Lily's Story, A Bentley Sisters Novel

by Lauren Beaumont

  Blushing, she looked not just at Tom but also at Luke and Megan. “I’m okay, really. It’s just, well, I’m so sorry to have worried you all so much. I really didn’t mean for all this to happen, and I know I should have called for help rather than wade into their brawl myself.”

  At her words, Tom tugged her into his side and pressed a light kiss down onto her forehead. “It’s okay, Lily. You made a mistake, but it’s over now and everything will be all right.”

  Looking over at Luke and Megan, she could see Luke nodding in agreement, and he too came over to her and took her hands in his. “Lily, I love you dearly and I see you as my own sister. Just promise me that you will never do something like this again, hm?”

  Tears welled in Lily’s eyes at Luke’s words and she nodded up at him, “I do promise, really I do, Luke.”

  “Good,” he told her firmly, “as I’ll tell you now, that if I hear of you putting yourself in that kind of danger again, you’ll have me to answer to as well as Tom. I won’t let Megan put herself in that kind of vulnerable situation, and I won’t let it happen to you or your other sisters either.”

  Eyes wide open, Lily stared at him speechless. She knew that Luke had very strong ideas about safety, but it was the first time she’d had his views directed soundly at her.

  Gulping, she nodded, aware that between Tom and her likely soon-to-be brother-in-law, she didn’t stand a chance. She glanced to Tom at her side, whose dark eyes gazed down at her, clearly in agreement with Luke.

  “Luke!” Megan interrupted, wry amusement lacing her voice. “There’s no need to be like that! Lily’s been upset enough.”

  “Luke’s right, Megan,” Tom said. “I’d react the same way if it was my sister.”

  “I... I’m sorry,” said Lily miserably.

  “Hey,” Luke said gently, “it’s okay. You’re safe now, and I trust you not to go and do something as stupid again. And,” he added, “I’m guessing that you’ve already paid the price, so let’s say no more.”

  If Lily had thought it was impossible for her cheeks to flush any pinker, she would have been wrong! With a low chuckle, Tom got up and pulled her to him so he could hold her close for a quick hug.

  “I have to go,” he said and, at her concerned look, added, “I need to let the team back at the station know what happened today, and I’ll also give Sam a call so he knows everything is okay.”

  “Okay,” she said, “will you tell Sam that I’ll try to catch up with him before classes start tomorrow?”

  “Are you kidding?” he said, incredulously. “You need to stay at home and rest that shoulder tomorrow!”

  “But it will be fine!” Lily protested.

  “No arguments,” he said firmly. “Stay home tomorrow. I’ll go into the school late morning and speak with Sam. Luke said that he and Megan will stay with you this evening and overnight if it looks like your shoulder is still aching, and I’ll come and see you tomorrow evening.” Tom’s tone invited no argument at all and Lily didn’t have the heart to tell him that she had no intention of staying at home tomorrow!

  After he’d said his goodbyes to Luke and Megan, Lily walked Tom to the door. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?” Tom asked her and, taking in the smile she offered up at him, pulled her to him. He leaned down, captured her lips in a slow, sweet exploration, exerting only the lightest pressure and leaving her wanting more.

  Raising his head, he smiled back down at her and then, with a swift tap to her bottom that made her yelp, he growled, “Behave yourself while I’m gone!” Then he left her to Luke and Megan’s care.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The beep of her alarm broke through Lily’s deep slumber and, groaning into her pillow, she flung out one arm in the direction of the bedside table, instinctively feeling for the snooze button on the small clock, wanting the luxury of another ten minutes in bed before she knew she had to get up and be at school ready for her 9.00 a.m. class with her Year Nine pupils.

  Luke clearly hadn’t been happy at leaving Lily on her own last night without Megan staying with her but, with a bit of help from her sister she’d persuaded him that she was feeling fine and would be asleep the moment her head hit her pillow which, she thought ruefully, hadn’t been far from the truth. She’d been exhausted, emotionally as well as physically, and thoughts of Tom had been whirling round in her mind ever since he had left last night. She’d welcomed the peace that having her apartment to herself had brought, so that she could think over what had happened and what she really felt about the whole fiasco.

