Fasta
Danica Woodhouse sat in the lecture room staring adoringly at the man writing figures on the chalk board. She thought him to be the handsomest man she had ever seen, "A true Adonis," she thought.
Not only was he extremely good looking, he was also courteous and charming, if somewhat austere. It may well have been this very austereness that added to his attractions; it was a challenge for nubile maidens.
Danica was not the only girl with eyes for Spencer Church. The three other girls in the class, like Danica, sat gazing romantically at this male paragon.
They could scarcely take in what he was saying or writing and this adoration caused considerable annoyance to the ten young men also sitting in the Farm Statistics class, known by the student as "Fasta."
While the young men were calculating how they could get into the girls' knickers, the girls were scheming how they could get into Mr. Church's pants.
Danica Woodhouse
Danica was the daughter of a couple who ran a pastoral station up north. She had come down south partly to study a one year course on Cattle Management, and Fasta was part of the course.
The other purpose was to give Danica an experience of city life and to meet a wider range of people than the isolation of a cattle station allowed.
She was just eighteen and inclined to be shy and withdrawn, and seemed completely unaware of how attractive she was and the devastating effect she had on the young men around her.
On completion of the course it was her intention to return to the cattle station and her parents, and gradually take over the station office work from her father and mother.
While studying the course run by the Agricultural College she lived in a girl's hostel, and being somewhat socially inexperienced, she had made only one close friend, Nancy, who was doing the full three year Ag course.
As far as Danica was concerned, she believed that she could only worship Spencer Church from afar, and he seemed to be unaware of her adoration, or that of the other girls.
Spencer Church
Spencer Church taught mathematics and sport at an expensive private boys' school. Many of the boys were from rural and pastoral families, sent to the city for the last four or five years of their education.
His parents had been killed in a road crash when he was twelve, and he had been taken into the care of his uncle and aunt.
On the death of his parents he had shown no emotion. Whether he genuinely felt no grief, or kept it locked inside him, is unknown.
Intellectually he found mathematics to be the most logically satisfying subject. His tutors found him to be brilliant and he might well have gone on to outstanding academic achievement, but instead he elected to teach at the boys' school.
Physically it was sport that engaged him, perhaps even more than mathematics. Favoured with exceptional good looks -- looks that puzzled his aunt and uncle because his parents had not been exceptionally good looking -- his devotion to sport had given him a fine physique.
Themselves outgoing, his aunt and uncle were sometimes troubled by Spencer's reserved manner and formal behaviour, but since he was so successful in the academic field, and brought home many sporting trophies, they agreed that all was well and that he would "grow out of" his introversion.
Since so many of the boys at the school where he taught were from rural backgrounds, there was some degree of co-operation with the Agricultural College, hence Spencer spent one hour each week teaching Fasta.
He was twenty six when Danica was studying his Fasta course.
Invitation
Like many things about Spencer Church, it is not possible to say what attracted him to Danica. True she was by far the best looking girl of the four in the class; in fact she was better looking than most of the girls he had met, but she was so shy, and it did not take an exceptionally observant person to see that the other three girls would have been far easier to get into his bed -- or theirs.
Nevertheless, it was Danica who caught his eye.
It was about half way through the academic year and after one Fasta class he caught up with her in the corridor.
"Miss Woodhouse," he began. She had never been called "Miss" before; it was "Danica," "Dani," "Dan," or occasionally "Ms. Woodhouse. She thought being called "Miss" sounded old fashioned but rather lovely, somewhat like a male character from a Jane Austen novel.
"Miss Woodhouse, would you care to dine with me one evening?"
The invitation was abrupt and straight to the point and Danica was astounded. She was unable to reply for a few moments and Spencer stood looking at her, for once showing a little emotion since there was an anxious look in his eyes.
"Er...Mr. Church...did you ask...did you say."
"I asked you if you would care to dine with me one evening?" he said, carefully articulating each word.
"Yes...yes..." Danica replied, still unable to believe that this was actually happening. Spencer took a diary and an old fashioned fountain pen out of his pocket, and after some discussion a day and time were agreed upon, this being carefully noted by him.
Given the formality of his manner Danica wondered if she should bring a chaperon with her.
Courtship
The services of a chaperon would have been completely superfluous. By the end of their meal it was still "Miss Woodhouse" and "Mr. Church." There was not even a hint of, "Would you like to come up to my place for a drink?"
Danica's experience of men was extremely limited but she had heard other girls discussing whether they should "let them" on the first date, or wait until the second date. She was therefore rather puzzled that Mr. Church, by their fourth date, had not even attempted to kiss her.
It was during the fifth date that she tentatively suggested, "Would you like to call me Danica?"
Spencer looked at her appraisingly for a few moments and the said, "Yes, all right Danica, I suppose it is appropriate. You may call me Spencer, but not in the presence of the students."
It took another couple of dates before he held her hand and kissed her goodnight very primly.
After that Spencer took her for drives in the country and to the beach. It was while sitting in his car staring out at the moon silvered sea that Spencer said, "I would like you to marry me."
Danica knew that in Jane Austen style she should have asked for time to consider, but despite his rather stilted manner she was fond of Spencer, so she said, "Yes, I'll marry you."
She waited for his euphoric outcry of joy, but it didn't happen. He said, "Thank you Danica, we shall go and choose the engagement ring on Saturday."
"At last," thought Danica, "he's a thorough gentleman in the old fashioned way, but even he will want to do it with me. Everybody who's engaged does it these days."
The only question in her mind was where. Would it be in his flat, the back of his car, on some mossy river bank, a motel or hotel room? She wondered if it would hurt much, and if he'd be sufficiently restrained to give her a couple of days to recover from the hymen splitting.
Engagement
Danica need not have been anxious about the pain of de-flowering; Spencer made no assault on her maidenhead.
They flew up north so that Danica's parents could meet Spencer. They were quite impressed with him; like most people they were touched by his courteous manner. While there her mother took Danica aside for a "cosy little chat."
"Darling, I know how it is these days. Your father and I waited until we were married, but we realise it's not like that now. Please make sure that Spencer wears something when you're...you're being...er...intimate. Or are you on the pill?"
Poor Danica; she didn't want to admit that her fiancΓ© had thus far denied himself the pleasures of her body, and so she said, "No mother, I'm not on the pill."
"Well darling, you'll have to firm. Don't let him do it unless he's wearing one of those things, you don't want to...to...get in the family way before you get married, do you?"
"No mother."
Her father, after saying "A fine young fellow, a fine chap, you've chosen well my girl," simply asked if she was sure she would be happy with Spencer.
Danica assured him that her future happiness was secure.
"Sorry you're not coming back here to help run the business as we planned," he said, "but as long as my girl is happy, that's the important thing."
In conversation with Spencer he said, "Danica's the only one we've got so she's very precious to us, you'll take care of her, won't you?"