by Sofia Daniel
“Who is it?” I asked.
“It’s me,” replied a posh voice.
I twisted the lock and flung the door open. Gideon stood in the hallway, looking immaculate and clutching yesterday’s hold-all.
“Get inside!” I said.
He strolled to the desk and lowered himself onto the seat. I expected him to wince or something from all that shagging, but he was as poised as ever. The only difference now was his twinkling eyes.
After locking the door, I scrambled to the edge of my bed, practically salivating over the thought of getting some hot gossip. “What happened with that guy from last night?”
“Lachlan?” Gideon’s lips curved into a smile. “He wants to see me next weekend.”
My eyes widened. “Things went that well? Is he coming down to Templar?”
“We’re allowed visitors on Sundays as long as they’ve been pre-booked. Lachlan’s going to drive down and take me out for lunch.”
“Do you think it’s serious?”
Gideon smiled. “It’s too early to tell, but he texted me throughout my journey home. How did things go with Nevis and Deloraine last night? Did you escape their trap?”
I opened up my laptop and showed him the video. It started with the boys standing side by side, removing their clothes. Even though I hated their guts, the possessive bitch in me placed a hand over their lower halves.
When it jumped to the parts where they lay on the bed handcuffed together, Gideon shot out of his seat and turned away.
Straightening up, I stared at his back. “What’s wrong?”
“You must delete this. Immediately.”
I reared back. “But you said—”
“I thought you were planning on a practical joke. Or walking out on them at an inopportune moment.”
Gideon turned around, his gaze flicking to the desk where the video had stopped playing on the laptop. “A video like this could get the boys expelled or disowned. Do you know anything about the Nevis family?”
“No.”
“Orlando’s grandfather owns the country’s oldest and largest distillery. He’s also a staunch Christian and golf buddies with the Archbishop of Scotland. How do you think he will react when videos of his heir naked with another boy are leaked?”
I flopped down on my mattress and stared at my lap. “But they were planning on making a sex tape of me.”
“Which you foiled by confiscating their cameras. That should be vengeance enough.” He lowered himself on the mattress beside me. “Destroy this video. The effects of this falsified version of events are too damaging.”
My shoulders slumped. Last night, I hadn’t thought things through. I suppose the most I thought would happen if the video got out were minor pranks, snide comments, and name-calling, just like Elizabeth, the knights, and everyone else had inflicted on me.
The pain of being rejected by family wasn’t something I’d inflict on anyone. Not even a pair of boys who had set me up for a sex tape.
“Alright.” I walked over to the desk, moved the video to the computer’s recycle bin and pressed empty, then did the same with the footage in the memory cards. “When you put it like that, I really don’t know what I’d been thinking.”
Gideon gave me a pat on the back. “Maintain the higher ground. It’s the only way to survive in a place like Templar Academy.”
Gideon left to catch some sleep. After showering and dressing, I walked to the tuck shop, a classroom-sized space set up to look like a common room with low tables and squishy sofas. Student volunteers stood behind the counter, serving customers sandwiches, chocolate bars, and drinks.
After buying a smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel with a bottle of orange juice, I made my way to the nearest exit and opened the door.
The cool breeze carried the scent of roses, and I sucked in a deep breath and stepped out into the gardens. Apart from my room at the bottom of the tower, this was probably my favorite area of the academy. It was sectioned off by low hedges arranged into geometrical borders. I headed down the gravel path where roses climbed over six-foot-tall, wooden pyramids.
Groups of grown-ups—couples mostly—walked with students. I guessed these were parents who had come to see their children. Heaviness filled my heart.
If only I had someone more reliable than Mother. She had come through for me in the end, but the last years of being shunned had been a knife in the back that I could never quite reach.
“Lilah,” said a familiar voice.
