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deep breath before sitting down, still in a daze, my attention on him now.
    “How are you feeling?” he asked with a soft, secretive voice.
    “I’m fine, my door and I have called a truce,” I replied.
    “That is excellent to hear,” he whispered back with a wide smile on his face.
    “I gather you have already met Mr Kemp,” he whispered.
    “Mr Kemp? Hmmm, well let’s just say, I don’t think he likes me, and he would have been proud of his door if he knew of today’s events.”
    We both broke into a quiet laughter.
    “Mr Kemp is one of a kind, that’s for sure.”
    “How so?”
    Mr Barclay seemed shocked with my question and unprepared for an answer.
    “Other than your door, are you happy with your room?” he asked, disregarding my question.
    “More than happy. I didn’t know what to expect.”
    I looked around noticing more and more the environment that I would be working and living in. They were all men, old and so proper. I must seem like a student to them, and in the wrong school. I looked back at Mr Barclay who hadn’t taken his eyes off me.
    “I guess, the ratio is unfair,” he joked.
    I let out a giggle.
    “Don’t be intimidated, you are at an advantage.”
    “How?” I curiously asked.
    “It will always be hard for any of them to say no to you.”
    “We’ll see,” I joked back.
    “Indeed we will,” he said and stood up.
    “Gentleman, please, if I could have your attention.”
    Silence came over the room in an instant and suddenly all eyes were on Mr Barclay.
    “I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you all to Miss Catherine White from Australia. Miss White will be teaching English Literature at our college for the year, replacing Professor Davidson. Please make her feel welcome and help make her stay a pleasant one.”
    I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t want to stand so stayed seated but turned around and smiled and acknowledged as many people as I could. Some of the teachers had started to make their way towards me. Mr Barclay was now nowhere in sight. For the next hour I was quizzed on everything from kangaroos to my favourite composers. All these men seemed so intelligent and serious; I immediately remembered Annie’s words of encouragement about me being an exceptional teacher.
    “Hello! Catherine! Coming through! Excuse me! Excuse me, please! There you are. I have been looking for you everywhere. How wonderful! You found the common room.”
    To my relief, it was Jules ploughing through all the men to get to me.
    “Right everyone, that will do. Go back to your newspapers and pipes. Off you go.”
    It only took a minute and all the men were back in their chairs reading their papers.
    “There now, is that not better? It seems you have caused quite an excitement. This is wonderful. Finally, there are now two of us,” Jules said, as she pulled up a chair and sat very close to me.
    I didn’t mind her now. At least she could do all the talking and I could really see that she was genuinely happy to have me here, unlike Mr Kemp.
    “Right, now tell me, how you are feeling?” she queried me, with a very concerned and serious tone as she held onto my hands.
    “I am much better now, thank you. I am sorry if I gave you a fright,” I said as I slid my hand out of her grip.
    “Oh, don’t worry about me. It takes a lot more than that to scare me,” she said as she smiled and placed her hand on my arm.
    “Now, if we leave now, I can give you that tour and we should be finished in time to change for dinner.”
    “Yes, that sounds like a great idea.”
    We both got up and made our way out of the room. As we left, my eyes met Mr Kemp’s. He was obviously still very sour and didn’t seem to be shy about showing his feelings either.
    “Now don’t mind Mr Kemp, nobody else does,” said Jules.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well Mr Kemp is a very strange and suspicious man. He spends most of his evenings on our roof looking at the stars and reading into them. He gave