The next two days were excruciating. Every shadow made Lottie jump, every unexpected sound sent her heart racing, as if Claude was right behind her. Lottie had to keep smiling, refusing to drag anyone else into her awful discovery until she’d fully solved it.
A very loud part of her brain told her that Haru knew everything, and that she’d put the whole school in even more danger with her silly plan to steal his box, but as time went by there was no sudden ambush, no more students turning against her, and no word from the Artistocracy on Haru’s mysterious box.
‘Are you gonna eat that?’
Looking up from where she was nervously pushing her dessert around, Lottie didn’t even have time to process the question before Saskia stuck her fork in Lottie’s last piece of cheesecake and shoved it in her mouth, much to the shock of the twins at her side.
‘Saskia, how could you?’ Lola squealed.
Before Saskia had the chance to offer a snarky retort, Micky placed a small portion of his strawberry tart on Lottie’s plate. ‘Desserts are sacred,’ is all that he said.
There was no irony in Micky’s tone, and he nodded to Lottie as if he were some benevolent lord of dessert doctrine, and she supposed he sort of was now that he and his sister owned their father’s business.
Most of the students, including Ellie and Jamie, were off helping to wrap up club activities for the term, so the lunch hall wasn’t overwhelmingly busy. Sushi was on the menu and the smell of raw fish was making Lottie queasy.
‘Actually I’m not really hungry.’ Lottie smiled, pushing the plate back while the twins shared a suspicious look that she decided to ignore.
Clearly Lottie was not doing a good enough job of keeping face, and if the twins were seeing through it, then Haru might too.
‘You’re smiling too much,’ Anastacia said at last, not even looking up from where she flipped through her fashion magazine. ‘If something’s wrong, you need to tell us.’ There was a weight to her words that the twins wouldn’t understand, a crushing demand to keep Saskia and her in the loop about Haru. ‘Binah told us you walked off the other day when you two were supposed to be working together.’
The indictment made her stomach turn.
Anastacia wasn’t stupid, and Lottie could tell by the way her eyes locked on to hers that she knew Lottie was keeping secrets. But she couldn’t tell her, no matter how desperate she was to tell someone about Claude’s letters and their awful messages. It was impossible. She couldn’t do that to Jamie, not until she knew what it meant and what had happened to his mother.
‘Nothing’s wrong,’ Lottie replied, continuing to smile through the lie. ‘It’s just the smell in here, and –’
A bump at the back of Lottie’s seat stopped her midsentence. Everyone’s eyes turning to an unapologetic-looking girl standing behind Lottie.
‘Oops. I’m so sorry, Princess.’ Lottie’s ears pricked. She didn’t sound sorry. Haru might have got a hold on her too. ‘I walked right into your seat. I’m so silly.’
Lottie tried to get a whiff of the telltale baby-powder stench of the Hamelin Formula. But there was nothing, just a light sea-salt smell like the girl had walked out of the ocean. She had thick make-up on in an elaborate cobweb pattern that looked familiar, and as she turned round to walk off Lottie recognized her – she was from the Artistocracy.
Then she felt it. There was something in her blazer pocket that definitely hadn’t been there before.
‘What the hell was that?’ Saskia scowled, everyone staring daggers at the girl walking away, giving Lottie a chance to peep at what had been sneaked into her pocket.
It was a long aquamarine crystal with a note attached with green string that curled round her fingers like seaweed.
Please return the book you borrowed from me.
I’ll be waiting in the Ivy laundry room with what you requested.
The book is in your bag ☺
They had it – Haru’s box was waiting for her; all she had to do was go and get it. The very thought had her hands shaking.
‘Where are you going? Anastacia’s said as Lottie stood up. ‘We’re supposed to be meeting Ellie to go and study.’
‘I have to return a book,’ Lottie said on autopilot.
Trying not to let the sweat forming on her brow reveal her anxiety, Lottie reached into her bag in a leap of faith, and, sure enough, her fingers met something that definitely hadn’t been there before. She pulled the book out, the perfect alibi.
‘See!’ Lottie held out the black notebook marked with an Ivy emblem, lines of text declaring it was maths notes belonging to an Ivy student. ‘Louisa in the year above let me borrow her revision plan from last year to copy.’ The lie flowed easily.
This is for Ellie and Jamie, she told herself. This is a Portman’s duty. ‘I’ll catch you all later.’
