Room Wanted Ch. 03

Sorry USAF Vet, I come of the line of Shakespeare, Dickens, D H Lawrence, Adrian Mole, Mills and Boon...

Err...

Thanks for the compliment, I'll get their one day honest.

Aaaaanyway...

*****

"What's inappropriate about it?" she said, thinking of the last lovemaking session she'd had with Rob just two nights ago.

"Well if you can't see it Miss Williams, it's a good job we're having this chat with you."

"I'm sorry but both Rob and I are over eighteen, and we take great care not to even let the children know we are having a relationship."

"So you are having a sexual relationship with Mr Stanley?" The woman sounded shocked but the tiniest bit triumphant.

"Yes."

"Since when?"

"What difference does it make, we're adults. Is it against the law all of a sudden?"

"Please answer the question Miss Williams," said the woman with a sigh.

Naomi was a little surprised at this line of questioning. So far she hadn't actually been told what she was supposed to have done, and the large woman across from her didn't sound quite right. Almost like she was trying but just a bit too hard.

Her interrogator didn't look much like a social worker, not like the dozens that had come to the special school she worked in previously. They were general smiley, happy people that struggled to be hard on anyone and all wore jeans, floral print dresses, or long tops over leggings. This one was very large, her pudgy face almost resting its double chin on her bosom that appeared to stretch out from her shoulders at 20 degrees, and the large red and white printed dress hung from it straight down over her stomach and hips in a straight line downwards. There was no wedding ring on her pudgy hands and she could see that she bit her nails to the quick. Walking in she had noticed that the tall woman wore flat beige shoes that were to tight, so much so the plasters on her heels from previous blisters were evident.

The man whispered something into his colleague's ear and she did not like what he had said, and let him know. She snapped her head back to Naomi.

"Answer the question Miss Williams!" said the woman again now with a tone, the man looked askance at his colleague.

"Why?" said Naomi, "We are consenting adults in the privacy of a locked room an entire floor away from the next nearest human being."

The social worker pursed her lips in real annoyance, and she thought for a moment,

"Well that's where our stories differ Miss Williams," said the woman shuffling white sheets of foolscap paper and looking rather smug, "we have it on authority that you regularly allow Mr Stanley's children to come into your bedroom and you allow them to sleep in your room with you."

"What?" said Naomi in disbelief, "of course they come into my room, we live in the same house for heaven's sake."

"A grown and, by your own admission, a promiscuous woman and you let impressionable young children, some with disabilities come into your bedroom, to sleep in the same bed that you share with your landlord? That hardly sounds like the kind of thing a normal Nanny would do does it?" Naomi was about to remonstrate with 'promiscuous' but stopped when she heard the second description.

"Nanny?" said Naomi, "Who told you I was a nanny?" Her brain began to calculate.

The social worker stopped herself for a moment,

"Errr... nanny... maid... lodger... whatever," the woman recovered as quickly as she could, "Miss Williams the truth is you have made some very unwise choices about your behaviour since you moved in with the Stanley family." She withdrew a notebook, "you stripped down to your panties in the bathroom while with your lover and his nephew looked on - that doesn't sound much like day to day living to me."

"What?" she felt temporarily flustered, "Mattie had fallen and I got wet lifting him out of the bath, anyway I wasn't sleeping with Rob then." She looked down and realised that she had folded her arms defensively. Her chubby tormentor saw and carried on her attack.

"So you admit you were half naked in a bathroom with your 'lover'," she made the word sound filthy and Naomi winced, "and a sensitive young boy with Autism..."

"Matt doesn't have autism, he has cerebral palsy," said Naomi recovering some ground, "just where are you getting this shi..."

"And that makes such difference does it? Autism, cerebral palsy, bubonic plague?" The lady social worker's voice dripped with disbelief and disappointed derision, way too much Naomi thought, "You still stripped half naked in a bathroom with Mr Stanley and one of his two disabled sons. Next you have a rather inappropriate dress no better than lingerie made up by one of his adopted daughters; were you naked in front of her as well?"

Naomi thought about what answer she should give, the social worker interpreted the delay to her own ends. "And NEXT you're naked with Elizabeth and the black adopted one..." even Naomi could see tell the pause was calculated, "Coral?"

