Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 38

[RECAP: Leonie, staying with her grandmother in London during the half-term vacation, just got a letter from Father Gabriel that was *far* from platonic...]

Leonie had started writing a dozen letters and scrumpled them all up when she heard the phone ring. If she had had any realistic hope of it being Father Gabriel, she would have fled down the stairs to answer it. But he didn't have her number or even access to a phone at his retreat.

She had begun yet another attempt at replying to him when her grandmother knocked on the door. "Leonie? There's a telephone call for you. A girl who gave her name as Harriet."

Quickly pushing the latest "Dear Gabriel..." under some books, she followed her grandmother downstairs to the hall and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" she answered.

"Leonie, it's me, Harry."

"I guessed so. How are you?"

Harry was fine and currently in London. She invited Leonie out shopping, and Leonie was glad to accept. She figured her grandmother would be unlikely to object to her spending the day with an Earl's daughter.

She was right. "How delightful," her grandmother said. "I trust you will be on your very best behaviour." There was a warning in her eye as she said this, and Leonie knew that she was thinking of the trouble that Leonie had got into back home. The reason why she had been sent over here for a year.

"Of course I will," Leonie said. She grabbed her purse and went out of the door. Her grandmother's house was only a few minutes walk from a London Underground station, which was one of the few advantages of staying there. She could at least get out and about, and her grandmother was happy for her to visit museums and art galleries.

The previous day Leonie was supposed to have visited the National Science Museum, but had instead gone to a matinée in Covent Garden. She knew her grandmother did not greatly approve of the theatre. It was going to be very hard to get her support for going to Juilliard, if she even got accepted.

Harry met her on Oxford Street and they went to a nearby café. Harry usually shopped in Kensington but had thought that Leonie would enjoy more of a tourist trip. "You can get your Christmas presents early," Harry suggested. "I thought you might want to get some souvenirs for your boy back home. If you need me to post them secretly for you, it's no trouble."

"He's not actually in the US," Leonie said, then realised it was probably a mistake to have revealed this.

"Oh? He's in London, is he? If your grandmother's strict and you need me to cover for you, you need only ask."

"He's not actually in London," Leonie said. "It's still really up in the air. I'm not sure where we stand."

Harry grinned. "Well the offer's there, wherever he is. I'm guessing's he's not at St Winifred's at least."

Leonie choked on her coffee at this and Harry had to slap her on the back to stop her coughing. When Leonie had recovered, she realised Harry was looking at her searchingly. Harry was frowning.

"He's not at St Winifred's is he? I mean you couldn't possibly have hidden a boy up there. There are only two men in the place. Oh!" Harry stopped, seeing that Leonie had gone bright red.

Leonie tried to make light of it. "I'm never going to make a poker player, am I? Or an actress, with my lack of blush control."

"It's just a crush, right? Lots of girls have crushes on him, he's frightfully good looking," Harry said. She didn't even need to mention his name. They both knew she wasn't talking about Father Stephen. "I mean he doesn't know how you feel, does he?"

"He knows."

"But he hasn't reciprocated, surely?" Light began to dawn. "That night he rescued you from the storm. Did something happen?"

Leonie said nothing. Her face, once again, said it all.

"Oh my God, Leonie. But he's a priest! I mean I'm not personally very religious, but..."

Leonie felt utterly miserable. "I know. I'll get struck down by lightning."

"I didn't mean that," Harry said. "I meant that he must be awfully religious, to have taken orders. So he's stuck, isn't he? You poor thing. And a teacher too. You couldn't have really made it harder for yourselves, could you?"

Leonie toyed with her coffee mug. "You won't tell anyone, will you?"

Harry reassured her. "Of course not. I won't breathe a word, not even to the others. I simply wish I could help you, somehow."

"Do you think it's wrong?" Leonie said.

"Personally, no. You're both legal adults. My grandmother had an affair with her drawing master when she was a girl, it was all very Woman in White. Her parents nearly self-combusted when they found out, and sent her overseas."

"Did they end up together?" Leonie asked.

"Heavens, no. He was an utter drip by all accounts, and she was only sixteen. Barely a month later she fell head over heels in love with a French count, my maternal grandfather. Then she discovered she was pregnant by the art master. Fortunately my grandfather was wild about her and adopted the child. It was terribly romantic," Harry said.

"The baby was your mother?"

"No, my uncle Julian. It all ended very happily, anyway."

Leonie couldn't imagine herself falling in love with anyone else so quickly. She had thought she had been in love before, but none of it remotely compared to how she felt about Father Gabriel.

Leonie managed to write a reply to him though she found it difficult. There was so much she wanted to say but didn't dare. She had bought some stamps and managed to mail it quickly in the morning before her grandmother could see.

She knew there wouldn't be time for him to reply to her before school started again. She had read his letter so many times that she knew it by heart.

She tried to enjoy the week. Her grandmother had taken her to the National Portrait Gallery and to lunch at a very expensive and upmarket restaurant. Leonie had done her best to be grateful.

Harry had invited her to a party, which had been fun, even if her grandmother had insisted on a midnight curfew. "I am a legal adult," Leonie had protested.

But her grandmother had put her foot down. "While you are in my care, you will live under my rules," she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Will Harry be able to keep her lips sealed?

Or will she let Leonie's secret slip...?