by A. W. Exley
Allie prised open the heavy envelope, curious as to who would be writing to her and glad of the distraction. She extracted the single piece of embossed card. Scanning the contents, her blood ran cold and the sheet froze in her fingertips. She read each word again, slowly. Twice.
You are expected
Sunday 25th September
D.L.F
The colour drained from her face and her fluid posture became stiff. It was one thing to know the summons would come, quite another to have the weight of it in her hands.
Why send a formal card, why not a dragonfly message?
Jared coughed into his hand to attract her attention, and raised one dark eyebrow when she glanced up. His gaze flicked from the heavy card clutched in her fingers and then back to her face.
Ah. Because this way the others will see the note and I can’t conceal the summons. Not when it could concern Zeb.
Despite her current not talking to Jared stance, she swallowed her pride. “I’ve been summoned to London.” She handed the brief note over as he leaned forward.
His eyes flicked to the initials at the bottom of the note. “You can’t possibly go.” His eyebrows knitted in concern. “It could be a trap.”
“It’s not the sort of summons you ignore.” Le Foy was overlord. Disobeying would be like ignoring a summons from the King, eventually someone would turn up to fetch her, willing or not.
“I don’t like it.” He still frowned. “Plus, it doesn’t say where you are expected.”
Her fingers picked at the envelope. “Oh, I know where.” A black chasm opened in her gut and Allie slammed a door shut on the empty memories hiding in the depths. “He will have information and this note means something larger is afoot. Isn’t this the sort of lead Marshall has been fishing for me to pursue?” And there were other, more personal issues Allie wanted to raise with Le Foy.
“Don’t do anything foolish,” he said, holding her gaze. “You are expected in Edinburgh.”
He handed the missive back and she stared at it, trying to discern any hidden meaning in the few words scratched over the paper. Could my week get any worse?
Allie’s week could get worse. She tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid Jared since the dance. Eloise prodded for details but Allie coloured and clammed up every time. She could still feel Jared’s lips burned into her neck and remembered the way he toyed with her, forcing her to voice aloud what her body felt. As hopeless as her feelings were, something splintered in her heart to believe he only saw her as a distraction and nothing else.
At the last training session of the term she approached Marshall in the gymnasium. “I’ve been summoned to London,” she whispered.
He nodded. “Jared told me.” Questions danced in his eyes, but he held his tongue. “Tread carefully and trust your gut. You have good instincts, use them. I expect to see you back here next term.” He handed her a blade and pushed her in the direction of the mat.
Relief flooded her body. Marshall was brutal in putting them through their paces, leaving little time for conscious thought.
All went well until Marshall decided Duncan could sit out the last bout and it was time Allie and Jared sparred, so he could gauge her improvement since the beginning of the term.
They started slow and wary of each other. Allie struggled to concentrate, giving Jared an opportunity to catch her unawares. He pinned her against his chest, her back to him with his arm across her torso, holding his blade to her throat.
“Now you’ve admitted how you feel, how shall we end this dance?” he whispered against her ear, his lips close to where they had laid kisses.
Allie’s blood boiled in her veins. He played her once, he wouldn’t do it a second time. “Don’t think you can toy with me,” she said between gritted teeth.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His arm didn’t budge from around her.
“Yes you do.” She spat out the words as heat churned in her stomach. “I thought you were different, but you’re exactly the same as the rest. You think you can use me and toss a coin my way when you’re finished,” she hissed.
She directed all her anger into slamming an elbow into his stomach, heedless of his blade, wanting out of his hold.
He loosened his grip with the impact and she spun, using all her slight weight to tackle him. The tone of the fight changed and became deadly. The pace increased and Allie would not pull her blows. She spun under one of Jared’s thrusts and pulled her Egyptian dagger to add to the school one she held. She attacked him with both blades.
