MacAllister's Baby (2 page)

‘I’m taking you for a drive,’ Joanna said through the open window. ‘We need to talk.’ She grabbed a set of exercise books from the front seat and threw them into the back.

Elisabeth climbed in, fastened her seat belt and steeled herself to withstand the constant low-level panic that was endemic to sitting in the passenger seat of Joanna’s car.

When Elisabeth had moved to London, she’d discovered most people didn’t bother to drive in the capital. It was expensive, and it was dangerous, and it was stressful. Elisabeth’s friend Joanna Graham, who since her recent promotion was in charge of Upper School at Slater, seemed to regard it as an extreme sport.

‘What do we need to talk about?’ Elisabeth asked.

‘Among other things, this.’ Joanna tossed a leaflet into Elisabeth’s lap. She turned the key in the ignition and pulled away from the kerb without discernibly checking her mirrors.

Elisabeth looked down at the leaflet she held in her hand. She read aloud.

‘Computer dating. As seen on TV. Having trouble meeting compatable people of the opposite sex? Let our high-tech computer matching software find your perfect partner! Success guaranteed. A satisfied customer writes, “I met the man of my dreams. I’m getting married in two weeks!”’

‘See, doesn’t it sound great? High-tech and everything.’ Joanna took her eyes off the road to grin at Elisabeth. ‘You could be married within two weeks!’

‘They’ve misspelt ‘compatible’,’ Elisabeth observed.

‘So? You hire them for their dating services, not their spellchecker. Who needs spelling when you can have your soul mate?’

‘If my students made that excuse, I’d make them write the word out fifty times on the board.’

‘No you wouldn’t. You’d laugh, and then you’d show them a way to remember how to spell it. That’s why you’re a good teacher and I trust you with all my difficult students.’ She took her hands off the wheel to unwrap a chocolate bar.

‘You’re just trying to flatter me so I’ll do what you want. Where did you get this idea, anyway?’

Joanna held out the chocolate to Elisabeth. ‘Want a bite?’ Elisabeth shook her head. ‘The leaflet came through the letterbox with the free papers last night. I took one look and knew it was for you.’

Elisabeth did not believe in computer-dating services. She didn’t believe in soul mates, come to that. What she told her students was exactly what she believed herself: your life is controlled by you, by the choices and the mistakes that you make.

It wasn’t up to computers, or luck, or karma. Her parents believed in karma and look what kind of life they had—living in the middle of the Canadian woods, wearing hemp and eating lentils and dancing naked in the moonlight, with no conception of security or the future.

‘It’s not for me,’ Elisabeth said.

Joanna put her hand on Elisabeth’s, and looked serious for a change. ‘Elisabeth, you are a dear friend and a great colleague and a fantastic teacher and it is killing me to see you living the life of a nun. You need to lighten up. Meet some new people. Have some fun.’

‘I have fun all the time. You should’ve seen my year nines acting out ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ today. I nearly wet myself, it was so funny.’

‘I mean fun outside of school.’

She thought. ‘Well, you and I drank all those margaritas last week and watched
Moulin Rouge.
That was fun.’

‘I mean fun with a man.’

Fun with a man. Right. Robin had offered her fun, and she’d mistaken it for everything she’d ever wanted. Stupid girl.

‘There’s more to a relationship than fun,’ she said. ‘Like decency and commitment and shared goals and values.’

Though sparring with Angus MacAllister over a chicken this morning had been sort of fun. In the spare second or two when she’d been able to avoid thinking about jumping his bones.

She pushed the thought aside.

‘Okay, I know Robin was a jerk, and I understand the once-bitten-twice-shy thing,’ Joanna said. ‘But there are other men in the universe. How many men have you gone out with in the past year?’

‘Four.’

‘Four,’ Jo repeated. ‘And were these four hot, sexy men who took you to bed, preferably two at a time, and fulfilled all your wildest fantasies?’

Elisabeth ticked them off on her fingers. ‘I went for dinner with Tim the systems analyst; I went for coffee with Mike the corporate lawyer; I saw an opera with Richard the museum curator, and two months ago I went to the Globe with…’ She furrowed her brow. ‘I can’t actually remember what his name was.’

‘I bet you remember the play, though.’

