‘Indeed.’ Keiko sighed, but then something seemed to snap inside her. ‘Well, let’s not waste any more time.’
‘I don’t need your help,’ said Cassie stiffly. ‘Don’t bother coming with me. I won’t tell Sir Alric.’
‘You are too kind. As is he,’ hissed Keiko.
‘Oh, yeah?’
‘Yeah. You don’t fit in, Cassandra. You think you’re so clever, don’t you?’ All her mock courtesy had dissolved, and she snorted with contempt. ‘You’re an exercise in public relations, and don’t you ever forget it. You’re here for our benefit, not the other way round.’
Cassie clenched her fists to stop herself slapping Keiko. Don’t lose it, Cassie. That’s what she wants. ‘What’s his problem, anyway? Why’s Alice not allowed in the common room?’ Sarcastically she added, ‘Few business, is it?’
Keiko didn’t answer. Backing off a step, then two, she reached out a hand to stroke the flank of the terrified stag. Her fingers trailed across the cold marble to caress the snarling muzzle of one of the hunting dogs. Cassie shuddered. It was some carving. The fangs looked as if they were sunk in real flesh.
‘Keep out of it, Cassie Bell, if you know what’s good for you.’ Keiko turned on her heel, then tucked her glossy hair behind her ear and smiled back at Cassie.
‘And sleep well.’
CHAPTER NINE
‘Never mind statues.’ Isabella stood with her arms folded and an expression of thrilled determination on her face. ‘That’s what I call a proper Hermès.’
‘You do my head in.’ Cassie raised her eyebrows. ‘You could buy a small country for that price.’
Isabella stroked the soft, buttery leather of the bag. ‘And what would I want with a small country? Let me buy you one too, Cassie! It will never let you down. It is not an indulgence, it is an investment!’
‘A small country?’
Isabella dug her in the ribs, so hard that Cassie’s giggle came out in a gasp. ‘A Hermès bag, you philistine.’
‘Uh-uh. No way.’ Rubbing her side, Cassie shook her head firmly. ‘I’m happy with the one I’ve got.’
Not strictly true – six months on she still felt guilty about shoplifting it – but she liked her chainstore bag all the same. Anyway, she wasn’t going to start letting Isabella buy her stuff. She’d have a string of polo ponies before she knew it, and where would she put them? She grinned.
‘What’s so funny? Oui,’ Isabella told the assistant imperiously. ‘I’ll take it, please. Vous accept this card, yes? Merci so very beaucoup.’
‘Your French is diabolical,’ Cassie told her as Isabella flipped her credit card on to the desk. ‘Better than mine, though.’
‘Not true. And mine serves my purposes anyway! Come along, shopping makes me terribly hungry. I’m buying lunch and don’t you dare argue. What was it you wanted to ask me?’
Reluctant to talk in front of the haughty high-priestesses of the boutique, Cassie waited till they were out of the door, and inside a restaurant on the avenue Montaigne. She slunk into the seat she was shown, awkward again. This place was even posher than the Academy’s dining room. Trendier, too.
‘Let’s have the poule au pot. It’s wonderful.’ Isabella gave the waiter a dazzling smile and returned the massive menu so enthusiastically it flew like a frisbee. ‘Come along, Cassie. Out with it. You have been a cat in a hot tin bath all morning.’
‘On a hot tin roof,’ said Cassie. ‘You nearly decapitated a waiter.’
‘Do not change the subject.’ Isabella wagged a finger.
‘Isabella.’ She hesitated. ‘Why would anyone go to the Few’s common room in the middle of the night?’
Opening her elegant shopping bag, Isabella peered into it with a smile of satisfaction. ‘I don’t know. Forgot their books? Meeting a boyfriend?’
‘No.’ Cassie tapped her fingernails on the table. ‘It was some sort of gathering. At two o’clock in the morning.’
‘Really?’ Isabella fiddled with her new purchases, distracted. ‘They have Congresses at strange times sometimes. Don’t worry.’
‘It can’t have been a Congress. Sir Alric didn’t know about it. He turned up and he was furious. Oh, and anyway, Alice was there?’
Isabella was suddenly all ears. ‘Alice?’
‘You know, Keiko’s—’
‘Yes, yes, of course. But Alice?’ Isabella sounded sulky. ‘Why her?’
‘Just what I’d like to know.’
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? They want to enrol her. Make her a member,’ said Isabella in a voice tinged with bitterness. ‘Oh yes, Alice will suit the vacancy very nicely.’
Cassie stopped drumming and clasped her fingers together. ‘I don’t think so. They weren’t interviewing her for the Few. I’d take a bet on it.’
‘It is all the same to me, you know. I am not concerned. There is no need to try to make me feel better.’
‘No. No, I swear I’m not. I’m just sure that wasn’t why she was there. It was the way they—’
‘Sh!’ Straightening in her chair, Isabella patted her hand urgently. ‘Stop. Don’t say any more.’
Following the none-too-subtle jerk of Isabella’s head, Cassie found herself pinned by an icy blue gaze.