New Places, New Problems
Chapter 46
Claire slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. That was a wrong move, because now it was pitch dark and she did not know where he was exactly. "Stephen!"
"Yes?"
"Are you in bed?"
"Yes."
Claire walked in the direction of his voice. "Er…I came to say…er…argh!" She stumbled over something and fell forwards, against the bed. "Ouch! What's all that stuff you keep lying around?"
"Are you okay?" Stephen asked in concern.
"Yes, yes," she said, rubbing her knee. "I came to say you can't run away from me if you're in your own room, because we haven't finished talking yet." She sat down on the bed. Stephen appeared to be on the other side of it.
"Oh."
"I wanted to say something, but I don't really know what. I think I just wanted to say you shouldn't walk away before we're done. We haven't even prepared any lessons for tomorrow."
"We'll manage."
"You will. I won't." Claire did not know enough to improvise an entire school day, even if it was written down somewhere.
Stephen stretched out his hand to touch her. "You will."
"Do you think so?"
"I'll help you." He yawned. "What are you going to do? Sleep? Please say you'll sleep. I'm tired." She should either lie down or leave. He had a preference for one of those, but he would not say it.
"Well, you shouldn't have had so much beer." She had seen the bottles on the table. The men must have had three each, at least.
"Claire…"
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
"But I haven't finished yet and I --" She stopped and shrieked when there was a sudden rustle of the bedclothes.
Stephen's voice sounded muffled from under the covers he had pulled over his head. "I'm not dangerous! Silly girl. I'm too tired to grab you. I'm just going to stop listening, because I'm about to fall asleep."
"That's not really nice of you," Claire said reproachfully. He should at least be kind enough to listen. She got off the bed and walked back to her room, rather displeased with the situation.
She had forgotten to set her alarm clock, because in the morning she was woken by a few children. "What are you doing here?" she wondered.
"Mr. MacAllister sent us," they cried. It was very clear that they loved to wake people up.
Claire did not notice that they should have called him Stephen. "Where is Stephen?" She tried to look at the clock, but one of the children was in front of it. "Iain, get out of the way." She pushed against him. Ten o'clock? Stephen had not woken her. "Where's Stephen?" she asked again.
"At school."
"Why did he go to school without me?" Just when you thought you had Stephen all figured out, he did something incomprehensible like this.
Her indignation spurred her on and she showered and dressed very quickly. Then she accompanied the children back to school along a shortcut, feeling determined that Stephen had something coming should he comment on her lateness. And she would give him that in front of the class too. Yes, she would.
Unfortunately Stephen thwarted her plans. He was standing in the hallway wearing a suit and tie. Claire immediately forgot her anger. She could only gape at him. A suit and tie? Stephen? If anyone had suggested the possibility to her she would have laughed. She had not even known he had them. All he had even worn so far was jeans and woollen sweaters. What was the occasion? It was not his birthday.
But he looked good in them -- there was no doubt about that.
Claire shut her mouth and walked towards the neatly dressed man. She had decided he could not be Stephen, or at least that Stephen did not deserve to be him if this really happened to be Stephen. He was definitely related to him, though. The resemblance was unmistakable. "Hello Mr. McAllister. You must be Stephen's brother. My name is Claire Elson. Unfortunately I overslept because your brother didn't wake me."
"Was that his duty?" the man in the suit inquired.
"Sort of."
"I can't believe he neglected to wake such a lovely young lady as yourself," the man said smoothly.
That definitely clinched it. This man was not Stephen. Claire shut her mouth again. She stared at him. He had all of Stephen's attractiveness and more, plus manners and a smooth tongue.
"I would never neglect such a duty," the man whispered. "Only if really important things came up. Would you please take a seat in the office?"
"Why? Aren't I supposed to teach?" Claire was puzzled. She glanced at the closed door to the classroom. After spotting the handsome stranger she had not paid any attention to Iain and Emma who had woken her, but they had disappeared now, though not into the classroom, she thought.
The man smiled politely but there was something hard about his expression. "Not right now. We're under attack."
"Attack?" she cried in bewilderment.
"Yes, Miss Elson. An attack."
