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"What?" I cried, looking again at Mrs. Randle, who had her head lowered and was scribbling rapidly on her notepad. "What location?"
"'Number two, she has willfully and knowingly participated in immoral behavior on school property while under school supervision.' "
"Immoral behavior?"
"The above charges will be levied and adjudicated at a formal expulsion hearing this afternoon at four P.M. in this office."
She lowered the papers and then her glasses.
"I am to instruct you as to our procedure. A panel consisting of two faculty members and your student body president, Deborah Peck, will hear the charges and the proofs and render judgment. I will oversee the proceedings, of course."
"What charges? What proofs?"
"I've read you the charges," she said.
"I haven't heard anything specific. Where am I supposed to have gone that's off-limits on the campus? The mansion? Is that what this is about?" I demanded. Her cheeks reddened as she shot a quick glance at Mrs. Randle and then looked at me.
"Hardly," she replied. "You were seen at the boathouse after hours."
"Boathouse?"
"Where you went to have an illicit rendezvous with an employee, Buck Dardar."
"What? Who saw me?"
"A member of this faculty, a well-respected, long-time member of this faculty, I might add."
"Who? Can't I know the name of my accuser?" I demanded when she hesitated.
"Mrs. Gray, your Latin teacher. So there is no question she would be able to recognize you," she concluded.
I shook my head. "When?"
She looked at the papers as if it was a great effort to do so and said, "You were seen entering the boathouse at seven-thirty last night."
"Last night?"
"And you remained after curfew," she added. "The remaining details of Mrs. Gray's testimony will be given at the formal hearing."
"It's a mistaken identity. I couldn't have been in the boathouse at seven-thirty last night. Just call Buck in here and ask him," I advised.
She smirked. "Don't you think I had enough sense to do just that? He was called in here first thing this morning, and he did write out a confession," she said, holding up another document, "corroborating what our eyewitness saw."
"No," I said, shaking my head. "He's mistaken or he's lying. You'll see when he comes to the hearing and sees me and realizes . . ."
"Buck Dardar is no longer on these grounds. He has been relieved of his duties and he has already left the school," she said.
"What? He's been fired because of these false charges against me? But that's not fair."
"I assure you," she said, smiling coldly, "he thought my offer to him was quite fair. You girls are all under age. If not for the potential scandal, I would have turned him over to the police."
"But this isn't true. Just ask your aunt where I was last night."
"My aunt?" She pulled herself in like an accordion. "You want me to involve Mrs. Clairborne in this loathsome and vulgar affair? How dare you suggest such a thing. Is there no bottom to the depth of your immorality?"
"But I was at the mansion last night, and I was back in the dorm well before the curfew."
"I assure you," Mrs. Ironwood said slowly, "Mrs. Clairborne would never consent to give such testimony." She looked so confident and smug about it.
