Pride & Consequence Omnibus

by Penny Jordan

  Having bullied and badgered her way into the position of Chair of the Board of Governors, Myra had continually bombarded both the board and Jodi herself with her opinions on how the school might be improved.

  Having lost her most recent battle to impose a system of teaching maths that she had decided would be enormously beneficial for Ben, Myra had made it abundantly clear to Jodi that she had made a bad enemy.

  For Ben’s sake, Jodi had tried tactfully to suggest that he might benefit from being encouraged to make more friends amongst his schoolmates. But her gentle hints had been met with fury and hostility by Myra, who had told Jodi that there was no way she wanted her son mixing with ‘common village children’.

  ‘Once Benjamin leaves here he will be meeting a very different class of child. He already knows that, and knows too that I would have preferred him to be attending a proper prep school. I do wish I could make his grandparents understand how much better it would be if he was already in private education. Jeremy and Alison were totally appalled that we could even think of allowing him to come here. At least now that I’m Chair of the Board of Governors I shall be able to make sure that he is receiving the rudiments of a decent education.

  ‘The vicar’s wife commented to me only the other day how much better the school has been doing since I became involved.’ She had preened herself, leaving Jodi torn between pity for her little boy and amazement at Myra’s total lack of awareness of other people’s feelings.

  As it happened, Anna Leslie, the vicar’s wife, had actually told Jodi herself how unbearable she found Myra and how much she loathed her patronising attitude.

  With only such a short time to go before the end of term, it was perhaps only natural that the children should be in such a high-spirited mood, Jodi acknowledged as she made her way to her office.

  By the time the school bell rang to summon the children to their classes she was so engrossed in her work that she had almost managed to put Leo Jefferson right out of her mind.

  Almost...

  * * *

  Leo tensed as his mobile phone rang. He was in his car, on his way to meet with his accountant at the Frampton factory that had been the subject of his heated exchange of views with Jodi on Saturday night.

  He frowned as he registered the unavailable number of his caller. If Jodi was ringing him in an attempt to... Reaching out, he answered the call using the car’s hands-free unit, but the voice speaking his name was not Jodi’s and was not, in fact, even female, but belonged instead to Jeremy Driscoll.

  ‘Look, old boy, I just thought I’d give you a ring to see if the two of us couldn’t get together. The word is that you’re going to have to close down at least a couple of the factories and I’m prepared to make you a good offer to buy Frampton back from you.’

  Leo frowned as he listened.

  ‘Buy it?’ he challenged him curtly, waiting for Jeremy to threaten to blackmail him into agreeing, but, to his surprise, Jeremy made no reference whatsoever to either Jodi or her visit to his bed.

  ‘Look, we’re both businessmen—and we both know there are ways and means of you selling the business back to me that would benefit us both financially...’

  Leo didn’t respond.

  Jeremy Driscoll had been away on holiday in the Caribbean with his wife when his father-in-law had accepted Leo’s offer to buy out the business, and it was becoming increasingly obvious to Leo that for some reason he did not wish to see the sale go through.

  ‘I haven’t made my mind up which factories I intend to close as yet,’ Leo informed him. It was, after all, the truth.

  ‘Frampton is the obvious choice. Anyone can see that,’ Jeremy Driscoll was insisting. Beneath the hectoring tone of his voice Leo could hear a sharper note of anxiety.

  Leo had almost reached the factory. Reaching out to end the call, he told Jeremy Driscoll crisply, ‘I’ll call you once I’ve made up my mind.’

  As he cancelled the call Leo’s frown deepened. It disturbed him that Jeremy Driscoll hadn’t said a single word about Jodi. Somehow that seemed out of character. Driscoll wasn’t the sort of man to miss an opportunity to maximise on his advantage and, even though Leo knew he wouldn’t allow himself to be blackmailed, he was still in a potentially vulnerable position.

  But nowhere near as delicate and vulnerable as the one Jodi herself was in, he acknowledged grimly. What on earth had possessed her?

  * * *

  ‘So what you’re saying is that I should close this factory down?’ Leo asked his accountant as they finished their tour of the Frampton site.

  ‘Well, it does seem to be the obvious choice. Newham has the benefit of being much closer to the motorway system.’

  ‘Which means that it would be relatively easy to sell off as a base for a haulage contractor,’ Leo interrupted him wryly. ‘That would then allow me to consolidate production at Frampton, and use the Newham site solely for distribution, or if that proved to be uneconomical to sell it off.’

  ‘Well, yes, that could be an option,’ the accountant acknowledged.

  ‘Frampton also has the benefit of having recently had a new production line,’ Leo continued.

  ‘Yes, I know. It seems there was a fire, that destroyed the old one, which brings me to something else,’ the accountant told him carefully. ‘There are one or two things here that just don’t tie up.’

  ‘Such as?’ Leo challenged him curiously.

  ‘Such as two fires in a very short space of time, and certain anomalies in the accounting system. It seems that this factory has been run by the owners’ son-in-law, who prior to working in the business gained a reputation for favouring practices which, shall we say, are not entirely in line with those approved of by the Revenue.’

