic sort of way. I don't really have many fun memories of there. We had the sea. We lived off the sea. The majority of us were poor, but not poor in the sense that we could not find food. We had a lot of that. My childhood was filled with fish and mangos."

  She shook her head and fidgeted with the place mat. "Ryan and I went to the same church. We were in the same youth class with Sister Edna. A formidable woman who wanted us to be an example to the rest of the youth in our society. She gave us chastity bracelets to wear to show that we were set apart from the rest. As she used to say it, we were supposed to be the cream of the crop."

  Anne shook her head and looked at Taj sadly. "There were twenty of us in her class. Ryan and I were the first ones to leave the class. It was one stupid reckless experiment we did."

  She laughed dryly no humor in it. "I went to his house for my choir book. To think, if back then Sister Edna or our parents had given us just a lecture or two about safe sex. We wouldn't have been so ignorant. We were clueless like lambs to the slaughter about sex."

  Taj raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

  Anne grimaced. "Our days were not as liberal as they are now. Anyway, we had sex. Then went to choir practice feeling like sinners."

  She shook her head and looked at Taj. "Four months later my father died. I thought it was my fault because I had had sex. Can you believe that?"

  Taj smirked and nodded. "What I can't believe is that I am talking about sex with my mother."

  Tears sprang to Anne's eyes. "I know I shouldn't feel this way, after all I gave you up but I feel so happy when you call me that."

  Taj steeled himself against her tears. "You were saying about your father?"

  "Oh yes, he got washed away at sea. His body has never been found. I was four months pregnant and didn't know. I just graduated from high school. Ryan had gotten a scholarship to a university in America and his parents and his brother Oswald were migrating.

  I found out I was pregnant the night before he left. My mother had just found out that her husbands boat was found washed up at sea…she was somewhat unhinged that night, I think. She dragged me by the hair and carried me up the road in the night to the respectable Bancrofts.

  I was wailing like a banshee, I can tell you that. My mother called Ryan out of the house and thrust me at him, and left me at the mercy of the Bancrofts. He was scared, I was scared. God, that was a night."

  "So what happened?" Taj asked.

  "His parents allowed me to sleep in the guest room. His mother called a friend of hers in Hill Top who was supposed to help me to get rid of you."

  Taj stopped eating. "Get rid of me how?"

  "Abortion, Adoption…any thing that would
make the pregnant girl problem go away." Anne heaved a sigh. "They smuggled me out in the early morning. I was crying, Ryan was crying. We had no choice. Fortunately, the lady who was supposed to help the Bancrofts, declared that she was no murderer, and that is how the adoption was arranged."

  "That's the lady who arranged with Harriet to have me adopted by the Jacksons?"

  Anne nodded.

  "So when did you see Ryan Bancroft again?"

  "Here," Anne said. "Do you want some juice?"

  "No thanks," Taj said politely.

  "Weren't you shocked to see him?"

  "Not really," Anne said. "I knew that he was coming. I had just started working for Edward Carlisle at the time. I remember that he was actively trying to recruit a Dr. Ryan Bancroft. When he came into the office and saw me, face-to-face he was shocked—speechless. There was his one little mistake in the office."

  "So what did you do?" Taj asked eagerly.

  "I didn't do a thing," Anne said. "He avoided me like the plague, and I avoided him as well. We had both gotten on with our lives."

  "He didn't want to know about your child?" Taj asked incredulously.

  Anne laughed. "No, I guess not. He thought it had all been taken care of and he seemed uncomfortable talking about that secret with me. I think he can't stand the sight of me."

  She cupped her chin. "I told Daryl the whole story about my teenage pregnancy long before Bancroft began to work here. So he hates Bancroft because of it, and Bancroft is not sure what Daryl knows, so he distrusts and dislikes Daryl."

  "So that's where the animosity between the two of them stemmed from?" Taj breathed.

  Anne nodded. "I also told Daryl to recruit you for the presidency. I have been keeping track of you for years now, ever since you won the gold medal for your 200 meter at Champs. I was so happy for you."

  Anne sighed. "I saw your little face on television and I saw a lovely combination of Ryan and me. I am happy I didn't have that abortion."

  Taj nodded. "I am happy you didn't too. I had a happy childhood. What you are saying now makes a lot of sense to me. Before this, I had no idea why I was being recruited for the presidency of Mount Faith. It is also uncanny that Edward Carlisle wanted a psychiatry center and approached my university and suggested that I should head it."

  Anne's eyes skittered away from his. "I may have suggested it. I wanted you around, to get to know you better."

  "Oh Anne," Taj said, a dark thought entered his mind. How badly had she wanted him to be at Mount Faith?

  "Did you kill Edward Carlisle?"

  "No," Anne said emphatically. "I couldn't kill anybody. I had no reason to kill him." She looked away guiltily. "The truth is I am not unhappy that he's dead and I feel a bit bad about that."

  They talked far into the morning until Anne had to collect D.M. from the hospital.

  Taj went over to his house, too keyed up to think. How did he really feel about Anne? He assessed himself. She seemed like a lovely woman. It would be nice to get to know her, but was she a murderess? Was Bancroft a murderer? His biological parents were not looking so good in all of this.

  He called Natasha in the evening. She answered sleepily.

  "Are you hungry?" he asked.

  "Oh yes," Natasha said readily.

  "You are cordially invited to my abode," Taj said formally, a laugh in his voice. "I am cooking salmon. I am even baking cookies."

  Natasha squealed, "Right on. I love you for this!"