"By whom?" She mentally reviewed all possible state enemies, none of which would be the least interested in attacking the Scottish isles. There was simply no point.
"London," he said pleasantly.
"London?" Claire said to herself wonderingly when Stephen's
look-alike had left her alone to co-ordinate the defence of the school, or
possibly of the entire island. She looked out of the window and saw two
children creep through the garden. What was going on? Why were they under
attack from London? Was she really awake?
Before she could open the window to ask them, a walkie-talkie lying on the table began to crackle. "Subjects spotted on quay. We're following. Over." That was a child speaking.
"Excellent. Over," an male adult voice answered. "Cynthia? Plan A. Over."
"The mud bath stopped them!" a child crackled.
"Come back to the school. Over," said the man.
Claire could not hear if it was Stephen. She would not be surprised by anything anymore and she sat down weakly to wait. This was like some old children's TV series. Subjects on the quay and a mud bath that stopped them. Who? She did not understand what was going on. There were another few cryptic messages and finally she heard all children being called back to the school. Shortly afterwards the first footsteps were heard in the corridor. Claire stayed where she was. Someone should come to get her. She was too confused to venture out now. There was some game going on that she was not participating in.
And someone came. It was Stephen -- or his brother. Claire had given up on wondering who he was. "The children would like you to teach them," he said, looking slightly out of breath but otherwise as fine as before. He was still wearing the suit.
If she did not know with two hundred percent certainty that Stephen would never wear a suit on this island, she would have thought it was him, but right now it was beyond her mental abilities to guess. "You mean you would like me to teach the children," she corrected. This game was too exciting for children to want to be in class instead.
"Please."
She would not ignore any of his requests, not when he was so well-mannered and well-dressed. "And you?"
"You'll see me soon," he said mysteriously.
"Stephen…" Claire said when he turned around to walk away. Her voice had risen slightly. "Are you Stephen?" She had to know who he really was. If he was Stephen, it meant that he would not be teaching with her. If he was Stephen's brother, Stephen might be in the classroom as well, someone to support her on this confusing day. What about the attack from London? Would it come while she was teaching?
"Perhaps. It is too soon to tell you." His eyes twinkled.
She had seen that twinkle before. It was either a family trait or this was Stephen himself. It had to be -- he knew everything about her without having seen her. "We're not acting out some story of yours!" she hissed at him. He was really living in a dream reality. It was time to wake up and to tell her what was going on. What was he doing?
His manner changed slightly. "Why ask me if you know? What do you look at if you look at men? Not at their faces, apparently. You don't even recognise me if I'm in a suit and tie. Listen, Claire. Don't be stupid. Go into that classroom and teach. Don't ask any questions. All will be revealed. Let me sort out the rest."
He was speaking very urgently and Claire could only obey. She walked towards the classroom in a daze and saw him stride off in the opposite direction. The class was surprisingly quiet. Apparently Stephen had briefed them about something, because they were amazingly co-operative -- when they were not looking towards the door.
Several minutes into her lesson the door was jerked open. It was her father. The entire class booed, as if they knew who this was.
After recovering from the shock she suddenly understood the reference to an attack from London. What she did not understand was why the children should be booing, because they did not know her father. Perhaps Stephen had instructed them to do that. She had witnessed stranger things today. Perhaps her father had been the suspect on the quay. It was another idea that shocked her.
"Make them stop!" her father shouted in irritation when the noise continued.
Claire did not even attempt it. Her voice was not that loud. Besides, she was shocked -- again -- by Dennis' arrival. After Stephen had thrown him overboard she had thought Dennis would have enough of the island for the rest of his life. It looked as if she had been wrong. He had come back, with her father, and he behaved as if he was going to leave with what he had come for. But that would never happen. Even if her father brought a hundred minions, Claire was not determined not to leave the island until she wanted to.
"Shut up!" shouted Dennis, who looked as if he had been to his ankles in the mud. This had no effect either.
All of a sudden the children became quiet when a third figure appeared. It was Stephen. "Gentlemen? Was there any need to shout?" He glanced at them disapprovingly. "Was there any need to make the floor so dirty?" Both of them had left muddy traces and the class booed again when they noticed this. A gesture from Stephen silenced them. "And how may I help you?"
