Pride & Consequence Omnibus (24 page)

‘No, why should he?’ she asked Nigel primly.

He was, she could see, giving her a worried look.

‘Something’s wrong; you’re not your normal self, Jodi. What—?’

‘Nothing’s wrong,’ she lied grittily. ‘I’m just tired, that’s all.’

She felt guilty about lying to Nigel, who was practically her best friend as well as her cousin, but what alternative did she really have?

A small, uncomfortable silence followed her denial, before Nigel turned to open the front door.

Jodi watched him go. She had been unfairly sharp with him, she knew, and ultimately she would have to apologise and explain, but not right now. Right now she just wasn’t capable of doing anything so rational! All she really wanted to do was to think about Leo, and what Nigel had told her.

It had confused her to learn that Leo had intervened with the authorities on her behalf. After all, he had allowed her to believe that they had been the ones to contact him, and not, as Nigel had implied, the other way around.

It galled Jodi to know that she was in his debt—not that that made a single scrap of difference to what she felt about what he had said to her earlier. No way! Those words were words she would never forgive him for uttering. Still, she knew she would have to thank him for what he had done, and the sooner she got that onerous task over with the better! Gritting her teeth, she went upstairs to shower and get changed.

* * *

Leo saw Jodi as she walked up the drive towards the front door of Ashton House. He was standing in the room he was using as an office, having just completed a telephone call with his new partner in the haulage and distribution business he intended to site at the motorway-based factory.

As he had informed the representatives of the Frampton workforce earlier, he had now decided to keep that factory open, but it would be up to them to prove to him that he had made the right decision, with an increased output to ensure his business kept its competitive edge over its overseas rivals.

Despite the fact that it was a hot summer’s day, Jodi was wearing a very formal-looking black trouser suit, its jacket open over a white T-shirt.

Leo, in contrast, had changed into a pair of casual chinos on his return from his meeting, but that did not prevent Jodi from thinking how formidable he looked as he opened the door just as she reached out to ring the bell.

Formidably male, that was, she admitted to herself as he invited her into the house.

Why, oh, why did she have to feel this way about him? Her pain at loving him was laced with her furious anger at his unbelievably callous words of the morning.

Perhaps to him, a high-powered businessman, an unplanned child was just a problem to be disposed of, but there was no way she could contemplate taking such an unemotional course.

If she thought for one moment that there was the slightest chance that she could be pregnant... After all, she had lied to Leo when she had intimated that she had taken precautions to ensure that she did not conceive.

Now she was deliberately trying to frighten herself, Jodi decided firmly, dismissing her uncomfortable anxiety. She was not pregnant. Totally, definitely not.

And, besides, didn’t she have enough to worry about?

As she followed Leo inside the house she began with determination, ‘Nigel’s been to see me. He says that I have you to thank for the fact that I did not have to return to the police station this morning.’

The way she delivered the words, with an extremely militant look in her eyes, made Leo curse her cousin silently.

‘Jodi—’ he began, but she shook her head, refusing to let him continue.

‘Is it true?’ she demanded.

‘The police agreed with me that there was no reason to take things any further with any of those concerned in what essentially had been a peaceful demonstration,’ Leo palliated.

‘So it is true,’ Jodi announced baldly. ‘Why did you do it?’ she asked him bitterly.

‘So that you could have me under some kind of obligation to you? Why would you want that, or can I guess?’ she demanded sarcastically. ‘So that you could demand that I—?’

‘Stop right there.’

Now it was Jodi’s turn to fall silent as Leo glared furiously at her. Did she really think that he would stoop so low as to try to demand that she make love with him?

Beneath his anger, running much, much deeper, Leo could feel the savage, ripping claws of pain.

Jodi told herself that she wasn’t going to back down or allow him to make her feel she was in the wrong. After what he had said this morning it seemed perfectly logical to her that he would consider using the fact that he had negotiated her freedom to demand that she acquiesce to his demands over an accidental pregnancy.

