Dexter was going to curse the day he underestimated Sasha Miller.
Sasha squeezed both her parents’ hands as the members of the Regent House filed back into the room. The Regent House was the official governing body of the University of Cambridge. Usually it only ever met in the grand, neo-classical Senate House on King’s Parade to award degrees, or to elect a new chancellor. But today, sensationally, the Master of St Michael’s had summoned a special congregation – Cambridge’s equivalent of a court martial – to settle the increasingly embarrassing and bitter dispute between Professor Theo Dexter and his second-year pupil, Sasha Miller.
Of course, today was only the university’s decision. Theoretically, Sasha could still pursue Theo in the British courts. But the six-hundred-pounds-an-hour lawyer Don Miller had engaged was blunt about her chances.
‘If the university goes against you, it will be very difficult to win a civil case. I hesitate to say impossible. But if you pursue Dexter and you lose, the court will most likely award him damages and costs. Add that to your own legal fees and you could be looking at a bill running into millions of pounds.’
‘We’ll do whatever it takes/ Don said defiantly. But they all knew it wasn’t an option. Everything rested on today’s decision. Up until a couple of hours ago, Sasha had been sure she was going to lose. In the last two months, since the British press had got hold of the juicy story about the hunky Cambridge professor and his teenage undergraduate lover, Sasha had seen her good name raked through the mud. Like flies swarming round a turd, the university establishment had rallied around Theo Dexter. No one, other than Sasha’s student friends, had agreed to speak up for her.
Until this afternoon.
Harold Grier, a senior American physicist on secondment from Harvard, had been one of Sasha’s lab partners at the Cavendish. Grier had witnessed much of Sasha’s early research work on what was already now being referred to as ‘Dexter’s Law’. If he spoke up for her, she had a shot. Unfortunately for Sasha, Harold Grier was also a pathologically private man and so shy he was borderline autistic. He had refused all her entreaties to testify at the Senate House. ‘I can’t be dragged into as…scandal. I’m sorry. My work is too important.’
Sasha had given up trying to change Harold’s mind weeks ago. But today, after the lunchtime recess, a miracle had occurred. Walking out of the ladies, she saw Harold Grier standing alone in the grand foyer of the Senate House with a sheaf of papers in his hand. Harold saw her too, and smiled.
‘Who’s that?’ Sasha’s dad asked her, watching Harold take his seat. Don noticed the way that the Dexter camp’s eyes had all turned to follow him as he made his way to the front of the court.
‘I very much hope that’s my knight in shining armour,’ whispered Sasha.
The Master of St Michael’s took his seat. ‘In curia nostra, hodie est dies juridicus. Sedete silentio si commodum est.’
This is it.
Theresa Dexter held her husband’s hand and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the robed figures in front of her. Sometimes the urge to turn around and look at Sasha Miller was so strong it made her neck hurt. But she knew that if she made eye contact she wouldn’t be able to restrain herself from running over and strangling the girl with her bare hands. Better to be here than down the road in the Crown Court, on trial for murder, Theresa told herself. In an hour this nightmare will be over.
The last two months had been the worst of Theresa Dexter’s life. It was August when Theo had come home, ashen-faced, and told her that he was afraid one of his undergraduates was going to try to lay claim to his theory.
‘But why? I mean, that’s ridiculous. How could she possibly lay claim to it?’
‘We worked together.’ Theo shrugged. ‘I trusted her. You know, she’s a bright girl, she showed a lot of promise. I thought it would be exciting for her to be involved with something like this. Something ground-breaking.’ He shook his head sadly. ‘I suppose I was naive.’
Theresa had been outraged on Theo’s behalf, sympathetic and practical. ‘We’ll talk to Ed Gilliam. He’ll know what to do. Try not to worry, darling. At best this girl’s delusional and at worst she’s a liar. Either way, she can’t hurt you. The truth will out.’
The next morning, Theo gave the same spiel to Ed Gilliam. When he’d finished, Ed said, ‘You prick. You were sleeping with her, weren’t you?’
‘Sleeping with…? Of course I wasn’t sleeping with her!’ Theo blustered. ‘How dare you imply…’
‘I’m going to give you five seconds to stop talking shit and tell me the truth. And if you don’t, I’m going to hang up, play a nice round of golf, and forget you ever existed. OK?’
Theo hesitated. ‘All right. Yes, OK, I did sleep with her. A couple of times. But it was nothing, a silly fling. She seduced me. Sasha can be very persuasive, you know.’
‘That’s what I’m afraid of,’ said Ed. ‘Pretty young girl plays the victim on Richard and Judy’s couch and next thing you know you’re a paedophile. No one will give a fuck whose theory this is after that. By the way, just out of interest, did you nick it?’
‘No! Of course I didn’t. The whole thing’s preposterous.’
‘Good. Now listen, you leave the PR side of this to me. It’s a nightmare, but I’ve handled worse. The trick is to hit back first, not wait for Lolita to leak the story. I’m going to tell you what to do, and you’re going to do it, no questions asked. We can salvage this thing but we have to act fast. And, Theo?’
‘Yes, Ed?’
‘Stop lying to me. Save your energy for all the other people you’re going to have to lie to.’
Following Ed Gilliam’s instructions, Theo admitted his affair with Sasha to Theresa that evening, albeit a heavily edited version.
‘But…but…we’ve been so happy’ Theresa blinked back tears.
‘I know.’ Theo hugged her. ‘I’ve been a fool, T. I am happy with you. Sasha was just so vulnerable and so needy. She kept on and on, pursuing me, begging me to be with her. It was relentless. I didn’t realize how psychologically disturbed she was until it was too late. Can you ever forgive me?’
His remorse was so heartfelt Theresa couldn’t help but forgive him, but she was desperately hurt. There was no time to process her feelings, however. The very next morning, a double-page spread ran in the Daily Mail, salivating over British science’s newest star’s liaison with his beautiful protégée.
At the breakfast table, Theo shook the newspaper angrily. ‘Bitch. I can’t believe she’s gone public already. Has she no shame? I mean it’s not just me she’s hurting. It’s you, and St Michael’s. The whole physics community gets tainted with this shit. How could she?’
‘It’s all right, darling.’ Theresa touched his arm consolingly. ‘We’ll get through it together.’
Half an hour later, Theo called
