28 | Love Thy Friend

**SIENNA**

For the first time in my life, I experienced that fear could take away the possibility of rational thinking. Standing there and looking at Gabriel gave me that feeling.
The black attire, which was somewhat synonymous with his clerical status, was looking like a devil’s outfit, waiting to consume us as a whole. The grey of his eyes was dark and stormy, and that barely leashed temper ticked a side of his temple like a warning.
“It’s not what you think,” I stuttered, unable to think of anything else.
Beads of sweat crowded my forehead while goosebumps decorated my skin. Beside me, Harper was simply pale and frozen in shock. Shit! I should not have brought her along with me. It was such a good idea, to begin with!
What the hell was I thinking?
“Please explain—” He took a few menacing steps forward and then stood with his feet apart and hands behind his back. The aura of power he exuded was enough to make us gulp in dread. “What god-forbidden excuse do you have for entering my chamber without permission and then going through my things?”
*Think, Sienna, think…*
“The door…was open, and…I was looking for…” *Goddamnit*!
“You were looking for what, Miss Emerson?” he prompted with an arched brow. Evidently, the jerk-hole was enjoying this.
“My…my phone.” It was the only thing that crossed my mind as I groped for coherent words. “Look, I am really sorry, but it has been so long without my gadgets that I could not help. I am too addicted to social media.”
I have probably forgotten about my Facebook and Instagram account by now.
His dark gaze silently assessed me and then slid towards Harper.
“What’s going on, Harper?” he asked. She was still in shock and mute.
“I told you…”
“Shut up!” He roared so thunderously that I almost stumbled a few steps back. “You will speak when you are spoken to, Miss Emerson. And if I have to repeat myself, you will pay a severe price. Harper, I have asked you something.”
I did not think that Harper would be able to say anything, and I could not be more right when she burst into tears.
“I am sorry,” she sniffed, hanging her head as if she has just murdered someone. But I get where she was coming from.
“I am sure you are.” He sighed, taking pity on her and softening his tone a little. “But you will tell me what I want to know.”
I just could not help myself and cut in. “She doesn’t know.”
The stormy eyes squinted so hard that they turned into slits. “What did I just tell you?”
“Yelling at her won’t help, Gabriel!” I huffed an exasperated breath. “Harper doesn’t know anything. I have just dragged her in here…so she has no fault at all.”
Despite the fear crawling into my nerves like a snake, I had to save Harper. I did not care what he’d do to me, but I would not throw my friend under the bus.
And he was an asshole, through and through. He knew that I would not crack under pressure and deliberately shifted his focus on her.
“Harper, did you know that breaking into my office, for whatever purpose, was wrong?” His tone was rather firm than scary, but it did not have any lesser effect on her. She was still a mess.
“Yes, Father,” she answered demurely.
“Did Miss Emerson blackmail you?”
“No.”
“Did she threaten you?”
“No.”
Once again, I tried to interrupt, but he silenced me with a scathing look.
“So, in my understanding, you came here on your own accord. Am I right?”
“Yes, Father.”
“I believe that’s enough to account for a transgression.”
“I am sorry. I am really…sorry.” Harper broke down in earnest, and I really felt bad for putting her in such a precarious position.
“I never thought that you would be in my office for punishment, Harper. You are the most well-behaved and sincere student I have ever seen, and the fact you led yourself ashtray under the influence of another is shameful. I am highly disappointed in you.”
The douchebag kept hammering the poor girl for no reason, and whatever little intimidation I felt was fast morphing into anger. Gabriel’s anger was misplaced, and he was simply pissed at what happened at the confessional.
And I have a strong urge of showing him what I was capable of.
“I know, and I don’t have words to show my contrition, Father.” Harper hiccupped in between her sobs. “I will take whatever punishment you deem fit.”
*What the hell!*
Father Sullivan threw me a fleeting glance before reaching into his pocket and retrieving something. Then, he tossed it towards us, and as I caught it, I saw a key. “Since you both were so interested in unlocking the cupboard, why don’t you go ahead and do it,” he encouraged. “C’mon, open it.”
Harper was still trembling from the force of his voice while I kept up my scowl. Now, I was having a bad feeling about this because whatever was inside it would not be of any use to me.
Still, I turned around and unlocked it. And the display of contents was jarring to my senses. There were at least seven or eight varieties of cane, ranging from the ones to the thick rods and a few other implements I could not recognise. But they looked as scary as the rattan materials.
“You can’t be serious, Gabriel.” I gasped, whirling around to face him.
“That’s twice I have warned you now,” he reminded. “You really don’t seem to catch a clue, do you?”
Courage was slowly giving away to a growing fear in my belly, and I wondered how long I would be able to hold myself.
“You can’t just hit us with a…with a cane!” I practically shrieked. “Is that even legal?”
“Go ahead, teach me the law, Miss Emerson.” He crossed his arms in front and smirked. “And once you are done, I will show how I run this school under my law. And then you might definitely learn a thing or two about breaking into my office in my school.”
Okay, maybe, I did slip a little and broke the rules. But surely, the punishment did not fit the crime.
“Harper, you will go first.” He nodded towards the canes behind her back. “Miss Emerson should witness the consequences of her actions before she actually tastes the discipline.”
“Please, don’t make me do this,” Harper begged through her sniffles.
He hardened his look and steeled his voice. “Pick a cane and give it to me.”
Harper hesitated, but she knew that his tone brooked no argument at all. And she was not even a delinquent by a long shot. So it was perfectly understandable that she would easily snap under his pressure.
Gingerly, she turned around and reached for the wardrobe of canes. Too many choices, and each of them looked awful than the other. Hence, there was no right pick. It was like choosing a snake whose bite will be less stingy than the other.
“Three strikes,” he announced like a judicial decree. “One for lying, one for breaking into my office, and the last one should serve as a future reminder. So that I won’t have to repeat the lesson.”
Crestfallen, Harper was about to pass the cane she had randomly picked when I plucked it off her hands and block her path. I stood between her and the wicked douchebag, glaring at him in full measure.
“You will not hit her.”
He paused and then blinked. “Excuse me?”
Renewed courage flowed through my veins like adrenaline as I held my head high and matched his stormy eyes with the brand of my fire.
“I have already told you that she is innocent. Harper came here for me. So, if anyone’s guilty, it is me.”
We glared at each other for a long time. I knew that he was simmering behind that calm facade, the beast waiting to be unleashed. He could fool the world into believing that he was a man of the cloth, but not me.
“What are you doing?” Harper whispered, tugging the fabric of my shirt.
“I am not going to let you take the fall,” I hissed back.
“Friendship does agree with both of you.” A cryptic smile broke out on his lips as his eyes bounced between us. “In that case, you will take the additional three strikes on her behalf. What do you think about that, Miss Emerson?”
My throat closed up, and my heart dropped down to my stomach. As much as I wanted to save Harper, I did not know if I was capable of taking a caning. And that too additional strokes!
It was a *medieval* brand of punishment, for god’s sake!
“Fine.” I jutted out my chin because Sienna Emerson was not a bloody wuss. “I will volunteer for her.”
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**The amount of praises, comments and appreciation I have received for this story is just overwhleming, so THANK YOU SO MUCH, READERS! I took a slight risk of creating the forbidden theme between a Catholic priest and young girl, and I am glad for the feedback. Please keep the comments coming because it really feels special as an amateur author. <3**