He was sitting at his desk working, and he didn’t notice her right away.
She studied his face – taking in his fair skin and slightly mussed straight dark hair. The way his long lashes cast feathery shadows against his cheeks. She liked his hands – his fingers were long but strong; his nails square and neat.
She felt an unexpected warmth spread through her as she watched him.
He really is lovely …
As if he’d heard her thoughts, Carter looked up and their eyes met.
With a startled cry he leaped from his chair so quickly it fell over. Allie tried not to giggle out loud as he slowly returned to his desk and peered out the window.
‘Allie?’ He looked embarrassed and cross, although she thought the latter was probably just to hide the former. ‘What the hell …?’
‘Hi,’ she whispered. ‘I can’t sleep. Want to come out and play?’
He opened the window. ‘You’re mad. Get inside before you kill yourself.’
‘Katie is such a bitch,’ she complained as she clambered across his desk.
Carter raised his eyebrows. ‘No argument.’
‘You don’t understand.’ Allie paced the floor. ‘I heard her talking through a window. She’s trying to “finish us” and she hates us both and she’s planting awful thoughts in Jo’s head about me – that I tried to kill her on the roof. I think she’s behind these horrible rumours about Ruth.’
As she ranted, he closed the window behind her, then picked the wooden chair up off the floor and propped it under the handle of his bedroom door, testing it for stability.
Finally he turned back to her. ‘What exactly did you hear?’
She told him what had happened that morning – with Katie and her friends, and how Rachel had known all about the gossip by seven in the morning. His eyes narrowed when she mentioned Sylvain’s intervention, but he said nothing. As she told him about what had transpired in Katie’s room his face darkened. She could see he was trying to stay calm.
‘OK, so there are two possibilities,’ he said. ‘Either she didn’t spread the first rumour and she’s just taking advantage of it to spread more rumours about you and Jo, or she did spread the first rumour and this new rumour is just part of her evil plan.’ He punched his right fist into his left palm. ‘That socialite bitch.’
‘What should we do?’ Allie asked. Then for the first time she paid attention to where she was. ‘And why is your room bigger than mine?’
He had two bookshelves to her one, and space for an extra chair in the corner. While the walls were whitewashed like hers, all the fabrics in the room were dark blue, giving it a more masculine feel. Allie noticed that all of his shelves were filled with well-thumbed books. And that a battered football rested on the seat of the spare chair. She pointed at the neatly made bed and he nodded. She sat down and stretched out her legs.
‘I’ve been here longer,’ Carter said absently.
He pulled out the desk chair and sat across from her. ‘These rumours are intended to cause the most damage possible, even to get you to leave the school. This feels like a campaign to me. To get rid of you.’
Allie slid forward on the bed until her knees nearly touched his.
‘OK, Carter. Enough with secrecy, and all that bollocks. It’s time. Tell me about this place.’
‘Allie …’
He leaned away from her, but she ignored the warning look he gave her.
‘Uh-uh. Not this time. Someone died. And somebody else is trying to ruin my life here. For all I know, whoever killed Ruth could go after me next. You know things. You are allegedly my friend. So tell me everything. Now.’
He walked across the room and stood against the wall, his previously relaxed posture now tight insecurity, his arms crossed.
‘You don’t understand, Allie. I can’t. If I did – and if anybody ever found out …’ He shook his head. ‘It’s just bad. Trust me.’
‘How can I trust you if you won’t tell me the truth?’ she asked. Under her breath she muttered, ‘Maybe I should just go and ask Sylvain …’
Carter’s cheeks reddened. He stalked back over to where she sat and leaned over her. ‘Do you want to know what you mean to Sylvain? Well I’ll tell you. Every year he picks a pretty new first-year girl, shags her and dumps her. It’s his thing. And each one thinks she’s so special. The last one left school afterwards because everybody was making fun of her. But when her parents withdrew their offer of a generous donation to Cimmeria Isabelle warned him never again.’ He spat the words out at her as if it sickened him to say them. ‘So, that’s who you are to him, Allie. His newest, naive conquest. Who thinks the gorgeous rich boy chose her. Just her.’
