Читать книгу Wheatleigh's Golden Goose - Georgia St. Claire - Страница 5

Audrey smiled with satisfaction as she looked around her rooms. She had worked hard for almost two hours and had everything she brought with her situated to her satisfaction and several lists generated detailing re-decorating work to be done, things to buy and things to have shipped from her family home. She made a mental note to be sure to thank Rich for cleaning her rooms so thoroughly in preparation for her arrival. He must have had a busy weekend between packing up John’s things from the office and preparing for her to move in, along with his work preparing for her transition onto the faculty and into his department.

As if in answer to the summons of her thoughts, he knocked on her door. “I have a surprise, if you’re interested,” he called out.

She opened the door and clapped her hands with delight. “Pizza! Bless you! I am so hungry; I haven’t eaten all day.”

He slid the box onto the small coffee table in front of the love seat, put a large paper bag down on the floor and turned to frown at her. “What do you mean you haven’t eaten all day?”

She shrugged, “I was busy finishing my packing and then traveling up here and getting to the meeting at President Boxford’s house on time. I didn’t have a chance to eat lunch.”

“Well, what about breakfast then, didn’t you eat that, knowing that you were going to be so busy all day?” She had taken a large bite of the pizza slice she was holding and was busy chewing as she shook her head. “Why not?” he demanded.

Finally swallowing to clear her mouth, she managed, “I never eat breakfast. Is there anything to drink in that bag?”

He lifted the bag from the floor, put it on the table next to the pizza box and then tore it open to reveal the selection, deciding it was more expedient than lifting all the various cans and bottles out. “I didn’t know what you liked so I bought an assortment. The rest will disappear quickly when they go into the refrigerator in the kitchen.”

She pounced on the bottle of diet coke, opened the screw top and took a long drink. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you! I needed this! I have a serious diet coke habit and I’m one hurting puppy for having gone so long without one.” She turned to pick up a piece of paper lying on a side table and waved it at him. “I made a list of things I’m going to have shipped up here from back home and my small office refrigerator is at the top of the list.” She looked over the selection of drinks remaining on the table. “You only bought one?” He nodded. “Hmm, what am I going to do in the morning?” she muttered to herself.

“You’re going to eat breakfast,” he answered.

She waved her hand at him dismissively. “Weren’t you listening? I told you I don’t eat breakfast.”

“I heard you and I gave you an answer. Starting tomorrow you are going to eat breakfast everyday.”

“No I’m not. I guess I can drink the regular coke in the morning to get me through until I can get to the store to pick up some more diet,” she mused and was startled to find herself grabbed by the shoulders and shaken.

“Don’t you ever treat me like that! Have the common courtesy to pay attention and look at me when we are having a conversation.”

“We weren’t having a conversation. You were spewing orders and I was making plans for tomorrow morning.”

“Spewing orders!”

“Well, what would you call it?”

He growled wordlessly, picked up the pizza box and headed towards the door.

“What? Now your feelings are hurt so you’re going to take your toy and go home?” she demanded.

He took a deep breath to calm himself. “No, I am moving this repast out to the living room so we can sit down and have a proper discussion about this while we eat. There isn’t space in here for us both to sit down.”

“Oh. Sorry,” she said in a small voice. “What should I bring out for you to drink? I can’t carry all these since the bag is torn.”

“I’d like a water please.”

She looked over the selection; while there was only one of each kind of the assorted soft drinks and fruit juices, there were multiple bottles of water. “Still or sparkling?”

“Still.”

She grabbed all the bottles of water that she could carry, still and sparkling, and followed him into the other room, placing the bottles on the table with the pizza. Sitting on the sofa, she took a deep breath and turned towards her angry colleague. “I’m sorry, Rich. It was flippant of me to talk to you like that.”

“Yes it was. I didn’t deserve to be treated like that.”

“I didn’t deserve to be shaken like you did, either.”

He looked at her darkly. “You were lucky it was just a shaking. Sass like that should be handled with a sharp spanking.”

“Spanking!”

“Spanking. That’s how little brats learn their manners.”

“Brat!”

“What would you call it?” he threw back at her.

She considered him for a moment and then dropped her eyes as she chewed her bottom lip. “I’m sorry, it was bratty.”

“Good. I’m glad we agree. I will treat you with respect, I expect the same in return.”

She nodded. “While I was unpacking, I was appreciating how much work you did over the weekend to prepare for me, thank you.”

“You’re welcome. I can’t take credit for your rooms, though, I hired a cleaning service to come in and do that.”