“Enough!” yelled Marshall. Allie wielding an extra blade increased the chance of bloodshed. He rushed into the middle of the fight, reached out and grabbed Allie by the back of her corset. He lifted her off the mat and dropped her out of reach of Jared. He pulled the blades from her hands, tossing the school one to Duncan before levelling her Egyptian one at her head.
“You can have this back tomorrow once you’ve cooled down. Now go get changed,” he commanded, and propelled her out of the way.
Refusal flared in her eyes, before she regained some control over herself. She didn’t dare say a word, the emotion too close to the surface. Instead, she turned on her heel. She barged out of the gymnasium fuming and muttering under her breath about Jared and walked straight into Madeline, Hamilton and his two friends. Waiting outside the door, their chatter died the instant they noticed Allie.
“I think it’s time we sorted out a few issues,” Hamilton said.
The hair prickled on the back of Allie’s neck. He looked like he was spoiling for a fight. She promised her grandfather she would try to stay out of trouble, but not knowing what fate awaited her in London, she figured all bets were off.
If I’m not coming back here, I’m going to make sure he remembers my last week.
She was in the mood to make something bleed and she was going to make Hamilton regret ever taking her on. Her fingers reached for her blade, only to remember she just lost it to Marshall.
“Show the little street brat how to have respect for her betters,” Madeline said to Hamilton, while shooting Allie a cold look of pure ice blue.
You’ll get yours one day. Allie narrowed her eyes, aware of the girl’s private vendetta. She imagined dragging the noble girl’s body to Eloise’s roof top laboratory. Eloise could practice her surgery and find out if Madeline has a heart or an empty chest cavity.
Hamilton sneered as Jared and Duncan came out of the gymnasium. “And here come the Scottish barbarians. I suppose you’re going to play the heroes?”
They exchanged looks on seeing the situation. Jared glanced at Allie. She shrugged his attention away and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t worried and adrenaline still coursed through her body from her fight with Jared. Given the early hour, now seemed the perfect opportunity to teach the blond a lesson.
“Not at all,” Jared replied to Hamilton. “I’ll just watch to make sure you keep it clean and Duncan here is going to impersonate a coat rack.”
He approached Allie from behind. She stiffened as he took hold of her coat by the collar and slid it down her arms. He used the opportunity to whisper in her ear. “Don’t hurt him too bad, he’s not worth being sent back to Newgate.”
She froze at mention of the prison. Jared tossed her coat to Duncan and went over to lounge against the wall next to Madeline, who looked like the cat that had been set out a bowl of cream.
Damn. Allie mulled over Jared’s words and realised he was right and her options were limited without her knife. I’m going to have to touch him. The idea appealed as much as jumping into the waterhole without checking for crocodiles first.
While she was lost in thought, Hamilton took the opportunity to throw a punch. It was a dirty tactic to start before your opponent was ready and it spoke volumes. Fortunately, her reflexes were much faster and she dodged under the blow. Her mind raced ahead to possible scenarios for ending this farce as soon as possible.
She decided on her course of action and with the next p
unch she let him get his blow in. She turned at the last moment, so it glanced off her cheek but let it appear to carry her back to the wall. She tilted her head and exposed her throat.
His eyes gleamed, believing he defeated her already. He chuckled as he reached out his hands and wrapped his fingers around her neck.
She saw Jared and Duncan stiffen and moved her hand in a subtle no gesture by her side. Jared relaxed back against the wall and put a restraining hand on Duncan, who looked about to launch forth. The boys exchanged looks but held their places.
She remembered Hakim teaching her to always use her head in a fight. So she did, with brutal efficiency. Just when Hamilton thought it was over as he throttled her, she put all her anger and frustration at Jared into her retaliatory strike. The sickening crunch of cartilage told her she hit him with her forehead in exactly the bridge of his nose.
He cried out, letting go of his hold around her throat. Before he could reel backwards Allie kneed him hard in the groin, dropping him to his knees, and finished it off with a double-handed blow to the back of his neck. He slumped to the ground, stunned.
