Page 76 of Love & Notes

He looks at the piano again, and back at me, hard and unyielding.

“You will be bringing someone,” he says it as a statement rather than a question. He doesn’t ask things. He commands them. I’m used to it.

“Yes.”

“Nancy is—” he begins.

“I didn’t say Nancy.”

He stops, his eyes narrowing slightly, realising his plan has changed without his permission.

“Someone from the academy.”

Still not a question.

I hold his gaze, keeping my expression entirely blank, and give him absolutely nothing.

He takes this as his cue to leave. He has already spent longer than necessary in my company tonight anyway. Alistair Thorne always has more important things to do.

“Try to look like you want to be there tomorrow.”

“I always try,” I whisper.

He turns and goes, the door clicking behind him.

Then, I play the Debussy.

Not because he told me to, but because I want to. Because when I’m playing it, the room belongs to me again. I play it once, from the beginning to the end, a flawless performance to make sure that it’s there. It is. It always is.

At half past eleven I close the piano lid, slide into Mum’s armchair in the corner of the room and pull out my phone.

BOW-PEEP

I’ll pick you up at six tomorrow, Bow-Peep. Black Merc. You’ll see it. Don’t be late.

I’m sorry. Did Julian Thorne just tell me not to be late? The hypocrisy.

Yes, the one and only.

You’re impossible. See you tomorrow, Thorne.

Goodnight, Bow-Peep.

Get some sleep. You need to be functional tomorrow.

I’m always functional.

Debatable.

Goodnight, Vance.

Goodnight, Julian.

I’m unable to control the grin on my face.

That is what she does. It’s that sharp, unmanaged quality of her. I spent my first year at Belrose trying to provoke that exact tone from her, and I’ve spent the last couple of months being dangerously grateful for it. She sees me, and she refuses to take any of my bullshit.

Tomorrow, my father will see her walk through those doors, and he will assess her in the same way that he assesses everything. Whatever he concludes tomorrow won’t matter. Not a single bit. Because for the first time I am going to bring someone into this world who doesn’t belong to him.