Chapter 2

On the first morning there was a long assembly which involved hymns interspersed by various announcements. These were held in the school hall after morning mass, which was compulsory. For Leonie everything was a new experience so that at least gave it some interest value.

The headmistress was a tall stern nun by the name of Mother Benedict who taught Latin to the sixth form. Her hair was hidden behind her wimple but Leonie suspected it was a steely grey. She felt some relief that since she wasn’t doing Latin, their paths wouldn’t cross too frequently. Mother Benedict, called Reverend Mother by the students, looked very formidable.

"This year we’re pleased to welcome some new faces to the teaching staff. As you know, we bade farewell to Sister Marguerite last term, as she left us to embark upon a mission in Peru. I’m happy to let you know that she writes to say that she is well, and the Lord is issuing many blessings upon the community she is working in. She left us with a sad gap in Modern Languages, and replacing her will be Sister Assunta, who is newly arrived from Padua," Mother Benedict announced.

Sister Assunta, a small and very Italian looking nun, stepped up from her seat and gave a pleasant nod to the assembled girls.

Mother Benedict continued. "Father Aloysius, who assisted Father Stephen in his duties last term, has left us to earn his Doctorate in Divinity. Replacing him will be Father Gabriel."

Father Gabriel stood up and Leonie felt a jolt in her stomach.

It was him.

There was the cute guy with blue eyes.

And he was way more than cute, more like drop dead film star gorgeous. From the suppressed murmurs around her as the other students saw him for the first time, she wasn’t the only one to think so.

What a waste! That totally gorgeous guy locked away in a black robe, committed to celibacy. Why did he have to go and wear jeans yesterday? If she’d realised who he was - what he was - she wouldn’t have developed an insta-crush and had wicked dreams of him all last night.

Well, Leonie tried to think so. Looking at him now in his priest’s garb he seemed more remote but even more attractive. He’d be eye candy, anyway.

"What did Father Aloysius teach?" she whispered to Figgy.

"He took some A-level English classes. It’s such a shame he’s left, he was really brilliant," Figgy told her.

A shame? Not if Father Gorgeous was about to take his place.

Leonie tried to give herself a strict talking to. Getting a crush on a teacher was foolish enough, but on a priest was a really dumb idea.

If only his eyes weren’t so blue. And those lips. They had that kind of firm but sensuous look that you just knew would make him an amazing kisser. That intense look in his eyes, pushing her up against a wall, starting gentle and then devouring her. She could just imagine his hands all over her body…

Although he was some distance away for a second he flicked his eyes in her direction, and Leonie got paranoid that he could read her thoughts and felt her cheeks flame.

She sighed, causing Mai to shoot her a sharp glance, and finally the organist struck up some kind of music that everyone gradually exited to. It was time for classes to begin.

The schedule included quite a few study periods. Leonie had such a period first up, followed by Maths. English was later that afternoon, followed by History of Art.

Harry, whom Leonie had finally met, was also doing maths. It was true that Lady Harriet Venn looked nothing like Leonie had imagined an English Lady to look. She had formed an image of someone who was a cross between Princess Diana and Grace Kelly, draping herself about and looking languid and beautiful while she chattered about her princely beaus.

Instead, Harry was short and stocky with a sensible brown bob of hair. But Leonie liked her on sight. She had merry eyes and a frequent, hearty laugh.

"Glad to have someone in the dorm doing maths at last. The others were no good at all for swapping homework notes," she told Leonie.

Leonie just hoped her mathematics ability would be up to the task. She didn’t want the others thinking she was some dumb American. Which if anyone looked at her grades last year, was exactly what they would think. But she knew deep down that was her fault for cutting so much school and other stuff.

The other stuff that she was praying she could keep secret.

Harry was off do something related to lacrosse yet again, so as Leonie didn’t have anything to study yet in her first free period, she headed outside. It was probably forbidden as they were supposed to be in the study hall or the library. But she hoped they’d cut her some slack on the first day. She wanted to get some breathing space. Amid all the bustle and the crowds of girls and the kindness of her dorm mates, she was feeling strangely lonely.

The last place Gabriel had planned on ending up was some school in the middle of nowhere teaching a load of toffee-nosed, over privileged rich girls. It was absolutely the last place he wanted to be.

When he’d taken holy orders he had envisaged working among the needy, in a poor inner city area where kids were desperate for anyone who could open a door for them. Children who had no future except drug addiction and deprivation. It would be worthwhile work. He could use his vocation to make a difference.

