Sins Out of School (33 page)

“He'll get away with it, won't he?”

“In a sense. There'll be very little, if anything, that he can be prosecuted for. But his career is finished, of course. The publicity will put an end to any chance of his getting elected to anything, ever again.”

“And I expect his marriage is over, too.”

“You're probably right. Mrs. Blake may not be terribly keen on having her husband's adultery splashed all over every front page in the country. I wouldn't be surprised to see her setting up housekeeping with Amanda and Miriam.”

“Oh! How's Miriam? Have you heard anything?”

“Amanda rang up, actually, while you were still asleep this morning. She—Amanda—is being discharged today, but she'll go to Gillian's flat for the time being, so as to be close to the hospital. Miriam's conscious and there's no apparent brain damage, though she'll need a good deal of physiotherapy if she's to regain full use of her limbs. It'll be a rough road ahead, but that child knows how to deal with adversity. And with a supportive family as a nice change, I think she'll do well. I think they both will.”

The phone rang. I was closest.

“Dorothy, good! Catherine Woodley here. I wondered—of course Amanda Doyle will be convalescent for a good while yet, and our list of supply teachers is so short—do you think you might be willing to bone up a bit and take the qualifying exams? We'd love to be able to call on you regularly, and the children adored you that one day, and—”

“No, Catherine,” I said quite firmly. “I'm flattered to be asked, but no.”

“But—”

“No. The last time got me involved in a situation that very nearly killed me. Have you read your morning paper?”

“No.”

“Read it. Good-bye, Catherine.” I hung up the phone. “There. Aren't you proud of me?”

He kissed me and sneezed. “You'll find another way to get into trouble, but I took you for better, for worse. The difficulty is that I can't always tell which is which. Hand me a tissue, will you?”