Breathless (11 page)

"Don't worry," Jack told her, looking straight in her eyes. "Everything will be alright. I promise."

Charlotte managed to give him a bit of a smile and nodded. "Thank you for driving me. I...I'll see you later."

Jack nodded. "Of course. See you later."

Charlotte nodded and bit her lip. But finally, she forced herself out of the car, and onto the pavement. And putting one foot before the other, she tentatively walked toward the building, not at all as confident as she had been when she talked to Lewis only a few days ago.

Her first class was incredibly nerve-wracking. She was told to sit in the fourth row of girls, behind a girl with an enormous head of blonde curls that Charlotte could barely see the board from behind. But she didn't complain. She waited impatiently as the teacher called roll, becoming more and more nervous as the alphabet reached the M's, and hoping she wouldn't sound incredibly pitiful as she announced her presence.

"Charlotte Martin?" the teacher finally called.

Charlotte licked her lips and called, "Here," but her voice came out crackly and soft. To her dread, the teacher hadn't heard her.

"Is Charlotte Martin here?" the teacher asked for a second time.

Charlotte forced herself to raise her hand. "Here, sir. I'm Charlotte Martin." And then she was acutely aware that the thirty girls sitting around her turned to look at the new girl, who pronounced her name so differently than what the teacher had said.

"Oh, hello Charlotte. I hadn't seen you back there. Welcome to the class," the teacher said politely. "Everyone, this is Charlotte Martin. She comes to us all the way from Paris. I hope you'll all give her a warm welcome."

Charlotte's cheeks flushed pink as the girls gave her another final look before returning their eyes to their books, but she also noticed that one didn't look away quite soon enough. Charlotte turned to her right and noticed a pretty little redhead with bright blue eyes, brighter even than Jack's. But the girl wasn't looking at her rudely-quite the opposite. The girl looked at Charlotte with intrigue and curiosity. And then she gave her a little smile. Charlotte smiled back before giving her attention back to the teacher. And she wondered if school might not be as bad as she had expected.

Later that afternoon, Charlotte discovered the school's library, which towered higher than both Lewis' and the library at her Parisian school. Brimming with excitement, Charlotte had immediately begun to pull books from the shelves and seated herself at a long table where she could spread out and read to her heart's extent.

After a half-hour or so, Charlotte heard clipping little footsteps on the hard wooden floors and realized they stopped right beside her table. She looked up to see the little redhead from class standing there beside her with a smile on her face.

"Hello. Your name is Charlotte, isn't it?" she asked, wringing her little hands. "I don't know if you saw me, but you're in my first class. It's a literature class. You're from France, aren't you? At least that's what the teacher said..." she finished with a shy smile. "I'm sorry. I'm so very awkward at introductions. "I'm Celia. Celia Hobbs. It's very nice to meet you."

"It's very nice to meet you too, Celia. Would you like to sit down? I'm sorry, the table is crowded with books..." Charlotte said hurriedly, pushing some of the volumes aside.

"Thank you." Celia sat down and folded her hands at the table. "I came to find you," she admitted abashedly. "I didn't know if you had met anyone at school yet and I thought you might like a friendly face, so to speak. I know how terrified I was when it was my first day at this school."

"Did you move here, too?" Charlotte asked in surprise.

"Yes," Celia nodded. "I'm actually from Yorkshire, which is why I have a bit of a funny accent. But my parents sent me and my brother here for school because they say it's the best place in England to go! I live in the dormitories here."

"You don't live with your family?" Charlotte asked. She grimaced. "I know how hard that is. My family is back in Paris."

"I can imagine how you must miss them," Celia said in regret. "But I'm sure you have it worse than I. At least my family is in the same country! And you can't even speak your own language at home! Oh, I can't imagine that. I'm doing so poorly in French right now. I can't imagine having to speak it all the time!"

"Oh no, I'm sure it's hard on the both of us equally. You must miss your parents so much."

