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18
There’s tension in Lochkelvin following the news from London. Antiro, an anti-royalist group, is quick to claim responsibility for the attacks. Luke, who’d always swaggered and strutted by Rory’s side, becomes even more withdrawn. Anytime I’m able to catch a glance of the hidden prince, Rory’s right there beside him, talking to him in a soft, encouraging voice, as if to liven his friend up. Although no one had been living in Buckingham Palace at the time of the explosion, Luke still seems grief-stricken. Another two bodyguards are assigned to Luke for his protection.
But it’s not just Luke who’s affected. His sister walks around equally dazed, also with a new bodyguard — her first — in tow. I don’t know why, because the girls are doing their best to guard Becca by themselves, walking with her in the center of a tight circle as though to shield her from anything Lochkelvin has to throw at her.
With this latest news, it’s as though a temporary truce has been called. This thing is bigger than petty school bullying. No one attacks in any major way. It’s as if Rory is too busy consoling Luke to bother instructing his gremlins.Minions, Finlay had called them, and I try not to smile at the memory.
I get the impression that the political goings-on in the real world are a much bigger deal to everyone than tormenting me and Danny. It’s one of the first few times I’ve permitted myself to relax in Lochkelvin. With everyone distracted, Danny and I get some precious time to heal in peace. We fly under the radar — though Rory’s eyes, whenever they’re not on Luke, linger every so often on me.
Finlay, however, is a different matter.
“Look, sassenach. There are three books ye need tae ace this subject.” He dumps all of them on my small library desk with a trio of loud thuds, as if trying to attract the attention of the handful of students who’ve come here to revise. I shield my face with my hand, but it’s useless when it’s my crutches that have been my latest identifier.
It’s October break. Most have gone home for the week and I’m jealous they get to escape the castle. A slice of normality could do me some good and Mom might finally give me a big hug — who knows, maybe absence really will make the heart grow fonder, or you know, make her grow a heart at all. It’s hard to picture it. The idea of limping onto planes is so off-putting that I’ve resigned myself to flying back at Christmas instead when my leg has hopefully healed.
“Why are you still at Lochkelvin, anyway?” He’s been weirdlyniceto me lately and it’s giving me whiplash. “You don’t have a leg to blame.”
“I dinnae have a leg to stand on, either.” There’s a faint smirk on his mouth. He looks hesitant as he speaks his next words. “Mum has a busy job, and it’s political conference season. So it’s just easier if, y’know…” His gaze drifts away. “Hard tae be the only son o’ the next political superstar. Anyway.” He flips open the textbook in front of me. “If ye havenae grown up in a household that taught ye all this shite from the age of five, the next best thing is an up-tae-date version o’ Callahan’sPolitics of Scotland. It’s the foundation o’ the course so start there.”
I clutch it to me like a talisman, staring at the bright cover and wondering why no one had ever told me about it before.
“The other two are the best books for the topics we’re covering this year.”
“The differences between UK and Scottish parliaments, and the definitions of structural power within a British context,” I recite, having studied the course overview intensively.
Finlay grimaces slightly on the latter half of my statement but he nods. He twirls his pen around his fingers, and then asks suddenly, “Is it true ye dance?”
The question startles me. I stare at him, trying to figure out where it’s come from. My dancing is the most tentative, private thing about me, and Rory’s the only one who’s managed to catch glimpses of it. And… for some reason, I want to keep it that way.
Between me and Rory.
Finlay gives me a skeptical look when I don’t answer him. But I can’t go around telling the world I used to be one of the most decorated dancers in my state. Ican’t. Not when I walk with crutches, not when I haven’t performed in so long and thatthere’s a reason for that. Any time I decide to hesitantly embrace dance again to give my soul what it craves, it’s as though my body is punished in every disastrous way.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Why?”
“Rory says so, breathlessly, every night.” There’s a strong thread of mockery running through Finlay’s tone, but it doesn’t stop the heat from spreading across my cheeks.
“You talk about me atnight?”
Finlay’s eyes gleam. “Slim pickings oot there, sassenach. Ye’re top o’ a very small pile. No’ even a pile, mair like a wee mound.” And then he sniggers like this is somehow hilarious.
I glare at him. It’s so cute of him to casually regard all us girls as nighttime fodder for the boys. “I don’t believe you.”
A mysterious smile curves across Finlay’s mouth. “You have nae idea who Rory is, dae ye? Who his mother was.” When I don’t answer, surprised by this question, he shakes his head in despair.
But I’m struck by the way Finlay phrased it.
Who his motherwas…
I hadn’t realized, and it makes me feel all kinds of strange that Rory might be able to empathize with the same things I deal with. One dead mom for one dead dad. Each of us is equally broken in our own ways.
But then I remember the boys’ trashed room. Rory’s bed, and the smashed photo of the smiling woman on his nightstand.God, no wonder he’d gone ballistic if that had been a photo of his mother.
“Well? Who is she?”
But Finlay doesn’t answer. “Maths, sassenach,” he reminds me briskly by flickingPolitics of Scotland, a broad smile stretching across his face. “Ye promised tae teach memaths.”
Maths. I still can’t get used to that extras, but yes, I go on to teach Finlaymaths. We revise shapes and geometry. Finlay’s grasp of basic mathematical concepts is poor, but I can see that he’s trying. When he comes across something he doesn’t understand, the tip of his tongue peeks out from his mouth and his eyebrows sharply descend. I wonder how far he’s been able to coast on his name alone because this year seems to have hit him like a ton of bricks.
