The letter was signed with Lucinda’s sweeping signature.
‘So they knew this was coming,’ Allie said. ‘That’s why they’re all hoping they’ve caught the spy.’
Carter met her gaze. ‘They think it’s their only chance to stop it.’
When he reached for the page to read it again, his fingers brushed against hers, causing an electric spark and Allie jumped back, letting go of the paper. The page floated to the floor.
‘Sorry,’ they both said simultaneously, bending over to pick it up at the exact same moment and hitting heads with a cracking sound.
Clutching her head, Allie didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as she reeled away from him.
Carter held his own temple. ‘Are you OK?’
Though her head was throbbing, Allie gave an embarrassed laugh. ‘I’m fine, I think.’
But as she ran her fingers through her hair she felt a lump beginning to rise. It was sensitive to touch and she hissed from the pain. Seeing this, Carter’s face darkened with concern.
‘What is it? Let me see.’
‘No, I’m fine, really…’ Allie demurred, but he shook his head sternly.
‘Come on. Let Dr Carter have a look.’ He held the lamp up close to her head and, with a touch as soft as silk, parted her hair.
Allie stayed very still – afraid if she moved he’d stop. And go back to ignoring her.
He whistled softly. ‘That’s a nice goose egg you’ve got there, Sheridan.’
She shot him an ironic look. ‘Will I make it, doctor?’
His replying smile made his eyes crinkle.
It was just the way things used to be between them – so natural and easy. Allie wanted the moment to last and last. But as if he’d suddenly remembered who he was with, Carter cleared his throat and took a step back, returning the lamp to its place. When he spoke again his voice was cooler.
‘We’d better hurry. Why don’t you check the drawers?’
‘Oh… yeah.’ She moved to the other side of the antique desk, keeping her face down so he couldn’t see the colour in her cheeks.
This is so hard. Can’t we just be friends again?
With a sigh, she tried the top drawer.
Locked.
The one below it was locked, too. And all the rest.
‘No joy,’ she said.
‘I —’ He began to reply then stopped.
They both heard the sound at the same moment. Frozen in position, Allie stared at the door in horror.
Somebody was trying to get in.
Without a word, Carter grabbed her hand, pulling her to his side. Then he turned out the desk light.
The room was plunged into darkness.
SEVENTEEN
C
rouched low behind Isabelle’s desk, Allie held her breath. In the darkness, she couldn’t see Carter but she could sense him next to her.
Whoever was trying to get in was having a bad time of it.
The doorknob rattled again and they could hear the faint jingle of metal against metal.
‘He has a key,’ Carter whispered, so quietly his words barely disturbed the air. They stayed very still.
For a long moment the rattling sounds continued. Then, abruptly, they stopped.
‘It doesn’t fit,’ a muffled voice said outside the door. ‘She must have given us the wrong key.’
It was a man’s voice. After that, they could hear other voices conferring.
If they have another key, Allie thought, they’ll use it now. Then they’ll find us.
The thought made her quiver – getting caught now would ruin everything.
But outside the conversation faded away. Holding her breath, Allie listened hard but could hear nothing.
A full minute ticked by as they huddled together in the dark.
‘I think they’re gone,’ Carter whispered at last. ‘We should get out of here before they come back with the right key.’
They stood, careful not to make a sound. Carter kept a hand on her elbow as they made their way through the dark room to the door. He didn’t need to – Allie knew this room well. But his touch made her feel safer; she was sorry when he let go.
As they stood at the door, she looked at the shadow shape of him beside her – wishing there was something she could say that would make all the bad things that had happened between them go away. That would allow them to be friends like this again.
But there wasn’t.
‘Ready?’ he said.
She lifted her chin. ‘Yes.’
Then she opened the door and walked out into the light.
‘We’ve found out they are keeping her somewhere else,’ Nicole whispered.
‘Could you be more specific?’ Carter’s tone was too sharp; a nearby student glanced up from his physics book.
‘Carter,’ Sylvain said quietly. ‘Volume?’
Allie expected Carter to glower at him or say something sarcastic. Instead he merely lowered his head in acknowledgement.
Watching the two of them, she frowned. Something had changed between them. They weren’t enemies any more. They didn’t act like friends exactly, but there was clearly some sort of understanding between them. They were like… allies.
When Carter spoke again his voice was low. ‘Sorry, Nicole. Go ahead.’
They’d gathered in the far corner of the common room, perched on a leather sofa and chairs and leaning in to hear each other speak. The room was packed with bored students in various stages of relaxation – some played board games, others read books or gossiped.
