“Oh my goodness. What happened?”
I grimaced. “Miss Fox didn’t approve of my trip to the stables.”
Ariadne walked over to her bed and sat down on it heavily. “What? But … we’re allowed to go there, aren’t we?”
“I thought so. I …” I struggled for an explanation. “I just thought I’d have a look inside one of the stalls. And Miss Fox caught me. Apparently it belonged to her horse, and she thought I was going to play some sort of a prank on her.”
Ariadne gasped. “Oh, how terrible!” I nodded slowly. Suddenly, she stood up and put her hands on her hips. “Well, you must rest!” she said.
I looked up at her in surprise. She pulled out my sheets and blankets from underneath me and tucked them up to my chin. “But …” I started.
“No buts!” Ariadne said. “Get some sleep and you will feel better.”
She was right I hoped, and I was exhausted. I smiled at Ariadne gratefully.
So, sore as I was, I ended up having the best night’s sleep I had ever had at Rookwood.
he next morning, it took all of my effort to put on my uniform, comb my hair and drag myself to lessons. None of the teachers questioned my bruises – severe punishment was evidently not uncommon here, at least not with Miss Fox. Madame Lovelace did give me a sympathetic pat on the shoulder during history, but that just made me wince.
When evening came, I returned to the bathrooms, keen to soak my aching body. I went through the dimly lit corridor and into the damp room. I slid the bolt on the door and undressed as I ran the lukewarm water. It would have to do.
I stepped gingerly over the edge and lowered myself in. It wasn’t the most pleasant bath I’d ever had, but not the coldest either (I thought of the swimming pool and shuddered).
As I lay there, I considered Scarlet’s latest diary pages. I went through the words in my head, wondering if there was anything I’d missed.
But then I had a terrible realisation – the pages hidden in the stables were just old entries in her daily journal. They weren’t something she’d ever intended as a message to me. There were no more clues.
And there might be no more letters to me from my sister, ever. I was on my own.
I sat up straight in the bathtub as tears streamed down my face and landed in the tepid water. It was bad enough losing my sister once, but now it seemed I had lost her in a different way. When I read what she’d written to me I heard her voice in my head like she was right beside me. It always sounded strong and happy, because that was Scarlet’s way.
Even when she was spitting with anger, you could see this glimmer in her eye – the fiery passion she’d inherited from Father. Not that she’d ever admit it.
So here I was, alone in this god-forsaken place with nothing to guide me. Should I just give up? Grab all my things and run away …
Back to Aunt Phoebe?
Back home, to Father and my stepmother and horrid stepbrothers?
And what if I got caught? The last thing I wanted was to face punishment at the hands of Miss Fox again.
After I’d washed with Rookwood’s pitiful regulation soap and heaved myself out of the bath, I looked at my blossoming bruises and was reminded of Ariadne’s kindness. I couldn’t just leave my only friend here either.
Someday soon, I was going to have to tell her the truth. Tell her that I wasn’t really looking for a lost ring, that I wasn’t even who she thought I was. Would she believe me? Would she refuse to speak to me ever again?
I didn’t know, but there was one thing I felt sure of – if I couldn’t trust Ariadne, I couldn’t trust anyone.
When I woke up, light streaming in through the dorm window, Ariadne jumped out of her bed and excitedly informed me that it was Saturday.
“The weekend!” she shouted, far too cheerily for so early in the morning. “It’s the second Saturday, in fact. That means we’re allowed to leave the school grounds, right?”
I blinked. Perhaps this was one of the rules Miss Fox had told me in her office on the first day. “Oh yes,” I said. Ariadne was usually right about these things.
As we ate our meagre breakfast of lumpy porridge, Mrs Knight informed Ariadne that we were indeed allowed to walk to the local village of Rookwood. “There’s not much there,” she said. “A post office and a grocer’s, and a church. That’s about it.”
