by Sofia Daniel
“Follow me.” Mr. Jenkins led a procession of us out of his office, through the main teaching block and out of the double doors at the back.
We trampled after him through the dew-covered campus. The morning sun shone brighter than it had in months, melting the last vestiges of frost. A fresh breeze mingled with the faint scent of blossoms budding on the trees, but I couldn’t enjoy the pleasant atmosphere. Not when my heart pounded like it was about to burst.
I trailed at the end with Edward by my side, stiff as a tin soldier. He stared straight ahead as though the sight of me turned his stomach. “No matter what you say,” he whispered, “I know it was you.”
I shook my head. Anything I uttered now would fall on deaf ears.
“This morning’s article cleared your name,” he whispered. “That’s what you wanted all along, isn’t it?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but then I clapped it shut. There was no way anyone could link the article about me when Mr. Frost had confessed his crimes to the Saturday Correspondent. Edward was probably throwing random accusations, hoping to catch me out. Hoping I would tear up and blurt out my reasons for leaking stories to the press. Giving him another little head shake, I kept my eyes on the headmaster’s clenching and unclenching fists. The man looked ready to strangle someone with his bare hands. I had to watch out for his temper. After a week of examination board inspectors on his back, I would bet he was looking for someone to blame.
Mr. Chaloner led us around the back of Elder House, to a building that reminded me of the gatehouses at the entrance of Mercia Academy. “This is Mr. Carbuncle’s lodge.”
“Is he usually in around this time of the day?” asked the taller policeman.
“He can be a little difficult to track down.” Mr. Jenkins made a nervous laugh in the back of his throat. “Mr. Carbuncle’s activities are far and wide.”
A DO NOT DISTURB sign hung on the door.
Mr. Jenkins rocked back and forth on his feet. “He’s probably restoring an antique and needs a bit of peace and quiet.”
“Or he needs privacy to send images to the newspapers,” I spat. “Don’t give him a chance to cover his tracks.”
The taller policeman knocked once, making me roll my eyes at his politeness. Then he tried the handle, which didn’t budge.
“Force the door open,” the headmaster snarled.
The policemen shared a glance as though wondering if they had permission to damage academy property.
“I’ll do it!” Mr. Chaloner reared back, raised his suited leg and drove his heel into the panel by the lock. The wood splintered, and the door swung inward.
Just as my mouth dropped open at the man’s prowess, a female shriek filled the air.
“Blimey,” shouted the policeman. “He’s got a schoolgirl in here!”
“No,” cried Mr. Carbuncle from within the lodge. “This isn’t what it looks like!”
Everybody, including me, rushed into the hut. The janitor’s dungarees hung at his hips, the fabric fisted around his groin. He held out his other hand as though trying to stop traffic. A pair of pink panties lay on the table and beneath it, a red-haired upper-sixth year girl scrambled to pull on her skirt.
I clapped my hand over my mouth. This was turning out even better than I had hoped.
“Never mind the girl,” snarled the headmaster. “I want to know who leaked information to the Saturday Correspondent.”
The janitor spluttered. “Not me!”
I glanced around the room and found a filing cabinet in the corner. One of the drawers was marked PERSONAL. In seconds, I flung it open and rifled through sections containing snacks and letters. There was even a space for used panties at the back.
“What are you doing?” Edward hissed from behind.
I glared over my shoulder. The sobbing girl pushed past the dumbstruck officers and rushed out of the lodge. I turned back to the filing cabinet rifling through its sections with trembling hands. If I didn’t find something while everyone who mattered was distracted by Mr. Carbuncle’s indiscretion, suspicion would fall back to me.
“You can’t just search through a man’s things,” added Mr. Jenkins.
Anger seared through my veins, turning the edges of my vision black. I whirled on my housemaster, hands trembling with the need to punch him hard in the face. “You’ve just caught Carbuncle half-naked with a student, and you’re worried about his privacy?”
