Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 6

[RECAP: American student Leonie has been sent to a strict Catholic boarding school in England, where the only male in sight is a priest: the young and handsome Father Gabriel]

All four of the Pentecost dorm residents were taking English. Across the classroom Leonie also recognised the girl with wavy dark hair who had been at their dining table. Next to her sat a plump girl with freckles and curly ginger hair - Leonie mentally named her "Annie" - and the other side was a thin blonde girl with a pointy face.

There was a tense feeling of excitement in the room as everyone waited for the new English teacher to arrive. Most had arrived early, probably because they wanted a chance to check him out, Leonie thought.

She got the sense that the girl opposite was glaring at her and Mai. "Who's that?" she whispered.

Mai rolled her eyes. "That is the bane of my life," she said, under her breath. "Suki Laverne. Total bitch with a capital B. I'll tell you more later."

Just then the much-awaited man entered the room, and there was a rustle and scrape of chairs as everyone sat up straighter.

He looked absolutely devastating. He also looked pissed off. He was completely unsmiling as he carried in a pile of books and put them on the desk of the girl nearest the door. "Pass these around." The desks were arranged in a horseshoe shape, and Suki and her friends were on the opposite side to the Pentecost girls.

The books were new copies of The Crucible. Leonie had been surprised that the school supplied all the text books, you didn't have to bring your own. Which was helpful as it meant they all had the same edition.

Father Gabriel had turned to the board and was writing "The Crucible" in fast, sharply elegant letters. Leonie found that even his writing style seemed sexy, then mentally kicked herself for being so foolish.

Even in his black cassock you could see how tall and muscular he was. It might not have the definition that jeans and a shirt did, but he had a really powerful figure, Leonie noted. She wished the St Winifred's uniform wasn't so awful. All grey and woollen and a horribly unflattering length to the knee. Perhaps she should have emulated the Zerelda Brass character and had hers tailored by a stylist.

She felt the flat heavy wool of the St Winifred's school skirt over her thighs. No, there was nothing you could do with this garment to make it anything but awful. You couldn't even get away with shortening it: skirts had to touch the ground when you knelt down or you got into huge trouble.

Leonie thought Figgy had been joking about this when she had told her, but it turned out she was deadly serious. "You get all these negative House points and if you get a certain number, you get suspended," Figgy had said.

Getting suspended would be an escape from this prison, but Leonie feared the wrath of her grandmother.

There was just one other reason for staying here. Leonie cast her eyes up and saw Father Gabriel rapidly move his away. Had he been looking at her? She was probably imagining it.

"I expect most of you will have heard of The Crucible," Father Gabriel began. "But for those that haven't, it was written by American playwright Arthur Miller."

Suki stuck her hand out. "He was married to Marilyn Monroe, wasn't he?" She looked smug with herself for knowing this.

Mai made a tiny vomiting noise in her throat and Leonie had to try not to giggle.

"Yes, he was, later on. The Crucible was published in 1953, based on Miller's research into the Salem Witch Trials. What I think we'll do is get stuck in and deal with the history later. Since we have a Boston native among us - " his gaze fell on Leonie, causing the entire class to look at her " - why don't you read the part of Abigail? Then we'll need four more for the other roles in the first scene." Gabriel selected several girls, casting Suki as Reverend Parris, which made her pout.

"I'd rather take a female role," she said.

"It's just to read around the classroom, I'm not casting a West End production," Gabriel told her.

Suki looked furious.

"She's desperate to be an actress," Mai whispered to Leonie. "She'll absolutely hate you if she finds out it's your ambition too."

Gabriel called for quiet. "We'll have someone read stage directions, why don't you give that a go?" he asked Figgy, who blushed and looked nervous.

The read-around began. It was easy for Leonie as she had read the opening scene a dozen or more times before.

While they were reading, Gabriel berated himself for singling out the American girl. What had possessed him? She was probably having a hard enough time fitting in anyway. He shouldn't be showing any of them special attention.

But when he heard Leonie's voice speaking the lines of Abigail, something in him was gripped. He noticed other girls in the class looking at her as well.

It was partly her accent, though it wasn't quite the same as how she usually spoke. There was a different note to it which he couldn't place. A strange, timeless note. She was telling her uncle, the Reverend Parris, that there were rumours of witchcraft about, and the way she said the line was absolutely arresting.

Witchcraft indeed. Gabriel found himself transfixed.

Suki broke the spell. "I can't do it with her doing that weird accent. It's putting me off."

Leonie went bright red. "I'm sorry, we got taught to how do it with a historic accent. I guess I slipped back into it."

"There's no need to apologise," Gabriel said. "You read it very well. Miss Laverne, isn't it?" he asked Suki, checking his register. "Regardless of how other people read, we will keep going. As I've said, this is not a performance, so just worry about your own lines."

Suki looked venomous. Her evil eye was now fully fixed on Leonie.

The reading continued and Leonie tried to use a more contemporary accent. It was hard though, something inside her seemed to take over. She felt as though another girl, from a long ago time, was speaking through her. She knew that Miller's dialogue was often as close as possible to the vernacular of the time, and that he had used actual court transcripts in writing the play.

They took a break half way through the scene and Gabriel led a discussion of the themes before setting them a homework assignment. He deliberately avoided catching Leonie's eye. He had a feeling it was going to be a challenging class, with the ambitious dark-haired girl piping up all the time. She had also read impressively well, as much as she had irritated him.

It wouldn't be boring at least, teaching them.

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

I wonder how Suki is going to react if she gets a crush on Father Gabriel but he prefers Leonie...?!