I nodded along and attempted to look a bit bored, as if I was well familiar with the place. In truth, I was desperate to get out of the school. The past week had felt like a lifetime. It was like being trapped in an enormous box filled with people who hated me, or at least hated Scarlet. Even a trip to the post office – with nothing more to do than to watch people licking stamps – was preferable.
“Can I send a letter to my parents?” asked Ariadne.
“Of course,” Mrs Knight replied. “But the postmaster puts aside any from pupils that don’t have the official seal on them. The school has to check them first, you see.”
Ariadne frowned. “Why?”
“I … I’m not totally sure. It’s just the rules.” Mrs Knight looked a little perturbed then, and Ariadne wisely stopped asking questions. I was pretty certain that I knew the reason – Miss Fox didn’t want anyone bad-mouthing her precious school to their fee-paying parents. Thank goodness I hadn’t tried to send that letter to Aunt Phoebe – who knows what trouble I’d have got into for that.
But maybe I could write to Aunt Phoebe again. I could be cryptic this time, write to her in riddles, like Scarlet would. And if it got through to her, she might be able to send help.
Back in our dorm, I waited impatiently for Ariadne to go to the lavatories and then retrieved the diary. As I took it out, I fumbled and some of the papers fell to the floor. I gathered them hurriedly, feeling like my secrets were spilling out for all to see. The words stared up at me: Ivy, Penny, Violet, the Fox. You’re the new me. Someone needs to know the truth.
I flipped past a page with something scribbled about being hungry on it and the entry about Nadia, until I found my original letter to Aunt Phoebe. How things had changed in such a short time! I knew now that I had to be smarter, had to try to stay one step ahead of Miss Fox.
I carefully returned all the pages and hid the diary in my mattress once more. By the time Ariadne returned, I was sitting on my bed composing a new letter.
Dear Aunt Phoebe,
I hope you are well. Did you remember to water the plants? And have you got enough coal for the winter? Make sure you tell Mr Phillips from the village if you haven’t got enough.
The school is certainly interesting. Remember when we got that letter, by the pond that day, what we talked about? I’ve found something relating to it. I hope I’ll find out more soon. Please write back.
Best wishes,
Your loving niece
There. I hope that would be vague enough to escape Miss Fox’s attention. I almost signed my name, before realising I didn’t know which to write. If I wrote ‘Ivy’ there was a chance that someone would see, and Miss Fox would be furious with me. And I couldn’t write ‘Scarlet’, not unless I wanted to give my aunt a heart attack.
Once Ariadne had finished her own letter, we tucked them into envelopes in her satchel and got ready to leave.
“I’ll go and get Miss Fox to seal them,” she said. I smiled, grateful but wary. Would it pass scrutiny?
Thankfully Ariadne returned a short time later, looking only a little shaken. She was brandishing two freshly sealed letters, and soon we were walking down the great stone steps at the front of the school. The sun was bright, but in the shadow of the grand building the air was chilly.
“It’s going to be wonderful,” said Ariadne, tugging on my arm. “I’m going to buy apples and chocolate and …” She must have seen me wince, because she loosened her grip and took hold of my hand instead. “Sorry, do you feel a little better yet?”
“Oh, it’s not too bad really,” I said, trying to put on a brave face. “Definitely improving. Thank you for get
ting the letters sealed. I’m not keen to see Miss Fox again in a hurry.”
“Me neither. She’s like the Wicked Witch of the West.”
I laughed. “Maybe I should try throwing a bucket of water over her, and see if she melts!”
Ariadne giggled and then looked around guiltily, just in case Miss Fox happened to be following us out of the building.
“Be careful, Ariadne!” I said in a stage whisper. “She has spies everywhere!”
“Winged monkeys would be more like it!” she shrieked and ran ahead of me down the tree-lined drive. I chased after her, forgetting all about my aches and pains. Today I had a small taste of freedom.
The village was a short walk away, back through the dark archway of trees that lined the drive and down a twisting lane that led through fields of corn and barley. We followed the other girls but kept a safe distance as we joked about teachers and our fellow pupils.
