Falling From Grace: Student-Teacher Forbidden Romance

Chapter 29

[RECAP: Leonie is trying to deal with her growing feelings for Father Gabriel, after they passionately kissed in the vestry.]

Somehow Leonie managed to get through the next week. She dreaded English lessons as much as she longed to see Father Gabriel. She didn't put up her hand when he asked the class questions even when she knew the answers. She avoided catching his eye.

When he turned to write something on the board she allowed herself to gaze at him. The back of his head was so perfectly shaped: the way his hair tapered to his neck. His shoulders were broad and proportioned and she remembered the strength of his arms.

I'm sorry. She silently willed the words towards him, wishing she could communicate with him. Wishing he might forgive her.

He never showed anger or disgust towards her. He was simply polite but grave.

It hurt.

It didn't help that Suki Laverne was being more and more of a bitch. Leonie wasn't sure why, but the other girl always seemed to be on her back. Maybe it was because Leonie was doing well in rehearsals. Leonie knew this because she herself felt that she was performing better, but also because others had told her.

Even Father Gabriel, though he was trying not to interact with her, had commented on her progress. His praise was cool and detached but this only made it more meaningful.

After rehearsal Leonie, Mai and Figgy were making a late evening cocoa in the Upper Sixth form refectory. This was a room that girls in the final year had the privilege of using, to relax in and make hot drinks. It had battered old arm chairs, tables where you could do homework and shelves with various old novels. They were all respectable works such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. The nuns confiscated any modern novels that they considered unsuitable, which was most of them.

Mai was discussing the last rehearsal. "With the rest of us it's like Father Gabriel knows we need lots of encouragement, as most of us are hopeless. With you he takes it for granted that you can do it."

"I wish," Leonie said.

"You must know how good you are," Mai said, heaping chocolate powder into her mug. "Just so long as you don't forget us when you're famous. Make sure you invite us to lots of celebrity parties."

Figgy, who had volunteered to be prompt, had noticed Suki's antipathy to Leonie. "She looks absolute daggers at you and she's always muttering with her friends. Do be careful of her."

"I'm not sure what I can do. It's not like I go out of my way to speak to her," Leonie said.

"At least Mercy has your back. Suki was trying to slag you off to her, but Mercy wouldn't listen to it," Mai told her.

Leonie was glad of this, since she liked Mercy.

"I don't know why she's still so jealous," Figgy said. "The role of Elizabeth is about the same size as Abigail. I think she even has more lines."

"But it's a duller part," Mai said. "Abigail is clearly the star. She gets all the sexy bits too."

Leonie had flashbacks to Father Gabriel voicing John Proctor's lines. Trying to fend off Abigail's advances. The parallels to her own situation were shamefully clear.

Mai was hunting through a jar of cookies. Or biscuits, as she called them. "Some greedy cow has eaten all the nice ones. All the custard creams are gone. There are only boring old digestives left, and they're all broken."

"I've got some chocolate hob nobs left in my tuck box," Figgy offered. "I can get them if you want?"

"It's alright, these will do." Mai crunched a digestive. "You know, while Mercy is great, it would be cooler if we had actual men playing the male roles. Imagine Father Stephen as Danforth, he'd be quite chilling, wouldn't he? And of course Father Gabriel as John Proctor. Just think of him saying those lines to you, Leonie."

Leonie didn't need to imagine this. She had heard the real thing.

Mai continued to crunch on her cookie. "I swear that man has a thing for you. If he wasn't a priest, you'd have to watch out."

"I thought so before," Figgy agreed, dunking a piece of biscuit in her mug. "Now I'm not sure. He seems more formal than he was."

"That's because he's trying to suppress his feelings. It's like The Thornbirds," Mai said. She was half-joking and it was all Leonie could do not to react.

She was very thankful that Harry wasn't there. After their conversation the other day, Harry might have started to put two and two together. "I haven't seen The Thornbirds," Leonie said.

"You should. It's pretty miserable though, they all die. But the main girl gets to sleep with the sexy priest, so that part's good. And he gets her pregnant," Mai told her. "There used to be a copy of the original novel around here, but Mother Benedict stole it. I'm quite sure she read it before burning it. I imagine it inspiring her to give Father Stephen steamy looks and try to get him alone. Imagine if they had a baby. She'd probably do a Virgin Mary and claim it was actually God who impregnated her."

Figgy couldn't help laughing even though she tried to disapprove. "You'll get struck with a bolt of lightning one day, Mai."

Leonie managed to fake a laugh as well but the whole subject was torment to her. If she hadn't panicked and stopped him, such a thing might have happened to her. And there was no way her acting skills were up to the task of passing it off as a divine conception.

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What would a Gabriel-Leonie baby look like?!!

Any name suggestions?