Ellie resisted the urge to get cross. Her temper was particularly short first thing in the morning. Telling Rose off wouldn’t help; she was probably completely unaware that she was sat there drawing Nate with a dreamy expression on her face. Clearly he had gotten to Rose too much already.
“Can I have that?” Ellie took the page when Rose nodded.
“Good. Sorry, Rose, but he’s just not that angelic.” Ellie grabbed a black pencil and gave Nate evil eyebrows and a twirling black moustache, then for good measure she drew a pair of devil’s horns on top of his head.
She smiled. “There. Much more accurate.”
A shadow crossed the paper. Beside her, Rose turned bright red and stared at the tablecloth. Ellie groaned inside, knowing exactly whose shadow it was bound to be. She looked up defiantly, but Nate addressed Alex.
“Hey, Al, is this your phone?” He sounded relaxed.
“Oh, brilliant. Cheers, mate. I thought I must have lost it,” Alex said, totally unaware of Ellie’s and Rose’s embarrassment.
Ellie slid out of her seat. She pushed the picture under her books, mumbled to Flora about seeing her in class and made a quick exit. She could feel Nate’s mocking gaze all the way down the room.
Chapter Five
On Sunday afternoon Nate watched Rose walk to the river with her sketchpad. Keen not to miss an opportunity to catch her alone, he followed at a distance until she sat on a wooden bench and began sketching the school rowing team out on the water. Now he knew who had drawn the picture of him that Ellie had failed to hide.
Nate leaned against a nearby oak tree and watched her with an indulgent smile. Rose was so absorbed that she jumped when she noticed him.
“Hi,” she said shyly. “I didn’t know you were interested in rowing.”
“I’m not.” He said it laced with meaning.
“Oh, then–” she stopped suddenly as Ellie came towards them walking swiftly.
“There you are, Rose! I think Ben is looking for you.” Ellie pulled Rose up and gave her a shove. “In the courtyard.”
“Really?” Rose looked delighted and hurried away. Ellie felt bad about lying to her, but needs must.
“I’m pretty sure those two will get together this year,” Ellie told Nate, who glared at her with barely-disguised annoyance. “They used to date ages ago and both still really like each other.”
Nate raised one eyebrow. “Is that so? We’ll see.”
Ellie clenched her fists, stepped right up to Nate and snapped, “Yes, it is so! Why the hell don’t you pick someone else for your games?”
Nate looked down at the angry little year eleven squaring up to him and smiled nastily. He slowly looked her up and down.
“Someone else? And that would be…you?”
Nate folded his arms, leaned back against the tree and laughed at her.
Ellie stepped up so close they were almost nose to nose.
“You have no idea who you’re dealing with.” Her voice dropped to a low and sultry level. “Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough.” she murmured, then turned on her heel and walked away.
Nate was almost struck dumb with surprise. He had just been challenged, and he actually had to stop himself from chasing after her and taking her up on it. She was a only fifteen, for goodness’ sake! Hardly worth his time. Extremely pretty, yes. Very popular, yes, but still surely she should be a bit more in awe of him.
He went to bed that night thinking about Ellie Parkhurst.
***
Ellie lay in bed thinking about Nate. It had been a few days since she had attempted flirting with him by the river and she hadn’t properly seen him since.
She was putting extra attention into her appearance each day, but wondering if it was a wasted effort. She saw him at mealtimes, sat at the North Tower table, and sometimes from the corner of her eye she was sure he was looking at her, but when she turned round he wasn’t.
Ellie had plenty to keep her occupied: her homework for a start, and actually a rather good social life. She was also enjoying getting to know Flora. Flora had quite a cheerful personality and found the funny side in most situations. Ellie liked that a lot. She wondered if having had Jack as her best friend might have prevented her from developing a close friendship with another girl. Flora might well turn out to be the best friend she hadn’t realised she needed.
Ellie also had several “boyfriends”, though she kept them at arm’s length. She had never really felt enough for any of them to let it go much beyond flirting. A few kisses had been the extent of her actual experience.
Most boys had been too scared of Jack to try to take it any further, but since his departure their levels of persistence had gone up. She had finally agreed to meet Tyler Phillips in the common room at midnight a couple of weeks ago and he had asked her to “go out with him exclusively.” Ellie had tried to turn him down gently but he’d become offended and gone back to bed in a huff and hadn’t spoken to her since. Then Liam Anderson had asked her out in the library just yesterday. She had been flattered – he was in Year Twelve and a prefect – so it had come as a bit of a shock when he had then attempted to stick his tongue down her throat in front of the Geography books. She had actually had to push him away. It hadn’t put him off though. In the end she had promised to go with him the next time she went into Oakworth Village.
But she wasn’t thinking about him tonight. She tossed and turned in bed, wondering what to do next about Nate Naverly. She reached over to her bedside table and checked her phone to see if Jack might have texted her. He hadn’t. It was nearly eleven; probably too late to text him. She looked over at Flora, who was sleeping peacefully. She lay awake for another ten minutes. Perhaps she was hungry. She kept a tuck box under her bed, but she had a sudden craving for ice cream and slipped out of bed. She tied her dressing gown around herself and crept barefoot from the room.
