Page 27 of Outcast

“I’m sorry,” she whispered, dark eyes shimmering with unshed tears.

“Why?”

She lowered herself onto the mattress next to me. “I should have warned you about the cameras. They hate being outmaneuvered. Now, I’m afraid they’ll do something terrible.”

I swallowed hard. There was no way I could follow Rita’s advice to accept any kind of bullying to stop it from worsening. I’d never be able to live with myself. Never feel any self-respect or be able to look myself in the mirror. “Whatever they do will be recorded.”

“Don’t go on the school trip,” she said.

“It’s compulsory, remember?”

Rita grabbed my hand. “But can’t you ask your parents to call you back to the States on a family emergency? You saw how angry Edward got when you challenged his integrity in front of the whole house. He won’t take that lying down. The school trip will be the perfect opportunity to get rid of you.”

I shook my head. “They’re not murderers.” Rita didn’t answer for several moments, and a palpitation rocked my chest. Was she gathering up her courage to tell me about a student they’d made disappear? I squeezed her hand. “What is it?”

“It isn’t anything they’ve done, but last year, Edward wanted me to leave so badly, he threatened to poison my food. He hates anyone who isn’t like him.”

“But that’s just bluffing.”

“The next day, someone he disliked suffered a bout of explosive diarrhea in class. The teacher had to call an ambulance. All throughout the chaos, he gave me a meaningful look that said I’d be next if I didn’t leave.”

“But you’re still here.”

She shrugged. “The schools where I live are terrible, and the bullying is just as bad. At least here, I’ll get four good A levels and a place at Oxbridge.”

I nodded. It made sense that she would keep a low profile for a few years in exchange for a better future, but what was my motivation? An internship with one of Rudolph’s companies? His respect for having endured this shitty school and its shitty bullies? I shook my head. Any sane person would leave. Even if he said he would pay for my university education, I could get loans or a part-time job to fund myself.

A knock sounded on the door, and Rita stiffened.

“Who is it?” I asked.

“Henry Bourneville,” said a haughty voice. “May I come in?”

I glanced at Rita, who raised a shoulder as though to say she didn’t mind.

“Come in,” I said.

He hovered at the doorway, his huge silhouette taking up most of the space. After a moment of hesitation, he stepped in and gazed at the bare walls on my side of the room. “Edward’s behavior was deplorable earlier, and he wishes to extend an apology.”

“Why didn’t he come here himself?” I asked.

Henry raised his brows. “Would you have let him in?”

“No.”

The corner of his lips curled. “I expect you would have sent him packing with an iron candlestick holder.”

“If only I had such an instrument of murder.”

He took another step inside, letting the door click behind him. “Those recordings can’t leave the school. They’d damage our reputation, and nobody would want to send their children here.”

“I showed them to the headmaster, our housemaster, and the so-called owner of the school. Everyone’s first instinct was to admonish me for recording a crime.”

He glanced away. I hoped he was thinking about all the recording devices in his family’s department store to catch criminals. These snobs seemed to think the rules of normal society didn’t apply to them. That people were wrong for defending their property or for resorting to desperate measures to stop attacks against their person. I imagined that Henry agreed with my methods, but he needed a way to ask me for the recordings without sounding like a hypocritical asshole.

Eventually, he turned back, fixing me with earnest green eyes that melted my heart. “What if we removed Charlotte’s prefect privileges?”

“That’s a start.” I folded my arms across my chest. “What about the big plan you have to ambush me on the school trip?”