Caprice
Page 16
He was hired to clean, but instead he swept her off her feet!
Domestic Bliss
© 2014 Karen Leabo
When Spencer Guthrie shows up at the Sweetwater Inn applying to be a maid, owner Bonnie Chapman sets aside her concerns and hires him. She’s desperate for someone to fill the position, and he is more than qualified, but she can’t help wondering why he even wants the job.
Spencer can’t believe he’s spending his summer making beds and mopping floors—he’d much rather be playing ball and kicking back. But he has a point to prove and a bet to win and this job is what he needs to do it. Besides, after catching sight of Bonnie, Spencer has a new goal in mind—winning the boss’s heart!
Enjoy the following excerpt for Domestic Bliss:
Jenny, why don’t you tell us what happened when you applied for a job with the local fire department.” Professor Spencer Guthrie rolled up the sleeves of his blue button-down as he listened to his most outspoken student, a young woman with the size and temperament of an Amazon.
“I faced a classic example of sexism at its most blatant,” said Jenny, twisting a lock of her carrot-red hair around her finger. “The admissions director was reluctant to hand me the application.” She proceeded to outline, in detail, how she had been discriminated against.
“That was a terrific summary, Jenny,” Spencer said. “I’ll look forward to reading your full report at the end of the term. Now, who’s next?” he asked, scanning the intimate group of eight bright graduate students. Sociology 407, the only course he was teaching this summer, was so small Spencer could afford to be informal. Today they were meeting at Mugs, a favorite student hangout just off campus.
“How about you, Randy? You’ve been awfully quiet today.”
The class’s only male student looked down at his lap and mumbled something unintelligible.
“I’m sorry?” Spencer leaned closer.
“I said I didn’t do the assignment. I couldn’t go through with it.”
Spencer’s brow wrinkled in concern. Randy Hoskins, whom the girls in the class had nicknamed their “token male,” was one of Spencer’s most enthusiastic students. He had seemed truly concerned about discrimination in the workplace, which was the thrust of this class. His sudden failure was unexpected.
“What’s the problem, Randy?” Spencer prodded.
“I just couldn’t do it, that’s all.” Randy clenched his fists on the table in front of him. “If I could type, maybe I could have applied somewhere as a secretary. But I found the only traditional female job I could do was domestic work, as a…a maid. And I’m sorry, Dr. Guthrie, but it’s just like you’ve been teaching all semester. I’m a product of sexist programming.” Randy looked around at the other students apologetically.
Predictably Jenny was the first to react. “Is there something wrong with housework, Randy?”
Celia Fredericks, another of Spencer’s more vocal students, jumped in. “Anyway, maid is a sexist word.”
Spencer leaned back, waiting expectantly for the next volley. An argument like this always made for a productive class.
“What’s so awful about applying for a housekeeper’s job?” Jenny challenged. “I’ll bet Dr. Guthrie has worked at lots of traditional women’s jobs in the course of his research, haven’t you?” She turned and smiled sweetly at Spencer.
Spencer felt eight pairs of eyes on him and a decided shift of interest away from Randy. Suddenly his collar was unaccountably tight. “I’m the only male professor in my department,” he began, but Randy cut him off.
“Being a professor has been a man’s role until recently,” he said. “That doesn’t count. Have you ever worked as a secretary? Or a kindergarten teacher? Or a maid—I mean, housekeeper?”
The class waited breathlessly for Spencer’s response. He could have lied easily enough. But the truth was, he hadn’t ever taken on a traditional woman’s role. He’d read about it, written about it, made speeches, conducted surveys and observed his students, but he’d never done it himself. He struggled to form the right response and failed.
“So,” Jenny said smugly. “This is all just a bunch of talk, then. You’re like all the rest of the closet chauvinists. You make pretty speeches about how we women have to fight for equality—so long as you have a secretary to type your papers and make your coffee.”
“I make my own coffee,” Spencer objected, knowing it was a feeble defense. A group of students who had, for eight weeks, hung on his every word had suddenly turned hostile.
“I don’t think it’s fair of you,” said Randy, “to ask us to do what you haven’t done yourself.”
From the looks of the other students, they all agreed. Spencer ran one nervous hand through his thick sandy hair. Now what?
Randy held out a folded newspaper to Spencer as if in reply to the silent question. “The ad’s right there, circled in red. That’s the one I was going to apply for.”
Spencer took the paper and scanned the Help Wanted ad, then read it aloud: “‘Maid, cleaning and cooking duties for small resort hotel. Live-in position. Flexible hours. Apply in person, Sweetwater Inn.” Then he looked again at his students, whose faces were masked with skepticism.
“You don’t think I can do this, do you?” he said.
“Forgive me, Professor Guthrie, but I can’t see you wearing an apron,” Jenny said with a snicker.
Spencer narrowed his eyes, meeting the inquisition head-on, and stamped out his cigar. “I could go out tomorrow and get this job. And I wouldn’t be embarrassed or uncomfortable in the least!”
Not one student appeared to be convinced.
“I’ll do the assignment if you will,” Randy counter-challenged.
“All right then.” Spencer had to do something—he saw his credibility on the line, and he could never resist a challenge. “I’ll not only apply for that job, I’ll get it. And I’ll work there the rest of the summer. And then I’ll prove once and for all that I’m not asking my students to do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Later, as he bicycled up the long hill toward the sociology building, he started to wonder about something. He’d been teaching this graduate class for years, in California and now in Royal Springs, Arkansas. Why hadn’t he ever done the employment assignment himself? Did he think it beneath him? Or was he afraid he wouldn’t succeed?
He’d soon find out. Either way, maybe he was due for a small attitude adjustment.
Caprice
Amanda Carpenter
A flighty, carefree beauty meets her match in a serious-minded businessman.
Wanted and adored by all, Caprice was untouchable.
And she made sure of it, never letting a man close, answering to no one.
No one, that is, until Pierce Langston caught her eye and tore down all the walls that she’d built so high. Frightening and exciting her, all the while seeing through the façade she presented to the world to the woman she really was underneath it all…
This Retro Romance reprint was originally published in June 1989 by Mills & Boon.
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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
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Caprice
Copyright © 2014 by Amanda Carpenter
ISBN: 978-1-61921-791-1
Edited by Heather Osborn
Cover by Angela Waters
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First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: March 2014
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