Celia nodded. "I do miss them. Will you be living at the dormitories? Maybe we could have dinner together, or something like that!"

Charlotte shook her head. "I don't. I live with the Carey family in London. They were friends of my mother's. They're taking care of me during the war." She noticed Celia's face fall. "But you said that you were doing poorly in French class? Perhaps I could help you with your French?"

Celia's face broke into a grin. "Oh, I'd love that! My parents would be so angry with me if they saw bad marks on my school reports!"

"Would you like to come over my house after school? You could have dinner with my family and we could finish our schoolwork, if you'd like. I mean, if you have the time, of course," Charlotte added hurriedly. Of course this pretty girl with such a friendly personality might already have more important plans...

"I'd love to!" Celia agreed, her face lighting up. "Oh, I knew it from the minute I saw you, Charlotte! I knew that we were meant to be friends!" She grinned and threw her schoolbag over her shoulder. "I must be going. I have to meet with a friend in the courtyard before class to go over some notes. But I will meet you after school? At the front entrance?"

"Yes, of course!" Charlotte agreed, smiling. "I can't wait!"

"No, I'm completely serious!" Celia managed between her shrieks of laughter, which were so contagious. "Master Crawley read the entire note in front of the whole class. Isis' cheeks were so red that I thought she was going to overheat! I would have been so embarrassed!"

Charlotte laughed and asked Celia excitedly, "What else should I know about the girls? Right now they're all such blank faces to me. I'm dying to know their stories!"

"Hm," Celia thought as she bit into another biscuit that Mrs. Gates had brought up for the pair of them. They were sitting cross-legged on Charlotte's bedroom floor, their schoolbooks cast aside as they chattered. "Well, do you know Ella Brown? She sits in front of you in class. She has big blonde hair."

"How could I not see Ella Brown? I don't see anything
but
Ella Brown," Charlotte giggled.

"Well, she used to have a twin sister who went to our school. Her name was Elizabeth. They're absolute opposites. Ella quotes the Bible and talks about Jesus all the time. And Elisabeth would talk about
boys
all the time. And they would certainly talk about her, as well. She ended up getting pregnant and got pulled out of school just before Christmas. We haven't seen her since, and Ella hasn't even breathed a word about it."

Charlotte's mouth fell open in sheer shock. "You're kidding! How absolutely terrible!"

Celia shrugged. "But you can't say it wasn't deserved! If you believe in that sort of thing, of course!"

Charlotte nodded and sighed. "Well, I suppose we should actually do some schoolwork before dinner. Lewis won't be happy with me if I don't finish my schoolwork on my very first day of school!"

Celia nodded decisively. "You're right. Should we start with French, then? I need all the help I can get!"

Charlotte laughed. "Yes, let's." She rolled onto her side to grab her schoolbag, but found only Celia's there. "Oh, drat. I've left it in the car." She got to her feet. "Come with me to Jack's room. He's bound to have some extra pencils and paper in there."

"Is Jack your brother?" Celia asked curiously as she followed Charlotte to the door.

"No, not at all," Charlotte replied quickly, thinking of Luc. "I suppose he's my...house brother. He's the Carey's son. He just turned eighteen, only two years older than us."

"Same as my brother," Celia commented. She gave Charlotte a mischievous smile. "Is he handsome?"

Charlotte grinned at her friend's question. "Yes," she replied right away. "But I don't think about him like that. And he certainly doesn't think about me like that, either. But both his parents are beautiful, so there's no reason why he wouldn't be. You can come in and meet him if you'd like." Charlotte knocked on Jack's door and called. "Jack, may I come in?" Not hearing a response, she opened the door anyway. "Jack, I left my bag in the car. Would you mind if I used some paper and pencils so we can do our schoolwork?"

"Mhm," Jack murmured distractedly as he scribbled away at his desk with his back toward Charlotte. He grabbed a nearby notebook and a few pencils and extended his arm out to her.

"Thanks," Charlotte said, taking them. She turned back to Celia, who gave her a look of urging. Charlotte turned back to Jack.

