This is chapter 3 in a 7 part series. It will not make sense without reading the previous chapters.
Chapter 3 - Entra nel cattivo (Enter the villain)
Spring 2017
One evening in the spring, when Debbie arrived home from school, she said, "Rob! Guess what?"
"I don't know, what?"
Barbara is being pushed out as head of the renaissance history department. Dr. Finebaum is bringing in Richard, from the art exhibition, to take her place. He wants to put our department on the map."
This was not good news. He trusted his wife, but she seemed too caught up in Richard's background and education to notice his too-smooth ways and generally seeming like an ass. He replied, "Oh, I thought your department already had a good reputation. Also, she's tenured. How can he push her out?"
"Tenure only means that they cannot be fired from their teaching post. It doesn't mean that they are department head forever.
She continued, "As for our reputation, true. We do have a good rep, but instead of being well known in the state or around the south, he wants national or even international attention. He said that art exhibit was just the first step. If the department grows, then they'll need more faculty, which means I'll have a shot at an opening. We can stay here." She was very excited about that.
That would be good news, because Rob didn't want to move if he didn't have to, so he focused on that point. "I hope it works out Debbie. You know that I would love for you to have a position here. It would be good for us. Also, that would be great for you and your colleagues to get the attention you deserve."
"Thank you, sweetie. I'm just so excited. He will be here in time for our Renaissance Faire and will spend the summer getting set up. They are talking about bringing an opera to our theater. Wouldn't that be great? He's even going to teach a graduate class based on some of his overseas studies. I wonder if he would help me finish my doctoral dissertation."
Rob really didn't like the sound of that but didn't want to let on. "He's probably going to be terribly busy, babe. It sounds like Barbara is about to have some spare time on her hands. Hasn't she been helping you the last two years already?
"She has, but she's only been to Italy a couple of times. Richard has spent years studying original documents and art and teaching over there. He just has so much more hands on experience."
Rob just hoped he wouldn't be too hands on; or at least not on his wife.
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The Renaissance Faire was bigger than ever that year starting the traditional graduation weekend. While the Unionville charities, in many cases led by Ann or one of her Ladies Auxiliary 'lieutenants', had their normally good showing and no shortage of workers at the fair, the school made an extra effort this year.
There were more booths and more students helping. There was a lot more signage, which helped all those from the city to know where to park and go. There were more trollies from the parking areas to the fairgrounds; basically, more of everything.
The fairgrounds were technically part of the campus but were really more of an annex a couple of miles away. When the school's founder set up the university, it wasn't part of the original grant of land, but when he passed, he left several hundred acres to the school, which was now the fairgrounds.
Actually, it was a great setting. The Rio Poco (small river) was a boundary for one side of the fairgrounds with woods surrounding the other three sides. Most of the year the river was aptly named, but in the spring, at the time of the fair, with the typical rains, it wasn't very small nor shallow creating what was called the 'moat' during the fair.
Since the site was so spacious, there was plenty of parking on both sides of the river, but only one vehicle-capable, dual lane bridge crossed the river. There was another pedestrian bridge one hundred yards away. During the fair, the vehicle bridge was decorated to look like a drawbridge crossing a moat with guard towers and crossing gates that were left raised but were decorated prominently to draw attention.
For the fair, there were the usual games and booths, plus a new focus on educational attractions with opportunities to try on armour, hold broadswords, storytelling booths and the usual fanfare. Some of the professors from the engineering school had blacksmith booths set up and would make trinkets like letter openers, paper weights and bookends. They also had an impressive array of knives, daggers and broadswords.
There were plenty of food booths, and even tickets sold to be part of the King's Feast, or president's tent, buffet. The tickets were expensive, but the food was supposed to be good and it was an opportunity to hob-nob with some of the university elite.
Debbie had purchased a new costume for the fair. The entire time that Rob had known her, she had worn a peasant's costume, but this year she chose an Italian Renaissance costume. It was a beautiful costume but was much lower cut and showed a considerable amount of cleavage. It looked good on her, and Rob hoped to have a lot of fun pulling the costume off of her in the evening.
He, along with most of the engineers volunteering at the fair, wore a traditional Igor cloak, which was a non-descript, light weight, dark cloak, and allowed him, and the others, to mostly stay inconspicuous and simply show as a helper.
