The Lady Heiress (The Zero Enigma Book 8)

by Christopher G. Nuttall

  My eyes narrowed as I skimmed the remainder of the letters and accounts. Mistress Grayling had written to my father twice, demanding payment ... payment for what? My head spun as I tried to understand what I was seeing. Payment ... for me? If my school fees were unpaid ... I’d have been kicked out. I was sure of it. Mistress Grayling wasn’t running a charity. She’d told us often enough. But father could have paid easily ... right? I skimmed through the rest of the papers, trying to read between the lines. It wasn’t easy. My father - and Mistress Grayling - seemed to be committing as little as possible to paper. The only exception was a note from my uncle, asking permission to take me out for a day ... I nearly destroyed the letter as I realised it was dated five months ago. Mistress Grayling hadn’t bothered to ask me if I wanted to go. And I would have. It had been too long since I’d so much as left the school.

  And Uncle Jalil probably thinks I’m a rude little snob, I thought, angrily. He wouldn’t have minded if I’d said no - my exams had been coming up - but saying nothing was dreadfully rude. Mistress Grayling’s managed to land me in trouble.

  I scowled as I carefully closed up the box, then returned it to the shelf. I’d have to find a way to apologise without admitting what I’d done. And to confront Mistress Grayling. She had every right to bar me from going, if she’d thought I needed to study, but she really should have told me. I wasn’t sure how. The headmistress would be furious if she knew I’d pried into her private correspondence. The rest of the staff wouldn’t be amused either.

  My eyes narrowed as I spotted the account books at the bottom of the cabinet. They were covered in charms, charms I’d learnt in class. I picked apart the ones intended to keep unauthorised readers from opening the books, then frowned down at the figures. Mistress Grayling’s handwriting was awful. The charms would make it hard to deliberately miscalculate one’s sums, but they were still hard to read. It looked as though the school was losing money. I wasn’t too surprised. Mistress Grayling had never struck me as a particularly good headmistress.

  I tensed as I heard a sound from outside the windows. The grounds outside were dark, but ... I remembered, suddenly, how many girls might be sneaking out to see their boyfriends or catch up with their girlfriends. I returned the book to the shelf, hastily repaired the damaged charms and headed for the door. If someone peered in, they might see me. I doubted they’d snitch - it would be instant social death, if we found out who’d done it - but they might take advantage of knowing. Who knew what they’d demand from me if they knew what I’d done?

  My heart started to pound, again, as I heard more sounds outside. Someone was talking ... I winced in sympathy. No one would be talking so loudly if they hadn’t already been caught, probably by one of the less amiable prefects. They might manage to talk one of the others into letting them go, if they didn’t make it impossible by accidentally waking the whole school. I smiled, even though I knew it wasn’t funny. If they got everyone out of bed, they’d have no trouble spotting my absence. And then I’d be in trouble.

  I inched into the lobby, closing the door behind me as quietly as I could. The outer door was already opening. I started to move towards the stairs, then caught myself and slipped into the shadows, wrapping the strongest obscurification charm I could around myself. The charms were subtle, so low-power they were very hard to detect ... as long as I didn’t draw someone’s attention. I knew stronger spells, but the mere act of trying to use them might reveal my presence. And if I was caught ...

  The outer door opened. I knew who it was, who it had to be, before she came into sight. The common or garden students were never permitted to use the front door. Even prefects were discouraged from using the door, particularly after Lights Out. It had to be Marlene ... my heart sank as the Head Girl came into view, followed by my roommate. Kate had her hands on her head, a clear sign she’d been caught. I felt a stab of sympathy, mingled with fear. If Marlene marched Kate straight back to our room, there was a good chance she’d realise I was missing too. I wasn’t scared of being caught, not really, but ... I breathed a sigh of relief as Marlene pushed Kate towards the lower door. It looked as if she was going to wake the duty tutor. I thought a string of uncomplimentary things as they vanished into the darkness. Poor Kate would be in real trouble. The duty tutor would not be in a good mood under the circumstances.

  And Marlene might be in some trouble too, I told myself. I clung to the thought as I started to inch back up the stairs. The duty tutor really won’t be happy if she’s woken.

  I smirked, even though I knew it was unlikely. Marlene was the Head Girl. She had the authority to wake the tutor if she felt it necessary. And her family was quite well connected. Marlene might get told off, but little more. She certainly wouldn’t be stripped of her post. I put the thought out of my head as I hurried back to the dorms, slipping through the doors and into my room. The corridors were completely empty. I was in my bed, pretending to be asleep, when Kate was thrust back into the room. Marlene snapped something at her - I couldn’t make it out - and closed the door. I peered out as soon as she was safely gone.

  “You okay?”

  Kate shook her head. “I’ll be seeing the headmistress tomorrow,” she said. “And Marlene has me on the detention roster for the rest of the year.”

  She snickered. “I’m not going to be here for the rest of the year.”

  “How unfortunate for Marlene,” I said. “Did you have a good time?”

  “Yeah.” Kate shrugged. “Better than the bloke my parents wanted me to marry, I can tell you.”