“Oh, I thought you said… well everything was very clean and I was very grateful to find it that way, especially given the time factor. Thank you for thinking to hire them.”

He grinned, “I pay them to come and do my rooms, do you think I would turn around and clean yours? I’m not that altruistic. All I can take credit for doing in your rooms is what I said I did, which was put out the clean linens for you. I can give you the cleaners’ contact information if you’d like to arrange for them to continue to clean for you. I could never talk John into hiring them, but I know they could use the money; they have a bunch of kids.”

“Yes, I would like to hire them. I confess I am also unaccustomed to cleaning my own rooms.”

“Good. Now that we have had a bit of civil conversation, I’d like to return to the issue of breakfast.” He held up his hand to forestall her. “I’m doing my best here not to spew orders, but you can’t expect to teach four straight hours without any fuel in your body. The timing is too tight to grab a bite between classes, you are going to be ready to faint by the time noon rolls around and your last class ends.”

He watched as she struggled with his statement. A couple of times it looked like she might be able to offer a response, but she shook her head and kept working at it. Finally, all she could do was whine, “But I never eat breakfast.”

“So you agree that it is a good idea; but you just don’t want to break your streak of not eating breakfast? That’s not bratty, but it is pretty childish.”

She sighed. “I’m not a morning person. It’s going to be a miracle for me to be on time for that first class as it is. Trying to add in eating breakfast is just going to make it impossible.”

“Great. Just how much are you not a morning person? What time do you normally get up?” She blushed and looked away. “Come on, I need to know what I’m dealing with here.”

“I’m a night owl.”

“All right, if you won’t tell me what time you get up, what time do you go to bed?” She turned her head and mumbled towards the floor. “Come on, give me an answer I can hear, please!”

She turned back to look at him, defiance in her eyes. “I’m usually in bed by three.”

“Three o’clock in the morning!”

Her head started dropping again, “ish.”

“ ‘ish’! What does that mean?”

She was almost back to addressing the floor. “Well, almost always by four.”

“Almost always! Four! Shit!” He scrubbed his face. “I feel like my father.”

She tilted her head, “You’re not that much older than me.”

“Can it, little girl,” he growled. “I’m six years older, but that’s not what I meant. I’m going to have to watch over you, aren’t I?” he demanded. “I’m going to have to make sure you go to bed at a reasonable hour and get up in a timely manner and have breakfast before you go to work. Shit! I thought it was going to be bad enough pulling those grades out of you, I never thought I was going to have to worry about your daily performance!”

Her spine stiffened and she glared at him. “My daily performance will be fine. I’m a great lecturer. All my students love coming to my classes.”

“You can’t be late and you can’t cancel classes. It’s another of Boxford’s rules, and frankly, I agree with him on that one. These kids are paying a small fortune in tuition to come here, or their parents are, and we owe it to them to give them full value for their dollar. You just told me that it is going to take a miracle to be on time for your first class. How do you expect to go to bed at four, get up, be dressed for business, eat breakfast and be intelligent in the classroom four hours later? And, and! Keep going for four straight hours! I expect a high level of performance from you, no sleepwalking through classes.” He threw himself back against the sofa, “Shit!”

She leaned back against the sofa too. “I’m sorry!” she wailed. “It’s not my fault! I never asked for this job. I don’t want this job! I’m a victim too.”

“Yeah, well Miss Victim, I like my job and I don’t want to lose it, so I am going to have to watch you like a hawk. How much time does it take you to get dressed in the morning? Not jeans, full business attire.”

“Do I have to wear my hair up?”

He looked startled. “Why do I care how you do your hair? How long?”

“Well, as long as you don’t care about my hair, I’d say forty-five minutes should do it. That’s make-up and everything.”

“Okay.” He blew out a breath, “Your hair is going to be presentable, right? I mean I do care that it looks decent, just not what style it is.”

She was tapping her front tooth as she thought. “You know, putting it up might be faster. I don’t have to blow it dry, I can just let it dry on its own.”

“No! You have to dry your hair. God sakes, woman! Do you know how cold it gets here? You’ll catch pneumonia and I’ll get fired for sure.”

“But I don’t have to go outside, just walk downstairs.”

“It doesn’t matter, dry hair,” he said firmly. “Okay, forty-five minutes to get dressed and take those extra fifteen minutes to get downstairs and prepare, so we’re at an hour already. Let’s say half an hour for breakfast, hmm.” He turned to her, “How many times am I going to have to wake you up before you actually get out of bed?”