The ambient noise was loud enough they’d thought they could talk here without being noticed.
‘Wait,’ Sylvain said, before Nicole could proceed. ‘Pretend to talk about something fun. Like football.’
‘Football isn’t fun,’ Rachel said pointedly and Nicole giggled.
Even though everything was still bad, even though nothing had yet been resolved, the mere fact that they were at last doing something lightened the heavy atmosphere. They weren’t in the dark any more. They were involved, investigating – and they were finding out what was going on.
With a beleaguered sigh, Sylvain pulled a polished mahogany box of chess pieces from underneath the occasional table in front of them and began to set them up on the chessboard painted directly on to the table top. Black on the right, white on the left.
Glancing up, he caught Allie’s eye and motioned for her to sit across from him on the floor. After a brief hesitation, she did as he requested.
‘We can talk about anything,’ he explained, ‘as long as we look like everyone else. People see what they want to see.’
When he looked up from the board, the light caught his eyes and fractured like sunlight on water.
‘I haven’t played chess since…’ Allie’s voice trailed off. She picked up a ceramic pawn; it was cold in her hand. The colour of snow. ‘Well. I used to play with Jo.’
‘I remember.’ The compassion in his voice made her feel better and worse all at once. She was glad when he let the topic go. ‘You be white.’
‘Now,’ he said to everyone else. ‘Pretend to watch us while you talk. And try to keep your voices low.’ He glanced back at Allie with an encouraging smile. ‘Your move.’
Seeing that he was serious, Allie’s hand hovered over the board for a moment. Then she chose a pawn and slid it forward one square. He countered instantly with one of his own.
‘They’re holding Eloise in one of the old staff cottages,’ Rachel said, her voice low and steady. ‘We saw Raj and Jerry and the whole Scooby gang heading into the school from somewhere, and then leave again. Zoe followed them.’
In the middle of a move Allie paused, a pawn forgotten in her hand. ‘By herself? Was that safe?’
‘Of course it was safe,’ Carter snapped before Zoe could speak. ‘The teachers aren’t going to hurt her.’
His tone was unnecessarily sharp and Allie shot him a reproachful look before turning back to the game. The moment in
Isabelle’s office was obviously over.
She slid the pawn next to one of Sylvain’s – close, but just out of reach.
‘Whatever,’ she whispered so quietly only Sylvain could hear. Across the chessboard he smiled at her conspiratorially and she found herself smiling, too.
‘Tell them what you found,’ Nicole whispered to Zoe, who sat next to her.
‘They’re in a cottage – not Mr Ellison’s. Another one, near the pond in the woods. Kind of rundown, really overgrown.’ She studied the chessboard critically. ‘You’re not using your bishop right, Allie.’
Perplexed, Allie looked at the piece with its mitred top and wondered what would be the right way to use it.
‘I know that place,’ Carter said. ‘It used to be staff housing but then they quit using it for some reason a few years ago. I think it needed repairs or something and Isabelle never got around to it.’
‘Did you see Eloise?’ Rachel leaned closer. ‘How is she?’
Zoe shook her head. ‘I only heard her. They all went inside and then I could hear them talking. They said the key didn’t work. They kept asking her for the right key.’ She looked around the group. ‘What does that mean?’
Sylvain moved his queen forward four squares.
‘They had a key they thought would open Isabelle’s office,’ Carter said. ‘They tried it while we were in there. Scared the hell out of us but they couldn’t get in.’
‘What’s that about?’ Rachel asked. ‘Why would it matter if the key didn’t work?’
An image of Eloise standing in front of Isabelle’s door flashed in Allie’s memory.
‘Eloise had a key to Isabelle’s office,’ Allie said. ‘She was holding it in her hand when I saw her that day – the day I thought she was the spy. I told them about it.’
‘They must be trying to find that key,’ Nicole said thoughtfully. ‘They’d want to make sure it was secure so no one could use it.’
‘But she gave them the wrong key?’ Carter looked puzzled. ‘Why would she do that?’
‘Maybe she doesn’t have the right one any more,’ Rachel suggested.
‘Then who does?’ Sylvain asked.
No one had an answer to that.
Rachel broke the silence. ‘What did you two find in the office?’
Allie let Carter describe what they’d learned. When he finished, the others looked stunned.
‘So they knew this was going to happen all this time?’ Rachel sounded shocked.
Sylvain’s queen and a knight suddenly cornered Allie’s king.
‘Check,’ he murmured, arching one eyebrow.
Allie glared at the board but couldn’t find a way out. ‘Balls.’