The morning of the first day of the fair, Debbie was super excited, because she, and other professors in her department, were being invited into the King's Feast for lunch before the opening ceremonies. Rob was happy for his wife, because he knew that kind of exposure would be good for her chances of landing a teaching position.
At the fair, after the luncheon, Rob was disappointed to see Richard as part of the president's entourage. He didn't seem to be paying any special attention to Debbie, but he must have been the flavor of the moment because he had a crowd of people surrounding him.
This year, rather than the president and his wife taking their place in the pillory, Richard joined the president. It was clear for everyone in attendance that Richard was the rising star at the university.
During the day, Rob would find Debbie when he wasn't working, and they would spend a few minutes together. She was telling him that some of Richard's former colleagues were in attendance, and she was getting to know them. She seemed really excited about the infusion of new blood into the department. She said that some of his colleagues commented that the Renaissance Faire seemed much more like a medieval festival that a true renaissance festival. They thought they might try to ease it towards a more traditional Renaissance festival with less focus on dungeons and more focus on the artistry of the Italian and British movements. Rob just thought the fair was fun and didn't really see the need for changes. He kept those thoughts to himself.
Later that evening, they did have fun when Rob was given the opportunity to remove her costume.
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After the fair, Rob and Debbie flew to the Caribbean for a weeklong vacation. It was a good time for them, because during the summer she planned to pour herself into her dissertation, which she hoped to complete and defend, and then graduate the next spring.
While there, they discussed plans for after her graduation next May. Rob asked, "Debbie, what would you think about trying to start a family after you graduate? We could try to time it so that you give birth during the summer."
"I'd really like that Rob. I can stop taking my birth control pills in a month or so, and then we can start trying to conceive in the early fall."
He was happy with that answer, and they spent plenty of that week practicing making babies.
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By July 4th, Richard was on campus and occasionally Rob would hear bits and pieces about him, but mostly Debbie talked about the work on her dissertation.
In early August, while at work, Rob was surprised to hear, "Hey, Rob."
It was Kate. "Hey, stranger. I've missed seeing you around. Have you been avoiding me?" He said this jokingly, but the truth was she had been; until now.
"Of course not. Since I'm in chemical and you spend most of your time in materials science, we just don't come in contact very much."
He replied, "Well, I'm sorry for that. I would like to see more of you."
She would like that, too. She said, "well, actually, that is why I'm here. I need some support setting up some equipment on a research project I'm starting in the fall. At some point, one of your crew will probably be involved, so I thought I would bring it to you and get your thoughts in advance."
He smiled at her, "Oh, so since you are the dean's niece and happen to know the maintenance guy you were hoping for preferential treatment?"
She had missed that smile. She would like to have a true friend in her life, even if he was married. She replied, "Damn, straight. What's the point of knowing the head honchos if I don't get to take advantage of them?"
"Too bad I'm married, otherwise, I'd love for you to take advantage of me."
She liked that reply, though she knew he wouldn't act on it. However, she was beginning to hear some rumors around campus that weren't good, not that she was going to share them, yet. "Rob, you're the most married guy I know, but if you weren't..." She let the sentence hang and gave him coquettish smile.
She led him into the lab area in the chemical engineering (ChemE) building to show him what she had planned. He had missed her smile as well.
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When classes began in late August, on a Friday evening, Debbie came home with another announcement.
Rob had gotten home early to cook dinner for them. Debbie had been so busy working on her dissertation during the summer, that she spent most of her time in the library, which meant not as much time for the couple. Rob was trying to do some nice things for her because he knew this last year would be a hard push to prepare for her defense of her dissertation in the spring.
When she arrived home she said, "Mmmmm. Something smells good. What'cha making?"
"My mom's lasagna."
She asked, "Ohh. What did I do to deserve this?"
"You've been working hard, and we haven't been able to spend as much time together as I would like. I thought I would make something nice. I have a bottle of the wine that you liked from Napa chilling."
Debbie reached around Rob and gave him a squeeze. "Thank you, sweetie. You're so good to me."
"I try."
"I know you do." He could see her lost in thought for a moment. Then she said, "I have some interesting news. Because of Barbara's being removed from her department head position, she and Felicia left."
"Oh, wow."