“Huh?”

“Come on,” he said impatiently. “You know how these things go. I’ll knock on your door and tell you to get up. You’ll say okay and roll over and go back to sleep. By the time I realize that you aren’t getting ready for work, it’ll be too late to make up for lost time and then we’re screwed. So let’s just acknowledge that it’s going to happen and plan for it. What’s it going to take to get you out of bed every morning?”

“I don’t know!”

“All right,” he said evenly, “I’m going to plan on half an hour to wake you up. We can adjust as experience tells me what to expect. So you need to be up by six. How much sleep do you need each night?”

“What! Is this the Inquisition?”

“All right. We’ll assume the standard eight hours to begin with, although if I’m treated to this much attitude on a regular basis, we might need to up it.”

She turned to him in horror. “Oh, no! No you don’t. I am not going to bed at ten o’clock!”

“Looks like you are.”

“That’s ridiculous!” She shook her head. “This is so wrong, so very wrong.”

“It’s the hand we’ve been dealt and we will just have to manage. With practice I’m guessing that you can shorten the forty-five minutes dressing time and once you get adjusted to your new bedtime we can probably reduce the time necessary to get you up in the morning, maybe even speed up breakfast a bit. We might be able to shave a good half hour off your morning routine if you cooperate.”

She reached out and clutched his arm. “Rich, this is crazy! I can’t do this!”

“I’ll tell you what is crazy. Losing my job, the job I love, the job I planned to grow old in, because some chit can’t get out of bed in the morning because she can’t go to bed at night at a reasonable hour! Speaking of which,” he glanced at his watch, “you need to be in bed in two hours and I suspect that you haven’t gone downstairs to look through the information I left you, have you?”

“No, I haven’t. But cut me some slack, Rich, I’ve been setting up my rooms. I haven’t had a chance!”

“You need to get better at planning your time and ordering your priorities. You have five years to get settled in your rooms, but you have to teach four classes you are unfamiliar with first thing tomorrow morning.”

She sighed, “You’re right. I could have planned better. But I do have one thing to say in my defense.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know this building. Yes, you showed me where my office is, demonstrated the elevator and gave me my keys, but I don’t know anything else. Important things like are there any little steps or places where the floor is uneven that I might trip over in the dark, because I don’t even know where the light switches are.”

He nodded. “Okay, you get off this time, you have a valid reason for not going down to your office on your own. But I wasn’t gone getting the pizza the whole two hours that you were working on your rooms. I would have gone down with you and showed you where the light switches were if you had asked me.”

She compressed her lips, sucking the lower one into her mouth and nibbling it before releasing it out again with a pop. “Okay, I admit it, I suck at prioritizing, not always so great at planning, either.”

“I’m going to have to watch you on that, too, aren’t I?”

“I did make three lists while I was getting settled in my rooms, though. That’s exceptionally good for me.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Three lists, huh? Three whole lists.” She turned her shoulder towards him and crossed her arms. “Okay, don’t freeze me out. I’m sorry. What three lists did you make?”

“The renovations I want to be done. The things I need my family to ship up to me. And the things I need to buy. Where is the nearest mall?”

“Hmm.” He scrunched up his face in thought. “I’d say, it’s probably Clinton, that’s about ninety minutes southeast of here.”

“What! How about a department store? I don’t need a whole mall, just a good department store.”

He grinned, knowing that his answer would upset her. “Well, outside of the mall, the only department stores you are going to find are Walmart and Kmart. There’s a Walmart about ten minutes from here.”

Her eyes widened. “No way!”

He nodded seriously. “Yes, way. I know! The Kmart is a good half hour further away. Who would have thought that we would be so lucky to have a Walmart so close? I’ll tell you everyone was pretty excited when they announced plans to build here. Gave a lot of people jobs, too.”

She slapped his arm. “I didn’t mean ‘no way’ in a good way!” And then she saw the twinkle in his eyes and huffed, “Okay, you got me! Where do people go to buy nice things?”

“First, I need to make something clear. Hitting is not respectful. No hitting.”

“Seriously? I was just being playful.”

“I told you I was old fashioned. Hitting isn’t being playful, it’s rude.”

She shoved against his shoulder and rocked him, “Come on! Oh wait, I get it! You’re teasing me again!”

He shook his head. “At the risk of further battery, no, I am not teasing or joking. Aggressive contact is rude and I will not allow it.”

“Won’t allow it! What are you, the politeness police?”

