Cruel Shame (Knights of Templar Academy #3) - Sofia Daniel Page 0,52
could out-gentleman Adewale. He’s the only person on that table who doesn’t want to get into your knickers.”
As we walked to the table, the other students glanced and giggled at the display, as though it was one of the funny things the boys did every day.
Gideon and the knights remained standing until Maxwell made a show of pulling out my seat and pushing it in as I sat. A burst of giddy happiness filled my chest, but ruined by a stab of guilt. How could I enjoy myself when Mr. Burgh had been cast out and branded a predator?
No sooner had the servers ladled out a minty watercress soup than loud chatter spread across the room. Students turned in our direction. I stiffened, wondering why they were choosing now to gape, when they barely reacted to the boys rising from their seats.
Gideon, who sat opposite, narrowed his eyes and glanced over my shoulder, his lips pursed lips with disapproval.
I turned to find Elizabeth standing in the doorway with a face like a slapped ass.
Chapter Twenty-Two
A sharp breath whistled through my teeth, and my fighting instincts reared up in a hot rush of fury. How dare she show her face after everything she did? I dropped my spoon in my bowl and placed a hand on the table, ready to stand, but Maxwell grabbed my arm.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
My nostrils flared. “But she—”
“We all know what she did, but let someone else have a go at her. The more of her former customers and admirers who turn on her, the better it will be for us to dismantle her.”
“Alright.” I picked up my spoon and stirred my soup.
Some of the students sitting around the table glanced at me as though to ask what I was going to do about Elizabeth since she had screwed me over the most. I ignored them and continued eating.
Elizabeth cleared her throat. “I would like everybody’s attention, please,”
I didn’t turn around. The annoyed twist of Gideon’s lips was enough to tell me that Elizabeth was looking pathetic standing in the doorway about to make a speech.
“There have been rumors of impropriety—”
“Rumors,” bellowed Mr. McGarr from the head table. “You went and bloody told everyone on TV that Mr. Burgh was a molester.”
“M-maybe he was,” Elizabeth said.
My shoulders slumped. “Now the stupid cow’s gone on the offensive.”
“What do you want E-liar-beth?” shouted Maeve from the other side of the room.
The younger students burst into giggles. I reached across the table and picked up a piece of garlic bread. Name-calling wouldn’t work on someone who had jumped down the rabbit hole of insanity and downed four bottles of liquid psychosis. I crunched the warm, buttery bread between my teeth, waiting for her to finish her announcement and bugger off.
At last, she spoke. “When I associated with Myra Highmore’s slimming business—”
“Your business, you mean.” Maeve stalked across the room with a gang of girls at her back. “Myra had nothing to do with it. We paid you for the capsules, and we know you supplied those boys with the magic ingredient for the curry.”
“You’re mistaken.” Elizabeth’s voice rose to a squeak. “Myra made them.”
I leaned across and whispered to Maxwell, “You said she regretted all the trouble she caused Myra.”
“All the trouble Lady Liddell caused Myra,” he whispered back. “Myra’s followed her around since the first year, but Elizabeth never made a move on her because… You’ve seen her. The only reason they were together was because Myra made herself so available.”
I picked up my water glass and took a long sip, washing away the taste of garlic and herbs. Myra was probably lying on a thin mattress, wondering how her life came to facing jail for attempted murder.
The girls formed a tight circle around Elizabeth, driving her out of the dining room. Up on the head table, Mrs. Campbell raised her chin, her face etched with a look of naked hatred. When Maeve and the others returned, they closed the double doors and returned to their table to a round of cheers.
Elizabeth must have called home crying because the next morning at breakfast because Lady Liddell sat in Mr. Burgh’s place, looking like a blow-up baboon with her over-inflated red lips. With her surveying the quiet dining hall, nobody dared to start shit with Elizabeth. Elizabeth sat alone close to the head table and ordered every item on the menu.
The servers shot her disapproving looks, especially since she kept distracting them from handing out dishes to the other students,