A sudden realisation struck Allie with almost physical force. ‘That’s what Nathaniel’s so angry about, isn’t it? You changed the rules. My brother Christopher said something about you throwing away our inheritance. That’s what he meant, isn’t it?’
‘Precisely so,’ Lucinda said. ‘He would automatically have taken over after me, as your mother would have refused, and he is her eldest child. Had I not changed the rules, all of this would have been his.’
‘But he can’t care that much,’ Allie said. ‘I mean, I don’t care. And I don’t get to do it either. Why would Christopher care so much?’
‘Christopher probably wouldn’t have cared at all, Allie, were it not for Nathaniel.’ Lucinda leaned forward, her face very serious now. ‘You see – despite everything you’ve personally experienced, Nathaniel is very charismatic. Very charming. Very convincing. And a fragile young man like Christopher, searching for a path to follow in life, is easily seduced. Nathaniel showed him how your mother deceived him about his own history. Convinced him he couldn’t trust his own family. Promised him a life of power and privilege. It is the traditional method – he broke him down. And then he built him up again. In his own image.’
As she spoke, Allie’s blood seemed to chill in her veins. Could her grandmother be right? It would explain so much. Christopher’s strange behaviour when she’d seen him last December. The way he’d seemed like a strange, angrier version of himself.
Remembering that day, the two of them standing on opposite sides of the running water, she felt colder. She tried to focus on asking more questions.
‘Why does Nathaniel hate you and Isabelle so much?’ Allie asked. ‘What happened? Is he just crazy?’
‘I’ve known Nathaniel since he was very young,’ Lucinda said. ‘I knew his father. We were… very close. Sadly, he died when Nathaniel was still a teenager. In those days, he was a frightened, lonely young man, who’d lost his mother when he was a child, and then his father died, too. All he had was his half-sister…’
‘Isabelle.’ Allie finished the thought for her.
‘Exactly.’
Allie picked up her cup. ‘So Isabelle and Nathaniel – they have the same father?’
Lucinda nodded.
‘And you knew their father well…’ Allie said. ‘How did you know him? Did you work with him?’
‘Not exactly.’ Lucinda’s smile was wry. ‘I married him.’
Allie, who had just taken a mouthful of tea, choked on it. Sputtering, she set the cup and saucer down and leaned forward trying to get her breath.
‘You married him?’ Allie croaked. ‘Are you Nathaniel’s mother?’
Looking supremely unruffled, Lucinda handed her a tissue. ‘Oh no. Their father, my ex-husband, had several wives – not all at the same time, of course. He never could settle down. I was his first wife. After we divorced, he married Nathaniel’s mother, who sadly died in a riding accident while still in her twenties. He then married Isabelle’s mother.’
Allie blinked. ‘Blimey, he must have been good looking to have so many women chasing him. Who was this guy?’
‘“This guy”, as you describe him, was Alistair St. John. He was a Scottish government leader and the owner of ILC, the biggest technology company in Britain,’ Lucinda said. She took a prim sip of tea. ‘He was very charming.’
‘Wait,’ Allie said. ‘Is he… was this St. John guy my grandfather?’
Lucinda rested her hand on Allie’s arm. ‘Oh no, darling.’
‘Then who…’ Allie held up her hands in frustration at the confusing maze of old people’s love lives.
‘Your grandfather was a lovely man – a good man – named Thomas Meldrum,’ Lucinda said simply. ‘He was my second husband. He was much older than me; he died before you were born.’
She said no more about it, but her face settled, suddenly, into well-used lines of sorrow.
In the awkward pause that followed, Allie scrambled for something to say to change the subject. ‘So, was Mr –’ she tried to remember the first husband’s name ‘– St. John important in Orion or Night School, or whatever?’
‘Of course,’ Lucinda said, as if the alternative were unthinkable.
‘What happened after he died? Like, to Nathaniel and Isabelle.’
‘Alistair and I were always close,’ Lucinda continued. ‘He made me godmother to both his children. Isabelle’s mother was still alive – is still alive now, in fact – so she lived with her. But for Nathaniel, there was no one but me.’
