Obsidian Eyes (25 page)

She would show Jared she wasn’t a girl to be trifled with, by anyone.

Her grandfather broke her train of murderous thoughts when he rounded the corner and dropped a letter into her lap.

“Late mail,” he commented, before wandering to his desk and his own pile of letters and grams.

Allie prised open the heavy envelope, curious as to who would be writing to her and glad of the distraction. She extracted the single piece of embossed card. Scanning the contents, her blood ran cold and the sheet froze in her fingertips. She read each word again, slowly. Twice.

You are expected

Sunday 25
^th
September

D.L.F

The colour drained from her face and her fluid posture became stiff. It was one thing to know the summons would come, quite another to have the weight of it in her hands.

Why send a formal card, why not a dragonfly message?

Jared coughed into his hand to attract her attention, and raised one dark eyebrow when she glanced up. His gaze flicked from the heavy card clutched in her fingers and then back to her face.

Ah. Because this way the others will see the note and I can’t conceal the summons. Not when it could concern Zeb.

Despite her current not talking to Jared stance, she swallowed her pride. “I’ve been summoned to London.” She handed the brief note over as he leaned forward.

His eyes flicked to the initials at the bottom of the note. “You can’t possibly go.” His eyebrows knitted in concern. “It could be a trap.”

“It’s not the sort of summons you ignore.” Le Foy was overlord. Disobeying would be like ignoring a summons from the King, eventually someone would turn up to fetch her, willing or not.

“I don’t like it.” He still frowned. “Plus, it doesn’t say where you are expected.”

Her fingers picked at the envelope. “Oh, I know where.” A black chasm opened in her gut and Allie slammed a door shut on the empty memories hiding in the depths. “He will have information and this note means something larger is afoot. Isn’t this the sort of lead Marshall has been fishing for me to pursue?” And there were other, more personal issues Allie wanted to raise with Le Foy.

“Don’t do anything foolish,” he said, holding her gaze. “You are expected in Edinburgh.”

He handed the missive back and she stared at it, trying to discern any hidden meaning in the few words scratched over the paper.
Could my week get any worse?

Allie’s week could get worse. She tried, unsuccessfully, to avoid Jared since the dance. Eloise prodded for details but Allie coloured and clammed up every time. She could still feel Jared’s lips burned into her neck and remembered the way he toyed with her, forcing her to voice aloud what her body felt. As hopeless as her feelings were, something splintered in her heart to believe he only saw her as a distraction and nothing else.

At the last training session of the term she approached Marshall in the gymnasium. “I’ve been summoned to London,” she whispered.

He nodded. “Jared told me.” Questions danced in his eyes, but he held his tongue. “Tread carefully and trust your gut. You have good instincts, use them. I expect to see you back here next term.” He handed her a blade and pushed her in the direction of the mat.

Relief flooded her body. Marshall was brutal in putting them through their paces, leaving little time for conscious thought.

All went well until Marshall decided Duncan could sit out the last bout and it was time Allie and Jared sparred, so he could gauge her improvement since the beginning of the term.

They started slow and wary of each other. Allie struggled to concentrate, giving Jared an opportunity to catch her unawares. He pinned her against his chest, her back to him with his arm across her torso, holding his blade to her throat.

“Now you’ve admitted how you feel, how shall we end this dance?” he whispered against her ear, his lips close to where they had laid kisses.

Allie’s blood boiled in her veins. He played her once, he wouldn’t do it a second time. “Don’t think you can toy with me,” she said between gritted teeth.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His arm didn’t budge from around her.

“Yes you do.” She spat out the words as heat churned in her stomach. “I thought you were different, but you’re exactly the same as the rest. You think you can use me and toss a coin my way when you’re finished,” she hissed.

She directed all her anger into slamming an elbow into his stomach, heedless of his blade, wanting out of his hold.

He loosened his grip with the impact and she spun, using all her slight weight to tackle him. The tone of the fight changed and became deadly. The pace increased and Allie would not pull her blows. She spun under one of Jared’s thrusts and pulled her Egyptian dagger to add to the school one she held. She attacked him with both blades.

“Enough!” yelled Marshall. Allie wielding an extra blade increased the chance of bloodshed. He rushed into the middle of the fight, reached out and grabbed Allie by the back of her corset. He lifted her off the mat and dropped her out of reach of Jared. He pulled the blades from her hands, tossing the school one to Duncan before levelling her Egyptian one at her head.

“You can have this back tomorrow once you’ve cooled down. Now go get changed,” he commanded, and propelled her out of the way.

Refusal flared in her eyes, before she regained some control over herself. She didn’t dare say a word, the emotion too close to the surface. Instead, she turned on her heel. She barged out of the gymnasium fuming and muttering under her breath about Jared and walked straight into Madeline, Hamilton and his two friends. Waiting outside the door, their chatter died the instant they noticed Allie.

“I think it’s time we sorted out a few issues,” Hamilton said.

The hair prickled on the back of Allie’s neck. He looked like he was spoiling for a fight. She promised her grandfather she would try to stay out of trouble, but not knowing what fate awaited her in London, she figured all bets were off.

If I’m not coming back here, I’m going to make sure he remembers my last week.

