by Julia Nobel
Jack nodded and looked up. His face was filled with so much contrition, Emmy didn’t know whether to laugh or try and stop him.
“But no more nighttime wandering, or I’ll have no choice but to report you,” Jonas said. He opened the door and they all nodded as they shuffled out as quickly as they could.
Nobody said anything until they were safely in the common room. Lola threw herself down in a chair and burst out laughing. “I cannot believe you did that.”
“I can’t believe he bought it,” Jack said.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” Emmy said. “Now you’ll be stuck doing extra study sessions all term.”
“Better than us all being chucked out,” he said.
“Well, thanks,” Emmy mumbled. She should be the one doing extra study sessions. She should be the one who had saved all their skins. When was she going to stop being such a chicken?
“I just wish we’d had time to see more of that file,” Lola said.
“Yeah, well, I’m fresh out of excuses, so we’re not going back,” Jack said.
“But at least we got a bit of info on your dad,” Lola said, clapping Emmy on the shoulder. “You’re named after your grandmother—did you know that?”
Emmy shook her head. “There was one weird thing, though. There was a date of death beside his name.”
“A date of death?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. The file said he died two years before I was born. Obviously that can’t be right.”
Lola shrugged. “Somebody probably mixed him up with someone else and put it in his file by mistake.”
“Maybe,” Emmy said. “We still don’t know anything about Brother Loyola or why somebody sent me the letters.”
“It’s funny that they sent you a letter that’s so similar to that old letter in the round-tower church,” Jack said. “Do you think this person knew you’d compare them?”
“I haven’t really compared them, actually,” Emmy said. “I was so shocked by the signature I didn’t really get a good look at the letter.”
“Tomorrow’s Sunday,” Lola said, “which means the church will be open. Why don’t you take another look?”
Jack yawned. “Just promise me you’ll go during the day. I’m not doing any more midnight treks.”
• • •
Emmy walked through the church’s grassy tombstones and clutched at her scarf. She was getting used to the constant winds that whipped off the North Sea and through the school’s grounds. The smell of the ocean was a lot stronger out here than it was in the middle of campus. The cliffs were so close she could hear the waves beating against them. There was something about the water that was both comforting and exotic. It felt like home, but a home that was exciting and always surprising her.
Lola was having lunch with her mom, and Jack had to meet with Larraby to schedule all the study sessions he was going to be stuck doing. Emmy was on her own.
She pushed open the rounded door and stepped into the church. “Hello?”
Nobody answered. She walked to the back of the church and looked at the glass display cases. There was the letter, old and faded, but with a clear signature at the bottom. Your Brother Loyola.
She took off her gloves and pulled her father’s letter out of her coat pocket. The signature was the same.
Emmy squinted at the letter in the case. No, it wasn’t the same signature. The words were the same, but the writing was definitely different. The letter in the case was written in large, loopy scrawls, but in her father’s, the writing was thin and tightly spaced. The signatures looked really different. How could there be more than one Brother Loyola?
Brother. Not “brother” but “Brother” with a capital “B.”
“It’s not a name,” she said under her breath, “it’s a title. The title of the person in charge of—”
“Well, well, well,” said a voice behind her. “If it isn’t the Yankee redhead.”
Emmy whirled around. Jack’s old roommate Brynn was leaning against the baptismal font, staring at her with cold, black eyes.
“What brings you out here?” he asked her.
“Nothing,” she said quickly. “Why, what are you doing here?”
“Oh, nothing.” He smiled. A shiver ran up Emmy’s spine. Brynn’s smile looked anything but friendly.
“You should be careful,” he said. “This building isn’t all that safe.”
Emmy’s fingers started to twitch.
“Thousand-year-old stone and all that,” he said. “Who knows what kind of accident could happen? I know everyone at Latin Society would be devastated if anything happened to our favorite member.” He started walking toward her. “Haven’t you figured out that we’d rather not have girls hanging around our club? We don’t take kindly to them sticking their noses into our business.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” Emmy lied. She tried to back away but walked straight into a stone wall.
Brynn chuckled. “I know you American girls are taught to be strong and brave.” He was only a few feet away now. “But that’s a quality that can get you into trouble over here.” He reached out and ripped the letter from her hand. “What’s this? A letter from your boy—”
His voice trailed off. He was staring at the letter, eyes glued to the page. “Where did you get this?”
Emmy’s heart gave a little jump. He must recognize the signature. “What do you care? It’s my letter, give it back.”
He looked up at her. His gaze was fierce. “Don’t play games with me! Tell me where you got this letter!”
Emmy swallowed hard. She had to get out of here, but she also wanted that letter back. “It’s mine.” She reached forward and tried to grab it, but he leapt back.
“There’s no way it’s your letter!” he growled. “Tell me where you got it and tell me what you know about Brother Loyola!” The words caught in his throat and the letter shook in his hand.
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” she said. “You can’t tell me what to do, I’m not a member of your stupid Order of Black Hollow Lane.”
