Page 27

“Chasity, I know you wouldn’t have entertained the notion if your situation weren’t dire. I wish you’d tell me what is going on. Why you are afraid. What hold does Mrs. Crenshaw have over you?”

To his horror, tears welled in Chasity’s indigo eyes, and her lower lip trembled.

“Don’t cry, sweetheart.” Aston did draw her into his arms then. How could he not? “I’ll help in any way I can. Tell me, what has you so distressed so that I can.”

She shook her head, releasing a whiff of lemon and flowers.

“I’m not sure exactly. All I do know is that your grandfather has threatened to close the school down. He doesn’t want you teaching here.”

Chasity confirmed what Aston had suspected since speaking with Werner. Grandfather was exercising his aristocratic muscles to manipulate again.

“Mrs. Crenshaw said if I didn’t persuade you to give up your post voluntarily, she’d sack me and use my salary to help pay off her contractual obligations to you.”

The jealous hag.

The headmistress would give Chasity her congé for no legitimate cause other than a trumped-up excuse to confiscate her wages?

“I suspect she’s been looking for a reason to sack you, Chasity.”

No authentic reason, that was certain.

“I’ve speculated as much myself,” she mumbled into his shirt as he caressed her slender back. “She has no basis, and so she must devise something underhanded.”

Up and down. Up and down, he moved his hands in soothing motions.

“Shh,” Aston comforted. “Don’t fret. We’ll work something out.”

What or how, he didn’t know.

Aston kissed the crown of Chasity’s head, savoring the bliss of embracing her. He longed to do much, much more. This woman had come to mean far too much to him these past weeks. He had no right to hold her in his arms and wish for things that could never be.

“Mrs. Crenshaw said she needed my salary to offset the cost of paying off your contract. But there is still funding budgeted for two other instructors yet to be hired.”

“I fear she’s jeopardizing the school, the staff, and the students.” Chasity angled her head back, her lashes spikey from her tears. Her eyes searched his, reaching to the depths of his soul and tugging something loose there. Something only she was capable of stirring. Freeing.

Aston yearned to kiss away every vestige of her tears and reassure her that everything would be fine.

“How can she be so short of funds when we only opened our doors two months ago?” she asked, her forehead furrowed in consternation. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and shook her head.

“I honestly don’t know,” he replied sincerely.

And Aston didn’t.

His intuition fairly screamed something nefarious was afoot, and Chasity had been caught in the crossfire through no fault of her own. Lord, how he wanted to protect her. Shield her from whatever was going on. To ensure she didn’t lose her position.

There was only one way to do the latter.

Quit.

Aston must resign his post.

And let Grandfather win?

So that he could lord it over Aston? Pour salt in the wound? Gloat that he’d finally succeeded in bending Aston to his will?

The very idea set his blood to boiling.

But for Chasity… She was the only reason he’d even consider it.