know you were the King’s daughter,” Teacher Florence stated. “It was something only Headmistress Burns knew.” She sat down on a narrow bed, her fingers picking at the stiff gray blanket.
I wondered if that would’ve changed things—if she still would’ve helped me escape that night, taking me out through the secret door in the wall. “I figured as much,” I said slowly.
“I heard that Arden was brought back, that she’s on the other side of the lake now. Did you know?” she asked.
I sat down beside her. “I did.” We both stared ahead, not meeting each other’s eyes. “I saw her when I was in the wild. She saved me.” I looked at the broken tile in the floor, the one that Pip and I used to hide notes under. The cracked piece was missing now, the dirty grout exposed.
She stood, fidgeting with the keys in her pocket. “I was the one who brought the girls to the graduation ceremony. Pip didn’t want to leave. She started crying. She swore something had happened to you—that you never would’ve left. She kept asking Headmistress Burns to have the guards search outside the wall. It made me wonder about what I had told you …” She trailed off, her hand moving in her pocket, filling the quiet with the jingling of keys. “… maybe it could’ve been different.”
I had replayed that moment in my head so many times before, recounting Teacher Florence’s words, her orders that I must go alone. I had imagined all the different things I could’ve done, imagined myself waking Pip and Ruby, or hiding out somewhere beyond the wall. I imagined coming back the next day when they congregated on the lawn, yelling to them about the Graduates and all the King’s plans.
Teacher Florence walked to the far corner, where a single chair sat against the wall. She slid it forward. “It wasn’t until after the girls went over the bridge that I discovered this. I’d come back to clear out the room.”
I kneeled behind the chair with her, my fingers running over the carved letters. EVE + PIP + RUBY WERE HERE, it said. I’d forgotten all about it. Pip had come into the room one morning after breakfast excited about Violet, another girl in our year who had written on her closet wall, behind the clothes where no one would discover it. She’d put our bed against the door as we sat there with a stolen knife, etching out our names. I stared at it now, my eyes blurry, remembering the way she had smiled that day, so satisfied when we’d completed our little masterpiece.
Before I could say anything, Teacher Florence’s hand was in mine, pressing a cool object into my palm. She nodded at me as if to affirm what it was. Then she pushed my fist down, gesturing for me to put it away. I tucked it into the pocket, feeling immediately that it was a key. The key.
The door flew open, the metal banging against the cement wall. “You were too scared to ask her!” A girl’s voice broke the silence between us. “You’re such a chicken sometimes.”
Two fifteen-year-old girls had come in, the fronts of their nightgowns wet from washing their faces. They froze when they saw us. One of the girls was blushing so much her ears turned red.
“Did you want to ask me something?” I said, smiling as I stepped out from behind the chair. The girls didn’t answer. “This was my old room when I was at School. I hope you don’t mind; Teacher Florence was showing me around.”
The girl who’d been talking had thick black bangs that fell in her eyes. “No,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Of course not.”
I grabbed Teacher Florence’s hand, wanting to thank her—for understanding, for helping me, for not asking me to explain anything—but then Headmistress Burns appeared in the doorway, her lips pursed. “I was looking for you, Princess,” she said, her eyes darting to me, then Teacher Florence. “I’d like to speak with you in my office, alone.” She turned to Teacher Florence. “Please see to it that these girls get to bed in a timely manner.”
Then she disappeared into the hall, not bothering to see if I would follow her. I didn’t dare look at Teacher Florence as I left. Instead, I felt the key in my pocket, turning it between my fingers, the weight of it calming me. Just before I crossed the threshold into the hall, I pulled