‘Stop it!’ Allie shoved him away and jumped to her feet. She and Sylvain had just made up, and he’d seemed so sincere.
‘If that’s true, why didn’t you tell me before, Carter?’
They stood inches from each other, both furious. She could feel his breath against her face.
‘I tried,’ he said. ‘I just … didn’t think you’d believe me.’
But she wasn’t letting him off that easily.
‘From what I hear, you’re a bit of a lady-killer yourself. How is what Sylvain does any different from you?’
He winced but didn’t look away. ‘The difference is, Sylvain does it to be mean. I don’t want to hurt anybody. I’m just looking for the right person.’
‘People say you’re into one-night stands,’ she said accusingly.
‘Are these the same people who say you killed Ruth?’
She hadn’t thought of that.
‘Point taken,’ she conceded. ‘So, you tell me. Is what they say about you a lie?’
His eyes locked on hers. ‘Yes, Allie. It’s a lie. Or at least an exaggeration. I got this … I guess, reputation … because if I go out with someone and I can tell they’re not the right one for me I break up with them straight away. And they’re never the right person.’ His eyes seemed to hide nothing from her – she saw only vulnerability. ‘I don’t want to hurt anybody, Allie. I really don’t. I just want the right girl.’
Standing so close to him she fancied she could feel the warmth of his body crossing the space between them, and without really knowing why she was doing it, she held her hand up, her palm facing him, her fingers spread.
‘OK. I believe you. I’m sorry.’
He pressed his palm against hers. ‘Thank you,’ he said softly.
‘For what?’
‘For believing.’
He glanced at their hands quizzically. ‘Is this some sort of London thing?’
As Allie laughed he entwined his fingers with hers. Instantly she felt goosebumps.
‘You big city kids have all these crazy traditions,’ he said.
‘Yeah,’ she whispered, her throat tightening. ‘You country kids don’t know what you’re missing.’
‘I’ve heard that. And, you know, someday,’ he pulled on her hand until she took a step towards him, ‘I’d really like to find out.’
Their faces were so close now it was inevitable – when he brushed his lips very lightly against hers she gave a little gasp then reached her hands behind his neck and pulled his head down.
The warmth of his mouth exhilarated her as, with a groan of surrender, he wrapped his arms around her, his lips moving in delicate butterfly kisses along her chin.
‘I’ve wanted to do this,’ he whispered in her ear, ‘for so long.’
Her entire body tingled and she pulled him harder against her. Heat spread through her body. His kisses were more insistent now, as if he would devour her.
Suddenly he wrenched himself away with obvious effort, walking as far away from her as he could get within the room’s limited boundaries. He stood against the far wall, his eyes dark and his hair rumpled where her fingers had tangled it.
He was breathing heavily and she knew what he’d say before he spoke. ‘God I hate to do the grown-up thing, but we should …’
&n
bsp; ‘No, you’re right.’ They stared at each other for a moment. ‘OK,’ she said. ‘So. There’s that.’
‘Yes. There’s absolutely that.’ Carter laughed – a warm, intimate chuckle. ‘You just … stay over there for a minute, if that’s OK. Now, what were we talking about before we were so … interrupted?’
His smile had almost as strong an impact on her body as his kiss – she felt like she was the only girl in the universe. It was hard to focus on his words.
‘I was … I think I was asking you to tell me everything,’ she said.
His smile faded. She was sorry to see it go but the conversation needed to happen.
‘There are reasons why I haven’t told you everything, Allie. It’s not just that I’m a wanker who wants to keep things from you.’
‘I get that.’ They were calmer now, and she felt like he was really listening. ‘But I think I need to know where I am. What this school is about. People are getting hurt. I don’t want to get hurt, Carter.’
