Moving to the bookcase-lined wall, he clasped his hands behind him and rocked back on his heels. “Mr. Chapman—”
“Excuse me,” Shelley said, edging her way toward the door.
“No, Mrs. Robins, as this concerns you, I’ll ask you to stay.”
She cast a furtive glance in Grant’s direction, then said, “All right.”
“Now,” the chancellor said ponderously, “as you know, this university maintains high standards both academically and morally. We, meaning the board of directors, care about the reputation of this school, both as an institute of higher learning and as a community unto itself. Because we are a church-sponsored university, we must safeguard that reputation. Therefore,” he said, swiveling his head around and glaring at them in a gesture guaranteed to strike terror into the heart of any miscreant, “the members of the faculty must have sterling reputations on campus and off.”
A deathly quiet had descended over the room. Neither Grant nor Shelley spoke or moved, but out of the corner of her eye she saw that Grant’s fists were clenched at his sides.
“We took a chance in hiring you to teach at this university, Mr. Chapman. The board reviewed your application carefully. They felt that you were unfairly exploited by the press in Washington. They benevolently gave you the benefit of the doubt.
“Your credentials are excellent. When you publish, as you’ve expressed a desire to do, that will lend further distinction to the university. But your keeping company with a student, albeit an older one, leaves you vulnerable to criticism and puts the university in an unfavorable light. Especially after the unfortunate affair so recently publicized. I must request that you and Mrs. Robins, whose status as a divorcée only adds another questionable element to the situation, stop seeing each other on a social basis.”
Grant wasn’t impressed by either the chancellor’s edict or his piety. “Or else what?” he asked calmly. The controlled tone wasn’t in keeping with the fierce expression on his face.
“Or else we might have to review your contract at the end of the semester,” Chancellor Martin said.
Grant crossed to Shelley and took her arm. “You have not only insulted me and questioned my morality, which I’m sure is in keeping with that of the university, but you have maligned Mrs. Robins—”
“Grant—”
“—whose reputation is spotless.”
She had tried to interrupt, afraid that he’d say something in her defense that would further antagonize the chancellor. For judging by the pallor of his face, few, if any, had ever ignored his warnings.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” Grant was saying as he dragged her toward the door. “And thank Mrs. Martin for us.”
He flung the door open wide, strode through it proudly and wended his way through those lingering at the party to the front door. If he noticed heads curiously turning in his wake, he didn’t show it. Shelley only prayed that the color in her cheeks wasn’t as vivid as she felt it was and that her knees would continue to support her until they were at least through the front door.
In fact, they held up until she reached the car. As soon as Grant opened the door of the passenger side she slumped into the seat, overcome by trembling.
It wasn’t until Grant had sped down the lane to the main thoroughfare and wheeled the sports car into the sparse traffic that he said, “I’m starving. What sounds good to you? Pizza?”
She turned her head to stare at him with incredulity. “Pizza! Grant, the chancellor of the university just threatened to fire you.”
“Something he can’t do without a majority vote from the board. And despite the adverse publicity I’ve received and the aura of scandal that surrounds me, some of them are star-struck and want to keep me around. Others realize that I’m a damn good teacher.
“The only thing that makes me mad as hell is what he said about you. That sanctimonious jackass. If he had the opportunity, don’t think
he wouldn’t like to see you on a ‘social basis.’”
“Grant!” Shelley cried before covering her face with her hands. Her obvious distress sobered him. After covering the distance to her house in silence, save for an occasional muffled sob from Shelley, he whipped the car to the curb and braked abruptly. His earlier suggestion about dinner was forgotten.
For long moments they sat in stony silence. Grant’s profile, lit by the soft glow of the streetlight outside the car’s window, was just as forbidding as that of Chancellor Martin. Shelley gathered enough courage to say, “We can’t see each other anymore, Grant. Not like today.”
He turned in the bucket seat to face her, his clothes making a rustling sound in the darkness. He braced his arm on the back of his seat and gave her a level stare. “You’re really going to let a parody of respectability like Martin keep us apart?”
She exhaled wearily. “I know what he is, and if he didn’t hold the position he does, I wouldn’t give him or his opinion a thought. But he is the chancellor of the university and you are in his employ.”
“There was no clause in my contract about whom I date.”
“But it’s an unwritten law that teachers don’t date their students. I tried to tell you weeks ago what people around here would think of us. You wouldn’t listen. This isn’t the more progressive-thinking East or West Coast. This is mid-America. Such things just aren’t done.”
“What are we doing that’s so bad?” he shouted, finally losing the composure he’d tried so hard to hold on to. When he saw her flinch, he cursed under his breath and let out a long, exasperated sigh. “I’m sorry. I’m not angry at you.”
“I know,” she said quietly. It was the hopelessness of the situation that angered him.