"That's my daughter!" Claire's father pointed at her. "I've come to take her home from this bloody island."
He treated Stephen with at least some civility, in that he did not ignore him. At the same time, Claire thought bitterly that a total stranger was apparently deserving of more respect than his own daughter, whose wishes were not even consulted. Would it even occur to them that she might have wishes?
"And my girlfriend too!" Dennis piped up.
"Your girlfriend is here too?" Stephen inquired. "You've in fact come for two women?" He gave Claire an innocent look.
"Claire!" Dennis said. That was all he was able to say.
Claire was not going to speak a word, not in front of the class and not in front of Stephen. He would sort this out. He had said he would. She did not want to say anything because she did not know what.
"Your girlfriend's name is Claire?" Stephen asked Dennis.
"Yes, that is her!" Dennis pointed at Claire.
"That is my teacher," Stephen replied politely. "I'm sorry, but are you seriously considering to take my teacher away?"
"I don't give a damn if that is your teacher! She's going to come with us."
"She's not a teacher -- she's my daughter," said Mr. Elson. "She has no business here. I don't know what brought her to this island --"
"A boat is very likely," Stephen interjected.
"That coarse fisherman who threw me overboard probably abducted her!" Dennis nodded. He had some unfinished business with that fellow. Apparently he did not know the coarse fisherman was now standing beside him in a suit and tie.
Stephen ushered them out of the classroom. "Gentlemen," he began, although they did not deserve that address. They were stupid and rude. "Miss Elson is not under age. She's perfectly allowed to make her own decisions. If she chooses to live here, there is nothing you can do about it." He should at least give them the chance to be rational before he gave them the treatment they deserved. If they persisted in being stupid he could never be reproached for anything. It would not be his fault.
"She would never choose to live here," said Claire's father. Not here, not on this island, not so far from civilised society. And as a teacher! It was incomprehensible. She must have been abducted.
"But she did. And correct me if I'm wrong, but she did ask you to take her away," Stephen pointed out coldly. "Instead, you appear to be stalking her." He gave Dennis a contemptuous look. The man was an absolute twit. He had not been able to imagine any education in someone he thought was a mere fisherman and now he was unable to recognise the fisherman in different clothes.
"We have every right to come for her. She's been abducted."
Their stupidity exasperated Stephen. "Is that what you insist on believing?" he asked.
"You must understand that a girl like her has no place here. I mean, would you want to live here?" Mr. Elson thought Stephen was a visitor too. At any rate he had to be someone who belonged to their class of people. His suit was not cheap, his accent educated. "Among these crude and coarse fishermen who've never been further than that little village on the mainland? It's not my world, it's not your world, it's not her world. I have come to rescue her. I don't understand why you're not helping. Are you afraid of the fishermen?"
Stephen shook his head. "No, I am not. And you, sir? What was your motivation in coming for Miss Elson?"
"She's my girlfriend," Dennis said stubbornly.
"But…she left you and you want to get back together?" According to Claire they had never really been an item, but he was interested in hearing what Dennis thought of it.
"No, we never broke up. She just disappeared. She was abducted."
"By whom?" Stephen would almost expect them to mention aliens.
"By one of the fishermen."
"What was one of them doing in London? They've never been beyond Lirra, Mr. Elson just said." He liked it when he could use their own words against them.
"One came to abduct Claire."
Stephen rubbed his temples. He had some trouble understanding them, but it came much clearer why Claire had fled London. Anyone would if they had to deal with this kind of people every day. She would be stupid to go back, yet if he pressured her to stay he would be no better than these two. "Isn't it more likely that Miss Elson travelled her by herself? Of her own free will?"
"She would never," her father said decidedly. "She knows I would never approve."
Stephen raised his eyebrows in disbelief. He was not allowing his daughter to be her own person. "Maybe she did not care." She might have got fed up with it all.
"Oh, she would," he said in a confident tone. "That is why I know she was abducted."
