And she felt horrible about that! The kids should come first, and finding bad things to throw at Hussan should come secondary. She had to give him credit because the school looked well kept and, although there had at one point been severe damage to the building, the walls and fences had already been repaired and only an experienced eye could see the damage.
She sat down in the back of one of the classrooms, hoping she wouldn’t disturb the teacher too much. She watched as the teacher helped the kids through some math problems and was impressed with how encouraging the woman was. Isla had always loved school, but until she’d gone away to finishing school, she’d had private tutors for her schooling who had given her and her siblings one on one instruction. That made for much easier lesson plans and when the instruction wasn’t getting through to them, the teacher instantly knew it and changed the explanation so that it was absorbed. This woman seemed to be teaching fifty students at various ages and skill levels, and she was doing a pretty good job at it.
Isla moved out of that classroom and into another where a younger teacher was working on a craft project with the smaller kids. This classroom was definitely out of control and the administrator knew it, was worried about the impression Isla would have. Isla leaned over to the administrator and shook her head to try and put the administrator at ease. “Don’t worry. I’m not here to judge. I’m here to help. What if I took half of these children and read to them while the teacher worked with the others?”
The administrator was obviously conflicted. She didn’t want to impose, but how was she to say no to her future queen?
“Anything you’d like, Your Highness,” she finally said, bowing slightly but the worried look on her face remained.
“Thank you. This is a very hard group to teach and it looks like this instructor has her hands full with a larger than normal class size.” She looked around at all the children who were eager and excited about the project, which was definitely a good sign. “I’ll talk to Hussan and see if there’s any way t add some funds so you can have additional teaching staff.”
The lady seemed relieved, and more than a small bit grateful. “That would be wonderful!”
“Don’t get too excited,” Isla warned. “I don’t know my future husband very well, but he seems like a reasonable man. There could be other priorities.”
She nodded and smiled broadly. “I completely agree. It’s just very nice to know that there are advocates out there who understand the importance of education.”
Isla walked over to the bookshelf and chose one of the colorful stories. It was a well used book with the spine starting to collapse. She wondered how many years this book had been in use, but knew that it was also a favorite of hers. She mentally added a box of books to her ideas for helping out this school. There were probably so many more schools that needed the same thing, so perhaps this was one area she could make a difference.
The administrator was moving up to the front of the class, the teacher throwing her a worried look of panic. But Isla smiled warmly and pulled up one of the small chairs and perched down on it. While the teacher gratefully rounded up about half the class, the other children looked on eagerly.
There was a great deal of chaos initially, but soon the children settled down and some worked the craft project which would help them with their motor skills and eventually with their writing, while Isla read to the other half out of the storybook. The children were darlings and sat enraptured by the story while she read. Isla made sure to change her voice during each of the characters and had the children laughing when she growled like the lion or cackled like the witch. The thought occurred to her that, at some point in the very near future, she might be reading this very story to her own children.
Goodness, that thought led to images of how those children would be conceived and she stumbled through the page she was reading as her mind snapped back to that kiss, and what might happen immediately after the wedding ceremony. She didn’t want Hussan to touch her in that way, did she? Then why did her stomach flip like that and her whole body tingle with excitement?
To distract herself from the thought of what Hussan might look like naked, she picked up another book while the teacher worked with the first half of the group, switching off with the project to the reading group, all the while, the administrator looking on with glee the whole time.
What that administrator didn’t realize was that Isla was having trouble thinking of things other than Hussan touching her with his large, strong hands. Thoughts of him kissing her, not just on her mouth but doing things she’d read about in other books, wondering what it would be like for him to touch her with his mouth in those other areas. Her fingers actually shook as she turned the page but thankfully the children were too absorbed with the story to understand and the administrator couldn’t see Isla’s face, so she didn’t notice the telling blush that turned her cheeks a painful shade of red.
The school bell rang and the children excitedly herded out of the classrooms but several stayed behind, all wanting to shake Isla’s hand and talk to her. Isla took her time, greeting each of the children and staff members, asking their names, what their parents did or how their spouses were employed. It was a good way to get an idea of the local economy. She tried hard to remember everyone’s name, but by the end of the impromptu meet and greet, she knew she’d only remember a few of the names and faces.
She was procrastinating, she thought with resignation. She didn’t want to go back to the palace. She was afraid for two different reasons but the first one was most prominent in her mind. On one level, she wondered if Hussan would be angry with her for leaving the palace without his direct permission but that issue was minor compared to the idea of what her mind had been conjuring up during that story time. Children, and the way they were conceived, was uppermost in her worried mind. She wanted children, but didn’t want Hussan. She didn’t want him to kiss her like that and make her feel out of control. She didn’t want to find someone like him attractive.
When all of the kids had left, Isla rounded up her security guards and left, waving to the group of teachers who were congregating out in the school yard. “That was fun, wasn’t it?” she asked to the security guard in the front seat. “Where can we go visit now?” she asked, not wanting to go back to the palace. She didn’t want to see Hussan especially with her mind going in directions that were better left alone. Normally, Isla preferred to face her problems head on and resolve them but Hussan was a completely different beast. She didn’t know how to face him, much less resolve the problems she had with him. The man terrified her.