Instead he’d been sent to St Winifred’s School for Whingers, at least as he saw it. These students had no damn idea how lucky they were or what real life was like for most of the world.

"This is not what I had in mind for my service," he had complained to Canon Francis, head of the seminary.

"The Lord frequently has other plans in mind for us," Canon Francis told him.

It was not an answer Gabriel wanted to hear.

But his life was no longer his own. It belonged to the church and to God, so he gritted his teeth, prayed for patience, and packed his bags to head into the wilderness.

Even a boys’ school would have been better. He had his own reasons for being wary of females.

Gabriel was feeling some faint anger as he walked around the side of the school that morning. He hadn’t had a class to teach first period so he had used the opportunity to catch some autumn sunshine following the assembly. The sky was flawlessly blue, the leaves turning copper on the trees. It was a day when you could feel the full glory of the Creator in his creation.

It was remote here, but at least it was beautiful. Lines of Gerard Manly Hopkins came into his mind, one of his favourite poets.

And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder

Majestic—as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet!

He must get back to work on his thesis. The one consolation of this place would be some peace and quiet to absorb himself in it again, at least outside school hours.

As Gabriel approached the building he saw a girl sitting on a low wall that extended from some stone steps. He recognised her instantly, it was the one who had dropped all her books in front of him. American, he remembered. He had also remembered her eyes: an unusual green and gold colour.

Eyes that as he drew nearer, he noticed were misty looking. Had she got herself in trouble already? He couldn’t think of another reason why she was outside class by herself, crying.

This was where his duties of Pastoral Care came in. "Are you alright?" he asked her.

Leonie raised her head and a shaft of sunlight lit her amber hair like fire.

Gabriel was momentarily taken aback. For a second she looked like the golden statue of an angel he had once seen and he was transfixed. But she was just a flesh and blood girl, he reminded himself. He tried not to let his thoughts linger on that flesh and blood.

"I’m fine, thanks," she said.

He could see now that it was a different kind of grief in her eyes than repentance from being sent out of class. Homesick, he guessed. St Winifred’s was far enough away from most English civilisation, let alone the US.

"If I can help?" He didn’t know why he offered. It would probably be more appropriate for him to get one of the Sisters.

"Just missing my family, you know?" Leonie said. Then she thought that he probably didn’t know since priests and monks and nuns left their families for God, didn’t they?

But he seemed sympathetic. "I understand. Your home is pretty far away?"

Leonie liked his accent. It was very… English. Not the kind of Hugh Grant foppishness you got in movies, but solemn and clear.

"Boston, Massachusetts."

"Witches?"

Now she smiled. Gabriel found himself unexpectedly glad he had achieved this.

"Not so many these days, I hope anyway," she said. "We’ve modernised since the days of The Crucible."

"If you’re taking English it’s one of the texts on the syllabus this year. You’ll be at an advantage, having lived there," he told her.

This was great news. Naturally Leonie had studied The Crucible before and seen it half a dozen times at theatres in Boston. She was a little surprised they would be studying it at a Catholic boarding school, and said so.

"It’s on the A-level syllabus," Gabriel told her. "It’s set by the exam board, not the school." He cast his mind back to his own A-levels. Macbeth and Tess of the D’Urbervilles, he remembered.

He knew he should get back to his classroom but he couldn’t resist asking: "What brings you to an English school?"

"My grandmother is English," Leonie said. She didn’t tell him why her grandmother had insisted she attend boarding school. She was hoping no one would find out.

"How do you find it over here?" He must get back, but something drew him to her.

Leonie wasn’t sure yet. "I only arrived two days ago, so I’m still figuring things out."

Gabriel was surprised. "This is your first year? But you’re in the final year, right?"

"Yes. I finished high school in the US, but my grandmother wanted me to try an English school," Leonie explained.

There was some mystery here, Gabriel was sure of it. But it wasn’t his place to ask. Still, it added to this girl’s intrigue.

She met his eyes and they gazed at one another for a moment.

Then they were interrupted by a loud clanging from the bell. Recess. Or break time, as they called it here. "I have to go," Gabriel told Leonie. He felt a strange reluctance to leave her and told himself it was because she had been lonely and distressed.

"I guess I’ll see you in class." She smiled, and for a second the sunlight made her an angel again.

Gabriel felt a stirring inside that he hadn’t felt for years. He had thought it was long buried.

But even angels could be witches below the surface, he reminded himself. He would need to be very careful.

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