‘
Romeo and Juliet.
It was wonderful.’

Jo snorted. ‘You watched the most romantic play in the world with a man and you can’t remember his name. I think your dating choices leave a lot to be desired.’

Elisabeth watched the street signs and shop fronts whiz by. ‘They were all very nice men. Steady. Intelligent. Responsible.’

‘And you never saw any of them again. I hate to contradict you, Liz, but you’re not looking for someone decent and responsible. If you were, you would have seen one of those four men again.’ Joanna shoved the rest of the chocolate bar into her mouth and sped through an intersection just as the light turned red. ‘You need to meet someone new. Someone with
zing
.’

‘I don’t think
“zing”
is a word.’

Even as she said it Elisabeth knew she was prevaricating. Word or not, she knew what
zing
was. She was still feeling the after-effects of the
zing.

And that was what was scary. Because even with Robin—even with the man she’d completely lost her heart and body to, the one who’d made her forget her judgement and every single thing she valued—she hadn’t felt as stunned, as
zinged,
as she had for the few minutes she’d had with Angus MacAllister.

‘I’m not going to do any computer dating,’ she said firmly.

Joanna shrugged. ‘Okay, your loss. How about a personal ad?’

‘No.’

‘They do speed dating at the pub round the corner from my house.’

‘Absolutely not.’

‘How about I just set you up with my cousin? He’s hot. If we weren’t related, I’d be in there myself.’

Elisabeth sighed. ‘Jo, is it possible that the outrageous amounts of refined sugar that you consume have made you go completely doolally?’

Jo approached a roundabout and, as usual, braked at the last moment so Elisabeth had to brace herself to avoid being choked by the seat belt.

‘I’m not doolally,’ Jo said, entering the roundabout directly in the path of a taxi that had to swerve to avoid her. ‘I’m just looking out for your future. Somebody has to. Listen, if you don’t like my cousin, I know this other guy I used to work with who I think you would like.’

‘Stop it,’ Elisabeth protested, but now she was laughing. Jo lived the carefree, single, have-a-good-time lifestyle to the maximum: sports car, great clothes, a new man every week, it seemed. Elisabeth admired her for doing it, if it made her happy. She knew it wasn’t for her.

She was jolted out of her amusement by Joanna turning a corner so sharply that Elisabeth was thrown against the car door. ‘Are you trying to give me whiplash?’

‘This car corners like it’s on rails, it’s great. Listen, Liz, I’ve got a favour to ask of you.’

‘What is it?’ Elisabeth asked warily.

‘It’s a year ten thing.’

At school, Joanna was Head of Upper School, ages fourteen to sixteen, and, despite the fact that she was shorter than most of the boys and some of the girls, most of the three hundred students she was responsible for looked up to her. She was friendly but strict in school; Elisabeth often wondered what her students would make of her if they knew their fearsome teacher was a party girl in her free time. But Jo was scrupulous about keeping her personal life and her professional life separate.

‘It might take quite a bit of time,’ Jo said, ‘but I think it could be really important.’

‘What is it?’ Elisabeth asked again, but this time with interest. When it came to school, Jo was always right. She was young to hold such an important management role, but she’d earned it because she took an intense interest in all of the students under her care and went to any length to make sure they succeeded.

‘I need you to work with Angus MacAllister. You know, the TV chef?’

CHAPTER TWO

E
LISABETH
forgot about her grip on the sides of the seat.

‘Did you say Angus MacAllister?’

‘Yeah. You’ve heard of him, right? Fantastic chef. I tried his recipe for treble-chocolate espresso cake. Amazing.’

‘You want me to
work
with him?’

‘Isn’t it great? I knew you’d be pleased. It’s not every day we get a celebrity in the school, is it?’

‘Why me?’

‘You mean, besides that I want to give you the glamorous jobs because you’re my friend?’

‘Yes, besides that.’

Elisabeth could tell Joanna was serious because she slowed the car down.

‘You’re the only member of staff I think could pull it off. I trust you. You’re willing to try anything that might help a student. And if this works, it could make a huge difference to these particular kids.’

Damn Joanna. She was capitalising on Elisabeth’s professional pride. ‘Which kids?’

‘Jennifer Keeling and Danny Williams.’

Ah. She was starting to see what Joanna was getting at.