  She knew that Megan had been right; she had been mooching around over Tom pretty much since she’d met him, and she’d known from their first conversation the kind of man he was and the values he would hold dear. When he walked into a room, he exuded an air of calm authority and a steady dominance that made her pulse quicken. She had known that he had what some would call old-fashioned values, it had been obvious from the small things that he had always done, such as holding doors open for her and carrying her heavy bags of marking to the car when he had seen her struggling. She knew a lot of women would bristle defensively if a man offered that kind of help, but Lily knew that Tom was far from chauvinistic and his actions never stemmed from any belief that a woman couldn’t do those things for herself. It was simply that in his view, as a man was usually physically stronger, he should take on those burdens wherever possible.

  Admittedly, it wasn’t until today that Lily had understood just how much Tom fitted what she’d always thought was her daydream of a perfect man; the kind of strong – emotionally as well as physically – dominant man that graced the covers of romance novels but that she rarely met. Luke definitely matched that description, and he and Megan were the perfect match, but she hadn’t thought she’d ever find someone like that for herself. When she had confided in Tom yesterday, as she had sat bundled in his lap, her concerns over the struggles she saw daily in the family lives of her pupils, and had seen his reaction, which had been a matter-of-fact refusal to tolerate anything of that nature for his own family, she’d felt like she had finally come home.

  But then there was the spanking. Strangely, it wasn’t continuing to worry her and she didn’t think it unnatural that he’d taken her over his knee in the way he had. Instead, it had somehow felt right and, afterwards, she’d felt more relaxed, despite her sore bottom, than she had in a long time. It was as if the spanking had chased away the worries, concerns and anxieties that plagued her daily. It had given her a sense of peace and wholeness, although she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to admit that to Tom yet. It was still early days and, although she knew she wouldn’t be able to help herself hoping that this fledgling relationship might turn into something as strong and committed as that which Megan and Luke enjoyed, she wasn’t quite ready this soon to believe that her dreams could truly turn into reality.

  Bleary eyed, and with the beep of the alarm wailing once again through the early morning silence, Lily pushed back the covers, knowing that her brief reprieve from the day was over. As she headed for the shower she felt a brief pang of guilt. She knew Tom was expecting her to stay at home today and she hadn’t corrected Luke when, as he and Megan had left last night, he had told her firmly to make sure she had a long lie in the following morning. But then, she thought, her shoulder was truly feeling better; in fact, she could hardly feel the graze at all, just a slight twinge, and she knew that if she didn’t turn up for work today the school couldn’t afford to get a temporary teacher in for the day, so the children would just be left to their own devices for “quiet study” which usually meant them deciding to truant for the time they were left. Besides, she thought, although she had her 9.00 a.m. class, she then had a free period until early afternoon when she was supposed to deal with management work for the department, so with a bit of luck, when Tom was planning to drop into the school she could hide away and he wouldn’t see her there. Deceit didn’t come naturally to her, and she felt a dullness at the implicit lie she knew she would be
telling, but at the same time she couldn’t let down the school and she knew she had to toughen up if she was going to last at Clayston Academy.

  * * *

  Wrapping her scarf tighter around her neck to protect her from the cold, Lily handed over some cash to the cab driver and, opening the door of the cab she had been forced to take as her car was still in the school car park, she walked as fast as she could towards the school building.

  Just as she was approaching the door of her classroom, she heard a man’s voice say “Lily” from behind her and, turning around, she saw Sam Rawlins striding towards her.

  Her welcoming smile turned to a frown as she saw the look on his face.

  “Sam,” she said, “I was going to come and find you after I had sorted my papers out...”

  “Lily, what on earth are you doing here?” he said, worry clouding his face. “You shouldn’t be here, you should be at home, taking care of yourself!”