I turned around to find Orlando, Maxwell, and Kendrick, blocking the path behind me with their broad bodies. As usual, Orlando stood between the twins, the sun bouncing off his blond hair and lighting it up like a buttercup. The sight of them shot a jolt of excitement straight through my heart and between my legs.
Placing a hand on my hip, I smirked. “Did little brother come to the rescue then?”
“Where are my cameras?” Orlando snarled.
“The ones you set up to record me having sex?” I snapped. “Next time you plan on humiliating a girl and getting her expelled, don’t talk about it outside her bathroom stall.”
Kendrick’s head swung from Maxwell to Orlando, his eyes bulging with disbelief. Orlando’s lips tightened with annoyance, but he remained silent. I couldn’t tell what had shocked the quieter twin. The fact that the boys had schemed to make a sex tape or that they’d been stupid enough to talk about it within my earshot.
“What will you do with the videos?” asked Maxwell.
Thanks to Gideon, I’d destroyed them all, but I wasn’t about to tell them that and lose my advantage. Rubbing my chin, I said, “That depends entirely on you.”
“Explain,” said Orlando.
I strolled ahead to the fountain at the end of the gardens. A wooden bench sat behind the fountain, acting as a border between the manicured side of the gardens and vast acres of meadowland beyond. Gravel crunched behind me, indicating that the boys were following.
When I reached my destination, I turned around. “Put an end to all this whipping girl crap.”
Maxwell frowned, moving the ring around his eyebrow. “It’s not our decision—”
“But you’re Elizabeth’s closest friends, right? She called you her knights.”
Orlando turned to Kendrick, who I was beginning to believe had the closest friendship with Elizabeth. When the quieter twin shrugged, he turned to Maxwell, who nodded. “What else?”
“And stop harassing me in the hallways.” I folded my arms across my chest. “Nothing’s ever going to happen between us.”
Maxwell’s lips pressed together in a thin line. “That’s not what you were saying last night.”
I smirked. “That was before I saw what was on offer. And I stand by what I said. I’ve had bigger and better.”
Orlando’s features sagged, and Maxwell glanced down at his boots. My stomach twisted into confused knots, and I ignored the guilt twanging at my conscience. He should be lucky to escape with a bruised ego. It was nothing compared to what he had planned to do to me.
Kendrick stepped forward, his eyes hard. “If we convince Elizabeth to back off, you’ll hand over the memory cards?”
My back stiffened. This was the first time Kendrick had ever spoken to me. “I’ll delete the footage first.”
“Fine.” He turned to the others. “Let’s go.”
The trio walked back to the main building, leaving me watching their broad backs. I rubbed my temple, wondering why on earth Orlando and Maxwell had appeared visibly upset at a bit of trash talk.
They liked Elizabeth, not me. Wanted to impress her so much that they were willing to have a threesome with me on camera to get me expelled.
I shook my head and turned my gaze to the jet of water shooting out of the fountain. “Sometimes, I really don’t understand boys.”
Chapter 14
On Sunday evening, I sat with Gideon, enjoying a meal of toad in the hole. Instead of the usual sausages baked in batter, the cooks had added sprigs of
thyme and red onions into the mix.
Throughout the meal, Orlando and Maxwell cast me furtive glances, making me wonder if they had meant what they had said about convincing Elizabeth to call off the whipping girl bullshit.
Gideon pulled his phone out of his pocket and smiled at the screen.
“Another message from you-know-who?”
A smile lifted his features. “He’s thinking about me.”
I leaned toward him and whispered, “Have you been with a guy before?”
“Not many. How about you?”
“One.” I’d met Sammy at a nightclub, too. He had been keen until weeks later when someone had told him I wasn’t really eighteen. Things had worked out in the end, but he turned out to be a cheating asshole, and now I wish things hadn’t.
Kendrick walked behind Elizabeth’s chair and pulled her seat back. With a fluid, ladylike gesture, she stood and walked in my direction.