  ‘So what we are actually talking about here is fraud,’ Leo stated sharply.

  ‘I don’t know, and certainly I haven’t found anything fraudulent in the accounts that were submitted to us on takeover. However, it may be that those accounts are not the only ones the business produced. Just call it a gut feeling, but something tells me that things are not totally as they should be.’

  Had his accountant unwittingly hit on the reason why Jeremy Driscoll was so anxious to retain ownership of this particular factory? Leo wondered.

  ‘If you’re serious about finding a haulier buyer for the Newham land,’ his accountant continued, ‘I might know of someone.’

  Leo stopped him. ‘I might well opt to set up my own distribution network. With distribution costs rising the way they are, it makes good economic sense to be able to control that aspect of the business.’

  ‘Mmm...’

  What the hell was he doing? Leo asked himself in inner exasperation. He was finding arguments to keep Frampton open! Surely he wasn’t allowing himself to be influenced by the emotional opinions of a woman who knew nothing about business? Although she did know everything about how to please a man. This man! How to infuriate and drive him insane was more like it, Leo decided in furious, angry rejection of his own weak thoughts.

  He and the accountant parted company at the factory gate. It was almost lunchtime, and Leo recalled that there was a pub in the village where he could no doubt get something to eat.

  If he was to change his plans and retain the Frampton factory it would mean spending a good deal of time in the area; several months at least. He would have to rent somewhere to live.

  Perhaps predictably the pub was almost opposite the church, and separated from the church by the graveyard and a small paddock was the school.

  Her school!

  Since it was lunchtime, the school yard was filled with children.

  Turning into the pub car park, Leo parked and then got out to walk round to the main entrance to the dining room.

  As he did so his attention was caught by a small group of children clust
ering around a familiar figure.

  Jodi’s curls were burnished a deep, rich colour by the sunlight. She was wearing a cotton skirt and a toning blouse, her legs bare beneath the hem of her skirt.

  She hadn’t seen him, Leo acknowledged, and she was laughing at something one of her pupils had said, her head thrown back to reveal the taut line of her throat, with its creamy smooth skin, the same skin he had caressed and kissed.

  Leo could feel the sensual reaction filling his body. He still wanted her!

  She looked completely at home in her chosen role and Leo could see that the children were equally relaxed with her. And then, as though somehow she had sensed his presence, she looked towards him, her whole body freezing and the joy dying abruptly from her face as their gazes battled silently across the distance that separated them.

  As though they sensed her hostility the children too had become still and silent, and as he watched Leo saw her ushering them away from the school boundary out of sight.

  * * *

  The pub dining room was surprisingly busy, but Leo barely paid any attention to his fellow diners. His thoughts were taken up with Jodi, a fact which caused him to wonder grimly yet again just what the hell was happening to him.

  He ate his meal quickly without really being aware of it. In his mind’s eye he could still see Jodi surrounded by her pupils. She had looked...

  He shook his head, trying to dismiss her image from his thoughts, and caused the waitress who had served him to give a tiny little shiver and reflect on how dangerous and exciting he looked—and how very different from her boyfriend!

  Having finished his meal and refused a second cup of coffee, much to the waitress’s secret disappointment, Leo got up, oblivious to her interest in him.

  On his way back to the car he noticed that the school playground was now empty, the children no doubt back at their desks.

  For God’s sake, he derided himself as he drove back towards the town, didn’t he have enough to think about at the moment without being obsessed by a schoolteacher?

  * * *

  ‘Well, we don’t normally have many rental properties,’ the agent in the local town was informing Leo. ‘But it just so happens that we’ve been asked to find a tenant for a thoroughly charming Georgian house, just outside Frampton. I don’t know if you know the village.’

  ‘Yes, I know it,’ Leo confirmed a little grimly.

  ‘I live there myself.’ The agent smiled. ‘I don’t know if you have children, but if you do I can thoroughly recommend the village school. Jodi Marsh, the head teacher, is wonderful—’

  ‘I know Jodi,’ Leo interrupted him brusquely.

  ‘You do?’ The agent gave him a discreetly speculative look. ‘Well, if you’re a friend of Jodi’s you’ll find you get a very warm welcome in the village. She’s as popular with the parents as she is with the children, and deservedly so.

  ‘My wife dreads the thought of her leaving; she says the school just wouldn’t be the same without her. We all admire the way she campaigned so tirelessly to keep the school open and to raise enough money to buy the playing field adjacent to it to stop Jeremy Driscoll from acquiring it as building land. That didn’t make her popular with Jeremy at all, but Jodi has never been a fan of his, as you’ll probably know...’

  Again he gave Leo a speculative look, but Leo discovered that he was strangely reluctant to correct the other man’s misconceptions. For one thing he was too busy analysing the agent’s surprising comments about Jodi’s antipathy towards Jeremy Driscoll to notice.

  ‘If you’d like to view Ashton House?’ the agent continued questioningly.

  Leo told himself that he should refuse, that deliberately choosing to live anywhere within a hundred-mile radius of Jodi Marsh was complete madness, but for some reason he heard himself agreeing to see the house, and accepting the agent’s suggestion that they should drive over to view it immediately.