He looked troubled. ‘If I tell you, I’m breaking a vow. I keep my word. It’s the one thing you can say about me.’
‘But aren’t you starting to wonder just who you made a vow to?’ Allie asked. ‘Tell me, Carter. Tell me about Night School. And I swear I will never tell another living soul.’
Carter’s eyes searched her face as if he were looking for a sign telling him the right thing to do. Finally he sat down in the chair, gesturing at the bed.
‘You may as well sit down,’ he sighed. ‘This could take some time.’
TWENTY-TWO
‘The first thing you need to know is that I don’t know everything,’ Carter said. ‘I’m a new initiate as of last term. There’s a full year of training before they accept you.’
‘OK.’ Allie sat on the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees, her eyes watching his intently. ‘But you grew up here. You must know something.’
‘I know what they’ve told me,’ he said. ‘And it’s pretty serious stuff.’
He leaned his elbow on the back of the chair. ‘This is the first step to a larger organisation. Kids are recruited to Cimmeria specifically to join Night School, because people in this bigger organisation want them for life – does that make sense?’
Allie looked confused. ‘Kind of …’
‘OK, what I’m saying is, you start Night School at Cimmeria, then you continue it at Oxbridge – and if you’re in Night School, you will get in to Oxford or Cambridge or LSE, without doubt. And you’re a member of a club there. Then, when you graduate from university, you go and work for a company run by a member of the organisation. And eventually you run a company that hires people who started in Night School. And you do what you’re told. What I’m saying is, this is for life.’
Frowning, Allie tried to process what he was telling her. ‘What is this bigger group called?’
He shook his head. ‘I have no idea. I’m not sure it has a name. It just … is.’
‘So …’ Allie was still trying to understand. ‘You’re in Night School now, and when you finish at Cimmeria you’ll go, let’s say, to Oxford, where you’ll be in the university-level version of it, then you’ll go to work and get really rich … I don’t get it. Wouldn’t that happen anyway? What’s the point?’
Carter lowered his voice to a whisper.
‘I can only tell you what they tell us, Allie. And what they tell us is that Night School runs the world.’
‘Runs the …’ Allie stared at him, ‘what do you mean?’
‘I mean presidents, prime ministers, MPs, CEOs, journalists – the people you see on T V, the people you read about in newspapers, people who run the world – Night School is everywhere.’
As Carter ticked the professions off, she looked doubtful. ‘What? All of them?’
‘No. But a lot of them. And at all levels. Night School runs newspaper corporations. Television companies. Government departments. Militaries. Everything. It’s everywhere.’
‘And it all starts here?’ she asked doubtfully. ‘Carter that’s impossible.’
‘I don’t know if it’s just here, though. We have exchange students all the time from schools in other places – like Sylvain.’
‘So, it’s like a giant, kind of … conspiracy?’
‘Yes.’
Stunned, she searched his face for any sign that it was all some elaborate joke. But there was nothing.
‘How does it work?’
He shook his head. ‘That goes beyond what they tell the neos.’
‘Neos?’
‘Neophytes,’ he explained. ‘It’s what they call us the first year.’
‘How embarrassing,’ she said dryly. ‘So what do they tell you?’
‘We get the big marketing pitch – the whole “society of power” speech – and a fancy dinner with a bunch of rich guys in tuxedos who used to be us,’ he said.
‘OK, but what do you do?’ she asked, wrinkling her brow. ‘I mean, here, at Cimmeria. All this training you all do, what is it?’
He took a deep breath. ‘God, it’s hard to explain. They’ve got all these theories of war and strategy being the basis of everything so, I know it sounds weird, but the first thing they do is teach us how to play chess. We play chess for days. While they feed us all this stuff about how knights are warriors and pawns are foot soldiers …’
‘Wait, I’ve heard that before.’ She stared at him. ‘Jo said those exact words to me a few weeks ago. Is Jo …?’
