Chapter 18

The next day as they arrived, a young woman came up and asked to speak to Miss Pritchard, alone. She moved away and spoke, clearly it was some matter of import for Andrea became more and more animated. Then they came back. “Go on, do not fear. Tell Mr Small!”

“Well, sir. It’s just that, well. My mother, she ... My father has deserted us, you see. She ... I don’t...”

“The bursar has blackmailed this girl’s mother to have relations with him because she cannot pay the fees. The bursar, yesterday suggested that he will offer a similar deal to her to cover her sister’s fees. It is horrendous. It is unconscionable!”

“It is, but it is also her word against his. And she will be disregarded as a silly young thing, and her mother will be dismissed as a woman of low morals. I do not defend any of this! How old is your sister?” said Jack

“Twelve, sir”

“And you”

“Seventeen, sir.” Putting his objective hat on, he could see the attraction, but it was clearly unprofessional to prey on pupils. He believed her absolutely. There had been a school in Yorkshire he had heard of where a similar ‘arrangement’ had been in place. The South Riding Inspector had noticed a higher than average number of unmarried mothers leaving that school and had investigated. “School Inspectors Monthly” had held it up as a brilliant statistical investigation. Now Jack was involved in a depraved story all of his own. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy seeing the young charges in their natural state on occasion, neither that he did not enjoy coitus with young women; but forcing women in the way described was not something he would ever approve, even if it ensured girls got a good education.

“I fear we must catch him in the act. Are you brave? Do you want us to deal with this? You need fear nothing will redound on yourself.” she nodded “We shall have to stay for the woodwork. At lunchtime I shall ensure we have a room, I mean rooms, for the night from that stu- I mean from that boy.” Jack was not looking forward to spending another night sharing with Miss Pritchard, she was attractive, with long wavy locks of hair. He would have to be very strong willed. “Well then, tell him you agree. I shall procure the key to the gym, from the pupils changing area. We shall say we wish to see them when there is no danger of offending any girls. Tell him that it has to be tonight else you will lose courage and refuse. If he is the kind of man you say – and I do not doubt you – then he will agree. The gym in the evening would be a good place for such a liaison would it not? Forgive me, that is not a question I should ask you. We shall be in place before you are, never fear, and shall interrupt before it goes too far. Trust us.”

She was taking an enormous risk. If it went wrong, these two inspectors might deny all to salvage their own reputations, but what choice did she have? She went to the bursar and explained that it had to be tonight, that she would run away from school and drown herself if she had to think about it for another night. The bursar’s face, if it had been seen by anyone by the girl, was a picture of evil and lascivious greed mixed with delight at the prospect. As Jack Small surmised, he agreed.

They watched the woodwork for a while with a slightly detached air. It was, they both agreed, impressive that the school could teach such skills. Then, as the school quietened down; they stole along to the girls’ changing room, locked the door to the corridor and the door to the gym, and waited. Half an hour passed and then the doors at the far end opened. The gym doors were not an exact fit, and in the pale moonlight from the high windows, they could both see through the crack between the doors – though it brought them into very close contact at face and hip level. Bursar Michael Percy Tebay came in, pulling a clearly slightly unwilling girl. She had been coached, carefully. Thankfully, she was not so innocent as some in the school. Andrea had explained how she must agree and then start to become increasingly unwilling. Once in the gym, she must say she had changed her mind and attempt to leave. She must say, loudly, so they could hear, that she refused his advances. That was essential. They were banking on the bursar by now not taking no for an answer. He must be left with no room to say that she had agreed to him having sex with her. Despicable as that might be, she was seventeen and it would not actually be illegal.

And so it proved. The girl said “I’ve changed my mind! I can’t do this! We will leave the school instead and I shall keep my honour!” A nice touch to loudly mention her honour, thought Jack, let there be no doubt that she is a virgin.

“Oh, don’t be silly. You’ve come this far!” replied Mr Tebay, a man three or four times older than she. “It won’t hurt much, and you’ll have saved your sister. If you refuse, I shall invite your sister to submit instead. She’s a pretty little thing is she not? She might be willing to give herself to save you.” Jack began to seethe with anger at this man. The bursar walked to the door they had entered by, and locked it. Then he came down to where the two were hiding and tested their door. “Now, we shan’t be disturbed, shall we?” The girl made a half-hearted attempt to escape, was caught, and dragged to the coconut mats where he tore open her blouse. That was what they had been waiting for. There was the proof of violence.

Quietly they unlocked the gym door and entered into the darkened hall; by that time Tebay had already forced up the girl’s skirt, she was whimpering. It was no longer acting, she was terrified. Jack grabbed Tebay’s arm and wrenched it back, round and up. “Stand up! You monster. It’s alright, my dear, we heard you calling as we passed the entrance. Miss Pritchard, if you will.” As if by chance, Miss Pritchard was carrying a large towel, she would say she had picked it up in the changing rooms. She enveloped the girl’s exposed chest and re-arranged her skirt.

“It isn’t what it seems.” said the bursar. “She suggested she wanted to show me some damaged equipment, and then she ripped open her shirt and tried to seduce me. I resisted, as you can see.”

“Nice try, Tebay. Let’s go and see if the head believes it, because I do not.” Though, already, he could see that a respectable jury of men might choose to believe such a tissue of lies and accept that the pretty young girl had the hots for an ageing, balding man like Tebay.

“The head will be having his dinner, he will not wish to be disturbed, I assure you, over such a trifling matter. Perhaps we should say no more about it urrrgh!” the girl had recovered her wits and had launched a hard kick at the man’s groin. It connected, but not well. “You see! She is quite hysterical!”

“No more of that. This man must be dealt with properly.” said Jack Small. He marched his prisoner to the door.

“I don’t understand! That door was locked.” remonstrated the bursar, which was damning evidence of his plans. They walked through the school, with Small warning him that his arm would break if necessary. The girl and Miss Pritchard, he sent a different way to write everything they each knew and heard and did; it was essential to have all the information independently verified; Small would write his version soon too. He knocked loudly on the headmaster’s house door; then knocked again. Mrs Andrews came to the door.

“Can I help you? Is there a problem? It is very late, we were just having dinner.”

“Apologies for the lateness. We need to see the Doctor Andrews on a very important matter.”

Shown into the head’s study, they waited, the bursar dropped into a chair and told not to move. Andrews came in, took one look at the two and said “Oh, Percy, not again!”

“You knew? You knew and kept him on?”

“Knew what?” asked Mrs Andrews, standing at the door. “KNEW WHAT!?” Doctor Andrews had been about to shoo her out, but she could tell this was important.

“This beast had been preying on women who cannot pay their bills, and on girls too. And apparently, I’m sorry to say, your husband knew. A girl is currently writing her statement, and Miss Pritchard is writing how we heard and saw him trying to ... I’m sorry to be blunt ... trying to rape the girl.”

Mrs Andrews looked liked she was about to explode. “And you knew Phineas?” he didn’t need to answer. It had happened before and Tebay had promised to stop. Andrews had not enquired too carefully whether he had kept his promise. They were friends from school and had gone up to the same college together; his loyalty to his friend had been stronger than his responsibility to his charges.