We soon reached a white sign that read ‘Rookwood’ in black letters, the paint old and cracking. A little further on we came to the village green, a triangle of grass with a stone cross in the centre, a memorial to the Great War.
“The shop is near here,” I said, looking around. I tried to phrase it like a statement rather than a question.
“Over there?” said Ariadne.
Phew.
A group of schoolgirls were congregated in front of a building bearing the sign ‘Kendall and Smith – Grocers’. Boxes of fruit and vegetables lined the street in front of the shop, under a striped awning.
I smiled. It was so wonderful just to be outside the school, and even though I had very little money to spare, the possibility of eating something that wasn’t porridge or questionable meat was very exciting.
We ran over, only to realise that the girls standing in front of the shop were none other than Penny, Nadia and their faithful band of thieves: Clara Brand, Josephine Wilcox and Ethel Hadlow.
It was too late by the time I’d noticed. They had spotted us, and Penny was bearing down on me like a steam train.
She came over and shoved me, hard, and I fell back on to the grass.
“What was that for?” I asked, bewildered.
“You got Nadia a caning,” Penny sneered, her copper hair glowing like embers in the sun. “That was payback!”
I stood up stiffly and smoothed out my dress. “But she was the one who pushed me into the swimming pool!”
Penny barely flinched at this news. “Well, I expect you deserved it!” Ethel laughed, and it was not a friendly laugh.
Ariadne tugged on my arm. “Let’s go back, Scarlet,” she whispered, and I turned around, about to walk away. But the mention of my sister’s name was like a slap to my memory.
Perhaps I didn’t have to be Ivy right now. I could be Scarlet.
I turned back. Penny was mouthing something to her friends, who were all grinning like Cheshire cats. Before I knew what I was doing, I grabbed a handful of Penny’s hair and tugged as hard as I could.
She shrieked and tried to bat me away, but I held my grip. “Just leave us alone, Penny!”
Nadia marched over. “You let go of her, Scarlet,” she said.
“Gladly,” I said, pulling a little harder. Penny hissed and tried her best to kick me in the shins. “As long as you go back to school and let us do what we want.”
Nadia blinked her wide eyes at me. “Penny?” she said, uncertain.
“Yes, yes, all right!”
I let go of her hair, and several strands of it came off in my hands. She darted away from me, rubbing her scalp.
“Let’s go,” she said to her friends. Her face was flushed and her eyes were like thunder clouds. “I told you she was insane!”
The girls hurried away, leaving me standing breathless in front of the shop. What had I done? I was frozen, heart pounding, strands of copper hair still clutched in my clammy hands.
I slowly turned around.
Ariadne was standing behind me on the green, her mouth hanging wide open.
“Ariadne?” She didn’t move. I walked closer and waved my hand in front of her eyes. “A-Ariadne?”
“That. Was. Brilliant!” she said.
I breathed out. “Well, at least I got rid of them.”
“I … you’re so brave, Scarlet.”
“That’s one word for it.” I winced. “Maybe ‘insane’ is another one.”
Kendall and Smith’s was bustling with activity. It seemed like half the village was in there, as well as a few groups of girls from school. It wasn’t even a very big shop – it was about the size of one of our classrooms – with heavily stacked shelves lining the walls. Kendall (or possibly Smith) stood at the counter. He looked like he was about to do some hair pulling of his own.
Locals were shouting their weekly orders at him or grumbling amongst one another about the sudden invasion of schoolgirls. Some of the girls were waving purchases in his direction. “One at a time!” he shouted. “Please form an orderly queue!”
Ariadne went straight for the jars of sweets, and I followed her. The candies in each jar sparkled with the sugar coating and my mouth watered.
“How much money do you have?” I asked Ariadne. In response she pulled out a green purse from her satchel that jangled as she moved it.
“A lot.” She grinned. “My daddy sends me an allowance.”
“Lucky you! I don’t think my Father is even speaking to me. Come to think of it, I’m not really speaking to him either.”
