Night School: Legacy

Her voice sounded strange and she cleared her throat.

‘Nobody should be surprised.’ Lucinda hadn’t turned around. ‘It was predicted after all.’

‘I’ve been … wanting to meet you.’ Allie fought to hold her voice steady.

‘And I’ve been wanting to meet you.’ Lucinda turned to face her. ‘Allie Sheridan. My long lost granddaughter.’





TWENTY-NINE





‘Come closer,’ Lucinda said. ‘So I can see you.’

After a moment’s hesitation, Allie did as she said.

‘You’re very pretty, you know.’ Lucinda’s cool grey eyes, almost exactly like Allie’s own, swept her from her heels to head. ‘Except your hair. What on earth have you done to it?’

‘It’s temporary.’ Allie’s voice was weak. ‘It will wash out. In a few … weeks.’

‘Thank God for that.’ Lucinda had a regal posture – she held her head as if she wore an invisible crown. ‘You haven’t got any tattoos have you?’

‘Not yet,’ Allie admitted, a little disappointed in herself.

‘Not yet.’ Lucinda echoed her words with a light laugh. ‘Do think about it before you do it. What looks good at sixteen looks ludicrous at fifty. I see it all the time. Your grades are good. You’re excelling.’

Her manner of switching subjects within the same breath was dizzying; she dominated the conversation with powerful ease, wrong-footing Allie from the start so she could never assert herself enough to ask a question. Besides, she was so busy studying Lucinda it was hard to focus her thoughts. Her grey dress fell to slim ankles under a matching jacket with a raised collar. The emerald ring on her right hand was as big as a pound coin. Platinum and diamond earrings sparkled discreetly beneath her hair. Despite her age, she had an athletic figure and a youthful face.

‘I like it here.’ Allie was determined to gain some control. ‘If I like where I am, I work hard.’ Remembering that she wouldn’t be here without Lucinda’s help she added, ‘Thank you … for getting me here.’

‘It’s not just hard work.’ Lucinda eyed her sharply. ‘You’re naturally intelligent. Isabelle told me you were and I see she’s right.’

Her praise made Allie’s cheeks heat up, but she couldn’t be distracted. This could be her only chance. She took a step towards her, pleading with her eyes for understanding.

‘Lucinda … Grandmother …’ It felt good to say that. ‘Help me understand what’s happening. I don’t know what to do. Nathaniel has Christopher, and he’s trying to take me. Can you protect me? Please?’

As she spoke, Lucinda’s gaze softened, just a little. But her words offered little comfort. ‘I am protecting you. My dear, have you no idea what’s going on? Hasn’t Isabelle told you?’

Confused and frustrated, Allie held up her empty hands. ‘Isabelle said Nathaniel wants to take over the organisation and—’

Casting a tense look over her shoulder, Lucinda cut her off, gesturing for her to follow her into the window nook. On the other side of the glass, the snow fell so fast the outside world seemed to have disappeared behind a frozen veil.

‘Things are very dangerous right now.’ Lucinda’s voice was low and she spoke quickly. ‘Especially here. There are people here tonight who support Nathaniel against me. You must be careful what you say.’

‘But why? Why do they support him?’

As Lucinda leaned against the windowsill, tension and tiredness made lines that weren’t there before appear around her eyes. ‘I have worked my whole life to change things in this country. To make things better. But something’s changing. Not just here, in the rest of the world as well. Some people have become too rich, too powerful. And that power made them corrupt. Too much became not enough. Limits disappeared. And that’s dangerous.’ She looked over her shoulder. ‘I can’t explain it all to you now, Allie. This isn’t the time or the place. But I will give you this advice: trust no one. Until we find out who among us is working for Nathaniel, no one is safe.’

As she spoke, Allie’s world seemed to grow colder. She didn’t know her grandmother at all but she recognised the fear in her eyes. It was like looking into her mother’s face when she’d first asked her about Lucinda.

‘I wish,’ she said, ‘that I’d met you before now.’

‘I’m sorry it had to be like this,’ her grandmother said briskly. ‘But it was the way your mother wanted it and I wasn’t going to force myself on her. We had an agreement.’

‘It must have hurt … her running away like that,’ Allie said.

The look Lucinda gave her then was appraising. ‘Life is full of pain, and you might as well get used to that right now, Allie. It doesn’t go away. It accumulates. Like snow.’ She glanced at the window. ‘You just get better at dealing with it.’

On the stairs, footsteps approached them. For the first time Allie noticed the music had stopped.