  ‘I rather get the impression that Jeremy Driscoll isn’t the most popular of people around here?’ Leo commented to the agent half an hour later as they stood together in front of the pretty Georgian property.

  ‘Well, no, he isn’t,’ the agent agreed. ‘And, despite the fact that he’s married, Jeremy fancies himself as something of a ladies’ man. Of course Jodi, in particular, is well known for her strict moral code, so I suppose it was almost inevitable that she should make it very plain to him that his advances were unwelcome.’

  Leo struggled to absorb this new information as the agent changed tack to tell him about the house. ‘It was built originally for the younger son of a local landowner; it’s listed, of course, and with all its original internal decorative features—a real gem. If I had the money I would be very tempted to put in an offer for it. The elderly lady who owned it died a few weeks ago, and the beneficiaries under her will ultimately want to sell it, but until the estate is sorted out they need to find a tenant for it so that it doesn’t fall into disrepair. Shall we go inside?’

  The house was undoubtedly, as the agent had said, a ‘gem’, and had he been looking for a permanent home Leo knew that he too would have been tempted to acquire it. As it was, he was more than happy to meet the relatively modest rent the owners were requesting.

  However, as Leo followed the agent back to his office, so that they could complete the paperwork for the rental, it wasn’t so much the new temporary home he had acquired that was occupying his thoughts as the agent’s revelations about Jodi.

  Just why was it that everyone seemed to think that Jodi was a paragon of all the virtues? There was no way that he could be wrong about her, was there?

  But later on in the day as he drove back to his hotel he was aware of a small and very unwanted niggling doubt that somehow just would not be silenced. Was it realistic for him to believe that so many other people were wrong and that he was right? Common sense told him that it wasn’t!

  But nothing changed the fact that Jodi had still, most definitely, been in his bed!

  * * *

  Jodi forced herself to smile at the group of fathers gathered in a huddle outside the school gates, talking to one another whilst they kept a protective eye on their children.

  The factory operated a shift system, which meant that quite a large proportion of the families where both parents worked split the task of delivering and collecting their offspring from school. Fathers for some reason seemed to favour afternoon school runs, and if Jodi hadn’t still been preoccupied with her thoughts of Leo Jefferson she would have stopped for a chat.

  As it was, whilst walking past she registered the fact that the men were discussing the possible closure of the factory, and how they intended to make their objections known.

  ‘We should do something to stop the closure!’ someone protested angrily. ‘We can’t just stand by and lose our jobs, our livelihood.’

  ‘What we need to do is to stage a demonstration,’ another man was insisting.

  A demonstration! Well, Jodi couldn’t blame them for wanting to make their feelings public; she would be tempted to do exactly the same thing if anyone was to threaten to close her beloved school.

  A tiny frown creased her forehead. These parents were the very ones who had supported her unstintingly in her determination to keep the school open, and in her fund-raising to make sure that the school retained its adjacent playing field. The very least she could do, surely, was to support them in turn now. And her feelings about Leo Jefferson had nothing to do with it...

  Retracing her footsteps, she walked back towards the small group.

  ‘I couldn’t help overhearing what you were just saying about demonstrating against the closure of the factory,’ she began. ‘If you do—’ she took a deep breath ‘—you can certainly count on my support.’

  ‘What, publicly?’ one of them challenged her.

  ‘Publicly!’ J
odi confirmed firmly. As she spoke she had the clearest mental image of Leo Jefferson, watching her with icy-eyed contempt across Mary and Graham’s dinner-table...

  * * *

  ‘Leo... Have you got a moment?’

  Halfway across the hotel foyer, Leo stopped as Nigel Marsh came hurrying towards him.

  ‘Look, I was wondering if we might have a word?’

  Leo frowned as he looked at Jodi’s cousin. The younger man looked both slightly uncomfortable and at the same time very determined.

  Shooting back the cuff of his jacket, Leo glanced at his watch before telling him crisply, ‘I can give you ten minutes.’

  Nigel looked relieved.

  ‘Thanks. I just wanted to have a word with you about Jodi...my cousin...you met her the other evening.’

  He was speaking as though Leo might have forgotten just who Jodi was, Leo recognised, wondering just what Nigel Marsh would say if Leo was to tell him that Jodi was someone he would never be able to forget.

  However, Leo had no intention of revealing any such thing. Instead he replied with dry irony, ‘You mean the schoolteacher.’

  Nigel gave him a relieved look.

  ‘Yes. Look, I know she must have come across to you as...as having a bit of a bee in her bonnet about your takeover—’

  ‘She certainly has plenty of attitude,’ Leo cut in coolly, causing Nigel to check himself. ‘And a very hostile attitude where I’m concerned,’ Leo continued crisply.

  ‘It isn’t anything personal,’ Nigel denied immediately. ‘It’s just that the school means so much to her. She’s worked damned hard to make it successful, and she’s always been the kind of person who is attracted to lame dogs, lost causes... I remember when we were kids, she was always mothering something or someone. I know she went a little bit over-the-top the other night. But she wasn’t expecting to see you there, and I suppose having hyped herself up to put her case to you at the hotel the night before and then having chickened out...’