Her gaze snapped on to me. “Are you sure you want that?”
I stood up. “Why? What are you going to do to me?”
For a few moments, we had a staring match, but I held on. Her storm-cloud eyes did nothing to me.
We were interrupted by the new teacher walking in. “Something the matter, girls?” she asked in clipped tones.
“No, Miss,” I said, sitting back down.
Ebony, for once, seemed a bit uncertain what to do. Her eyes flashed quickly across the room.
Mrs Ember chalked her name on the board in big letters. She had tanned skin, greying dark brown hair and crows’ feet round her eyes. There was something sharp about her, I could tell. She didn’t look the sort to be pushed around by the likes of Ebony.
“Sit,” she instructed.
“I …” Ebony paused. “I don’t have a seat.”
“Get one from the next classroom, then. There’s no time for messing around. Come along, girls!” Mrs Ember began assembling tubes and vials on her desk, while Ebony headed out of the door, looking (or so I thought) a bit sheepish.
Ha! I’d showed her. I smiled at Muriel, expecting a thankful smile in return, but Muriel was just staring straight at the board. Not a flicker. It seemed a bit strange.
The class got off to an all right start – Mrs Ember took the register and then began demonstrating a reaction with some of her chemicals. Ebony seemed to recover quickly and I saw her staring in fascination at what was going on.
“Probably reminds her of brewing magic potions,” I whispered to Ivy, who shushed me.
Everyone oohed and aahed as the chemicals turned an unusual shade of green and bubbled.
“Now it’s your turn,” said Mrs Ember. “I want you in pairs.”
I grabbed Ivy’s hand. Of course we were a pair! But I turned to see Ariadne’s face fall, just a little. “Oh,” she muttered. “Hmm.” She leant forward across her bench. “Muriel, do you want to be in a pair?”
Muriel nodded and smiled. I felt a warm feeling in my heart at seeing the two of them becoming friendly. Or possibly it was the fact that Ivy had just turned the Bunsen burner on.
Everyone began carrying out the experiment, pouring the liquids together, putting them on the heat, writing down what we observed.
Admittedly, Ivy was doing most of the work in our pair. I was chewing on my hair and keeping an eye on Ebony. She was looking quite at home, pouring out her chemicals and watching them bubble. She had teamed up with Anna Santos, and wisely wasn’t letting Anna touch the vials (Anna would have won the trophy for World’s Clumsiest Person, and then she probably would have dropped it).
But then I noticed a dark expression come across Ebony’s face. She was looking at Muriel the way a wolf looks at a sheep. Then I saw her looking down at the frothing green liquid in the vial.
No, I thought. She wouldn’t.
Anna had turned her back and was talking to someone else, and it seemed Ebony was really going to do it. I watched as she turned off the gas and went to pick up a pair of tongs.
Well, I wasn’t about to let her do something so terrible. Not on my watch.
I looked down at the desk in front of me and an idea sprang into my mind.
Perfect.
I picked up a spare piece of rubber tubing, the kind we used on the Bunsen burners, and attached it to the tap.
“What are you doing?” Ivy hissed.
Ebony had picked up her bubbling beaker with the tongs and was heading towards Muriel. And that meant she had to pass right in front of us.
I had to act fast. So when Ebony was right in front of me, I turned on the tap – and sprayed her right in the face with a jet of water.
Ebony screamed.
Spluttering and dripping wet, she lowered the beaker to the table.
“Drop that tube right now!” Mrs Ember shouted.
I did as she said, but honestly, that just made things worse. The thing curled back and forth, hissing like a snake, and sprayed water in all directions. Ariadne and Muriel both screeched and dived out of the way. Ivy ducked behind the desk, to a chorus of shrieks from everyone around us.
“TURN THAT TAP OFF!” Mrs Ember cried.
I reached for the tap, but it was a little difficult, given that the hose-tube was flipping around it and soaking the front of my dress.
“Ivy, help!” I called out in the general direction of the floor.