“It appears that I may have to add that role to my other mentoring duties. I expect all members of this History Department to conduct themselves with respectable and respectful manners at all times. And if I have to teach you good manners I will.”

“Oh, yeah?” She jutted out her jaw and gave him a menacing look.

He sighed, “That expression is most unbecoming, my dear, try to avoid it, please.”

She smirked, “Which expression? My words or my face?”

“I actually meant your face, but your words are equally offensive, or to be clear, the manner in which you uttered them is offensive.”

“Well, good. That’s what that whole package, words and face, is meant to convey.”

“So, that would be an excellent example of brattiness, wouldn’t it?” She nodded, pleased with herself. “Do you recall what I said brats deserve?” Her eyes took on a look of uncertainty and she hesitated before shaking her head. “Oh Audrey, I do believe you are lying to me. But I will let it pass, this time only, because I am about to spell everything out to you and make certain that we have a crystal clear understanding here. Brats deserve to be spanked until they learn their manners. Lying is very offensive and will be met with an even sterner response.” He nodded at her outraged gasp. “Yes. I am telling you that I intend to spank you when you are bratty or rude or disrespectful. That spanking will be on your bare bottom, just to be absolutely clear. I will take my belt to you for lying. And yes, that will be bare bottomed as well. In fact, I expect that all your punishments will be bare bottomed, even if it’s just standing in the corner.”

She paled, and had difficulty swallowing, finally achieving a big gulp. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I am.”

“This is not happening!”

“Yes, Alice, it is. Your world just turned into Wonderland, a place where strange things you aren’t expecting may occur at any time.”

“But… But, Rich… But I… You…” She shook her head. “This can’t be real. Please tell me that this is a practical joke you pull on all the new faculty members!”

“I’m sorry, Audrey. This is not a joke. I have certain standards, my History Department has certain standards, Wheatleigh has certain standards and it is my responsibility to see that you meet them. I lose my job if you don’t. So I will depend on the old fashioned tried and true methods of making sure that my lessons for you are learned completely.”

“But, Rich, we were getting along pretty well, I thought. I thought you even liked me. You teased me about the Walmart and everything!”

He smiled gently. “Yes, we were getting along pretty well. Yes, I do like you. But you need to listen to my warnings when I tell you to watch your behavior, because I will only warn once and then I will spank.”

She seemed to shrink in on herself, crossing her arms over her chest until each hand was griping the opposite arm, giving herself a hug. He waited patiently, curious to see how she would respond to the new order of things in her world. “So. I slapped your arm. You said no hitting and I shoved you. Does that mean I’m out of warnings and you are about to spank me?” she asked quietly.

“No blustering? No threats to tell President Boxford or call the police? No storming into your room and pulling out a suitcase and starting to pack?”

“I can’t go home. My family made it very clear that I have to stick out this job. Boxford probably knows how you are planning to keep me in line. Maybe he suggested it. The local police aren’t going to believe the charges of an overtired newcomer against the well-respected local college and its staff.”

“No one ever questioned your intelligence,” he answered quietly and stood up. “Thank you for sparing me from a big scene. If you continue like this, we will get along very well indeed.”

He hadn’t planned to spank this time for the rough contact, after all she hadn’t really known how things were setting up to be. But since she was displaying such submission to her future, it would be a step backwards to let the matter go when she clearly expected some kind of punishment. “I’ll tell you what, you go stand in that corner while I go downstairs and fetch the materials you need to look at tonight and I will call this lesson learned, a little opening gesture of goodwill.”

She nodded and also stood. “Thank you.”

“You are welcome, my dear. Do remember that all your punishments are bare bottomed.”

She blushed and nodded.

“A ‘Yes sir’ is always wise when you are on such thin ice.”

She nodded again, “Yes sir. Thank you for that advice.”

“See? You are capable of quite charming manners. Along to the corner you go, skirt up and panties down, nose touching the wall and bare bottom prominently displayed.”

She shuddered and went to follow his orders.

Making a point of his dominance, he stood watching her for a bit, long enough to make her fidget. “When you are in corner time, Audrey, you will hold still. Is your nose in physical contact with the wall?”

“Yes sir.”

“Then your position is perfect. Stay that way until I return and give you permission to leave the corner.”

“Yes sir.”

When he returned, Rich stood watching Audrey a few more moments. He knew that she was aware of him by how she tensed her muscles. “Continue to stand there while I explain things a bit more thoroughly, please. I am not a monster. I will not abuse you. I am old fashioned and dislike how rude some of the interactions of every day life have become. I am not so extreme that I believe spanking is the answer to all wrongs and I hope that the spankings I need to give you are few and far between. May I never have to apply a strap or my belt to your lovely behind. Don’t ever lie to me and that wish should come true. Watch your manners and the only likely danger zone for you will be the grading issue. Do you have any questions for me?”

