PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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ISBN 978-1-4197-3834-0
eISBN 978-1-6833-5641-7
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1
Orchid
The office of the headmaster of Blackbrook Academy looked like a high-budget, if not particularly imaginative, movie set. Glossy wood paneling shimmered with the polish of a century, and leather-bound volumes of old yearbooks stood in rows as a testament to all the scholarly glory that had come before. As Orchid McKee entered, her gaze landed on the gilded wooden engraving of the school’s crest mounted right above Headmaster Boddy’s door.
TO MAKE MEN OF KNOWLEDGE AND INTEGRITY
Naturally, they never changed it after the school went co-ed. She wondered what they planned to do with the women.
The hard-backed wooden chairs lined up along the wall outside his door seemed crafted to be the most uncomfortable seats imaginable, the better to impress upon the occupants that they were in trouble and they’d better get used to squirming. There was already a student sitting in one.
Orchid perched on the very edge of another.
She wasn’t in trouble, and she hadn’t squirmed in years.
Of that she was sure. Orchid had crafted her entire existence at Blackbrook to make sure she would never be noticed for anything. The oversized, hooded sweaters, the mousy-brown hair, the glasses and the headphones and the ever-present, fat book—all were a perfectly crafted costume saying a single thing: boring. Her homework was always meticulously done and turned in early, if she could at all manage it. She didn’t party or sneak off campus to drink in the woods near the ravine. She’d never even gotten dragged into the usual dorm-room drama, though it probably helped that she’d also paid the private room premium on her boarding bill ever since freshman year.
Orchid liked her privacy.
Which was why, when the person seated next to her nudged her elbow and asked, “Whatcha in for, McKee?” she just shrugged and returned to her book, letting her too-long bangs fall over her face. You could deflect quite a lot of conversation with a simple shrug. Orchid had been perfecting hers for a decade.
But Phineas Plum, seated in the hardback chair beside her, wasn’t much for going unnoticed. If you were making that luxe boarding school movie, you couldn’t have cast the part of hipster nerd any better. Cute, and boy did he know it. Smart, and he made sure everyone knew that part, too. At a school like Blackbrook, the resident genius enjoyed all the popularity of other schools’ star quarterbacks or head cheerleaders.
“I don’t know, either,” he barreled on, as if Orchid had invited conversation. “Though, I guess, since it’s the middle of junior year, it might have something to do with academic honor societies.”
Possibly. Orchid’s grades were excellent, and everyone at school knew that Finn was the best student in the class.
“Though I don’t see Scarlett.” he added.
Make that the best male student. Scarlett Mistry lived down the hall from Orchid, and, curiously, always seemed to have insider knowledge on every student’s academic ranking, which she’d regularly announce to any person within spitting distance. She was also class president, the head of the Campus Beautification Committee, and—in Orchid’s opinion—a complete pain in the butt. Orchid hadn’t moved to Maine to get mired in the same competitive, mean-girl drama that had devoured so many of the young women she’d known back in California. It’s not like Orchid kept up with the news from back home—but some stories you couldn’t avoid. The tabloids made sure of that.
No, she’d come to Maine to stay out of trouble. And the fact that Scarlett wasn’t also sitting in the headmaster’s office right now did not bode well for Finn’s honor society theory.
“Or maybe we screwed up,” she suggested to him.
He laughed weakly. No, she bet Finn could never imagine doing anything wrong at all. Not Blackbrook’s golden boy, the scientific genius who would uphold the campus legacy of innovation.
Half a century ago, Richard Fain, still a student at the school, had somehow stumbled upon a formula for some sort of mega-powerful industrial glue, which had made him—and Blackbrook Academy, which shared the rights to the patent—millions.
Not the most glamorous of inventions, glue. Not like a microchip. Orchid doubted anyone would actually make a big-budget biopic of a glue inventor. But it was still enough to put the tiny boarding school on the map.
For decades, it had been the premiere destination for the dedicated science student. At least those who didn’t mind the remote setting, out on the tip of a rocky peninsula, so far into the wilderness of Maine it was practically Greenland.
They said if you came to Blackbrook, you were either a complete genius or hiding from something.
Orchid preferred to let people think she was a genius.
From behind the closed door to the headmaster’s private chamber, there came a loud thump, followed by the murmur of raised voices.
“You can’t do this to me!” That was a girl’s voice. Orchid and Finn exchanged glances.
“. . . calm down . . .” Headmaster Boddy was heard saying.
More words, shouted over one another. Orchid couldn’t make out much, until:
“No, you will live to regret this. I’ll make sure of that.”
The door flew open, and standing on the threshold, feet planted apart like she was some avenging Amazon, stood none other than the six-foot-tall terror of the tennis court—Beth “Peacock” Picach.
