Free History Lessons by Fiona Wilde Page A

bottom now and crying miserably.
    "Mr. Ellis, I just want to get along with people. I'm not like you. I need people in my life."
    He looked down. "Who says I don't need people in my life?" he asked.
    "You did," she said.
    "And you believe that?" he asked.
    He leaned down then and kissed her, his lips firm yet soft on hers. Then just as quickly, it seemed, he pulled away
    "Miss Primm," he said, turning away. "Forgive me. I forgot myself."
    Lucy stood there, stunned.
    "No," she said. "It's all right."
    "No, it's not. I'm your supervisor."
    She walked over to him, tentatively. "Yes. Yes, Mr. Ellis. And a very stern one. But you're also a human. And a man. There's no sin in admitting to needing to connect with other people."
    He turned to her, his eyes looking tortured.
    "Perhaps," he said. "But that doesn't excuse my taking advantage of you."
    She sighed. "I've been taken advantage of, Mr. Ellis. I know what it feels like. That's not what you did. It just....happened."
    "Look," he said. "I can understand if you don't trust me to take you home now."
    "Mr. Ellis!" She didn't mean to raise her voice to him. It just happened. He turned and looked and for a moment she feared he might spank her again.
    "I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to raise my voice. It's just that you're being rather exasperating. "I do trust you to take me home. In fact, I prefer it if you don't mind."
    He gave a small, relieved smile.
    "Very well then," he said.
    Lucy forgot the spanking then. Relief had replaced her pain, although she wasn't sure exactly why. Was she falling for this tall, strange man?
    Of course not, she told herself. He's your boss and what happened was just one of those weird, spontaneous things that weren't supposed to.
    The didn't talk on the way to the lot.
    At the preschool, Lucy went in to collect her son who had saved her a half-eaten cookie that he'd helped bake. He talked all the way home, and several times Lucy looked over to see Warren Ellis looking in the rearview mirror and grinning with amusement at his young passenger.
    Her car had been towed to the shop, so Warren Ellis pulled into her driveway.
    "Would you like to have dinner with us?" Keegan leaned forward in his car seat. "I'd like that. We never have boys over.
    Lucy fully expected him to decline, but instead he laughed. "Well, in that case...provided it's no trouble."
    "Not at all," Lucy said, surprised and pleased.
    While she cooked a quick dinner of potatoes and baked chicken Warren entertained Keegan in the living room.
    "Lincoln Logs," she said when she came into the doorway. "Now why doesn't this surprise me. He never played with them but he will now."
    Warren Ellis had constructed an entire village on their braided rug and was explaining to Keegan how people used to live in log cabins built on the same principle.
    "That was a long time ago," he informed the boy. "Way back before cars or television or computers."
    "Then we need to finish it!" Keegan jumped up and ran off to return a few moments later with an armful of dinosaurs.
    "You've got your work cut out for you," he whispered to Lucy as they watched the boy position a Tyrannosaurus Rex menacingly close to the cabin.
    "You have no idea," she said.
    They left him to play as Lucy finished dinner. When Warren offered to set the table she was surprised but accepted, finding the sight of a man in period costume laying out the Corelle plates highly ironic.
    Keegan talked all the way through dinner, despite Lucy's reminder that Mr. Ellis might want a word in edgewise. But the director of Hartford House didn't seem to mind, and Lucy was struck by how different he was here than there.
    Would this, she wonder, usher in a new phase of their working relationship. Now that he saw her as a full person - a mother and a worker - perhaps he wouldn't spank her anymore. The thought filled her with encouragement.
    After dinner he played with Keegan some more while she finished the dishes.
    "It's been lovely," he said later. "I