‘Then I needn’t worry about putting you through this next ordeal, though I think we both understand that it has to be done…’

The ‘ordeal’ turned out to be an apology from a very subdued Sean Monroe who, with his uncle standing with folded arms behind him, trotted out a few stilted words that didn’t quite conceal a lingering hint of truculence.

‘I don’t remember whatever it was I’m supposed to have done, but Uncle Scott said I acted like an obnoxious little kid so I guess I’m sorry for that, and whatever…and thanks for helping me when I was sick…’

Anya didn’t prolong his agony, accepting the olive branch with a casualness that she hoped wouldn’t leave any lasting feelings of resentment. She could see no hint of a smirk in his brown eyes which would indicate that the blank spots in his memory were anything but genuine.

‘Very clever to make him feel he made a fool of himself behaving like a silly little boy instead of a bad, macho stud,’ she commented to Scott when his nephew had slouched out. ‘Maybe he won’t be so keen to let himself get out of control in future.’

‘Maybe. He wants to be a professional rugby player and he has talent, but whether he has the long-term application and the temperament, I don’t know. His problem is that he enjoys being the sports superstar too much and expects it to earn him special treatment off the rugby field as well.’

He had accompanied her to the door, where she slipped on her boots. ‘At the moment he’s bitter because I’ve grounded him for the next three weeks, which means he’ll miss the first two weeks of rugby training when he gets back to school. I suppose you think I’m being too lenient.’

‘Actually I think you’re wise not to go overboard,’ she said mildly, perceiving in his acid comment an underlying doubt that appealed for her professional reassurance. ‘Except possibly—’ she hesitated, then forced herself to confront the worrying issue ‘—except where drugs are concerned…’

His face took on an expressive grimness. ‘Don’t worry, he and I have dealt with that as an entirely separate issue. I’m inclined to accept his claim that it was a one-off, because he’s obsessive about smoking or anything that might affect his fitness, but it’s still something that his parents are going to have to look into when they get back.’

Their new and tentative peace accord was almost breached when Scott refused to let Anya walk back home alone in spite of her insistence that she was perfectly recovered from her small accident. Under the threat that otherwise he would walk her home himself, step-by-step, she found herself bullied into his prowling silver Jaguar, which ate up the distance in no time flat.

Being enclosed in a small space with him heightened her unwilling physical awareness until she was responding to every drawn breath and slight shift of his body, and she began to quietly fret at the thought that he might choose to linger when they arrived at their destination. She couldn’t very well refuse to invite him in if he asked, but she knew that once he had been in her home his pervasive image would be even more deeply imprinted on her consciousness.

To her mingled relief and disappointment he merely dropped her at her front gate as she requested, with a glance at his watch and a brief instruction to answer Mark’s questions without going into unnecessary detail, and to try to sound casual and amused rather than angry or shocked.

CHAPTER FIVE

‘YOU’RE going to what?’ Anya cried, leaping to her feet in angry disbelief, jarring the two cups of coffee on her small kitchen table.

Mark Ransom held up his hands, surrendering to her vivid shock.

‘Look, it’s nothing formal, it won’t go on your official record or anything—’

‘You’re suspending me!’

‘No, no, nothing like that,’ he hastened to reassure her, his brown eyes regretful. A thin, wiry man of average height, he didn’t make Anya feel small and vulnerable when she stood beside him, like someone else she could name! At thirty-seven he was young to have the headmastership of such a large school and had cultivated a gravity beyond his years. Anya liked him for his seriousness of character and dedication to his students, and when his small kindnesses had begun showing signs of becoming more personal in nature she had been cautiously optimistic about a future relationship.

Until now!

After Scott had dropped her off she had checked her letter box, and although it was too early for the mail she had found a handwritten note from Mark.

Anya, I called while you were out. Couldn’t wait. Phone me ASAP on my mobile.

ASAP had been underlined twice, and after she had changed out of her grubby clothing and slipped into a skirt and blouse that covered most of her bumps and scrapes, her response had brought Mark back to her doorstep as soon as he could conclude his lunchtime appointment.

‘It’s damage control, that’s all. I just want you to be prepared if I do have to ask you to take a bit of time out over the first few days of term,’ he clarified, standing up and smoothing down his tie under his suit jacket in a characteristic gesture of nervous impatience. Since he and Anya had never had a disagreement he was unused to her arguing with his authority. ‘But it probably won’t come to that, because by the time school goes back this will all have sorted itself out—’

‘Probably?’ Anya said in a frustrated voice, pacing around her small kitchen. ‘You said that Sc—Mr Tyler told you it was a private party and I’ve explained why I went there. I don’t see why it has to be made into such a big deal.’ She hadn’t mentioned Liz’s call, or her hasty visit to The Pines that morning, and of course it hadn’t occurred to Mark that she might have tried to take the initiative.

Mark ran a hand through his close-cropped sandy hair, looking as harassed as he sounded. ‘It won’t be if I can help it, Anya, but unfortunately Adrienne Brinkman has already been on the phone to me this morning to quietly warn me that she’s had to discipline two Eastbrook girls who said they were taken to a wild party by boys from Hunua’s first-fifteen team—’

Anya spun around. ‘Those girls were on a school camp at the time, but the Hunua kids were on holiday—there’s no way the college can be held responsible—’

‘Not quite true,’ Mark interrupted gloomily. ‘I did have one other parent phone me this morning—a regular busybody, as it happens, but this time I’m afraid she has a point. Apparently her son, who came home drunk, found out about the party from the college’s Internet bulletin board, so the school is involved. We have to find out who hacked in and posted that message, for one thing. And she also wanted to know why, if there was a teacher from the college chaperoning the party, the alcohol wasn’t confiscated?’

‘But I wasn’t there to chaperone the party—’

‘I know, but this is obviously the kind of thing that’s going to bubble up unless we satisfy everyone that the situation is being properly looked into,’ said Mark, unknowingly echoing Scott Tyler. ‘You know how careful teachers have to be about hints they’re leading students astray. It’s a question of retaining moral authority…’

Much as she hated to do it, Anya felt driven to play the personal card. ‘Surely the fact that you can vouch for my integrity must count for a lot? For goodness’ sake, Mark, we’re going out together—’

Tags: Susan Napier Billionaire Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net