She tiptoed past the Matron’s room at the end of the corridor, listening for the familiar sound of snores emanating from her open door, then went as lightly as she could down the stairs, deliberately missing out the bottom step, which generally squeaked.
She paused as she reached the West Tower Common Room. What was she doing? She had never been to the kitchens alone at night. With Jack, yes, several times. But Jack wasn’t here any more.
She decided to press on; some adventure was necessary in her life.
Creeping down the dark stairs to the first floor, Ellie smiled, wondering if Nate would be daring enough for a midnight kitchen raid. She would bet he was. Then she gave herself a mental slap. She was spending too much time thinking about Nate! Her plan to keep him away from Rose didn’t explain why she was wondering what he was doing right now.
She tried to rationalize it in her mind. Nate was a skilled player and he could very possibly hurt Rose. Ellie had a duty to get in the way of that.
But she knew she was kidding herself. She had enjoyed their interactions so far, more than was good for her.
She had almost reached the first floor and had one foot on the bottom stair when a door opened on the landing right next to her and an arm shot out and pulled her through.
She screamed, but as there was a hand over her mouth, very little sound came out. It was dark on the first floor and all she could feel was a warm body behind her and the breathing of another person.
“Stop wriggling, you idiot, it’s me.” A low voice sounded in her ear. She had no idea who “me” was, but that wasn’t the way a teacher would speak, so she stopped struggling.
The tone of the voice and the hard chest at her back told her the assailant was male, and familiar.
Nate? What on earth would Nate be doing on the first floor at night?
“The Deputy Head went past just before you, and you know how much trouble we would be in if he spotted us.”
Yes, definitely Nate. Her heart continued to hammer as he moved his hand from over her mouth and pulled her deeper into the dark corner behind the door, his chest fi
rm against her back. He kept her from moving away with a strong grip on her arm as she turned to look at him in the moonlight.
“Well, well. Miss Eleanor Parkhurst out of bed. Bad girl! Come to see if I’m hard enough yet?”
She suddenly really regretted saying that. Especially to a boy who was older than her and probably more than ready to take her challenge much further than she was willing to go. She pulled her dressing gown tighter around herself, feeling very underdressed.
“I was on my way to the kitchens if you must know,” she hissed. “And by the way, Rose is now going out with Ben, so you can leave her alone because you won’t get anywhere.” It wasn’t true, but she hoped he didn’t know that.
His white teeth flashed in the dim light as she edged away from him.
“Is that a retreat, Parkhurst? I thought you were made of more than that?”
Her quick temper flared, but she fought it. There was nothing for it but to keep being sassy and fight fire with fire. If she backed down now she would definitely look like an idiot.
“Not at all,” she said sweetly, though through a gritted smile. “But if you want to impress me you’re going to have to try harder than this.” She hoped the dig would make him back off a little.
Unfortunately, he seemed to rather enjoy the interaction. His smile widened and he tugged her nearer.
“How would you know from over there?”
Ellie feared she had got in over her head. Still, she forced herself not to pull away, instead allowing him to pull her even closer. She heard him take a deep breath in and grinned to herself. His hormones were definitely his greatest weakness in this game. She deliberately blew softly in his ear and he swayed slightly.
“I said you have to impress me. And what I meant,” she continued in that same sweet tone, “was mentally!” With that she gave him a swift kick in the shins and slipped out of his arms as he yelped in pain.
Pulling open the door behind her, she legged it back out onto the staircase and ran all the way up to her dormitory, so high on success that she didn’t even feel out of breath.
Chapter Six
The evening following his unexpected meeting with Ellie, Nate sat in the North Tower Common Room and stared unseeing at the Chemistry book in his lap.
The girl was like his father’s brandy. Heady to smell. Noxious at the first taste. Brandy made him cough, but always left him rolling his tongue round his mouth wanting to taste a bit more. Being around her was like being a bit drunk.
How had he never noticed her before this year?
He had been at a secret birthday party in South Tower and was sneaking back to North Tower when he’d seen her coming down the stairs. Her feet had been bare and she’d been wearing a dark, silky dressing gown over her pyjamas.
She had looked innocent and sexy all at the same time.
She smelled a bit like his mother’s Lily of the Valley. Was it a perfume, or her natural smell? It seemed to come off her hair, so it was probably her shampoo.
This was mad.
Why was he even thinking about her? It certainly wasn’t the plan. But if she was right about Rose and Ben, then maybe the plan was out the window anyway.
Mind you, he reminded himself, if Rose had been with Ben before it wouldn’t have stopped him. He’d prised girls he really wanted away from their darling boyfriends quite easily before. So why had he lost the taste for it? He just couldn’t find the motivation to carry on with his plan. Rose was nice; she didn’t deserve it.
He tried to find a rationale for switching the seduction to Ellie. Could it still work? No. She was only fifteen and he didn’t want to play those games with an underage girl.
The only reason he could think of to date her was to chew up that “too-big-for-her-boots brat” and spit her out again. Teach her a lesson.
