"What'd you do to her?"
"Put her in time-out down in the office to begin with. That's procedure."
Jamie hated to think of her daughter sitting all alone in that dreaded corner. Could just picture Ashley's forlorn little face, her feet dangling above the ground as she swung them in her chair.
But she hated even more the thought that her daughter had struck another person.
HER SECRET, HIS CHILD
"Why'd she hit him?" she asked softly. Perplexed.
"Probably because he deserved it."
Miss Peters's dry reply surprised Jamie. She looked at the other woman with new respect. ' 'What did he do?"
"Nathan's not the most likable kid at the best of times," Miss Peters said. "Having met his mother, I think he comes by it naturally."
"But that doesn't give Ashley any reason to hit him."
"Of course not," the teacher agreed. "Ordinarily she just ignores him when he gets mouthy, but yesterday he was teasing her about her father."
"Her…father?"
Miss Peters nodded. "He wouldn't believe that Ashley's father was a war hero who died in battle."
Not that again.
"Apparently, the more Ashley insisted he was, the more outrageous Nathan got, until he was suggesting some pretty terrible things about Ashley's dad." The teacher went on to repeat just what those things had been.
Livid, burning up on behalf of her innocent little girl, Jamie had to take a deep breath before she spoke. ' 'How would a four-year-old kid even know to say something like that?"
The teacher shrugged. "I can only assume he learned it at home. Most likely on television, or some conversation he overheard." She paused, looking at Jamie apologetically. "When I questioned
TARA TAYLOR QUINN
him about it, it was clear he had no real understanding of what he'd said."
"And Ashley?" Jamie asked, feeling the tears start deep inside. "How much do you think she understood?"
Why hadn't her daughter shared any of this with her?
Laying a hand on Jamie's, tangled together in her lap, Miss Peters squeezed gently. "Don't worry," she said. "I don't think she was aware of much more than the derision. That and the fact that he wouldn't believe her in the first place."
' 'This father thing must really be getting huge in her mind for her to have exploded like that," Jamie murmured, thinking out loud.
Miss Peters stood, then moved behind her desk. "You know how kids are…"
Not really, she didn't. "What do we do now?"
"My suggestion is to get everything out in the open so Ashley doesn't have to keep defending herself."
The teacher's words brought panic, sheer and terrible.
"Give Ashley her legitimacy instead of forcing her to fight for it…"
Jamie barely heard. The air in the room was warm, foggy, closing in on her.
"So I'd suggest, assuming it wouldn't be too painful for you, that the two of you put together some kind of presentation, you know with history, pictures—''