Cruel Shame (Knights of Templar Academy #3) - Sofia Daniel Page 0,79

Mr. Burgh also rose, his blue eyes shimmering with concern. “Has anything happened?”

I squeezed my eyes shut and whispered, “Yes.”

His footsteps echoed across the kitchen’s flagstone floors, and the warm weight of his arm settled around my shoulders. Mr. Burgh smelled of cedar, cacao, and chocolate liqueur, but not even his pleasant scent could sooth my frantic nerves.

“Please tell me,” he murmured. “Whatever it is, we can face it together.”

“Do you have any whiskey?” I asked.

“I don’t think—”

“It’s for you.”

The arm around me fell slack, and Mr. Burgh turned me around, placed both palms on my shoulders, and looked me straight in the eyes. “Lilah, what’s happened?”

My words dried up in my throat. It had been easier telling the knights because they didn’t know Mother. Mr. Burgh had spent the last eighteen years heartbroken by her disappearance and continual rejections.

I pulled out my smartphone, tapped the call recording app, and let Mother’s voice tell him. He lowered himself into one of the wooden seats, and stared at the screen, his face unmoving.

As he heard Mother refer to the rape, Mr. Burgh’s face paled, and his breathing became harried. My stomach churned with a mix of nausea and dread. That part was horrific, but it wasn’t the worst. The recording played Mom telling me about Lady Liddell’s reaction, and Mr. Burgh flared his nostrils, his face twisting into a rictus of hatred.

My pulse beat so hard that it muffled what she said next. I didn’t need to hear it again. Once had etched a horrific image into my mind that I doubted would never stop haunting me until I destroyed every Liddell in existence.

Mr. Burgh bowed his head and sobbed.

I dropped the phone and wrapped my arms around the old man’s trembling shoulders. Part of me wanted to rain apologies on his head, but my recorded voice was already apologizing to Mother.

As soon as it stopped, Mr. Burgh wiped his eyes. “I hadn’t expected to hear that.”

“I didn’t want to upset you, but—”

“Don’t.” He squeezed my arm. “For the past eighteen years, I’ve wondered how on earth a happy girl could have fallen in with a man like Billy Hancock. She was probably safer with that cocaine baron than with me.”

I hugged Mr. Burgh tighter. “How were you supposed to watch her on a school trip when you trusted your colleagues to take care of her?”

He shook his head. “Abby became rebellious after that trip, but I left her discipline to her mother. I was so preoccupied with climbing the ranks when I should have known something was desperately wrong.”

I exhaled a long breath. “You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s actions, but what will you do about your job?”

“If I bankrupt myself exposing the Liddells, it will be money well spent.”

My eyes fluttered shut, and I rested my head against Mr. Burgh’s shoulder. With Orlando’s grandfather mobilizing the negligence trial against the academy, maybe the Liddells’ resources won’t stretch to defend the defamation suit.

I spent Saturday helping Mr. Burgh to pack his things. Mrs. Campbell had already helped him with a major clear-out after his wife had died, so it didn’t take long to put his essentials together. When we found the certificate hidden within the grandfather clock, Mr. Burgh’s mood turned dark, and he swore to ruin Father Neapolitan, Lady Liddell, and the archbishop.

As much as I wanted to help him on Sunday, I’d already promised Gideon that I’d stand in as his girlfriend for him when he met his parents. I wore the camel dress in merino wool I had made in my first term, and met Gideon in the academy’s reception area.

He donned a navy-blue, three-piece suit, with a white shirt and burgundy tie. Instead of the quiff he wore these days, he slicked back his straightened hair. He looked even posher than the haughty boy who had knocked on my door offering me elocution lessons.

“You look like you’re going to church,” I said.

“I told them I preferred the fellowship of my students at the chapel instead of joining them in the Templar cathedral.” He offered me the crook of his arm.

“Do you ever go to church?” I asked.

“Not unless I have no chance.” Gideon checked his mobile, where a banner from Uber messaged him that the driver had just arrived. “Thank you for accompanying me. You look both beautiful and respectable.”

As we stepped out into the brisk morning, I said, “Best to keep the PVC catsuit for a day when I wasn’t meeting Mr. and Doctor.