"Well…" Stephen decided that he had given them long enough to leave Claire alone. "It seems to me that Miss Elson has no intention of going with you. That means that you had better return to London."
"Of course she wants to go home, but someone is keeping her here."
Stephen nodded. "Yes, I am, in a way."
"You?" Mr. Elson cried. He had been thinking this man was one of his own kind, not a traitor. He had been thinking this was the local chief, the one everyone followed socially -- much like himself, in a way, though of course on a less sophisticated scale.
"Yes, me. Miss Elson teaches in my school. She has signed a contract. She cannot leave the children. You, on the other hand, must leave." Stephen smiled politely. "I haven't invited you."
"This is a public place!" Dennis protested.
"No, it isn't. Not quite. The fact that I don't exercise all of my proprietary rights does not make it a public place," Stephen said in a calm voice, trying not to sound too smug.
"Excuse me?" Dennis did not understand him.
"I have every right to say you're not wanted. You are bothering me and one of my guests."
"If you are sleeping with Claire I'm going to make you pay!" Dennis threatened when a thought occurred to him all of a sudden.
"What was that you said about coarse fishermen?" Stephen inquired politely.
"Dennis, calm down," said Mr. Elson warningly.
"I can't believe Claire would cheat on me." Dennis was still agitated and he was not likely to calm down soon.
"With a Scot, at that," Stephen nodded. He wondered if they had done anything that could be considered cheating, but he supposed that in Dennis eyes anything that took Claire out of his sight was called cheating.
Dennis might not be smart, but with some thoughts he was very fast. "First she had that fisherman who threw me in and now she's got you. What is she doing here? She's always been acting like a frigid little cow and now I find she's been sleeping around on some stupid little Scottish island."
Stephen raised his eyebrows. "You talk about her like that and you still expect her to come home with you?" And he would stop her even if Claire wanted to leave herself. She should stay away from these people. He should keep them away from her too, so they would not get the chance to convince her. He did not know how much she cared about her father's opinion. People sometimes let themselves be influenced by relatives, even if they knew it was a stupid thing to do.
"She didn't hear it," he said indifferently.
Mr. Elson had not been listening to all Dennis was saying. He had his own concerns to think about. "I cannot have my daughter live here. What will people think? How could I answer that my daughter is on some small island teaching?"
"Would you rather be able to say your daughter was making a fool of herself being the girlfriend of this moron here?" Stephen asked sarcastically. "I don't understand why that publishing firm hasn't fired him yet." But he was beginning to suspect that Claire's father had either money or influence and that he had pulled some strings to get Dennis a job. The idiot had certainly not got there because of his own abilities because he did not appear to have any. Stephen had no interest in high society gossip and he had no idea whether he should know Claire's father. Perhaps he was well-known and that would explain some things.
"How do you know I work for a publishing firm?" Dennis asked suspiciously. He could not remember having brought that up yet, although he usually dropped the name of the firm and his position there at least a dozen times in every ordinary conversation, but these uneducated Scots would not know what he was talking about if he did. Perhaps this was not a Scot and the man wore a suit too, so there was a small chance that he might have read a book once in his life.
"Your notoriety has reached even the outskirts of Scotland, Mr. Parkhurst-Hadleigh, as has your shameless flirting with female authors and your attempts to get them into bed without ever having seen them." Stephen communicated with his publisher only by email and considering that he published as S. M. McAllister, there had been ample opportunity for Dennis to draw the wrong conclusions. For some reason Dennis had always assumed him to be a woman. Stephen had never corrected the assumption and he had treated the flirtatious emails as an interesting psychological case study. They never failed to amaze him. "While you have a girlfriend."
"Oh, you're making that up."
"Am I? Isn't it true that you think you can put some pressure on them by telling them they won't be published if they don't allow you to show them London's nightlife?" And the nightlife in Dennis' fancy bedroom in particular, Stephen assumed. He had never been interested in even visiting Dennis' flat.
Dennis looked angry. "No, that isn't true." This fellow was being damn unfair by bringing this up in front of his father-in-law.
