by Jd Field
Chapter 8: Stable hand
The next morning I woke smiling. Eddy had told me he would see me at school. We had plans, actual real plans, to see each other. I dressed with special care, not just because, for once I was certain of meeting Eddy, but because my plot to aid him depended on me looking nice. I straightened my hair, painted my nails with clear polish and wore my favourite perfume.
During morning break I headed straight for Camelot, checking out the cafeteria and car park on the way.
If you belonged to a house, or if you were invited, then according to Level’s ritual, you could use the back door. If you weren’t, you had to ring the bell at the front. The duty prefect would sign you in. As all four of the Horsemen were prefects I reckoned there was a good chance one of them would be on duty. I guessed they would prefer to take their turn at break time, leaving weekends and evenings free for horse riding, weightlifting, and driving cars too fast along country roads.
I was in luck. A younger boy answered the door, looked me up and down, then yelled “Kieran, it’s a girl!” I winced at the display of half chewed cookie in his open mouth.
I smiled at him. “My name’s Madeleine.”
He blushed and swallowed the biscuit noisily.
Kieran Hechter appeared in the hallway behind him. “It’s you.”
I lowered my lashes. Time for Madeleine the femme fatale. “I came to apologise.”
“Really?” He narrowed his eyes. The boy who answered the door sniffed and Kieran started. “Peebles! What are you still here for?”
“I thought...” the boy looked at me as he spoke to Kieran.
“Shut up. Go away.”
I wrapped the end of a strand of hair around a shining fingernail. “I meant to apologise on Saturday, but then there was everything, you know, about the challenge.”
Kieran frowned. “Okay. Come in. Do you want a cup of tea?”
“I’d love one.”
I followed him into the Camelot common room, which looked completely different from the night of the party. The mixing decks and lights had gone, replaced by bean bags, sofas and a large cork board covered in rotas and notices. I perched on the edge of a sofa and waited for him to come back. In his absence I relaxed a notch. Being a femme fatale was hard work, jocks actually had a much easier time, when they weren’t exercising they could lounge around however they liked. Femme fatales worked around the clock.
Examining the cork board, I learned that Camelot was run with military precision. Each year had a different bed time, and ‘lights out time’ for the week and Saturday night. There were ten prefects, and from the notices they seemed to spend all their time waking younger kids up, telling them to go to bed, and keeping an eye on them while they did their homework. I was surprised to feel a tiny spark of sympathy for them.
Kieran returned carrying a stained and mottled mug of tea. Clearly not everything at Camelot was fancy, and boys there had no more interest in washing up than boys anywhere else.
“You don’t want sugar do you?” More statement than question. He sat beside me on the sofa and ran his fingers through hair that looked like he’d just stepped out of a salon. One strand curved over his forehead, and I had a strong feeling that was the desired effect.
I sipped deeply and burned the roof of my mouth. “Mmm.” I darted the tip of my tongue at my lip. “Lovely. So did you sort everything out on Saturday?”
Kieran scowled. “It’s still as it is. That sprout Eddy is head of Camelot. He shouldn’t even be in the flippin’ school.”
I blew on the surface of my tea. “Really?”
“It’s only because Mr. Neil, the chairman, is his guardian.”
“I thought Eddy was your brother.”
“No!” Kieran’s face darkened. “We just look after him. Old Neil asked my parents. Don’t know why he couldn’t do it himself. Too busy doing crosswords.”
“Crosswords?”
“Yeah, Mr Neil’s a crossword obsessive, like twenty-four seven. Quite weird really. Not as weird as what’s happened now though.” Kieran grimaced. “Eddy weirdo Moon my head of house. For the time being.”
I opened my eyes wide. “For the time being? Surely now he’s there, that’s it.”
“Not necessarily.”
I allowed myself a little frown. “I’m surprised. Nobody else has said anything about him not being head of Camelot for the whole year.” Tilting my head to one side I felt my sleek, straightened hair slide across the back of my neck. “Are you sure?”
Kieran’s eyes darted to the tiny gleaming stud in my earlobe. “Of course I’m sure.”
“But, but, I don’t understand.” I touched a finger to my lips for a moment, feeling like an idiot, but sure I had seen the gesture work for a girl in a movie I had seen.
Kieran rolled a shoulder. “Look. If a head of house breaks the rules, somehow, or slips up, they’re out. In other houses the housemaster would choose a replacement. Here the students would. We’d do the contest again.”
“And you would win?” I sipped tea, looking at him over the rim of the mug.
“I might. But one of the horsemen would definitely. We’re the best athletes in the school.”
