"I wonder what Andrew has planned this time." Benjamin Soulden sounded excited. He sat with Roger Green and William Cooper in the private room of Alnick's Inn. Soulden and Green were sipping cocktails and William was reading a book.
"He cannot be too harsh this time." Green's voice was matter-of-fact. "It is a woman after all. Even Andrew would not go to such an extent."
"We can never be entirely sure about anything when it comes to Andrew Montgomery." Soulden sounded almost affectionate. "What do you think, William?"
William lifted his eyes from his book. "He better not go too far this time."
"Or what?" a voice asked from the doorway, and then Andrew appeared. He walked over to them and slumped down beside William.
William shrugged. "Or nothing. I don't care much about what you get up to, mate." He returned to his book.
Andrew scowled. He turned to the other two boys. "I was actually planning on leaving that girl alone, despite her intruding in the Jonathan Gale business. But now that she has tried to defy me openly in front of the whole school...I can't let this go."
Soulden and Green agreed wholeheartedly with Andrew. William sighed involuntarily, but Andrew did not miss it.
= = =
She heard whispers wherever she went. Everyone seemed to be watching her, talking about her, pointing at her. She did not acknowledge anyone or anything and walked with her head held high. She did not regret what she had done. After all, how would she have been able to live with herself knowing that she had let some rich boys bully a poor maid? No, she did not regret anything she had done. And she was ready to face the consequences.
She went to her first class of the day—quantum mechanics—and took her usual seat at the back of the class. They were to have a test today. Nancy was not allowed to take the final examinations since she was not eligible for a proper degree; she could only attend lectures. But she did get to take small tests in class, and, to many people's contempt, she always did better than everyone else. Today, as her eyes ran over the words the professor had scrawled on the blackboard, she smiled. This was exactly what she had been reading about yesterday in the library. She began to write, becoming so absorbed in her thoughts that she did not even notice the students around her throwing small pieces of parchment at her desk until one of them hit her squarely on the forehead. Looking up, she was surprised to see that her desk was littered with little bits of parchment.
At that moment, the professor's eyes snapped up from the morning paper he had been reading and scanned the room for the commotion, settling on her. "Is there a problem, Miss Brooks?"
"Of course not, sir." Nancy tried to keep her voice calm. She could feel the rage building up inside her.
The professor walked toward her, his eyes taking in all the pieces of parchment on her desk. "What is all this, Miss Brooks?" He picked up one of the pieces, unfolding it. "This is the answer to the second question." He narrowed his eyes. "Would you explain yourself?"
"I do not have the slightest idea what all this is." Nancy gestured toward all the parchment on her desk. "People threw them onto my desk. I did not touch them or read them."
"Miss Brooks," the professor began, "I have always wondered how a student such as you—a student with an obvious lack of commitment who only got into this prestigious institute because of...obvious reasons—always managed to do well on tests.." He paused. "You will, of course, receive a zero on this test. I will also reassess your previous tests, keeping in mind this incident. Not that it should matter to you." He smirked. "You do not have the privilege of being an actual student here."
Nancy heard the snickering of students all around her. This was too much for Nancy's pride to handle. She was shaking with anger. Grabbing her bag, she got up and walked out of the classroom as fast as she could.
She was so caught up in her rage that she did not even notice where she was going until she ran headfirst into someone. Losing her balance, she almost fell to the ground, but the other person caught her around her waist and steadied her. Breathlessly, she looked up to see who had saved her, and to her surprise and horror, it was Andrew Montgomery.
"When will you learn to not...take the wrong steps?" He smirked.
Nancy wrenched free of his grasp. "You didn't have to do that. I can take care of myself."
Andrew laughed. "You know, no one has ever spoken to me that way. You're very interesting, Nancy."
Nancy looked up in surprise at the use of her first name.
"If you just beg for my forgiveness in front of the whole school, I will call this whole thing off. We might even become...friends." He winked. And before Nancy could come up with a retort, he walked away.
= = =
In the days that followed, Nancy's temper and sense of judgment were tested constantly. Sometimes she felt like every step she took was a test. Something was always waiting for her on the other side. The students tried everything in their power to get her to give in. They tried to make her trip over her feet, they blamed her for stealing, and they locked her inside the library, among many other tricks. She kept a demeanor of calmness about her as she dealt with all these situations, one after another. By the end of each passing day, Nancy was exhausted, disheveled, slightly bruised, and in a terrible rage. But soon, she began to anticipate and predict some of their usual tactics and was able to avoid them with some tact.
A week after she had been "marked"—that was what people called it here—by Andrew Montgomery, she was actually feeling good, despite another day filled with taunts and bullying. She had survived one whole week. According to Oliver Crew, the boy she had met on her first day, hardly anyone survived even half a week after they were marked by Andrew. She sat in the library, for once not concentrating on the books before her. She was lost in thought, not realizing it was already pretty late and most students had left the campus by now or gone to the residential side of it, where many of them lived. When she finally looked up and glanced out the window, she saw it was growing dark outside. Closing her books, she shoved them inside her bag and got up, straightening her dark green skirt. She loosened her curly red locks out of her hairband, letting them fall around her shoulders in an attempt to soothe the dull ache in her head from the difficult day she'd had.
She made her way through the silent library, wrapped up in her thoughts, and was caught by surprise when someone grabbed her from behind. Strong arms wrapped around her body, rendering her own arms immobile, as they were flattened against her body. She struggled violently against the hold, but the grip was too strong. A hand clamped over her mouth before she could scream or call out. She started to kick her feet and twist her body, trying to get free.
