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My mind goes blank.

Absolutely blank.

“I—” I draw in a breath. “I was just⁠—”

“You should have started your day’s duties by now.”

“Yes. I know.”

“Then why are you coming out of your room looking like that?”

I try to move around her. “I’ll get to work now.”

Audrey blocks my path.

“I need to go,” I say again.

She eyes my door. “What’s going on, Ella?”

“Nothing, I⁠—”

She grabs my doorknob. I lunge at her.

It happens fast after that.

Not like the fight with Charlotte. Not messy. Audrey doesn’t slap or grab for hair. She clamps her hand around my upper arm and yanks me away from the door, and when I try to pull free, she shoves me backward.

My back hits the wall.

Audrey steps in close and pins me there with one hand at my shoulder, the other still biting into my arm.

“Do not,” she says softly, “make the mistake of believing I don’t know what girls like you do.”

Pain shoots down my arm. “Let go.”

“Let me be very clear,” she whispers. “Whatever you think is happening? It isn’t happening.”

The door opens.

Audrey releases me so quickly I nearly stumble.

By the time Nathaniel steps into the hallway, Audrey has moved back, face composed.

I stand against the wall, one hand pressed to my aching arm, trying to pull air back into my lungs.

Nathaniel emerges from my room buttoning his shirt. He looks at Audrey. Then at me.

What will he say? What will he do?

The silence that follows is unbearable.

Finally, he looks between us. “Is there an issue?”

“No,” Audrey says.

Then he gives the smallest nod. “I’ll leave you to it then.” He walks past us.

Past me.