Page 66 of Cruel Hearts

Chapter 24

My stomach growled. Hunger, trepidation and impotent anger seized its muscles in a punishing grip. There was more to Lady Liddell’s story. A reason why she had faked a potentially damaging document about Mr. Burgh while still keeping him around as the headmaster. Maybe he knew the reason, maybe he didn’t, but Lady Liddell seemed to have a personal grudge against mother.

I pulled out my phone and checked its screen. One bar, which would make for a choppy conversation, the last thing I needed for such an important discussion. I walked to the door, ready for another confrontation with Lady Liddell. When I opened it and tried to step out, a woman I had never met stood in the doorway.

“Where’s Mr. Burgh?” I asked.

“I’m not at liberty to say.”

“He’s my guardian,” I snapped.

Her lips tightening, the woman stepped aside. “Then I suggest you give him a call, just like everybody else.”

“Fine.” I strode into the hallway with my head high. She wasn’t to know that Lady Liddell had just dropped the hydrogen bomb of all familial revelations. It was Luke-I-am-your-father-level shocking with a side-order of disgust. Disgust that she could fabricate something so horrific, age the paper, and take it out of her vault just to make me leave the academy.

Much like the guest tower, the east tower had a short hallway. I stormed down the stairs, ignoring the gaping students as they passed. One of them offered congratulatory remarks that I’d given Elizabeth the smacking that she deserved.

The clocktower stuck one, drowning out the clomp of my feet on the stone stairs. I checked my phone, but there wasn’t enough reception on this side of the castle to make a call.

At the bottom of the stairwell, I flung the door open and galloped across the ground floor. Students paused to gape. Right now, I resented the lack of privacy. Elizabeth’s shenanigans had made me the center of attention and as soon as I discovered the reason behind her and Lady Liddell’s animosity, I would strike back at them both with the force of a sledgehammer.

But I needed to speak to Mother, first.

I checked the smartphone once more. One bar flickered in and out of existence. Maybe the castle’s thick, stone walls blocked out the reception, I didn’t know. Instead of hanging around and finding a good spot, I left the castle and ran through the salted driveway in the cold, not stopping until I had passed the gates and bounded up the entrance steps of Mr. Burgh’s quarters.

The fire snap, crackled, and popped in the hearth. I lowered myself into an armchair and soaked in its heat. Ignoring my skin tingling at the extreme change in temperature, I pulled out my phone, grunted with approval at the four bars, and tapped the icon for Mom.

After several moments of ringing, the call went to voicemail.

She was either ignoring me as usual or thought I was a scammer calling about life insurance or something. I called again.

Once again, it rang out and eventually switched to voicemail.

“Mother,” I snarled. “Can’t you answer the phone for once in your life?”

The slamming of the front door made my stomach drop.

“Duncan?”

The approaching footsteps were too heavy to belong to one of the housekeeping staff, and it wasn’t Mr. Burgh. He always replied whenever I shouted. Lady Liddell probably sent a bent copper to turf me out of academy property. I picked up a poker and crept toward the door.

And waited.

The footsteps stopped.

I clenched my teeth. Whoever they belonged to was a creepy bastard. The thudding of my pulse turned my head into a boom box, muffling the ticking of the grandfather clock. Holding the poker in a double-handled grip, I forced slow breaths in and out of my nostrils, trying to quieten my panic.

A floorboard creaked from behind.

Panic exploded in my heart, and I whirled around. A man in leather I vaguely recognized from Billy Hancock’s crew lurched toward me with his arms outstretched. I swung the poker between his legs with a thwump.

“Fuck!” He doubled over, both hands cupping his crotch.

Fury filled my veins. I whacked the poker on his head hard enough to knock him out and rushed out of the room before the fucker even hit the ground.

Shit! I sprinted through the hallway toward the exit. How did Billy Hancock track me down to the academy? And how did his thugs get here so quickly?

The scent of stale beer and strong body odor filled my nostrils. From behind, strong arms grabbed me around the middle, trapping my arms. “Got ya!”