  I nodded. Kate’s parents had tried to arrange a match for her. I’d helped her break it off before it was too late. She’d been lucky. An aristocratic maiden, even one with strong magic, might have found it a great deal harder to stand against parental pressure to marry.

  “Better get some sleep,” I said. “The morning is not going to be fun.”

  “No.” Kate made a face. “Do you think I’ll get expelled?”

  “It would be a little pointless now,” I reminded her. “You’ve sat your exams.”

  I pulled the cover over my head and closed my eyes, muttering a sleep spell. I’d pay for it in the morning with a banging headache, but there was no choice. There were only five hours until I was meant to get out of bed, or there’d be no breakfast. And Marlene would be watching. If she spotted I was tired, she might deduce I’d been out of bed after Lights Out ...

  ... And, five hours later, she tried to break down the door.

  Chapter Two

  I jerked awake. “What ...?”

  The door opened. Marlene burst into the room. I stared at her. She looked ... dishevelled, her blonde hair dangling in ringlets rather than being neatly braided. She looked so unlike herself that, for a moment, I wondered if someone was playing games with doppelganger potion. It wouldn’t be the first time. A girl had been suspended a year or so ago for impersonating another girl in a bid to steal her boyfriend.

  “She wants to see you,” Marlene gabbled. “Mistress Grayling. She wants to see you.”

  I glared at her, mainly to conceal the sudden spike of fear. What did Mistress Grayling know? If she knew I’d been in her office, I was probably in some trouble. No, there was no probably about it. Teachers were meant to turn a blind eye to certain things - such as pantry raids - but I had a feeling the list didn’t include covert searches of an office.

  “You should have knocked,” I managed. When in doubt, go on the attack. “I could have been dressing!”

  “She wants to see you,” Marlene repeated. She sounded as though she’d had a nasty shock. I wondered if she’d been yanked out of bed, just so she could yank me out of bed. It was the sort of thing that made sense to tutors, if no one else. “You have to go see her now ...”

  “Let me get dressed first.” I pushed the covers aside and scrambled out of bed. “Do you have orders to escort me? Or are you just admiring my beauty?”

  Marlene glowered. “Get down to her office,” she snapped. �
��And hurry.”

  She turned and stormed out of the room, banging the door closed. I made a hex sign at the door - it would make her life interesting, if she tried to barge in again - and hurried over to the dresser. There was probably no time to shower ... I snorted as I donned my uniform, muttering a pair of cleaning spells as I sat in front of the mirror. My skin felt unpleasantly dry as the magic crackled over me, but at least I was clean. Behind me, I heard Kate sit up in bed. I doubted she was looking forward to seeing the headmistress either.

  “What did she want?” Kate sounded as if she hadn’t slept a wink. I didn’t blame her. “Or did I just have a nightmare?”

  “I have no idea,” I said, reaching for the hairbrush. “She probably didn’t get much sleep either.”

  I studied myself in the mirror as I carefully brushed my hair, using the repetitive motion to calm myself. My face looked back at me: light brown skin, dark brown eyes, black hair ... the village boys said I was striking, although my features were hardly that uncommon in Shallot. I looked more like my mother than my father ... I felt a sudden pang as I realised, again, that I didn’t really remember either of them. I had a pair of pictures in my personal album, but they didn’t quite feel real. I met my own eyes, schooling my features into calm immobility. Mistress Grayling was probably fishing for information. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d done this to me - or another student - when she wasn’t sure who’d really been the guilty party.

  Kate walked up behind me. “Do you want me to come with you?”

  “Better not,” I said, as I braided my hair. “It might give her ideas.”

  “I think she already has enough ideas of her own.” Kate snorted. “I’ll see you at breakfast.”

  I felt my heart sink - again - as I stood and headed for the door. Breakfast. The mere thought of eating, even something bland, was enough to make my stomach churn. If Mistress Grayling knew I’d been in her office ... I told myself, firmly, that the old biddy didn’t have any proof of anything. And yet, she’d sent Marlene to wake me ... I shook my head. Mistress Grayling would have dragged me out of bed herself if she’d known I’d been in her office.

  There was no sign of Marlene as I stepped through the door. I glanced up and down the corridor, then headed to the stairs. It was the quickest way to Mistress Grayling’s office, even if we weren’t supposed to use them. I composed an argument for any wandering prefects as I hurried down the stairs - Marlene had made it sound urgent, after all - then dismissed the thought. The corridors were quiet. My fellow inmates - students - were probably still trying to sleep. They could catch a few more minutes before the breakfast bell rang.

  And the exams are over, I reminded myself as I walked down the stairs and knocked on the headmistress’s door. There’s no point in getting up to study now.

  The door opened, revealing Mistress Grayling seated behind her desk. I felt another shiver of nervousness as I entered the room. Mistress Grayling was old - no one knew for sure how old she truly was - but there was no hint of weakness or vulnerability about her. She was tall and stern and very capable of cowing any wayward girl. Her gimlet eyes fixed on me and I cringed, inwardly. And yet ... there was something in her eyes I was not used to seeing. Sympathy?