Well, that’s what her fans called her. Orchid was never much for sports, and she thought the nickname was stupid, but Beth Picach had embraced it, as well as the cawing that ensued in the stands whenever her matches began. She’d even dyed the tips of her signature blond ponytail a vibrant blue, a color which was currently contrasting furiously with her crimson cheeks.
“Beth,” Headmaster Boddy warned.
Peacock looked at the two students sitting in the chairs and scowled. This was the stare that struck fear in the hearts of her opponents.
Finn flinched. Orchid gaped.
Peacock fled.
Headmaster Boddy called to his secretary, then paused. “Oh, that’s right. Ms. O’Connor is proctoring the freshman bio exam, isn’t she?”
“I wouldn’t know, sir,” Finn replied. Suck-up.
In truth, most of the staff had packed up the second their last exams were finished and headed for the mainland to spend the break with friends and family. It was always dead
at Blackbrook over the holidays.
Orchid knew that all too well.
“All right,” Headmaster Boddy said. “I’ll take care of it later. Miss McKee, I believe you’re next?”
She felt a sudden dread, deep in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t care what Finn’s theory was. No way were they being called in here to be informed, one by one, of some dubious academic honor. She’d screwed up. Somehow, despite all her careful planning . . . she’d screwed up.
“Good luck,” Finn said to her, as if they were friends. They were not friends.
She shrugged again.
Headmaster Boddy’s private chamber was cozy, softer than the imperious presence of the office waiting room. Here there were the stern, frowning pictures of the headmasters—always male—who had come before him. But there was also a merry fire burning in the grate, and mismatched plaid cushions on the armchairs across from the great wooden desk.
He swiped a heavy-looking brass candlestick from the rug, replaced it on the mantel, and chuckled ruefully. “Let’s try to keep this civil, okay?”
That must have been the object they’d heard thunking around. Had Peacock actually thrown it? At Boddy? Knowing Peacock’s serving arm, Orchid was shocked the man had survived.
Everyone loved the headmaster. He’d been at Blackbrook for more than a decade, after a long career as a professor of chemical engineering at a college on the mainland. He liked cats and pipes and cheering for the school sports teams from the front row. A jolly old grandpa; at least as long as you stayed in line.
For a moment, Orchid stopped wondering what she’d done wrong and started wondering what Peacock was in for.
“Yes, sir.” She closed the door and took a seat in one of the wingback chairs.
“Now, you.” He shuffled through some papers. “Ah, yes. Miss McKee. We wanted to wait until you were finished with your exams so as not to disrupt the semester’s academic record, but given that a situation has arisen . . . Well, when was the last time you spoke to your parents?”
“Oh, I speak to them a few times a week, over phone or email,” she replied evenly. Cecily had called over Thanksgiving, ranting about her check, but Orchid had resolved that. The sperm donor, of course, she’d never met.
“It’s just . . . There seems to be a problem with your last tuition payment. And when we tried to contact your parents in the Caymans, the number we have on file was disconnected.”
“I don’t know how this could have happened.” Other than that the number was a total fake.
“If you could call your parents now . . . Maybe their cell phones . . . I’m sure we can resolve this. We wouldn’t want a problem going into next semester.”
“Of course not,” Orchid said, thinking fast. “The only thing is, I think they are on safari in Kenya at the moment, so I don’t know if I can get them.”
“Safari.” Headmaster Boddy looked unimpressed, as if it were not the craziest thing he’d heard about his over-privileged students; probably not even the craziest this week.
“Yeah.” She pretended to consider options. “Oh, I know. I can call our accountant. I’m sure she can tell me if there’s a mix-up with the accounts.”
“You know the number of your parents’ accountant?”
“Sure.” She gave a rich-girl shrug. That probably wasn’t the craziest thing the headmaster had heard this week, either.
Then she called her accountant. The same one she’d had for over a decade. The only member of her original team left. Her accountant’s secretary, unfortunately, was new, and momentarily confused by the name Orchid McKee, which Orchid had to repeat entirely too many times for comfort in front of the headmaster.
“I’m sorry,” the secretary said. “She’s out of the office today, but I can check on that transaction for you. Please enter your security PIN on the keypad.”
This was why Orchid kept them around. Their commitment to keeping their clients’ privacy was exquisite. She entered her PIN.
“All automatic transactions for this client were canceled last month.”
Well, that explained why Cecily had been upset. Orchid had thought it was the woman’s usual mismanagement of funds. The kind that had once cost Orchid half a million dollars before she’d put her mother on an allowance. “Why?”
“The note says at client’s request.”
She’d requested nothing of the sort. But she wasn’t about to get into it in front of the headmaster.
After being assured they’d get to the bottom of this as soon as possible, Orchid hung up and flashed a smile at Headmaster Boddy. “Slight mix-up with the accounts. In the meantime, I’ll just cover it . . .” She dug in her bag for her checkbook, and wrote out a tuition check.
A big one. Blackbrook was not cheap.