"You're quite right that it isn't true that they won't be published if they don't sleep with you, but that doesn't mean you don't try. The only thing is that you really shouldn't be sending men such veiled threats. It doesn't work, because they're not interested in you. Well, enough about that," Stephen said briskly. "Are you leaving the island or do you need a hand?" He was not unwilling to help them out a little. In fact, he could call on so many more hands that were not unwilling.
Chapter 48
There was a surreal quality to life. Even if someone would have paid her to come up with a ridiculous scenario, Claire would not have been able to invent this. She was unable to interact with Stephen or her father and it was as if she was watching them through a window. Despite his nice suit, she could see that Stephen was about to be really fed up with her father. She hoped they would not fight, but she had no idea what to do to prevent it.
Stephen had told her to teach, but that was of course impossible if he was standing there talking to her father. The children were extremely quiet and attentive for once, with their eyes glued on the three men. This was probably the most exciting thing that had happened to them in their lives. They did not often see strangers on the island and even less often did these strangers misbehave.
Claire sighed. She wished it were not her father who was creating these
problems. If it had been a stranger she might have been able to send Stephen
into the hall so she could continue teaching, but now, with herself being the
object of their argument, she wanted to hear what was being said.
And then there was Dennis. He moved in her direction. She watched him warily.
What did he want?
"Are you applying for a job as a teacher, Mr. Parkhurst-Hadleigh?" Stephen sneered.
Dennis turned. "I beg your pardon?"
"You're moving towards the front of the class as if you want to teach."
"Will you just stay out of it?" Dennis snapped in annoyance. Why was this jerk distracting him? He wanted to talk to Claire. He wanted to talk some sense into the girl. She had to come home. She was making him look like a fool.
"This is my class and my school. I don't think that I want to subject my pupils to someone like you."
Dennis pointed at Claire. "And that is my fiancée."
"Funny how she doesn't seem to be aware of that." Stephen looked at Claire. "Are you?"
She had to force some sound out of her throat to reply to his inquisitive look. "No." She wished they would all go away. Perhaps Stephen could chuck them off the quay, as long as they left her out of it.
Dennis stepped closer. "Claire..."
She hated him, from his fashionable clothes to his carefully styled hair and the stupid look in his eyes. She had never felt it as strongly as this. "Go away." But he did not listen. "I hate you."
The class liked that. "She hates you!" they sneered. "We hate you too! Go away!"
"Will you #@%&#$% shut up?" Dennis shouted at the children. His veneer of sophistication was only very thin.
"Ooooh!" Some children held their hands to their mouths in shock. That was a bad word. This was a bad man.
"Come with me, Claire." Dennis grabbed her by the arm.
Claire tried to pull herself loose. "Let go!" She wondered why Stephen was not doing anything, but he was only glaring at Dennis very darkly. Maybe he was biding his time, but she had been thinking he cared more about her than this. Why did he not step in now that Dennis was actually touching her?
In a second it all became clear when there was an indignant roar from the back benches where the older boys were sitting. They did not stop at roaring, but they stormed forward, attacking Dennis. This only served to invite the younger children to join in as well and Dennis soon found himself with the entire class hanging off him and kicking him. It was as effective as anything Stephen might have done.
"Get them off me!" Dennis shouted. He shook his arms, but the children were like terriers. They kept holding on.
Claire was free and she seized the opportunity to leave the classroom -- through the window, since her father was blocking the doorway. She would go and see if Stephen's mother was home. She needed to see a friendly and safe face.
She had never climbed out a window before and she felt a bit ashamed, but there was no other choice. Once outside, she scrambled to her feet and ran, thanking Stephen's father's foresight in building his house some way from the village. Her father and Dennis would never think of looking for decent houses that far away from the semi-civilised world. She might be safe from them there.
Abby was hanging up the laundry when a panting Claire appeared in the back yard. "What is it?" she asked, forgetting about her basket of clothes. She could see the girl was about to burst into tears. Claire should be at the school at this hour. Something must have happened.
"My father is here." Now that she was here, she did not really know what to do. This was only Stephen's mother, not her own. She could not unload all her troubles on a relative stranger.
"What does he want?"
"That I come back."
