“Although,” Emma amended, “that’s partly because I’m not sure Icango anywhere else right now. There were lots of terms of that bargain I’m not clear about. And we may have to be here for our presentation to the Court, whatever that is.”
They traded grimaces.
“Your parents really don’t mind you staying here over the summer?” Emma asked.
“Oh, they weren’t happy at first. But they want to let me ‘do what feels right for me’ at the moment, which is delightful. I cannot believe I spent years working myself up to telling my extremely traditional Nigerian father that I planned to give up my bright future to become a penniless actor, and all I got were hugs and great longspeeches of unconditional love. Not a single thunderous passage. Not even a tiny bit of disinheriting. I could have done this years ago.”
“You know,” Emma said, “your smile is a good three inches wider since you came out of that room with them.”
“So obnoxious, isn’t it?”
A throat cleared. “Um—hello? Anyone here?”
A pained expression crossed Nat’s face.
“I’m going to have to try not to laugh at him, aren’t I?” he said. “You’re going to make me.”
“I am.”
Jasper edged into the room, in pink chino shorts and boat shoes. He bounced on his heels. He appeared to be looking for something to say. “It’s very small in here.”
“I like it that way,” Emma said.
“Oh, me too. I was just thinking, it’s about the same size as the cabin on thePhoebus Laurel.We’re getting her fitted up at the moment—cupboard for my darkroom, everything. You might’ve read about the crew we put together, we’ll probably race at—”
Nat made a strange, hiccoughing sound.
“Anyway, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Jasper scraped back his golden curls. “I’ve heard the rumors. My head’s not exactly straight about it all, I still can’t believe Richard would”—he caught himself—“not that I’m saying you’re lying. But people are saying he kidnapped you, the night you went missing. And held you prisoner for a year and a half?”
Emma nodded, keeping her face carefully smooth. It was the story she’d decided to stick to. Richard was in no state to contradict it. He had been blank as a sleepwalker when the police cuffed himin the Library. Later, he agreed placidly to every charge put to him, though in a flat vacant voice that gave even his defense counsel the shivers. Now he sat in a cell awaiting trial, with no apparent interest in life beyond staring at a wall.
“And the things they’re saying—he really kept you in a storeroom in the Library?”
“I don’t know,” Emma said. She was getting practiced at evasion. “He kept me pretty drugged up.”
“Yes,” Jasper said sagely. “My father’s investigators said your blood tests came back very strange.”
Emma pictured Jasper’s father, cold eyes scanning a report. There was her true opponent. Richard had only been his puppet, groomed to violence by a man who had wanted to spare his own heir the dirty work. He had known how to dole out affection and withdrawal in crumbs, playing Richard against Jasper, until he had molded himself an eager little servant. Of all the old boys, he was the one she feared most. She would have to be ready for his attack, when it came.
Unaware that he’d dropped a potentially explosive piece of information, Jasper slumped against the wall.
“Then it’s really true? My God, he was my best friend. Kidnapping a girl he knew was my—well, er—my friend, anyway. He saw what hell I was in, with the press coming after me. I can’t believe he would do this to me.”
Nat’s eyes rolled back in his skull. Emma kicked him. Gently.
“And then to kill Hugo? And Julia? It’s fucking strange. But for some reason, that feels more real to me. Which doesn’t make sense.”
“Yes,” Emma said dully. Beside her, Nat’s expression had sunkinto leaden lines. She knew her face held the same misery. Thinking of Julia and Hugo was a grief that would not lighten. “They figured out that Richard was holding me in the Library. They confronted him. With Nat and Venetia. They rescued me. He stabbed Hugo, then Julia.”
“And those hooligans broke into the Library at the same time?” Jasper shook his head in amazement.
“Just imagine,” Nat said drily.
“God, the damage they did. What kind of scum smash up all that history? But if they hadn’t interrupted Richard when they did, he might have killed us all too. To think I was blackout drunk under a desk, all that time. You know, if I’d been on my feet, I’d have stopped them.”
“Indeed?” Nat was straight-faced.