He shoved her hard into the wall. Pain shot through her back as she crunched into the hard stone. She tried pushing back, but he had her pinned.
“No one outside the Order is allowed to say that name,” he snarled. “Not even a stupid, arrogant American girl. Now tell me what you know about the things in this letter.”
“Let me go,” she yelled, “or I’ll scream bloody murder until someone shows up.”
“No one would hear you way out here. Even the teachers’ housing is too far away.” She pushed again, but Brynn just laughed. “Should have done more push-ups at football practice.”
Emmy felt a jolt in her chest. He was right. Her arms weren’t her strong point. If she was going to get out of here, she needed to use her legs.
Slowly she stopped struggling. She looked down at her shoes and sniffled. “All right, I’ll tell you everything.” Her voice quavered, and Brynn relaxed his grip. Emmy sprang forward and kicked him in the shins as hard as she could. He grunted and limped back, and Emmy launched her whole body into his. He crashed into the display case, and Emmy ran past him. She didn’t look back when she heard him scrabbling to his feet. Once she was out the door, she’d be able to outrun him.
She didn’t stop running until she made it all the way back to Audrey House. The common room was filled with people, all oblivious to the girl who was shaking and breathing like she’d been running for her life. She ran up to her room and leaned her head against the door. It felt like she had been running for her life.
She took a few deep breaths and rubbed the back of her neck. At least she’d gotten out of there without anything more than a sore back. At least he hadn’t gotten any information out of her.
She gasped.
The letter. Brynn still had her father’s letter.
• • •
Emmy stayed in her room all afternoon. Thank goodness Victoria had gone home for the weekend; she couldn’t deal with her now. She lay on her bed, stretching her back and thinking. The more she thought, the angrier she felt. Brynn assumed she was just a scared little girl. Well, maybe she was scared. But that didn’t mean he could get away with attacking her and stealing one of her most prized possessions.
She clutched her dad’s box and closed her eyes, as if it were some kind of charm that would give her an extra dose of bravery. I can do this. I can do this.
She went downstairs and found Jack and Lola. “Get your coats, we’re going for a walk.” She waited for them outside. She didn’t want to run into Brynn in the common room. Not yet.
“We’d better not be stealing anything this time,” Jack said as he opened the door and shrugged on his coat.
“It’s nothing like that,” she said.
“Nothing like what?” Lola quickly followed behind Jack.
“Nothing like theft, breaking and entering, or hacking,” Jack said. “Wait, there’s no hacking, is there?”
Emmy shook her head.
“Well, that’s disappointing,” Lola said. “So, what’s up?”
Emmy took them down the forest path and launched into her story. The more she told, the more serious their faces looked. By the end, Jack’s fingers were twitching, and he was tugging at his ear. But Lola looked surprisingly calm.
“So, you’re telling me Brynn attacked you,” Lola said, “then he stole your dad’s letter.”
Emmy nodded.
“Right, then.” Lola spun on her heel and started walking back toward Audrey House. “Time for another family chat.”
“Wait!” Emmy grabbed Lola’s shoulder. “You can’t just punch him again, you’ll get in trouble.”
“Who cares? He can’t get away with this!”
“I don’t want him to get away with it, either,” Emmy said, “that’s why we have to talk to him and convince him to give me back the letter.”
Lola whipped around. “Talk to him? Talk to that weaselly little git? Jack tried talking to him in first year and all it got him was a night out in the cold and a broken ankle.”
“That was an accident!” Jack said.
Lola swore. “It’s no accident when somebody pretends a friend is hurt so you go rushing out to look for them, then takes away your flashlight so you get lost in the forest, stumble around until you break your ankle, and have to spend the night in the bloody wilderness.”
Emmy looked at Jack. “Is that what Brynn did?”
“He… I mean, yeah. The ankle thing was an accident, though. It’s not like he meant for it to happen.”
Emmy’s chest felt heavy and hot. Who did Brynn think he was? He couldn’t just attack people or get them lost in the forest and think he could get away with it. She’d had enough of him. She pushed past Lola and marched up the path.
“Where are you going?” Jack asked.
“I’m going to get my letter back!”
She ran back to the house, flung the door open, and scanned the room. Brynn was sitting in an armchair and seemed to be having a serious conversation with Malcolm. She walked straight toward Brynn as if Malcolm wasn’t even there. He wasn’t the Order member she wanted to see. “We’re going to talk outside. Now.”
Brynn raised an eyebrow, then followed her out the door to where Jack and Lola were waiting. He eyed Lola and lifted his chin. “I see I have a welcoming committee.”
“Never mind them,” Emmy said. “Give me my letter.”
Brynn smiled. “I don’t think so.”
“Give me my letter, or I’ll tell Boyd what happened. And if you give it back, I might be able to stop Lola from beating you up again, but I can’t make any promises.”
“You can drop the tough girl act, I’m not giving you that letter.”
Emmy shrugged. “Fine, then I’ll go to Madam Boyd and—”
“No, I don’t think you will.”