‘What if our parents try to pull us out?’ Zoe asked.
They all fell silent.
‘That guy dragged Caroline to the car,’ Rachel said. ‘Are they going to do that to half the people in this room?’
‘What can we do, though?’ Allie asked.
Sylvain picked up a discarded chess piece. Holding the white knight in his hand, he looked at it thoughtfully for a moment. Then he held it up.
‘We can warn them.’
Sylvain’s statement caused an instant outcry. How could they do that? If they did, wouldn’t everyone know what they’d been up to? How should they say they found this information out in the first place? Besides, it wasn’t like they could send everyone an anonymous email. If they spread the word, the instructors would find out what they were up to and put a stop to it.
It was Rachel who’d found the solution.
‘Never underestimate the power of gossip,’ she said simply.
They all looked at her with blank incomprehension.
‘I do not understand?’ Nicole looked around for an explanation.
It was Carter who figured it out first. ‘Oh you are awfully clever, Rachel,’ he said, as understanding spread slowly across his face. ‘Tell the gossips and they’ll tell the world.’
‘Exactly,’ Rachel said. ‘We tell five of the biggest gossips in the school what Nathaniel’s doing, and that their parents might be coming for them next.’ She looked at them expectantly but they still didn’t get it. She rolled her eyes. ‘They’ll tell everyone else… Come on, you lot! It’s better than Facebook. Everyone will know what’s happening by sunset and it won’t be traceable.’
As they absorbed this information, the others exchanged looks.
‘And what happens then?’ Nicole asked the question that was in all their minds.
‘Then they can make a choice,’ Sylvain said. ‘What happens after that is up to them.’
‘What could they do, though, really?’ Carter asked. ‘Run away?’
‘They could run away,’ Allie said. ‘Or they could fight back.’
EIGHTEEN
T
he next morning, Allie was up and out in the frigid walled garden by six. It was the first real day of pretending everything was normal when nothing was. Her stomach was tight with nervousness and excitement – today they would put their plan into action.
She’d nearly forgotten about detention amid all the excitement, but as they all split up to their respective dorms the night before Carter had called after her, ‘See you in the garden, bright and early…’
Allie had stopped in her tracks, staring at him in disbelief.
‘Seriously? Do you think Isabelle actually expects us to stick to detention with all this going on?’ She swung her arm around in an irritated gesture.
‘Uh… yes?’ He shot her a look that said he thought she was being dense on purpose. ‘You have indefinite detention. Indefinite. She will not be happy if we just decide not to show up because of the apocalypse we haven’t been told about.’
‘Fine.’ Allie stomped up the stairs after the other girls. ‘Because I have nothing better to do.’
‘I’m busy too, you know,’ he’d called after her but she hadn’t looked back.
Clutching a torch, she slipped through the open garden gate. The weather had warmed slightly, and the frozen earth had thawed into a soupy mud. Her head filled with thoughts of spies and Nathaniel, she sloshed through it in search of Mr Ellison.
She found him setting up at the edge of the orchard, whistling tunelessly to himself as he worked.
‘My best worker is the earliest one,’ he said cheerfully. ‘How are you today?’
‘Fine.’ She stood up straight, trying to look fine.
‘That’s good,’ he said. He carried a massive armload of equipment out of an open shed. ‘Makes an improvement. Feel good and others around you will feel good by association.’
Allie didn’t notice she’d wrinkled her nose in disbelief until he waved a finger at her. ‘It’s true. Try it if you don’t believe me. You’ll see.’
‘OK…’ Her tone was doubtful.
‘You’re going to be working in the berry section today.’ He handed her a rake and clippers. ‘Getting the bushes ready for spring. Follow me and I’ll show you what to do.’
They headed back across the dark garden.
‘Where’s Carter?’ Allie asked, jumping over a muddy hillock.
Mr Ellison’s brow lowered. ‘Late is all I know.’
‘Oh.’
The gardener was demonstrating how to tell the leafless blueberry branches from the blackberries when the sound of fast heavy footsteps made them both turn.
Before Allie realised what Mr Ellison was doing, he’d moved in front of her wielding a heavy iron hoe in his right hand as lightly as she might hold a pen.
The gardener was very tall, about six foot five, and always had a lumbering gait, but suddenly he seemed capable of great swiftness and grace. Seeing this, Allie felt both awe and despair. Was nobody at Cimmeria what they seemed to be?
Within seconds, though, he’d relaxed and she heard him murmur under his breath, ‘What is wrong with you, boy?’
Standing on her toes, she saw Carter pelting it across the mud, his torch flickering on and off weakly.
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