A Subtle Flame

Part 7

CHAPTER SIX

Through the panicked pounding in her head, Cressida heard a gasp.  Both Christian and Peebles remained still, so she guessed it must have been her who had reacted.  She looked as if she had just seen a ghost: her eyes wide, her mouth gaping and her face pale.  But she had no strength to lift her hands to her face.  Her arms lay at her sides like dead weights.

            Get a grip on yourself, she ordered herself sternly.  Don't just react; think it through.  Of course he's had relationships before, he's in his late thirties!  And so what if one or more of them was with another student?  He probably cared a lot for her.

            "Who was she?" Cressida asked quietly, her tongue felt awkward and heavy.

            "We can't, obviously, give a name because of legal reasons."  Christian gave a condescending smile.  I wish I didn't know you so well, Cressida thought bitterly, because I'm beginning to suspect that you're enjoying this.  "She was a second-year undergraduate in one of his seminar groups.  They were very indiscrete, fondling in corridors ..."  Christian narrowed his eyes at Cressida but she held his gaze without flinching.  "... and that sort of thing."

            "But people's private lives are their own business," Cressida replied, her voice growing more firm and steady.

            "Ah, no," Peebles objected.  He at least, Cressida noted thankfully, had the courtesy to seem as uncomfortable as she felt.  "There were rumours and allegations that Davis was, umm, abusing his position.  Yes, abusing his position is the way they put it."

            "You mean he was using his status as a teacher to force her into it?  That is ridiculous!" Cressida scoffed, scorn blazing in her dark green eyes.  Anger was a good emotion.  Anger she could use, unlike despair and disappointment which just made her want to weep.

            "There were also rumours of favouritism.  Rumours that Davis was giving her undeserved good marks.  These rumours may or may not have been true, but they were nevertheless extremely damaging to the department's reputation."

            Davis had mentioned the rumours to her yesterday, Cressida remembered.  And he had also suggested Christian's involvement in them.

            "You were both at the same university when this happened, weren't you Christian?  Davis told me."  Cressida had the satisfaction of seeing Christian discomfited, his pearly-white smile faltering.  "My relationship with Davis is nothing like this previous ... incident," Cressida continued cautiously.  "I am not his student and he has no direct involvement in my work.  I am not an impressionable young student straight out of school.  We are not guilty of any inappropriate behaviour."

            "Well, no, but ..."  Peebles looked pleadingly at Christian.

            "The fact is, Cressida, you are a student and he is a member of staff.  Davis knows he was lucky to get a job here, a job anywhere in fact," Christian smiled pityingly at her, "and yet he still acts as if he has nothing to be ashamed of.  I wish that your relationship were the only issue, in which case we could turn a blind eye.  But there is also his over-friendliness with the undergraduate students ..."

            "What over-friendliness?" Cressida demanded.

            "You know, laughing and joking with them, sitting and chatting with them.  Wherever he goes he seems to have an entourage of sycophantic students.  Sometimes I wonder if he prefers their company to ours!"  Christian turned his ingratiating smile on Peebles who joined in his laugh.