All the anguish she was feeling welled up inside her. Ignoring the oxygen-destroying tension crackling between them, and the anger she could see glinting in Leo’s eyes, Jodi protested, ‘You just don’t care, do you? Feelings, human life—they don’t matter to you. You’re quite happy to close down the factory and put people out of work...’

And quite happy, too, to deny his child the right to live, Jodi reflected inwardly, the pain of that knowledge twisting her insides like acid—not just for the child she was positive she had not conceived but also for the destruction of her own foolish dreams.

Somewhere deep down inside herself she had seen him as a hero, a truly special man, imbued with all the virtues that women universally loved, especially the instinct to protect those weaker and more vulnerable than himself. It hurt to know just how wrong she had been.

Leo had had enough. How dared she accuse him of not having feelings? If he was as callous, as uncaring as she was accusing him of being, right now she would be lying under him on his bed whilst he...

As Leo fought to control the surging shock of his fierce desire he couldn’t stop himself from retaliating savagely, ‘If this is your way of trying to persuade me to keep the factory open, let me tell you the tactics you employed in my hotel suite would be far more effective.’

Leo knew the moment the words were out of his mouth that they were a mistake, but it was too late to recall them.

Jodi was looking at him with an expression of contemptuous loathing in her eyes, whilst her mouth...!

Leo had to swallow—hard—as he saw that small, betraying tremble of her firmly compressed lips. The same lips he had not such a very long time ago teased open with his tongue before...

Was that actually a groan Leo had just uttered? Jodi wondered with furious female anger. Well, he certainly deserved to be in pain after what he had just said to her!

It was only the sheer force of her anger that was keeping her from bursting into either incoherent speech or helpless emotional tears.

How could he have stooped so low as to throw that at her?

Well, he would quickly learn that she could be equally offensive!

‘If I thought that such tactics would work—and that you would not renege on any deal made in the heat of the moment—I might almost be prepared to risk them,’ she told him with pseudo-sweetness, her tone changing completely as she added in a much colder and more authoritative voice, ‘But if I were in your shoes...’

‘You’d do things differently?’ Leo supplied for her.

‘Well, if I were you I’d make sure of my facts before I started throwing accusations around.’ Jodi turned round, giving him one last furious look as she told him, ‘I’m not listening to any more of this.’

And then she was gone before Leo had the chance to stop her, leaving him mentally cursing both her and himself.

Why on earth hadn’t he simply told her that he had found a way of keeping the factory open?

Why? Because his damned stupid male pride wouldn’t let him, that was why!

* * *

By the time she had walked home, Jodi was feeling both queasy and slightly light-headed. It was because of the heat of the sun and the fact that she had not really had very much to eat, Jodi told herself firmly—to even think of allowing herself to imagine anything else was completely and utterly silly.

Silly, yes, but still somehow she couldn’t stop herself from imagining, dreading that her foolish behaviour was now going to have dire consequences.

It wasn’t that she didn’t like children—she did, nor even that she didn’t want to be a mother and have babies herself—she did. But not yet, and most certainly not like this.

No, she wanted her babies to be planned for with love, by two people equally committed to their relationship and their children’s future.

She was, she told herself, panicking unnecessarily, deliberately blowing up a small feeling of nausea into something else. Easy to tell herself that, but far harder to believe it. Guilt was a terribly powerful force!

With her imagination running away from her at full speed and sending her harrowing images of single-parenthood, it was hard to think rationally.

Even if she was pregnant, it was far too soon for her to be suffering from morning sickness, surely, and if her nausea wasn’t caused by that then how could she be pregnant?

But what if she was? What if? A woman in her position, a schoolteacher, pregnant after a one-night stand! She went cold at the thought, filled with repugnance for her own behaviour. Mentally she started counting the days until she could be sure that she was safe. And in the meantime... In the meantime she would just have to try not to panic!

CHAPTER EIGHT

J
ODI
COULD
FEEL
the buzz of excitement being generated by the group of parents gathered outside the school gates. Puzzled, she looked at them. Normally on a Monday parental exchanges were slightly subdued, but this morning’s mood was quite obviously very upbeat—unlike her own, Jodi recognised, pausing as one of the parents called out to her.

