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‘Come and sit down, child. I’m sorry that we missed our lesson this afternoon, but Maggie told me that you weren’t feeling well?’
‘No, sir,’ I replied, sitting on the sofa. ‘I had a slight headache, but I am quite well now.’
I stared at Sebastian, terrified that my eyes would stray to those slender, stockinged ankles that were right there at the edge of my vision.
Sebastian grinned and bounced up from the sofa. He disappeared into his study and returned with the book that I had noticed, the midnight-blue one with the silver stars.
‘Remember this, Mercy?’ he said. ‘I think you’re ready for it. Some words may be difficult, but just sound them out like I taught you. Lord Alby’s Venetian secrets will not be secrets for much longer!’
Jasper still hadn’t said so much as a ‘good evening’, but I could feel his presence was irritated by me. Every so often, a page would turn witheringly. This was proved all too true because as soon as Sebastian finished speaking, he drawled sarcastically from his chair, ‘Do you really think that book is suitable, Seb? If the girl must read, surely, it should be something a little more ... maidish.’
I looked at him and immediately wished I hadn’t. He’d lowered his book and was sitting there, watching us, his dark eyes glinting, his lips curled in amusement.
‘Oh pfft,’ said Sebastian, waving his hand dismissively. ‘Don’t listen to him, Mercy. Jasper thinks women don’t have a brain to toss between them, but I disagree. God made men and women to be equal after all.’
Jasper arched an eyebrow and looked me up and down, as if to say there was no way on earth he would ever believe that I was his equal. And I knew it—I knew that what I was doing was wrong and someone of my position should not try to rise above it. But I wanted so much more. So I firmly grasped the book that Sebastian was holding out to me.
‘Thank you, Father. I will take it to my room and peruse it before I go to sleep. I will let you know what I think. Good night.’ I didn’t say ‘good night’ to Jasper but curtsied to Sebastian and took my leave directly.
As I shut the door, I heard Sebastian say with a laugh, ‘That put you in your place, old chap. She’s more than meets the eye, that one!’
I heard a gruff reply from Jasper but luckily didn’t catch what was said; no doubt it would have been something that would sting and cause me more anxiety!
Chapter 7
Meeting Jeremy for lunch always meant the night before was fraught. I had to block out time for shaving my legs and armpits, body moisturising, face masking, hair washing and conditioning. Not to mention ironing clothes, painting nails, and plucking eyebrows.
By this level of maintenance, you would assume that I was some sort of disgusting hairy beast that had let herself go. I wasn’t, and I hadn’t. But on ‘lunch days’, I was spending a longer amount of time in his presence, so I wanted to make sure I was presenting the most perfect version of myself. It was exhausting but worth it in case he happened to have a light bulb moment: Gosh, Anna is quite pretty. I could live in hope.
On this Friday morning, though, the unthinkable had occurred. The face mask I’d used last night was a different brand to my usual, and I had applied it liberally. But when I looked in the mirror, I got the shock of my life: there was a huge shiny red zit the size of Krakatoa on my chin! I could’ve cried after all the effort I’d put in (in fact, I did for five minutes) before toughening up and painting the zit carefully with concealer and powdering the heck out of it. Perhaps if I faced directly towards him, Jeremy wouldn’t notice the volcano.
My nerves kicked up a notch as I approached the faculty building. Luckily, the day was cool and breezy, so it had dried my underarms on the fifteen-minute walk from my flat. I enjoyed spending a whole hour with Jeremy, but it did mean I needed to reapply my antiperspirant a few times before I even saw him. If I was this much of a wreck being with him for an hour, God knows how I’d ever manage a relationship. But we’d cross that bridge if (when) we came to it. Maybe I’d splash out and Botox my armpits.
Of course it didn’t help that Becca, upon catching sight of my face when I walked in, exclaimed, ‘Wowser, that’s a beauty! Did you eat a whole box of chocolates last night or something?’
I ducked my chin and sidled to my computer, feeling like a swamp hag.
‘Aren’t you seeing your man today?’ she asked.
‘For the hundredth time, he’s not my man! Haven’t you got work to do?’ I snapped. That shut her up, and we concentrated in strained silence for the next few hours, only punctuated by Becca’s sighs as I sent her a heap of admin emails to deal with.
Maybe I wouldn’t miss her as much as I’d initially thought.
The other books from the archive were dry scientific journals written by men and proving time-consuming to get through when I was more interested in Mercy’s encounters with Jasper. As much as I hated having a massive zit, at least I didn’t have pox scars and had to live in the same house with the guy I had a crush on. From her description, Jasper sounded like trouble, and I had a bad feeling about him—for her sake. It was making me even more jittery as noon approached.
‘Come in, Anna,’ Jeremy intoned after I’d knocked on his door. I entered, clutching my tablet, prepared to show him the notes I’d made on the books.
He was typing away on his laptop with a serious expression. I stood and gazed, drinking him in. Maybe it was the adorable lock of hair falling over his forehead or him biting his lower lip in concentration. Either way, he was radiating sex appeal. I gulped. Absence had made my heart grow even fonder as I hadn’t seen him since Monday.
He waved me over without looking up, and I shook myself from my reverie. As I sat down in the chair opposite, I noticed the paper bag by his left elbow with the cafe logo. He’d been out to get ‘our’ salads. That was sweet.
‘You like the Caesar chicken, right?’ he asked, finally looking up and smiling at me. My chest bloomed. I smiled back.
‘Yes, thanks.’
Jeremy’s eyes flicked over my face, dropped to my chin, and then he busied himself with taking out the salads. My smile faltered. So much for concealer—he’d noticed the volcano.
‘You can eat while I check your notes, if that’s OK?’ he said, handing me a container and a wooden fork.