His friends rushed to his side, patting his cheeks and calling his name. He groaned, curled around his injured privates and retched. He vomited over his friend’s polished boots. The blood gushed from his broken nose and he raised a hand to try to stem the flow as he whimpered.
Duncan admired Allie’s handiwork as he tossed her jacket. “Oh, that is going to look really messy by tomorrow.”
She caught it and shrugged it back over her shoulders.
“I’m going to the Headmaster, you will be expelled for this!” Hamilton shrieked from his position on the ground. The blow to his groin had added a new octave to his range.
“You do that.” Allie had enough of the nobles at the school and couldn’t wait to be rid of them for the term break, or permanently if things went bad with Le Foy. “Everybody should know you got beaten up by a girl.”
There was a snigger from Duncan and even Jared hid a smile. Hamilton’s friends helped him to his feet. His features turned purple as he leaned on his friends, and curses used by seasoned sailors fouled the air as they left.
Allie approached Madeline, who took a step back. “I’m a street fighter, not a street brat. You might want to remember the difference, for next time.” She dropped her tone lower and held the other girl’s gaze.
“You can push me, but I won’t push back. I will simply climb through your window one night and end this.” Without giving her a chance to reply, Allie turned and strode down the hallway, raging in her mind and muttering curses at the lot of them.
Madeline turned on Jared. “Most nobles have the dignity to keep their low born tarts out of sight. Not flaunt them in good company.”
“Is that what you think she is?” he asked, tilting his head to watch Allie storm off over Madeline’s shoulder. “Some sort of paramour?”
“What do you call her then?” Madeline responded, her delicate nostrils flaring with each sharp drawn breath.
He shrugged. “A friend, like Duncan and Zeb. We ride, we fight. That’s all.” He wasn’t going to give Madeline any hint otherwise until he figured a few things out for himself first, unsure of the noble girl’s motives.
Madeline searched his face before she sighed. “Never forget we belong to each other.” She reached up and kissed him, and then turned to head back to her own room before the matrons found she had escaped.
Once she disappeared from sight, Duncan let out a sigh. “I don’t envy you cousin. That one would stick a knife in your back as quick as look at you.”
“What’s going on here?” Marshall appeared in the corridor, his gaze flicked to the pile of blood and vomit in the hallway.
“Allie just smashed Hamilton’s nose,” Duncan said, a large smile dominating his face.
“Hamilton ambushed her. Said he wanted to teach her a lesson. But Allie ended up giving him one,” Jared said.
Marshall looked at Jared. “Take a word of advice from a man older and wiser than you; sort your head out before that one decides to use her blade to sort it for you.”
Jared turned to regard him with hooded eyes. “It’s a complicated situation.” He didn’t bother to argue, he knew what Marshall referred to.
“No it’s not,” Marshall quickly retorted. “There are plenty of noble girls out there, but wild cats like that? Despite what the others will tell you, they’re far from common. Allie is only the second one I have ever encountered.”
Brief curiosity flickered in Jared. “What happened to the first one?”
“KRAC intelligence agents rarely die of old age.” Marshall raised his stump. “I lost this crawling across a battlefield so I could hold my wild cat while she died.” Sadness tinged his voice. “I want you to come back in two weeks with a different attitude, and Lithgow.” He reminded them of their mission. “General Galloway is expecting you, report in when you reach Edinburgh.”
Jared nodded and headed down the corridor with Duncan, who was uncharacteristically silent.
“Marshall’s right you know,” he said, giving his cousin a rare serious look. “You need to figure out what the blazes you’re doing. Allie’s a friend, and guild. You don’t play with that sort of girl, unless you want her fancy dagger sticking out of your chest.”
Jared let out a deep sigh. “I know what I want to do, but the fallout will be worse than Zeb’s weapon exploding.”
“Then leave her alone.”