"Carla," snapped Naomi, "And yes I was, in the local leisure centre swimming pool changing rooms," she paused, "don't tell me, do I have to answer for the four other naked women and their children in the room as well?"

"Don't get fucking flippant with me Miss Williams," snarled the social worker.

Her male colleague was starting to go extremely red and was back whispering in his colleague's ear again.

"Yes it is Raymond," she growled at him, "if you don't have the stones to carry out this kind of investigation then go back to your old people for Christ's sake."

He whispered something else behind his hand, and she turned and did the same, both of them obviously cross with their colleague. He stood; Naomi stood too and looked at the woman.

"If Raymond goes, I go," she said, "something stinks in this so-called investigation and if he doesn't like it neither do I."

The woman stood, rolled her top lip in anger and started to press buttons on the recording machine snatching both of the CD's. Raymond left the room and Naomi felt vulnerable.

"I'll think you'll find one of those is mine," said Naomi holding out a slightly shaky hand. She didn't know either way but thought she'd try and gave it 100% confident, 'hand it over'.

"You'll have it when I say so Miss Williams, and not before." Said the woman, her confidence perhaps knocked by the departure of her colleague. "This investigation is currently informal and you don't have right of access..."

"Well you know what Miss... what is your name?" she realised that at no stage had the woman identified herself to anyone other than Dave Darnell. The man was outside and talking to a uniformed officer police officer, running a hand through his thin hair.

"My name is Bridges Miss Williams, Annabel Bridges," she held up her ID card hanging from a floral printed lanyard for Naomi to read the words herself, "and I'm starting to get a bit bored with your rather lackadaisical attitude to your landlords children and what freedoms you believe you are able to take with them just because their father happens to be shagging you."

Seeing the police officer talking to her colleagues the large lady social worker pulled the interview room door shut and got right into Naomi's face, "The reason my spineless colleague has run away is that he want's to throw the book at you; me? Believe it or not Miss Williams today I'm actually playing 'good cop' and I want to give you a break. So," she took a deep breath, "You say nothing, you do nothing, you do NOT discuss this with Dr Stanley because he's one of the good guys and we don't want him to go down with your sinking ship," Annabel Bridges leaned in close, "you so much as kiss one of those kids on the cheek without my say-so and so fucking help me I'll have you remanded in custody with all the of the fucking shoplifters and the drug dealers that will take great delight in beating the shit out of the child molester and then fisting you so hard you won't be able to sit down for a week or fuck a nice man like Dr Stanley. You so much as sniff at breaking the confidentiality of this meeting and I'll split that sweet little family into five directions at once and it'll be your fault, except for that druggie half-chat brat that seems to like you so much, she can go back into care..."

Carla going back into care, Naomi froze at just the thought.

"You leave them..."

She stepped right into Naomi's personal space and pushed a finger into her left cheek causing her to wince and try to take a pace back, but there was nowhere to go.

Annabel Bridges dropped her tone and with a look all teeth and attitude hissed, "That's it Miss fucking Williams, I am soooo fucking bored with you now. I STRONGLY suggest you find somewhere else to live A.S.A.F.P - and by that I mean you move out; tonight, you leave Mr Stanley and those children and move out..." She grinned a most hateful grin Naomi had ever seen, "and I don't mean move down the road, I STRONGLY suggest you move out of my whole - fucking - county... you fucking whore..." she growled right at the threshold of Naomi's hearing and so close she could smell her breath, "You fuck off right now and I'll make all of this shit go away." She waved her hands birdlike in the air, "All gone!" she trilled, "free and mostly clear, BUT If I find you are still living there or even worse still teaching sweet, good, honest children and infecting them with your sick fucking perversity in my country I promise that I will rescind your teaching certificate and have you sent down so fucking far and so fucking fast your feet won't touch; and once they let you out of prison and you can walk straight, you won't be able to get a job working with people that work with people that WORK with children - comprende? Bitch?"

"But..." said Naomi in a gasped whisper, tears streaming down her face, evidently to the delight of her torturer.