  Smiling up at him, touched that he was so concerned, Lily said easily, “Really, Sam, its fine. Tom took me to the hospital last night and the doctor confirmed that it was just a graze and nothing to worry about. Besides,” she added, “I know how difficult it can be trying to cover classes for other teachers, and I didn’t want the kids to suffer because I was away.”

  Although Sam looked doubtful at her words, he was clearly relieved to hear that she hadn’t been hurt badly.

  “You know, Lily, I was really worried when I saw you fall the way you did. I know you’ve probably already heard this from Tom, but you must take more care. I value my teachers here, and you’re one of the best I’ve got.”

  Glowing at the praise, Lily gave Sam an impulsive hug, “Thanks, Sam. It means a lot, truly.”

  “Hm,” he answered gruffly, “then make sure you take better care of yourself so I don’t have to see anything like that again, okay?”

  “Definitely!” Lily nodded furiously, thinking to herself that there was no way she would be repeating that episode anytime soon!

  As Sam continued down the corridor and Lily turned into her classroom, her thoughts turned to the morning’s class. Her Year Nine class was struggling through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Scarlet Letter," a novel about adultery and the Puritan society of seventeenth century Boston. Apart from a couple of the girls in the group, who had latched on to the romance that was intrinsic to the tale, few in the class had shown any interest so far in the novel.

  Idly, Lily started to write up on the whiteboard fixed to the wall behind her desk the key points that the class was supposed to discuss in today’s lesson. Before she knew it, the children were streaming into the room, noisily taking their places at their desks as they continued their conversations by yelling at each other across the room.

  As the bell peeled, Lily turned round to face her class and, raising her voice several levels to be heard, called on the class to quiet down.

  “Okay, everyone. Today we’re going to be talking about the theme of justice in the novel and what you all think the author is telling us about his view of justice at that time, or injustice even. So...” Lily looked at Danny, usually one of the most vocal boys in the class. “Danny, what do you think? Hester is the heroine as well as the victim of the story. Do you think that she gets what she deserves?”

  “Dunno, Miss,” responded Danny, his legs stretched out lazily in front of him. He was stabbing the desk with a pencil with a grin on his face. “But I don’t reckon any girl of mine would dare mess around like she does. The boys would make sure she behaved!”

  A howl of laughter greeted his words from a couple of the girls on the other side of the classroom. Lily turned to Sally and Jade. “Well, girls? So you don’t agree with Danny? What’s the author trying to tell us?” Lily asked in an attempt to bring the discussion back to the novel rather than her pupils’ own relationship dynamics.

  “Danny ain’t got no chance of keeping a girl in line!” Jade yelled across the classroom, “He can’t even get a girl!” At which comment the room was consumed with more laughter from the girls, and angry retorts being yelled back from the boys.

  With an internal groan at the direction the conversation had taken, Lily tried to bring the class back to order. After a while, they calmed down and, to Lily’s surprise, began a discussion that talked about the parallels between the injustices in the novel, and those that they perceived in their own lives.

  As she encouraged the debate, Lily didn’t hear the door to her classroom open, or the tall, broad figure lean casually against the doorframe with his arms folded in front of him.

  “You know Miss,” Sally was saying, “in the book, the Puritans, they treated Hester like an outcast, but it ain’t no different today. The police, they hate all of us and it’s like its “them and us," you know what I mean, Miss?”

  “Sally,” Lily said gently, “I don’t think that’s all true. I know there are some people out there who always want to think the worst and blame a lot of the teenagers from round here, but at the same time, there are a lot who don’t think like that and want to help make life better for everyone.”

  “Yeah right,” Sally snorted, supported by the murmurs of discontent from around the room, “just ‘cos he,” Sally jerked her hand at Tom, who was now listening intently from his position at the door, his casual stance belying the seriousness with which he was taking Sally’s words, “likes to get involved and pretend he can make it all better, it don’t mean it’s actually gonna make a difference, does it!”

