“How so?”
Mr Barclay seemed shocked with my question and unprepared for an answer.
“Other than your door, are you happy with your room?” he asked, disregarding my question.
“More than happy. I didn’t know what to expect.”
I looked around noticing more and more the environment that I would be working and living in. They were all men, old and so proper. I must seem like a student to them, and in the wrong school. I looked back at Mr Barclay who hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
“I guess, the ratio is unfair,” he joked.
I let out a giggle.
“Don’t be intimidated, you are at an advantage.”
“How?” I curiously asked.
“It will always be hard for any of them to say no to you.”
“We’ll see,” I joked back.
“Indeed we will,” he said and stood up.
“Gentleman, please, if I could have your attention.”
Silence came over the room in an instant and suddenly all eyes were on Mr Barclay.
“I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you all to Miss Catherine White from Australia. Miss White will be teaching English Literature at our college for the year, replacing Professor Davidson. Please make her feel welcome and help make her stay a pleasant one.”
I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to stand so stayed seated but turned around and smiled and acknowledged as many people as I could. Some of the teachers had started to make their way towards me. Mr Barclay was now nowhere in sight. For the next hour I was quizzed on everything from kangaroos to my favourite composers. All these men seemed so intelligent and serious; I immediately remembered Annie’s words of encouragement about me being an exceptional teacher.
“Hello! Catherine! Coming through! Excuse me! Excuse me, please! There you are. I have been looking for you everywhere. How wonderful! You found the common room.”
To my relief, it was Jules ploughing through all the men to get to me.
“Right everyone, that will do. Go back to your newspapers and pipes. Off you go.”
It only took a minute and all the men were back in their chairs reading their papers.
“There now, is that not better? It seems you have caused quite an excitement. This is wonderful. Finally, there are now two of us,” Jules said, as she pulled up a chair and sat very close to me.
I didn’t mind her now. At least she could do all the talking and I could really see that she was genuinely happy to have me here, unlike Mr Kemp.
“Right, now tell me, how you are feeling?” she queried me, with a very concerned and serious tone as she held onto my hands.
“I am much better now, thank you. I am sorry if I gave you a fright,” I said as I slid my hand out of her grip.
“Oh, don’t worry about me. It takes a lot more than that to scare me,” she said as she smiled and placed her hand on my arm.
“Now, if we leave now, I can give you that tour and we should be finished in time to change for dinner.”
“Yes, that sounds like a great idea.”
We both got up and made our way out of the room. As we left, my eyes met Mr Kemp’s. He was obviously still very sour and didn’t seem to be shy about showing his feelings either.
“Now don’t mind Mr Kemp, nobody else does,” said Jules.
“What do you mean?”
“Well Mr Kemp is a very strange and suspicious man. He spends most of his evenings on our roof looking at the stars and reading into them. He gave Mr Barclay a very hard time when he first arrived at the college. He was convinced that he was causing an imbalance of some sort.”
“Imbalance! An imbalance of what?”
“Oh, who knows! To be perfectly honest, nobody cares. If he gives you any heartache, I will take care of him quicker than he can look to the stars for help,” Jules asserted.
Why would Mr Barclay say that Mr Kemp was a one-of-a-kind, almost complimenting him, if he gave him such a hard time?
The tour was great and I was right; there was an easier way to get to the common room. I saw my classroom and that made everything real to me. The room still had a traditional blackboard on the wall, but a new whiteboard had been placed in front of it. The desks were timber and in a semi-circular style with three aisles taking students all the way up to the elevated back seats of the room.
I always had a great passion for English literature and loved to pass that on to others. I was looking forward to coming back to the room on Tuesday morning, full of students. The rest of the grounds were amazing as well. Awe filled me wherever I looked. The Great Hall had a soaring ceiling and sandstone walls, reflecting the external architecture of the building. The stained-glass windows in nearly every room were even more vibrant from inside the building. The floors were a mix of hardwood timber and different shades of marble, with grand marble staircases leading to the upper levels. Jules gave me my schedule and a detailed map of the building and grounds. I was to sit in Professor Davidson’s class for the first two weeks and then he was leaving and I was to replace him.
“Now don’t be alarmed. By 6 o’clock tomorrow evening, this college will be crawling with the boys returning from their break. They are going to love you, literally! Well, you are very beautiful… and very young and not quite what my boys are used to. Not to worry, we’ll cross that bridge if need be. Let’s head back and get ready for dinner. Tonight’s dinner is a special one. It’s our last night on the grounds without the students, so it will be a formal event with music and champagne and maybe even dancing now that there is the two of us! I’m so excited! We only have two hours to get ready so we’d better get back to our rooms.” She wouldn’t stop talking long enough for me to get a word in.
“Jules? When you say formal what should I be wearing exactly?” I enquiry.
“A dress, a cocktail dress. You are in England now my dear and we English love to take our frocks out and whirl them around the dance floor!”
When we arrived back, Jules went straight into her room, singing. I couldn’t help but laugh. She was interesting. I went straight into my room. I was overjoyed seeing my classroom and was really looking forward to meeting Professor Davidson. I sat on the end of my bed and again thought about Mr Barclay. He makes me feel uneasy and that is something I’m not used to. I don’t think I have ever met a man before that has made me feel the way I do. These feelings are really unexpected. I spent the rest of the time I had left getting ready for dinner. Showering and blow-drying my hair took forever with my sore head. I decided to wear my emerald-green velvet dress. It was sleeveless, tight fitting to the knees and flared out at the ends. I loved this dress. It really showed off my figure and the colour matched my eyes. The low-cut front had gorgeous dark green crystal stones adorning it and my matching emerald-green high heels finished the outfit perfectly.
“Knock, knock!” Jules bellowed outside my door. She seemed to like yelling out “knock, knock” rather than actually knocking.
“Coming!” I opened the door and let her in. We were like two schoolgirls, inspecting and complimenting each other’s choice of attire.
“Let’s be off then. I want to be there early to make sure everything is perfect,” Jules said as she flicked what little hair she had and made her way out of my room.
So far, I had found Jules to be extremely entertaining. Even the way she walked was kind of funny: her body swung from side to side. I smiled and followed her.
CHAPTER THREE
The ballroom was stunning. There was a single long table in the centre of the room that was covered in white linen, lit up with countless candles in beautiful candelabras and a striking flower centrepiece. Soft ambient music was playing in the background. The lights were dimmed to give the candles maximum effect. It was spectacular. The walls were covered with an array of paintings and tapestry. All the men were dressed in tuxedos, and they all looked very proper. As I glanced around the room I couldn’t help notice that Mr Barclay had not arrived.