  ***

  Natasha rolled out of bed, yanked a comb through her hair to pull it back from her face, and went by Taj's place. Her eyes looked puffy and a bit red. She had stayed up all night searching through the last of Edward Carlisle's email and was no closer to finding more clues than she was before. She and Harry would need to do some serious assessing. This case was not going to be solved in one school semester, not when they were dealing with so many variables. She entered Taj's den and sat down. He was in jeans, a blue polo shirt, and was wearing an apron.

  She lay back in the settee. "Is it okay if I close my eyes?"

  "Sure," Taj said very near to her ear and her eyes snapped open. "Behave yourself Dr. Jackson."

  Taj laughed and kissed her on the lips. "Do you want me to behave myself in an inappropriate way? I ask because you didn't clarify."

  Natasha smiled. Her eyes were closed but she imagined his quirky smile, his chocolate brown eyes, and his chiseled lips.

  He blew across her face and she opened her eyes slowly. "I am tired."

  He sat down fully in the settee beside her and put her legs in his lap. "Me too. I spoke to Anne today."

  "Really? Did you get the 411 on your conception?"

  "I did and even though I am used to getting the grittiest of details about people's lives, I felt a slight twinge of discomfort hearing about Anne Carter and Ryan Bancroft."

  He shook his head. "I spent hours this morning with both my biological parents. It's amazing how life turns out, huh?"

  Natasha looked at him lazily. "What did Bancroft say? Any clues?"

  "He said he's concerned. He also says he suspects that Edward Carlisle was murdered."

  Natasha groaned. "So the secret is not so secret anymore. Unless of course he's the murderer, so it wasn't a secret anyway."

  "I don't think he is," Taj said. "I saw genuine fear in his eyes this morning."

  "Are you seeing these things because you know he is your father? Ah Taj! You are unable to be unbiased about these people, aren't you?"

  Taj started massaging her legs. "I would not say that. Though I think a small part of me is excited. But every time the excitement rears its head I try to quell it."

  "And there goes my unbiased psychiatrist," Natasha said exasperatedly. I think Harry and I are chasing our tails."

  Taj started massaging her instep.

  "Don't stop," Natasha moaned as Taj slowly kneaded her feet.

  Taj grinned. "Natasha you are giving me ideas."

  Natasha shook her head. "I am never ever going down the route of premarital sex again. Not after my last relationship and though I fancy you like crazy. It's not going to happen."

  "What happened in your last relationship?" Taj asked soothingly.

  "He was a criminal," Natasha said simply, "wanted an easy route to the police force, so he sought me out. Unfortunately for him, I don't find law breaking a fun activity, not even for profit."

  The oven timer went off in the kitchen and Taj got up. "The salmon is ready. I only need to check the potatoes and then dinner is ready."

  "Smells yum," Natasha said following him. "So what about your relationships?"

  Taj shrugged. "I am not into short term uncommitted relationships either that are glued together by just sex." He looked at her seriously. "I have always been a one woman kind of man from high school."

  "Oh yes, that high school girlfriend," Natasha said, "surely you've had relationships since her. What's her name again?"

  "April," Taj said. "April May Cole." He savored her name.

  It made Natasha feel inexplicably jealous.

  "The truth is I have had no relationship that really mattered since her…no one to really make me think about forever and always. But," he paused, "in the short time since I've met you I've been trying to assess whether I'm suffering from a heightened case of lust, or is this the beginning of the real thing. I have never asked those questions before."

  He came to stand before Natasha. "Are you going to be as honest with me about your feelings for me as I was with you?"

  Natasha shook her head. "Oh no. My feelings for you are too new and wobbly and completely unlike me." Natasha looked at Taj shyly. "I stayed up last night imagining that I was a housewife…your housewife…cooking your dinner, having your children, and living with you. That spooked me out. I am an independent kind of girl. Added to that I have a case..."

  Taj took her chin in his hand. "So both of us have intense feelings for each other?"

  Natasha nodded.


  "We have wicked chemistry too." Taj said, he leaned toward her mouth and barely brushed her lips. Their lips hadn't even connected and Natasha could feel one side of her going numb and the other feeling uncomfortably tingly.

  Chemistry, sexual attraction—whatever it was called, she and Taj had it in spades.

  "Potatoes are ready," he whispered and then took her mouth in an exploratory kiss that went on for ages.

  They ate in near silence after that kiss–both of them looking at each other intently.

  "I don't think you should play squash with Bancroft," Natasha said softly after a few minutes of hot looks.

  "Playing with Bancroft was the last thing on my mind," Taj said ruefully, "I was thinking of playing with you actually." He cleared his throat. "But why do you think I shouldn't...play with Bancroft that is?"

  Natasha blushed. "I think he's cunning and you should be careful around him."

  "Noted," Taj said, "but the man is really good at squash and we have a rematch. Added to that I have a perverse need to get to know him better."

  Natasha toyed with her water glass. "Just be careful, okay."

  "Yes Detective," Taj said. "What's next on your agenda for the case. Talk to me and take my mind from places it should not be treading."

  Natasha grimaced. "Next stop, Miranda Carlisle. Harry and I will be interviewing her tomorrow at her place. She told the Superintendent that we could find her at home in the morning."

  Natasha and Taj parted ways at a little after eight. She drove slowly unto the main campus and turned into her dormitory parking lot. She was a mass of contradicting emotions, thinking about Taj. She was happy, then sad, then elated, then deflated. She got out of the car and glanced at her watch. She hated to violate the strict dormitory rules. She found them childish and restrictive, but appreciated that there were several young people there who needed the boundaries of rules for their own protection.

  She leaned on her car and thought about him. There was a slight wind blowing. She pushed her hand further into her army camouflage jacket.

  A hand touched her arm and she spun around quickly, and acting on pure instinct she grabbed the hand that touched her and pulled back the thumb.