She smoothed down her pastel blue, cashmere sweater, which she wore with a navy pencil skirt. A string of pearls and matching earrings complemented the outfit, giving her the air of middle-aged respectability.
Elizabeth stopped at my table and gave me a tight smile. “My knights are worried about your welfare. According to them, the pressure of being the academy’s whipping girl is making you crack.”
“Really?” I asked through clenched teeth.
She inclined her head. “I’d like to extend the hand of friendship.”
My gaze flicked to the head table, where Mrs. Campbell and Mr. Burgh looked on with interest. Students sitting in the surrounding tables stopped talking to watch. Usually, if someone approached my table, it resulted in the flinging of water or food or insults.
I turned back to Elizabeth. “Why did you even start that stupid rumor?”
The corner of her lips curled into a smile. “With a name like Hancock, you were practically begging to become the queen of handjobs. Didn’t people point that out in your last school?”
They didn’t because everyone knew the name Hancock. It was one to be feared, not mocked.
Shoving thoughts of my bastard stepfather away, I asked, “How are you going to fix things?”
A vein pulsed on her temple, and her pampered little hands curled into fists. “Isn’t it enough that I came here?”
“Actually, it’s far from adequate,” said Gideon. “You slandered Miss Hancock, which resulted in a slew of adverse behaviors from other students that have been detrimental to her academic success.”
“Must you speak like you’ve swallowed a thesaurus?” she snapped, curling the corner of her lip.
Gideon sat straighter, preening as though she had paid him the ultimate compliment. “The only way to resolve matters is with a public apology and a retraction of the false rumor.”
Her face dropped. “What? But she accused me of much worse.”
“Because you told a whole hallway of girls that I gave a bunch of strange boys handjobs!” I snarled.
Gideon placed a hand on my forearm the way a duty solicitor would do when trying to stop their client from blurting something that would be used against them in court. I clamped my lips together, relaxed my posture, and waited for Elizabeth to respond.
She straightened. “Very well. I will prepare a formal apology tomorrow at dinner. Will that be sufficient?”
“That’s fine,” I replied.
Elizabeth flounced back to her table, where Kendrick placed his hand on hers. She snatched it away and snarled. A waitress placed a steaming bowl of cherry pie and custard in front of me, which made my mouth water.
“How peculiar.” Gideon pulled the lid off his carton of yogurt.
“What?”
“Do you know the cause of her change of heart?” he asked.
“Oh, that.” I turned back to Elizabeth’s table.
Orlando and Maxwell stared at me like a pair of Rottweilers whose steak had been untimely snatched from their jaws. I couldn’t tell if it was unfinished business or lingering resentment about Friday night.
“The boys cornered me in the garden earlier today, demanding the cameras back. I asked them to call off Elizabeth and her whipping girl crap in exchange for deleting the footage.”
I broke off a spoonful of custard and pie, waiting for Gideon to reply, but he remained silent. When I glanced up, it was to a disapproving look of narrowed eyes and pursed lips. “What now?”
He let out a soft huff. “Blackmail is beneath you.”
“So is allowing twats to call me names, stick things on my clothes, and push harassing messages under my door. And so is having to watch my back every mealtime in case Myra or some other demented ass-licker decides to shove something down the back of my blazer. I’m tired of being a whipping girl.”
“I thought you were coping.” His brows drew together.
My shoulders sagged. Just because I wasn’t a gibbering mess, it didn’t mean that the constant name-calling and petty pranks didn’t wear down my nerves. It was an extra layer of stress I didn’t need.
“Why should I have to put up with it at all?” I snarled.
He lowered his gaze. “You’re absolutely right. Sorry for judging you harshly.”
The next day, Elizabeth greeted me in the Fashion and Textiles hallway with a warm smile that crinkled the corners of her eyes. Hackles rising, I gave her a brief nod and continued into Miss Martin’s classroom, where the teacher gave the introduction to a lecture on the mechanics of blending different fibers.
