Page 51 of Cruel Hearts

“It’s fine.” It wasn’t like I hated his attention. Orlando was probably the knight I disliked the least, considering he wasn’t the guy I’d fucked or his arrogant doppelgänger. His masculine scent filled my nostrils, reminding me of the night I had let them get me off on the dance floor and then gotten them into trouble with the security guards at Wank.

I shook my head. Why had I thought they would never strike back? “Did you find out anything from those boys?”

“Only that Elizabeth has taken on a group of girls for a personal grooming regime, which involves consuming a special slimming curry.”

I stopped and gaped up at Orlando’s face. “What?”

“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Elizabeth gives Herbert and Williams the money for ingredients and allows them to keep ten percent of receipts.”

My gaze rose to the stars twinkling down from a cloudless sky. “Why don’t the boys make the curry, cut her out, and keep a hundred percent of the sales?”

“She won’t tell them what’s in her proprietary curry mix.”

“Huh?” I continued walking toward the iron railings surrounding the headmaster’s quarters.

“According to them, it’s an Ayurvedic blend of herbs and spices for raising the metabolism.”

“Is that something to do with yoga?” I stepped through the gates.

Following after me into the courtyard, Orlando shook his head. “A traditional form of Indian medicine. I have an aunt who swears by it.”

I peered up at him. “No one knows what’s in the herbs?”

“Correct.”

“How much is the curry per portion?” I asked.

“A tenner.”

“Ten pounds for a bit of veg cooked up by a pair of untrained boys?” I slipped on a patch of slippery ice.

Orlando grabbed me by the waist and held me upright. “It does seem fishy.”

“How much do you want to bet that one of the ingredients is illegal?”

He stared down at me with a frown. “I don’t think—”

“You were one of the masters of the police raid,” I snapped, pulling myself out of his grip. Despite everything, he still thought Elizabeth wouldn’t stoop to adding something dodgy to the curry mix. “How do you think the sniffer dogs found that package of flour?”

He raised his shoulders. “Like I said, that wasn’t my doing. I only knew at the last minute that she had called the police.”

“Elizabeth must have sprinkled real cocaine or something just as bad over the bag of flour she planted in my room. Without the dogs finding it, the arrest might have fallen flat.”

He shook his head. “We thought she might have gotten it from your stepfather.”

“That’s not his style.” I ascended the steps to the front door. “He wouldn’t want me anywhere near the police where I might exchange information about him to save my own skin.”

“Then who gave her the drugs to sprinkle over the flour?”

“Someone local, probably.” I placed my key in the lock and opened the door, letting out a puff of warm air.

Orlando stepped in after me. “We need a sample of that curry and someone willing to test it.”

“Or a sample of that curry mix.”

“Even better,” he said.

I led the way through the hall and down the stairs that led to the basement. When we reached the kitchen, I placed the scones in the fridge. According to Miss Harper, they were good with both sweet and savory dishes. Afterward, Orlando and I went up the stairs and back down the hallway.