“Why?” asked Ariadne, suddenly looking sad.
Oops. What could I say? He sent me to this awful school, where my sister died, without even a word … and I’m currently impersonating her?
I curled my hand into a fist. “No reason,” I said. “We just don’t get on.”
“Oh,” said Ariadne. “Well, never mind. I’ll share my money with you! Now we can finally have that midnight feast.”
“Brilliant!” I replied.
On the way out of the shop, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I thought at first that it was Nadia, come back to get revenge for what I did for Penny. But this girl was taller, and older.
“I’m sorry about my sister,” she said in a soft accent, as we stepped out into the street. I must have looked bewildered, because she continued, “I saw what happened earlier. Nadia should not be friends with that girl. She’s trouble.”
I nodded. “You can say that again.”
Nadia’s sister smiled. “My name is Meena. What’s yours?”
“I— Scarlet.”
“Scarlet,” she repeated. She held out her hand, and I shook it gingerly. “I will try to get her to leave you alone. But I cannot promise anything. She longs to fit in, and since what happened with that girl Violet, Penny had an opening for a best friend. I hope you understand.”
“Meena!” called some older girls from the other side of the green, waving at her. She hurried away after them, smiling back at me as she went.
I wanted to call after her, to ask her what she meant about Violet, but I realised how foolish that would be. Scarlet would already know.
Meanwhile Ariadne had picked up a peculiar fruit from the stand and was scrutinising it intently. Once I’d grabbed her, we stopped off at the post office to send our letters, with Ariadne insisting on using her money to pay for both of our stamps. I prayed that Aunt Phoebe might sense that something was wrong from my strange letter, that she’d see it was a cry for help. That Miss Fox wouldn’t intercept it and throw it away. But I felt that my chances were slim.
That night, we shut the door to our room and wedged some dirty linen under it to make sure no light or sound got out. I didn’t know the punishment for eating sweets in the middle of the night, and I didn’t want to find out.
Ariadne lit a candle and we laid out our provisions in the semi-darkness. We had pear drops, aniseed balls, liquorice, sugared almonds, mint humbugs and chocolate fudge. It was the best picnic I’d ever seen.
“You’ll have to thank your father, Ariadne,” I said.
>
She sighed. “I will. I just wish I could see him. Letters and money aren’t the same, you know?”
“I know. But let’s not be sad,” I replied, sounding more cheerful than I really felt. “We have the finest midnight feast in history!”
Ariadne smiled in the flickering candlelight. “But now we have a difficult decision to make … What do we eat first?”
An hour later, we had eaten more sweets than a person should probably consume in a lifetime. I lay back against my bed frame, blissfully content. Ariadne was telling me about how she had a whole wardrobe full of dresses at home and was describing each one in painstaking detail.
“And I have this beautiful jewellery box too – it’s full of necklaces and bracelets and rings and … Oh, Scarlet, I’m sorry! I forgot about your ring …”
I blinked. I think I had been seconds away from sleep. “What?”
“Your gold ring! I’m so sorry. You must think me such a show-off, when you’ve lost your treasured possession.” She whacked herself in the head with a feather pillow, and I tried my best not to laugh.
“It’s fine,” I said.
“Have you tried looking under your bed?” she asked, suddenly. “Sometimes when I lose things, that’s where they turn up. I always think there’s a little goblin who likes to steal things and hide them under beds.”
“Oh …” I started, my tired mind struggling to form a sentence. Of course I’ve looked there, I was going to say. First place I tried. No need to investigate.
But I didn’t say it quick enough, and Ariadne was already on her hands and knees on the carpet, the candleholder in her hands.
“I think the stuffing is leaking out of your mattress,” she said.
Oh no …
I leapt in front of Ariadne. “I’ve looked there already!” I said, sounding a lot more panicked than necessary. But she just peered around me into the dark. “No no, it’s fine!”
I put my hand in my mouth and bit it, trying not to say anything. If she discovered the diary …
The Lost Twin Page 7
