Checking the document in her hand, Cassie led Isabella up a flight of stairs lined with striking Samburu artworks. The school wasn’t such a maze as it had been in Paris or Istanbul, but their room was at the end of a small private corridor; thoughtful of Sir Alric, Cassie realised with reluctant gratitude. Isabella wouldn’t be constantly bumping into people as she came in and out. Checking the polished brass plate – yes, Miss Isabella Caruso; Miss Cassandra Bell – she pushed the door wide.
She took a breath, as she always did at first sight of her quarters at the Academy. The room was huge, full of air and light, its tall casement windows open to the sound of the Indian Ocean beyond the palms; Cassie could see turquoise water glinting between the fronds. The beds were beautiful mahogany four-posters, hung with filmy mosquito nets, and the desks looked too elegant for her battered old laptop. A gecko scuttled behind a painting, drawing her eye; the stunning impressionistic landscape of an African plain dominated one wall, almost giving Cassie the illusion she could smell the red dust.
In fact, she could smell flowers; the pink oleanders just outside the window smelled of baby talc, she thought, stroking a petal. And what were those – gardenias? And hibiscus! Leaning out, she plucked a scarlet flower.
She turned to Isabella, smiling, and tucked it into her friend’s hair. ‘That’s better.’
Isabella touched it with a fingertip. ‘Cassie. It’s amazing how you can cheer me up.’
Really? thought Cassie doubtfully. But she said, ‘Not enough, not yet anyway. Aren’t you hot and dusty after that drive? Marat doesn’t exactly make the time fly.’
Isabella actually giggled a little, for the first time since Cassie had met her at Nairobi. ‘I know. He’s so door.’
‘Dour,’ she corrected her friend absent-mindedly. ‘Wow, look at that ocean. I know you’ll have packed a million bikinis, right? And all of them beautiful.’
‘I have one or two …’ admitted Isabella sheepishly.
‘So.’ Cassie grabbed her arm with a smile. ‘Let’s go and christen them.’
‘Careful, Cassie,’ called Isabella anxiously from behind her. ‘You don’t know these waters.’
Cassie was already at the edge of the reef, the coral rough under her toes as she poised ready to plunge forward into deeper water. Isabella had hung back a little, crouching to examine shells and probe in rock pools, but now she was watching Cassie with anxiety.
‘I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry about me!’ Cassie called.
‘Yes,’ tutted Isabella, ‘but you never know. There could be sharks, or sea urchins, or—’
‘If there are sharks,’ laughed Cassie, ‘then they’d better watch out for me.’ She flung herself forward with a whoop of delight, letting the cool clear water close over her head before surfacing and shaking it off. Flopping into a lazy backstroke, she floated, blinking up at the sun, then squinted back towards the beach.
There were other students venturing down to the water now, clutching snorkels and tanning lotion, and she could see even the snottier members of the Few splashing and hooting like kids as they dived into the crystal-clear water in huge fans of spray.
Cassie splashed upright and pushed her wet hair out of her eyes. Isabella had come closer to the edge of the reef, as if to dive in, but she had paused and was looking back at the school building, with its stones warm and glowing in the afternoon sun. The light was so clear here, Cassie could make out every fern frond, every vine, the lines and dents in every stone of the Academy. Still, she couldn’t see any reason for Isabella to look so distracted by it.
‘Hey, c’mon in!’ yelled Cassie to her roommate. ‘The water’s lovely, as they say!’ She splashed a little towards Isabella, who glanced at her, startled, but then returned her gaze to the huge mansion.
‘I’m just coming …’
Cassie trod water, watching her friend curiously. ‘What’s up?’
Isabella couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the high windows on the east wing of the house. Cassie hadn’t noticed that part of the building until now. There was a narrow wrought-iron balcony that couldn’t be seen from land, and French windows that led on to it, with fine muslin curtains that drifted in the faint sea breeze.
Isabella shivered a little, then turned and lowered herself gently into the deeper water beyond the reef. She took a few strokes and soon she was treading water beside Cassie.
‘What was it? Did you see something?’ Cassie said.
‘No.’ Isabella shook her head a little too vigorously.
‘Go on, tell me?’
‘I thought I—’ Isabella glanced back at the balcony, her brow furrowed. ‘No, maybe I didn’t.’
‘I didn’t notice that wing when we arrived. We’ll have to check it out,’ suggested Cassie brightly. ‘There could be a secret spa or something lurking up there! Never know what you’ll find at the Darke Academy, do you?’
‘Or who.’
‘What do you mean?’ Cassie blinked.
‘Forget it.’ Isabella swam a couple of languid strokes, but her eyes kept being drawn back to the balcony. ‘It’s those curtains. I thought … I thought I saw someone.’
Cassie insisted. ‘Who? Go on!’
‘I don’t—’ Isabella hesitated, but then set her jaw. ‘I’m seeing things. It was nobody.’