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“Her coffee order is not a state secret, and as for the rest, that wasn’t hard to find either. I’m faculty here and have access to the old files.”
Timothy whirled on her then.
“But why do you care so much? Why does Magdalene’s past interest you so much? Got yourself a crush on the Headmistress?”
Spittle flew, but despite being disgusted, Sam gave no ground and refused to turn away.
“Everything about the school interests me. And Ms. Nox, as you said, is the Headmistress.” Her inflection on the ‘Ms’ instead of the ‘Mrs’ made a vein pop on Timothy’s forehead, and Sam enjoyed it despite herself. “If you think I won’t use every advantage I can to salvage what can be salvaged from her cutting and chopping Dragons, you’re insane. My feelings for the Headmistress are irrelevant. The school is what’s essential.”
A calm voice from the door made them jump apart.
“Well, now that we have cleared all that up, Timothy, the room you’ve been assigned in the teachers’ quarters is at your disposal, since you are about to miss the last ferry, and Professor Threadneedle, despite all your scheming to gain and press an advantage, surely it’s past your bedtime.”
Sam flinched and turned around to see Magdalene standing in the doorway, her new, ginger shadow sitting on his haunches and glaring at the people in the office as if telling them off for occupying his space. Or maybe he understood what they’d been talking about just now. What Magdalene had surely overheard, how Sam pretty much confessed that she’d use any and all means to screw her over. God, would she really? That was the million-dollar question. How far would Sam go to save the school?
And the moment she started attributing human thoughts and feelings to a feline, it was time to call it a night—before she stepped into more potholes she’d be unable to dig herself out of.
“I assume you’re here to hound me some more about my barbaric methods of reform and particularly my bloodlust for the Houses, Professor Threadneedle. The trustees expressed the same sentiment to me earlier, and Timothy is here in person to impress on me the error of my ways. Still, it is my decision and my decision alone. Not yours, not the Old Dragonettes’, who are already mounting some idiotic form of protest. The Board gave me absolute power for a year to turn Dragons around and away from ruin. I’ll let all of you know what I decide by the beginning of the school year. Now—”
Loud screams from the hallway interrupted her.
“Headmistress! Magdalene! I can’t find Sam, come quick. Oh, thank goodness, Sammy, you’re here. It’s Lily!”
Grabbing Joanne by the sleeve, Sam could utter only a breathless, “Where?” before taking off running in the direction of the faculty quarters, where the older woman was pointing. She could hear Joanne behind her, slightly out of breath but still keeping up, and offered her a hand as they took the stairs to the second floor together. Right in front of Sam’s apartment door, the familiar, slim, gangly figure lay on the floor in the dark. Sam swatted at the nearby light switch to no avail and decided to shift her focus to the girl in front of her.
Joanne must have propped her up a bit against the door, as Lily was holding her ankle with a pained expression and her breathing was shallow, coming out in small whines and pants.
“Lily! What happened?”
“I dunno… I was coming to talk to you and I guess I slipped? Not sure, but… Sam, my ankle really hurts…” The girl was holding up bravely, but her voice was laced with pain and her cheeks were wet with tears.
Sam knelt on the floor and immediately felt the knees of her pants get soaked through. Water on the tiles? The old worn-out flooring would be slippery as ice if you so much as spat on it. With the amount of water spilled on it now, it was a veritable ice rink. Where the hell had it come from? She looked up, trying to see the ceiling, noting that Magdalene, who must have come running after them, was doing the same. The white rafters, while somewhat in need of a fresh coat of paint, were unblemished. The roof had not leaked.
“The last ferry is gone. It’s halfway to the mainland by now. And with Nurse Trufault no longer at the school… Does the village have a doctor? I called Joel, as per procedure—” George’s voice came out in loud pants as the secretary tried to catch her breath.
“You called Joel about this?” Magdalene appeared displeased. “And Trufault wouldn’t do us any good right now. Not only would she probably prescribe leeches or bloodletting, the incompetent fool, she’d not be here anyway, since she takes summers off.”
She knelt by Lily who was pale as a sheet and shivering. Pain, cold or fear, Sam thought, probably a combination of all three, since she was sitting in the dark in a huge puddle of water with what looked like a broken ankle.
“Sam, there was always a doctor in the village. Last I remember it was old Franz…”
Sam again marveled at how she hadn’t cottoned on sooner that Magdalene had spent time on the island.
“His son is the family practitioner now. He still lives in his father’s house. He doesn’t attend to the school’s cases much, and I’m not sure how he would even get up the cliffs...”
“Damn this backwater place and their refusal to finally connect the school and the town with a drivable road!” Startled by the sudden outburst, everyone turned to Magdalene, but she just lifted a hand in a pacifying gesture before taking over.
“George, Joanne, somebody? Do you have your phone on you? Call Franz Jr. or whatever name he goes by. We might need to send Lily to the mainland if it’s more than a clean break or if it’s more complicated than he can deal with. Oh, and get in touch with any of the fishermen. If she needs a boat at this hour, one of them will help us out.” She looked around as if searching for someone and right as her eyes were seeking, heavy steps could be heard and Magdalene’s face relaxed almost imperceptibly. “Timothy, help us carry her outside so the doctor won’t need to come up. I don’t think sitting in all this water is doing her any good.”
As she finished giving out orders, the Headmistress leaned closer and whispered something to Lily which Sam did not catch, but it made the girl smile in spite of her pain, and Sam was glad for it, glad and thankful that Magdalene was in charge.
Timothy picked Lily up, mindful of her injuries, and—with Sam’s help— carried her outside, while Joanne got out her phone and, trying to beat the spotty reception, dialed the doctor. Doing felt good. Doing felt much much better than standing around wringing her hands over Lily, who was now lying on the grass even paler than before, and whose tears hadn’t stopped running down her cheeks, despite her valiantly trying to keep them at bay. Sam had never broken or sprained an ankle, but she had injured most of her fingers playing volleyball, and she knew something about the pain the girl was feeling. The fact that she was this brave and not howling and sobbing, as Sam herself probably would have, was a huge feat in anyone’s eyes.
* * *
Franz had come surprisingly quickly, but after taking one look at the injury had demanded rather rudely that Lily be taken down to town, to his clinic. With the school inaccessible from town by car, they had to carry Lily part of the way, and for once Sam was rather grateful to have Timothy with them. For someone who looked like he had never done any hard labor in his life, he was surprisingly strong and had enough endurance to carry the girl down the winding path and to Franz’s truck which was parked at the bottom of the cliff.
Sam and Magdalene accompanied Lily to the clinic, and Sam held the girl’s hand throughout the consultation, daring the dour man to say anything about the girl on his examination table. She could see that he really wanted to show them the door, but either thoroughly intimidated by Sam—which was unlikely, for she knew she wasn’t scary even under the worst circumstances—or by the silent yet menacing presence of the Headmistress, he said nothing.