I stepped away from the filing cabinet and advanced on the paling housemaster. Whether he was an idiot or completely corrupt, I no longer cared. If I could get him into trouble, I would.
“It looks like you already knew what he did,” I spat. “Why are you trying to protect him? Did he give you access to vulnerable girls?”
Mr. Jenkins cheeks turned red. “He most certainly did not, and I would never condone such activities between staff and students.”
“I’ve found something,” said Edward from the filing cabinet.
“No,” shouted Mr. Carbuncle. “That wasn’t me!”
I folded my arms across my chest and stepped back. Edward pulled out a fistful of checks from the Saturday Correspondent.
“I didn’t cash any of them!”
“Why did they send you money?” I kept the glee out of my voice. The more confused I acted, the more people would believe in my innocence.
Mr. Carbuncle’s glistening mustache quivered, and tears gathered in his eyes. “I-I don’t know.”
I ignored the pang of guilt piercing through my insides, even though I was about to condemn an innocent man for an act I had committed. The janitor had brought me through the main hallway of Elder House, and had organized that gauntlet with Charlotte. He had also smirked when he discovered the boys had framed me for Henry’s kidnapping. But the most heinous of all was his disgusting, abusive arrangement with schoolgirls. With a bit of luck, more of them would come forward and make sure he rotted in prison.
The policemen circled around him, but Mr. Carbuncle dodged. Apparently, all this sexual activity made a man quick on his feet. He feinted left. Right. Ducked. Wove, all the while keeping up a complicated sequence of footwork I had only seen on a boxer during a heavyweight championship fight. I curled my lip. They should be hitting a pervert like him with clubs, not floating like butterflies around him.
Mr. Carbuncle ducked low, darted out of the room, knocked the headmaster to the ground as he sprinted for freedom. The policemen gave chase, and I turned to Edward, who pulled out a few bank statements from the filing cabinet.
“What did you find?” The headmaster pulled himself up and stalked across the lodge, eyeing the panties the girl had left on the table.
“There’s a transaction here from the Saturday Correspondent.” Edward handed the headmaster the evidence.
Mr. Chaloner looked at the uncashed checks and scanned the bank statements, scowl deepening with each passing moment. I held my breath, hoping this would be enough to convince him of Mr. Carbuncle’s guilt and my innocence.
Without a word or a backward glance, the headmaster walked out of the caretaker’s lodge and toward the main teaching block.
Edward shook his head. “That proves Carbuncle was behind some of the leaks, but I’m still convinced you were the cause of at least one.”
“I’m disappointed in you.” I stepped out of the lodge and into the fresh spring morning, heart soaring with victory. “If you can believe I was the culprit after seeing so much overwhelming evidence that proves my innocence, then I guess what we had together meant nothing.”
He wrapped an arm around my wrist. “If you don’t come with me now, I’ll call back the headmaster and give him an alternative and more convincing theory of who really orchestrated those leaks.”
Chapter 21
My stomach dropped, and my mind filled with the memory of Edward’s fury the day he had flipped the table in my direction. But even at his worst, he was still preferable to the headmaster, who seemed to be more than a simple academic and had a fi
le of transactions linking him to organized crime. I swallowed hard. There was no choice but to let Edward lead me back to Elder House.
Thud. Thud. Thud. My heavy heartbeat reverberated through my bones, shaking them to the marrow. They filled the silence between us as we passed the small lawn between the caretaker’s lodge and Elder House. Overhead, tight buds formed on the tips of branches, marking the beginning of spring. I chewed on the inside of my lip, hoping Edward was bluffing and trying to shake a confession out of me.
A cool wind meandered across the gardens, filling my senses with the scent of laundry and cooking. It reminded me of the days I had spent locked in the basement of Elder House and my heart filled with the remembered despair. I glared down at my loafers and mentally kicked myself for returning to the academy the day I had gone to London with Edward’s files. If I hadn’t been so determined to get Henry to confess, I might already be in New York by now.
We passed by the last few students making their way out of Elder House. None cast me a glance, and I let out a long breath. At least he hadn’t organized some kind of ambush.