"Hold her legs!" the person holding her said, and she saw another figure emerge, tentatively trying to take hold of her legs while avoiding her thrashing kicks. Right before he succeeded, she managed to kick his jaw once, which gave her a sense of satisfaction. She was not going to go down without some sort of fight. She continued to struggle as the two boys half dragged and half carried her out of the library and into a small empty classroom down the hallway. They set her down on her feet there, letting go of her. Immediately, she drew her fist back and swung it at the boy closest to her. It made contact with his jaw, and he let out a gasp of surprise. She raised her hand again, but he caught her wrist and squeezed so tightly that she cried out. His other arm grabbed her shoulder, using his weight to force her to the ground. She tried to wrench herself free, but before she could do anything, he had pinned her arms to the ground above her head while his knees held her in place.
"You should have just left a long time ago!" he snarled at her.
"Let me go!" Nancy tried to keep the fear out of her voice. "I will not leave, no matter what you do, so you might as well let me go now."
He struck her across the face, and pain exploded across her cheekbone, making her cry out. She felt the taste of blood in her mouth and figured the blow had split her lip.
"Do it fast, Wood!" the other boy called from behind.
"I would if she would hold still, and you don't seem to be helping at all, Wilson." He looked down at Nancy, who continued to struggle violently. "Don't make this harder for me, girl." His hand grabbed at her blouse, and she heard the sound of material tearing.
"What's going on here?" The voice, filled with quiet authority, came from the corner of the room. The two boys froze. Nancy strained her neck to see William Cooper seated on one of the chairs with his legs propped up on a desk and a book across his chest. He seemed to have been asleep by the look of his half open eyes. He absorbed the scene in front of him. Casting his book aside, he sighed heavily and got up.
"Let her go."
"But Lord Montgomery told us to!" the boy named Wood protested. William, who towered over both the boys, crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at them menacingly, his eyes glowing angrily.
"I said," he began, his voice dangerously soft, "let her go."
Hastily, Wood let go of her and made for the door through which Wilson had already exited.
Finally free, Nancy sat up. The adrenaline pumping through her veins was making her body shake as she took deep breaths, trying to calm herself. She saw that two buttons of her blouse had been ripped off, and, turning away, she pulled her blazer tighter around her. Slowly, the adrenaline wore off and her emotions caught up with her, and as her hands shook badly, her eyes began to fill up with tears. She sobbed silently, wishing he would go away, that he would let her be alone after this long day, this long week. He crouched down across from her, watching her with his dark eyes.
After a while, her breathing steadied but tears still ran down her face. She turned toward him, wanting to thank him, but the words caught in her throat and only a sob escaped.
"Will we keep meeting like this?" He smiled, but it was humorless. Nancy could tell he was trying to make her feel better.
"Thank you," she stammered. He nodded. Wordlessly, he got up and left.
= = =
"William!" Roger Green called out in surprise as William entered the private room in Alnick's Inn, where many of their friends had gathered tonight, like every other night. He nodded at Green and, after exchanging pleasantries with a few women who stopped him to talk, made his way over to the table where his friends sat.
"Mate, I am so glad to see you here." Benjamin Soulden tilted his glass back, emptying its contents. "You hardly ever come out."
William shrugged. "I felt like it tonight." He looked at Andrew, who sat across from him.
"I'm glad you're here too, William." Andrew leaned forward. "We have just been discussing this Brooks girl. I believe it is time I took a personal role in this whole matter. I can't leave it to my incompetent followers anymore. It has been a whole week."
"How long are you planning on keeping this up?" William's voice was neutral, but he knew Andrew noticed the seriousness in his eyes.
"Well, I don't think she is going to drop out or ask for forgiveness. It seems she is too stubborn for that. But I want to at least see her break, see that pride wiped away from her." Andrew seemed thoughtful. "I will call it off when...when we've made her cry."
"Then you've already accomplished your goal, mate." William leaned back, crossing his arms. Andrew started at him, surprised.
"When did that happen?" He was suddenly angry.
"Just after your two hoodlums dragged her into a classroom, slapped her—making her lip bleed—and tried to rip off her blouse before I stopped them." William watched Andrew, whose eyes had grown dark, carefully.
"But she's a woman. They hit a woman..." he muttered, his jaw clenched. He cast a dangerous look over his shoulder at Wood and Wilson.
William leaned forward across the table. "Look, Andrew, I can go along with your plans as long as they're harmless. All those previous pranks and jokes, those were all right. But this time..." He paused, sighing. "Andrew, you and I always said that we would do things differently than our parents."
A deadly silence had fallen around the table. Someone had just made the slightest suggestion that Andrew had gone too far. This was unheard of, even from William. Everyone at the table watched Andrew, waiting to see how he would respond.
Andrew slowly nodded, his face neutral. He picked up his glass and drank it in one go. Putting it back down on the table, he looked up and noticed everyone watching him.
"I just give the orders. I don't care much howthey're carried out." He shrugged. His friends sighed in relief, returning totheir business, happy that a potential crisis had been prevented. Only Williamnoticed the barely concealed rage in his eyes and knew that his words had onlybeen for the benefit of the others at the table. He knew Andrew had entirelydifferent plans for the two boys who had misconstrued his instructions sogrievously.
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