History Lessons (8 page)

"I told you," she said defensively. "I'm not a sleep-around."

"You think I'm judging you, don't you?"

Lucy looked out the car window. "Aren't you?"

"No. I've made my own mistakes. I'd be a fool to look down on you for yours."

It was the most human thing he'd ever said to her.

"Did you ever wish he'd come back, find you and Keegan. Maybe offer marriage to you?"

Lucy laughed at this. "No. I don't think he'd be interested in Keegan or me. He seemed like the type of person who was only interested in a relationship with one person - himself. I'd hate to interfere."

Warren Ellis laughed- actually laughed - at this.

"I've run into a few of those types myself. You're lucky at least to have Keegan. As you've probably guessed my idea of the perfect mate is, well, nonexistent in today's society. I'll probably die alone."

Lucy looked at him. "Mr. Ellis, if you don't mind my saying so, that's a horrible thing to say!"

"Horrible? If anything is horrible it's that we've gotten so far away from the simple truths that make relationships work. Honor. Order. Loyalty. In a perfect world, that man who fathered your son would have proposed marriage on he spot, or at least followed up to see if your night together produced a child he would be responsible for."

"Marriage?" Lucy shook her head. "He was a stranger, Mr. Ellis."

"So? Plenty of strangers married in the old days. Marriages were arranged and couples often met just days or weeks before they were wed. And those marriages endured."

"Women in those days had no way out, though," she said.

"Maybe the way out has gotten too easy today," he countered. "If a man establishes order early on and lets his wife know there are rewards and consequences she doesn't suffer the kind of unrest she would in a less structured environment."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "Mr. Ellis, you talk about women like they're children. At work you treat me like a child."

She'd not meant to make the last statement and grew quiet.

"No, I don't."

"Don't what?" she asked.

"I don't treat you like a child and I don't think women are children. I think man is the head of the house. In marriage the husband is the head and as the director of Hartford House I'm the head there."

Lucy started to observe that she was the only one who'd gotten spanked but thought the better of it.

"You above all the workers has a reason to succeed and advance," he said. "If I'm harder on you, Miss Prim, that is why."

It felt odd having an unasked question answered.

"The spankings hurt, Mr. Ellis. Is there any way you'd consider some other penalty for me?"

"You fear them?"

She nodded. "Yes sir. More than anything."

"That's why I must use them," he replied. "Different things work for different people, and a trip over the knee is quite effective for someone like you."

They were pulling into the back lot of Hartford House now. Lucy felt it was against her best interest to argue with Mr. Ellis. His tone had been definitive. She'd just have to work even harder to follow the rules.

She began to unfasten the seatbelt, only to find that it was stuck.

"Sorry," he said. "I should have warned you. That darned thing sticks some time."

He leaned over her manipulating the buckle. Lucy could feel the muscles under his jacket. His arms were lean and strong. She blushed and was relieved when she finally heard the click of the latch and the belt slid loose.

"Thank you," she said.

He smiled. "You're welcome."

* * *

The rest of the day went smoothly. Lucy found herself more willing to enforce the rules among co-workers who had once been her peer and was pleasantly surprised to find that after the initial oddness of becoming their supervisor had passed, they treated her with a friendly respect.

She was proud of them, and proud of herself for striking the balance between being friend and boss.

"Hi!"

She was doing some paperwork after lunch when Missy came up to her.

"What got you this morning?"

"Car trouble," Lucy said.

"Sucks." Missy took a seat beside her. "Do you mind? I'm still on my lunch break."

"By all means! I'm glad for the company." Lucy smiled at her.

"How's Keegan?"

"Precocious," Lucy replied.

Missy grew quiet for a moment.

"They said Mr. Ellis brought you to work today."

Lucy looked up at her friend, trying to read her face. Missy was trying to look and sound casual, but Lucy instantly knew that this was no idle chit-chat. The rumors were already starting. She laid her pen down.

"Look, Missy," she said. "My car broke down this morning. I called in but Mr. Ellis told me we were short-handed so he came to get me. That's all there was to it, understand?"

