20 | The Good Shepherd

**SIENNA**


Harper went on to narrate the incidents of the night he had rescued her from drowning in a faraway lake. The teenage Harper was convinced that she could not live anymore. Her foster parents were jerks, and so was their children. For the longest time, she struggled to find her place and failed. It was on Gabriel’s initiative that she was brought to Mount Academy and given the education and guidance she needed.
“I am so sorry, Harper,” I empathised. “How old were you?”
“Fifteen.” Her voice cracked slightly. “Everyone had told me that I was a colossal disappointment. Every foster home and every school I have been through told me the same that I was a complete failure. They never saw through the problem.”
“What problem?”
I noticed how she wrung her hands and averted her gaze. Whatever she had gone through left a lasting impression on her mental health. My fifteenth year was no better with no help from the family, so I understood where she came from.
“I am dyslexic,” she revealed. “I have difficulty in catching up lessons, unlike the rest of the students in the class.”
My brain tried to slot the episodes one after the other. The first time I had met Harper in the library, she was compulsively arranging the books on the shelves even though she had no idea how they would fit. And thereafter, she had always behaved differently.
“Is that why he gives you the special lessons?” I asked. I have rarely seen Harper attending regular classes and mostly with Gabriel preparing her papers. Now it all made sense.
“Yes. Father Sullivan has been doing that since I was fifteen. He’d tried his level best to bring me up to speed. So, whatever I’d fail to catch up in class, especially maths and science, he always helps me deal with it separately.”
“Holy shit.” That was the only reaction I could afford at the time.
“What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head, almost whispering in shock. “He is a good man.”
Harper’s shrug came out causal. “I told you.”

***

Even though Harper saved me from the embarrassment at the dining hall, the classes turned out to be a nightmare. The sneers and snarks were just becoming too much for me to handle. Another day, I would have crushed them. But the loss of my mother’s pendant was a little too much, along with the wealth of generosity of Gabriel.
Speaking of, I did not see Gabriel for the rest of the day.
He was at the Mass, reading out the homily, and as soon as it got over, he disappeared. I didn’t even get a chance to have a talk to him, not that we had anything grand to discuss. But after what I had heard from Harper, I just wanted to know more about him.
There was another side to his persona, something that he had hidden from the world, and it differed so much from the man he depicted himself to be that I wanted to tear off the mask from his face.
When the school got over, and I burst through the doors, it was raining. Dark clouds congregated in the sky as flashes of lightning lit up every now and then. I wrapped my cardigan tighter against myself and bolted through the storm towards his rectory.
It was the most mind-numbing thing I have done in a while, but I didn’t care. I paced towards my destination, feeling the ice-cold downpour against my skin. It drenched me completely, shivers chasing down my spine, but my steps didn’t falter.
By the time I had reached his rectory quarters, I was cold and soaked to the bone and numbed with pain. Without thinking of the consequences of a student banging on her teacher's door, I reached for him and knocked.
I simply had nowhere to go but to him.
As soon as the door opened, my heart sank down to my stomach with a thud. I felt the charge in the air as my eyes clashed with his, and the intensity around us crackled like the thunderstorm outside.
Faded blue jeans, casual sweatshirt, and messy hair.
If it was not for his mercurial blue eyes, I would not have recognised this man. And with the collar no longer adorning his neck, he looked different. And desirable.
Not forbidden anymore.
What the hell was I thinking?
“Gabriel,” I whispered his name in reverence.
He raked me up and down with wide eyes but quickly recovered from the initial jolt. A strong hand reached out to grab my arm and pulled me inside the room before locking the door and turning around.
“What is wrong with you?” He uttered in shock. “Jesus, you are drenched from head to toe. Wait here.”
I was too lost to speak, standing in the middle of his utilitarian room with water dripping down my body.
Gabriel appeared in less than ten seconds with a big towel in hand and quickly wrapped me in it. “Here, let the water get soaked.”
Since my fingers were unresponsive from the cold, I barely held the ends of the towel while he went ahead and dried my hair.
“Sorry,” I mumbled. “It was raining cats and dogs…and…”
“And?”
I looked down, carefully avoiding his penetrating gaze. “I wanted to see you.”
Gabriel put a finger under my chin and coerced my gaze on him. His eyes studied my face, scrutinising every expression in detail. “Is there something wrong? Did anyone bother you again?”
“No, no, that’s not it.” I shook my head, fumbling for words. The truth was, *I just wanted to see him*. Without a reason. But I did not want to admit it like a fool. Instead, I came up with a frivolous excuse.
“I…is it true whatever Harper had told me?” I asked him. “That you saved her from death and then brought her here to give her all the education and help she needed to get through?”
Gabriel stared at me for a long, unblinking moment. “You came to me, *soaked* and *drenched* in the rain, to ask me about that?”
“Just tell me.”
He shrugged, rubbing his angled jaw. The more I saw him, the more I knew about him. I was slowly becoming aware of the man he was than the priest. He was honed and trained into perfection and vibrant.
“It is true,” he admitted solemnly. “Harper is a bright kid who just needed some care and guidance. Once she had that, she built her life from the ashes.”
I clutched the towel tighter against my body as the cold shook me from within. “You are not exactly the tyrant you portray yourself to be.”
Icy blue eyes narrowed at me. “I am the headmaster who runs this school. And right now, I am thoroughly pissed at you for being so careless. The longer you stay in these clothes, you will catch a damn cold.”
“I will manage.”
“Miss Emerson, be careful that I will not allow you to miss school under the pretext of illness,” he warned me in his quintessential tone. “Once you’d recover, you’d have to take up extra classes on weekends with me. Trust me, you don’t want to study the whole weekend.”
I smiled. “Trust me, you don’t want to ruin your weekends with me. I will drive you crazy.”
I watched his expression soften as he closed the bare minimum distance between us and murmured, “You already do.” His fingers lifted my chin once again, this time inspecting the cut on my lips. It was still swollen but better. “Does it still hurt?”
“Not as bad,” I said. But this was also a glaring reminder of the pendant I lost. “I wish I could just repair the pendant, though.”
“I am sorry about that.”
“It’s not your fault. Speaking of, I could not find Irene and Eva after the Mass today. Weren’t they supposed to see you afterwards?”
His finger let go of my chin as his face shrouded in impassivity. Gabriel just wanted to avoid the conversation. “You don’t have to worry about them,” he answered vaguely. “Miss Hutchins and Miss Porter were dealt with according to their roles in the crime. Mount Carmel doesn’t encourage invading other’s privacy and destroying their belongings. It was unacceptable.”
“But you didn’t exactly answer my question.”
“I am not obliged to.”
“Seriously?” I almost rolled my eyes at him. “You are going to behave like a jerk again?”
“Your tongue is a sharp thing, girl. One day, you will land in trouble for that. But for now, you should…”
I quickly pleaded with him with my eyes. “I don’t want to go back to the dorm now. Please don’t make me leave.” I didn’t care how desperate I sounded but going back was not an option.
“I am not sending you back,” he disclosed, surprising me. “Wait here.”
Gabriel disappeared for a second time before returning with a long black shirt in his hand. He slid the towel out of my grip and thrust the shirt into my hands, dictating his wish. “I want you out of these wet clothes and put this on. It will suffice your modesty.”
*Did he really think I cared about my modesty right now? If not anything, his presence alone sparked some immodest thoughts inside my head.*
So, I could not resist but laugh at his words. “I have worn far less in public, but thanks.”
I tried to walk past him, but he grabbed me with such ferocity, it rattled me to the bone.