"Why?"
Claire shrugged helplessly. "Don't know." It was difficult to explain. She should have solved this herself, not run away immaturely hoping that Stephen would do it for her. This was not something to be proud of. "I … am sorry. I'll just go to my room." She shook her head and retreated. If only all could be well in time for dinner. If only she could come downstairs then and find that her father and Dennis had left the island.
Abby followed her soon after. She had first hung up all her laundry. It was surprising to find Claire sitting on the couch in Stephen's room rather than her own. Abby could only surmise that Claire had changed her mind, not that she saw Stephen's room as hers. "Do you want to tell me anything about why you came home?" she asked, sitting down on the other couch. There was more to tell than that Claire did not know why her father had come.
Claire put down the biology textbook she had absentmindedly been leafing through. "My father came. He brought..." How to describe Dennis? "...someone who thinks he's my boyfriend, but..."
"Who isn't." Abby could imagine why Claire's father would travel here, but not really why he would be accompanied by a man who had tried once before and about whom Claire had been quite clear. Perhaps the younger man had brought the father here because he believed this might work better.
"No."
"Did you flee up north to escape the both of them?"
Claire pondered that. She might have been fed up with them as well, but it had not been the main reason to leave. "Maybe, in a sense. I shouldn't have run away. Don't you think so? I should have stayed there to face them."
"Where are they now?"
"Stephen was dealing with them. I should have stayed to deal with my own problems, not let Stephen do it. I shouldn't have climbed out of the window, but I really didn't want them to follow me."
"I don't think they did." Abby had not seen anyone, not even Stephen. He must still be busy handling the visitors. She did not doubt that he would do it properly.
"Maybe I should go back to tell them they are wasting their time. I won't go back home with them. Maybe I should go back to teach the children." Claire suddenly realised she had left them alone. If Stephen was doing something else, nobody would be there to teach them. Given that she had left them hanging off Dennis it might not be such a big problem, but what would happen after Stephen had got rid of Dennis?
"Do you know what?" Abby said after a few seconds. "I'm coming with you. I want to form my own opinion of these people who have come all the way out here for you." From what she had heard her opinion could never be good.
Returning with help would not be any better than running away. It would still imply she did not know how to solve her own problems. "It's all right. I can..."
"No, no, no, no. I'm curious now. Besides, we mustn't give them the impression that you couldn't handle them. You just went to get me because I'd be amused. Isn't that so, Claire?" Abby squeezed the girl's shoulder. "Come. Let's go." She was very curious now and the girl needed a push to go back.
They walked back to Tenrae. Claire stayed silent for a while. Then she spoke. "There is something you should know about Stephen."
Abby expected confidences of a more private nature. "Oh?" she said interestedly. What had happened between the two of them?
"He's wearing a suit and he told me he was his brother. I...believed him." Claire waited anxiously for the reaction.
"How could you --" Stephen's mother stifled a snort. "Was it the suit?" She knew Stephen could look very handsome if he tried, but she had never known it might alter his appearance so much as to make him unrecognisable.
Her mistake had not been as incomprehensible as that! "He looks very different in a suit -- and he talked too."
"He talked. That might make more of a difference than the suit. I've seen him in suits often enough." Well, that was perhaps a bit exaggerated, but it happened at least a few times a year. She liked to see him dressed up for Christmas, for instance.
"When? Not on the island?" Claire could not imagine that anyone on the island would insist on such formality. They all dressed in practical, scruffy clothes. Stephen did too, usually.
"We occasionally travel to the shore," Abby said in amusement. "His father and I have friends there and I think you met some of Stephen's friends as well. It's not such a long trip to Lirra. People here barely go there, but you have to have people to go to or money to spend, neither of which the islanders have very much."
"And you do?"
"Yes, we have plenty of both." The peace and quiet surrounding the school made Abby quite rightly suspicious. She could not put her finger on it, but she got the impression there was no one inside. Either Stephen had suddenly been able to work magic, or they had all left. Stephen, Claire's father, Claire's wannabe boyfriend and all the children?