Reluctantly, Ivy bobbed up again and slammed her hand down on the tube, momentarily blocking the water. The thing started to expand and I quickly twisted off the tap before it could burst like a balloon.
There was a moment of silence that was quickly broken by the class falling about laughing.
Ebony’s white cheeks were flaming red, though whether she was angry or embarrassed (or both) I couldn’t tell. She looked like a drowned rat.
Serves you right, I mouthed at her.
She looked at me and there was something dark in her eyes that I didn’t quite recognise. But it definitely wasn’t happiness.
Mrs Ember marched towards us, having carefully kept away when the tap was soaking everyone. “Young lady,” she said quietly, an angry wobble to her voice. “What do you think you were doing? What is your reason for disturbing my entire class?”
I pointed an accusatory finger at Ebony. “She was about to tip chemicals on Muriel!”
Ebony blinked, damp hair hanging over her eyes. “No, I wasn’t!”
The lying toerag. “I saw her,” I insisted.
“Young lady,” the teacher repeated. “Have you forgotten all of the safety procedures since your previous year? Have you forgotten the school rules?”
I stared at her. “Is there a rule about not spraying people with water when they’re about to horribly injure someone with boiling chemicals?”
Mrs Ember just stood there, hands on her hips, and seethed at me.
Ivy raised a finger. “To be fair, Miss, I don’t think there is—”
The rubber tube fell off the desk, taking the opportunity to shake the final drops of water on to her shoes.
“HEADMISTRESS! BOTH OF YOU!” she said. “NOW!”
Chapter Twelve
IVY
don’t see why I have to go with you,” I said to Scarlet, as we walked through the echoing corridors. “I didn’t do anything!”
Scarlet squeezed my arm. “As my twin, you’re my partner in crime, regardless.”
I sighed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken up for her. Now we were both in trouble. “Are you sure she was about to attack Muriel?”
“Certain!” My sister dragged her feet a little. “Well, pretty certain. She was looking at her threateningly. And then she was heading over in Muriel’s direction with her beaker. She didn’t have any other reason to take it there, did she?”
“Well, I suppose not.”
“And that stuff is dangerous! It could have hurt Muriel. It could have hurt Ariadne. They were working together.”
I nodded slowly. If that really was Ebony’s plan,then she was more dangerous than we’d imagined. “Maybe she was just going to tip it on their work or something.”
Scarlet wrinkled her nose. “I suppose, but that’s still awful. She needed someone to show her up. She’s getting too big for her witchy boots.”
I had to stifle a giggle at that. Seeing Ebony get completely drenched had been a little bit funny.
We reached the headmistress’s office. “At least it’s Mrs Knight now,” I said. She was always so cheerful. If it had been Miss Fox or Mr Bartholomew we’d been sent to, we would have been in for a really nasty punishment. It didn’t bear thinking about. But whatever Mrs Knight could do to us … it wouldn’t be that bad.
Scarlet knocked on the door.
There was no response. I leant my ear to the wood and could hear Mrs Knight talking, but it was muffled. “Yes, yes … I see. No, it won’t be a problem. Thank you.”
“Sounds like she’s on the telephone,” I whispered to Scarlet.
We waited a short while longer and then the door opened. Mrs Knight looked a little tired and she exhaled heavily at the sight of us. “What is it now?” she asked.
By the time we’d sat down in the office and Scarlet had given a dramatic re-enactment of foiling Ebony’s plot, Mrs Knight looked even more exasperated than she had to begin with. “It’s all very well that you thought Ebony might do something dangerous, Scarlet, but why didn’t you tell the teacher?”
“There was no time!” Scarlet protested. “I had to stop her.”
She turned to me. “And Ivy? What did you do?”
I stared down at my damp dress. “Um … I hid under the desk.” Mrs Knight blinked at me and then I realised that wasn’t exactly what she’d meant. She wanted to know why I was there, in trouble too. “I said it wasn’t against the rules to spray everyone with water.”
Mrs Knight frowned and wrote something down on a piece of paper beside her – presumably making a note to add this to the list of rules in future.