“I have several floating around in my head, but I feel unready to ask them at this point. Sir,” she added quickly.

“When you are ready, do not hesitate to approach me about them. The one looming over our heads that I am surprised you did not voice is the issue of your personal scheduling. I sincerely hope to avoid having your bedtime or morning routine become spanking issues. General cooperation and limited whining should keep that from happening.”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. You may replace your skirt and panties and leave the corner. Your materials are on the coffee table. I would prefer that we both remain in this room while you go through everything; that way you will be more likely to ask your questions as they occur to you. However, I am not going to force my presence on you and if you would rather read in your sitting room, there are no repercussions.”

Once she had restored her clothing, Audrey moved to the sofa by the coffee table, sat down and picked up a folder. “May I stop ‘sir’ing you now?”

He chuckled, “You are never required to sir me. I merely suggested that it was wise when you are in dangerous territory. It’s harder to be disrespectful when you are using sir frequently and it does tend to calm me down when I am irritated. Would you like some help with prioritizing?”

“Yes please. I am grateful for any suggestions that you have.”

“You have a little more than an hour before you need to go to bed. I don’t know how long you need for your personal preparations before retiring, but please don’t forget to allow time for that. When it is time for lights out that does not mean go in the bathroom and brush your teeth.” Audrey nodded. “You should not divide the remaining time evenly. Your eight o’clock, Ancient World, is your strongest subject and you can probably get by with just looking at where the class is on the timeline; see what topics John has already covered. You can undoubtedly deliver your lecture without any more preparation than that. Asian Studies, your nine o’clock, is your weakest subject. Along with going through the syllabus and the list of topics already discussed, I recommend that you do a little studying to refresh your memory on whatever tomorrow’s lecture is scheduled to be, make an outline to keep yourself on track. Early European history is your second weakest point so do the same preparation that you do for Asian Studies and then to finish, you are fairly strong on your early American history and don’t need to allow as much time for preparation. Questions? Comments?”

“I am amazed at the depth of your knowledge about my strengths and weaknesses, but tonight is not the time to discuss why that is. While I was in the corner, I was thinking about tomorrow morning and wondering whether you are going to begin each class with me tomorrow and give me a bit of introduction, or whether I should just expect to face the students alone.”

“I plan to be there, make the announcement about John, field any questions that are forthcoming and then introduce you. That means that you will probably have about ten minutes less time for your lecture.”

“There are rules about how much time I have to grade my students’ work and about being late or canceling classes. Are there any other rules? Do I have to stick to the syllabi as they are now, or do I have the freedom to present the material in my own manner?”

“By all accounts you are an excellent lecturer and are popular with the students. I will not second-guess how you conduct your classes, so long as the students are able to demonstrate a suitable understanding of the material on the final exam. I expect to see and approve that exam before it is administered.”

“Are you planning to sit in and observe me?”

“As I mentioned at the beginning of your tour today, when the building is open to students, the front desk is supposed to be manned. We don’t have any overlap in our teaching schedules for that reason. I will not be in your classroom, however I would appreciate it if you would leave the door open so that I can have a modicum of awareness of what transpires. Boxford is likely to want to make an appearance very early on in your time with us. I hope that he does not expect to be here tomorrow, but as I think I mentioned, the man has no understanding of how things work in the social sciences. If he shows up, I will do my best to head him off, but I may not be successful. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that I probably won’t do any actual lecturing tomorrow.” She saw the expression on his face and hastened to add, “I’ll have some stuff prepared, but I want to talk with each class, see what their perceptions are, why they have chosen to take that particular course, what they hope to get out of it, whether their expectations are being met. I’ll explain my teaching style; talk a bit about what I expect them to learn and how to select term paper topics and what kinds of things they should be taking notes on for exams. These are all intro courses, which means that the students are mostly freshman and sophomores, right?” He nodded. “They need a little extra hand holding then, a road map to success. By the time I have finished explaining how I run my classes and answer all their questions, there isn’t likely to be any lecturing time left.” She grinned at him, “I’ll get them to where they need to be by the end of the semester, don’t worry. I may be horrible at giving grades, but my students have all earned praise from subsequent professors about how well they are prepared to learn.”

He waved his hand, “Have at it then.”