"Listen stupid," sighed Annabel Bridges, "I'll spell it out nice and simple for ya," She held out a hand touching each finger as she spoke, "GET... OUT... OF... MY COUNTY!" and then moved to the other hand, "AND... STAY... OUT... got it?" In studied hate the woman patted Naomi's cheek with no tenderness, "Well done!"

She collected her large red book and pages of loose notes and left the room, pushing Naomi back out of the way adding, "fucking school teachers, no wonder our education system is going down the fucking toilet..." as she left.

Naomi was at a loss for words. While she was stood dumbly trying to take on the threats from the social worker, both of them had disappeared from the front of the police station leaving her short of a lift back to with just her handbag and just enough change for a bus back to the school. She dried her cheeks and followed a police officer out of the station to stand on the brick steps, alone.

In a state of confused shock she somehow got back to the school with no real remembrance of the journey. The building was still open because of all the evening usage it received and she used her ID card to open her room. She had no idea how she got back to her the house or what time it was.

Back in familiar surroundings the fear hit home and she sat on the end of her bed and shook, hugging herself; and for the first time since she moved there she locked the door. She felt a slight rattle that was probably Carla trying the door, she heard a faint call and stuck her fingers in her ears.

She fell back on the bed, the social services DID know everything about her and Rob and they didn't like it. She knew she was innocent but the venom, the hateful threats scared her. The thought of those children she loved so much being spilt up tore her very soul and she couldn't move for the fear of it. Even with her mind ablaze she cried herself to sleep but after a while she felt the bed move, and she sprung up in shock.

"Well that sorts that at least," he said.

"What?" she looked at him through teary eyes.

"At least I know that you aren't pregnant," he held out his arms to her, and for once she didn't fall into them. "What's up honey?" he said, eyes narrowed.

'...Get out of my county' - those words wouldn't leave her head.

"Nothing," she said, "it's just..." she sniffed, thinking of what she now had to do to save this family, "I think it's time I moved on," she tried to grin but couldn't.

"What?" he said, "What... you mean..."

"Sorry Rob," she was just about in control of her emotions, "It's been great and all but I have to... you know..."

"No baby I don't... Look, tell me what's happened," he put a hand to her shoulder and she wriggled away from it.

"I've got to go Rob, I'm sorry... but..."

"You can't leave Naomi, you can't."

Naomi stood and walked to kitchen and looked through her cupboard for a glass hiding her pinched face struggling to hide her despair from Rob.

"Sorry Rob," she smiled but without much conviction.

"But... Nomes, Darling please," he carried on, "Carolyn is just getting used to being a kid again, Mattie is so much more alive than he's ever been, if Lizzie has to tell me to marry you one more time, she'll beat me with a stick," he paused, "You are the single best thing that has happened to Paul in his life, end of story. And Carla... well," he gulped, "if you go you'll either break Carla's heart or end up taking her with you which would break mine."

She burst into tears and this time she did fall into his arms. He guessed this was different,

"Tell me what's wrong," he said and she almost did.

"No!" she said, then calmed herself, "No, I'll be fine; I'll make myself some tea and then have an early night."

"Early night? Nomes, it's quarter past midnight honey, what has been going on with you?"

"Nothing..." she said, making it obvious that it was far from nothing.

"You didn't get home before half eight, and by the looks of you, you've been crying most of the night, you have to tell me Darling, I can't help you unless..."

And that was it; it struck her then, what the problem was. It was all going so well, now for some reason or another it was fucked up, all blown away and this particular problem had to the ability to see her drummed out of teaching - the one thing she'd trained for, most of her adult life. But worse, she couldn't take Rob or his wonderful family down with her.

She would get rid of Rob, pack what she could and contact Brother Pete and have him come collect her tomorrow morning once everyone had left for the day. Drive to Priors Park, resign and ask if she couldn't sleep on Pete's sofa, it was still in the county but if she kept quiet...

Then it was one long wait to see if the social services came after her.

She overslept; Rob must have put her to bed, and she hadn't put her mobile on to charge so didn't get her usual alarm call from it. Nor did she get the text message or phone calls from Lizzie, Carolyn or Rob, all really worried about her not appearing for breakfast or her walk to school.

