Chapter 7 #2
“I’ve not asked her yet, but I’m going to today.
She’ll say yes because she loves me. She doesn’t even like you, so it’s doubtful if you asked her nicely to be your mistress, she’d agree.
” He said he had a good job and was considered a good catch.
“You had a job. The board of Education fired you the day you were arrested. They’ve also done an extensive background check on you and found that you’d hurt women before. ”
“That’s all water under the bridge. She wanted some time off to get married, and I didn’t have a sub lined up to take her place.
She argued with me, and I can’t stand that.
” He asked why he’d not had anyone there for her.
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I forgot about it.
She didn’t need to get married anyway. She was a good teacher, and we all know what would have happened had she gotten married.
She would have wanted time off to have a baby, and that would have been something else that I would have had to do.
No, she was better off not getting married. ”
“She did get married and has two wonderful kids. Last I heard, she was no longer teaching but talking to others who had been abused by their bosses. That would be about you in the event that you didn’t get that.
” He waved him off and asked about his job.
“You’ve been fired and will no longer be able to have any sort of teaching position at any school so long as you live.
You might say that you’ve been blackmarked against.”
“What does Elaine get out of this? Hopefully, she got herself blackmarked, too.” He told him what was going on with her job.
“That’s not fair. How does she get to keep her job?
” He thought about that for a moment. “I suppose that it doesn’t matter as she’s going to be my mistress anyway.
Having her work would be something that I’d have to keep an eye on her all the time.
That’s not going to work when I’m paying for everything. ”
“You have a real hard on for her being your mistress, don’t you?
Why? It’s doubtful that you’d be able to survive when she was pissed off at you.
Which would be all the time if you pull that crap on her like beating her up again.
” He said that she’d learn. “Doubtful. The only person that would have to learn would be you, and it’s doubtful that you’d learn all that much when she starts laying down the law. ”
“We’ll see.” He told him it was all water under the bridge anyway, as she wasn’t going to be his mistress.
“Again, we’ll see. I know what women like her need.
I suppose you’ve been pampering her with her every whim.
I’m not going to be doing that, so she might as well get that thought right out of her head. ”
“Like I said, the only person that would learn anything by this supposed relationship that you’ve made up in your mind is you.
” Erickson stood up, and so did he. “I only came here to tell you that she’s going to be my wife soon, and for you to back off.
Not that I think you’ll be getting out of jail in the near future. ”
After he left him, taking his chair with him, he thought about what he’d said.
Not getting out of jail soon was something that bothered him.
How was that possible? He’d done nothing wrong that would warrant him being in trouble.
Like he’d been thinking all along, she’d beaten him up as much as he’d done her.
However, she was free to go about her business like nothing had happened to him.
Then there was the fact that he thought that he was going to marry her.
That wasn’t right, as he’d wanted her to be his mistress all along.
Since she’d first come into his office. He knew now that he should have made his intentions clear then, but then she might not have taken the job.
Some women didn’t want to be reminded that they needed a man to take care of them all the time.
He’d have to think on that some more to get it in his head how to best figure out how to make sure she understood that he’d been there for her first. Damn it all to heck and back, this wasn’t fair, and he didn’t like it.
~*~
Elaine was getting around well now. Walking the hallways, she could get about halfway around before she had to turn and walk back.
She’d forgotten about that on the first day; that however far she walked, she was going to have to walk back to her room too.
She’d had to have them take her back in a wheelchair because she’d been so shaky that she knew that she’d fall if she had to go back the way that she’d come.
She could see now, too. Not all that much, but enough to know that she was walking on a tile floor that was green and white and that the halls were the same color.
Seeing Knox was a real treat as well since she’d been missing him so much when he’d been gone.
Today, he had gone to see David, and she wondered how that had gone.
He was going to tell him that they were getting married.
He’d never asked her if she’d marry him, but if he had, she’d say yes.
They’d become very knowledgeable about one another, and she loved it when he told her stories of Martha.
She sounded like the type of person that she would have liked and more than likely loved as much as she had her own mom.
Her mom had passed away when she was thirteen.
While she’d never known her father when she was growing up, they’d never married, she did go and live with him when she’d been orphaned so young.
He’d treated her well, but they never really had a good relationship like she did with her mom, and that had been all right too.
She left home when she was eighteen and had never contacted him again. For all she knew, he could be dead now.
Knox was in her room when she got back from her evening walk. “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.” He told her things hadn’t gone well with David. “I’m sorry, but I did warn you. He’s not a nice person to have to deal with. I know that firsthand.”
“You do.” He kissed her on her mouth, which was healing more daily.
“He wants you as his mistress and is upset that you’re getting married.
Speaking of which.” He got down on one knee, and she wanted to cry tears of happiness.
“Will you do me the honor of being my wife forever? Will you allow me to pamper you and be pampered by you when I need it? Have children with me? Raise them to be good men and women? Will you please marry me so that I can feel whole?”
“Yes.” He slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her hand. She could see that it was bright, but not too much more than that. “You’ll have to tell me what it looks like. I can’t see it through all my tears.”
“It’s a white diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds.
It’s a wide band, as I’m sure you can feel.
Martha gave it to me when she passed away.
I only saw her wear it on special occasions, but when she did, it made her shine with happiness.
I think perhaps she bought it for herself so that she’d have something pretty to wear when she went out.
I know that she wore it to my graduation when I got out of college.
” She kissed him, careful of her still-healing lips.
The swelling was going down on them as well, but they were still cut up.
It would be three weeks or more before she was able to get the stitches out.
“I think it makes you shine more than it did her.”
“Thank you so much.” She asked about David. “How does he think it’s going to work with us being married soon if I’m to be his mistress? I’m assuming that he has a plan.”
“I think he just likes the way the word mistress rolls off his tongue. He has it in his head that you’re going to be waiting on him to come to you with bated breath.
And if you get out of hand, you can’t hit him back, but he can pop you in the mouth was his exact words.
He forgot that you were trained in combat duty when you were in the service and thinks that you fight unfairly.
I nearly burst out laughing at that.” She asked about his plans for a job and how he was going to pay for a mistress.
“I think he believes he’ll be able to con his way back into his job.
He also thinks it’s unfair that you didn’t get put in jail for knocking him around. ”
“He’s an idiot.” Knox agreed with her. “I’m sure that he thinks that his wife is going to be all right with him having a mistress too.
” Knox told her how she’d left them. “Then I’d not be a mistress if he’s not married.
See? He’s an idiot. I wonder where he got it into his head that I’d be okay with being his mistress?
Surely not from anything that I said during my interview. ”
“Who knows how his mind works. I told him how he was going to be spending a lot of jail time, and he didn’t seem to get that.
Zander said that he’d sue him for attempted murder if nothing else.
The fact that you fought back will have no bearing on the court proceedings at all.
” She asked about her being in the hospital and how that had any bearing on his getting put in prison.
“It will play a big part in it. You’ve been hospitalized for three weeks now, and it looks like it might be a couple of more.
A month in the hospital because you wouldn’t be his mistress is a goodly amount of time for any reason. ”
The two of them talked about what kind of wedding she wanted, and she told him that the courthouse was fine by her. She didn’t need nor want a big fancy wedding when going to the courthouse would do the same thing. He asked her if she’d miss it later.