‘What was he… like?’ Allie asked curiously.
‘Difficult,’ Lucinda said. ‘I was often away on business. Nathaniel and Isabelle were both attending Cimmeria at that time, it was his last year. Then when the will was read…’ She shook her head.
This sounded familiar to Allie. She thought Isabelle had mentioned something about an inheritance long ago. ‘What happened? What did the will say?’
Lucinda set the teacup down carefully on the delicate, white saucer. ‘Alistair had left everything to Isabelle. The youngest child. The daughter. Not to his eldest son. It was a shocking decision and Nathaniel took it to mean his father never really loved him. Of course his father had provided for him, a large portion of all the income from the companies and investments goes to Nathaniel to this day, but that was meaningless to him. What mattered was his father didn’t trust him with the family fortune. He trusted Isabelle.’
Allie let her breath out in a low rush. ‘Why did he do that? I mean, leave it all to Isabelle?’
‘Alastair was a businessman to his very core.’ Lucinda’s gaze was shrewd. ‘He had devoted his life to his work. I know he saw weaknesses in Nathaniel’s character – in his mind – that concerned him deeply. I’m quite certain it was purely a business decision.’
‘Is that why Nathaniel hates her now?’ Allie asked. ‘Why he’s doing all of this? Because of their dad’s will?’
‘I believe so,’ Lucinda said. ‘Or at least, that’s at the root of it. I haven’t helped, of course. With my decisions as head of Orion I insured he can never inherit that either, so he hates us all.’
For a long moment Allie sat still. The longer Lucinda talked, the more pieces of her life fell into place. It was like a complicated jigsaw puzzle in which you suddenly recognised the sky.
But there were still many empty spaces.
‘You said on the phone that the police are on his side, that he meets with government ministers. I still don’t understand, I guess, how he can do that,’ Allie said.
‘Ah, now. This is an indication of how clever – how thorough – Nathaniel is,’ Lucinda said. ‘After attending Oxford he came to work for me. He seemed to have calmed down – to have accepted his situation. I had hope for him again. He started as a clerk, but he was terribly good at his job. Very trustworthy.’ She gave a bitter laugh. ‘He progressed quickly. Eventually I made him my deputy. He was in charge of day-to-day operations of my offices and of my work with Orion. He represented me when I was away on business, which was often. This meant he got to know the Orion board personally, and they socialised with him. To my eternal sorrow he spent that time gathering information he could use against me. Finding out who was dissatisfied, who wanted more, learning what people didn’t like about my leadership, what changes they would like to see. Planting seeds of unhappiness among them. After a few years, he had all the information he needed to begin to undermine me. To try to destroy me.’
She leaned her chin lightly on to her hand, troubled grey eyes looking out across the room. ‘One day, about six years ago, I came back from a business trip in Russia and he was gone. He’d ransacked my office safe for critical documents, and disappeared.’ Her eyes met Allie’s again. ‘That was the beginning.’
Something in her tone made goosebumps rise on Allie’s arms. ‘The beginning?’
Lucinda gestured at the room around them. ‘The beginning of his battle for Orion, for Cimmeria, for you… for everything.’
‘He planned i
t that long ago?’ Allie was incredulous. ‘But I would have been… what? Just ten years old.’
‘I think he started planning the moment the lawyers read out his father’s will,’ Lucinda said. ‘This is his revenge against a long-dead man.’
The temperature in the room seemed to drop; Allie rubbed her arms as she thought it all through. The story Lucinda told was so sad – so hopeless. ‘After he disappeared – you never found him? You can find anyone.’
‘Oh, I found him,’ Lucinda said. ‘Or rather Raj Patel found him. Within a month or two, I had a good idea of where Nathaniel was living, but… what could I do? I had no hold over him. No crime to charge him with. Everything he’d taken I’d have given to him if he asked for it. And he was like a son to me. I just… wanted to talk to him. To tell him how much I cared about him. That I forgave him. But he refused.’ She rubbed her eyes, tiredly. ‘When I heard about his plotting – forming allegiances with members of the board against me – I thought it was a pathetic sign of his desperation. And then…’ Her face saddened. ‘Then Christopher went missing.’