Throughout the class, Elizabeth sat back with the most blissful expression. I wondered if Orlando had hidden a third camera in his room on Saturday night but dismissed that thought. If they had such leverage, they would have used it against me already.
Elizabeth’s glee continued throughout lunch, and by dinnertime, the butterflies in my stomach flapped so hard, they made me nauseous.
Every ounce of good sense told me I should sit this one out. To stay in my room and avoid whatever nonsense Elizabeth would spout, but I needed to be there to fight back even if it meant punching her in the mouth.
I walked through the double doors to find the head table empty—the first sign that something was wrong. On legs that felt like wooden pegs, I made my way to the table I shared with Gideon. He sat in his usual seat, looking composed.
“Where are all the teachers?” I asked.
“They hold their staff meetings on Monday evenings after Glasgow weekends.”
Bile rose to the back of my throat. “She’s going to stitch me up.”
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
Elizabeth leaned back in her seat, refusing the watercress soup. I tried to eat mine, but it tasted like puréed, peppery leaves.
Gideon asked what was wrong. I tried explaining that she looked too happy for a person about to give a public apology, but even when Gideon pointed out she wasn’t eating, I still wasn’t convinced she wasn’t planning something horrible.
After a course of baked salmon, the servers brought lemon meringue pie. Elizabeth strode up to the head table and stood behind Mr. Burgh’s seat.
At the same time, Myra, the tawny-haired maniac who had poured gazpacho soup down my back, pushed a portable projector screen to obscure the right side of the head table.
Elizabeth made a clinking sound by tapping her fork on a glass. “Everyone, can I have your attention, please?”
The chatter petered out, and the dining room went silent.
“I wish to confess.”
My shoulders stiffened, and the rest of my body stilled. Gideon leaned forward in his seat, watching with rapt interest.
Elizabeth made a soft, throat-clearing sound. “I slandered a student of this academy, which resulted in her becoming the academy’s whipping girl. It was unfair, vindictive, and I wish to extend my full apology to Miss Delilah Hancock.”
My stomach hardened. How did she know my real first name?
“You see, I accused Delilah Hancock of being a slut who gave out handjobs. A
lie that I based on her peculiar last name.”
An image of my name appeared on the projector in black, with a red ‘D’ in between the N and the C. Something every idiot at the academy had pointed out a hundred times before.
A few people around the room tittered. I rolled my eyes and let my shoulders relax. If she was just going to make fun of my name, I wouldn’t stop her from acting like a dick.
“But I digress. She’s the daughter of a notorious drug baron, William ‘Billy’ Hancock, who was imprisoned for the largest haul of cocaine in the London borough of Richley.” Elizabeth snapped her fingers.
A picture of Billy Hancock’s mugshot appeared on the screen. His right eye was swollen, his lip bruised and cut. Either he’d gotten into a fight during the arrest, or the police had roughed him up in the back of their van.
Next was a front-page image of the Richley Gazette that said:
LOCAL BUSINESSMAN ARRESTED ON BIGGEST EVER DRUGS BUST.
Gasps filled the room, making my flesh crawl. I stared ahead, keeping my features expressionless. In the corner of my eye, I could see Gideon gaping at me with wide eyes.
Elizabeth’s face split into an inhumanly wide grin. “Templar Academy is one of the foremost institutions of Scotland, one which prides itself on the highest moral codes. Hundreds of students from respectable families apply for places here, and hundreds are rejected.”
Murmurs of agreement filled the air. I gripped the edge of the table, wondering what the hell she would say next.
A lump formed in my throat. All this time, I thought Mother had bought my place here. With all the money Billy Hancock made from his various business operations, he wouldn’t notice a few grand missing. I swallowed hard, waiting to hear what she would say next.
“Right now, I wager you’re asking why such an individual was permitted to study here.” After a pause, a birth certificate appeared on the screen. “The answer is in Delilah’s parentage.”
“Father unknown!” someone shrieked.