All These Things I've Done (Birthright #1)(44)

‘Thanks,’ I said. The truth was, I believed that Jacks hadn’t been trying to poison us, but only because he was too weak to organize (or even be informed of) such a large operation. The second truth was, I wanted to move on from all of this and the less I heard from my relatives the better.

‘So we’re friends?’ Jacks said, offering me his hand. I shook it only because it would have been more awkward not to. Jacks was not my friend. It had certainly not escaped my notice how scarce he had made himself during my legal troubles. Such behaviour didn’t exactly seem friendly to me.

After my relatives had left, I spent the rest of the day doing homework and before I knew it Sunday was over. Around nine o’clock, I heard the phone ring. Natty knocked on the door. ‘It’s Win,’ she said.

‘Tell him I’m asleep.’

‘But you aren’t!’ Natty said. ‘And he called yesterday, too.’

I stood up from my desk and flipped off my light. ‘I am sleeping, Natty. See.’

‘I love you, Annie, but I don’t approve of you right now,’ she said. I heard her return to the kitchen. I could barely make out the sound of my little sister lying for me.

I lay down in my bed and pulled the blanket up to my chin.

I knew that nothing Charles Delacroix had said to me really mattered.

And yet I also knew that it did.

Daddy always said that an option that you know to have a bad outcome is only ever a fool’s option: i.e. not an option at all. And I liked to think that Daddy hadn’t raised a fool.

X I. i define tragedy for scarlet

AT SCHOOL, I WAS HANDLED WITH KID GLOVES. As I’d been cleared of any involvement with Gable Arsley’s poisoning, the administration feared that they had bungled my situation – for starters, by allowing the cops to question me on campus without calling Nana or Mr Kipling first – and I think they were worried that I would either sue them or, even worse, start telling tales that would be damaging to their spotless reputation as the best private school in Manhattan. My teachers were emphatic that I should take as much time as I needed and, overall, my return to academic life was easier than I had anticipated.

Win was already in FS II when I got there. He didn’t mention that he’d called me twice or that I’d met his dad, if indeed Charles Delacroix had deigned to speak to him about me. He didn’t mention anything about my absence, except to say, ‘I had to present on our teeth without you.’

‘How’d that go?’ I asked.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘We got an A minus.’

Coming from Dr Lau, that really was a good grade. She was tough. ‘Not bad,’ I said.

‘Anya,’ Win started to say, but then Dr Lau began class. I wasn’t in the mood for more pointless small talk with Win anyway.

I was granted a one-month excuse from Advanced Fencing, which I appreciated. I lacked the stamina for even pretend bouts. The administration granted Scarlet a one-month excuse so that she could keep me company. Further proof of how contrite the school was.

Scarlet used the extra time to prepare for her upcoming Macbeth audition. ‘You’re reading all the lines with me. Why don’t you try out, too?’ Scarlet asked. ‘You could be Lady Macduff or Hecate or . . .’

The truth was, I didn’t really have a good reason not to except that I was tired and I didn’t exactly feel like putting myself out there after my picture had been plastered all over the news for a week.

‘You can’t just stop everything because of what happened,’ Scarlet said. ‘You have to keep moving forward. And you still have to apply to college next year one way or the other. Your extracurricular activities are definitely somewhat lacklustre, Annie.’

‘What? Being the daughter of a celebrated criminal doesn’t count as an extracurricular activity?’

‘No,’ Scarlet said. ‘A case could be made for poisoning your ex-boyfriend, however.’

But she was right. Of course she was right. If he’d been alive, Daddy would have said the same thing. Not the extracurricular part. I mean, the part about moving forward.

‘Have it your way,’ I said.

Scarlet tossed me an ancient paper book of Macbeth.

We read lines until the period was over and then we went to lunch, where Win was waiting for us at our usual table.

Scarlet told me to sit, that she had promised Imogen she would get both our lunches. ‘Oh, come on,’ I said. ‘I’m not that weak.’

‘Sit,’ she ordered. ‘Make sure she sits, Win.’

‘I’m not a dog!’ I protested.

‘Will do,’ he said.

‘She sure is bossy,’ I commented.

Win shook his head. ‘I must admit,’ he began, and then he paused. I sincerely hoped he wasn’t going to bring up his father or some other subject I wasn’t keen on discussing. Maybe he sensed my discomfort. ‘I must admit,’ he repeated, ‘I underestimated your friend. Scarlet seems like this silly girl when you meet her, but she’s got a lot more grit than that.’

I nodded. ‘The best thing about Scarlet is how loyal she is.’

‘That is important,’ he agreed.

Even though Win would never be my boyfriend, I realized that I did want him for my friend. And if we were going to be friends, it was rude of me not to acknowledge the part he’d played in my release from Liberty. Even if we weren’t going to be friends, it was rude. ‘I should have thanked you before,’ I said. ‘For talking to your dad, I mean.’