Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 62

[RECAP: Leonie is back in Boston for Christmas, thousands of miles away from Father Gabriel...]

After five of the longest days ever, a priority airmail arrived for Leonie. She seized it as soon as she saw it on the dinner table, prompting her parents to ask who it was from.

"Just a friend from school," Leonie said.

Her mother peered over at it. "It looks like male handwriting. Who is 'G Brydon', I don't remember you mentioning such a person."

Gabriel had fortunately only put his initial on the sender-address.

Leonie lied. "It's Ginny. She's one of the girls in my math class. She's very studious, her handwriting is always quite small."

There was no one called Ginny in the whole of St Winifred's, but there was also no way for her parents to check.

Seeing her family and friends again had at least been some distraction during the Gabriel drought. Leonie wanted to phone him but making a long distance call was complicated, as was receiving a call from a male English voice. Her parents would instantly be suspicious about how she could have met a man, being at an all girls' boarding school.

But she had his letter now. She prayed that it didn't contain something awful such as Gabriel deciding to stay in the priesthood. Then she felt awful for praying for something so unholy.

"Aren't you going to open it?" her sister Deborah said, always curious.

"Later. Ginny will only be excited about some math problem or other. She's kind of weird," Leonie said.

Deborah poured herself some more milk. "Your voice has gotten all English since you've been over there," she said. "Like the Queen."

Leonie didn't want to get into a discussion about her accent. She wanted to escape them all and read Gabriel's letter. "I'm going out," she announced.

"Where to? And who with?" Her parents were still suspicious of everything she did, given what had happened last year.

"Just the mall. To buy your Christmas presents. And no, you can't come," she told Deborah. "Otherwise it will ruin the surprise, won't it?" She stuffed the envelope in her pocket and hurried out of the house. Normally in this cold weather she would drive to the mall but today she wanted the exercise. Once she was out of sight of the house she opened it and read it while she walked.

Darling Leonie,

It's only a few hours since your flight left, but with the Christmas post delays this will probably take forever to get to you.

The week we've just spent together was the best week of my life. It's going to be very difficult to be around you at St Winifred's next term, trying to act like nothing happened.

If I have to play the role of your severe English teacher again in class, know that I'll be thinking something very different. Being with you has only increased my desire for you. It won't be easy to conceal it. God knows it was hard enough last term.

So you had better behave and act accordingly student-like yourself, no trying to wind me up in the middle of Shakespeare. Otherwise you can definitely expect some discipline. Even if I have to wait until Easter to administer it...

What's going through my head right now is completely unprintable so I'll leave it to your imagination.

I am completely in love with you, Leonie, in a way that I never imagined possible. We both face some huge changes over the next year so I'm not going to put any pressure on you. But you know what I want, longer term.