Gabriel's Promise (Gabriel's Inferno 4)

“I was waiting for the right moment. I haven’t answered them. I haven’t spoken to my chair or to anyone from Boston University. I wanted to discuss it with you first.”

Julia closed her eyes and touched her forehead. “I don’t see how this is going to work.”

Gabriel froze. “Why not?”

“Because I’m in coursework next year. Clare and I will be here in Cambridge, but you will be in Edinburgh.”

“You can take a leave of absence and come with me.”

Julia’s eyes flew open. She stared at him in shock.

Gabriel scratched at his chin.

Julia stood. “I didn’t want to take a maternity leave in the first place. I can’t take another leave of absence, especially if I attend the workshop at Oxford this coming April; I’ll never finish my program.”

“Your advisor is the one who suggested the maternity leave.” Gabriel adjusted his glasses.

“I don’t think she envisioned me taking almost two years off.”

Gabriel studied his wife. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I can’t just say no. It would be like turning down the Nobel Prize.”

“I know the significance of the Sage Lectures.” Julia’s tone grew steely. “It’s an incredible honor. But I can’t just say no to Harvard again, not after how hard I’ve worked.”

He held up his hands. “I’m not going without you and Clare.”

“Then you’re declining the invitation?”

“Of course not.” He sounded impatient.

“Then what are you going to do?” Julia’s hands went to her hips.

“There has to be a way for me to accept the invitation and for you to come with me.” He passed a hand over his mouth. “I thought you’d be happy for me.”

“I am.” She heaved a great sigh and her hands fell away from her hips. “But I don’t want to be a single parent for that long, Gabriel. I can’t do this alone.”

Gabriel removed his glasses. He looked very, very determined.

But instead of arguing with her, he did something most unexpected. “The email I received instructed me to keep the invitation confidential. I’m not going to do that.”

“Why not?”

“Because we need some advice. Katherine was the Sage Lecturer once, twenty years ago. I’m going to call her.” Gabriel pulled his wife into his arms and hugged her. “We’ll find a way.”

Julia returned her husband’s embrace, wishing she shared her husband’s optimism. But she didn’t.

Chapter Fifteen

Later that morning

Assistant Professor Paul V. Norris sat in his office at Saint Michael’s College in Vermont, staring at his computer screen.

He was already a few weeks into his first academic job. And he was working hard—preparing lessons, attending new faculty orientation meetings, and trying to figure out where the land mines were located in the Department of English and how he could avoid them. But the email he had just received made everything else seem irrelevant.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” he quoted to himself.

There, in his Saint Michael’s inbox, was an email from Professor Wodehouse of Magdalen College. Among the short list of email recipients, he spied a certain Julia Emerson. But thankfully, no Gabriel Emerson.

Studentfucker.