Chapter 49
A quick walk through the school showed Claire and Abby that it was deserted. There were no signs that people had left in a hurry, no overturned chairs and no straying belongings. It appeared that everyone had left peacefully. It was quite puzzling.
"Where do you think they went?" Claire asked.
"To the quay, undoubtedly, but I don't think they'll be chucked in at this end. It would only slow down their departure if they had to find dry clothes here," Abby commented. She hoped Stephen was clever enough to realise that. He had never been very hot-tempered, so there was no reason to assume he would suddenly be so now. It would not be very wise to throw Claire's father into the water until he had got to Lirra.
"Do…do we go?" She should, if she wanted to speak to her father.
"Do you want to? If there is something you want to resolve, perhaps you'd better do that." For Abby's part, she wanted to see what was happening. After all, it was her son who was involved and she suspected that she would find it amusing. She shared with him a similar outlook on people such as Claire's father -- or at least on the sort of person she assumed him to be. She suspected that should Claire's father find out about Stephen's profession and income, he might make a 180-degree turn. Stephen would realise that too.
"I'd like to tell him I have chosen to live here and that I can't be persuaded to come back just because he wants to."
"That sounds like a good way to start."
They found the entire school hanging about on the quay outside the pub with an air of suppressed excitement. "We're not allowed in," said one of the bigger boys regretfully. "They're in the pub."
Claire entered the pub in trepidation. She expected the worst, not at all the sight of Stephen having a drink with her father while Dennis was sulking beside them. Stephen beckoned her. She walked over hesitantly and noticed that Abby followed. "What happened?"
"These gentlemen were finally willing to see reason," Stephen explained. He knew why and he could tell that his mother did too from that way she raised her eyebrows mockingly. Mr. Elson and Dennis had suddenly caught on to the fact that he had either money or status or perhaps even both. There had been a remarkable turnaround in Mr. Elson's opinions. Dennis kept sulking, naturally, on top of which he began to feel some more jealousy towards Stephen, whose threat as a rival had now increased. Had Stephen first been of no consequence as a rough islander, some choice comments had made him very dangerous in Dennis' eyes.
"Perhaps, Claire, you could stay here for as long as you feel necessary," her father said.
Even Stephen did not precisely understand what had suddenly mollified the man. He was still wary. It might just be that he was playing some game. It was best not to let down his guard. He had trouble comprehending that people could truly be this simple. He was grateful for this swing nevertheless. "Or for as long as the islanders keep reproducing themselves," he remarked. He expected that this would be an ongoing process while people remained on the island and that there would always be children to teach.
Claire wondered what she could say. She understood even less than Stephen. "Why am I suddenly allowed to stay?"
"Don't ask," Stephen muttered.
All right. She would not ask, but she would ask something else. "Could you leave us alone for a moment?" she asked Stephen. He nodded and went outside. Claire did not care about Abby's presence; she was staying back anyway and it was not likely that her father knew this was Stephen's mother. She prepared herself to speak to her father. It took a deep breath before she could start. "You don't have any say in whether I stay or not. That's purely my decision and you have nothing to do with it. You can't suddenly try to regain control over me by allowing me to stay."
"I beg your pardon?" said Mr. Elson. He was not used to his daughter speaking to him like that, or even to suggest that he wanted to have some control over her. That was not true; he only wanted to make sure she did not do anything that went against the best interests of the family and himself.
"I am coming back when I feel like it. That might be never." She had to stand firm on this. Stephen might feel more comfortable having a drink with her father as if no differences of opinion existed, but he was not the one who was being chased here.
"Surely this is a phase, Claire." He sounded convinced that she did not know what she was talking about and that she would soon recover from her delusions.
She was not sure it was a phase. "I'm fed up with you all. If I'm coming back at all it's not going to be in the next twenty years." While she might reconsider this opinion before twenty years had passed, at the moment she felt quite strongly that she did not want to return home soon.
"Has he got some hold over you?" Dennis inquired suspiciously. He was evidently of the opinion that Claire could not have thought of anything herself.
"Dennis, I would appreciate it if you stayed out of the matter. You're not related to me." Claire's face betrayed her irritation at his interruption. "Maybe you could just leave us completely alone as well." Why had he come along anyway?