“Girls,” she said, taking off her glasses and beginning to polish them. “You really need to pull your socks up.” She pretended not to notice Scarlet reaching down towards her shoes. “You need to do better,” she emphasised. “Rookwood School is under pressure. We have people that are helping us to improve, but …” Her words came to a halt, as if she wasn’t sure how much to say. She put the glasses back on. “We need to have everyone on their best behaviour. I know you girls have shown great initiative in the past—”
“We have!” Scarlet said with a grin.
Mrs Knight waved a pen at her. “But now you need to be settling down and following the school rules. If you have a problem with another student, you should not be fighting them or spraying them with water or anything of the sort; understand?”
“But, Miss,” I ventured, about to protest my innocence. I realised I was starting to sound like Scarlet.
“No, girls, this is serious.” Mrs Knight put her best serious expression on. “There will be no more trouble. I’m afraid, if there is –” She took a deep breath – “both of you will be expelled. For good.”
We left Mrs Knight’s office in shock. Or at least, I did. Scarlet didn’t seem particularly perturbed by what had just happened. But I was worried. If we were expelled, we would be sent straight back to our stepmother, wouldn’t we?
“I’ll just have to stay out of trouble,” Scarlet said.
“Scarlet, this is you we’re talking about.” I waved my hands in frustration. “Trouble would need a six-foot barbed-wire fence to keep you out!”
Scarlet leant against the wall and rolled her eyes. “All right. I suppose. But what’s new? They threaten me with these things all the time.”
I folded my arms and fixed her with an intense stare. “Firstly, I think Mrs Knight was serious. In fact I’ve never seen her look more serious. And secondly, she said she’d expel both of us—”
“For good, I know. Would that be so bad, really? Or are you in love with Rookwood now?” She made a face at me.
“No,” I said. “We’ve talked about this before! Rookwood is horrible, but all our friends are here. And don’t you remember what Edith said? She said she’d make our lives miserable if we got sent home!”
Scarlet didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she kicked her shoe against the skirting board and started marching away down the corridor.
“Where are you going?” I called after her. “We can’t go back to chemistry!”
“Going back to our room until next lesson,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Maybe I can manage to stay out of trouble there!”
I followed Scarlet, but I took my time. I felt a little numb and I was trying to reassure myself.
It felt strange wandering the empty corridors while everyone was in class. It reminded me of the first time I’d walked through them, when everything had seemed so dark and quiet. Now that Miss Fox had gone and some of Rookwood’s hidden secrets had come to light like a breath of fresh air, the atmosphere had changed. It wasn’t exactly noisy during lesson time, but peering through the windows in the classroom doors I could see girls talking, getting involved. Everything felt lighter now that no one was fearing the cane – or worse.
Possibilities ran through my head. We might not get expelled. We might manage to stay on the straight and narrow.
But what if we couldn’t? What if we really were kicked out? How would we see Ariadne and Rose again? And where would we live?
There had barely been room for me at Aunt Phoebe’s, let alone both of us, and she was getting more scatterbrained by the day. Where else could we go? There was Aunt Sara, who I loved, but we barely knew her. She lived above a shop and I didn’t think there would be room for us there either.
So if we got expelled, that meant … home. A home that wasn’t really a home in the first place. Home with a father who forgot to care about us and a stepmother who would rather see us dead than cluttering up her cottage.
There was only one thing for it: I would have to stop Scarlet from getting into any more trouble. Whatever it took.
Chapter Thirteen
SCARLET
thought Ivy was worrying over nothing. Of course, it would be terrible if we got expelled. Of course, there couldn’t possibly be anything worse than getting sent back to our stepmother. I imagined Mrs Knight pinning a note to our clothes that read Twins: no longer wanted.
But we weren’t going to be expelled! I felt certain of it. The only person I knew who’d actually been expelled from Rookwood was Ariadne, and that was because they’d thought she’d burned down the library (and I wasn’t planning on committing arson any time soon). Usually Rookwood just went in for punishment, not prevention.