The warmth of the entrance hall made the skin of my cheeks tingle. Edward led me through the hallway into his study. The second the door clicked shut behind us, he grabbed me by the arms and pressed me against the wall.
I gasped out. “Edward!”
His eyes flashed. “What did you do with those files I gave you?”
“M-Marissa has them.”
He pulled out his phone. “Call her.”
“I don’t have her UK num—”
“Call her!” he roared.
My heart jumped into my throat, and my body stiffened. “I can’t.”
“Because there is no Marissa.” He stepped back, giving me space to breathe. “She probably returned to America the day after she brought you here, and you used her as a ruse to obtain those files.”
I made a show of rubbing my arms. Anything to garner a bit of sympathy. “If I did, the Saturday Correspondent would have published something by now. Instead, the articles all focused on Mr. Frost’s confession. You’ve already found your moles.”
“No,” he snapped. “Paul and Carbuncle would never betray me like that unless cornered.”
“Neither would I!”
His eyes narrowed, and he advanced on me, seeming to grow several inches. “After everything we did to you, why did you come back?”
“Rudolph gave me a choice.” I lowered my gaze. The scrutiny of his frigid glare caused my stomach to knot. “Either I return to Mercia Academy or go to a military academy somewhere in the States. Mercia was the better of two bad choices.”
“I don’t believe you,” he murmured.
My throat convulsed. So far, he hadn’t mentioned this convincing theory about why I was the leak and not Mr. Frost of Mr. Carbuncle. He had probably been bluffing, so I would follow him here to be interrogated. Or, he had been referring to the files he had handed me to pass on to Marissa.
“Edward…” I placed my hand on his heart, which pounded hard against my palm. “I don’t know what I can say to convince you. This is like last term all over again where I couldn’t convince anyone I hadn’t kidnapped Henry.”
He cupped my cheek with his large. “Tell me, Emilia, will I find extracts of those files I gave you in next week’s Saturday Correspondent?”
A flock of butterflies in my stomach writhed and flailed about in a dizzying combination of nerves and nausea. “I didn’t give them to the paper.”
“You wouldn’t stoop so low as to toy with the heart of another.”
“No.” I shook my head for emphasis. I hadn’t set out to break hearts. I just needed to get close enough to the boys to exact my revenge. They had proven last term that they hadn’t care about me, so I hadn’t considered their feelings… Until it was too late. Now that I had my plane ticket, I needed to leave.
He cupped my other cheek. “You’re the first woman I’ve felt close to since…”
My pulse quickened at the confession. His mother had died years ago, leaving him to cope alone with a declining father. My heart ached for Edward. He had trusted me in the end.
I wrapped my arms around him and murmured, “I care too much for you.” Right now, I was telling the truth. Over the past few weeks, I had come to understand Edward. What came next was also sincere. “I would never add to your problems.”
Edward hugged back. “I’m sorry for doubting you.”
I raised my head. “Just kiss me. Make me forget about this unpleasant morning.”
He drew back, eyes shining with remorse, and pressed his lips against mine in the softest and most bitter-sweet of kisses. Over the past weeks, I’d connected with Edward more deeply than I had with any other boy. He had opened his heart to me, laid himself bare, and I had used it to manipulate evidence against him that could result in a sentence for money laundering.
I moved my lips against his, luxuriating in our connection. The layers of resentment I’d used to wrap my heart unwound, leaving one that ached with the need to confess. I’d seen the broken soul behind his cruel majesty, and it was beautiful. His kiss filled my empty, treacherous heart, making my head spin. I couldn’t tell him the truth. I couldn’t cause him further pain, and I couldn’t subject myself to another gauntlet.
“I love you,” he murmured into the kiss.
My heart stilled. “What?”
“I’m sorry for ever doubting you.”
“I…”
He placed a finger on my lips. “You don’t have to speak. Just let me make it up to you.”