Allie’s mouth went dry. ‘So he’d just been…’
‘Waiting,’ Lucinda said. ‘Watching and waiting for Christopher to be old enough. He knew it would break my heart – my “fake” son, as he saw it, taking my real grandson away from me. Further poisoning my relationship with your mother. He knew it would cause untold damage. That’s why he did it. In its own way it was a brilliant move. And now…’ Her gaze met Allie’s. ‘Well, you’re the missing piece in his puzzle. The last remaining member of my family. The final piece on his chessboard. He wants you on his side, too. Then –’ she held up her expressive hands – ‘checkmate.’
Reaching across the desk, she held out a hand to Allie, who hesitantly placed her own hand in it. Lucinda’s grip was strong. ‘There was no way for him to know that instead of driving us apart, he would bring us closer together. That I would do everything I could to protect you from him. And that we would fight back.’
Warm with pride, Allie squeezed her grandmother’s hand. But when she spoke, her words were cautious.
‘You said we’re in trouble – that we’re trapped. Do you really think we can win?’
‘We have no choice, Allie.’ The look in Lucinda’s eyes startled her. All the warmth was gone; her gaze was utterly ruthless. ‘Because he’s coming for you.’
TWENTY-NINE
When Allie finally stumbled out of Isabelle’s office, her head reeled from the information. In the end, they’d talked for more than an hour, mostly about Nathaniel and Christopher, but sometimes Lucinda revealed fascinating snippets about her life and work.
They’d been talking about a meeting Lucinda had once had with the prime minister of Japan when Isabelle tapped on the door.
‘I just wanted to remind you that you’ve a meeting in five minutes with Raj,’ she told Lucinda apologetically.
Taking her cue, Allie had stood. ‘I should go.’
Lucinda walked around the desk to stand in front of her. With a gentle touch, she tucked strands of Allie’s wavy hair behind her ears. It was such an unconsciously maternal gesture it made Allie’s heart ache.
‘It has been,’ Lucinda said, ‘such a pleasure to speak with you. I hope we can do it again soon.’
Uncertain of when she’d see her again, and not wanting her to leave, Allie spontaneously reached up to hug her.
‘Thank you, Grandmother.’ It was the first time she’d said the word to Lucinda; it felt strange but good. ‘I’m so glad I know you now.’
Lucinda’s arms had tightened around her shoulders – her perfume smelled of exotic flowers.
‘And I you, Allie.’
She didn’t know how she would begin to explain all she’d learned to the others. But they needed to know some of it, at least. They had to understand how serious things were.
First, though, she had to find them.
She knew the others had planned to meet in one of the library’s study carrels, so she tried there first. But when she tapped on the door, with its carvings of acorns and leaves, a senior student she vaguely recognised threw it open with an impatient look.
‘What do you want?’ he snapped, peering at her through expensive glasses. His hair stood on end, as if he’d been raking his fingers through it repeatedly. The desk behind him was so thick with papers, some had slid on to the floor in an unruly heap.
‘Sorry…’ Allie jumped back so quickly she nearly tripped. ‘I was looking for someone else.’
Muttering to himself about ‘junior idiots’, he closed the door without another civil word.
After that, she’d tried the common room, the great hall; even the dark and echoing top floor of the classroom wing.
There was no sign of them.
Finally – her mind teeming with new information and thoughts, with Orion and Lucinda, Jules and Carter – Allie settled down in a heavy leather chair in the crowded common room to wait. Everyone always looked there first. They would find her.
Filled with boisterous students playing games, chatting and studying, the big room was typically noisy. Next to her, a group of six younger students played a raucous game of poker, which seemed to involve rampant accusations of cheating and assertions of doubt about each other’s parentage. But the sound washed over Allie virtually unnoticed.
Curling up in the deep leather chair, she waited. But it was ages before Zoe shot through the door, like a sparrow swooping from the eaves.