"Um, Jack. This is my friend Celia Hobbs from school. I met her this afternoon."

Jack nodded, still not looking up.

Charlotte looked at Celia and shrugged her shoulders, but tried again. "Jack, Celia's from Yorkshire. She only moved here a few months ago but already she knows everything there is to know at the academy."

"It's nice to meet you," Celia chirped from behind Charlotte.

Jack glanced over his shoulder and muttered, "Nice to meet you, too..." but then he took a second glance and something about Celia must have held his interest, because he stood and smiled at her.

Celia grinned at him and bit her lip, just like Charlotte always did when she was nervous or flirting or something. "Hi," she said in her little voice. "Well, you look like you're really busy so we should leave you to whatever you were doing. Bye." She turned for the door, with Charlotte following her.

"Whoa, wait...what did you say your name was?" Jack scampered to the door and held it so that Celia couldn't leave the room. He had a remarkable smile on his lips and his eyes were sparkling. Charlotte was surprised-she hadn't seen him like this before. Was he really that taken with Celia already? She hadn't counted on this happening.

"Celia. Celia Hobbs."

"Are you related to Jimmy Hobbs?" Jack asked with his same smile. Charlotte knew that Jack knew he was irresistible with that smile, and she hated him for using it on Celia.

"Yes, he's my older brother!" Celia exclaimed with a smile. "How do you know him?"

"We go to school together," Jack replied. "I should have known. He has the same spectacular red hair that you do." He tugged on a strand of Celia's hair. "But I think it looks much prettier on you," he added quickly.

Celia blushed but she was grinning, and Charlotte could tell she was loving every moment of the flirting. But Charlotte, on the other hand, was not.

"Well that's all such an interesting coincidence," Charlotte said, trying to break up the flirting. "But we really should be going, Jack. We have a lot of schoolwork to do and that French won't learn itself. Come on, Celia. Let's go."

"Are you going to stay for dinner?" Jack asked Celia curiously.

"I was going to, but Jimmy phoned over this afternoon and he reminded me that we're having dinner with our aunt and uncle in London tonight. I stupidly forgot about it, silly me." Celia frowned in disappointment.

"Don't worry, it happens to the best of us. But now that you and Charlotte are friends, I guess you'll be over here more often? So I will see you then." Jack gave her another grin.

Celia blushed again, but smiled back. "Yeah. I'll be seeing you."

"Alright, let's go," Charlotte prodded Celia out the door and back to her room.

"What's the matter?" Celia asked as Charlotte threw the paper and pens onto her desk and slammed herself down into a chair. "Are you mad or something?"

"No, not at all," Charlotte told Celia as best she could. "Should we start working on this? Your brother will be here to pick you up soon."

Celia drew a chair up next to the desk and sat by Charlotte. After a moment, she commented, "Jack is really handsome, Charlotte."

"I know that."

"I don't know how you can live in the same house with him without fancying him," Celia told her honestly. "I wouldn't be able to."

Charlotte bit her lip and sighed before looking at Celia. "I guess I just have a lot of self-control," she finally replied.

Later that evening after Celia had left with Jimmy, dinner was silent in the Carey house. Charlotte absently turned her potatoes over and over on her fork, but nothing could detract from the awkward lack of conversation at the table.

"Is anything the matter?" Lewis finally asked.

Charlotte shook her head, but didn't say anything.

After a few more moments of silence, Helen set down her glass of wine and folded her hands on the table. "What's the matter with you two? Things were coming along so well and now you're not speaking to each other again? What happened between you?"

"I..." Jack looked across the table at Charlotte and said truthfully, "I honestly don't know."

"Charlotte?" Helen asked quietly.

Charlotte could feel all eyes on her, but she didn't say anything. She glanced up at Jack across the table, and found him looking reproachfully back at her. But she just looked down again at her plate and said nothing.
He shouldn't have to figure it out,
she thought miserably and turned her potatoes over once again.