‘Have you heard the news—isn’t it wonderful? I could hardly believe it when John came home on Saturday and told me that Leo Jefferson had announced he intended to keep the factory open.’

Jodi stared at her.

Leo had done that? But he had told her... Before she could sort out her confused thoughts another mother was joining in the conversation, chuckling warmly as she congratulated Jodi on her part in the previous week’s demonstration at the factory.

‘We were all really surprised and impressed by the way Mr Jefferson spoke up for you to the police, telling them that he had no intention of taking things any further. And then to learn that he’s going to keep the factory open after all. It totally changes the way we all think about him.’ She beamed, giving Jodi a look she didn’t understand before continuing, ‘Of course, you must have known what was going to happen before the rest of us!’

Jodi’s face started to burn.

The other parents were also looking at her with an unexpected degree of amused speculation, she recognised, although she had no idea why until suddenly she could hear Myra Fanshawe exclaiming vehemently, ‘Well, personally I think it’s absolutely disgraceful. A person in her position...a schoolteacher. A head teacher...indulging in a liaison of that nature. I must say, though, I’m not totally surprised. I’ve never approved of some of her teaching methods!’

Myra was talking to one of the other parents, her back to Jodi. As Jodi approached the other woman whispered something urgently to Myra, her face flushing with embarrassment.

But it seemed that her embarrassment was not shared by Myra, who tossed her head and then said even more loudly, ‘Well, I’m sorry, but I don’t really care if she does hear me. After all, she’s the one at fault. Behaving like that... Openly spending the night in his hotel suite, and then trying to convince us all that she’s Ms Virtue personified!’

Jodi felt her face burning even hotter as the group of parents surrounding Myra gave way and stood back as she approached.

Jodi’s heart gave a sickening lurch as she saw the look of malicious triumph in the other woman’s eyes. Myra had never liked her, she knew that. Jodi had to admit that she didn’t particularly care for Myra either, but there was too much at stake here for her to be ruled by such feelings.

Reminding herself—not that she needed any reminding—of her position and her responsibilities as the school’s head teacher, Jodi took a deep, calming breath and confronted the other woman.

‘I assume that I am the subject of your discussion, and if that is the case—’

‘You aren’t going to try to deny it, I hope,’ Myra interrupted her rudely before Jodi could finish speaking. ‘It wouldn’t do you any good if you did. Ellie, the receptionist who saw you at the hotel, both when you arrived and the next morning when you left, is my god-daughter, and she recognised you immediately from your photograph in the local paper. She couldn’t believe it when she read that you had been demonstrating at the factory. Not when she knew that you’d spent the night with its owner.’

Jodi’s heart sank. This was even worse than she had expected, and she could see from the varying expressions on the faces of the other parents that they were all shocked by Myra’s disclosures.

What could she say in her own defence? What mitigating circumstances could she summon up to explain? Bleakly Jodi was aware that there was nothing she could say that would make the situation any better and, potentially, telling the truth would make things a whole lot worse!

‘You do realise, don’t you, that, given my position on the board of governors, it will be my duty to bring up the doubts your behaviour gives me as to your suitability to teach our children?’

‘I haven’t—’

Jodi tried to interrupt and defend herself, but Myra overrode her, stating loudly, ‘And, on top of everything else, you were taken into custody by the police. It is my belief that the education authority should be told!’ she said to Jodi with obvious relish. ‘After all, as a parent, I have my child’s moral welfare to think about,’ Myra was continuing with a sanctimonious fervour that had some of the more impressionable parents watching her round-eyed. ‘In your shoes...’ she continued in an openly triumphant manner.

To Jodi’s relief, the final bell summoning the children to their classrooms started to ring, giving her the perfect opportunity to escape from her tormentor.

From her tormentor maybe, she allowed half an hour later as she stood motionlessly staring out of the window of her small office, but not from the torment itself.

