Night School

‘Iz …?’ Carter stared at her. ‘What the hell is going on?’


‘I have no idea. But there’s more. There was also a note in my file from somebody named Lucinda to Isabelle dated a month ago. It ordered her to admit “my granddaughter” immediately, and “protect her”.’

Carter let his breath out in a low whistle. ‘I don’t suppose you have a grandmother named Lucinda?’

‘One of my grandmothers died before I was born. The other one died two years ago,’ Allie said. ‘Her name was Jane.’

‘So …’ Carter said.

‘Who’s Lucinda?’ Allie finished the thought for him. ‘Good question. There was also a note in Lucinda’s handwriting to somebody with the initial “G”, talking about how well her daughter was doing in Night School. It was very old.’

Carter pushed his hair back out of his eyes as he absorbed all of this information. ‘Allie, did your parents tell you anything that was true, ever?’

She was surprised to feel tears burning her eyes.

‘I don’t know,’ she said, forcing them back.

He squeezed her hand.

‘OK, so let’s sum this up.’ He ticked them each off with a tap on the back of her hand. ‘You’re rubbish at English. Your mum probably went to school here. Lucinda is either your grandmother or thinks she is, and your parents forgot to mention her to you – for your whole life. And whoever Lucinda is, she’s important enough that she can order Isabelle to do things.’ He seemed to be finished but then he added, ‘Oh, and Isabelle has a stupid nickname.’

Allie half-smiled up at him. ‘That’s about it, I think.’

‘So … Not much then.’

‘No,’ she said feebly. ‘Not much.’

‘OK, so let’s just leave that there for a minute, because it seems to me we’ll need time to think about how to handle all of that.’ He looked up at the old painting of the yew tree on the wall. ‘Let’s talk about the letter.’

The letter he’d found on the desk was from Nathaniel to Isabelle dated several days earlier. It had been short and angry. ‘What happened on the night of the summer ball was just a taster of what I have to offer,’ it said. ‘Give me what I deserve or I will destroy Cimmeria with my own hands.’

It listed a date and time for a ‘parley at the usual place’. The night was tomorrow, the time was midnight. But the place was never described.

‘What’s a parley?’ Allie had asked at the time, adding hopefully, ‘It’s just a couple of letters away from party.’

‘Parley – it’s a military term,’ Carter had replied, flipping the paper over. ‘It’s a meeting of enemies to talk terms.’

‘Oh,’ Allie had said. ‘So a really crap party then.’

Now, curled up on the church pew next to Carter she asked the question that had been eating away at her all day. ‘Do we both think Nathaniel killed Ruth?’

He looked serious. ‘I don’t know. He all but said as much in that letter. But the main problem I have with that is, why? Why would he do that? What does he want that Isabelle won’t give him? And why does he want it so desperately that he’d do something like that?’

She twisted a strand of hair around her finger as she stared at the yew tree on the wall. ‘I read somewhere that most people who are murdered are killed by people who know them – like their family or boyfriends.’ She dropped the strand of hair. ‘God, I wish we could have found Ruth’s file. I mean, what if Nathaniel’s, like, her evil stepdad or something?’

Carter shook his head. ‘If it was something like that, why would he be making demands to Isabelle, and acting like they have this long history, and she’s done something bad to him at some point? It doesn’t make sense to me.’

‘None of this makes sense to me,’ Allie said. ‘The thing is, there’s so much going on here that we don’t know about – there’s no way for us to figure out what’s happening here unless somebody tells us.’

Carter stared at her. ‘That’s it, Allie! We’ll get them to tell us.’

‘Um … like … how?’ she asked, dubious.

He leaned forward, his cheeks flushed with excitement. ‘Simple. Isabelle’s meeting Nathaniel tomorrow night. I’ll follow Isabelle to the meeting. Then I can listen to what they say and we can decide what to do next.’

‘That’s a great idea,’ Allie said. ‘I’ll come with you.’

He glared at her. ‘No you most certainly will not.’

‘Yes, I most certainly will.’

‘Allie …’ His eyes warned her to drop it but she ignored it.

‘Why should you go and not me? So much of this involves me and my family, and although I know more now, I still don’t understand what’s really going on.’ He tried to speak but she held up her hand. ‘This is my life, Carter. And I want to find out who’s messing it all up.’