This time, when we kissed, he gave me no assurances that he would be a gentleman, and I didn’t ask for any. It was hot. Demanding. Arms of steel held me in place, and his tongue devoured my mouth as if committing me to memory. I threw my head back and surrendered. This would be our last kiss, and I would treasure it for an eternity.
I had defeated him. Defeated the entire triumvirate and exposed their weaknesses to the country. No longer was I that betrayed and beaten girl who had to be dragged to the headmaster’s office, humiliated and disheveled. I would leave Mercia Academy triumphant. But first, I would leave Edward with something that proved the extent of my true affection.
“Sofa,” I gasped out between kisses.
He lowered me onto the leather Chesterfield and sat at my side. I placed both hands on his shoulders and pushed him onto his back. Edward’s brows quirked up. “Taking charge?”
“Taking what I need.” I straddled his hips, smoothing my hands over the planes and contours of his clothed torso.
Edward growled and pulled me down toward him, resuming our kiss. With hands so eager that they shook, I slipped off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt, and marveled at the tight muscles of his chest and abs. His nipples were pale and pink and puckered. I pinched one between my thumb and forefinger. His eyes rolled back, and the erection beneath me twitched. Heat flooded my core, accompanied by an aching, throbbing wetness.
A smile danced over my lips. Edward was so pliant, so responsive. I leaned forward and flicked my tongue over a nipple, enjoying his bucking and hisses. Then I reached for his belt.
“Emilia.” The words came out like a gasp, and his hand encircled my wrists. “Are you sure—”
“I’ve wanted you for ages. Let me do this.”
Excitement flared in his blue eyes like lightning reflecting over an ocean. He released my wrists and placed his hands on my hips. “As you wish.”
Keeping my gaze locked on his, I scooted down off his hips, unbuckled his belt, unzipped his slacks, and pulled down the waistband of his underpants. The tip of his penis popped out, making my mouth water. I wrapped my fingers around his shaft. The skin was as smooth as gossamer, but veins pulsed beneath the warm, thickening flesh. Edward hissed through his teeth.
Triumph flared across my chest at having made Edward Mercia hiss. I pumped up and down, watching his expression for more changes. Puffs of air escaped his lips, and tiny beads of sweat gathered on his ha
irline.
“Emilia,” he rasped.
Before he could complete his sentence, I lowered my lips to his pink, bulbous tip and darted out my tongue to taste him.
With a low moan, Edward’s hips arched off the sofa.
I held him down. “Stay still, or I’ll stop.”
“Y-yes.”
I ran my tongue up his shaft, enjoying the way Edward shook and twitched at my command. This was the guy with the regal grace and the commanding voice, lying beneath me, shivering under my touch. Seeing him so undone sent tingles up and down my core. I sucked the entire head into my mouth and made him whimper.
My other hand wrapped around his base, and I pumped up and down while savoring his reddened flesh.
“E-Emilia,” he gasped out. “I won’t last much longer if you continue to do this.”
“Do you have a condom?” I asked.
Heat flared in his eyes. “There’re in the inside pocket of my blazer.”
“Get it, then.” I rose onto my knees
Edward twisted about and fumbled with the garments bunched up around his arms. I continued my long, languid licks up and down his shaft, occasionally curling my tongue around his tip to make him moan. After a few moments, he produced the foil wrapper, tore it open with his teeth and rolled it down his erection.
“This is your first time.” Edward propped himself up on his elbows. “Let me go on top and take care of you.”
“No.” I climbed off him, toed off my loafers, and pulled down my tights and panties. “It has to be like this.”
He fisted his erection around the base, holding it upright. I returned to the sofa and lowered myself onto him. My muscles stretched around his thickness but after they adjusted, a ripple of pleasure fluttered around his length. Maybe it was the thought of dominating Edward like this and having him at my mercy, but this position felt right.
I rubbed my fingertips over his nipples, making him throw his head back and bare his clenched teeth. My throat thickened, and I swallowed down my guilt. Poor Edward. In less than a week, he’d realized I’d fucked him more than one way.