  “Take a seat,” Mistress Grayling said. She waved a hand towards a handful of chairs, pressed against the far wall. “Please.”

  I swallowed hard, feeling a growing sense of unreality. Mistress Grayling had never invited me to sit in her presence. Young Ladies - you could just hear the capital letters thudding into place - were supposed to stand in her presence, hands firmly clasped behind their backs. It was supposed to teach humility. Instead, it taught us how petty and pointless authority figures could be. I reached for the closest chair and carried it back to the desk, almost wishing she had made me stand. It would have made it easier to focus.

  Mistress Grayling’s lips thinned. “I received a letter from Shallot this morning, brought by special courier,” she said. “I’m afraid it’s bad news.”

  I blinked, torn between relief and a sudden - crushing - sense of fear. I wasn’t in trouble ...but while I wasn’t in trouble, I was very sure I didn’t want to hear her next words. My head spun as I leaned forward, almost wishing I was in trouble. It would have made more sense ...

  “The letter was a formal notification,” Mistress Grayling continued. “Lord Lucas, Patriarch of House Lamplighter, has died.”

  For a moment, my mind refused to comprehend what she’d said. Lord Lucas, Patriarch of House Lamplighter ... my father? It was hard to understand that my father might have been my father to me - obviously - but Lord Lucas, Patriarch of House Lamplighter, to everyone else. My breath caught in my throat. My father was dead? My father ... I stared at her, the room starting to spin. I would have collapsed, if I’d remained standing. Mistress Grayling had done me a favour.

  “I ...” I swallowed, hard. “My father?”

  “Yes.” Mistress Grayling looked ... surprisingly sympathetic, for someone who’d once told a twelve-year-old girl to stop blubbering after her pet rat had died. “I’m very much afraid so.”

  I stared at her, feeling ... I wasn’t sure how I felt. My father had always been a distant figure. It was hard, somehow, to put a face to him ... to realise he was more than just a name. I tried to remember him, but ... I couldn’t. And ... I felt a sudden surge of anger, directed at Mistress Grayling. The headmistress could have softened the blow. She could have ... I felt tears prickling at the corner of my eyes. I’d known I’d be going back to Shallot, after graduation. I’d told myself I’d have a chance to meet my father again, to ... to take up my place within the family. And ...

  “There are a number of issues that have to be discussed,” Mistress Grayling said. She picked a letter off her desk and eyed it dourly. “Do you wish to go through them now or wait until after Assembly?”

  “Now,” I said, blinking away tears. I wanted - I needed - something to distract me from the sudden sense of emptiness in my chest. My father was gone ... it didn’t feel real. “Who wrote to you?”

  Mistress Grayling ignored the question. “First, you have been named the de facto Matriarch of House Lamplighter,” she said. There was a hint of displeasure in her voice. “Your father’s first will states that you are to be raised to adulthood upon his death, if you have not already been acknowledged so.”

  I felt as if I’d been hit with a confusion hex. I was an adult? None of the other girls, not even Marlene, were considered adults. They wore their hair in braids ... I felt a hot flash of glee at the certain knowledge Mistress Grayling could no longer treat me like a child, mixed with grief and rage that I’d only been raised to adulthood upon my father’s death. I’d looked forward to my Season, to being introduced to High Society as an eligible adult ...

  My fingers moved of their own accord, slowly pulling out the braid until my long hair fell over my shoulders. I’d wear it down from now on, at least until I got married. My thoughts ran in circles. It should have been the proudest day of my life, the day my parents realised I was an adult in my own right, but ... the price was too high. My parents were dead. I wondered, suddenly, what had happened to the rest of the family. House Lamplighter was small, but I was hardly alone. There were other claimants to the headship. I was a little surprised my father had named me to succeed him before I had a chance to build a power base of my own.

  And I haven’t been back to the city for six years, I thought, numbly. I’d followed the news as best as I could - Mistress Grayling banned most broadsheets, ensuring there was a lively trade in forbidden newspapers - but it had never felt like something that affected me personally. I lived in a bubble. No, I had lived in a bubble. I have to get back there as soon as possible.

  I straightened and looked at Mistress Grayling, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on her nose. “I have to get back to the city,” I said. “Please can you arrange a coach?”

  “There are other matters that need to be discussed.” Mistress Grayling
opened a drawer and produced a file. A very familiar file. “Are you aware your fees are largely unpaid?”

  “No,” I said, keeping my face under tight control. We’d been taught to be honest, but there were limits. “My fees were never discussed with me.”

  “You were a child.” Mistress Grayling held out the file. “Such matters are rarely discussed with children.”

  I studied the file, pretending to read it. The school fees were nine hundred crowns a year, a sizable sum even for the aristocracy. Marlene regularly bragged about her family’s wealth, but no one could help noticing she was the only member of her family to attend Grayling’s instead of Jude’s. I liked to think her parents found her as obnoxious as we did, yet ... I put the thought out of my mind. It wasn’t important. Right now, I had too many other problems.

  “You have been here for six years,” Mistress Grayling informed me, as if I hadn’t already known. “Your father only paid for two of those years.”