“Oh yes.” I nodded enthusiastically. “But will he slip up? I mean Eddy Moon doesn’t seem like a rule breaker.”
“Oh trust me, honest Eddy would never break the rules or do anything bad on purpose.”
I gave him a small, encouraging smile. “So...”
He looked at his watch. “Break’s almost over. I really should do the rounds. Make sure none of the little monkeys are smoking out the window or hiding under their beds.”
I laughed. A ridiculous light, tinkling laugh. “How funny. Anyway, what I meant to say was there’s a little get together at Logres on Saturday. If you and the others aren’t busy, I’d really like it if you could come.”
Kieran stood up. “In Logres? We don’t usually go to parties in other houses.”
“Well, Tiago’s probably going to come.”
His chiselled jaw tensed. “He is? In that case I’m in. We’ll all come.”
“Great! We’ll see you then.” I gave him a sideways look as I turned away. “If not before.”
As soon as the door closed behind me I hauled my phone from my pocket. “Please answer Tiago, please answer Tiago. Oh hi Tiago how are you?”
He needed less persuasion than Kieran to attend Saturday’s party, but if I was going to get the complete picture of what the Four Horsemen were up to I needed to speak to him sooner than that. “That’s great Tiago.” I added a slight purr to my voice. “Everybody will be so pleased, and Tiago?”
“Yes.”
“You know you asked me if I want to ride in your car...”
Again Tiago agreed quickly to my suggestion. Ten minutes later I met him in the car park. He opened the door of the Vantage for me and I lowered myself into the luxurious embrace of the passenger seat. He got in, revved the engine for a second, then spun the car in a loud, tight circle around the parked cars.
“I’ve only got five minutes,” I warned. The acceleration pushed me back against the seat, which seemed to sculpt itself around me. “Hey, Kieran told me about your plan to replay the Camelot challenge. I think it’s excellent.” I lowered my lashes. “Was it your idea?”
Tiago answered without looking sideways. “No, really it was Gennady.” His whole body focused on the steering wheel and the road ahead. “The hackers are in Moscow, his contacts.”
I suppressed a smirk. Tiago was so much easier to crack then Kieran it was ridiculous. The car raced through lanes towards Sherborne, like my mind through the possible inferences of what Tiago had said. “Really?” I turned my body towards him. “Kieran said that he was doing it all.”
“It all?” Tiago scowled. “No. He’s going to get the photographs, but Gennady’s associates will do the shopping and post them.”
“I’m sure you’re doing something important.”
“Well yes.” Like the
athlete he was, Tiago drove with his whole body. Only his voice was aimed in my direction. “I’ve got the photos of, you know, parties and girls, and people smo...” The car slowed. “Of course, the photos aren’t me. In Rio, in the summer, many people, crazy stuff happens.”
“Oh yeah.” I grinned. He was a terrible liar. “Of course, absolutely. I understand.” I looked at the clock, centred in a dashboard like a work of art. “Hey Tiago, your car is awesome, but I have to get back to my lesson.”
Tiago used the excuse to pull a handbrake turn. Back at the school I hurried around looking for Eddy. I had to tell him the Four Horsemen’s plot. This time, when I asked people if they had seen him, they knew who he was. “Who? The tramp who’s head of Camelot?”
“The smelly guy?”
As before, though, nobody could tell me where he was.
In Logres at lunchtime Hari Kumar called a house meeting. He sat on a table beside the television in the common room. “Okay, everybody. In two weeks the autumn round of inter-house competitions starts. The big ones are rugby and basketball, senior and junior knock-out contests. There’s also indoor sports. Sarah has very nicely agreed to lead our gymnastics team, and Boris is in charge of the wrestlers and the martial arts.”
The wrestler who Sarah pointed out on my first day raised a stubby fingered hand. Next to me, Sarah beamed.
“Well done,” I whispered.
Hari continued. “Finally there are all the equestrianism events. Usually we wouldn’t organise ourselves in the horse stuff. We don’t have enough horses, for one. Last year myself and a couple of others represented Logres and had some fun, but that was it. The situation at Camelot, though, means that this year we’ll try and put a team together, and so I’d like to talk to anybody who thinks they could get a result in any of the riding events. The big one is the modern pentathlon, in two weeks, which has treble points for anybody who places.”
I leaned closer to Sarah. “What’s he mean?”
“Haven’t you heard?” Her eyes shone. “There’s a revolution at Camelot. The tramp tried to organise the teams and they all refused to do anything he asked.”
I shook my head. The sooner I could tell Eddy what the Four Horsemen had in mind, the better. “That’s terrible.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what he expected. The head of Camelot is an important job. They can’t just have anybody doing it.”
