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“Yes, yes, all charity on my part.” Magdalene bit her lip and Sam could see she was desperately trying to hide a smile. But the delight won, and the smile blossomed triumphantly on those kissable lips, transforming her whole face. Sam was instantly charmed and completely disarmed. A slender hand rose and fingertips caressed Sam’s jaw, from ear to chin, making her shiver. But before she gave into whatever else was coming, Sam had to make sure she cleared up her earlier blunder.
“I apologize about before… What you overheard with Timothy.” It felt imperative now, with Magdalene’s hand on her skin to tell her that, advantage be damned, Sam wasn’t conniving. That if they would go to war over the school, it would be a fair fight.
Graceful fingers brushed the line of her jaw gently, in a whisper of a caress, before reaching her mouth and tracing the lower lip. Sam’s tongue peeked out involuntarily and licked at the tender fingertips. Magdalene uttered a startled gasp, and as quickly as it had appeared, the hand dropped.
Magdalene took a step sideways, putting distance between them, effectively breaking the moment.
“Ah, about before… No apologies necessary. We do what we must. And please think about what happened in the hallway. Something doesn’t quite add up. Let’s regroup soon, I’ll want your opinion on what can be done about this, before I make a decision about involving the authorities.”
“The authorities?”
“With Joel already informed—and damn George for being so efficient—I’d like to follow up on what just happened here, Sam.”
With a backward glance, Magdalene stopped at the door and her voice lowered to that register that simply undid Sam. “You shouldn’t doubt your effect on people, Sam Threadneedle. It is quite devastating, when all is said and done.”
And just like that, with the whisper of her touch and the taste of her skin still lingering on Sam’s face and tongue, Magdalene was gone from the room, and Sam felt like the light dimmed a bit. She was alone and untethered once again.
9
Of Prescient Teens & Belated Understandings
The following morning, after making sure Lily had breakfast in her room, Sam joined the other faculty members in the Mess Hall. Throughout the summer months, only a skeleton crew remained at the Academy to continue to provide meals and necessities to the teachers and students who boarded over the hiatus.
Joanne and Orla sat close together, whispering to each other at one end of the massive table, with Magdalene and Timothy eating in silence at the other. George sat right in the middle of the two groups, eyeing each faction with her customary mischievous smile. Sam was grateful when she beckoned her noisily, thus sparing her the rather nerve-racking decision of which side to sit with—the one she really wanted to, but was most certainly not welcomed into, or the one loyalty dictated she should join.
“How is that little darling doing this morning?” George slurped on what looked like cocoa.
“Lily’s fine. We’re waiting for Dr. Franz to bring up the crutches, and she’ll be more independent in moving around, but she had a quiet night. The pain medication has helped, and she is mostly just embarrassed by all the attention at this point.”
“Clumsy of her for sure, but she’s a sweet girl.”
Not wanting to start rumors or to unnecessarily worry George, Sam did not want to bring up what Magdalene had mentioned the night before, how there should not have been any water on the tiles, and how all the lights in the hallway were suddenly not working. She’d spent half the night twisting and turning in her bed, between decidedly not thinking about somebody wanting to potentially hurt her and Magdalene’s fingertips on her face, on her mouth... Or about how Magdalene had called her beautiful. Or how Magdalene found her alluring. Overall, Sam had been trying not to think about so many things.
Timothy’s loud, slightly over-the-top laughter made her flinch, so caught up in her thoughts Sam was, and George shook her head before muttering something under her breath.
“I’m sorry?” Not that Sam was particularly keen to hear what George had to say, especially on the subject of Magdalene’s ex-husband, but the secretary looked disgruntled, and Sam felt compelled to offer a shoulder.
“I said Timothy has certainly made himself at home here. Comes and goes as he pleases and seems to think he’s welcome at all times. Magdalene should stop encouraging him. She might’ve finally forgiven him, although I sure hope she hasn’t. But I guess one cannot command one’s heart.”
George’s tone had taken on a sneering edge, and the look she sent Timothy was full of disdain.
“Forgiven?” Sam’s chest constricted painfully. Why did she keep asking questions she really didn’t want to hear the answers to?
“Maggie caught him cheating years ago. That was how their divorce came about, you know. I mean, they were the most beautiful couple, so well-suited. Perfect in every way. Until she unexpectedly canceled a trip and found Timothy in their own bed with some cheap floozy. Maggie filed for divorce almost on the spot. That was a really rough time for the poor darling. She stayed with me afterward for quite a bit. He really did a number on her, and she needed space to retreat and regroup. I was just so happy to be able to provide that.”
Sam knew George had been Magdalene’s secretary for over twenty years and thought she must be the only person alive to get away with calling her by that moniker. Thinking about how the nickname absolutely did not suit the commanding, elegant woman in front of her, calmly sipping her coffee, leaving crimson marks on pristine white china, was preferable to considering the deeper implications of George’s words. Was Magdalene really reconciling with her ex-husband? And why did it matter? Sam had no rights to the Headmistress. One night meant nothing. She had more important issues to deal with. Still, Sam tasted bile at the very thought of Magdalene and Timothy getting back together and tried to push it away.
Sam didn’t want to think about all the information that had been dumped on her. It felt like she was intruding, and she really shouldn’t have asked anything at all. She was looking in on something deeply personal and overwhelmingly private. Surely George did not just go around sharing this kind of information with anyone. But the older woman seemed absolutely enraged that Magdalene, after having been betrayed the way she was, continued to give the time of day to her ex-husband.
“Timothy has not stopped courting her and begging for forgiveness since.” George took another slurp of her cocoa, then pushed her mug away in disgust. “He’s been here under the guise of ensuring that Magdalene has the freedom and authority to make cuts and changes, some of them much needed.” She nodded pointedly at the end of the table where Orla now sat alone, Joanne having departed in the meantime.
“And this stays between us, Sam, my darling, but it seems that Timothy has just used the time to try and woo her—or whatever it is he’s ultimately after. I guess Maggie is much more susceptible than I believed. That man doesn’t deserve all the love and devotion she has for him.”
Sam felt decidedly dirty when she stole another glance at the couple laughing together at the opposite end of the table. But even though Magdalene looked serene, she still sat rather stiffly by Timothy’s side, while he was all but leaning into her personal space. Perhaps, by virtue of having known Magdalene longer, George saw things that Sam could not. But it didn’t look idyllic by any stretch of the imagination to Sam. If anything, it looked uncomfortable.
And the way George had spoken in the present tense made Sam’s heart clench painfully. Did Magdalene still love her husband? Had she forgiven him? What did George know that Sam didn’t? Was George simply more objective in her assessment, whereas Sam saw what she wanted to since she was so infatuated herself?
Head spinning from all the possible and impossible scenarios, from the gentle touches of long graceful fingers to her face the night before and George’s assertion that a reconciliation was in the cards, Sam felt like the centuries-old stone walls were closing in on her. She needed air.