He stared at her. “Miss McKee, surely you don’t have the funds in your personal account to cover your tuition. Students are just supposed to have spending money.”
“And book fees,” Orchid said, waving the check. “Daddy made sure I had a little extra this month. You know . . . because of the safari.”
“Right.” Headmaster Boddy hesitated another moment, then took the check. It still probably wasn’t the craziest thing he’d dealt with all week. “You know, while I have you here, I must ask: why didn’t you enter your biology project in the state science fair?”
Oh no.
“It was the best in the class. Your teacher and I were so disappointed. I know you don’t need the scholarship”—he gestured to her check—“but the prestige of placing might be worth it. For your college applications, if nothing else.”
“I’m not really one for competitions,” said Orchid. Or publicity, she thought. “I just want to focus on my classes.”
Headmaster Boddy considered this. “Yes, I looked at your grades earlier. You’re one of the top ranked juniors in the school.”
She’d definitely heard Scarlett mentioning that fact on occasion. “Ranks and awards and stuff aren’t really my thing.”
“A stealth scholar.”
Her best role to date: introverted nerd. “Tell you what. I’ll think about the whole state science fair thing for next year.” She checked her watch. “Now, though, I have to run home and finish my history term paper.”
She didn’t, as it had been completed for almost a week. It was amazing how smoothly the lies still fell from her lips, even after all this time.
Headmaster Boddy sighed. “Very well. Send in my next appointment—Mr. Plum.”
She headed out. Finn stood when he saw her.
“My turn?”
She nodded. “Good luck.” He probably wasn’t in trouble, either. Probably just being informed of the awards status of his latest chemistry experiment, which, of course, he’d be entering in all the competitions.
The weather had turned from frigid to positively arctic. They were supposed to get ice overnight. Orchid pulled on her thick knit cap with the earmuffs, buttoned her long, puffy coat up to her chin, and pulled up the fur-lined hood.
Some kids couldn’t make it through their first winter at Blackbrook. If the isolation didn’t get you, the freezing darkness would. But for Orchid, the benefits of the former far outweighed any issues she might have with the latter. So what if the sun set soon after lunch, or it snowed from October until May? She was safe here. Invisible.
The sky was a wormy gray and the wind whipped through the bare branches of the trees as Orchid hurried across campus. The windows in all the buildings were dark and empty, as most of the students and faculty had already left for the holiday. Orchid was struck with the sudden realization that she could scream at the top of her lungs and no one would hear her.
Less a luxe boarding school movie, and more a thriller.
Her boardinghouse, Tudor House, was located on the very outskirts of the Blackbrook property, farther from the classroom quad than nearly any other building. It was a monument to crumbling glory. Once the property of a local logging heiress, it had served time as some kind of g
irls’ reform school earlier in the century before being sold off to Blackbrook for use as one of its fanciest and most coveted girls’ dorms. Orchid felt lucky to have been able to claim a room this year.
She kicked her boots off in the front hall and headed to the mail stand, where the residents’ letters had been sorted into little cubbyholes.
“Hey!” Scarlett Mistry glimpsed her through the open door to the lounge and came dashing out, much to Orchid’s chagrin. The petite Indian girl planted her feet wide and put her hands on her hips. “I heard you were just in Boddy’s office.”
Orchid shrugged and pulled out her mail. A catalog, a college brochure, a letter—who could be writing her? There was no return address, but the postmark was from the opposite coast.
“Finn texted me. He said Peacock went ballistic on Boddy.” The resident queen bee of Blackbrook would not be ignored. She flicked the edges of her long, shiny black hair over her shoulder and raised her eyebrows. “So, what did she say?”
Orchid ripped open the letter, mostly to have something to do other than gossiping with Scarlett. It was bad enough she had to listen to the other girl hold court at dinner every night.
“Finn said he’s lucky to be alive, the way she was screaming and throwing stuff around.”
It was a single sheet of paper, with six typed lines.
Found you.
You didn’t think you could hide from me forever, did you, Emily?
Then again, I guess there are still some holes in your security. Hope there’s no issue with your finances. I was surprised to see how much they’d let me do.
I’m glad you’re doing so well in school.
Be in touch soon.
Orchid heard Scarlett’s voice as if from a great distance. “Come on, Orchid. You were there. What was it all about?”
Her mouth was dry. Her heart pounded.
“It—It seemed like Beth was in big trouble,” Orchid said softly.
And she wasn’t the only one.
2
Green
The snow went on for three days straight, which was not unusual for Rocky Point. All the locals had their salt and snow tires, their stocks of candles and canned food. When Vaughn Green was ten, a Christmas storm had knocked out the power for more than a week. Two days into this one, and Headmaster Boddy didn’t so much as delay the nine a.m. exam start times. Which meant the maintenance workers—Vaughn included—were up at four a.m., shoveling walks so the rich students wouldn’t get their toes wet on their way to class.
In the Hall with the Knife Page 1