Without giving Anastacia a chance to probe her, Lottie left the dining hall, trying not to run and give away her anticipation. By the time she reached Ivy Wood she was panting but not from exhaustion. She was used to running; this was entirely different. She was desperate for answers.
When she got into the hot laundry room at the back of the dorm, her fingers and cheeks stung with the sudden temperature change, and her eyes instantly locked on to the person sitting on top of one of the drying machines.
‘I got your note.’ Lottie walked over to Max, who stared down at her from their laundry throne, the metallic hum from the wall behind them making it look like the world was shaking.
‘As you requested.’ The sultry voice came from behind Lottie, and the door slammed shut, revealing Stephanie herself, who tossed Lottie the box so suddenly that the wood hit her in the chest hard enough to make her wince. ‘You’ll need the key if you plan to open it.’
‘What?’ Immediately Lottie began grappling with the box, turning it over to see for herself. It was plain, a simple wooden box with a discoloured but perfectly sturdy lock. ‘So I can’t even get inside?’
‘All you requested was the box, Princess Mayfutt.’
Lottie froze, turning to Max who grinned at her like a shark, waiting to lure her into their jaws.
No one had ever called her that, and it sent tingles along the crown of her head, as if something deep within her was calling out, willing her to put on her tiara and claim that hidden part of herself once and for all.
Shaking it off, Lottie shoved the feelings down into the back of her mind again, and turned on Stephanie. ‘Neither of you can call me that.’
Stephanie rolled her eyes at Max, patting Lottie on the head like she might a yapping puppy. ‘Play nice, Max. We need to respect other people’s secrets.’ She gave Lottie a once-over, smirking to herself. ‘Even if the secret seems counterproductive, little missing princess?’
Lottie ignored her inquisitive tone. She was Ellie’s Portman, and the Wolfsons were her chosen family, a real family that she could touch, not a ghost or a secret in her blood. That’s where she belonged and where her attention needed to lie, and if that meant closing herself off from her royal heritage, then so be it. ‘I have to get this open.’ Lottie was surprised by how desperate she sounded, both Max and Stephanie visibly recoiling.
Jumping off the dryer, Max tapped a long finger against their chin in thought. ‘What’s in there that’s so important anyway?’
‘You won’t understand. No one does, not even me.’ Lottie shook the box, as if it might give her a clue. ‘Something’s going on and, if I can’t solve it, terrible things could happen. I could lose everything.’
Lottie wished she had Sayuri with her, someone she could actually talk to about this, to help her figure it all out. Someone who understood the need to cling to and protect any family you found.
Max and Stephanie looked at one another across the room, until eventually Stephanie exhaled, a deep sigh.
‘Listen, little guppy.’ Stephanie stepped forward to wrap her cold arm round her. ‘You gave me a very good secret, so let me give you some advice. You need something sharp, really sharp, and you should be able to wedge it under the box’s lid and prise it open. Can you do that?’
‘Where am I supposed to find –’
Lottie stared at the box as Sayuri’s postcard turned over in her head like the key she needed. Our fates are linked by the sword.
Even from across the world Sayuri still found a way to give her the advice she needed.
‘I know what I need to do,’ Lottie said, side-stepping Stephanie. ‘Wait for me here; I’ll bring the box back in fifteen minutes.’ She stopped in the doorway of the laundry room and looked at Max and Stephanie’s stunned faces. ‘Thank you.’
Lottie ran straight to her dorm. She kicked the door shut and dived to the floor. There, deep in the shadows under her bed, a silver light winked at her from between sheets of cloth. When her fingers reached round her treasure she freed it with a metallic whirr.
As Lottie unwrapped the sword, the strange but familiar sun-etched handle came into view. Why had she hidden it away? Lottie stared down at her ancestor’s sword, her eyes taking it in for the first time in a long while.
Holding it made her chest ache, and she longed to embrace her heritage. But she knew that what waited for her if she followed this feeling was loneliness. There would be no family: no Wolfsons, no Jamie, no Ellie; only Lottie, alone, again.
It was the last push she needed to pull the box back into focus. As long as she could help the Wolfsons, she’d always have a place she belonged.
With one final bout of resolve, Lottie lifted the sword with both hands and struck it down hard through the middle of the box. The sound of the impact was a sharp twang followed by a small and satisfying click, the lock melting under the blade like butter.
It felt like magic, the sword hitting exactly where it needed to, and, like a chestnut, the box cracked open, the juicy insides peeking out.
There was no going back from here.