She had seen the looks—from pity right through to very unpleasant salacious curiosity—on the faces of the parents as they’d watched her reaction to Myra’s disclosures. She knew that Myra had the power to make life very difficult and uncomfortable for her and for her family. The other members of the board were naturally going to be concerned about the probity and the moral standing of their school’s head teacher, and, although Jodi did not think that any legal disciplinary action would be taken against her, naturally she did not relish the thought of being at odds with the governors or indeed of having her lifestyle bring disrepute on the school.

And as for Myra’s remark about the education authority, well, Jodi suspected that had just been so much hot air, but she also knew that her own conscience would not allow her to stay on at the school against the wishes of the parents, or in a situation where they felt that she was not the right person to have charge of their children. Jodi’s heart sank. If that was to happen...! If she was to be put in a position where she felt honour bound to step down from her post, after everything she had done, all her hard work. But what could she say in her own defence? she reminded herself bleakly. And that jibe Myra had made about her maternal concern for the moral welfare of her son had really hit a raw nerve.

Jodi’s head was starting to ache. She had deliberately made herself eat a heavy breakfast this morning, just to prove to herself—not that she had needed it—that she most certainly was not suffering from the nauseous early-morning tummy of a newly pregnant woman. The meal was taking its natural toll on her now.

She felt distinctly queasy, but surely because she was so tense with anxiety and misery? She tried to reassure and comfort herself, but harrowing tales of members of her sex who had found themselves in exactly the position she was dreading kept being dredged up by her conscience to torment her. And the unfortunate thing was that she was prone to having an erratic cycle, especially when she was under stress.

Myra’s comments had all but obliterated the original discomfort she had felt on learning that, contrary to what he had told her, Leo had actually decided to keep the factory open. Why had he let her accuse him like that?

* * *

It was almost lunchtime before Leo learned what was happening to Jodi.

He had been tied up with his accountants most of the morning, swiftly renegotiating finance packages to accommodate the changes he had made to his business plans for the factories he had taken over.

His bankers had shaken their heads over the discovery that he intended to set up his own haulage and distribution business and then admitted ruefully that, being Leo, he was probably going to make a very profitable success of it.

But all morning what he’d really been thinking about, worrying about, had been Jodi and the row they had had the previous day. Why had he let her go like that?

He had a meeting at the factory, and when he arrived there he discovered that Jeremy Driscoll was waiting to see him.

Furiously angry, he confronted Leo, telling him, ‘I want to collect some papers I left here, but the cretins you have left in charge have refused to allow me access to the storeroom. God knows on whose instructions.’

‘On mine,’ Leo told him equably.

There was a copy of the local paper on the desk, and Leo frowned as he caught sight of it and saw Jodi’s photograph on the front page.

Jeremy had obviously seen it too, and he sneered as he commented, ‘Little Miss Goody Two Shoes. Well, everyone’s going to know what she is soon enough now.’

‘What do you mean?’ Leo demanded tersely as he recognised the malice glinting in Jeremy’s pale blue eyes.

‘What do you think I mean?’ Jeremy grinned. ‘She was spotted leaving your suite, creeping out of the hotel in the early hours of the morning. Good, was she?

‘Well, you might have been impressed but somehow I doubt the parents of the brats she teaches are going to be when they learn what she was up to. Their head teacher, tricking her way into a man’s hotel suite and not leaving until the morning...’ Jeremy started to shake his head disapprovingly. ‘I shouldn’t be surprised if they demand her resignation.’

As he listened to him Leo’s heart sank. Jeremy was too sure of himself, swaggeringly so, in fact, to simply be making a shot in the dark. Someone obviously
had
seen Jodi leaving his suite.

Leo’s brain went into overdrive as he sought furiously for a way to protect her. There was only one thing he could think of doing that might help.

Fixing Jeremy with a cool, bored look, he told him calmly, ‘Oh, I hardly think so; after all, what’s so wrong about an engaged couple spending the night together?’

‘An engaged couple?’ Jeremy was staring nonplussed at him, but to Leo’s relief he didn’t immediately reject Leo’s claim; instead he challenged, ‘If that’s true then why doesn’t anyone know about it?’

