Eve looked down at the rug. “I’d rather not say,” she mumbled.
“Then you did see something?”
“Please, Mrs. Chandler…”
“Eve, Alexandra could havé been seriously hurt. The girl who did this must be punished so that it does not happen again.”
“It wasn’t one of the girls.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was Tommy.”
“The groom?”
“Yes, ma’am. I saw him. I thought he was just tightening the cinch. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm. Alexandra orders him around a lot, and I guess he wanted to teach her a lesson. Oh, Mrs. Chandler, I wish you hadn’t made me tell you. I don’t want to get anyone in trouble.” The poor child was on the verge of hysteria.
Mrs. Chandler walked around the desk and put her arm around her. “It’s all right, Eve. You did right to tell me. Now you just forget about everything. I’ll take care of it.”
The following morning when the girls went out to the stables, there was a new groom.
A few months later, there was another unpleasant incident at the school. Several of the girls had been caught smoking marijuana and one of them accused Eve of supplying it and selling it. Eve angrily denied it. A search by Mrs. Chandler revealed marijuana hidden in Alexandra’s locker.
“I don’t believe she did it,” Eve said stoutly. “Someone put it there. I know it.”
An account of the incident was sent to Kate by the headmistress, and Kate admired Eve’s loyalty in shielding her sister. She was a McGregor, all right.
On the twins’ fifteenth birthday, Kate took them to the estate in South Carolina, where she gave a large party for them. It was not too early to see to it that Eve was exposed to the proper young men, and every eligible young man around was invited to the girls’ party.
The boys were at the awkward age where they were not yet seriously interested in girls, but Kate made it her business to see that acquaintances were made and friendships formed. Somewhere among these young boys could be the man in Eve’s future, the future of Kruger-Brent, Ltd.
Alexandra did not enjoy parties, but she always pretended she was having a good time in order not to disappoint her grandmother. Eve adored parties. She loved dressing up, being admired. Alexandra preferred reading and painting. She spent hours looking at her father’s paintings at Dark Harbor, and she wished she could have known him before he became ill. He appeared at the house on holidays with his male companion, but Alexandra found it impossible to reach her father. He was a pleasant, amiable stranger who wanted to please, but had nothing to say. Their grandfather, Frederick Hoffman, lived in Germany, but was ill. The twins seldom saw him.
In her second year at school, Eve became pregnant. For several weeks she had been pale and listless and had missed some morning classes. When she began to have frequent periods of nausea, she was sent to the infirmary and examined. Mrs. Chandler had been hastily summoned.
“Eve is pregnant,” the doctor told her.
“But—that’s impossible! How could it have happened?”
The doctor replied mildly, “In the usual fashion, I would presume.”
“But she’s just a child.”
“Well, this child is going to be a mother.”
Eve bravely refused to talk. “I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” she kept saying.
It was the kind of answer Mrs. Chandler expected from Eve.
“Eve, dear, you must tell me what happened.”
And so at last Eve broke down. “I was raped,” she said, and burst into tears.
Mrs. Chandler was shocked. She held Eve’s trembling body close to her and demanded, “Who was it?”
“Mr. Parkinson.”
Her English teacher.
If it had been anyone else but Eve, Mrs. Chandler would not have believed it. Joseph Parkinson was a quiet man with a wife and three children. He had taught at Briarcrest School for eight years, and he was the last one Mrs. Chandler would have ever suspected. She called him into her office, and she knew instantly that Eve had told the truth. He sat facing her, his face twitching with nervousness.