Emmy barely slept that night. Even the sound of Natalie’s white noise machine couldn’t lull her to sleep. The Order was after her again. Except they weren’t. They were after her friend, and that felt ten times worse.
At breakfast, she grabbed some dry toast and was about to slump into a chair next to Jack when Victoria walked past.
“Did you have a nice night?” Emmy asked her.
Victoria blinked. “Why are you talking to me?”
“I was just wondering how your evening was. Did you do anything fun?”
Victoria looked around like she was checking to make sure she hadn’t entered some kind of alternate universe.
“Like maybe breaking into somebody’s room and leaving them a message?”
Jack shifted in his chair, and Victoria just shook her head.
“So, you’ve finally cracked,” Victoria said. “It was only a matter of time before you completely lost it.” She didn’t seem to be covering up any guilt. She just seemed totally confused.
Emmy shrugged. “Never mind.” She sat next to Jack and Victoria left, whispering to one of her friends. It didn’t really matter if Victoria had been the one to put the USB drive in her room, or if she had hidden the money box. Brynn was the one who was really behind it.
“Something going on?” Jack asked.
Emmy glanced at Oliver, who was sitting in the next chair. “Later,” she muttered.
Oliver didn’t look too happy, either. He just kept pushing his sausage around his plate or swirling it in his baked beans.
“What about you, Oli? Everything okay?” Jack asked.
“I guess.” He bit his lip. “I’m really sorry about Lola. I can’t believe she’s being expelled.” He looked like he was ready to cry.
“Don’t worry,” Jack said. “We’ll get her off. She’ll be back in class in no time.” He smiled unconvincingly.
Oli nodded weakly.
Jack cleared his throat. “Tell us more about your first few weeks. Have you met some good people? Do you like your teachers?”
Oliver shrugged.
Jack and Emmy looked at each other. Oliver didn’t seem to be having a good time at school.
“What about societies?” Jack said. “Have you joined any?”
“Just Latin.”
Jack dropped his fork. “Why’d you join them?” he asked a bit too loudly.
“Dad told me to,” Oliver muttered.
Emmy pressed her lips together. If Mr. Galt wanted Oliver to join Latin Society, he must be planning to have Oli in the Order. Emmy didn’t know what Oliver knew about the Order. Jack had known quite a bit when Emmy had met him, but he had been older. And Oli was pretty unassuming—it seemed like he could be pushed around pretty easily. Those kinds of kids often didn’t do so well with the boisterous, sometimes rebellious Latin Society boys. As a matter of fact, a boy like that had fallen off a roof during a stunt the year before.
“So, um, what do you think of it so far?” Emmy gently prodded.
“It’s all right, I guess.”
Jack wiped his face with a napkin, like he was giving himself time to think. “Listen, both Emmy and I have been in Latin Society, and, well, it didn’t turn out great for either of us.”
“Really? Why not?”
Jack and Emmy looked at each other again. They didn’t want to give Oliver too many details, especially about the Order.
“They can be a bit of a rough crowd,” Jack said. “They tend to get younger kids into a lot of trouble. I really, really think you shouldn’t go.”
Oliver looked down at his plate. “Well, Dad really wants me to, so…”
“Sometimes Dad is… Well, you know what he’s like.”
Oliver sniffed.
“If the only reason you’re going is to impress Dad, then being in that society isn’t going to go well.” Jack ducked his head down so he could look Oli in the eye. “You need to do your own thing, you know?”
Oliver nodded, but he didn’t seem too sure. Jack looked like he wanted to say more but he didn’t know what. Finally, he went back to eating his porridge.
Since it was Saturday, Emmy and Jack went straight to Madam Boyd’s apartment after breakfast. They had just about reached the door when Emmy’s cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Oh, so your phone does work,” said a snarky voice.
“Um, who is this?”
“It’s Lucy, and I thought you agreed to tell me if you got into any trouble.”
“I’m not in trouble.”
“I hear your best friend just got herself chucked out!”
Emmy frowned. “How did you hear about that?”
“Ah, so you admit you were trying to keep it from me.”
“What? No. I mean, I’m not the one in trouble,” Emmy said, “so why would I—”
“Because you’re clearly running with a disreputable crowd,” Lucy said. “Your friend has a bad reputation, which means you have a bad reputation, and that reflects very poorly on me.”
Emmy shook her head. This conversation didn’t make any sense. “How does it reflect poorly on you?” She’d only spent six days with Lucy, and even then, they’d barely spoken to each other.
“Somebody at the Thackery Club is telling everyone that you’re completely out of control and that we must be doing a terrible job of looking after you. People are starting to question whether we should be admitted to the club.”
Someone from the Order must be spreading rumors about Emmy. But why?
“Being offered membership in the Thackery Club means we’re back to the top of London’s social scene,” Lucy said. “That means Harold gets more clients, I get more buyers for my dogs, and we can get a holiday house in Majorca again. Do you have any idea how hard we’ve had to work since…”
“Since what?”
Lucy seemed to be trying to decide if she should say more. “It doesn’t matter,” she finally snapped. “What matters is that we’re back, and I won’t have you jeopardizing that. I want daily updates on your activities—where you are, who you’re with, what you’re doing. And you are not to see this girl again.”
“Sorry,” Emmy said quietly. “I’ll let you know where I am, but I’m not going to stop seeing my friend.”