Her quick gaze alighted on Allie, who leaped to her feet. Zoe looked relieved.
‘No one knew where you were. Sylvain and Rachel are losing it. Come on.’ She shot down the wide hall with easy speed and Allie hurried after her, fumbling to shove her unread book into her bag.
When she looked up, Zoe was leading her across the building’s grand entrance hall to the front door. For the first time she noticed the younger girl’s jacket and hat.
‘You’re outside?’ she said, surprise making her voice rise.
‘Yeah.’ Zoe wrestled with the complex ancient iron lock. ‘It’s so freaking cold, Sylvain said no one would think to look there.’
The lock gave with a clang. Zoe needed both hands to open the heavy door. The winter air hit them like a fist.
‘See what I mean?’ Zoe said, hopping up and down. ‘Cold.’
‘Exhilarating,’ Allie said dryly. She wondered how long she’d last out there without a coat but she didn’t want to take the time to run all the way upstairs for hers.
‘Like an ice cube in your face,’ Zoe agreed, heading down the front steps and across the muddy lawn.
It was a clear evening; silvery-white stars spread like frost across the black sky as they turned right on to a footpath.
Pulling the sleeves of her jumper down over her icy fingers, Allie ran faster as they entered the forest.
Ahead of them, the top of the summer house rose through the trees like a ghost, its sharply peaked roof seemed to float above the pines until they rounded a bend and could see the rest of the building.
Allie knew it was made of a fanciful mosaic of coloured tiles, set against white stone, but in the dark the colour faded to grey. They could hear voices talking excitedly as they approached, taking the stone steps two at a time.
‘Allie’s here,’ Zoe announced, her breath emerging as a puff of white. ‘She was doing her prep.’
‘I wasn’t prepping,’ Allie objected. ‘I was… thinking. And I did look for you.’
‘We knew no one would think to look here.’ Nicole’s French-accented voice came from the shadow. Allie could see only her slim leg, clad in dark tights, dangling from the stone banister upon which she’d draped herself.
‘I thought someone might have kidnapped you.’ Rachel gave her a significant look before noticing her attire and becoming distracted. ‘Where’s your coat?’
‘Zoe forgot to mention the outside part,’ Allie said. ‘But I feel fine. The run warmed me up.’
In realit
y, the perspiration had already begun to chill against her skin, but she didn’t want anyone to make her go back.
‘You’re good until the hypothermia sets in,’ Rachel said.
‘Can we get serious here?’ Carter sounded exasperated. ‘I think we’ve got ten minutes before we have to get back for dinner. Allie, what did you learn from Isabelle?’
‘Actually, I wasn’t with Isabelle,’ she said. ‘I was with Lucinda Meldrum.’
At this bombshell, they all fell silent.
‘Blimey.’ Zoe sounded impressed. ‘I didn’t even know she was here.’
‘Did she say anything we need to know?’ Nicole’s leg moved as she shifted her position.
‘Loads but…’ Allie thought about all her grandmother had revealed about her family, her history, Nathaniel, Orion… She didn’t know where to start and they only had a few minutes. ‘I couldn’t even get started in the time we have. I’ll have to tell you later. Did you meet with Katie? Why are you all out here?’
She was shivering so hard now her voice shook a little; the pillar behind her was like a block of ice and she stepped away from it.
‘The meeting was… disturbing.’ As he spoke, Sylvain unbuttoned his jacket and pulled it off. Catching her gaze, he held it out for her.
The gesture reminded her so much of the night of the winter ball that, for a split second, she couldn’t move. She remembered the way he’d taken off his tuxedo jacket that night, and what had happened next.
Goosebumps traced a pattern on her arms.
Then she reached out her hand.
The jacket wasn’t long but it had weight. The warmth of Sylvain’s body and the scent of his cologne lingered in the jacket’s soft fabric. It slipped around her frozen shoulders like a hug.
‘Katie thinks about ninety students will go with Nathaniel. We’ve been talking about how to handle it.’ Rachel’s voice dragged Allie back to reality.
Fracture ns-3 Page 23