Page 2 of Deposed

My heart pounded to the beat of the fury thrumming in my veins. This was the man who had seen my disheveled state after that gauntlet and hadn’t given a damn. Now he wanted to send me back into the den of bullies and bastards and bitches. My nostrils flared. If he thought he could make me return to Mercia Academy, he was as addled as he looked.

“Rudolph?” I said.

He stopped in his tracks and narrowed his eyes. “Why aren’t you at school?”

The interns at the nearby bank of desks all stopped watching their videos to gape. It was hard to tell if they were looking at Rudolph or kicking themselves that they hadn’t noticed me sitting so close.

I rose to my feet. “Term ends in a week, and I’ve finished my assignment. I was on my way to Heathrow Airport when the airline’s online check-in no longer recognized my e-ticket for New York as valid.”

“Because you’re staying in England and giving me more material for the Correspondent.” Without so much as a knock, Rudolph pushed open Jackie’s door and stepped inside.

I scrambled after him and clenched my teeth. “Rudolph—”

“Wait for your editor-in-chief.” He waved me away.

Jackie sat at her desk with a booted foot on its surface and her phone wedged between her ear and shoulder. “No…” she rasped at the person on the other line. “I don’t care that you represent the Sunday Times and that you think my money laundering article should debut in your Educational Supplement.”

The other person replied with something that made her smirk. She tucked a lock of bleached-blonde hair behind her other ear. “It’s tempting, but how will you publish that article without mentioning all the other goings-on in International House? Your readers will want context.”

Seconds later, she interjected with, “No, way. If you want those articles, you’re paying for them separately.”

Another pause. Another smirk. A wink at Rudolph, who steepled his fingers like Mr. Burns, rocked back on his heels and beamed. Disgust curdled in my stomach. Jackie wouldn’t be able to demand money from the Sunday Times without my hard work. She knew it, and Rudolph knew it, too. That was why he had canceled my ticket to New York. He hadn’t finished milking his stepdaughter, the cash cow.

“Alright.” She coughed into her hand. “Take that number, double it, and I’ll let you run it before the Correspondent.”

The person at the other end of the phone must have said yes because Jackie’s lips spread into a smile that exposed her tobacco-stained teeth.

Rudolph lowered himself onto one of the chairs in front of her desk and beamed, giving her a hand signal to carry on.

I took the seat next to him and leaned in to whisper. “Does Mom know you’re using me as a spy?”

His jovial expression morphed, slow as a turtle emerging from its shell, into a grimace of irritation. “She also doesn’t know how her daughter obtained this information.” He shook his head. “And it would break her to think you’d seduced three boys to get it.”

His words hit like a punch in the stomach. Mom had probably washed her hands of me by now. I’d sent her dozens of texts and emails and hadn’t gotten any response. These days, the only time I saw her was when she appeared at various charity events in the society pages.

I shook off those thoughts. There were cameras in Edward’s study and his room, and I’d been careful not to do anything within its line of sight. But nothing could be done about the sounds. Maybe the interns monitoring the footage worked things out and told Jackie, who told Rudolph.

I clenched my teeth. If this was his attempt at blackmailing me, it wouldn’t work. I wasn’t ashamed of anything I’d done with the boys… Apart from what Rudolph wanted me to do.

Jackie hung up. “We’re going to focus on Chaloner’s dirty dealings, and the Times will take the educational angle. It works out more lucrative that way.”

“Excellent.” Rudolph tapped his steepled fingers, giving Jackie a bizarre round of silent applause. “How will we follow up this great performance, ladies?”

“I’m not going back to Mercia Academy,” I said.

Jackie leaned forward, resting her forearms on her desk. Her gaze flickered to Rudolph, who sat back in his seat and gave her a gentle nod. A frustrated breath huffed out of my nostrils. She’d kept me waiting because she didn’t want to make an unreasonable demand without my wretched stepfather as backup.

“We need you on the inside for one more term,” she said. “After what’s coming, they’ll be reconstructing their reputa—”

“No!” My hands curled into fists. I glowered at Rudolph, but he kept his gaze on Jackie, as though whatever I said next wouldn’t matter. “I agreed to provide stories on Edward Mercia, Henry Bourneville, Blake Simpson-West, and Charlotte Underwood. That was the deal. I delivered on that and more, now it’s time for you to uphold your end of the bargain.”

Jackie slid back into her seat and shot Rudolph a pleading look.

The wretched old man puckered his lips. “Return to the academy, gather more information about those kids, and I won’t tell your mother you’re in a relationship with three boys.”

“Tell her,” I snapped.

He turned his sharp, silvery eyes on me and stared.