She sighed. "Are we still friends, Missy?"

Missy looked hurt. "Of course we are."

"Then stop treating me like a sideshow," Lucy said. "If you have a question, then ask me directly. Don't come here pretending to be my friend when you're just on a fact-finding mission for the gossip guild."

Missy stood. "You know, Lucy, you've really changed. You used to tell me everything."

"In this case, there's nothing to tell," Lucy said. "And even if there was, a true friend wouldn't ask me for the wrong reasons."

Missy looked away, her face reddening and Lucy knew right away that she'd been correct in her suspicions.

"Ladies, is something wrong?"

"No sir. I was just leaving." Missy stood and curtseyed in an obviously perfunctory manner to Mr. Ellis, who watched her go.

"Problem?"

"No," Lucy said.

He studied her and she felt herself growing uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

"You wouldn't mislead me, would you, Miss Primm? You wouldn't mislead me, knowing the consequences?"

She shook her head. Lucy did not doubt Warren Ellis' power, but there were some things he could not do. For instance, he could not heal the rift that was growing anew between her and Missy. Nor could he stop the gossip she was sure would spread from Warren Ellis' picking her up and taking her home.

It was almost time, in fact.

Lucy finished the assignment chart for the next day and made one last check of the stations to makes sure everyone was stocked with supplies. Two school groups were set to come in the morning and she wanted to make sure everything was ready.

She heard a voice outside the door and walked into the hall with the list. It was Missy and Carla, another worker. They stopped speaking as soon as they saw her.

"Missy, would you take this list to Mrs. Alder?" Lucy asked. "She's doing the shopping this afternoon so it's very important that she gets it."

"Sure," she said and walked away with a look at Carla.

"So," Carla said. "Did you get your car fixed?"

The question was asked in a tone implying that she didn't believe there was anything wrong with it.

"I don't know," Lucy said. "The mechanic was busy when I called earlier. If you'll excuse me."

She hard Carla walk away in the opposite direction and went to change for her ride home. Mr. Ellis was waiting for her in his full garb when she came to the back door.

"Ready, I see," he said. "Although I prefer you in period clothing."

She smiled. "Don't tell me you dress like this at home."

"No," he admitted. "I wear the regular stuff - trousers, sweaters."

"I called about the car," Lucy said. "It's not going to be ready until tomorrow. I could take the day off."

"No, Lucy. I'll get you again."

"You don't have to," she said.

"Why, is there a problem?"

Lucy sighed. "Rumors," she said. "Gossips."

"At Hartford House?" He sounded incensed.

"Please, Mr. Ellis. It's nothing I can't handle."

"Lucy, I do not tolerate idle gossip, especially when my name is connected. Or the honor of an innocent. Who's behind this?"

"Mr. Ellis, please."

"Lucy..."

"No, I don't want to talk about it."

"Lucy...I want an answer."

"No."

He sighed and, taking hold of Lucy, bent her over the hall table.

"Mr. Ellis," she cried. "Please don't...."

But he ignored her and began to spank her, the smacks building a rapid head through the fabric of her blue jeans.

Soon she was crying and begging for him to stop.

"Only if you're ready to talk," he said.

"I am!" she cried, wagging her bottom back and forth in an effort to avoid the painful blows.

He raised her to standing. "Is it Missy?"

"Yes!" she cried. "I don't know why she's doing this! I don't lord my position over her, Mr. Ellis. I don't lord it over anyone else. I just come here and try to do my job!"

"That's correct," he said. "And if anyone is treating you with anything other than respect then you come straight to me."

"And risk being alienated?"

"If that's what it takes, yes."

Lucy was rubbing her bottom now and crying miserably.

"Mr. Ellis, I just want to get along with people. I'm not like you. I need people in my life."

He looked down. "Who says I don't need people in my life?" he asked.

"You did," she said.

"And you believe that?" he asked.

He leaned down then and kissed her, his lips firm yet soft on hers. Then just as quickly, it seemed, he pulled away

"Miss Primm," he said, turning away. "Forgive me. I forgot myself."

