“I saw it online, and well, I didn’t have time to look it up. I hoped I understood it correctly.”
“You certainly did. Good job.”
Cori beamed all the way to the school. She bounced out and headed for the auditorium. Hope hung back, giving the new Cori some space, but space was the undoing of the plan.
The text arrived within seconds.
Shoot. I forgot my elf ears. Won’t be able to sing.
Hope read the text and recognized the scam. She knew, as well as Cori, that there wasn’t time to drive home, grab elf ears, and return before the concert was scheduled to begin. And elf ears were mandatory. Hope thought she’d been had … until she remembered the elf ears she had in her classroom. She had pinned them to the bulletin board to brighten the room. And now, she could put them to good purpose.
She drove to her school a couple of miles away, ran to the classroom, and as the key was with her car keys, she managed to unlock the door. It took seconds to grab the ears off the board and head back to the parking lot.
The auditorium was full as Hope hustled down the aisle. She spotted Cori to one side, silent and presumably upset about her own forgetfulness. Hope rushed up and handed over the ears.
“Nice try,” Hope said.
“But.…” Cori stumbled.
“Go sing.”
Cori frowned, but she did hustle onto the stage, right to her spot in the front row.
Still breathless from running into the auditorium, Hope turned around to find a seat.
Just as she was about to sit down, she heard a woman’s voice growl at her.
“There you are.”
5
Hope turned to the voice and spotted Carol Thomas storming over to her. Carol was wide and strong, with a flat, stony face that she used well in her gym classes when she was putting the students through physical exercises. Hope supposed that a gym teacher had to have a certain presence if she wanted to herd a passel of students through dodgeball.
Carol’s face was red and her stride was strong and purposeful. She was coming for Hope, and Hope had no idea why.
“You stay away from my husband,” Carol leaned forward and whispered.
“Your husband?” Hope asked, dumbfounded.
“Clive. And don’t try to deny that you were there last night, chatting him up.”
Hope thought for a second, aware that part of the audience was now focused on her and Carol.
“You’re Clive’s wife?”
“You know darned well I am. And I know you’ve recently come from up north, looking for a man. Don’t think you fool me. Women like you throw themselves at Clive all the time.”
“I did not throw myself at anyone.” Despite her surprise at the accusation, Hope’s voice was firm. “I wanted to know about one of Clive’s ancestors. That’s all. I had my daughter with me, for heaven’s sake.”
“As if having your daughter there made it all innocent. I’m warning you, Veronica—”
“Hope. My name is Hope.”
“I’m warning you. Stay away from my husband.” Carol leaned in close, her eyes full of hate. “Or else.”
The woman glared a moment longer before she wheeled and marched out of the auditorium. Hope could only stare. The ambush had been a total surprise, a complete embarrassment. She could feel the blush rising in her cheeks.
How in the world had she managed to get herself into such a mess? In front of teachers, students, and parents? She forced a semblance of a smile, stood, and headed for the rear of the auditorium. She didn’t dare look at Cori, who, no doubt, was swallowing her own discomfort.
Hope didn’t look at the staring crowd either, but she knew they were looking hard enough to drive her out of the auditorium. She stopped in the empty lobby and found a wall to lean against. What had just happened was unnerving. She had no idea Carol, the dowdy Carol Thomas, was married to the slick Clive Thomas. Hope hadn’t thought to pair the two, primarily because they didn’t appear compatible. What was he doing with her? Not that Hope really wanted to know. It didn’t matter.
If Carol was that jealous … and maybe she had good reason to be, then Hope would steer clear of Clive and the Culpepper House. Carol’s outburst was the last thing Hope needed. Shaking, she stayed in contact with the wall until she heard the singing. The concert had started. That was her signal to slip into the auditorium and stand at the back, in the dark, trying to enjoy something that had already been ruined.
After the concert, Hope waited in the lobby for Cori. Lots of parents and grandparents waited with her, and while they sneaked peeks at her, no one came up to speak. No one, except Colin.
“Hey,” Colin said. “I just want you to know that no one on the staff believes a word Carol said.”
“Oh?” Hope said. “Why not?”
“Because Carol has made the same accusations before. Every good-looking teacher that happens along gets the same treatment. Carol believes that they’re all after Clive, even the married ones. And in fact, they don’t even have to be all that good-looking.”
“Gee, thanks,” Hope said.
“No, no, don’t take it like that. You’re very attractive, so naturally Carol was going to come after you. Especially, after you ate at the Culpepper and talked to Clive.”
Hope shook her head. “If I knew it would come to this, I would have skipped it.”
“Yeah, well, we’re not good at warning the newbies. To tell the truth, Carol once accused me of trying to seduce Clive. Think on that for a moment. Like I’m going to turn Clive gay.”
“He’s not, right?”
“Being gay around here is not an asset. Don’t get me wrong. No one says or does anything, but sometimes there’s a bit of a sting behind the sugary talk. In Carol’s case, there’s no sugar at all.”
“Don’t I know it. And thanks for the heads up.”
“You’re very welcome, and it might be wise to steer clear of that woman for a week or two.”
“Trust me, I’m not going anywhere near Carol. I don’t think any explanation would do any good. She wouldn’t believe a word I said.”
“Not one bit. Welcome to Castle Park.”
Colin moved off, leaving Hope to face people who still wanted to know if she was some kind of man-stealer. That idea almost made her laugh. The last thing she wanted, at the moment, was a man in her life. She wasn’t ready. She didn’t know if she would ever be ready. She needed to decipher files and learn more about Doug’s secret project. And she needed to find Max’s murderer. Why was it that the men in her life were both dead?
That thought did make her shake her head.
“Let’s go,” Cori said, as soon as she arrived.
“You don’t want to go to the cafeteria for punch and cookies?”
“Are you kidding? After what happened? Everyone wants to know why Crazy Carol yelled at you.”
“You know. You were there.”
“And none of the kids believe me. They all think where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
“You can’t let the kids bully you.”
“Can’t we skip the life lesson and just go home?”
Hope regarded Cori for a moment. “Sure, we can leave. This might not be the time to learn a life lesson.”