Emmy frowned. That seemed like a pretty big coincidence. Could these people be members of the Order?
“Seems like you have quite the reputation, and I won’t have you dragging down our reputation with any hijinks this year, do you understand?”
Emmy nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. She wished Sam wasn’t listening to this.
“I want weekly updates on what kinds of marks you’re getting and how much you’re studying. If you leave school, I want to know where you are at all times, and don’t bother lying. I’ll be ringing your teachers to check up on you.”
Emmy felt her mouth hanging open. Even her mother wouldn’t dream of being that strict.
“Have you got all that?” Lucy snapped.
Emmy nodded. She was too shocked to do anything else. Why had she suddenly turned into Emmy’s personal dictator?
Lucy spun on her heel and marched back to her table. All Emmy could do was stare.
“She’s quite the charmer,” Sam said.
“Uh, yeah.”
“Is your mum always like that?”
“Oh, that’s not my mom,” Emmy mumbled. “It’s her cousin. My mom’s not coming.”
“Mine neither,” Sam said. “She’s got a big concert in London. It’s the last major one she has booked for a while, so it has to go off without a hitch.”
Emmy looked down and shuffled her feet. She wanted to crawl under a rock. She didn’t want to know what Sam thought of her after hearing all that.
“Don’t worry about what your cousin said. She seems like a right piece of work. Besides, I know what it’s like to be called a troublemaker.”
Emmy didn’t look up. If she really admitted it, the things Victoria had said about Sam had been bothering her. She didn’t know what was worse—wondering if what Victoria had said was true, or the fact that Victoria had found a way to annoy her yet again.
“Yeah, I heard you had a bit of, um, trouble at some other schools.”
Sam tipped his head to one side. “What did you hear?”
Emmy bit her lip. What was it Lola had said the first day they’d met? If you want to know something about someone, you should just bloody well ask. She took a few steps away from the table and nodded for Sam to join her.
“Somebody told me that you had been kicked out of a bunch of schools,” she blurted out.
Even in the darkly lit Hall, Emmy could see his cheeks going red.
She put her face in her hands. What was she thinking? She had totally embarrassed him. She wished there was a trapdoor under her that would send her into the tunnels. Taking on the Order would be better than this.
“Oh gosh, I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have—”
“No, it’s fine.” He shook his head. “Wow, word travels fast around here.”
Emmy buried her face even deeper. Now he thought she was a gossip.
“Well, your friend didn’t get it quite right,” Sam said. “It was just one school.”
Emmy uncovered her face and tried to ignore her own mortification. “You don’t have to tell me. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Really, it’s okay,” Sam said. “I, uh, got into a little trouble with hacking.”
“Hacking? Like, computer hacking?”
Sam nodded.
“Oh. I didn’t know someone could be expelled for that.”
Sam wrinkled his nose. “You can when you hack into school computers and give all your friends better grades.”
Emmy burst out laughing and tried to cover her mouth. “Sorry, I shouldn’t laugh.”
“Don’t worry, I laugh about it, too. I’m not sure whether it was the cleverest thing I’ve ever done or the stupidest, but it’s got to be one or the other.” Sam ran his hands through his hair. “Mum wasn’t too pleased, though. She thought I must have fallen into a bad crowd. That’s why she sent me here. She was so excited when my scholarship came through. I think she’s hoping I’ll find some good male role models or something. She’s been sensitive about that since my dad died.”
Emmy stopped laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry.”
Sam looked down and scuffed his shoe on the floor. “It was a while ago.”
“I haven’t seen my dad since I was three,” Emmy said.
“That sucks.” Sam glanced up at her. “Do you ever hear from him or anything?”
“I heard from him a few times last year,” Emmy said, “but his letters aren’t exactly…um…normal.”
Emmy just about clapped her hand over her mouth. What was she thinking, telling Sam she’d heard from her dad? Two minutes of staring into those hazel eyes had made her give up her biggest secret.
She looked around. There were a couple of older ladies at the auction table, but they weren’t close enough to have heard. Everybody else was busy finding their seats and talking.
Sam was still looking at her and Emmy cleared her throat.
“It’s kind of complicated,” she muttered.
“Yeah, I get it.” He smiled at her and Emmy felt a warm feeling in her chest. She’d taken a chance on opening up to Jack and Lola last year and it had really paid off. Maybe it was good to let one more person in.
A woman waved at them from the silent auction table. “Excuse me, could I get some help?”
Emmy had almost forgotten that they were supposed to be working. They hurried back to the table and Emmy double-checked to make sure the items were all still there. The last thing they needed was a theft.
Chapter 6
Accusations
The rest of the evening went by fast, and by the time the auction closed, they’d raised almost ten thousand pounds for the White Stone Gate Society. The committee called all the final bidders up to collect their cash and checks, and Lola stuffed everything into the overflowing money box.
“Does anybody know who Brynn arranged to give all the money to?” Lola asked. Everybody shook their heads.
“Can you give it to your mom or Larraby?” Jack asked.
“Mum already left,” Lola said. “Her leg was really bothering her, and who knows where Larraby is. I’ll just lock it in the student conference room and tell Brynn he has to deal with it tomorrow.” She stuffed the money box under her arm. “Don’t forget to have all your stuff out of the conference room tonight, ’cause they’re going to deactivate our access codes in the morning.”