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.
Straightening, Lucinda stepped out from the window as a team of five men – clearly her security team – appeared at the top.
‘Baroness.’ The men surrounded her in a protective phalanx. ‘We have to go.’
‘What’s happened?’ Lucinda’s voice was cool now, and fearless.
One of them turned away and spoke into a microphone attached to his sleeve. ‘Orion protocol two-three-seven. Clear.’
As they hustled Lucinda down the stairs, Allie stayed hard on their heels, so she heard the first one say, ‘There’s been a security breach.’
Downstairs, all was chaos. Guests poured through the door in furs and diamonds, their bodyguards and chauffeurs leading them through snow that was now five inches deep. Some students were leaving with their parents, others stood around looking bewildered.
Panic threatened to sweep over Allie and she took deep gulps of air to steady herself. She wanted to scream in frustration.
I knew this would happen. Why didn’t anyone listen?
Isabelle and Zelazny were nowhere to be seen, but Allie found Zoe with Jo and Rachel in one corner, watching the exodus. Jo’s lips were white with nervousness.
‘What’s happening?’ Allie asked, walking up.
‘Someone made an announcement,’ Rachel said. ‘About the snow, but he gave some code and everyone ran for the door.’
‘Where were you? I waited for you.’ Zoe fairly vibrated with impatience. ‘We have to go right now.’
Allie didn’t ask where. Turning to Rachel and Jo, she said, ‘We’re going to … uh …’ She tilted her head towards the door.
Rachel gave her a warning look. ‘Be careful.’
Hopping on one foot, Allie pulled off her heels before running after Zoe; as they rushed down the stairs their skirts billowed around them like sails.
The basement floor was like gritty ice under Allie’s bare feet as they skidded into Training Room One, which was already crowded with Night School students in formal attire – it was such a bizarre scene Allie would have laughed if things hadn’t been so serious.
Zelazny and Jerry Cole stood at one end. Zelazny was talking. ‘… the guards found an attempted intrusion near the main gate. Guards are now exploring the rest of the fence line. You will be looking out for anything unusual. Footprints in the snow that are not yours. Signs of damage to the fence. Signs that someone has jumped over the fence – all the things you normally look for.’
Zelazny stepped back and Jerry took over. ‘You will each be assigned a quadrant to search. You will travel in groups of four. You will stay together.’ His eyes surveyed them sternly to make sure that his words were understood. ‘If you see signs of intrusion you will send two members of your team back to report it – the others will continue to search. Your assigned teams are here.’ Turning, he taped a single sheet of paper to the wall. ‘Get ready. Do it quickly.’
As Allie and Zoe fought their way through the crowd thronging around the assignment sheet, Jules, in a long black dress slit up to the thigh, saved them the trouble of waiting.
‘You’re with us,’ she said, pointing behind her. Emerging from the scrum of students, Carter still had his tux on, although his tie dangled from his hand. His hair tumbled forward over his forehead as he met Allie’s gaze dispassionately.