Hari Kumar paused and looked at Sarah. They had been in Logres together for years, so he must have been used to her inability to keep quiet. “In case you didn’t know, Modern Pentathlon is riding, fencing, shooting, swimming and running. If you can do at least three of those things, talk to me. It might be worth considering.”
Sarah nudged me again. “You can swim.”
“Well yeah,” I whispered. “But that’s all. No way can I do the rest of it.”
Hari again fixed Sarah with a level gaze. “I’ll post forms for all the different events by the fireplace. If you’re interested write your name up. If you’re not sure, talk to me, Sarah, or Boris.”
Sarah raised her eyebrows at me.
“No Sarah.” I giggled. “I’m sure I’m not going to do the modern flippin’ pentathlon.”
Fifteen minutes later I sat in history, looking at the door. The rest of the class stared with me when Eddy finally strode in. For the first time I noticed the worn patches on the toes of his shoes. Somebody muttered as he slid between the desks. A couple of kids laughed.
“Now then,” said Ms. Merrick. “Settle down.”
That lesson we read and talked about parallels between the French Revolution and the English Civil War. Sometimes I read, occasionally I listened. Most of the time I looked at the sunburned back of Eddy’s neck and waited for him to turn around and give me a glance. He didn’t. The lesson finished and he was first out the door. I hurried after him.
“Eddy!”
He didn’t look around.
“Eddy!” I trotted after him.
Bag over his shoulder and free hand swinging, he disappeared around a corner.
I caught up to him and grabbed his arm “Eddy! What’s wrong?”
He pulled his arm away. “Leave me alone.”
I ran around him to his other side. My voice quavered. “I don’t understand.”
He focused on me. His eyes blazed with the same certainty I had seen the day before. “I knew you were trouble. I knew I shouldn’t become close to you. I was right.”
“But...” I blinked. Tears threatened the backs of my eyes.
“You’re just like everybody else, kissing up to my foster brother and his cronies.”
“No Eddy, you don’t-”
“Do you know how Kieran treats me? To him I’m just a stable hand. I wear his old clothes and I do his homework for him. I was handed over to his parents when I was two years old. He’s never wanted me there.”
Sobs gathered in my throat. I choked them back, but they made speech impossible. Eddy had given me a glimpse of the strains of his life, which I knew must be compounded by his terrible situation in the school.
He raised his arms slightly on each side, turning his palms towards me. “When we met I knew I should steer clear of you. We can’t be friends. Ever.”
My mouth drooped open and I stared at him.
He scowled at me. “Nothing to say? Right. See you later then.” He turned and strode away.
I dropped my bag to the floor and felt like crouching beside it. How had everything gone so wrong? Why was he instinctively against me, right from the moment we first met? My mind scattered this way and that, trying to work out what was wrong with me, what I had done wrong.
Pippa came up behind me. “Are you okay?”
I brushed at my hair with my hand, then flashed her a plastic smile. “I’m fine.” My voice didn’t sound plastic, though. It trilled, brittle as porcelain.
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. Just, deciding about, whether to go swimming or not.”
She smiled. “You getting tired with the old sports or death thing too? Didn’t take you long.”
I shrugged, actually I wasn’t tired of it. A swim was exactly what I needed. “Maybe. But I think I’ll go this time.”
In the pool I knifed through the water for two hours. I led the Levels team swimmers from the wall and stayed in front.
“Bride.” Coach beckoned. “That’s it. You’re on the team. Three weeks. Southern schools group. Put it in your diary.”
“Thanks Coach.”
The good news made the bike ride home less painful. All I had to do was to explain to Eddy why I had been talking to Kieran and Tiago. He would understand. The problem was I had to do it quickly. I didn’t know when the Four Horsemen were going to strike, but they would do it soon.
At the crossroads the archaeologists had their van back in the road and the rear doors open. One of the archaeologists was stacking tools inside. A car curved around it, on my side of the road, and so I braked beside the van. The archaeologist turned and gave me an apologetic grin. “Really sorry, we try to get packed up as quickly as we can, but it always seems as soon as we start all the traffic comes.”
“Never mind.” I waved a hand. “Who’s the foreigner in the tomb?”
He ran his hand over his light beard. “What tomb?”
“I thought you were digging up a tomb.”
He shook his head. “No, we’re just doing the obligatory land survey. We’re checking there’s nothing historic buried here before they widen the road.”
I flushed. “Sorry, somebody said... Anyway, thanks.”
The traffic on the other side of the van had cleared, and I cycled quickly away. I needed to find out if Eddy was on Facebook. I pedaled faster.