His leg still hurt where she had kicked him the night before.
He’d never felt anything like the desire she caused when she blew in his ear. He’d never have guessed that it would be such a turn-on. He would “impress” her because he wanted his own back. This was personal. She was playing with fire and she was going to get burned. Badly.
A smile curved his lips. He had a plan again. Now he just needed to work out how to execute it.
He turned to Gabriel, who was sitting next to him swearing over his maths homework. Gabe usually knew all the gossip.
“What do you know about Ellie Parkhurst?”
Gabe looked suspicious. “Why? You got a thing for her?”
“No.” Nate thought quickly and decided the truth was better. “But I want her to have a thing for me.”
Gabriel frowned at him, clearly confused. “You know, I thought I saw you looking over there a lot at dinner recently. And what was with eating at their table the other day?”
“It’s part of the plan, Gabe. One I don’t want to share right now, but I haven’t got a thing for her.”
Gabriel chucked his calculator on to the table. “Jack Parkhurst will knock you into next week if you touch her.”
“In case you haven't noticed, Jack Parkhurst isn’t here any more. And do you think I’m scared of him?”
“You should be. I would be.” Gabriel smiled and held up his hand in mock apology. “Okay, okay, what do I know about your latest? She has no shortage of boyfriends; none serious so far. But there’s no gossip about her actually doing anything.”
“What does that mean? She’s all attitude but no action?” Nate looked thoughtful.
“Or maybe that she’s just clever about who she’s doing what with.”
“Hmmm,” Nate pondered. “Will you see if you can dig anything up on that? Who are her closest friends?”
“Good question. Everyone seems to be friends with her, but no one particularly close. Not unless you count her big brother. She seems to be spending quite a bit of time with that new American in her year. I don’t think her friends are the way to go, though. Got a bit of a mind of her own. I think you would have to go straight in with this one.” Gabriel leaned forward and spoke quietly. “Why are you bothering?”
“She’s a challenge.” Nate admitted.
“Aha.” Gabriel leaned back again, comprehension dawning in his face. “Then I will find out what I can and wish you luck, mate. Not that I think you’ll need it, except maybe when Parkhurst finds out you corrupted his sister.” Gabriel laughed at that.
Nate threw a book at him. Gabe was right, he decided. He needed to go straight in, get her hooked, and quickly, before her attention was diverted. He wanted to get even with her. He usually played a long game, the softly softly approach, but that wouldn’t work with her. He chuckled as another idea came to him. Let the games continue!
***
That weekend, Ellie sat next to Alex in the library arguing over whether she should spend her Saturday doing homework, or whether she should spend it doing whatever she liked.
The school had arranged it so that the library was the only place in the building where any of the pupils could get Internet access. There were several banks of computers as well as connection points for laptops.
Ellie had gone to the library after lunch to check her email, when Alex and Rose had joined her.
“I really don’t see that it’s any of your business what…” Her voice trailed off as an email popped up on her screen from Nate. How on earth did he know her email address?
Opening the email, she found a scanned copy of Nate’s last report card. Nearly all his results were A’s, bar one, and his House Master had written “Very impressive” in the comment card at the top. At the bottom of the page Nate had put:
Not just a pretty face.
Ellie laughed, her eyes instantly lifting to scan the room. Nate was looking at her from the far corner with one eyebrow raised.
She quickly pulled the keyboard towards her and typed:
Tolerable, but not handsome enough to tempt me.
Let’s see just how clever he was; it was unlikely he would work o
ut that it was Mr. Darcy’s first snooty comment on Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice.
Alex turned back to her. “Who was that from?” He leaned to look at her screen and frowned. “Why is Nate sending you messages, Ellie? What’s going on?”
“None of your business,” she said, without even a glance. She was too busy watching Nate, who had clearly opened her email and appeared lost in thought.
“Ellie, I get that he’s good-looking to girls, but he’s bad news!” Alex persisted.
Ellie rolled her eyes, giving him a look that clearly said, “So what?”
Nate was typing again, something that was taking a while.
“Seriously, Ellie, it’s not just that he’s in Year Twelve and too old for you, but he’s not boyfriend material. I like Nate, we’re friends, but I would never date him!”
Ellie grinned. “I’d be surprised if you did, Al. Especially as I’m pretty sure you’re not into boys that way.” She turned away from her spluttering brother as her computer binged to indicate another email.
Clicking it open, she read his reply. A different quote from the same book:
It is happy for you that you possess the talent of flattering with delicacy. May I ask whether these pleasing attentions proceed from the impulse of the moment, or are they the result of previous study?
(You clearly didn’t notice I got an A in English.)
She couldn’t help it; she laughed out loud again, getting amused looks from up and down the library. She definitely was impressed.
Now what? She couldn’t think of anything to top that. Maybe it was better not to say anything at all; leave him wanting more.
Ellie desperately wanted to look over at Nate, but restrained herself and instead began talking to Bryn Dawes, who had sat down on the other side of her.
***
What a cool customer! Nate thought, looking at her with admiration. How many girls would have been able to resist keeping it going? None he was aware of. Now he wanted to break her even more than ever.