just a friend.

But he was all they had.

LIFE WITHOUT ROHAN

Supper that evening was horrible. The feeling that they were eating upon a stage had returned—and tripled. Everyone knew that Rohan had been expelled, and Henry and Adam put up with curious stares and whispered conversations that stopped immediately as they walked by.

“Poor Rohan,” Henry said, pushing peas around on his plate.

“I know,” Adam said.

“Can you imagine?” Henry asked. “I mean, really imagine being expelled from Knightley?”

The possibility had been there ever since Henry’s quarter-term essay had gone missing, but it hadn’t truly seemed real until that afternoon, until they’d seen Rohan standing over his trunk, packing his things to go home. And now it was all too real and all too looming—like the threat of war.

“We have to tell Frankie,” Adam said, shredding a slice of bread.

Frankie caught up with them after supper.

“What’s going on?” she asked. “Where’s Rohan?”

“Holchester, wherever that is,” Henry said.

“He’s been expelled,” Adam said.

“Is this true?” Frankie asked Henry.

Henry nodded. And caught sight of Frankie’s grandmother marching toward them.

“What for?” Frankie asked.

“Stealing,” Henry said.

“Stealing?” Frankie asked, raising an eyebrow. “Rohan?”

“I know,” Henry said with a sigh. “And your grandmother’s spotted us.”

“Drat,” Frankie said. “Come on.” She ducked around the corner.

“Where are we going?” Adam asked, amused.

“Away from my blasted grandmother,” Frankie said. “She had me playing piano all afternoon. Piano. Thank goodness Professor Stratford has come around and is letting me do Latin.”

“Right, because Latin makes up for piano,” Henry said sarcastically.

Frankie pushed open a door to the school grounds.

“We’re going outside?” Adam asked.

“We can hide in Professor Stratford’s study,” Frankie said.

“Yeah, small problem with that,” Adam said. “What if Professor Stratford is using his study?”

Frankie bit her lip. “Do you have a better idea?”

“The library?” Adam suggested.

“The librarian’s still at supper,” Henry reminded them.

“Common room?” Frankie asked.

“We can’t talk there,” Henry said, shaking his head. They might as well duck into the armory. At least no one would look for them there.

The armory! Henry thought suddenly. They were down for fencing tomorrow, and the only left-handed foil in the armory had been missing at the last lesson.

“You wouldn’t happen to have a private store of foils, would you?” Henry asked.

“And this is relevant how?” Frankie asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I need to borrow a left-hander’s foil for tomorrow,” Henry said. “Mine was missing last lesson, and I don’t want to take any chances.”

“Hmmm,” Frankie said, biting her lip. “Well, she’d never look there. I’m certain of it. All right, onward.”

Henry and Adam followed Frankie across the quadrangle and through the back door of the headmaster’s house. Putting a finger to her lips in warning, Frankie led the boys down a stairwell and into the basement, which had been converted into a regulation fencing piste.

“This is brilliant,” Adam said, his mouth falling open in awe.

“Well, it’s for my father, not me,” Frankie said sourly. “The advantage of being headmaster.”

Frankie opened an impressively inlaid cabinet and took out a foil.

“We’re both left-handed,” Frankie said, testing the balance. “And honestly, he never uses this one, so he won’t notice if it’s gone.”

She made sure that the tip had been blunted and handed the sword to Henry.

“Thanks,” he said, trying a few passes.

“Don’t mention it,” Frankie said. “So what ever happened with Sir Frederick?”

“He didn’t believe me,” Henry said.

“What are you going to do now?”

“We told Professor Stratford,” Adam said.

“Well, what did he say?”

“To let him handle it and to stay out of trouble,” Henry said sourly. “As though we can control that sort of thing. I mean, it wasn’t as though Rohan planned to get expelled. Trouble just seems to find us.”

“If by trouble, you mean Lord Havelock, I’d agree,” Frankie said.

“How do you mean?” Adam asked.

“He never took his eyes off the two of you at supper,” Frankie said. “It was bizarre. I only noticed because I was seated two down from him at the High Table, but it was really strange.”

“Lord Havelock’s the one who found the artifact in Rohan’s bag,” Henry said. “He’s the one who went to the headmaster about it.”

“I’ll bet my father loved that,” Frankie said wryly. “He can’t stand Lord Havelock.”

“Well, who can?” Adam asked. “Horrible git, if you ask me.”

And the one behind all of this, the three friends thought but didn’t say.

“I just wish we had proof,” Henry said. “Of anything.”

“Yeah, well, we’re supposed to stay out of trouble,” Adam said.

“Since when do we ever do what we’re supposed to?” Henry asked.

“True enough, mate,” Adam agreed.

And then, all at once,