She was in the mood to make something bleed and she was going to make Hamilton regret ever taking her on. Her fingers reached for her blade, only to remember she just lost it to Marshall.

“Show the little street brat how to have respect for her betters,” Madeline said to Hamilton, while shooting Allie a cold look of pure ice blue.

You’ll get yours one day.
Allie narrowed her eyes, aware of the girl’s private vendetta. She imagined dragging the noble girl’s body to Eloise’s roof top laboratory.
Eloise could practice her surgery and find out if Madeline has a heart or an empty chest cavity.

Hamilton sneered as Jared and Duncan came out of the gymnasium. “And here come the Scottish barbarians. I suppose you’re going to play the heroes?”

They exchanged looks on seeing the situation. Jared glanced at Allie. She shrugged his attention away and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t worried and adrenaline still coursed through her body from her fight with Jared. Given the early hour, now seemed the perfect opportunity to teach the blond a lesson.

“Not at all,” Jared replied to Hamilton. “I’ll just watch to make sure you keep it clean and Duncan here is going to impersonate a coat rack.”

He approached Allie from behind. She stiffened as he took hold of her coat by the collar and slid it down her arms. He used the opportunity to whisper in her ear. “Don’t hurt him too bad, he’s not worth being sent back to Newgate.”

She froze at mention of the prison. Jared tossed her coat to Duncan and went over to lounge against the wall next to Madeline, who looked like the cat that had been set out a bowl of cream.

Damn.
Allie mulled over Jared’s words and realised he was right and her options were limited without her knife.
I’m going to have to touch him.
The idea appealed as much as jumping into the waterhole without checking for crocodiles first.

While she was lost in thought, Hamilton took the opportunity to throw a punch. It was a dirty tactic to start before your opponent was ready and it spoke volumes. Fortunately, her reflexes were much faster and she dodged under the blow. Her mind raced ahead to possible scenarios for ending this farce as soon as possible.

She decided on her course of action and with the next punch she let him get his blow in. She turned at the last moment, so it glanced off her cheek but let it appear to carry her back to the wall. She tilted her head and exposed her throat.

His eyes gleamed, believing he defeated her already. He chuckled as he reached out his hands and wrapped his fingers around her neck.

She saw Jared and Duncan stiffen and moved her hand in a subtle
no
gesture by her side. Jared relaxed back against the wall and put a restraining hand on Duncan, who looked about to launch forth. The boys exchanged looks but held their places.

She remembered Hakim teaching her to always use her head in a fight. So she did, with brutal efficiency. Just when Hamilton thought it was over as he throttled her, she put all her anger and frustration at Jared into her retaliatory strike. The sickening crunch of cartilage told her she hit him with her forehead in exactly the bridge of his nose.

He cried out, letting go of his hold around her throat. Before he could reel backwards Allie kneed him hard in the groin, dropping him to his knees, and finished it off with a double-handed blow to the back of his neck. He slumped to the ground, stunned.

His friends rushed to his side, patting his cheeks and calling his name. He groaned, curled around his injured privates and retched. He vomited over his friend’s polished boots. The blood gushed from his broken nose and he raised a hand to try to stem the flow as he whimpered.

Duncan admired Allie’s handiwork as he tossed her jacket. “Oh, that is going to look really messy by tomorrow.”

She caught it and shrugged it back over her shoulders.

“I’m going to the Headmaster, you will be expelled for this!” Hamilton shrieked from his position on the ground. The blow to his groin had added a new octave to his range.

“You do that.” Allie had enough of the nobles at the school and couldn’t wait to be rid of them for the term break, or permanently if things went bad with Le Foy. “Everybody should know you got beaten up by a girl.”

There was a snigger from Duncan and even Jared hid a smile. Hamilton’s friends helped him to his feet. His features turned purple as he leaned on his friends, and curses used by seasoned sailors fouled the air as they left.

Allie approached Madeline, who took a step back. “I’m a street fighter, not a street brat. You might want to remember the difference, for next time.” She dropped her tone lower and held the other girl’s gaze.

“You can push me, but I won’t push back. I will simply climb through your window one night and end this.” Without giving her a chance to reply, Allie turned and strode down the hallway, raging in her mind and muttering curses at the lot of them.

Madeline turned on Jared. “Most nobles have the dignity to keep their low born tarts out of sight. Not flaunt them in good company.”

“Is that what you think she is?” he asked, tilting his head to watch Allie storm off over Madeline’s shoulder. “Some sort of paramour?”

“What do you call her then?” Madeline responded, her delicate nostrils flaring with each sharp drawn breath.

He shrugged. “A friend, like Duncan and Zeb. We ride, we fight. That’s all.” He wasn’t going to give Madeline any hint otherwise until he figured a few things out for himself first, unsure of the noble girl’s motives.

Madeline searched his face before she sighed. “Never forget we belong to each other.” She reached up and kissed him, and then turned to head back to her own room before the matrons found she had escaped.

Once she disappeared from sight, Duncan let out a sigh. “I don’t envy you cousin. That one would stick a knife in your back as quick as look at you.”

“What’s going on here?” Marshall appeared in the corridor, his gaze flicked to the pile of blood and vomit in the hallway.