Mrs Knight could threaten us as much as she liked, but I didn’t believe she’d have the heart to go through with it. And besides, I wasn’t intending to go around just picking fights with people.
The real threat, I thought as I slammed the door to our dorm, is Ebony. I wasn’t convinced that she had powers, but I was convinced that she was bad news. What would have happened if I hadn’t stopped her in time? Ebony had it in for Muriel and I was the only one standing in her way. It had been practically essential to spray her with that water.
I kicked my shoes off and lay down on my bed, wondering where Ivy had got to.
Had I done enough in chemistry to stop Ebony causing Muriel trouble? Ebony was a little humiliated, but would she stop all of this? I had a suspicion that the answer was no.
Just how far was she likely to go?
Ivy eventually arrived, and later we reluctantly went back to lessons. At lunchtime, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see that Ebony was back with her gaggle of girls. She had completely dried off as well.
Someone touched my arm in the lunch queue. “I can’t believe you did that.” It was Muriel, standing beside me.
“She was going to throw—” I started.
“I know, I know.” Muriel smiled. “I told you what she’s like. Thank you. For saving me.”
“Oh,” I shrugged. “It was nothing.”
When we reached our table, Ariadne looked concerned for us. “So what happened?” she asked. We hadn’t had a chance to talk about it in lessons – I was trying my hardest to listen and work hard, which was not as easy as I’d thought it would be. “Do you have detention?”
Ivy put her tray down a little more heavily than necessary. Her glass of water wobbled and threatened to cause another water incident, before I grabbed and righted it. “No,” she said. “We just got told off. I’m worried we might get expelled, though.”
Ariadne gaped at us. “But … but … they can’t! They can’t make you leave! Did she say you would be expelled?”
“Not exactly,” I said. “But I still think we need to be careful. I think we’ll be all right, as long as we behave,” I grumbled in the direction of my sandwich.
“Oh,” said Ariadne. She didn’t look very convinced that we could manage that. “Well, that explai
ns why you seemed rather keen to give answers to all the arithmetic questions. Though I’m not sure they were the right ones.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “Ha ha.” We had a new teacher now for arithmetic, since Mrs Knight was too busy running the school. I was hoping I could make a good impression.
“I can’t believe Ebony,” Ariadne said. I looked round, half expecting Ebony to be fixing me with a deadly glare, but she wasn’t even looking my way. That was almost worse, somehow. “I wish she would just leave Muriel alone.”
Penny approached the table and sat down, closer to us than I would have liked.
“Funny, isn’t it?”
I resisted the urge to ask her if she was talking about her face. I was being good.
“What is?”
“That you always called me a witch, and now a real one has turned up.” She gestured in the direction of Ebony.
“You think she’s a real witch too?” Ariadne asked, wide-eyed.
Penny seemed a little more upbeat than she had before. I wondered if it was the joy of throwing petrol on the rumour fire. “Haven’t you heard what everyone’s saying?”
“People say a lot of things.” I sipped my drink.
“Well, perhaps you should listen to them sometimes,” Penny said, raising her eyebrows at me. “Because Ebony’s got something planned for Muriel, and it’s not nice. And after this morning, you’re probably next on her list.”
“And why should I listen to you?” I asked.
Penny just shrugged. “Fine. Don’t. But don’t come crying to me when she turns you into a frog.”
We carried on with lessons for the rest of the day after that. Ebony was there, but she didn’t say a word to me. Instead, she whispered to the girls around her. I wondered if Penny was right – it did seem like she was plotting something.
At one point I saw her passing notes to Ethel Hadlow. That wasn’t a good sign. She didn’t even try to hide it either, and the teacher said nothing.
I was trying my hardest to be on my best behaviour. I wrote things down. I listened. It didn’t come naturally to me, that much was certain. Of course, I loved writing in my diary, but that was different. That was for me, not for some stuffy old teacher who wanted me to memorise pointless facts that I would never need to know, ever.
The Curse in the Candlelight Page 7