She started to repack her stuff into her few bags, her heart breaking as she did so. Everywhere she looked there were reminders of this wonderful family she had to leave behind. She plugged her phone in and rang the school and spoke with Dave Darnell.

"Dave," she said trying to sound in control, barely. "It's Naomi, I have to err... resign..."

"Why!?!" he called out, "Why? What did they say? Naomi... what the hell have they said you did, what..."

"I'm sorry Dave, I don't have a choice it's... all a bit complicated..."

"Naomi listen..."

"Sorry Dave, when I get settled into my new digs, I'll write to you formally."

"New digs? What!?! What about Rob... Naomi, I want to see you before you do anything. No moving, no resigning, nothing. You stay there..."

"Dave, I can't..."

"Stay there!" he commanded.

It wasn't Dave Darnell that called to see her but Rob. He opened her bedroom door using the combination, and stood at the end of her bed looking at her things all over the place.

"Nomes," he said using a strong parental voice, "You have to tell me what's going on; I get a phone call from Darnell telling me that you've resigned after being taken away by social services yesterday, what's the matter?"

"I'm not allowed to discuss..."

"Nomes please, tell me. I trust you baby. Please."

"She told me..." Noami burst out, "She said If I talked to you about it, she'd have me remanded in custody and..." she shuddered, "and lots of horrible things. Police station, fingerprints, DNA, I've never been so scared in my life."

"Police station? What? What did they charge you with?"

"I don't know," she said, fat tears rolling down her face, "I don't think they charged me with anything."

"But they took you to the police station and took your DNA and fingerprints."

"Yes," she broke down, "I never did anything Rob," she pleaded, "you have to believe me."

"I..." he looked in shock as well now.

"You... you don't believe me either do you..."

"Nomes, I don't know anything, what are you supposed to have done for the police to have taken your DNA and fingerprints?"

"They had complaints that I'd been inappropriate with you and the children, I haven't Rob swear, I'd cut off my own hand before I did..."

He pulled her into a hug and she hung on him, relieved to feel his strong arms around her at last.

"Of course you didn't. I know that Darling," he pushed some of her clothes onto the floor and sat down, pulling her down with him, "Tell me everything that happened baby."

"But..."

"Darling, I have a Masters in Criminal Law and I'm on first name terms with the Chief Constable and extremely well acquainted with most of the Police senior officers in the county, and something about this stinks. Tell me everything." She did.

After a half hour of pain wracked discussion, he made her a cup of tea and insisted she lay down and rest. He would be back in an hour or so.

There was a loud thump at the door. She went down and it was the same lady social worker in another all covering print dress. Naomi didn't open the door and hid.

"I can see you! Out you co-ooome!" sang the woman, "You can open the door or so help me, I'll have the police here in ten minutes and they'll drag you out... No!" Naomi could hear the lift in the woman's voice, "I'll wait until the kids start to get back from school THEN we'll have you taken out - in handcuffs." She could hear the deep breath, "What's it going to be Naomi - I can drive you to the police station or they can drag you, there's always two ways of doing everything."

Naomi ran upstairs to the flat and locked herself in, the snatched up her phone and called Rob. He answered straight away.

"She's here," hissed Naomi.

"I'm at the police station Darling," he said, "do you trust me?"

"Y...yes."

"Go with her..."

The journey back to the police station was uneventful, and silent. She had walked out to the small scruffy car driven by the social worker, different to the one they'd gone in yesterday. Annabel Bridges wasn't the most confident of drivers, and while Naomi guessed she must have passed her test years ago, she still drove like she had just passed her test, without any of the bad habits most drivers have.

At the police station Naomi was interested to see not only Rob's people carrier, but Dave Darnell's rather scruffy looking racing green MG with the unmistakable taped together light cluster on the off-side rear.

She was taken into the front desk. The smiling duty officer seeing both lifted the flap and allowed them both through to the same interview room from the day before just along the corridor.

"Same room as yesterday Miss Bridges, door's open!"

Naomi walked in and Annabel Bridges slammed the door behind her, and it looked like she had locked it.

"Sit down," she snarled, then took a deep breath. After a few moments of pursed lips and folded arms Annabel Bridges spoke'