  Swinging round to face the direction Sally had pointed at, Lily felt the blood drain from her face as she realised Tom was there in the class room, meaning that she’d literally been caught in the act with no chance of pretending she had stayed home as instructed, and what’s more she had no idea how long Tom had been standing there.

  “Miss Bentley,” Tom interjected smoothly, “would you mind if I added to the debate?”

  Taking Lily’s stunned silence as acquiescence, Tom moved to the front of the class and leaned back against Lily’s desk, still adopting his deliberately casual stance.

  “You know... Sally?” he queried as he looked at the young girl and she nodded back at him, “You’re absolutely right.”

  Sally gaped at him and the class was stunned into silence.

  “There is a “them and us” culture these days in this area. It’s not good, and it’s not right, and that’s why I’m here to try to improve it. I’m not pretending I can make it all better or cure it overnight, as I think we all know that’s not going to happen, but I’m hoping that we can all work together so that little by little it improves.”

  “But you know,” he continued, his face and his tone serious, “it has to work both ways. Just as the police have to realise that for every break-in, every theft, every vandalised car or wall around here, that it isn’t automatically one of the kids from the neighbourhood who’s to blame, you need to realise that every policeman you see isn’t automatically your enemy, that the majority of us want to help and make the neighbourhood a better place.

  “Now, I admit I don’t know much about the novel Miss Bentley’s teaching you, but I do know that things don’t change, and people don’t change, unless there are individuals out there who want to make it better, and usually that’s ordinary people, like you, who have younger sisters and brothers they don’t want to see get hooked up in crime and violence, whom you want to have a good shot at life.”

  Amazing, Lily thought to herself. In just five minutes, he had the class wrapped round his little finger.

  “Sally,” he continued, “do you have younger brothers or sisters?”

  “Yeah,” the girl replied, defensively but still more polite than Lily had ever heard her, “I got a kid brother. What about him? He ain’t done anything wrong!”

  “I’m sure he hasn’t, Sally. And that’s my point. I’m not assuming that he’s done anything, but at the same time, I’d like to think that we could get to the point where you don’t assume that I think he has, w
ithout any grounds for it. What I’d like,” he added, “is to see things move on so that your younger brothers and sisters,” Tom directed his gaze at the whole room, “don’t automatically see the police, or anyone like them for that matter, as the enemy here, and we can try to help make sure they don’t get dragged into situations where it’s all too easy for them to get that impression.”

  Seeing the look on the faces of the Year Nine class – disbelieving but not exactly hostile – Tom decided it was probably best to leave it for now.

  “But on that note,” he said with a smile, “I’ve probably distracted too much from,” he picked up a copy of the novel from a nearby desk, “The Scarlet Letter!”

  Flustered, Lily quickly tried to pull herself together, not wanting the class to see how much Tom’s appearance in her classroom had affected her.

  “No, no, not at all,” she said swiftly, but not daring to make eye contact with him, “you’re most welcome.”

  “Great,” he said, “in that case, I’d be interested in sitting in on the rest of the class. That is,” he added, “if you’re sure you don’t mind? I think that when I came in you were talking about justice and punishments fitting crimes? Quite an interesting topic, I must say.” He moved towards an empty chair in the corner and lowered his frame into it, stretching out his legs in front of him and sending a mocking glance her way, one she knew only she would recognise.

  “Erm... of course,” she said dully, her heart sinking as she realised he had no intention of letting her get away with her actions. He’d told her clearly to stay at home today to recover and she’d ignored him.

  How she got through the rest of the lesson, Lily had no idea. She didn’t once meet his gaze, instead pouring all her attention into the topic at hand, grimacing inwardly at the subject matter and wishing she’d picked some other topic for the class, frankly any topic that didn’t suddenly seem to have quite so many similarities to her own predicament. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or not when the lesson came to an end and the pupils filed out of the room, leaving an ominous silence in their wake.