The Last Secret. Sophie Cleverly

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       Chapter Five

       IVY

      s it turned out, we would learn about Henry Bartholomew’s plans for the school sooner rather than later.

      It was dinner time that same evening, and we were all filing in as usual. Well, perhaps “filing” wasn’t the right word. The actual process was messier and involved a lot more shoving and name-calling.

      We were in the queue for food when Scarlet started elbowing me.

      “Ouch!” I exclaimed. “What is it?”

      She pointed to the doorway. “Look!”

      The man himself had just walked into the room. There was a noticeable drop in volume as more and more people noticed his presence. He didn’t seem to be paying anyone else any attention, though. He started pacing around the dining hall, staring at the walls and the ceiling. He kept his hands in his pockets while his dark eyes searched the place … for what?

      “What is he doing?” Scarlet hissed.

      I had no answer.

      We were so busy staring at him that we didn’t notice the queue had moved on.

      “Ahem!” The cook cleared her throat. “Move up, we haven’t got all day!”

      “Sorry,” I mumbled, running to her and holding my tray out to receive the day’s usual helping of stew.

      By the time we’d got to our house table, Henry had made it the whole way round and headed back out of the door. What was he up to? His expression wasn’t giving anything away. He just smiled confidently at the teachers on his way out.

      Mrs Knight, however, was not so subtle. She was muttering something to Miss Bowler near the entrance, when Nadia walked past them.

      “What do you mean you might have to close the school?” Miss Bowler exclaimed, so loudly that most people heard her. And those who didn’t soon knew what she’d said because the words had rippled outwards like a stone that had been dropped in a pond.

      “What?” Scarlet said.

      “Why?” Ariadne exclaimed.

      And suddenly everyone was calling out, while Mrs Knight just stood there, the colour draining from her face.

      “Girls!” she shouted, trying to stop the flow of conversation. “Girls! I need your attention, please!”

      For once, people listened. I think we all wanted to know how she was going to explain this.

      “Please, don’t panic,” she began. This wasn’t entirely reassuring coming from Mrs Knight, who had been known to downplay even the worst of disasters. She cleared her throat. “As you have all heard, the school has a new owner. Mr … Henry Bartholomew has made his plans clear to us. He wants to …” She froze then, staring into the distance as if she was an actor who couldn’t read the script.

      “Where is she going with this?” Scarlet whispered, but I shushed her.

      Mrs Knight took a deep breath and tried again. “He wants to close the building.”

      The noise broke out again as everyone tried to talk at the same time.

      “But why?”

      “What would happen to all of us?”

      “Where would we go to school?”

      “Enough!” Miss Bowler boomed, and I could have sworn the chairs rattled beneath us.

      I couldn’t help but notice that Mrs Knight’s hands were shaking. “Everybody calm down, please. There has been talk of safety inspections. It may only be temporary. Nothing is set in stone. Let’s just wait and see, shall we?”

      With a meaningful glance at Miss Bowler, she left the room.

      Miss Bowler turned to all of us. “What are you lot looking at? Spoons back in mouths and stop gaping! You will eat in silence!” Her face was red as she strode out after the headmistress.

      The silence, as you can imagine, didn’t last long.

      “Is she being serious?” Scarlet asked, leaning over the table.

      “Obviously,” I replied. I was struggling to know what to say. “But maybe it’s nothing. Just some inspections, like she said.”

      “But does he really have the power to shut the school, just like that?” my twin replied. “And if he does … couldn’t he just decide to close it down permanently?”

      “This is horrible,” Ariadne said. Her face crumpled for a moment, and she looked like she was about to cry, but then recovered herself. “If the school closes … we’ll all be split up! Where will we go? What if I get sent back to Hightower Academy? If they’d even have me back, after I was expelled.”

      “We won’t let that happen,” said Scarlet. I raised an eyebrow at her. I didn’t know how she could promise such things.

      I stared down at my plate for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. “I think we have to listen to Mrs Knight. We can’t start panicking when we don’t even know what Henry Bartholomew is going to decide.”

      Ariadne made a sort of strangled sound in frustration, and dropped her head into her hands.

      I bit my lip. I wasn’t sure how to feel. Rookwood had changed and it meant something different to me. Now it seemed that someone might have the power to take our school away. Not just to ruin its reputation as our old headmistress, Miss Fox, had once tried to do in a wild act of revenge, but perhaps to get rid of it all together. There would be no more secrets for us to find if it was closed down. Nothing left of our mother’s legacy. No more adventures with Ariadne and Rose and the others.

      What if we were sent somewhere worse? Or – and it didn’t bear thinking about – sent back to our stepmother? She had more or less threatened in the past that she would have us both locked up rather than live with her again.

      “Let’s not all start worrying about this right now,” Scarlet said, unusually being the voice of reason. “Maybe we should just listen to Mrs Knight. We have bigger things to think about.”

      “Bigger things than the school being closed?” Ariadne asked, open-mouthed.

      Scarlet poked her with a fork. СКАЧАТЬ