“Not going to happen.” Jared’s fingers tingled, remembering Allie’s silken skin underneath them. He wasn’t letting her go, not without a fight.
Allie returned to her room to find Eloise in the throes of packing, so they could get away early in the morning for the term break. She looked up as Allie entered and immediately spotted the graze on her cheek and the redness around her throat.
“Good gracious,” she exclaimed. “Did Duncan do that in training? He needs a serious talking to.” She stood up from the fabric pile and clothing scattered around her feet. She leaned close to peer at the marks around Allie’s neck, distinct fingers on each side clearly visible.
“No, not Duncan,” Allie reassured her friend. “It was Hamilton.”
“What happened? How did he actually manage to lay a hand on you?”
Allie shrugged off Eloise’s concern. “Hamilton, his toadies and Madeline were waiting for me when I came out of the gymnasium. I figured it was coming, at least it’s over now.”
Or just starting, Allie added, but she didn’t want to worry Eloise with that thought. “And anyway, this is just superficial. It will be gone in a few hours,” Allie said to placate Eloise.
“So what did you do to him?”
“I broke his nose. If I did it right he’ll have two black eyes by tomorrow morning.” Allie remembered the satisfying crunch of cartilage.
Eloise looked worried again. “Serves him right, but I don’t like Madeline being involved. I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.”
Allie threw herself down on her bed and gazed up at the ceiling. “I’ll be glad to get away from here for a while. It’s been challenging these last couple of months.”
“Out of the fry pan into the fire though, isn’t it, with what you and Jared are cooking up?” Eloise commented as she moved about the room. She stared at the mound of clothing, deciding which to pack.
“We will get Zeb’s father back, and make them both safe,” she promised, thinking of a much simpler life in Egypt. Her most challenging decisions were what to steal for lunch and where to go for a swim. Now she had underworld plots to foil and aristocrats to fend off. And she still didn’t know if she wanted to fend one in particular away or not.
Friday, 23rd September.
llie reclaimed her dagger from Marshall and instead of the anticipated lecture she met with a disappointed silence. Chastised, she approached the library in search of her grandfather and Weasel.
She dropped her large carpetbag by the door and li
stened for any clue to the whereabouts of either. Weasel normally recognised her stride in the corridor and waited for her to cross the library threshold. She headed off to one side, from whence vague rummaging sounds emitted. As she rounded a row of books, she spotted an enormous wooden packing case. With one side levered open, the lid hung slack-jawed as though it were a creature attempting to devour Alfred. He surfaced, his arms clutching a load of precious books.
“The new delivery arrived early then?”
“Yes, and you’re going to miss all the fun of cataloguing and finding places for them on the shelves.” Alfred laughed as Allie wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. “Yes well, I guess I have a slightly different definition of fun to you.”
“I’m about to head off, Poppa, so I’ll see you in two weeks’ time.”
Alfred put the books down on his desk and opened his arms wide to his granddaughter. Allie went to him and he stroked her hair. “Have fun with your friend and try to stay out of trouble.” He pulled back to give her a significant look over the top of his glasses.
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t make an unrealistic promise.” She gave him an impish grin and he laughed.
“Be safe in London.”
Allie held back her plans; she wouldn’t worry him by mentioning her summons. “Eloise is taking me shopping, I may never recover.”
He smiled. “Go then, leave me to my books.” He gave her one last pat and a push in the direction of her waiting bag.
“One other thing.” she added before leaving.
He looked up, her tone alerting him to the fact he was about to have something dropped in his lap that he would probably rather avoid.
“You may or may not have a rather difficult conversation with the Headmaster.”
“Oh? What have you done now, Allie?” her grandfather replied in a long-suffering manner.
“I broke Lord Hamilton’s nose yesterday, I’m not sure if he’ll mention it or not, but I thought you might want to be forewarned. He threw the first punch, so it’s not like I started it.” Her grandfather gave her a disappointed look, her second for the day.