Elisabeth taught Jennifer, and everybody at the Slater School knew Danny Williams. Jennifer was terminally shy, and Danny was an attention-seeker on his way to leaving school with no qualifications in anything except petty theft and intimidation. Two problem kids on two opposite ends of the behaviour spectrum.

‘What about Jennifer and Danny?’ Elisabeth said, intrigued now in spite of herself.

‘I’m worried about them. Jennifer needs something to make her feel good about herself; I don’t think she gets any help at home. Danny needs something to take an interest in, something he can succeed at and see a tangible reward for, and that will steer him towards a job for when he leaves school. And, incredible as it might seem, they’re both good at the same thing. Cooking.’

‘They’re good cooks?’ The idea didn’t fit the impression she had of either kid.

‘Yeah. Tasha told me, and I observed them both in a lesson.’

‘Danny Williams. Taking food technology.’ She pictured grease fires, egg ambushes. ‘You’re joking, right?’

‘It was the only thing he could take after the business studies department banned him. You remember that internet pornography incident? Anyway, I watched them both and I couldn’t believe their focus. They’re talented.’

Elisabeth thought about this for a few moments. They were stuck in traffic now, which gave her some calm. ‘So what does this have to do with me and Angus MacAllister?’

‘It’s the most fantastic thing. When I learned about their skills, I got Danny and Jennifer to enter the Kid Culinaire competition. Apparently it’s this huge big-deal prestigious competition, and the first prize is admission to Britain’s best catering college. Even the runners-up usually get offered a place on a course. Can you imagine what even participating in this contest, let alone winning, would do for Jennifer’s self-esteem? And Danny’s sense of direction?’

She could imagine it. With luck, it could turn these kids’ lives around.

‘And Angus MacAllister?’ she repeated.

‘The school was approached by MacAllister’s publicist, who got our details from the competition organiser. MacAllister wants to volunteer his time to help some kids with the competition. I haven’t told the kids yet, because it’s not definite, but he seems interested in the Slater School. He likes the location and the fact that we’re entering two students rather than just one.’

‘MacAllister is doing it for the publicity, right?’ she said. ‘To make himself look good-hearted and child-loving?’

Joanna shrugged. ‘Who cares why he’s doing it?’

‘I care. I’m not eager to let our students be a publicity vehicle for someone who only cares about his own fame.’

Joanna looked sharply at her. ‘Whoa. You sound like you’ve got something against this man already. You don’t know him, do you?’

Elisabeth didn’t want to admit she’d met Angus this afternoon, because she’d have to admit that she’d felt that incredible attraction to him.

‘I’m just concerned about our students, that’s all,’ she said, making her voice sound nonchalant. ‘The last thing Jennifer and Danny need is to be made into a media circus.’

And the last thing Elisabeth needed was to spend any more time with Angus MacAllister.

‘So you see one reason why I need you to help with this thing, if it goes through. I need someone to be there when Angus is with the kids, to make sure they’re getting the full benefit of this deal.’

‘Why not Tasha? I don’t know anything about food.’

Joanna snorted. ‘Yeah, and that’s why you’re so skinny, you don’t eat anything.’ She put the car back into gear and roared away from the traffic light. ‘Ostensibly, it’s because Tasha’s the main care provider for her sick mother, and she’s not able to spend that much time after school helping the kids. Between you and me, it’s also because she’s not so great at keeping discipline. She can barely control Danny as it is, and she’s not having much luck talking with Jenny. And if she can’t handle a couple of teenagers, how’s she going to keep an eye on a fully grown man with his own agenda?’

Joanna shuddered, and smiled. ‘Actually that’s probably all Tasha would do: keep an eye on the fully grown man. He’s pretty fully grown. And very manly. I had a hard time keeping my eyes off him myself.’

‘You met him?’

‘Oh, yeah. He’s very attractive.’

A funny feeling burned in Elisabeth’s chest. She ignored it. ‘I saw his show once and I didn’t think he was that special.’

‘He’s special, all right. And a charmer. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was interested in me.’

The funny feeling got funnier. It was, incredibly and stupidly, jealousy. Elisabeth tried to swallow it down. Being jealous of a man whom she didn’t even like being interested in her friend was just wrong, for more reasons than she could count.