"I feel very connected to the family."
"To its members or to the benefits you perceive it to have?"
"Excuse me?"
"You're hoping some of the status might rub off on you. Isn't it just too bad that I have no wish to connect myself to the family business? Go and find yourself another target."
"Claire, I think you're unnecessarily rude to Dennis," said Mr. Elson patronisingly.
"It's never unnecessary to be rude to Dennis. He won't get the message otherwise." Claire wondered why her father had taken on such a weasel as protégé. Perhaps it was because the weasel would never contradict him or say anything he did not like. She had always played that game until she had left. She was not going to do that anymore. "Listen. I'm not following your wishes anymore. It didn't make me happy --"
"Happy?" What sort of gibberish was his daughter speaking?
"You don't know what happiness is." Neither did she yet, but she could at least recognise that it was not what she had left behind. There was a far greater chance of finding any sort of happiness here than there was at home. She lowered her voice. "Here, people value me for who I am, not for what I am." Her voice faltered a little because she did not know if people really valued her here. They had never said so, but remembering how the children had come to her aid she felt a little more confident about this. "Neither of you is likely to understand this, I know, but I wanted to say it anyway." That was it. She might have more to say, but she would start repeating herself and they still would not understand her. "Good bye."
On her way out of the pub, she passed Stephen and Abby, but she did not look at them directly and they did not follow her immediately.
Outside, the children flocked around her. "Did you tell them off?"
Had she? "Yes, I did." Their enthusiasm felt good. Her heart rate had gone up in the pub, but it was slowly going down again to a more comfortable level. "Let's go back to school." She wanted to be away when her father would leave and she took the smallest two by the hand.
"We want to stay!" the bigger ones cried.
Given that this was perhaps the most exciting event of the year, Claire relented. Something like this was not likely to happen again soon. "All right, then, but you must return with Stephen." She was fairly sure that Stephen could be trusted to take them all with him anyway.
Contrary to her expectations, not all children wanted to stay. The little ones especially preferred to go back to school with her, because they did not really understand what was going on anyway. Claire's father had come and a bad man, but it was really hard to imagine that someone as old as Claire could have a father and it was beyond them what the bad man came to do here. They would much rather go and play with Claire.
Claire was so caught up in playing with the little ones that she was surprised to look up at some point to find Stephen sitting in a chair looking at her. She had completely missed his return. "When did you get back!" It was so like him not to let her know he had come back. It was a little unnerving to think he had been observing her for a while and yet he must have.
"Oooh," he answered, meaning it was neither a short nor a long while ago.
She looked around herself, but the bigger children had not returned with him, by the looks of it. No wonder she had missed Stephen's arrival. He would have been quiet on his own. "Where are the children?"
"They're collecting shells."
"What for?"
"No idea yet."
Claire wondered if the children were going to notice if she left them alone. They were so well underway with their game that she did not think so. She would be allowed to take a little break and she sat down on the chair next to Stephen's. "How did it end?"
"You didn't want to stay to watch, but you're curious all the same?"
"I never claimed to be consistent."
"There's no need to worry about how it ended. They left."
"You didn't make them swim?"
Stephen had not seen any need to throw anybody off the quay. He could derive pleasure from such an action once, but not if he turned it into a habit. "They didn't insult me as much as they insulted you."
"They didn't? They didn't think you were a stupid illiterate islander?"
"Of course they did, but that doesn't insult me anymore." He had dealt with such prejudices before and they no longer affected him. It reflected more on the person thinking that than on himself.
"Did you hear what I said?"
"No, I didn't, but if it made them leave it could only have been effective. I, as rough islander, had to resort to throwing Dennis into the water the previous time."
Stephen's implicit approval was gratifying. His opinion mattered to her, she discovered. She felt pleased enough to tease him a little. "You didn't have to resort to that. You did that because it amused you. You already had him in Lirra because of your eloquent powers of persuasion."
He snickered at that. "Nice, Claire, nice. But we both know how correct that is."
"Do you think I did well?"
"I think you did well."
© 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 Copyright held by the author.