Page 18 of Revenge

I growled with frustration. Why hadn’t I turned on the recorder? That could have been excellent blackmail material. The next time I would bring up the subject, it would be in front of cameras or at least my smartphone’s recording app.

“I’m not ready to talk about that yet,” I snapped. “Good night.”

As I stalked across the reception hall, he murmured, “I regret what I did, now.”

“Now?” I stopped by the doorway. “That implies you had no regrets at the time.”

He jerked his head back to the fire. “You’re twisting my words.”

“I’m interpreting them. It’s called comprehending English.”

“Well, I wasn’t thinking straight last term, but I’ll make it up to you.”

I folded my arms across my chest and glared at him over his shoulder. “I’ll need more than just an apology.”

His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. “I know.”

Chapter 7

It was strange. Telling Henry that he’d have to earn my forgiveness had deepened the trust of the triumvirate. The week before, they’d held me at arm’s length, but with the realization that it would take a little more time and bonding for me to fully accept them, they accepted me back into the fold and insisted that I sit with them in classes again.

I spent most of my free time catching up on the work I missed in the previous term and using that as an excuse to avoid studying in Edward’s office with the others. Their idea of prep was a repeat of what had happened the week before. While it had been the most explosive experience of my life, I had to be careful not to let them distract me. Distraction had been a tactic they had used so I wouldn’t work out who had really been behind Henry’s supposed kidnapping.

On Monday night, Jackie sent me a text on the burner phone telling me that Mr. Carbuncle had agreed to put up the cameras in exchange for not reporting him to the police. I texted back to ask if whoever she had sent had coerced him to stop his sexual activities with the girls, but Jackie didn’t reply. My chest tightened at the implication that they hadn’t told him to stop. If I caught him with a girl in his office, I’d have to do something about it.

The following Saturday, just before breakfast, I sat on the edge of my bed and checked the Correspondent’s home page and found an animated gif of a young man stumbling out of a casino with the headline: SHAME OF SUPREME COURT SECRETARY OF STATE. A breath whooshed out of my lungs, and I flopped down onto the corner of my bed. That was Charlotte’s brother!

“Did you get bad news?” Rita stepped out of the bathroom with a towel over her hair.

“Look.” I turned the smartphone around and showed her the screen.

Her eyes widened. “B-but I told you about that.”

“Did you tell me which casinos he visited?” I asked.

“No, but—”

“Then don’t worry. No one will track that information to you.”

She pulled the towel off her head and let her long, dark hair tumble down past her shoulder. “Underwood is going to work out that the leak came from the school.”

“Or her father’s secretary,” I said. “She’ll never know you eavesdropped on her conversation.”

“Actually, I overheard Patricia telling Alice.” She patted her hair dry.

“See? You’re off the hook. Don’t worry about it.”

Rita chewed her lip. “She’ll lash out. Everyone thinks her brother is an advisor for the Saudi Royal family. When they discover she was lying, people will ostracize her.”

I pushed myself off the bed and headed for the bathroom. “Let her see what it feels like for a change.”

* * *

Charlotte didn’t turn up at breakfast that day, although Patricia and Wendy sat together in silence, not answering questions from the rest of the house about their friend. Students crowded around Duncan’s table, as he had subscriptions for nearly every British newspaper.

I turned to Edward. “What’s going on over there?”

“A scandal surrounding Charlotte’s brother,” said Blake. “Well, it’s more focused on their father and how he’s selling off his assets to pay his son’s gambling debts.”