‘In Night School?’ He looked uncomfortable. ‘Not exactly. Her dad is, and he’s insisting that she should be too, but Isabelle thinks she’s not ready. She has these … problems, you know. So they’ve given her like introductory to introductory training, and Gabe keeps an eye on her.’
‘What? Her own boyfriend?’ Allie was horrified. ‘Is, like … spying on her for these guys?’
‘No!’ Then he paused. ‘Well, sort of, I guess. But it’s not like he’s pretending to like her.’
‘No,’ she said sarcastically. ‘He would never do something like that.’
He held his hands up in surrender.
‘So,’ she continued, ‘after chess, it’s like … what? Wa r games? Is that what you’re doing out in the woods at night?’
He nodded. ‘More or less. Combat training, techniques in subterfuge. That kind of thing.’
‘Crazy. Why are they teaching you that? You’re just kids.’
‘War is a strategy for life and for business. And some of us will end up running militaries. And governments.’ He shrugged as casually as if he were talking about a maths test. ‘Look, this is what Cimmeria is about, to an extent. And everybody at this school is connected to it in some way.’
He gave her a direct look. ‘Except, apparently, you.’
‘Except me,’ she said.
‘So,’ he said, ‘what are you doing here?’
Allie sat still, staring at him for a long moment. Then she slid to the edge of the bed, poised to bounce off of it.
‘I don’t know. But I’m ready to find out. Are you with me?’
‘In theory …’ he said cautiously, ‘yes. What do you have in mind?’
Her face was animated with a mixture of excitement and determination. ‘You know how yesterday in the library we decided I should pretend nothing was going on and nobody was talking about me, while you tried to find out what was happening?’
He nodded.
‘Well, bollocks to that. Whatever is going on here, the place to find out is Isabelle’s office. Let’s go there. Now.’
‘No way!’ He looked shocked. ‘That’s insane, Allie. If we got caught in Isabelle’s office they’d kick us out. No question. We’d never get into a good university. It would ruin everything.’
‘But I know how we can avoid all of that,’ Allie said, jumping to her feet.
‘How?’
‘By not getting caught.’
She headed for the door.
‘Allie …’ She ignored his warning tone and opened th
e door, but he reached past her to close it again. ‘Hang on a minute.’
He lowered his voice to a whisper. ‘What exactly are you looking for? What do you think you’ll find?’
‘Two things,’ she said. ‘Why Ruth died. And why I’m here.’
When he didn’t appear convinced, she raised her chin defiantly. ‘I’m going Carter. I’m doing this now. I’m not waiting for later, or for someone to maybe someday decide to tell me this information out of simple human kindness. That’s not going to happen. OK? So are you coming with me? Or is being the future president of Cimmeria Incorporated really that important to you?’
He stared into her eyes for a long minute, then seemed to make up his mind.
He opened the door.
TWENTY-THREE
‘Is that your foot? Or somebody else’s?’ Allie’s whisper was so quiet it seemed to fade into the inky darkness around her.
‘Of course it’s mine,’ Carter whispered. ‘Who else’s foot could it be?’
They were tiptoeing down the grand hallway from the staircase towards Isabelle’s office. Around them the old building was unnaturally quiet – it didn’t creak or settle. It was as if it held its breath.
Carter had explained that, as part of their training, Night School students patrolled the hallways of the school at night, but not constantly. So on the way down, they’d hidden in an alcove on the first floor and waited until a pair of shadows walked by, silent as death.
After that, Carter figured they had more than an hour before the patrol would be back again. So they’d slipped down the stairs, skipping the creaky step near the bottom.
Now they stood outside Isabelle’s nearly invisible office door, waiting until they could be certain that the headmistress wasn’t inside.
‘Why would she be in there?’ Allie whispered. ‘It’s one o’clock in the morning.’
Carter shrugged, but the look on his face told Allie it was possible.
After hearing nothing through the door, he finally decided it was OK to go in. With his hand on the door handle, he held her eyes.