Best Kept Secret

escapade.
    Dr Banks-Williams lowered his head and studied some notes he’d jotted down before summoning the boy to his study. It was some time before he spoke again.
    ‘As there is less than a week to go before the end of term, Clifton, and as you have completed your final exams, I might have turned a blind eye to you being caught smoking in the old
pavilion, even ignored the empty beer bottle found under your bed, but your latest indiscretion cannot be dismissed that easily.’
    ‘My latest indiscretion?’ repeated Sebastian, enjoying the headmaster’s embarrassment.
    ‘Being found in your study with a serving maid after lights out.’
    Sebastian wanted to ask if it would have been all right if she hadn’t been a serving maid, and he’d left the lights on. However, he realized that such levity might land him in even
deeper trouble, and that if he hadn’t won an open scholarship to Cambridge, the first the school had achieved for over a generation, he might well have been expelled, and not just rusticated.
But he was already considering how he could turn his rustication from a disgrace into a badge of honour. After Ruby had made it clear that, for a small remuneration, she was willing to pass on her
favours, Sebastian had happily accepted her terms, and she’d agreed to climb through the window of his study after lights out that evening. Although it had been the first time Sebastian had
seen a naked woman, it quickly became clear to him that Ruby had climbed through that window before. The headmaster interrupted his thoughts.
    ‘I need to ask you something, man to man,’ he said, sounding even more pompous than usual. ‘Your response may well influence my decision as to whether I advise the admissions
tutor at Cambridge to withdraw your scholarship, which would be a great sadness for us all at Beechcroft. However, my paramount responsibility is to uphold the school’s reputation.’
    Sebastian clenched his fists, and tried to remain calm. Being rusticated was one thing, but losing his place at Cambridge would be quite another. He stood there, waiting for the headmaster to
continue.
    ‘Take your time before you answer my next question, Clifton, because it may well determine your future. Did Kaufman or Martinez play any part in your –’ the headmaster
hesitated, clearly searching for the right word, but finally settled on repeating – ‘indiscretions?’
    Sebastian suppressed a smile. The idea of Victor Kaufman uttering the word ‘knickers’, let alone trying to remove said article of clothing from Ruby, would have caused incredulity
and mirth, even among the lower fifth.
    ‘I can assure you, headmaster,’ said Sebastian, ‘that Victor has never, to my knowledge, smoked a cigarette or taken a sip of beer. And as for women, he’s embarrassed
when he has to undress in front of Matron.’
    The headmaster smiled. Clearly Clifton had given the answer he’d wanted to hear, and it had the added advantage of being the truth.
    ‘And Martinez?’
    Sebastian had to think on his feet if was going to save his closest friend. He and Bruno had been inseparable since Sebastian had come to his aid during a dormitory pillow fight in his first
term, when the new boy’s only crime was being ‘Johnny Foreigner’ and, even worse, hailing from a country that didn’t play cricket, a pastime Sebastian loathed – which
only made their bond stronger. Sebastian knew that Bruno indulged in the occasional cigarette, and he had once joined him at a local pub for a beer, but only after their exams. He also knew that
Bruno wouldn’t be averse to what Ruby had to offer. What he couldn’t be sure of was how much the headmaster already knew. Added to that was the fact that Bruno had also been offered a
place at Cambridge in September and, although he’d only met his friend’s father a couple of times, he wouldn’t want to be the one held responsible for his son not going up to
Cambridge.
    ‘And Martinez?’ the headmaster repeated a little more firmly.
    ‘Bruno, as I’m sure you know, headmaster, is a devout Roman Catholic, and he has told me on several occasions that the first woman he sleeps with will be his wife.’ That much
was true, even if he hadn’t expressed that view quite so vociferously lately.
    The headmaster nodded thoughtfully, and Sebastian wondered for a moment if he’d got away with it, until Dr Banks-Williams added, ‘And what about the smoking and drinking?’
    ‘He did once