“I’m not afraid of you, Brynn.” That wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t need to know that. “Don’t bother trying to intimidate me, because it won’t work.”
“If you tell Boyd about the letter, or about our ‘conversation’ in the church, I’ll tell her that you broke into the school office and stole confidential student information.”
Emmy froze. How could he possibly know about that?
“How do you—”
“You and your little friends aren’t that good at covering your tracks,” he said. “That security guard might have let you off easy, but once I finish telling the tale, all three of you will be on your way out of here.”
Emmy felt the color drain from her face. Was he bluffing? Or could he really get all of them expelled? She folded her arms across her chest like nothing he said was rattling her. “Go ahead and tell. You can’t prove it.”
Brynn shrugged. “And you can’t prove I was anywhere near the round-tower church today, let alone anything that happened there. I’ve got powerful people on my side. They’ll make sure I’m taken care of.”
“What, you mean the stupid Order?” Lola spat.
Brynn’s face went hard, and he looked Jack straight in the eye. “You told them? You told them about the Order?”
“He didn’t have to tell us,” Emmy said, “we found a bunch of information in an old book. A book he tried to keep us from reading. But I had to learn everything I could about the Order once I found out that—”
Jack grabbed her arm and shook his head. He’d already warned her not to tell anyone her dad had been part of the Order.
“…once I found out that they were a secret society,” Emmy finished.
The door opened, and Malcolm came out. Usually he seemed so easygoing, but the look on his face was anything but relaxed. “You shouldn’t be talking about this stuff here.”
“This is a private conversation,” Jack said.
“Not when you’re talking about the Order where anyone could hear you,” Malcolm whispered. “You were talking so loud I could hear you through the door.”
“So, you know what Brynn did?” Jack said. “You know he attacked Emmy and that he’s threatening to get us expelled, and you’re not going to do anything about it?”
Malcolm’s face twitched, and he shuffled his feet. “Look, I don’t like it much, either, but she’s meddling in stuff that could get her into trouble. She just needs to back off, and everything will be fine.”
“It’s not fine,” Jack said. “None of the stuff you guys do is fine.”
“How would you know?” Malcolm said. “You didn’t even give it a chance.”
“Of course, he didn’t,” Brynn said, “he’s too much of a chicken to even try. Face it, Malcolm. Your brother’s nothing but a coward.”
Emmy waited for Malcolm to defend Jack, or to at least tell Brynn to back off. But Malcolm didn’t say anything. He looked at Jack with sad eyes, then walked back inside.
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” Brynn said to Jack. “We were supposed to be in this together. No wonder your family thinks you’re such a disappointment.” He threw the door open and disappeared inside.
“You okay?” Jack asked Emmy.
She nodded. “How about you?”
He shrugged. “I’m used to it.” The look on his face made Emmy think he’d never get used to it.
“Well, I guess that’s that.” Emmy leaned against the stone wall of the house. “I just wish I could get my letter back. It totally freaked Brynn out when he read it.”
“I wonder why?” Jack asked. “I mean, people outside the Order aren’t supposed to know about it, but I’m sure it slips out every once in a while. It doesn’t seem to have hurt them yet.”
“He kept asking me what I know about Brother Loyola. I think that must be
the title for the leader of the Order. I bet that person is supposed to be a complete secret. I wonder who it is?”
“It’s got to be Larraby, don’t you think?” Lola said. “He runs the Latin Society, which is where they recruit a lot of people, right?” She looked at Jack, who nodded.
“And it’s not like Larraby works that hard as a teacher,” Emmy said. “He never does anything to help me learn Latin, even though he’s supposed to.”
“Don’t take him too lightly,” Jack warned. “If he is the head of the Order, he’s no joke.”
Emmy nodded and opened the door. They sat at a table in the corner for a while, but nobody said much. Finally, they all decided to go to bed.
Emmy lay awake a long time. Her back was still sore, and she couldn’t get her mind to stop racing. Eventually she drifted off, lulled by the sound of the breeze rustling the trees.
CHAPTER 15
Eighteen Years Ago
Emmy had a lot to distract her from Brynn and the Order over the next few weeks. There were soccer tournaments every weekend now, and they were all leading up to the biggest one of the season: the East Anglian Football Championship. They’d be battling the best teams from three counties, and they were practicing every day. She was glad to have the distraction. She threw all her frustration onto the pitch, loving every minute she spent with the grass under her cleats. Nobody could get to her here, and she got to kick things for ninety minutes straight.
On the Monday before the championship, Lola shot out of humanities class the moment the bell rang. “Meet you on the pitch!”
Emmy shoved her books in her bag and was flinging it over her shoulder when Jonas walked in. “I think I found something of yours in the round-tower church, young miss.”
Emmy’s bag slipped off her shoulder. “You found my letter?”
“Letter? No, your gloves.” Jonas pulled Emmy’s gloves out of his pocket and handed them to her. “I found them on a pew and saw your name on the tag.”
“Oh.” Emmy’s heart sank. She took the gloves out of his hand. “Thanks.”
“Are you missing a letter, then?”