From The Ashes (The Ministry of Curiosities #6)(2)

The air whistled from the headmistress's nose at a particularly high pitch. "Your dramatics are tiresome, Miss Holloway. It's no wonder your guardian sent you here where he no longer had to listen to them." No doubt she put the emphasis on 'guardian' to goad me further. "Pick up the book and return it to your head. You're wasting my time and that of the other girls."

"They're all rather good at walking around with books on their heads already," I said. "All except me, that is, and I refuse to be party to your ridiculous exercise."

Some of the girls tittered nervously.

Mrs. Denk bristled, drawing herself up to her full height. She was considerably taller than me, and not a slender woman. Her bust resembled a shelf, rising and falling with every hissing breath. "Place the book on your head," she said through a clenched jaw.

"Or?"

She brought the cane down on my upper arm.

"Bloody hell!" I cried, wincing. "You're mad!"

She attempted to strike again, but I was ready and caught the cane in my bare hand. Fiery pain, worse than a thousand bee stings, branded my palm. I wanted to cry out and cradle my hand, but refused to show any vulnerability. Bearing down against the agony, I pulled the cane out of her hand, bent it over my knee, and snapped it in two.

Her eyes widened. Her mouth flopped open. It was worth the pain to see her shock. "How dare you!"

"Now, now, Mrs. Denk. Don't get too upset or your corset will burst." I nodded at her heaving chest. "I'd say the structure is dangerously close to its limit already."

Her smooth face reddened and scrunched, forming grooves where before there'd been none. I shot a victorious grin at Alice. She bit her lip in an attempt to contain her smile. A smile that nevertheless quickly vanished.

Mrs. Denk's hand came down on my cheek. I reeled back, clutching my stinging face, too surprised to make a sound. The other girls' gasps echoed around the stone walls. Alice covered her mouth with both hands, her pretty gray eyes huge.

Mrs. Denk grabbed my arm at the point where her cane had struck me. Her bruising grip rubbed my sore flesh. "Come with me, Miss Holloway. I have a very special punishment in store for you."

She marched me out of the banqueting hall to the sound of the girls' horrified whispers. I couldn't catch many of their words, but one sounded clear as a bell: oubliette.

Alice had told me all about the oubliette, the narrow dungeon beneath the castle too small to lie down in and accessed via a trapdoor in the castle floor. She'd claimed it was a special punishment reserved for the worst prisoners in the castle's violent history, and for those 'wayward' girls too wicked to socialize with the rest of the students at the school. None of the current students had seen the oubliette, but Mademoiselle LeClare, the French teacher, told them of a girl in her time as a student here who'd died within its damp, lonely confines. I asked her if the girl had simply fallen in or if she'd been thrown in by the headmistress, but Mademoiselle LeClare hadn't been forthcoming with the particulars. The girls believed the worst, however. Rumors of the student's ghost haunting the castle didn't help. I'd not seen any female spirits floating around the castle, however, only a man dressed in blood stained clothes and chain mail that clinked musically as he walked. It alerted me to his presence, allowing me to avoid him. I didn't want anyone there to know that I could see ghosts let alone summon them at will.

We passed through the old kitchen with its yawning fireplace, our footsteps echoing in the disused room. Mrs. Denk pushed me through the doorway to the stairs, not stopping at the ground level, but descending into the stale, damp depths of the castle. I could have escaped Mrs. Denk's grip using the moves Lincoln taught me in our exercise regimes, but a spell in the dungeon would save me from classes for the rest of the day so I decided against a fight. Besides, it would probably only be for a few hours to try and scare me into submission. I could pretend to be contrite if I grew bored.

The stairwell became too narrow for us to walk side by side. My hair skimmed the rough stones overhead and Mrs. Denk had to hunch over. The stairs opened up to a large room with a vaulted ceiling, supported on columns wider and taller than the generously proportioned headmistress. It was colder than the rest of the castle, something I'd not thought possible. The only fire allowed in the school was in the dining room attached to the new kitchen on the ground level. Not even Mrs. Denk had one in her office. I knew because I'd been sent there every day since my arrival.

She finally let me go, but blocked the exit to the stairs. I considered tackling her, but suspected that would only lead to further punishment. I didn't want my food rations to be cut. They were already less than what I'd become accustomed to at Lichfield, although so much more than the meager morsels I'd managed to steal each day living on the streets. If I was to build my strength for a spring-time escape from the school, I would need to eat as much as I could and stay healthy.

"Mr. Fitzroy won't come for you," she said without a sympathetic note in her voice. "They never do. It's best if you learn that now rather than later."

"For once, I agree with you. He's not the sort of person who changes his mind once it's made up." Especially when there was no one to help him change it. Seth, Gus and Cook couldn't manage it. They still feared him, and even if they struck up the courage to challenge him for sending me away, he didn't care enough about their opinions to change his mind. That was the problem—he didn't care enough about anyone. Even me, as it turned out.