Lucy stood there, stunned.

"No," she said. "It's all right."

"No, it's not. I'm your supervisor."

She walked over to him, tentatively. "Yes. Yes, Mr. Ellis. And a very stern one. But you're also a human. And a man. There's no sin in admitting to needing to connect with other people."

He turned to her, his eyes looking tortured.

"Perhaps," he said. "But that doesn't excuse my taking advantage of you."

She sighed. "I've been taken advantage of, Mr. Ellis. I know what it feels like. That's not what you did. It just....happened."

"Look," he said. "I can understand if you don't trust me to take you home now."

"Mr. Ellis!" She didn't mean to raise her voice to him. It just happened. He turned and looked and for a moment she feared he might spank her again.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to raise my voice. It's just that you're being rather exasperating. "I do trust you to take me home. In fact, I prefer it if you don't mind."

He gave a small, relieved smile.

"Very well then," he said.

Lucy forgot the spanking then. Relief had replaced her pain, although she wasn't sure exactly why. Was she falling for this tall, strange man?

Of course not, she told herself. He's your boss and what happened was just one of those weird, spontaneous things that weren't supposed to.

The didn't talk on the way to the lot.

At the preschool, Lucy went in to collect her son who had saved her a half-eaten cookie that he'd helped bake. He talked all the way home, and several times Lucy looked over to see Warren Ellis looking in the rearview mirror and grinning with amusement at his young passenger.

Her car had been towed to the shop, so Warren Ellis pulled into her driveway.

"Would you like to have dinner with us?" Keegan leaned forward in his car seat. "I'd like that. We never have boys over.

Lucy fully expected him to decline, but instead he laughed. "Well, in that case...provided it's no trouble."

"Not at all," Lucy said, surprised and pleased.

While she cooked a quick dinner of potatoes and baked chicken Warren entertained Keegan in the living room.

"Lincoln Logs," she said when she came into the doorway. "Now why doesn't this surprise me. He never played with them but he will now."

Warren Ellis had constructed an entire village on their braided rug and was explaining to Keegan how people used to live in log cabins built on the same principle.

"That was a long time ago," he informed the boy. "Way back before cars or television or computers."

"Then we need to finish it!" Keegan jumped up and ran off to return a few moments later with an armful of dinosaurs.

"You've got your work cut out for you," he whispered to Lucy as they watched the boy position a Tyrannosaurus Rex menacingly close to the cabin.

"You have no idea," she said.

They left him to play as Lucy finished dinner. When Warren offered to set the table she was surprised but accepted, finding the sight of a man in period costume laying out the Corelle plates highly ironic.

Keegan talked all the way through dinner, despite Lucy's reminder that Mr. Ellis might want a word in edgewise. But the director of Hartford House didn't seem to mind, and Lucy was struck by how different he was here than there.

Would this, she wonder, usher in a new phase of their working relationship. Now that he saw her as a full person - a mother and a worker - perhaps he wouldn't spank her anymore. The thought filled her with encouragement.

After dinner he played with Keegan some more while she finished the dishes.

"It's been lovely," he said later. "I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed your company." He glanced at Keegan. "And your son's."

"I enjoyed having you here," she said.

"Enough to allow me to return the favor?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Would you two like to come up to my place this weekend? It's over an hour away. I live on an old farm. There's a lot of space for Keegan to run and play. He'd really enjoy himself."

"What about work?" she asked. "Won't it make things....well, I don't want to create any conflicts."

"I'm afraid it's too late for that," he said.

"Mr. Ellis..."

"Warren," he corrected, and sighed.

"I'd love to, Warren," she said.

"I wasn't expecting this, Lucy. I really wasn't. But I'll be frank with you. I feel drawn to you, and for someone like me that is highly unusual."

She smiled and then grew serious.

"What about the gossips?"

"There's no rule against fraternization that I can tell," he said. "However, disruptive employees can be fired at will. That's what I intend to do tomorrow."