Free The Complete Mackenzie Collection by Linda Howard

board’s regular meeting was scheduled for the third week in April. The afternoon of the meeting, Sharon, with elaborate casualness, asked Mary if she planned to attend. Mary looked at her in surprise. “Of course. I thought all of us were expected to attend on a regular basis.”
    “Well, yes. It’s just that—I thought—”
    “You thought I would avoid the meeting now that everyone knows I’ve been teaching Joe Mackenzie?” Mary asked directly.
    Sharon’s mouth fell open. “What?” Her voice was weak.
    “You didn’t know? Well, it isn’t an earth-shattering secret.” She shrugged. “Joe thought people would be upset if I tutored him, so I haven’t said anything. From the way everyone has been acting, I thought the cat was out of the bag.”
    “I think it was the wrong cat,” Sharon admitted sheepishly. “His truck was seen at your house at night and people—um—got the wrong idea.”
    Mary felt blank. “What wrong idea?”
    “Well, he’s big for his age and all.”
    Still Mary didn’t understand, until Sharon blushed hotly. Then comprehension burst on her brain like a flash, and horror filled her, followed swiftly by anger. “They think I’m having an affair with a sixteen-year-old boy ?” Her voice rose with each word.
    “It was late at night when his truck was seen,” Sharon added, looking miserable.
    “Joe leaves promptly at nine o’clock. Someone’s idea of ‘late’ differs from mine.” Mary stood and began shoving papers into her tote, her nostrils flaring, her cheeks white. The awful thing was that she had to simmer until seven o’clock that night, but she didn’t think waiting would cool her temper. If anything, pressure would build. She felt savage, not only because her reputation had been impugned, but because Joe had also been attacked. He was trying desperately to make his dreams come true, and people were trying to tear him down. She wasn’t a hen fussing with one chick; she was a tigress with one cub, and that cub had been threatened. It didn’t matter that the cub was seven inches taller than she and outweighed her by almost eighty pounds; Joe, for all his unusual maturity, was still young and vulnerable. The father had disdained her protection, but there was no power on earth that could stop her from defending the son.
    Evidently word had spread, because the school board meeting was unusually crowded that night. There were six members of the board: Mr. Hearst, who owned the general store; Francie Beecham, an eighty-one-year-old former teacher; Walton Is by, the bank president; Harlon Keschel, who owned the combination drugstore/hamburger joint; Eli Baugh, a local rancher whose daughter, Jackie, was in Mary’s class; and Cicely Karr, who owned the service station. All of the board members were solid members of the small community, all of them property owners, and all of them except Francie Beecham had stony faces.
    The board meeting was held in Dottie’s classroom, and extra desks were brought from Mary’s classroom so there would be enough seats for everyone, an indication of how many people felt it necessary to attend. Mary was certain that at least one parent of each of her students was present. As she entered the room, every eye turned toward her. The women looked indignant; the men looked both hostile and speculative, and that made Mary even angrier. What right did they have to look down on her for her supposed sins, while at the same time they were wondering about the details?
    Leaning against the wall was a tall man in a khaki deputy sheriff’s uniform, watching her with narrowed eyes, and she wondered if they meant to have her arrested for sexual misconduct. It was ridiculous! If she had looked anything other than exactly what she was, a slight, mousy old maid, their suspicions would at least have made more sense. She poked an errant strand of hair back into the knot at the back of her head, sat down and folded her arms, intending to let them make the first