‘Because we’ve chosen to keep it to ourselves for the moment,’ Leo responded distantly, ‘not that it’s any business of yours or anyone else’s. Oh, and by the way,’ he continued, giving Jeremy a nasty smile, ‘I understand from my accountants that they’ve been approached by the tax authorities regarding some anomalies in the accounting system you put in place here after the fire that destroyed the previous records. Of course,’ Leo continued smoothly, ‘my accountants have assured the Revenue that we are prepared to give them all the help they might need.’

* * *

Miserably Jodi stared across her desk. As luck would have it, the school’s parents had a meeting this evening at which she was supposed to be speaking about her plans to increase the range of extra-curricular activities provided for the children. Jodi gave a small shudder. She could guess what was going to be the hot topic of conversation at that meeting now!

And she could guess, too, just how much criticism and disapproval she was going to encounter—deservedly so, she told herself grimly.

Breaking into Leo’s suite, getting drunk, falling asleep in his bed and then, as though all of that weren’t enough...

She wasn’t fit to be a teacher, or to hold the responsible position she did, Jodi decided wretchedly, and Myra Fanshawe had been right when she had warned Jodi that the parents would take a very dim view of what she had done.

If only that photograph of her had not appeared in the local paper. But it had, and— She tensed as she heard a soft knock on her door, her face colouring as Helen Riddings, the more senior of her co-teachers, popped her head round the door to ask uncertainly, ‘Are you all right? Only...’

Only what? Jodi wondered defeatedly. Only you’ve heard the gossip and now you’re wondering if it’s true and, if it is, just what I’m going to do about it?

‘I’m sorry, it’s my turn for playground duty, isn’t it?’ Jodi answered her, avoiding the other woman’s eyes, knowing perfectly well that her colleague had not really come to her office to remind her about that.

‘Oh, but you haven’t had any lunch,’ Helen protested, obviously flustered. ‘I can do the playground duty for you if you like.’ She stopped and then looked acutely self-conscious as she told Jodi, ‘Myra Fanshawe is in the playground with some of the other parents...’

‘It’s all right, Helen,’ Jodi told her quietly when she broke off in embarrassment. ‘I can guess what’s going on. I expect that you and the other teachers will have heard the gossip by now...’ Jodi could feel her courage starting to desert her.

‘You don’t look very well,’ Helen commiserated, obviously genuinely concerned for her. ‘Why don’t you go home?’

Before the situation became so untenable that she had no option other than to retreat there—permanently? Was that what Helen meant? Jodi wondered bitterly.

‘No, I can’t do that,’ she responded.

She was beginning to feel acutely ill. Gossip, especially this kind of gossip, spread like wildfire; she knew that. How long would it be before it reached the ears of her friends and family? Her cousin...his parents...her own parents...?

Jodi’s stomach heaved. Her mother and father, enjoying their retirement, were on an extended trip around America, but they would not be away indefinitely. Her family were so proud of her. So proud of everything she had achieved for the school. What could she say to them when they asked her for an explanation? That she had seen Leo Jefferson in the hotel foyer and fallen immediately and helplessly in lust with him?

In lust. As Helen left her office and closed the door behind her Jodi made a small moan of self-disgust.

But it wasn’t lust she felt for Leo Jefferson, was it? Lust did not affect the emotions the way her emotions had been affected. Lust did not bring a person out of their dreams at night, crying out in pain and loss because that person had discovered a cruel truth about the man they loved.

Her stomach churned even more fiercely.

She wasn’t going to be sick, she wasn’t. But suddenly, urgently, Jodi knew that she was!

It was tension, that was all, nothing else. Jodi assured herself later when she was on her way to take her first afternoon class.

She wondered if it was too soon to buy one of those test kits; that way she could be completely sure. Jodi flinched as she reflected on the effect it would have on the current gossip about her if she was to be observed buying a pregnancy-testing kit. No, she couldn’t take such a risk!